Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
About the level of sanity expected from someone who believes that the world is a simulation.note
Despite retaining the same quirky sense of humor as its predecessor, the Nightmare Fuel in nirvanA Initiative is significantly higher. What can you expect when the main villain's name is a homophone for "terror"?- While not completely horrifying, the game suddenly Breaking the Fourth Wall at the beginning of the game can be unnerving, especially with how sudden it is. During the game show as Ryuki, the host asks if you're familiar with the New Cyclops Serial Killings from the previous game. Both the host and a then-unknown voice make it clear the question isn't directed at the character, but you, the player.
- The Half-Body serial killings. A case where the bodies are split down the middle and left in bizarre places to show to others. All the blood is drained from the body and the cut is to the molecular level.
- Another thing to note is that the victims' cause of death was being split in half. Not only were they alive, but it is implied that they were also conscious if Amame killing Tearer is anything to go by.
- Jin Furue's body was made to look like it came out of nowhere before combusting from a thermite bomb.
- Chikara Horadori's corpse is especially squicky since it had the organs scooped out and was stuck to a blackboard like a suction cup.
- Ryuki's breakdowns. Occasionally, he will start to hallucinate and start seeing everything turn into a Matrix-like simulation with the environment turning into code while he starts spouting buggy nonsense with a deranged look in his eyes. Seeing one of his breakdowns from the outside in Side Mizuki shows him Laughing Mad before descending into complete gibberish and passing out. It disturbingly almost looks like someone going through a genuine psychotic break.
- A minor one involving Gen. We never get to see his face, but we do get to see his skull and it is completely malformed. The jaw is crumpled up, the eye sockets are lopsided, and the cranium is completely misshapen. Thankfully, we never see that face, but it definitely leaves you with a Nothing Is Scarier moment since it makes you wonder how mangled his face is considering that is what his skull looks like.
- Nearly Interesting, Amame's first Somnium, is surprisingly dark for a girl like her while leaning on Surreal Horror. The first half involves a distorted version of the Faith to Face game show with Komeji as a competitor and Mizuki, Iris, and Gen as presenters. The problem is their creepy monotone expression immediately makes things offputting, especially with such cheery and energetic characters. The latter half is hosted by Komeji, as in the half body of Komeji in a body bag. Fortunately, he stays in that bag, but it doesn't make the situation any less creepy with him writhing around in it as he talks. The route to the final lock reveals how Tearer threatened Amame to keep quiet about everything she saw the night Komeji died at Studio Divita. The final part of the Somnium culminates in Tama walking through a distorted Sunfish Pocket to see Amame with a Thousand-Yard Stare. And she says only three words:"Nirvana... Collected... Genocide..."
- The ending of the Explosion Route. All of it. Tearer forces Ryuki to shoot Date in order to save Kizuna's life, but he will refuse to do so regardless (refusal is one of the choices), and as a result, Tearer causes the entire cathedral to blow up. What is truly horrifying about this (and somehow even sad) are the injuries and trauma that everyone involved ends up going through. Mizuki loses her eye, Kizuna loses the use of her legs, dashing her hopes of becoming a dancer, and Ryuki, despite being uninjured, is utterly broken by watching what he thought was Date dying due to being crushed by rubble.
- Neurotic Inception, the Masked Woman's Somnium, stands out as one of the most frightening parts of the game. Set in a disgusting and dirty laboratory, it shows the Masked Woman's memories of being subjected to horrifying and torturous experiments at the hands of Chikara, which include having her wrist broken by a vice to test her ability to regenerate and being exposed to nerve gas. Notably, at some points in the Somnium, you will have to hide from Chikara, which only gives you a few seconds in real time to find a hiding spot in order to avoid a Non-Standard Game Over where Chikara lunges at you from a first-person perspective. Even if you do find a hiding spot, there's a nail-bitingly tense scene of Chikara looking around for you, which includes a Jump Scare when he gets to your spot (though thankfully, he can't see you because it's too dark). More notably, Chikara shambles around like a zombie in a psychedelic color palette. Finally, there's the rabbit doll representing the Masked Woman's friend, who is tortured in her place when she hides, at first with Electric Torture, then by having a huge drill bit slowly lower towards it. And then it somehow gets worse when the implication is made that the rabbit doll is a stand-in for Mizuki.Somnium Chikara: Why are you running from me? All I want to do is break your bones... It's an important test... We can discover how quickly you can heal...''
- The above-mentioned Somnium shows the full nature of Chikara's experiments into immortality. While initially looking like a bit of a loon, the more that is revealed about him shows him to be downright monstrous. Kidnapping orphans and creating designer babies for the express purpose of putting them through torturous experiments for his research. It's no wonder that the Masked Woman and Gen have trauma from this situation. Not to mention the potentially dozens of other children who were tortured for the desires of a demented Immortality Seeker. Even worse, Riichi Chieda, a man with considerable wealth and influence, went to the police about Horadori Institute's inhumane experiments and they could do nothing while citing a lack of evidence.
- Tearer's life. Uru was already living in an orphanage, meaning he had no connection to his parents, but then Chikara tranquilized him and kidnapped him to be nothing but an organ donor for Jin. Chikara kept taking organs from him for his twisted desire for immortality while leaving him in a basement to rot and go mad. He slowly had all his organs taken to the point that he eventually lost half his face and needed it to be replaced with artificial skin, leaving the poor boy Two-Faced. By the time Jin wanted to apologize for the pain caused simply to make him healthy again, Uru was already too far gone and murdered him. It's no wonder he went insane.
- The Wham Episode at Mama's once you've seen nearly everything. It starts with the friendly fortune teller offering you water on the rocks...then she starts talking about the case far more than she knows, then she talks about the plot itself regarding that the timeline was actually being presented out of order, all with the creepy piano theme from Amame's Somnium playing. This ends with Mama reminding you that Uru's and Tokiko's murderer is still out there and her addressing you, the Frayer, meaning that Mizuki wasn't at her bar at all, but rather you. The freaky sequence ends with Mama bewildered like she was possessed by the mysterious external force that's been giving the heroes hints via her, except it's become more lucid and was able to copy Mama's mannerisms.
- Speaking of Mama, her Wink-Psyncs are usually humourous and laden with innuendos, but one of them is just her flat-out possessed and screaming at you while the Wink Psync is glitching out.
"Mama": I KNOW WHO YOU ARE... - The eponymous Nirvana Initiative. Tearer's ultimate plan is to use a rocket to release the TC-PERGE virus into the atmosphere and cause people to go insane. Using this, he believes that this will tear at the seams of the simulation he believes they are in and release them to Moksha. Causing a global catastrophe thanks to the delusions that Tokiko Shigure put in his head.
- Somehow, the game manages to get nightmare fuel from the Golden Ending by making it a Gainax Ending.
- This ending seems like a great help since all the sympathetic characters get to live a happy life without the trauma of the main events of the game. The problem is getting there since it basically means breaking the reality of the game. Once you give Tokiko the Nil number. The environment breaks down like it usually does when Ryuki has an episode before he wakes up to see Mamoru's model T-posing with a giant crater where his face should be while Tokiko is floating within her desk in the same way that her body was found in the main events of the game. Talking to Mamoru only has him spouting the same bugged-out speech. And Tokiko's initial speech is at least understandable, but still has some buggy speech. After this, you are able to walk around and outside the office. And by outside, that means the void surrounding the office where you must find Tokiko in the distance, wreathed in red flame. The final step to get it is telling Ryuki about everything that transpired in the game so he has a chance to prevent Tearer's plan from ever getting too far off the ground, but Ryuki is saddled with the knowledge that the world is not real and the extra trauma of the main events.
- This ending also adds the implication that Tokiko has been manipulating you this whole time and manages to extend a level of influence over the real world outside her own. The last shot of this ending is Ryuki staring up into the stadium screen where Tokiko returns to give one last message before disappearing. A message aimed directly at you.
