Nightmare Fuel / Final Fantasy XIV: Legacy/A Realm Reborn

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Legacy/A Realm Reborn - Heavensward - Stormblood - Shadowbringers

• In the opening cinematic, you learn that Malboro's saliva is capable of melting armor.
• One of the first things you see when starting in Gridania 1.0 is a Treant eating wolves. Clearly Eorzea is a dangerous place.
• The End of an Era in Legacy was probably one of the prime examples of a Downer Ending in gaming; even though Nael van Darnus is dead, she's succeeded in sending Dalamud into a collision course with the planet. Then it's revealed that Dalamud isn't a moon, but a prison for Bahamut, who bursts free and nearly scorches Eorzea to cinders. While Louisoix manages to stop him, Eorzea is changed forever.
  • To drive home just how much of a downer it was, every single player is a Warrior of Light. And all they could do during that final quest was stand close to the battlefield and watch as Dalamud slowly descended, while a timer counted down the final minutes before Square Enix pulled the plug. The greatest heroes in the realm could do nothing but stand there and watch.
  • The most haunting aspect of it is the ambience that plays as Dalamud descends. A crushingly empty rumbling noise as the opening vocals to "Answers" echo somewhere across the horizon... as if emanating from Dalamud itself.
• Despite the T rating, the game is filled to the brim with grim material. From the monstrous serial killings of young women and their facial mutilation (described but thankfully their corpses conveniently have masks), to the more Ax-Crazy members of The Empire brutally slaughtering people explicitly. The player even has to carry corpses multiple times throughout the game, including of their fellow Scions after it gets raided while the workers involved barely care at all. This and all the harsh language and sultry material make it seem like the Bloodless Carnage is the only real barrier between the ratings, while also firmly establishing that Eorzea is irrevocably tainted by horrors and warfare all around.
• When you reach Revenant's Toll with the purpose of infiltrating the Garlean fortress nearby, you hear the story of Glaumunt, the NPC who helps you to do this. His homeland was conquered and his family lived under Garlean rule when he was a child. As a boy, he would witness his strong older sister and mother being "visited" by Garlean soldiers with him eventually realizing what this meant but being helpless to stop it. Eventually they tried to escape only to be quickly found out. Rather than having to face their abuse under Garlean rule again, his mother and sister flung themselves off the cliffside. For all their talk of bringing stability and peace to conquered nations, all Garlemald really does is abuse, slaughter and plunder.
• The Ultima Weapon's entrance. You think you've beaten Garuda, but her subjects' worship makes her unbeatable. Then Gaius appears, and taunts her. She responds by forcing the captive beastmen of the other primals to pray to Ifrit and Titan, and with a push from Garuda, they manifest right then and there. All three primals you have fought are in one place. Couldn't get any worse, right? But then Ultima Weapon drops in. Ifrit attacks it first... and is defeated in seconds. And is then absorbed into Ultima Weapon. It then makes short work of Titan, absorbing him too. Garuda is the only one left. Up until now, Garuda hasn't shown anything other than contempt for everything other than herself. But faced with Ultima Weapon, she expresses pure fear for the first time. But she's unable to stop the inevitable; once Ultima Weapon gets a hold of her, it crushes her head, absorbing the third primal. This thing has the power of three primals, and is in Garlean hands.
• Lahabrea's 6.1 fight. After being an infamously easy boss for nearly a decade, he has suddenly becomes a mechanic heavy battle. So much so that it has become an unwinnable fight for it's first phase, where Lahabrea barely takes damage from any of your attacks and unleashes heavy attack after heavy attack. This all leads to a DPS check where it goes by so fast the player has no hope of beating it...and is promptly one-shotted by a massive ball of darkness and left for dead. If not for Hydaelyn's intervention, the tale of the Warrior of Light would have ended right there and then.
• Tempering. Not only can a primal convert someone to their side in a burst of power — with no way to prevent, dodge, or block it, unless you have the Echo — there is no known way to reverse the process. Tempered victims are actually routinely killed off by the good guys as a result of this, because they view it as a Fate Worse than Death and leaving them alive only serves to potentially strengthen the primal that has them under control. Worse, while tempering immediately twists loyalty to the primal, Color-Coded for Your Convenience isn't necessarily enforced. Tempered sylphs are generally identifiable by their purple coloring instead of green (although they still have the power to shapeshift so even that isn't a certain thing), but we see friendly Amalj'aa with red clothing that help new Black Mages, and tempered soldiers wearing the clothes of their country as they commit treason. The Beastmen tribe and Summoner quests only augment the horror here : *anyone* can be tempered or claim someone else to be tempered.
  • What's worse, is that it's known that staying in an area that's strongly aspected in one type of aether (such as water or fire) often causes harmful effects. For those who cross the point of no return, if they're lucky, they'll suffer a quick death with as little pain as possible. If they're unlucky, they'll begin suffering (painful) mutations caused by overaspecting in that aether, which will likely kill them, just more painfully. As the Tempering process involves the Primal giving a burst of power with the aether they are attuned to, this protects them from most of the lethal affects of overaspecting but still has its other drawbacks of causing disfigurement, mutations, and pain if the Primal so chooses. Of those tempered by Ifrit, it seems the most extreme we've seen thus far is some "Tempered" enemies near Za'harak appearing to be ashen and soot covered with eyes as black as coals. For Leviathan's "Drowned", as seen in Sastasha (Hard), this goes as far as him inflicting pain with it and causing those who have failed him to become more and more disfigured, replacing their heads to become more Seakin creature in appearance, such as that of a giant squid or jellyfish like, while the courtesans and serving ladies who were loyal to those pirates have been turned into lahmias (snake/fish bodied creatures) and pleading with or getting enraged at the players seeing their new appearances. Let's be glad that the other Primals we've seen thus far are not as interested in Tempering the spoken races for their own reasons.
• The hedge sculptures in Haukke Manor's courtyard. Looming humanoid figures with holes through their heads — a reminder that the lady of the house has been murdering beautiful young women and shredding their faces beyond recognition...and, as the tooltip of one of these corpses implies, quite possibly raped...
  • Even worse, it's probably based on Elizabeth Bathory, a Real Life blood queen.
    • And then Hard mode makes it worse, when we're shown just how easy it is to turn a normal person into a demon with the Succubi turning Wood Wailers, who went to clean up the place after you were last there of any remaining threats, via their Demonize power. Now think back to some of the enemy names from the original Haukke Manor mode...yeah.
    • The release of Heavensward has added another layer of horror to this tale. Deep inside the Great Gubal Library is an old journal which reveals that its author, a Sharlayan scholar, was the one who convinced Lady Amandine to transform herself into a Succubus, and even helped oversee the ritual. He quickly realized he had made a terrible mistake once the ritual was complete and voidsent began overtaking the manor.
• A great deal of The Lost City of Amdapor certainly qualifies. For anyone familiar with Nausicaä, the ruins in this dungeon bear a striking similarity to the forgotten kingdoms grown over by the toxic jungle, and you can plainly see the horrifying corruption spread far into the distance - what isn't obscured by clouds of choking spores, at any rate. Worse yet is the initial boss, a half-decayed, still-living goobue that routinely devours your fellow party members. If you don't kill it fast enough, the lifeless corpses of your comrades will be regurgitated onto the pock-marked stone flooring. And then you get to the interior of Amdapor, seeing the marvelous architecture that once made up the whole city, and discover Diabolos at the end...and then that music starts playing...
• The previews for Tam-Tara Deepcroft (Hard) showed the final boss arena to be littered with pentagrams, runes, and the name "Avere" repeated over and over again in Eorzean script. Avere was the name of the tank of an NPC party who shows up during the initial main story Tam-Tara questline. He died because his fiancee Edda, a Conjurer, couldn't keep up on heals. She originally kept his severed head so that she could give him a burial...but all signs point to Edda trying to resurrect him using Blood Magic.
  • Later previews showed Edda with a giant, terrifying, demonic-looking head that has vaguely Ahriman-like features, except that its arms are its nerve endings.
  • Previews also showed Edda self-harming in order to power up said head. The animations for it are...unsettling.
  • Later, once you do the dungeon (and are in a party willing to read the 'Torn Folio' lore items), Edda specifically references the player character, giving an added touch of skin-crawling regret for earlier sympathies, and shades of My God, What Have I Done?.
  • The ending of the quest, "Corpse Groom": After you defeat the Avere-head, Edda accidentally falls from the platform to her death. You go outside to assure her old teammate that it's all over — and he looks across the chamber to see Edda standing there looking at him with the creepiest◊ Slasher Smile. The way Edda appears wouldn't look out of place in Fatal Frame. He promptly flees, you turn around — and she's not there. Sure, Paiyo's exaggerated facial reaction's kinda funny, but still...
  • Another terrifying thing is the way she dies. Not the fact that she fell, but the fact that she's smiling as she falls...◊ The victory fanfare follows this, but instead of celebrating characters just look down and close their eyes. The journal says outright this one's gonna haunt the WoL for a while.
  • And worse? Yoshida has stated that he isn't quite finished with Edda's story, which means we haven't seen the last of her.
    • She (and a tiny version of the Avere-head) comes back for the Palace of the Dead, in which she features as Edda Blackbosom, the boss of the 50th floor; it crosses into Tear Jerker as Edda's death here finally frees her soul, leading to a heartbreaking couple of quests in which you and Paiyo put the couple to rest.
  • She can occasionally appear for a few seconds in any of the three main towns. One of the places she can appear is in the Acorn Orchard in New Gridania. The Acorn Orchard is a playground filled with children.
    • Could also double as a Tear Jerker, however, as Edda might be looking at the life she and Avere could have had but will never have again.
• Midgardsormr evokes this easily. For 15 years, everyone has presumed he's been dead and his charred body is a reminder of the first major defeat, and failure at invading Eorzea, for the Garlean Empire, at the terrible cost of transforming the once beautiful river, waterfalls, and forest-filled Mor Dhona into the landscape it is today. In reality, he's just been asleep for all these years, quietly observing and calling to his followers and children, none to happy for the actions Ishgard has taken against Dragonkind. His first act upon beginning to stir awake is to begin calling his children to gather the Dragon Horde together to prepare for a massive assault on Ishgard. His second act is to question the Warrior of Light's accomplishments while easily stripping them of Hydaelyn's protective light, draining the power of the 6 elemental crystals they've gathered and forcing them into a covenant with him. Oh sure, you've still got free will, but from here on out the Mother Crystal isn't going to come bail your rear out of another no-win situation like she did with protecting you from Ultima and neither is your new "friend".
  • Worse yet, because you are now somehow bound to the Guardian of Silvertear you are, by all accounts, a Heretic according to Ishgard culture. The only reason you aren't considered one yet is because the Scions and Midgardsormr won't, or haven't, revealed this fact to them so far. If they do, the fragile alliance with the Scions and the City-states with Ishgard WILL break and then you'll be dealing with yet another faction as your enemy.
    • On the other hand, given that as of Patch 2.55 Estinien, who is similarly bound to Nidhogg, is cooperating with Ishgard against the Dravanian horde, the chances of you being declared a Heretic have decreased.
  • Also, comparison between the English and Japanese versions of the dialog makes it clear that according to Midgardsormr, Hydaelyn has no issue with this and it was apparently part of a pact they had previously made. Meaning the Mother Crystal is willingly forsaking you in order to let Midgardsormr test you, simply because he asked her to.
• Nabriales' fight. Up until now you've been protected by Hydaelyn. But, thanks to Midgardsormr, that's no longer the case. Additionally, unlike Lahabrea, he has no need to take things lightly on you nor does he taunt you into risking to have to kill a friend of your own to temporarily banish him. You get to find out just how much the Ascians at this point have been holding back their true power. And despite you finding out that the Scions have had the tool needed to call forth a massive amount of aether all this time in their possession, it still isn't enough to destroy a trapped Ascian, who can very much fight back even when sealed in a White Auracite gem. It takes the Heroic Sacrifice of Moenbryda to give you the extra aether needed to destroy Nabriales. And if Midgardsormr's words are anything to consider, hers might not be the last death needed to repeat this process to other Ascians.
• Even Hildibrand, the side story meant to be lighthearted and hilarious, is not immune to this. In 2.5, we learn that Ul'dah's shady dealings even extend well into the past when the ancient nation of Belah'Dah split into Ul'dah and Sil'dih. Namely, Ul'ah created "Trader's Spurn", aka zombiefication powder, which turns anyone struck by it into a zombie. And they used it during their war with Sil'dih. Then, just to Kick the Dog a little more, they set up a secret organization known as the "Arbiters", whose role was to alter the historical records to make Ul'dah look good by blaming the creation and use of Trader's Spurn on Sil'dih. The truth, when revealed, horrifies one of the Arbiters so about what's been hidden in the past she resigns her position and calls for reformations, if not the total removal, of the Arbiters.
  • To rub more salt in the wound, those ruins you see near the Golden Bazaar and by the edges of the Sagoli Desert? That's probably what was left over during the war and the zombies you see roaming around are likely the former residents of Sil'dih, who are now wandering aimlessly, still seeking revenge on Ul'dah (which is probably why they attack the players who wander by).
  • Additionally, we learn from Gilgamesh just how frighteningly easy it is to summon and create a primal. It does not require any pre-established "godhood" or "saint" status with a flock of believers. It just takes Crystals, a strong desire, and prayer for any being to exist. And it takes as little as one person, with about a dozen and a half crates of crystals to do so. It may not be as strong as the traditional idea of what a Primal is, but a formidable foe nonetheless.
• The fight against Nael deus Darnus in the Binding Coil can be pretty intense from how hard it is, but the soundtrack is borderline horrific. About a minute and thirty seconds in this hellish wailing enters into the track, and it morphs with more voices until it sounds like an air raid siren. This segment of the track sounds more like Silent Hill than Final Fantasy and really sticks out as a result. Have a listen.
  • A song that sounds like pain and despair. It could very well have been foreshadowing for The Sound Itself, which brings despair and death, as explained in Endwalker.
• On the subject of Primals, 2.5 gives us a proper Odin Trial. And what do we learn from it? Odin is possibly not the True primal, rather his sword Zantetsuken is. And each time Odin is defeated, as Zantetsuken is immensely aetherically dense, no one gives pause to wonder why that doesn't disappear, figuring it's just an exotic metal weapon. Meanwhile, Zantetsuken just slowly gathers aether back to itself and forms a new wielder and body. Worse yet, it takes just any fool who wants to wield the sword itself to touch it to be instantly tempered by it.
• Fighting Cerberus, a 3-headed monstrosity, in the World of Darkness is unsettling enough by itself, but once he breaks free from his chains he gets a lot more aggressive. The beast hurls up what looks like purple vomit and standing in it makes the monster instantly rush at you and tear you to shreds for a One-Hit Kill. If you managed to get shrunk by the Gastric Juice and go in the vomit, Cerberus swallows you alive and the game actually transitions into a new "area" where you get to wander around inside the boss' stomach and it pulsates to boot. Now you're slowly taking damage (and it builds up over time) from the stomach acids and blob creatures with one too many eyeballs spawn and attack you. The only way out is to damage the stomach walls enough until you're forced out through regurgitation. During your time in the stomach, the battle music gets quieter and muffled to add to the creepy factor and you're completely separated from the alliances that are still fighting the creature from the outside.
  • Also, if Cerberus dies with people inside, he won't regurgitate. Players can use Return or wait for the game to push them out, but the first time it's pretty jarring. Fortunately, this was fixed in a hotfix shortly after 2.5's release and the players are pushed out as soon as Cerberus dies.
• Raubahn in 2.55's story. Up until now, Raubahn has been a fairly stoic character and can handle almost any situation pretty rationally and calmly, but 2.55 shows what happens if you push him to far. The Sultana is killed, and Raubahn is in complete grief and denial about her death. Meanwhile, Teledji Adeledji is taunting him about burying the sultana and how she must have felt gracious that someone "cut her strings." Raubahn has none of it and proceeds to cleave Teledji in two, all while showing a glimpse of his face that almost seems demonic while he does it. He targets Lolorito next, seemingly bent on going on a murderous rampage, but gets his arm cut off by Ilberd. And then, after Ilberd admits to killing the Sultana, he flies into yet another murderous rampage and lets out an inhuman roar before kicking a stone pillar in half. Even though he regains his senses and helps the Warrior of Light and the Scions escape, this drastic character shift in Raubahn is unsettling.
• Nanamo's death scene is utterly chilling. One moment you're having a rather nice chat with the Sultana over her abdication of the throne and her plans for the future of Ul'dah, one part of said plan being your support of Raubahn as her would-be idea for a republic roughs itself out. Then she takes a slow sip of her wine...and then it hits. Her likely last healthy heartbeat rings out as her eyes go wide, the poison taking effect as she silently chokes and reaches out to the Warrior of Light for help, before slumping over onto the floor, dead. It's absolutely jarring seeing one of the most kindhearted and unanimously good characters you've come to befriend and likely respect be murdered so gruesomely. The fact that it's the framing for a series of Wham Episodes doesn't help anything.
• The fat chocobo minion pet is adorable and tumbly, then you get it and read its minion description in the journal. How did it get that fat as a hatchling? It eats chickens and seeing they're the same size as Chobobo chicks, you have to wonder if they have a taste for their own siblings.
• While you never get to witness it, Novv tells you his backstory when you gain the rank of friendly in the Sahagin beast tribe and it's quite chilling. Novv was the infamous Scarlet Sea-Devil during his heyday and when he came back home one day, he found his entire clutch completely slaughtered with bodies of his children piled on top of each other while only a few hidden eggs survived. Novv couldn't do anything but howl and cry until he had no energy left to mourn, and from there he decided to take his remaining unborn children and move elsewhere so he can raise them away from the violence while retiring from his pillaging and killing ways. You can only imagine the anguish Novv felt seeing his family taken from him with their bodies serving as a reminder for what he had done.
• The Rogue questline deals with some underground topics that puts it as the darkest storyline among the base classes in spite of the lighthearted camaraderie shared among your colleagues.
  • Shortly after you finish your first job, you get treated to how ruthless Rogues can be with one unruly pirate getting a knife to the back, and another one getting a knife to the chest. The Rogues' Guild doesn't fool around, and you witnessed what happens when you break the law and don't own up.
  • It then delves into rescuing slaves abducted by pirates who refuse to live by the code or obey Limsa Lominsa's laws, and the act is treated as a serious felony that can get you a death sentence. Though not outright said what the slaves are wanted for, in one cutscene a pirate remarks that some of their rich customers "prefer lasses and some prefer lads." In another cutscene, a pirate mentions that slaves are so valuable that selling even a single family will net him enough gil to buy a new ship, indicating that the market is booming despite slavery being outlawed.
  • The questline then climaxes with an attempted terrorist attack on Limsa Lominsa with the express purpose of assassinating Merlwyb and her closest followers in order to restore the city to full piracy.
• The Binding Coils of Bahamut reveals that what sustains the Primal is his dragon followers, who were trapped in a state of constant agony for centuries by the Allagans, so their cries for help would maintain Bahamut's corporeal form. Bahamut himself was trapped in the Coils, unable to die, or live, simply existing. Even Alisae, despite her commitment to defeating Bahamut, comments on how incredibly cruel this is and how she feels sorry for the creatures and how they were wronged.
• Returning to the Waking Sands after having defeated Titan for the first time, arguably the first major gut punch players will experience in ARR. It's masterfully written, masterfully staged, and can even take players who have grown jaded with decades of other MMORPG twists completely off guard.
  • The Warrior of Light has just overcome their second Primal against all odds, and when they return to Costa del Sol they're treated to a huge feast in their honor. There's music. There's dancers. There's enough food to feed a small army. Everyone in attendance offers you congratulations, each in their own way. Minfilia even calls up via your linkshell to tell you there's a second party waiting for you back at the Waking Sands, and to hurry back when you're ready because your friends are all eager to hear the tale of your battle with Titan.
  • When you do finally return to Vesper Bay, everything seems completely normal. All the NPCs are still there and everyone and everything seems just the way you left it. Sure, Tataru isn't in her usual spot just inside the door, but Minfilia did say everyone wanted to hear about the battle with Titan, and by now Tataru has established herself as being every bit a Scion as the likes of Thancred or Y'shtola. She's probably waiting downstairs with the rest of the gang!
  • The lights are off when you enter the Waking Sands. Bodies and debris litter the hallway, as though a great storm blew through the place and destroyed everything in its path. You run to search the storage room for survivors, but find only more corpses. These were NPCs you might have chatted with. Some might have given you side quests, or sold you items and repaired your gear for you. In-universe the Warrior of Light probably took meals with and trained alongside these people, and when you left the place everyone was happily going about their business as usual. Now those exact same people lie dead around you, and all is still and silent. For bonus points, the usual theme for the Waking Sands has been replaced with a soft, eerily gentle track which comprises of a single piano playing the same handful of notes over and over with little in the way of variation. The name of this track? "Fever Dream."
  • Discovering exactly what happened helps dull some of the horror... at first. Then, thanks to the Echo allowing you to watch a dying Noraxia's memory of the attack, you watch as one of the Garlean soldiers responsible for the slaughter stands over an injured Lalafell and, after Livius sas Junius gives the command to exterminate the fallen, repeatedly stabs his body with a lance. And we do mean repeatedly - it goes on for so long one wonders whether the soldier is having a psychotic break (assuming they aren't already a homicidal maniac). Even a direct order from Livia isn't enough to make them stop, and she finally ends up shooting them dead. And all of this is done on screen, in plain sight and with full audio.
• The battle against Rihtahtyn sas Arvina ends on an extremely dark note. After having been soundly defeated by the Warrior of Light and watching his loyal soldiers die in an effort to protect and/or avenge him, Rihtahtyn elects to make one last attempt on the Warrior of Light's head. How? By binding them firmly to himself and torching the arena with the two of them still in it. He ends up burning himself to death in an effort to take you down for the sake of Gaius van Baelsar and his machinations, and if you aren't sufficiently geared and packing a decent amount of potions he will succeed. Rihtahtyn, the least overtly evil member of the Tribunus, suffers the most horrific death of all of them - and he does it to himself, on purpose, because he is that devoted to the same man Eorzea fears and loathes as the Black Wolf.