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Nightmare Fuel / Shin Megami Tensei II

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  • Early on in the game, the Center commands you to go to the Factory and free it from the demon Betelgeuse. You are given no information about what Betelgeuse is beforehand, and the dungeon is extremely dark, so you're just stumbling around until you step on the right tile... and some kind of horrifying demonic giraffe pops up. What makes it worse is that he constantly chatters his fanged jaw in a two-frame animation, but otherwise is completely non-animated, his horrible eyes staring UNBLINKINGLY INTO YOUR SOUL.
  • Discovering the truth about Arcadia. And then realizing that this was just an experimental model, and they intended as the final product to have EVERYONE hooked up to this.
    • That part is terrible, yes. But worse than that? Not even the Archangel Gabriel, otherwise the Only Sane Man on the angels' side, bothers to think what is going to happen with those unfortunates in Arcadia after Gimmel's death, either left to realize just what they've been doing all the time or just rot in the VR chambers, when the Megiddo Arc fires...
    • And the greenish-blue YHVH? That isn't even the real one: it's just a facsimile given form and power out of the other three archangels' desire to have their plan for the Thousand Year Kingdom succeed. They're essentially serving a puppet they made, and they don't even know it.
    • All three Avatars of God are terrifying in their own way, even worse than the Fake YHVH fought in the Center. Sabaoth, Shaddai and Elohim are all absolutely insane Knight Templars intent on firing the Megiddo Arc.
  • If you're a devout Jew, Christian or Muslim, you REALLY probably shouldn't play this one, as it paints Abrahamic religion with a MUCH harsher brush than any other title in the series - let's just say the local Knights Templar, the Messians, embody the worst aspects of particularly Christian religion, such as the Inquisition and the Old Testament's divine punishments for added critiques of Islam and Judaism too. The real big one for a lot of people is that you have to fight a bunch of Seraphim, as well as God Himself, regardless of your alignment. (Granted, he's meant to be a representation of gods in general, but that he's named YHVH in-game does not help.) How bad is he? Aside from being this huge yellow-skinned... head... THING, he threatens you with a biblical Fate Worse than Death and makes freaky animations every time you damage him. YHVH nuked Japan just because not absolutely everyone was worshipping him. Or the fact everyone was so horrified at his acts even Satan and the Archangel Gabriel not only give you permission to have a swing at Him, but are even desperate enough to offer to join in in the Law Path?
    • As a side note, this is most likely why the game failed to see any kind of English-language release when it first came out. While clearly the overall concept is acceptable now, given that the rest of the SMT franchise has come over without issue, Nintendo of America circa 1995 would have blown a blood vessel from simply looking at it.
      • On the other hand, given that Aleph is a representative of Jesus, who is revered in Christianity and Islam, his path in the Law Route may symbolize overcoming the Old Testament, especially since YHVH is more how Jews refer to God as opposed to say, "Allah". However, this does bring some Nightmare Fuel to Jewish audiences, as their interpretation of God has his negative attributes cranked up and slain by a successor entity while everything he stood for is dumped into the ashes of history. Given the history of Judaism and how it's overshadowed by Christianity and Islam, this would really cause some existential horror for a Jew.
    • The way YHVH's face moves when he gets attacked is very...strange.
    • And finally, when you fight him, certain emulators will freak out and cause the dialogue box to vibrate during the battle. Granted, it's unintentional, but God dicking with the game interface doesn't seem like something he wouldn't do.
  • The fate of Valhalla. Michael, Raphael, and Uriel order Abaddon to swallow it whole in order to get rid of one man, with Cerberus being the only survivor. To make matters worse, Abaddon becomes a Womb Level, and after mortally wounding him, Abaddon realizes he was tricked the whole time. By the Archangel Michael.
  • Holytown is a Cosmic Plaything in the form of an entire city district. Intended to be the premier outer district of Millennium, everyone ended up preferring Valhalla, causing Holytown to fall into neglect. When Aleph first arrives, the entire town is frozen over and covered in poison by two powerful demons who showed up out of nowhere, with the Visionary Items in later releases revealing the Center itself sent them. Zayin makes the town his base when he goes rogue, at which point the Center declares that, unless Zayin turns himself in, they will cut off the entire town's oxygen. While they're spared this fate, Yank the Dog's Chain immediately follows as Lucifer sends Moloch to drain the entire town of its Magnetite. Holytown ceases to be relevant for the rest of the game because, shopkeeps aside, it's become completely uninhabitable - nearly every NPC gradually vanishes as the game's final arc continues, with the few left on the verge of death.
  • Much like the game's predecessor, if all humans in your party die, the screen immediately cuts to black.

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