Nightmare Fuel / Tales of Arise

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Main Game

• Cyslodia might not be as extreme in terms of how the slaves are treated compared to Calaglia, but the fact the region runs on a Big Brother Is Watching system is terrifying in the context of the setting. Not only do you have to worry that the Snake Eyes could be watching you, but your fellow Dahnan's might sell you out even if you are innocent, all to get some coin or to save themselves.
• Related, but how Law describes a raid by the Snake Eyes is horrifying as well. Not only will they attack randomly, but they may bring along Zeugles to assist, and, if they feel particularly sadistic, may sick them on the people. Law describes how the Zeugles tore apart his friends, and they spared him in a form of Cruel Mercy. Given how he joined them, it sounds as if a recruitment strategy of the organization is to purposely inflict terror in people so that they cave in and join to avoid the same fate.
• The Hollowing process is quite terrifying and the game takes its sweet time building it up. Essentially, a being that loses all its Astral Energy begins to slowly lose cohesion, with their very body breaking down. As the effect accelerates to (and past) a point of no return, it literally liquifies you into a dully translucent sludge. Entire lakes of liquified people are seen throughout the game, representing the horrifying deaths of hundreds/thousands at minimum.
  • The way Migal describes the Hollowing process is almost as if it's a literal, physical representation of Nothing Is Scarier. With the way the stuff is presented throughout the game, it might as well be...
    Law: What the...? Is that... metal?
    Migal: Not metal, but to be honest your guess is as good as mine. I believe it's... nothing. Matter with no physical form; just a reminder of what once was there. (...) Once it consumes my whole body, that's it for me. I'm dead.
  • And then the party gets to Rena. Those lakes of Hollowing you've seen? They're trivial compared to the silvery ocean covering the entirety of the planet. And that's precisely what's in store for Dahna if you fail. No pressure though...
• Almeidrea's first real scene. The Dark Wings have captured her and plan to execute her by burning her at the stake, but it turns out this was all part of her plan, as she had the rebels' food and drink poisoned with Fruit of Helgan. Even before the inevitable happens, the assembled rebels almost immediately go into a mad frenzy as they scream and shriek for Almeidrea's death, with some so enraged that they're seen frothing at the mouth, and Dedyme gives a twisted Slasher Smile as he lights the pyre. Then, he and the entire crowd suddenly freeze... and immediately Hollow as Almeidrea gives a gleefully sadistic Evil Laugh. The party is completely horrified, and Kisara has to stop herself from vomiting at the massacre.
• The way Rinwell's expression suddenly twists with long repressed rage and hate is a frightening sight to behold, with Law in particular horrified at how her face matches the mob who just got hollowed, repeating "I'll kill you" to herself like a chant. With no hesitation Rinwell practically snarls at Law as she swears she'll kill him too if he gets in her way. Thankfully he manages to snap her out of it.
• When the party first arrives in Pelegion, they see waves of boats filled with Dahnan slaves, all mindlessly chanting reverence for Vholran as they're brought beneath the palace and Hollowed. What makes it worse is that, as Dohalim realizes, Vholran is doing this specifically to taunt Alphen.
  • In general, Vholran is easily one of the most twisted villains in the series thus far. Between his constant, crazed Slasher Smiles, his utter contempt for everything and everyone around him, and the sheer lengths he is willing to go for the sake of pure spite, all make him an incredibly chilling foe. Even his death is nightmarish, a Spiteful Suicide made specifically to spit on Alphen's compassion and one final attempt to deny him victory.
  • As Act 2 reveals, Vholran's subjects are so broken from his tortures and cruelty that, even after he's deposed and presumed dead, they still instinctively bring any food, water and other necessities they're given to the palace, because they believe everything they own belongs to Vholran and his Renans.
• Your first encounter with the Red Woman is something straight out of a horror movie. The Renas Alma is formed but suddenly, the Red Woman flies in and steals it. Alphen tries to block her with his sword, only to get a terrifying close-up of her eyes: nothing but black sclera. Her alien, inhuman movements and speed, and complete lack of dialogue only help cement just how unnerving she is in general.
  • The sentiment is reinforced after finding the starship Alphen was sent down to Dahna in. While in mid-flight, the party are prepping themselves for what they might face and how to go about things, only for Rinwell to suddenly scream mid-conversation... because multiple Red Women just suddenly appeared around the ship, in the vacuum of space.
• Remember Fodra in Tales of Graces? That large world that, when you went there, was desolate, long long After the End, with the only survivors being monsters, robotic humanoids, and a Human Popsicle Emeraude? Well, Rena is similar to that... except worse. When you step off the world? All you see is nothing but an ocean of silvery liquid as far as you can see - with pieces of old buildings pointing out of this ocean. Nothing Is Scarier indeed. One can only take a look and imagine the alien architecture, and speculate what Rena was like at its prime... before the Genius Loci came to life and enslaved everything, with no indication of whether people got painless deaths or not. Meanwhile, all but one member of this Dying Race have no will of their own, simply carrying out the Great Spirit's will with single-mindedness... it is indeed frightening.
  • The very thought that your own planet might enslave you while parasitizing another planet. It's very similar to the Terra and Gaia situation in Final Fantasy IX... except in that game Terra was engineered and overseen by a sapient being. Rena devoured everything and is acting on pure instinct.
• It's noted repeatedly that the Helganquil had captured and experimented on many Astral Arte-capable Dahnans in the course of creating the Renans, but it is only on Rena that we see a hint of the extent of this. The party come upon a gigantic chamber, filled with, at minimum, hundreds of preserved Dahnan corpses. They appear to have simply been abandoned by their captors at some point for unknown reasons, left to die in pods, mercifully likely asleep but never knowing what had happened to them or why.
• In that same room? You encounter a Miniboss who appears to have human faces on it. Eldritch Abomination ahoy, and it even undergoes the Hollowing when it dies. But then Dohalim brings up a guess that this is what's left of the previous winners of the Crown Contest - that they were taken to "their home planet" and then basically killed because imagine what would have happened in Lenegis if they saw the state of Rena.
• Shionne eventually reveals that she's suffered what should have been lethal injuries many times in her life. Other than the three times seen in-game - jumping off that cliff in the opening stretch, then the two times she was struck in the chest - we never find out what the others were, only that the first one happened when she was still a child. Given her remark on how she's surprised the Renan scientists who studied/tortured her didn't end up dissecting her, there are implications some of the experiments were intended to be fatal.
  • It's also possible that she got so depressed at points that she tried to kill herself... and the Thorns just wouldn't allow it, denying her any means of ending her state until the present day; all she could do, was forced to do even, was endure. In her own words, "Is it any wonder that I lacked a cheery disposition?"

Beyond the Dawn

• Alphen's Rage Breaking Point.
  • Though he understands why the people of Niez would be terrified by Nazamil being able to induce hollowing in creatures, the fact Dahnans not only brought zeugles into the city just to hurt the Renans, but also fire on Nazamil as she's actively saving their lives breaks something in Alphen, who can only declare the Dahnans attacking Nazamil his enemy.
  • As he draws the Blazing Sword, he's reduced to wails of agony as he lets loose with its power. There's still a visible part of him holding back from going over the edge and doing something he'll regret for the rest of his life, but even then he demonstrates a substantial amount of the Fire Core's power, spewing lava everywhere and melting parts of the plaza in a grand conflagration. For a brief moment, he's no different from Balseph. Once the situation calms down, he even realizes with no small amount of self-loathing that he became exactly what he originally fought against, using force to subjugate people who didn't follow his views.