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Ominous Latin Chanting / Video Games

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Ominous Latin Chanting in video games.

  • The opening theme to 11eyes has an Ominous Latin Chanting chorus in the background chanting the Seven Deadly Sins. (Superbia invidia ira acetia avaritia...). This is more than just Gratuitous Latin, though. The Seven Deadly Sins extend to the Theme Naming of a very certain group of enemies that show up later in the game.
  • Ace Combat: One common saying/meme among the fandom is that "If the skies or seas start speaking latin, you're in trouble".
  • Age of Empires III has this in one of the battle themes.
  • The menus in Age of Mythology are accompanied by Ominous Greek Chanting.
  • Alone in the Dark (2008) features a dark, haunting soundtrack with Ominous Bulgarian Chanting, courtesy of composer Olivier Deriviere and the female choir The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices.
  • Anno 1404: Dawn of Discovery has Ominous Simlish Chanting to both Latin- and Oriental-sounding music whenever something big is happening. And the Theme Tune has both.
  • Arknights features Ominous Classical Chinese Chanting to replicate the typical effect of ominous chanting in Latin by using an antiquated variant of Chinese for one of its biggest bosses in the game, the phantasm of a godlike dragon known as the Sui-Xiang in "Invitation to Wine - Nights of Yan". The lyrics are narratively relevant by describing the nation of Yan's struggles with the Suinote .
    Bless the Great Yan
    The Great Hunt upholds the heavenly way
    An autumn cull to subdue the mighty Sui
    String the bow and seize the reins

    The light of Yan shines bright
    The time of the Hunt is nigh

    Assail the mighty Sui
    Set the beacons ablaze
    Take the lance and glaive
    Cross the shield and blade

    Don the harness of war
    Raise forts in lands afar

    The drums roared and thundered
    The horns deep and somber
    Armor stained and bloodied
    Quivers spent and ripped

    Bless the Great Yan and the Hunt!
  • Armored Core for Answer subverts this trope with the song "Scorcher", which plays a total of 3 times in the game (one of those times is For Answer's That One Level, the Occupation of Arteria Carpals) — it sounds like this trope at first, but it's actually English ("I can't go there, Find It! Pound It! I can't see clear, Stomp It! Beat It!"). Most of For Answer's songs are subversions, or rather, Ominous English Chanting. Only "Today" and the intro version "4 The Answer" are not in English. (Yes, even "Spirit of Motherwill" is in English.) Same goes for a LOT of Armored Core songs— although, the jury's out on what those Lyrics actually are.
  • Assassin's Creed II features Latin chanting in the final mission. Justified in that the mission takes place in the Vatican. The sequel, Brotherhood, takes place entirely within Rome and has even more chanting...and whispering in a few tracks.
  • Played with in Asterix and Obelix: XXL 2 which uses male Latin choirs and orchestral music during mass battles with legionaries, but singing in a distinctly pop/indie-rock style rather than the expected classical style or One-Woman Wail. This fits the series Anachronism Stew feel and the fact that Romans in the Asterix comics are rarely very intimidating. It's still played straight in some other tracks, which have a lot of pounding brass and ego sum victorium and ego sum glorium going on. These vocals are pitched down to a point where they sound like a silly cartoon choir rather than a real one, doubtlessly intentional.
  • Asura's Wrath, taking Influence from Hindu Mythology and Buddhism, has Ominous Buddhist/Hindu chanting, with a few tracks like these:
  • The Battle Cats features O Fortuna as a boss theme for the Cyclones, the advent bosses, and certain Crazed Cats.
  • Bayonetta has Christian/Roman Catholic symbolism out the wazoo, so it's only fitting that its soundtrack is all over this trope like jam on toast. The two best examples are the Final Boss theme and the fight against Balder. Although the language used here isn't Latin, but a dead angelic language pioneered by a mathematician called Enochian.
  • Ominous Enochian Chanting makes a return in Bayonetta 2, except here it's used mostly for demonic enemies (in particular Alraune, Whisperer of Insanity), while angelic enemies tend to lean more towards the Ethereal Choir side of things.
  • Beyond Good & Evil had ominous unknown alien language chanting in most of the battles with DomZ. While most of it doesn't mean anything, the pseudo-ArcWord "Shauni" does crop up in it from time to time.
  • The Binding of Isaac:
  • BIONICLE: The BIONICLE Music, played during the Toa Mata's battle against Makuta Teridax in the Mata Nui Online Game.
  • BlazBlue:
    • The series does this with all the final boss themes, like "Awakening the Chaos", "Endless Despair", and "Sword of Doom".
    • Used in "Curse", a wordless song that plays when Take-mikazuchi fires its laser beam down on and destroys a random heirarchial city and when Hazama turns Noel into Mu all the while mocking her attempts to resist him.
    • Used at the beginning of "RIOT", which plays on different occasions like when Rachel deflects Take-mikazuchi's blast to defend Kagutsuchi, when Hazama/Yuuki Terumi collects the souls of many Librarium soldiers to feed to the cauldron he is transforming Noel into Mu within, and in Noel's Gag Reel when the BlazBlue cast is ordering the Kagutsuchi puffer fish simmered in peppers and spices from Noel and Carl, who are currently running the restaurant as the current chef and waiter.
    • The theme of Terumi's true form, Susano'o, "MUST DIE", has a variant in that it has Japanese lyrics. Fitting for the Japanese God and resident Satanic Archetype.
  • Bloodborne has this in spades.
    • Notably, FromSoftware have not released the official lyrics, leaving the fans to attempt to decipher the lyrics on their own, which lead to the discovery that many tracks contain significant lore notes. For example, the "Cleric Beast" theme reads as a chant sung by the echelons of the Healing Church and "Gehrman, The First Hunter" provides some insight into the mind of the one the track is dedicated to that is not otherwise expanded upon in the game proper.
    • Exaggerated in Yahar'gul when ending up there early in the game by getting kidnapped by a Snatcher and taken to the Hypogean Gaol. When you return there during the Blood Moon, you can't hear it anymore - and you find tons of the dead Mensis cultists, suggesting that you heard it when you were first brought to the Gaol because they were actually singing while performing the ritual, a suggestion further reinforced by the title of the track, "Hail The Nightmare," which also foreshadows where you are going next.
    • The Superboss of the DLC expansion pack, Laurence, has more Latin in his theme than every other boss in the DLC combined. Combined with Gothic strings and organs and you have the perfect music to fight the first vicar of the Healing Church. For bonus points, the fight literally takes place in a cathedral. The lyrics tell Laurence's story, from his initial plan of injecting everyone with Eldritch Abomination blood hawked as a miracle cure to "ascend" humanity (and increase the church's power) to his growing realization of the disastrous effects of his actions as he himself falls to the bloodborne plague to his descent into a bloodthirsty beast.
    Si discite tibi vis sacramentumnote 
    Erit praemium sanguine sanctumnote 
    Erit praemium sanguine sanctum absconditumnote 
    Per venio humanitas splendor perderenote 
    SANGUINE SANCTUM!note 
    (later)
    IGNOTUS. TIMERE.note 
    IGNOTUS. SANGUINE TIMERE BENEFACITIS.note 
    (later)
    Esti omnes cavete.note 
    Sanguine Sanctum.note 
  • Blue Dragon
    • "The Seal Is Broken" from the final boss fight. Not sure exactly what language the music that plays during the Destroy battle is in, but it's ominous chanting. And Nobuo Uematsu is responsible for the game's music.
    • Lost Odyssey takes this a step further. There's Ominous Japanese Chanting, and then, half-way through the song, Ominous Japanese Rapping, and it is awesome.
  • "Bravely Default": "Uroboros, the Serpent That Devours the Horizon", the battle theme of the game's final boss, Ouroboros. The first portion of the song contains some faux-Latin singing.
  • Bullet Heaven 2 has Latin chanting in the theme of Browngrave Necropolis, "Nox Tenebris Daemoniacae." The lyrics are taken from the Lorem Ipsum placeholder text template.
  • Call of Duty:
    • Call of Duty: World at War:
    • Call of Duty: Black Ops III: Found in the endgame remix of the game's main theme, "I Live (Orchestral Version)". The latin lyrics are "Ergo Ego Spiro Habito" and "Ergo Ego Spiro Existo", which translate as "I live and breathe" and "I live and exist". Given the events of the plot, this is either a fitting or ironic anthem for either Corvus or the Player.
  • Castlevania
  • The whole soundtrack of Chaos Gate is this, it's awesome. Just listen to the stuff!
  • Chaos Legion's soundtrack is peppered with plenty of chantings.
  • Child of Light's boss battle themes all feature very epic Latin chants, which are unfortunately absent from the official soundtrack release.
  • Civilization IV
    • "Justinian of Byzantium's diplomacy theme certainly qualifies... unless they're singing in Greek...
    • Beyond that, almost the entire Middle Ages soundtrack consists of real, honest-to-God Gregorian chant. Ruling your empire as Allegri's "Miserere"note  plays is truly a strange experience.
    • The opening theme to the second expansion pack Beyond the Sword consists of Ominous English Chantingnote . However, the previous expansion pack (Warlords) avoids this by using a Lebanese song sung in Arabic, while the original main theme more or less inverts this by having the main theme in very non-ominous Swahili, while being a rendition of the legitimately Latin Lord's Prayer, no less.
    • The scenario music for The Medieval World ("Messe de Notre Dame) and Denmark's War Theme, while the menu music for the Gods and Kings expansion combines this with the One-Woman Wail for contrast, while Brave New World features Uplifting Latin Chanting. Also, several war themes feature ominous [insert language here] chanting, most notably Byzantium.
    • Russia's theme in Civilization VI has an ominous version of Kalinka, a song about a berry tree.
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3:
  • In DanceDanceRevolution Super Nova, the song Xepher uses Ominous English Chanting, by a Japanese vocalist.
  • At one point in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair the group is trying catch and confront a rogue Komaeda, bursting into a room they believe he's in, only to be confronted with a pitch-black room blaring ominous choir music from a nearby mp3 player. Turns out the music was there to draw attention from the room catching fire as part of Komaeda's elaborate assisted suicide ploy. The music returns later when Hinata is confronted with his true identity as Ultimate Hope (and Despair) Izuru Kamukura.
  • The score for Dante's Inferno is full of Ominous Latin Chanting.
  • Jedah Dohma's entrance theme in Darkstalkers 3 contains Ominous Latin Chanting. This seems appropriate, as Jedah is the Antichrist.
  • The Ultramarines' Chant from Dawn of War. Only one part sounds like it could vaguely be Latin-ish, the rest seems to be gibberish.
    • That's clearly High Gothic, which is represented in-universe by Latin mixed with English.
    • The original Dawn of War had a track simply named "Chant," which underscored your first encounter with the traitorous Chaos Marines. Dawn of War: Winter Assault introduced the excellent Imperial Guard Theme, and several variations. Most of these contain chanting of some sort.
    • The soundtrack in the turn-based game Chaos Gate consists of almost nothing but this.
    • Appropriately for the setting, many of the music tracks in Dawn Of War feature ominous High Gothic or Eldar chanting.
  • Slightly subverted for the final boss theme from Death Smiles IIX. Never before has a Latin chanting final boss theme sounded so jolly and happy.
  • Descent: Freespace had "Aaaahaaahs" in its cutscenes. Freespace 2 ups the ante by having them in the music played in action situations, as well as in the briefing music right before an important battle).
  • Devil May Cry
    • This is usually present as the background music when you visit the Divine Statues in all games that feature them.
    • It's present quite a bit in Devil May Cry 2, primarily in levels, cutscenes, and boss battles during the latter half of the game.
    • The second and third battles with Vergil in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening feature battle music that ends in a foreboding chant. Also, the song "Stage Music 9 (Demon World)" by Tetsuya Shibata begins with nothing but such chanting.
    • In Devil May Cry 4, Ominous Chanting makes up a considerable portion of the soundtrack. Considering the game's Crystal Dragon Jesus themes, this makes perfect sense.
  • The Disgaea series generally includes a few songs with with some wordless singing in each title. "Pathos No. 7" and "Last World" from Disgaea 3 and "Hold You Back" from Disgaea 4 consist of wordless choir singing.
    • The original Disgaea had a track of the same name with the word "Armageddon" being chanted at various points, along with wordless chanting featuring heavily. Appropriate, considering the context the song appears in.
  • Features prominently throughout the score for Dragon Age: Origins, though Inon Zur manages to use it to create any number of different moods. Some of it is also in their constructed elvish language, too.
  • In Dragon Ball Fighter Z, Merged Zamasu's theme features Ominous English Chanting. Fitting, considering he now conisiders himself a god.
  • Dragon's Dogma. Epic chanting with a heart pounding drumbeat and an electric guitar for emphasis. And this is only the miniboss theme!
  • Drakengard has instances of this chanting in background music. The trope is subverted, however, as every important plot event usually uses something other than this to set the mood. The game's composer was fond of discordant violins.
  • The whole soundtrack of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is peppered with Ominous Dragon Chanting, and whenever the Dragonborn levels up, comes upon a dragon, or Word Wall, variations of the theme begin playing. There's the title theme, "Prophecy of the Dragonborn", sung in The Dragon Language, as well as Sovngarde. Translating the lyrics of the main theme reveals it's actually a rather upbeat song about how the hero will come to vanquish evil and save everyone.
  • The intro movie of Empire Earth II. That is all.
  • Eternal Darkness does this with ominous whispering that comes up in incidental music during chapters set in the Forbidden City in Persia.
  • Etrian Odyssey:
  • ClockUp's Euphoria: If you get the Brute Ending, this plays during the credits.
  • The Europa Universalis series and several other historical grand strategy games made by Paradox Interactive have this in spades. It's not always necessarily ominous, though.
  • EXA_PICO: It even has several languages used solely for this purpose. In fact, anything can be done with this chanting: from attacking the enemies to remaking the world. The song "METHOD_REPLEKIA/" is a good example of attacking an enemy; the moment you hear this song, their annihilation is assured to the wailing of a hundred epic bards.
  • In Fable, whenever you find yourself wandering around a graveyard, the background music will feature plenty of ominous chanting.
  • Falcom examples:
  • Fallout:
    • Fallout has Acolytes Of A New God, the theme of the Cathedral. It's reused in Fallout: New Vegas in various locations, most notably the Angel cave of Zion Valley, where you first meet Joshua Graham aka The Burned Man.
    • Fallout 4 Far Harbor has "The Children Of Atom" for both the cult of the same name and their headquarters on Mount Desert Island, the Nucleus (formerly Mount Desert Island Naval Facility). The song has a heavy and foreboding drone punctuated by bells and a chant, seemingly performed by one of the Children of Atom himself.
  • 'Dies Irae" is Wolfgang Krauser's theme from the Fatal Fury games.
  • The FEAR series, notably the second game, occasionally uses Gregorian or tribal chanting samples.
  • Final Fantasy:
  • Fire Emblem:
  • FORCED has this in a couple of its music tracks, most notably when The Master appears to taunt the player. This track combines whispering and chanting.
  • Freedom Fighters (2003) features a lot of Ominous Russian Chanting in the more climactic parts of the game. This makes sense in two ways: the Russians are the ones that are invading the USA, and these songs are mostly based on the Soviet Army Choirs.
  • Deathborn from F-Zero GX has ominous... something chanting in his Leitmotif, in addition to the sinister, guttural vocals present in Black Shadow and Blood Falcon's themes.
  • Genshin Impact: Ominous chanting (often in Latin or its eastern contemporary Old Chinese) accompanies some of the most plot-significant boss battles: Stormterror, Azhdaha, La Signora, and Scaramouche.
  • God of War, appropriately, featured Ominous Greek Chanting that started up whenever something suitably spectacular came into view, Kratos killed a lot of things (or just one really big thing) or Kratos solved a puzzle... So, the whole game, yes.
  • Lyricless chanting is widely used within the Golden Sun soundtracks, so naturally, many ominous tracks employ this trope. Pretty much anything associated with the Grave Eclipse in Dark Dawn uses it, culminating in the Chaos Chimera battle theme that also morphs it into guttural roars befitting an abomination like itself.
  • The intro of Gran Turismo 4 uses an orchestral version of "Moon over the Castle" with Italian chanting.
  • Guilty Gear:
    • Guilty Gear 2: Overture has "Dignity", complete with this chanting, played in the mission before the final fight against Valentine's One-Winged Angel form. "Sorcery" also has this; just wordless.
    • "Awe of She", Dizzy's theme from various other games in general, which, unlike "Dignity", is also rock/metal music and, like "Sorcery", also has no words.
  • The soundtrack for .hack//G.U. has a lot of Ominous German Chanting. Specific tracks include "Great Temple of Caerleon Medb", "Wailing Capital Wald Uberlisterin", "Welcome to the World" and "Over the Mountains".
  • Heard in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets during the Final Boss battle against the basilisk, as well as in Prisoner of Azkaban during the intro and on the menu screen.
  • The Halo series has ominous Gregorian chant playing during all of the main menu screens, and plenty of chanting during the campaigns themselves:
    • Examples include Halo: Combat Evolved's "The Maw" (heard at the beginning of the level of the same name), Halo 2's Delta Halo theme, and "Ancient Machine" (one of 2's Flood themes). Several tunes also feature an Ethereal Choir. These aren't technically examples of this trope though, since the chanting isn't in Latin. In fact it's nothing more than "uh" and occasionally "oo".
    • There's also a few themes (notably "Destroyer's Invocation" from Halo 2) in which the chanting is reversed English. Then there's the music for the live-action Halo 3: ODST trailer We Are ODST, which features someone singing in Welsh about cheating Death and 'plunging headfirst into the afterlife'.
    • In Halo 2's "Delta Halo"/"Regret" missions, the Prophet of Regret can be heard chanting the series' theme in alien gibberish.
    • Halo: Reach uses a creepy droning chant several times, including during Noble Six's Last Stand.
  • Haven (2020) has choral chants during the breakdown of its Mordor/Lethal Lava Land BGM, "Nothing But Rust, and at the climax of "Kusa Makura".
  • Heroes of Might and Magic:
    • German instead of Latin, but the same basic premise fuels the Opera-style music and singing in the towns for Heroes of Might and Magic II, especially in the more villainous towns. The lyrics are quotes from either the Luther Bible, or Nietzsche.
    • The lyrics are in Latin in Heroes of Might and Magic IV. However, it's less ominous, since two of the tracks are those of good-aligned towns (and the remaining one is more about expressing craziness).
    • The fifth game's main menu theme has lyrics from Dies Irae.
    • Happens in some areas, mostly ones including temples, in the later games of the main series, too.
  • Of all games, Hey! Pikmin features this during the three versions of the music playing against the Berserk Leech Hydroe, the third phase using this trope the most.
  • Hitman
  • Homeworld used Samuel Barber's "Agnus Dei" to a similar effect. It first plays at the beginning of the first mission, accompanied by cinematic views and radio communiqués of the Mothership preparing to leave its berth. It plays again on the third mission, when it returns from its hyperdrive test to discover that all life on Kharak had been destroyed. It plays a third and last time in the final mission, when your Mothership is being swamped by overwhelming enemy reinforcements... only the latest arrivals are rebels who help carve a path for your fleet to strike at their mad emperor.
  • The 2013 Killer Instinct masterfully creates a terrifying vibe with Swedish chanting in Spinal's theme.
  • Kingdom Hearts
    • Ominous Italian Chanting is employed in the first game, namely during "Destati" ("Awakening") at the beginning, "Fragments of Sorrow" (End of the World's battle theme) and "Guardando nel Buio" ("Watching in the Dark", one of the final boss themes).
    • Kingdom Hearts II also has Ominous Chanting in three songs: The Organization XIII Theme and both the main and battle themes to The World That Never Was. It doesn't appear to be in any particular language, however.
  • The indie title Larva Mortus is made of epic Latin orchestrals. The ambient tracks are not without chants, and the main theme and the boss fight music has lyrics composed of famous Latin sayings(Si vic pacem parabelum, Acta Est Fabula, Etc). It's funny though, because the game is a simple horror themed top-down Shooter... One can take a guess on what most of the games budget was spended on.
  • Left 4 Dead:
    • The game has the Tank's theme which plays whenever the ten foot tall-muscle bound zombie that can kill you in one punch appears. Not actually Latin, just a bunch of "Ohhhh"s, but still.
    • The Sacrifice campaign invokes this trope for the introduction music to the campaign, using nothing but ominous sounding "ooooooo"s as a foreshadow that one of the survivors will not make it by the end of the campaign.
  • Parodied in the final sequence of LEGO City Undercover. The music for that part has a choir that chants "LEGO, LEGO, LEGO // CI- TY, CI- TY." However, it doesn't make it any less awesome.
  • Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver features Ominous Hebrew Chanting in the Credits track.
    "Ishkokum Mes Mos Of She'res"note 
  • The Legend of Spyro has Gaul's theme in The Eternal Night (and the theme for the Destroyer level in Dawn of the Dragon). There's also Malefor. Battle. Themes!
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time:
      • The Fire Temple has Ominous Arabic Chantingnote  which was removed with the game's first European release, and shortly afterwards all subsequent versions, because it was actually part of an Islamic prayer. The Shadow Temple also has an Ominous Chant of "aaaah — uuuuuh — ooooh"
      • The Song of Time is chanted this way in the Temple of Time. No lyrics, just "Eeyaaah-eee-ee-yaaaah."note 
    • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker: The Tower of the Gods combines this with One-Woman Wail, to go along with the dungeon's regal theme. The game also employs some disturbing chanting in its remix of Ganondorf's theme song.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess:
      • The boss theme of Beast Ganon features chanting in form of "Enyaaa" all the time.
      • The intro music has Gregorian-type chanting.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: The theme heard in the staircase of the Tower of Spirits. It isn't added to the song right until you almost reach the top.
    • This is also used for the final Ghirahim battle and Demise in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
    • The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds has this as part of Yuga's boss theme. As well as to a lesser extent in Lorule Castle. And the entire Sanctuary song is nothing but ominous chanting.
    • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild uses chanting for the dungeon bosses, including the Final Boss. The chanting is also used in the battle against Divine Beast Vah Ruta, itself a remix of Prince Sidon's theme (as he's the one helping you out in that battle).
  • LittleBigPlanet
    • The game apparently contained Ominous Arabic Chanting. Unfortunately, this got the game labelled as blasphemous by some Muslim leaders, and triggered a recall in order to remove the lyrics.
    • It also has Nevsky's Battle on the Ice during the laughably easy final boss.
  • Mass Effect 2 uses this, e. g. during Samara's recruitment mission. There are also staccato "Ahhs" during the Suicide Mission which build up in the latter half.
  • Medal of Honor: Frontline
    • Notable for its use of Melancholy Dutch Chanting in at least two missions, one of which ("Arnhem Knights") features a huge, chaotic battle; in the latter case it's to underscore that the mission itself is part of a losing battle and actually works rather well.
    • Or Melancholy Dutch Cherubic Choir.
    • The track "Sturmgeist's Armoured Train", however, plays this straight, combining loud and ominous "Ah-ah"'s with pounding percussion and powerful brass.
  • MediEvil: Resurrection gets its own in the Hilltop Mausoleum level.
  • Metroid:
  • Miitopia has the theme of The Dark Lord, and also the theme of the Darker Lord, which is a creepy remix of the Great Sage's theme.
  • Monster Hunter:
    • The Fatalis Battle Theme from the original game is an example of this, albeit with an in-game language rather than Latin. Found here.
    • The White Fatalis Battle Theme from Monster Hunter 2 (dos) is another example of this, found here.
    • "Moonquake" from Monster Hunter 3 (Tri) is another example of this, sung in an in-game language. Fitting, since the monster is revered as god by the locals.
  • In the later games of the Myst series, the tribal-sounding choral pieces that open the games are all in the Myst Verse's fictional languages.
  • Myst III: Exile features its own language in the title song. Clips from it appear throughout the game at dramatic points.
  • The main theme of the Infinite Dungeons Downloadable Content campaign for the first Neverwinter Nights.
  • NieR: 90% of the soundtrack is ominous chanting, and the other 10% falls under Ethereal Choir or One-Woman Wail.
  • Parodied in Octodad: Dadliest Catch's final boss fight, where the chorus is just singing "blub".
  • Octopath Traveller series:
    • "Octopath Traveler" The two themes for the final battle against Galdera feature Latin chanting alongside operatic vocals, giving the most difficult fight of the game a truly epic atmosphere.
    • "Octopath Traveler II" The two themes for the final battle against Vide contain operatic vocals singing in a faux-Latin language.
      • Galdera can also be battled again with a theme similar to that in the first game, including faux-Latin singing.
  • Ōkami has Ominous Japanese Buddhist Chanting in the theme of Oni Island, the Geisha Spider's battle music, anywhere this plays (that is, anywhere there is something evil), and anytime where you put your divinely lupine butt inside a cursed zone.
  • Ori and the Blind Forest uses ominous wordless chanting when Kuro attacks.
  • In Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Brainwashed and Crazy Kwolok's boss battle theme has a guttural chanting ostinato. Ominous chants also feature prominently in the Final Boss battle with Shriek.
  • All boss themes in Pandora's Tower are of this type. Notably, all of them except that of the Final Boss are the same, but the voices are different (the first version is sung by men, the second by women and the third by all singers).
  • PAYDAY 2 has this, but under very specific circumstances. Selecting the song "Ode to Greed" at the menu will greet you with Orchestral Bombing initially, but as soon as Captain Winters spawns, it dynamically changes from being purely orchestral to playing its Latin Counterpart, which features truly epic Latin Chanting that accompanies you until you Defeat Winters.
  • The music for Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode 2's final boss. Given the nature of the boss itself — a giant Fruit Fucker — one can only imagine what the lyrics mean!
  • Persona 2 has Knights of the Holy Lance, which happens to play towards the end, where Hitler is summoned, oh boy oh boy, along with anytime you fight a Longinus 13 member.
  • Possibly oldest among the trope users in gaming: Phantasmagoria opened with a full Gregorian chant called Consumite Furore. Only barely weakened by the use of poor Midi instruments in some portions. Here is the full version of it, compared to the shorter, faster version found in the intro linked above.
  • Plague Inc.: The theme for the Shadow Plague pack has Ominous Latin Chanting. Fitting since the disease turns the victims into vampires. It appears to be Etymological English, with the lyrics amounting to dark praise from the vampire's eager slaves to their new "dark lord".
  • The Final Mission music in P.N.03 uses a Tuvan throat singing sample.
  • Pokémon:
    • Pokémon Black and White uses an ominous chorus chanting "Ghetsis" (though some hear it as "Dennis") in its final boss theme.
    • Multiple songs throughout the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series incorporate wordless vocals of this style into them. Some examples include Mt. Thunder from Rescue Team, and the Kyurem battle theme in Gates To Infinity.
    • The Guardian Deities battle in Pokémon Sun and Moon has ominous Hawaiian chanting.
    • Chairman Rose's theme has this in place as well, though when translated the words aren't actually that threatening. Much like Rose...
  • Portal 2 has PotatOS' Lament, a haunting song sung by GLaDOS's voice actress Ellen McLain:
    ''Potato lacrimosa
    Potato po uota
    Dive me a atra anima evicta
    Diu e me a atra a mei a diu
    Tristi anima evicta
    Tristi de mu no tu
    Do mo nata anima evicta
    Dega mi atra te me cha...''
Potato, tearful ... Potato, consecrated... My will overcome by the dark Goddess, For a long while from within, my darkness eternal. Sorrowful, my will overcome. Sorrowful, away from muttering, understanding thou. I break my daughter's will to overcome. Out of my own dark (plant/wing) you and I.
  • Crops up once in Primal, during the boss battle with Adaro.
  • In Princess Waltz, a techno version of this causes Nerdgasms during badass moments in the game, and it definitely gets the player geeked out of their mind for the upcoming PWNAGE!
  • Would you believe this trope can apply... to a boxing game? There are "aaaaahhh"s in the music when you fight Soda Popniski in Punch-Out!! for Wii.
  • Featured prominently in Raiden V's soundtrack. Special mention goes to the final stage theme, Crystal of Abyss.
  • Resident Evil
    • Resident Evil: Outbreak, among others in the series, has an example of this trope during the third fight against Thanatos. That it is the last boss fight in the game doesn't help either.
    • The Final Boss theme of Resident Evil 2 has this too.
    • The Zealots in Resident Evil 4. The language is Spanish, but it's a romance language, and the words for death are similar. Either way, hearing an eerie leech-infested monk whisper the word "death" over and over is about as ominous as they come.
    • Salazar and Saddler's boss battle themes both feature wordless ominous chanting; the former also has Ominous Pipe Organ.
    • The Zealot Ganados from Resident Evil 4 like to walk around chanting Spanish words like "¡Cogedlo! ¡Cogedlo!" and "Morir es vivir, morir es vivir" in deep or breathy voiced just before, or during their attacks. "Morir es vivir" translates to "To die is to live" and "Cogedlo" means "Catch him".
  • Return to Krondor has five music tracks that can qualify as this. The first track plays whenever the Tear of the Gods appears, even though the chanting in the tracks sounds more peaceful than ominous. The second track, which definitely sounds like a singing church choir, plays when the characters fight against a demon, death nagas, and shadows. The third track, which has some choir singing in it, plays when a group of vampires are finally vanquished and in one battle when a fake priest revives dead townspeople as zombies. The fourth track, containing some ominous chanting, plays when a vision of an evil wizard opening a portal for a dark god is shown and when one character has a nightmare of his murdered girlfriend. The fifth track, consisting entirely of ominous chanting, plays during some fights in the second last chapter and during a fight with a dragon soul in the final chapter.
  • Rogue Galaxy had Latin chanting for the final boss and a block puzzle the size of Manhattan. Unfortunately, the chanting consists solely of a single phrase repeated over and over. It sounds cool, but "Hungary Bravara" doesn't actually sound too ominous.
  • RosenkreuzStilette:
    • The game features "Dark Purple Moonlight", the theme for Grolla's stage, "Dark Purple Moon ~ Dance of the Moon ~ Rebirth", the theme played when Spiritia talks with Grolla, when you encounter her now-undead grandfather Raimund, and in the options and replay sections of Rosenkreuzstilette Grollschwert, and "Fighting Eternally", the theme when you fight Graf Michael Sepperin. All three have no words, just "Aahh-aahh-aahh".
    • Zorne's talk theme "Sinner" mixes this chanting with heavy metal, orchestra, and church organ sounds, making it one of the most ominous songs in Rosenkreuzstilette. Strangely enough, it centers on such a short-tempered, impulsive, and moody young girl who would do anything for her adoptive father, and not on a true villain of the Doujin franchise like Iris, her adptive sister.
  • In R-Type Final, the Final Boss music features an ominous wordless Gregorian chant similar to the Halo theme, along with ominous organ.
  • Sam and Max: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak parodies this trope with Pig Latin.
  • Subverted in Serious Sam: The Second Encounter: The final boss, Mordekai the summoner, spends the entire battle chanting to himself in ominous-sounding Latin, but as the in-game bestiary will explain, having been risen from the dead, his brain has suffered significant damage, so he's constantly talking complete and utter crap to himself, in Latin!
  • Shadow Hearts has a recurring theme known as "ICARO", a term for a shamanic song dealing with removing baneful spirits from a person, which is chanted thusly.
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey has an extreme fondness for Ominous Demonese Chanting, as exemplified by the theme of Chaos.
  • The final area in the first Silent Scope has chanting reminiscent of Carmina Burana.
  • The Final Ship Battle in Skies of Arcadia had this.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) utilizes it in the second battle against Mephiles the Dark, and then again for the first phase of Solaris, an actual god.
  • Starcraft The Teaser of the Expansion Pack features ominous opera chanting playing on an antique record player in Admiral DuGalle's quarters as he and Vice Admiral Stukov discuss the ethics of using the Zerg as a bio weapon while watching said aliens ravage a hapless human colony. It swells from Latin into Ominous French Chanting with a Bilingual Bonus of Soundtrack Dissonance — "Give everything for honour!" — as the Admiral orders his fleet to abandon the colonists to their fate. The French part of this song comes back to haunt DuGalle in the epilogue as he commits suicide moments before the Zerg catch up with his retreating fleet and completely wipe it out.
    • The trailer featured said Ominous Operatic Latin Chanting as the audio as clips from various cutscenes played.
    • Check out the music track "Liberty Air Waves". Chanting starts at about 4:37.
    • The Brood War Aria (actual track name, honest) comes back in Starcraft II as Emperor Mengsk's personal theme. In addition, several other tracks feature ominous chanting, such as the Escape From Mar Sara.
  • For a budget shooting game, Starfighter Sanvein has this for its "Mine" stage. However, exactly because it is a budget game, the Latin chanting is just... keyboard synths. But damn it if isn't awesome (starts at 00:27).
  • The awesome opening to Namco's Star Ixiom.
  • Star Wars Legends:
  • Super Mario Bros.:
  • The final boss music in Super Meat Boy has this choir. The song is even called "Carmeaty Burana".
  • Super Smash Bros.:
    • Super Smash Bros. Melee: The Pokémon battlefield stage had an ominous chorus remix of the Pokémon theme.
    • Super Smash Bros. Brawl:
      • The main battle theme for the Final Destination stage features this chanting, along with face-melting electric guitar solos. Interestingly, it's a remix of the main theme for the game, where the Latin Chanting isn't ominous at all; in fact, it's more lyrics than chanting. When you beat the Subspace Emissary mode, the theme plays again with a very loose translation of the lyrics displayed... and they're a thematic description of the events of the game (granted, a very loose and non-specific description). It's worth noting, though, that said piece was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, the famed Final Fantasy composer responsible for the aforementioned "One-Winged Angel" and "Liberi Fatali". Man just loves his ominous chanting.
      • The "Fire Emblem Theme" music on the Fire Emblem stage also has Latin lyrics, and although it's much more upbeat, it's no less awesome. Translation here; apparently, it's the same choral group responsible for the main theme.
  • Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain uses ominous chants in several tracks, most prominently in the Chechen terrorist theme, which is in Russian-sounding Simlish.
  • The Talos Principle: Virgo Serena, the music that is played on the title screen and in World C.
  • Tekken 6 has this trope everywhere, although not all of it is Latin. Azazel's Chamber and Fallen Colony are the primary examples.
  • Telepath Tactics features this in its final boss music.
  • Time Crisis 4's main theme. Better, the final battle music.
  • Tomb Raider is absolutely chock-full of this in its first three games, particularly the original game.
  • Total War:
  • Used in the Trauma Center (Atlus) games when confronting the final type of each installment's disease:
    • New Blood features it when the final form of Cardia is revealed. To be fair, it actually makes sense, since the lyrics are calling the virus to awaken and kill the world.
    • Heard in Under the Knife 2, on the Alethia missions.
    • In Second Opinion, on the first Savato mission (and thus, X-Missions one through six).
  • Drop Dead from Twisted Metal starts with a Carmina Burana-style chant. Even better is its remake from Twisted Metal: Black. A few other Black musics also feature chanting.
  • Subverted in Universe at War: Earth Assault, where the Gregorian hymns are given to the Ancient Astronauts and Sealed Good in a Can Masari. The evil Hierarchy get heavy metal instead.
  • Used in some of the Warcraft III cinematics, mostly hauntingly during the return of Prince Arthas.
  • Warframe updated the Void background music to include this in 15.6 to better reflect the nature of the Orokin as Precursors.
  • Wario Land: Shake It had minor Ominous Chanting during the escape music in the haunted house levels Bad Manor and Boogie Mansion.
  • Gleefully utilized in World of Warcraft — Latin and otherwise.
    • Paired with more cheerful Inspiring Latin Chanting in the common theme A Call To Arms.
    • "O Thanagor" is played quite a few times in Wrath of the Lich King. The ominousness of the song itself is context-based. On its own, it's a standard long-live-the-king blessing. When applied to Arthas, it becomes so very terrifying: "Long live the king/May he reign forever/May his strength fail him never/First in battle, last in retreat/Even in death..." The version of the song sung in the Wrath of the Lich King trailer adds Latin to the whole shebang and makes it worse still. "Erigo Eo Draco Modo" (let this dragon be raised) and then "Specto Su Praesenti Caligo Caelum..." (see his power darken the sky). As if Terenas's voiceover wasn't enough...!
    • The background theme that plays during the Culling of Stratholme Caverns-of-Time instance has plenty of ominous Latin lyrics—unfortunately they're really hard to hear. What one can glean is often kind of terrifying though ("veneficus fatalis" is damn right).
    • And then there's Icecrown Citadel, which combines this with a healthy dose of Creepy Children Singing.
    • From Mists of Pandaria: The Mogu theme and the Forgotten Depths part of the Throne of Thunder raid.
  • In Xenoblade Chronicles 1 this trope is applied for the two themes when the party battles the final boss Zanza, as well as during a cutscene just before Meyneth/Fiora battles him earlier.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles X has a lot of English lyrics in its songs, but it's not really chanting. The chanting comes in the form of wordless chants for the game's main theme, and some German chanting for the primary boss theme.
  • Xenosaga
    • The game has a lot of Latin songs, but most of them aren't that ominous. Rather, the Latin chanting is more upbeat and action-oriented, though there are a few songs that get three out of three.
    • Ironically, the song Godsibb from Xenosaga 3 is not in Latin, even though it sounds like it. In fact, it’s not in any language. It’s three minutes, twenty three seconds of gibberish.
  • The opening theme from Zone of the Enders: the 2nd Runner is almost entirely made-up chanting (there's some actual English in there too), but sounds awesome nonetheless. The song "Origin" (sampled in a lot of themes relating to Anubis) also has ominous gibberish being chanted (close examination of the audio files reveals that it's reversed Japanese).

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