History Main / BleakLevel

* ''SuperAleste''[='=]s 12th and final stage: A WombLevel with organic enemies and a very grisly background. Feel the [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel power]] of Mode 7!

** The most disturbing may be [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep the Keyblade Graveyard.]] While in the other two games, the main character and his two friends accompany him, this game features every main character entering it completely alone. [[DeathWorld It is a vast desert without any sort of life,]] lined with thousands, [[InferredHolocaust if not millions of ownerless magical swords.]] This is not helped by the [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel demented piano music that occasionally kicks in.]]

* Ballade's special stage in ''VideoGame/MegaMan 10''.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBound'''s final level, the Cave of the Past. It pulls out all the stops, with monochromatic scenery, eerie music, and the sensation that [[spoiler:you're completely isolated from everyone that could help you]].

* ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' gives us the Dead Sea, a chunk of a canceled timeline that was frozen in time as it was being destroyed. It's every bit as eerie as it sounds.

* Speaking of cartoony Nintendo games, ''VideoGame/EarthBound''s final area, [[NothingIsScarier the Cave of the Past]] is this (before you go back in time, at least) with it's [[HellisthatNoise ominous music]] and complete lack of enemies.

* ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' gives us the Dead Sea, an ocean frozen in time.

* GoldenSunDarkDawn nails this trope with the [[ApocalypseHow Grave Eclipse]] that [[WhamEpisode covers half the world in demon monster infested darkness]], and leaving some awesome [[SceneryGorn images]] of destroyed towns, complete with decomposing bodies. Did we mention this is a cartoon style Nintendo game?
* Speaking of cartonny Nintendo games, ''VideoGame/EarthBound''s final area, [[NothingIsScarier the Cave of the Past]] is this (before you go back in time, at least) with it's [[HellisthatNoise ominous music]] and complete lack of enemies.

* A favorite trope of the KingdomHearts series.

* The last level on ''{{Eversion}}''. It is [[NothingIsScarier silent]]. And you ''will'' scream, even if you know about [[spoiler:THE HAND]].

* Post-Virmire ''Normandy'' in ''MassEffect'', there's even somber music. Also, the Normandy crash site in ''MassEffect2''.

* Some of the caverns in ''DonkeyKongCountry'' may count as well.

** On that note, the Face Shrine in ''Link's Awakening''.

* The (optional) "Deep Sector" in ''{{Iji}}''. At the beginning, the heroine comments that the air smells like human blood, it is extremely dark and the music is eerie.

** In the first game, the final world is called The End Of The World...in a literal sense, considering that it is probably the edge of reality as we know it near the encroaching [[EldritchAbomination Heartless.]] Features a darker version of one of the first songs in the game, [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome Destati.]]

** The most disturbing may be [[KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep the Keyblade Graveyard.]] While in the other two games, the main character and his two friends accompany him, this game features every main character entering it completely alone. [[DeathWorld It is a vast desert without any sort of life,]] lined with thousands, [[InferredHolocaust if not millions of ownerless magical swords.]] This is not helped by the [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel demented piano music that occasionally kicks in.]]
* Ballade's special stage in Megaman 10.
* In ''{{Okami}}'', the Sunken Ship, Yoshpet Forest, Sei-an City under the Blight, and most dungeons qualify, especially the last one.

* The City of Ancients in ''FinalFantasyVII''. Hardly any enemies, strange scenery, and unsettling music that only plays there.
* The first time you enter the Sammer Kingdom in ''SuperPaperMario'', it's akin to every other level in the game, being quirky and fun, right up until it's destroyed by the Chaos Heart. When you go to revisit it, [[NothingIsScarier it's replaced with a white void.]] Fortunately, it gets better.

* Speaking of cartonny Nintendo games, ''EarthBound''s final area, [[NothingIsScarier the Cave of the Past]] is this (before you go back in time, at least) with it's [[HellisthatNoise ominous music]] and complete lack of enemies.
* ''DragonAge'' is pretty much a game-long BleakLevel, but the [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Dead Trenches]] take it a few steps further. It starts out with ominous music and a dead city, includes some really creepy poetry from a traumatized dwarf, and ends with a boss whose origin and appearance are 190-proof BodyHorror. Congratulations! You now know where darkspawn come from. Chances are you really wish you didn't.
* Your return trip to Cyrum Kingdom in GrandiaII fits this trope perfectly. The dead and dying are everywhere, and the dark god's minions just won't stop coming. All but one of your party members are stuck in HeroicBSOD mode (since it is, after all, partially their fault that this is happening) and no one has any idea what to do. Oh, and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V59gD1TVmJU THIS]] music is playing.

* The dungeons in the ''BadFuture'' arc in ''PokemonMysteryDungeon Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky.''

* Belinsk in ''DarkDawn'' after the eclipse. This is the point where everything gets very dark in the whole game.

* The BadFuture time zones in ''SonicCD''. They are basically the current levels, but completely run down. Considering all the other timezones including the Good Futures are brightly coloured, this only serves to make them seem more gloomy. They also like to have a good dose of GaiasLament thrown in.

* The BadFuture time zones in ''SonicCD''. They are basically the current levels, but completely run down. Considering all the other timezones including the Good Futures are brightly coloured, this only serves to make them seem more gloomy.

* ''{{La-Mulana}}'s'' Confusion Gate. Dear lord, between the creepy organ music played in an eerie minor key, the dull background colors, and the sacrificial pit, it's easily the most disturbing part of the game.

** [[KingdomHearts2 The second game]] includes an enormous white castle owned by [[HumanoidAbomination Organization XIII.]] Made eerier by the dissonant nature of the music and the overtly nihilistic names of its locations ("Altar of Naught," "Where Nothing Gathers.")

* In the middle of your trip to Sammer's Kingdom in SuperPaperMario, [[spoiler: the void grows so big in that world that the entire place is destroyed. The ensuing level is just pure white space, a couple of line ruins, and a boss fight with Mr. L]].

* Shadow Temple and/or Spirit Temple from ''OcarinaOfTime''.

* The beach in ''FinalFantasyX'', post-Sin attack.

* The first time you enter the Sammer Kingdom in ''SuperPaperMario'', it's akin to every other level in the game, being quirky and fun, right up until it's destroyed by the Chaos Heart. When you go to revisit it, [[NothingIsScarier it's replaced with a white void.]] Fortunately, [[IGotBetter it gets better.]]

* In ''CaveStory'', Mimiga Village, specifically when you return there after escaping the Labyrinth. All of the inhabitants of the village are missing, and the level music is replaced by an ominous, minor-key song, "Quiet".

* ''{{Cubivore}}'' has entirely different bleak levels early on, which are purely WHITE and desolate.

* The last level on ''{{Eversion}}''. It is [[NothingIsScarier silent]]. And you ''will'' scream, even if you know about [[spoiler:the hands]].

* Dark Souls has the Kiln of the First Flame. The sky is stuck in an infinite dusk, the landscape is a rusted gray, and there are only about four or five enemies despite the large size of the area. It really hits its mark considering that it actually unnerves the player even though every other level wasn't exactly sunshine and flowers either.

* "Villi People" level from ''EarthwormJim 2''.