History NightmareFuel / Arcaea

* Post-epilogue, if you lock Fatalis Hikari's skill and play "Last" without touching the screen and wait a while, you'll get an "Accept Arcaea" button that appears below the "Refuse Fate" button. If you click it, you'll receive an ''absolutely nasty'' alternate ending that looks like as if Hikari became [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Kriemhild Gretchen]] and took over Arcaea. It's just so irredeemably depressing for RhythmGame standards and goes on par with the likes of [[VideoGame/{{Chunithm}} Sibyl Seireiki]] [[note]]An infamous scenario from ''CHUNITHM'' that stands out as ''irredeemably depressing and gory'' compared to its usual story scenarios. It's a rather standard fantasy setting with spirit-channeling witches as its protagonists and a world made by a GodOfEvil...but all of the character backstories feature gratuitous displays of BreakTheCutie, gore, torture, excessively pessimistic {{Downer Ending}}s, a climax confrontation between a main character and the GodOfEvil that ends up ''the protagonist's breakdown and defeat'' and said GodOfEvil being a rejected Demiurge with a traumatic FreudianExcuse[[/note]].

* Last but not least, Chapter 6 (Final Verdict). Continuing off from the aforementioned events in Chapter 5 (Black Fate), this whole scenario cements itself as exceptional in a genre that doesn't accustom itself to incredibly dark and depressing stories like this.

* If you lock Fatalis Hikari's skill and play "Last" without touching the screen and wait a while, you'll get an "Accept Arcaea" button that appears next to the "Refuse Fate" button, you'll receive an ''absolutely nasty'' alternate ending that looks like as if it was something coming out from [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Kriemhild Gretchen]]. It's just so irredeemably depressing for RhythmGame standards and goes on par with the likes of [[VideoGame/{{Chunithm}} Sibyl Seireiki]] [[note]]An infamous scenario from ''CHUNITHM'' that stands out as ''irredeemably depressing and gory'' compared to its usual story scenarios. It's a rather standard fantasy setting with spirit-channeling witches as its protagonists and a world made by a GodOfEvil...but all of the character backstories feature gratuitous displays of BreakTheCutie, gore, torture, excessively pessimistic {{Downer Ending}}s, a climax confrontation between a main character and the GodOfEvil that ends up ''the protagonist's breakdown and defeat'' and said GodOfEvil being a rejected Demiurge with a traumatic FreudianExcuse[[/note]].
** TheReveal that Arcaea is actually a place created by the real Hikari for her to refuge into and a [[SpiritWorld place for solace for the dead]] -- every other character in this world is DeadAllAlong.

* If you lock Fatalis Hikari's skill and play "Last" without touching the screen and wait a while, you'll get an "Accept Arcaea" button that appears next to the "Refuse Fate" button, you'll receive an ''absolutely nasty'' alternate ending that looks like as if it was something coming out from [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Kriemhild Gretchen]]. It's just so irredeemably depressing for RhythmGame standards, on par with the likes of [[VideoGame/{{Chunithm}} Sibyl Seireiki]] [[note]]An infamous scenario from ''CHUNITHM'' that stands out as ''irredeemably depressing and gory'' compared to its usual story scenarios. It's a rather standard fantasy setting with spirit-channeling witches as its protagonists and a world made by a GodOfEvil...but all of the character backstories feature gratuitous displays of BreakTheCutie, gore, torture, excessively pessimistic {{Downer Ending}}s, a climax confrontation between a main character and the GodOfEvil that ends up ''the protagonist's breakdown and defeat'' and said GodOfEvil being a rejected Demiurge with a traumatic FreudianExcuse[[/note]].

** Hikari also [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascends Into A Higher Plane Of Existence]], but refuses to revive Tairitsu, and Arcaea becomes a LotusEaterMachine with every soul within becoming [[EmptyShell mindless husks]] of their former selves. Hikari, despite reaching godhood, becomes completely nihilistic and empty just like the souls she trapped. The cutscene image is also Alice being slowly corroded and encased in shards of glass, with one massive shard going through her heart. She's making all of the side characters frozen solid in glass, never to depart from her "paradise" again...

* Last but not least, Chapter 6 (Final Verdict). Continuing off from the aforementioned events in Chapter 5 (Black Fate), this whole scenario is just as depressing and horrifying as [[VideoGame/{{Chunithm}} Sibyl Seireiki]] [[note]]An infamous scenario from ''CHUNITHM'' that stands out as ''irredeemably depressing and gory'' compared to its usual story scenarios. It's a rather standard fantasy setting with spirit-channeling witches as its protagonists and a world made by a GodOfEvil...but all of the character backstories feature gratuitous displays of BreakTheCutie, gore, torture, excessively pessimistic {{Downer Ending}}s, a climax confrontation between a main character and the GodOfEvil that ends up ''the protagonist's breakdown and defeat'' and said GodOfEvil being a rejected Demiurge with a traumatic FreudianExcuse[[/note]].

* If you lock Fatalis Hikari's skill and play "Last" without touching the screen and wait a while, you'll get an "Accept Arcaea" button that appears next to the "Refuse Fate" button, which leads to an alternate ending, bringing into another nasty [[TheReveal reveal]]; Arcaea is actually a place created by the real Hikari for her to refuge into and a [[SpiritWorld place for solace for the dead]] -- every other character in this world is DeadAllAlong. The ending itself is not any better; Hikari [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascends Into A Higher Plane Of Existence]], but refuses to revive Tairitsu, and Arcaea becomes a LotusEaterMachine with every soul within becoming [[EmptyShell mindless husks]] of their former selves. Hikari, despite reaching godhood, becomes completely nihilistic and empty just like the souls she trapped. The cutscene image is also Alice being slowly corroded and encased in shards of glass, with one massive shard going through her heart. She's making all of the side characters frozen solid in glass, never to depart from her "paradise" again...

* Last but not least, Chapter 6 (Final Verdict). Continuing off from the aforementioned events in Chapter 5 (Black Fate), this whole scenario is just as depressing and horrifying as [[VideoGame/{{Chunithm}} Sibyl Seireiki]].

** The game throws one last surprise against you at the end of the chapter; your partner Tairitsu are all unusable and her name is replaced by bakemoji. And as the post-credits scene of this chapter indicates. Tairitsu was already dead by the time she enters Arcaea, and what Hikari did was to render her DeaderThanDead.

* If you lock Fatalis Hikari's skill and play "Last" without touching the screen and wait a while, you'll get an "Accept Arcaea" button that appears next to the "Refuse Fate" button, which leads to an alternate ending, bringing into another nasty [[TheReveal reveal]]; Arcaea is actually a place created by the real Hikari for her to refuge into and a [[SpiritWorld place for solace for the dead]] -- every other character in this world is DeadAllAlong. The ending itself is not any better; Hikari [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascends Into A Higher Plane Of Existence]], but refuses to revive Tairitsu, and Arcaea becomes a LotusEaterMachine with every soul within becoming [[EmptyShell mindless husks]] of their former selves. Hikari, despite reaching godhood, becomes completely nihilistic and empty just like the souls she trapped. The cutscene image is also Alice being slowly corroded and encased on shards of glass, with one massive shard going through their heart. She's making all of the side characters frozen solid in glass, never to depart from her "paradise" again...

* Last but not least, Chapter 6 (Final Verdict). Continuing off from the aforementioned events in Chapter 5 (Black Fate), this whole scenario just around as depressing and horrifying as [[VideoGame/{{Chunithm}} Sibyl Seireiki]].

** The unlock song "Testify". Its difficulty? '''''Beyond 12'''''. You read it right, and it's just as bad as it sounds. The track ''itself'' breaks apart whether you cleared it, or not, then the screen fades. It's also not even called an Anomaly event, but a "Fatal Choice", and for good reason. Enter...

** The unlock song "Testify". Its difficulty? '''''Beyond 12'''''. You read it right, and it's just as bad as it sounds. If you clear it, the track shatters whether you cleared it, or not, and the screen fades. It's also not even called an Anomaly event, but a "Fatal Choice", and for good reason. Enter...

** The Anomaly event song "Testify". Its difficulty? '''''Beyond 12'''''. You read it right, and it's just as bad as it sounds. If you clear it, the track shatters whether you cleared it, or not, and the screen fades.
** After you complete the ScriptedEvent, you're greeted with the most shocking view in the entire game. '''Hikari impaling Tairitsu by the chest with a sword she wished upon''', the former staring at nowhere blankly and the latter just staring at it in shock. The implication is that Hikari was killing Tairitsu out of self defense and on reflexes alone. And then the game describes Tairitsu's death in detail despite the picture itself is BloodlessCarnage.

* If you lock Fatalis Hikari's skill and play "Last" without touching the screen and wait a while, you'll get an "Accept Arcaea" button that appears next to the "Refuse Fate" button, which leads to an alternate ending, bringing into another nasty [[TheReveal reveal]]; Arcaea is actually a place created by the real Hikari for her to refuge into and a [[SpiritWorld place for solace for the dead]] -- every other character in this world is DeadAllAlong. The ending itself is not any better; Hikari [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascends Into A Higher Plane Of Existence]], but refuses to revive Tairitsu, Arcaea becomes a LotusEaterMachine with every soul within becoming [[EmptyShell mindless husks]] of their former selves. Hikari, despite reaching godhood, becomes completely nihilistic and empty just like the souls she trapped. The cutscene image is also Alice being slowly corroded and encased on shards of glass, with one massive shard going through their heart. She's making all of the side characters frozen solid in glass, never to depart from her "paradise" again...

* If you lock Fatalis Hikari's skill and play "Last" without touching the screen and wait a while, you'll get an "Accept Arcaea" button that appears next to the "Refuse Fate" button, which leads to an alternate ending, bringing into another nasty [[TheReveal reveal]]; Arcaea is actually a place created by the real Hikari for her to refuge into and a [[SpiritWorld place for solace for the dead]] -- every other character in this world is DeadAllAlong. The ending itself is not any better; Hikari [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascends Into A Higher Plane Of Existence]], but refuses to revive Tairitsu, Arcaea becomes a LotusEaterMachine with every soul within in stasis and she herself becomes completely nihilistic and empty just like the souls she trapped. The cutscene image is also Alice being slowly corroded and encased on shards of glass, with one massive shard going through their heart. She's making all of the side characters frozen solid in glass, never to depart from her "paradise" again...

* If you lock Fatalis Hikari's skill and play "Last" without touching the screen and wait a while, you'll get an "Accept Arcaea" button that appears next to the "Refuse Fate" button, which leads to an alternate ending, bringing into another nasty [[TheReveal reveal]]; Arcaea is actually a place created by the real Hikari for her to refuge into and a [[SpiritWorld place for solace for the dead]] -- every other character in this world is DeadAllAlong. The ending itself is not any better; Hikari AscendsIntoAHigherPlaneOfExistence, but refuses to revive Tairitsu, Arcaea becomes a LotusEaterMachine with every soul within in stasis and she herself becomes completely nihilistic and empty just like the souls she trapped. The cutscene image is also Alice being slowly corroded and encased on shards of glass, with one massive shard going through their heart. She's making all of the side characters frozen solid in glass, never to depart from her "paradise" again...

* If you lock Fatalis Hikari's skill and play "Last" without touching the screen and wait a while, you'll get an "Accept Arcaea" button that appears next to the "Refuse Fate" button, which leads to an alternate ending, bringing into another nasty [[TheReveal reveal]]; Arcaea is actually a place created by the real Hikari for her to refuge into and a [[SpiritWorld place for solace for the dead]]. Every other character in this world is DeadAllAlong, and the God of Arcaea? Hikari herself.

* [[https://soundcloud.com/leaf-7/heavensdoor "Heavensdoor"]] by [=LeaF=] is a very dark and fast-paced track with lots of unexpected changes and nasty distortion effects.

[[labelnote:It's behind you.]]'''LOST'''[[/labelnote]]

* The song "Malicious Mischance", at three points in the song's Future chart, features the chart scrolling backwards and the following sample inducing a sense of [[ParanoiaFuel paranoia]] within the player:
--> '''It's behind you.'''

* [[https://soundcloud.com/leaf-7/heavensdoor "Heavensdoor"]] by [=LeaF=] is a very dark and fast-paced track with lots of unexpected changes and nasty distortion effects.

* [[https://soundcloud.com/leaf-7/heavensdoor "Heavensdoor"]] by [=LeaF=] is a very dark and fast-paced track with lots of unexpected changes and nasty distortion effects. Fans of [=LeaF=] know what to expect, as this is the same composer behind the SurpriseCreepy track "[=MopeMope=]" and the infamously gory "MARENOL".

[[caption-width-right:350:Side effects of Arcaea overdose include vision loss, addiction, terminal brain damage, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Track Lost]].]]

* [[https://soundcloud.com/leaf-7/heavensdoor "Heavensdoor"]] by [=LeaF=] is a very dark and fast-paced track with lots of unexpected changes and nasty distortion effects in the track. Fans of [=LeaF=] know what to expect, as this is the same composer behind the SurpriseCreepy track "[=MopeMope=]" and the infamously gory "MARENOL".

** Even the "Terminal Song" ScriptedEvent added with Black Fate is this. Hikari, having endured Tairitsu's onslaught and using the last of her strength, is either bearing witness to the world breaking down from instability right in front of her or is fracturing it herself. During the event, the background and even the song chart itself is glitching regularly, and at the very end, [[JumpScare the display cuts out]] and the game reboots. And once you trigger the event, there is no quitting out of it early: the game doesn't even provide you a pause button.

** Even the "Terminal Song" ScriptedEvent added with Black Fate is this. Hikari, having endured Tairitsu's onslaught and using the last of her strength, is either bearing witness to the world breaking down from instability right in front of her or is fracturing it herself. During the event, the background and even the song chart itself is glitching regularly, and at the very end, the display cuts out and the game reboots.]] And once you trigger the event, there is no quitting out of it early: the game doesn't even provide you a pause button.

** Chapter 5 (Black Fate]]: About halfway through Tempestissimo, the background changes suddenly to include Tempest Tairitsu, the edges of the screen darken, [[DramaticDisappearingDisplay most of the HUD disappears]], your gauge (be it an Easy gauge at the time or the overflowed Hard gauge) is swapped out for the [[HarderThanHard Tempest Gauge]] (which decreases on its own if you aren't increasing your Recall), and the remainder of the chart is swapped out for the next difficulty's chart (Past 6->Present 9, Present 9->Future 10, Future 10->'''[[WhamLine Beyond 11]]'''). As shown in the story sequence immediately before unlocking Tempestissimo, Tairitsu isn't there to congratulate you for your efforts, She's there to kill Hikari, and what you just saw was the first hit she landed on her.

[[caption-width-right:350:Side effects of Arcaea overdose include vision loss, addiction, brain damage, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Track Lost]].]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Side effects of Arcaea overdise include vision loss, addiction, brain damage, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Track Lost]].]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Side effects of Arcaea overdise include vision loss, addiction, brain damage, and a [[GameOver Track Lost]].]]