History NightmareFuel / DotHack

* ''Reminisce'' starts with one of the most extreme examples. [[spoiler: The entire active playerbase being trapped in the game just as Tsukasa was. When sent to check on the other players, some will make mention of their friends [[KilledOffForReal not coming back after being killed]]. The first Area Haseo visits is full of Kestral players who have come to the [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope conclusion that they need to kill everyone they can to be able to escape the game]].]]

* Everything about [[EldritchAbomination Cubia]]. [[NighInvulnerability Unkillable,]] seemingly unstoppable even compared to the Phases, and clearly something that just ''shouldn't exist.'' [[spoiler: [[OutsideContextVillain He isn't even a part of the Phases,]] as he's essentially Kite's / the Key of Twilight's [[ShadowArchetype anti-existence,]] meaning that not only is he a semi-natural part of The World, Aura likely very well knew he'd exist given that Helba figures out immediately what he is.]] Things only get worse [[spoiler: in G.U., when he's reborn at the end of the series in an even more horrifying state as Haseo's anti-existence and the TrueFinalBoss, [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere with no foreshadowing up to that point.]]]]

* Everything about [[EldritchAbomination Cubia]]. [[NighInvulnerability Unkillable,]] seemingly unstoppable even compared to the Phases, and clearly something that just ''shouldn't exist.'' [[spoiler: [[OutsideContextVillain He isn't even a part of the Phases,]] as he's essentially Kite's / the Key of Twilight's [[ShadowArchetype anti-existence,]] meaning that not only is he a semi-natural part of The World, Aura likely very well knew he'd exist given that Helba figures out immediately what he is.]] Things only get worse [[spoiler: in G.U., when he's reborn at the end of the series in an even more horrifying state as the TrueFinalBoss [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere with no foreshadowing up to that point.]]]]

* Kite is in junior high school, presumably about fourteen-years-old if one goes by extra information released after the original R1 series; even Black Rose is older than him ([[LampshadeHanging something she points out in her e-mail chain]]). And he gets to witness his best friend in real-life effectively 'die' right before his very eyes on his ''first day'' in The World without knowing what is even going on or being able to prevent it. This isn't even getting into the sheer amount of hell and trauma the poor kid has to endure over the course of the rest of the series, [[AdultFear effectively championing a battle against virtual abominations that could put him in a coma if he ever slips up on a daily basis,]] [[FridgeHorror dooming himself and the rest of the victims because he's the only one that can hope to save them.]] The fact that, after everything is said and done, he seems to be fairly well-adjusted in a franchise filled to the brim with DysfunctionJunction speaks ''leagues'' of the kid's fortitude.
** The Bracelet itself is no slouch in this department either. With each Data Drain it performs, Kite's character grows in data corruption. Should he ever overtax it, it ''will'' kill / make him comatose, and it's implied to be causing him physical pain in the real world - but he has no choice besides use it given that nothing else can do what it does. [[spoiler: The fact that making it stronger also made [[EldritchAbomination Cubia]] stronger also means Kite is essentially feeding the most terrifying entity in the entire franchise.]]

* Everything about [[EldritchAbomination Cubia]]. [[NighInvulnerability Unkillable,]] seemingly unstoppable, and clearly something that just ''shouldn't exist.'' [[spoiler: [[OutsideContextVillain He isn't even a part of the Phases,]] as he's essentially Kite's / the Key of Twilight's [[ShadowArchetype anti-existence,]] meaning that not only is he a semi-natural part of The World, Aura likely very well knew he'd exist given that Helba figures out immediately what he is.]] Things only get worse [[spoiler: in G.U., when he's reborn at the end of the series in an even more horrifying state as the TrueFinalBoss [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere with no foreshadowing up to that point.]]]]

* Everything about [[EldritchAbomination Cubia]].

* The Bracelet itself is no slouch in this department either. With each Data Drain it performs, Kite's character grows in data corruption. Should he ever overtax it, it ''will'' kill / make him comatose, and it's implied to be causing him physical pain in the real world. [[spoiler: The fact that making it stronger also made [[EldritchAbomination Cubia]] stronger also means Kite is essentially feeding the most terrifying entity in the entire franchise and liable to death at any moment because of its side effects.]]

* The Net Slums. A uniquely corrupted area in its own right that is some of the [[DummiedOut in-universe remnants of The World's unused data,]] it's a hodgepodge of modern geometry that doesn't quite fit the game combined with assets of the fantasy setting, abnormal denizens which include having TVs with emoticons for heads, and mismatched textures resulting in realistic human eyes on walls, or pixelated symbols in the middle of the normal ground. The somewhat-ambient music doesn't help at all, either. And the kicker to all of this? [[NothingIsScarier It's a hub town area you'll come back to numerous times and these problems never go away or get better.]] Although to some that might be NightmareRetardant instead.

** However, while the corruption is more or less aesthetic in the game, it begins to outright screw with the real world; a scan of the news application in the Main Screen of the Operating System shows that they're gleefully doing things like wrecking traffic lights, disabling power to large swathes of Tokyo (as seen in Liminality) and likely elsewhere, and even shutting the entire internet off for large spans of time. The implication is that the Phases are actively seeking to cause an ApocalypseHow, possibly up to a Class 2.

** However, while the corruption is more or less aesthetic, the corruption caused by the Phases begins to outright screw with the real world; a scan of the news application in the Main Screen of the Operating System shows that they're gleefully doing things like wrecking traffic lights, disabling power to large swathes of Tokyo (as seen in Liminality) and likely elsewhere, and even shutting the entire internet off for large spans of time. The implication is that the Phases are actively seeking to cause an ApocalypseHow, possibly up to a Class 2.

** To start with, Skeith only appears a couple times in Part 1 but each time is significant. From his CurbstompBattle on Orca (a legendary player who can't even damage Skeith but hits him once for a Data Drain), to his [[spoiler: finally catching Aura at the end of the part and promptly Data Draining her before spliting her into three fragments,]] this entity never speaks a single word, is downright ruthless and efficient and only ever makes noises when attacking while never once even touching the ground or walking. When people think of non-human antagonists for the franchise, Skeith is easily one of the first. And his title that becomes more prominent in the G.U. series? [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast ''The Terror of Death.'']]

** [[spoiler: To start with, the Phases are all as alien as can be. Skeith vaguely resembles a humanoid golem to a bare minimum, but the rest of the Phases are just plain freaky forms like walls, stained glass eyes and so forth, especially once Data Drained. Their mere introduction as a boss fight causes the entire game to part seas of static and corrupted data before they zoom straight up into your face and get a title card, unlike anything else in the game. And they're all devastatingly powerful, have Data Drain, and require to be Data Drained to be able to even hope to actually kill them.]]

* The sheer damage The World sustains over the course of the first generation games, and the corruption as a result. Corrupted areas have holes in the data that show the code beneath, [[DemonicSpiders Data Bugs]] can appear depending on the area or quest and become normal enemies in part 4, and [[ParanoiaFuel there's always something off-putting about it all]] considering the circumstances. To top it off, [[JumpScare corrupted areas occasionally hit you with a burst of static noise and the screen color inverting.]] You can even see large gaping holes in the skies of these areas, with nothing but eerie green lines circling outside the cracks.
** And this isn't even the worst of it. Thought you were making progress throughout Part 2 in stopping the corruption? [[spoiler: [[WhamEpisode The ending reveals the corruption is spreading to the hub towns and across the game now, CC Corp can't stop it, and destroying the Phases makes The World more and more unstable.]]]]

* The Net Slums. A uniquely corrupted area in its own right that is some of the [[DummiedOut in-universe remnants of The World's unused data,]] it's a hodgepodge of modern geometry that doesn't quite fit the game combined with assets of the fantasy setting, warped NPCs which include having TVs with emoticons for heads, and mismatched textures resulting in realistic human eyes on walls, or pixelated symbols in the middle of the normal ground. [[TheHellIsThatNoise The somewhat-ambient music doesn't help at all, either.]] And the kicker to all of this? [[NothingIsScarier It's a hub town area you'll come back to numerous times and these problems never go away or get better.]] Although to some that might be NightmareRetardant instead.

* In the second cutscene of .Hack//OUTBREAK; Kite has a brief reunion with [[spoiler: Mia]], who has been with him for the last two volumes. However, she acts strange, has obscure dialogue ("we can go back and forth freely now," implying that she [[spoiler:is going to become one of the Phases entering the real world and wreaking havoc)]] and makes gestures that imply that [[SanitySlippage all is not well upstairs.]] And when Kite goes to touch her, she screams at him. Couple this with the accuracy of her English VA, as well as the extremely distorted textures of the current area and you have a scene that should not be watched with the lights out.
** [[http://youtu.be/HqdQaZ2tTEU Here's the scene, for those curious.]]

* In the second cutscene of .Hack//OUTBREAK; Kite has a brief reunion with [[spoiler: Mia]], who has been with him for the last two volumes. However, she acts strange, has obscure dialogue, and makes gestures that imply that [[SanitySlippage all is not well upstairs.]] Couple this with the accuracy of her English VA, as well as the extremely distorted textures of the current area and you have a scene that should not be watched with the lights out.

* NightmareFuel/DotHackOutbreak

* NightmareFuel/DotHackR1Games

* NightmareFuel/DotHackOutbreak

* In the second cutscene of .Hack//OUTBREAK; Kite has a brief reunion with [[spoiler: Mia]], who has been with him for the last two volumes. However, she acts strange, has obscure dialogue, and makes gestures that imply that [[SanitySlippage all is not well upstairs.]] Couple this with the accuracy of her English VA, as well as the extremely distorted textures of the current area and you have a scene that should not be watched with the lights out.