History NightmareFuel / MegaManX

** The {{Stinger}} at the end of the credits can be rather unsettling the first time you see it. Sigma taunts X from beyond the grave, threatening to gather new Mavericks to continue his war. The same disturbing minimalist music that plays during the final stage also plays during this scene.

** The manga adaptation of Frost Walrus's fight with X, plus the ensuing fallout, is unexpectedly violent. X is accompanied by a reformed Blizzard Buffalo to attempt to apprehend Walrus, only he gets impaled by a giant icicle and loses consciousness during their first bout of conflict. When he recovers consciousness, he sees Buffalo's shadow and thinks that he won, only to find after getting a closer look that Walrus ''murdered'' Buffalo by impaling him ''and'' preserving his corpse with the visible wound inside a large block of ice. X proceeds to procure a suit of Ride Armor and pursues Walrus with murderous vengeance on his mind, only to nearly lose to Walrus. However, General appears before them and saves X by killing Walrus for his bad conduct, and leaves while essentially shrugging off X-buster shots from the wounded hunter. In frustration, X screams and smashes and damages his arm on the floor. This would lead to X hunting down the Light Capsule that contained the Ultimate Armor, which Light warns his son is unstable. The next time Zero meets X, he had just brutally murdered Slash Beast on the Repliforce train, vaporizing most of him with a charged shot that left one of Slash Beast's hands as the largest surviving fragment of him. X threatens Zero not to stand in the way of his vengeance, otherwise he would ''kill Zero as well', before taking flight with the Ultimate Armor and leaving the scene. Later, he tracks down Storm Owl and shoots him down along with the entirety of the Repliforce air brigade he commanded over a volcano. Badly injured, Owl is befuddled at how X could have such power, and yells that 'he' is the true Maverick, not Repliforce. X then coldly shuts him up with a charged shot to the chest, killing him, with a sinister SlasherSmile on his face. The coldly murderous antics of X will really give you chills if you perceive this as a very dark foreshadowing to Master X's ruthlessness and the dystopia that is Neo Arcadia in the ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' timeline.

** The manga adaptation of Frost Walrus's fight with X, plus the ensuing fallout, is unexpectedly violent. X is accompanied by a reformed Blizzard Buffalo to attempt to apprehend Walrus, only he gets impaled by a giant icicle and loses consciousness during their first bout of conflict. When he recovers consciousness, he sees Buffalo's shadow and thinks that he won, only to find after getting a closer look that Walrus ''murdered'' Buffalo by impaling him ''and'' preserving his corpse with the visible wound inside a large block of ice. X proceeds to procure a suit of Ride Armor and pursues Walrus with murderous vengeance on his mind, only to nearly lose to Walrus. However, General appears before them and saves X by killing Walrus for his bad conduct, and leaves while essentially shrugging off X-buster shots from the wounded hunter. In frustration, X screams and smashes and damages his arm on the floor. This would lead to X hunting down the Light Capsule that contained the Ultimate Armor, which Light warns his son is unstable. The next time Zero meets X, he had just brutally murdered Slash Beast on the Repliforce train, vaporizing most of him with a charged shot that left one of Slash Beast's hands as the largest surviving fragment of him. X threatens Zero not to stand in the way of his vengeance, otherwise he would 'kill Zero as well', before taking flight with the Ultimate Armor and leaving the scene. Later, he tracks down Storm Owl and shoots him down along with the entirety of the Repliforce air brigade he commanded over a volcano. Badly injured, Owl is befuddled at how X could have such power, and yells that 'he' is the true Maverick, not Repliforce. X then coldly shuts him up with a charged shot to the chest, killing hi], with a sinister SlasherSmile on his face. The coldly murderous antics of X will really give you chills if you perceive this as a very dark foreshadowing to Master X's ruthlessness and the dystopia that is Neo Arcadia in the ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' timeline.

** The manga adaptation of Frost Walrus's fight with X, plus the ensuing fallout, is unexpectedly violent. X is accompanied by a reformed Blizzard Buffalo to attempt to apprehend Walrus, only he gets impaled by a giant icicle and loses consciousness during their first bout of conflict. When he recovers consciousness, he sees Buffalo's shadow and thinks that he won, only to find after getting a closer look that Walrus ''murdered'' Buffalo by impaling him ''and'' preserving his corpse with the visible wound inside a large block of ice. X proceeds to procure a suit of Ride Armor and pursues Walrus with murderous vengeance on his mind, only to nearly lose to Walrus. However, General appears before them and saves X by killing Walrus for his bad conduct, and leaves while essentially shrugging off X-buster shots from the wounded hunter. In frustration, X screams and smashes and damages his arm on the floor. This would lead to X hunting down the Light Capsule that contained the Ultimate Armor, which Light warns his son is unstable. The next time Zero meets X, he had just brutally murdered Slash Beast on the Repliforce train, vaporizing most of him with a charged shot that left one of Slash Beast's hands as the largest surviving fragment of him. X threatens Zero not to stand in the way of his vengeance, otherwise he would 'kill Zero as well', before taking flight with the Ultimate Armor and leaving the scene. Later, he tracks down Storm Owl and shoots him down along with the entirety of the Repliforce air brigade he commanded over a volcano. Badly injured, Owl is befuddled at how X could have such power, and yells that 'he' is the true Maverick, not Repliforce. X then coldly shuts him up with a charged shot to the chest, [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/megaman/images/b/b1/RX4StormOwl.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150923165655 killing him]], with a sinister [[SlasherSmile Slasher Smile]] on his face as seen [[http://www.nettruyen.com/truyen-tranh/chien-binh-the-gioi-ao-x4-5/chap-12/455384 here]]. The coldly murderous expressions of X will really give you chills if you perceive this as a very dark foreshadowing to Master X's ruthlessness and the dystopia that is Neo Arcadia in the ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' timeline.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nightmare_1.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:They don't call it the Nightmare for no reason.]]

--->'''Unknown''' ([[spoiler: [=RiCO=]?]]): Hmmm... Sigh... Well, I'm fine either way... Let's hope it will not create more work for me.

** Sigma himself qualifies in this game as a result of Gate's [[CameBackWrong botched resurrection attempt]]. His first form looks like a robotic RevenantZombie, he's near mindless, is obsessed with getting his {{Revenge}} on X and Zero. And while his speech before his second phase is pure {{Narm}}, his design in the second phase, lovingly named [[{{NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast}} Hell Sigma]], is '''most certainly not,''' as it looks like a giant version of Sigma that [[{{BodyHorror}} had it's skin removed.]] Even his themes are much darker: his stage and first battle theme is rather unholy and creepy, while his second battle theme is ''a more threatening version of his battle themes from the first and second games''.

** Sigma himself qualifies in this game as a result of Gate's [[CameBackWrong botched resurrection attempt]]. His first form looks like a robotic RevenantZombie, he's near mindless, is obsessed with getting his {{Revenge}} on X and Zero. His second form resembles a giant metallic skeleton robot, which is ''very frightening'' to see. Even his themes are much darker: his stage and first battle theme is rather unholy and creepy, while his second battle theme is ''a more threatening version of his battle themes from the first and second games''.

-->'''Sigma:''' You have won a temporary victory, X. What you destroyed was only a temporary body -- my spirit remains intact. In time, [[DemonicPossession I will find other bodies strong enough to do my bidding]], [[WeWillMeetAgain and I will return]]. I shall see you soon, X. ''Very soon.''

** The manga adaptation of Frost Walrus's fight with X, plus the ensuing fallout, is unexpectedly violent. X is accompanied by a reformed Blizzard Buffalo to attempt to apprehend Walrus, only he gets impaled by a giant icicle and loses conciousness during their first bout of conflict. When he recovers conciousness, he sees Buffalo's shadow and thinks that he won, only to find after getting a closer look that Walrus ''murdered'' Buffalo by impaling him ''and'' preserving his corpse with the visible wound inside a large block of ice. X proceeds to procure a suit of Ride Armor and pursues Walrus with murderous vengeance on his mind, only to nearly lose to Walrus. However, General appears before them and saves X by killing Walrus for his bad conduct, and leaves while essentially shrugging off X-buster shots from the wounded hunter. In frustration, X screams and smashes and damages his arm on the floor. This would lead to X hunting down the Light Capsule that contained the Ultimate Armor, which Light warns his son is unstable. The next time Zero meets X, he had just brutally murdered Slash Beast on the Repliforce train, vaporizing most of him with a charged shot that left one of Slash Beast's hands as the largest surviving fragment of him. X threatens Zero not to stand in the way of his veangance, otherwise he would 'kill Zero as well', before taking flight with the Ultimate Armor and leaving the scene. Later, he tracks down Storm Owl and shoots him down along with the entirety of the Repliforce air brigade he commanded over a volcano. Badly injured, Owl is befuddled at how X could have such power, and yells that 'he' is the true Maverick, not Repliforce. X then coldly shuts him up with a charged shot to the chest, [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/megaman/images/b/b1/RX4StormOwl.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150923165655 killing him]], with a sinister [[SlasherSmile Slasher Smile]] on his face as seen [[http://www.nettruyen.com/truyen-tranh/chien-binh-the-gioi-ao-x4-5/chap-12/455384 here]]. The coldly murderous expressions of X will really give you chills if you perceive this as a very dark foreshadowing to Master X's ruthlessness and the dystopia that is Neo Arcadia in the ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' timeline.

** Zero's opening cut-scene starts with a NightmareSequence. It begins with Zero waking up only to be ordered by Dr. Wily to destory his arch-nemesis and then Zero almost immediately suffers from an anguishing headache as he's being forced to carry out those orders. The scene cuts to a laboratory, followed by Sigma screaming for his life, then we're treated to still shots of some Reploids brutally murdered with their mangled body parts scattered and blood splattered throughout, Zero's blood-soaked hands, more dead bodies, then a close-up of one of his victims before finally waking up for real. Zero implies that he has this nightmare more than once.

** The manga adaptation of Frost Walrus's fight with X, plus the ensuing fallout, is unexpectedly violent. X is accompanied by a reformed Blizzard Buffalo to attempt to apprehend Walrus, only he gets impaled by a giant icicle and loses conciousness during their first bout of conflict. When he recovers conciousness, he sees Buffalo's shadow and thinks that he won, only to find after getting a closer look that Walrus ''murdered'' Buffalo by impaling him ''and'' preserving his corpse with the visible wound inside a large block of ice. X proceeds to procure a suit of Ride Armor and pursues Walrus with murderous vengeance on his mind, only to nearly lose to Walrus. However, General appears before them and saves X by killing Walrus for his bad conduct, and leaves while essentially shrugging off X-buster shots from the wounded hunter. In frustration, X screams and smashes and damages his arm on the floor. This would lead to X hunting down the Light Capsule that contained the Ultimate Armor, which Light warns his son is unstable. The next time Zero meets X, he had just brutally murdered Slash Beast on the Repliforce train, vaporizing most of him with a charged shot that left one of Slash Beast's hands as the largest surviving fragment of him. X warns Zero not to stand in the way of his veangance with a chilling murderous expression before taking flight with the Ultimate Armor and leaving the scene. The coldly murderous expressions of X will really give you chills if you perceive this as a very dark foreshadowing to Master X's ruthlessness and the dystopia that is Neo Arcadia in the ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' timeline.

** Sigma's incarnation in this game counts as well. In his first form, his attire and body is akin to a Grim Reaper and he has a giant, lethal scythe that looks capable of crushing anything when in strong hands. After this form is defeated, you'll face him the second time, only to find him with two separate forms that alternate with one another. One form is his head attached to an alien cannon. The other form, which takes the cake, is his big head, but disfigured with metallic tubes and wires protruding from him, which makes it look like life support. The music in both battles can intensify these moments, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXBr-a-32FE especially the 2nd one]].

** A cartoonish video game soundtrack seems like an odd place for nightmare fuel, no? The "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKX8iJQGCAY Soul Asylum]]" track disagrees with you. The distorted effects in the track are almost hypnotic...

*** Oh, and to twist the knife further, in ''X6'' Dynamo's collecting Nightmare Souls. And not just small trickles - if you can hit him with the right weapons in his bonus fights, he drops ''tons'' of it, being downright the fastest way to grind for them. All for reasons unknown, and never elaborated upon past that point. What in the name of everything that's right in the world is he doing hoarding that much for himself..?

** Oh, and to twist the knife further, in ''X6'' he's collecting Nightmare. And not just small trickles - if you can hit him with the right weapons in his bonus fights, he drops ''tons'' of it, he's downright the fastest way to grind for Nightmare Souls. All for reasons unknown, and never elaborated upon past that point. What in the name of everything that's right in the world is he doing hoarding that much..?

* Let's chat about the current page image, one of the Nightmare enemies. These floating torsos with DNA-strand tendrils are usually content to try and fire at X or Zero, but if an injured Reploid is on-screen, one of them will beeline for it, and if it successfully reaches them, it infects / possesses them and turns them into an enemy. Said Reploid will be considered ''lost'', or ''dead'' if killed afterwards. (Considering that some of these injured Reploids are holding upgrade parts, it's a valid reason to load a save). To make matters slightly worse, when the Nightmare enemies are killed, they sometimes drop their Nightmare Soul. If it's not collected in a short amount of time, the enemy will regenerate for another attempt. Thankfully, they can only do this once.

*** Related to that scene, we get a brief look at Double's face before he does this. [[AxCrazy He's smiling]].

** The {{Stinger}} at the end of the credits can be rather unsettling the first time you see it. [[spoiler:Sigma taunts X from beyond the grave, threatening to gather new Mavericks to continue his war.]] The same disturbing minimalist music that plays during the final stage also plays during this scene.
-->'''Sigma:''' You have won a temporary victory, X. What you destroyed was only a temporary body -- my spirit remains intact. In time, [[DemonicPossession I will find other bodies strong enough to do my bidding]], [[WeWillMeetAgain and I will return]]. I shall see you soon, X. ''Very soon.''

** Consider Sigma, his plans in this game, and several other elements of ''X5''. The combination of the Sigma Virus's ghostly aura covering the Earth, the Eurasia ColonyDrop with thousands and thousands of humans and Reploids (who didn't go Maverick) looking on in horror/helplessness, the ColonyDrop partially/mostly succeeding almost killing the entire human race [[spoiler:with Zero going Maverick if the colony was only half-destroyed -- this is what Sigma wanted with the ColonyDrop]], the purple, ghostly portrait of Zero's helmet for the Zero Space stages on the Stage Select screen, and Sigma's ghostly purple face for his stage on the Stage Select screen (later reused in X6 as a dialogue portrait).

** [[spoiler:Lumine. Expressionless, doll-like face, CreepyMonotone, shapeshifting powers, and ready and willing to go utterly AxCrazy. A little further into the UncannyValley and we'd be looking at ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion End of Evangelion]]'' flashbacks!]]
** The [[spoiler:true]] final boss [[spoiler:Lumine]] has an attack that is instant death. It consists of the screen going black and you hear the character you are playing as screaming at the last second. [[NothingIsScarier What on earth is going on behind it...?]]

** The [[BossWarningSiren "Warning" message]] that made its debut in this game. You have the word written across the screen in huge red futuristic letters whenever you enter into a boss battle and that it flashes constantly upon sight with a scary alarm sound before disappearing. Most people who saw it were quite scared of it as they didn't expect for something like it to occur so suddenly and to add more horror to its nightmare potential, most of the boss battles from within ''X4'' and beyond had took place from within obscure and solitude places that were quite dark and unnerving (given the UsefulNotes/PlayStation's darker and sharper graphics). To add even more horror to the "Warning" message's nightmare potential, think back to the first Final Weapon stage of ''X4'' and remember on how both X and Zero had surprisingly ran into both Double and Iris (who at the time were seen as cheerful characters from within a relatively dark game like ''X4'') from within their separate in-game scenarios. When the "Warning" message had instantly flashed from within the room of where the sudden confrontations had took place from, you immediately knew and realized that [[BewareTheNiceOnes Double and Iris]] weren't there to help you out.

** ThatOneBoss or no, Flame Hyenard's situation is both horrifying and [[TearJerker saddening]] to think about. He's constantly in pain due to the Sigma Virus, and has been suffering since before you got to him. If his [[MostAnnoyingSound in-game dialogue]] is anything to go by, as well as the only reason he attacks X, Zero, or Axl being that he thinks it'll get rid of his pain, this torment has been driving him to complete insanity. When you finally do fight him, the infection's in such a late stage that the only way to cure him is to put him out of his misery.

** The final stretch after beating the Colonel. Everything's spiky and full of holes and that ominous vacuum like music. Not helping matters is that you fight Colonel and Iris here...

** Sigma himself qualifies in this game as a result of Gate's [[CameBackWrong botched resurrection attempt]]. His first form looks like a RevenantZombie robot, he's near mindless, is obsessed with getting his {{Revenge}} on X and Zero. His second form resembles a giant metallic skeleton robot, which is ''very frightening'' to see. Even his themes are much darker: his stage and first battle theme is rather unholy and creepy, while his second battle theme is ''a more threatening version of his battle themes from the first and second games''.

** Sigma himself qualifies in this game as a result of Gate's [[CameBackWrong botched resurrection attempt]]. His first form looks like a RevenantZombie robot, he's near mindless, is obsessed with getting his {{Revenge}} on X and Zero. His second form resembles a giant metallic skeleton robot, which is ''very frightening'' to see. Even his themes are much darker: his stage and first battle is rather unholy and creepy, while his second battle theme is ''a more threatening version of his battle themes from the first and second games''.

** The manga adaptation of this battle starts off with Zero killing Serges in cold blood, then methodically attempting to murder X, right down to bisecting his helmet in an attempt to decapitate him, before ramming his hand into a gaping hole in his armor in an attempt to finish him off with charged energy! X only even gets a chance to free him from the W chip controlling his actions when it delivers a painful and debilitating shock that paralyses him, and only survives the attacks because he was able to shed the tattered remains of his armor upgrade as they absorbed the potentially-lethal damage.

** The [[AbsurdlySharpBlade Boomerang Cutter]] that X can acquire from Boomer Kuwanger displays a fairly disturbing amount of ShowsDamage if it gets used against certain Mavericks. When hit by it enough times, Launch Octopus has his tentacles cut off, and the same can happen to Flame Mammoth's trunk -- which prevents them from using certain attacks.

** The plot of ''Mega Man X2'' revolves around collecting Zero's scattered body parts. If that doesn't strike you as NightmareFuel at first, consider this: If ''Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X2'' was made, what do you think X's reaction would be towards collecting Zero's severed head (Zero Part #1 in the game), especially if done in a cut-scene?
** If you failed to recover even one of Zero's body parts, the X-Hunters will raid the Maverick Hunters HQ to retrieve the rest of his body, and you'll be forced to fight him for real.

** You probably jumped a little when Sigma's face appeared on the Stage Select screen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtdhHN29iBg and this music played]].