WARNING: Spoilers are off on Nightmare Fuel pages.
Base Game
- Lea’s abduction. Imagine the situation from her point of view; You were enjoying an evening with your friends, only to wake up in an isolated, inescapable place with no idea how you got there. It's safe to assume that your friends have no idea where you are, and wouldn't be able to help you even if they did. Then your kidnapper reveals himself to be someone who has violently assaulted you in the past, who begins mocking your helplessness. No matter how hard you try, every attempt to fight, flee, or defend yourself is utterly futile. Finally, he tires of toying with you and drags you off to parts unknown. While the Blue Avatar’s intentions are a still a mystery at that point in the game, the entire scene is packed with disturbing implications.
- Making it even worse; the above scenario was the last of the story-related content in the pre-release game, granting players plenty of time to ponder exactly what the Blue Avatar had in store for her...
- Just the idea of the Blue Avatar in general. His appearance and demeanor may not be overtly threatening, but he’s still a Nigh-Invulnerable, obsessed, and ultra-powerful being who is utterly committed to hunting you down. Worse still is that you don’t even know why he’s after you, only that you have an unstoppable enemy who could strike at any time.
- The Vermilion Wasteland is unsettling on several levels; the entire region looks like a sick, tainted hellscape with giant bacteriophages infesting the terrain, and unbeatable guards patrolling the area who will instantly destroy you if you step a toe out of line. Yet even worse are the characters wandering the area. You're probably used to seeing amusing quirks and idiosyncrasies from the NPC's by now, but these are outright bizarre; some are sprinting headlong into a wall while rambling about "getting out", others are stuck in an endless, looping conversation without pause, and one girl is praying for a lantern to strike her blind. It only gets worse when you learn they aren't actually NPCs...
- The worst part is when Lukas decides to log out at the end of the day, only to realize that he can't. After several failed attempts to remove himself from the game, his expression shifts from annoyance to dread as the implications sink in; He's not just forced to play through a hellish wasteland, he's never going to leave. The realization hits so hard that he flips out and assaults the the high level guards in a desperate panic with predictable results.
- Remember those overpowered guards mentioned above? Shizuka rips apart half a dozen of them on her way to your room. But don't celebrate too soon; This unstoppable juggernaut is very, very angry. At you.
- And why is she angry at you? Because you're the reason why she's currently being blackmailed into working for the Big Bad and why her brother is dead.
- Not that it isn't also a Tear Jerker, but Lea's Heroic BSoD breakdown is pretty disturbing. After being told that she's a clone, Lea curls up into a Troubled Fetal Position, softly repeating "...why..." to herself, over and over. Even attempts to get through to her with desperate pleading get no response at all.
- After the Final Boss, Gautham enters the cyber-space playground without his avatar, which horrifies Sergey as it's dangerous to do so. He just stoically congratulates Lea for defeating him, and then walks towards the edge of the platform to ''log out''. Lea is smacked away for trying to stop, and as he falls, the screen fades to black and a flash of red punctuates his impact.
A New Home
- C'tron's reaction upon realizing he was an Evotar of Benedict Sidwell, the same man responsible for the Evotars' suffering. He quickly has a nervous breakdown, making deranged faces with his eyes wide open, no less horrified than his friends. Lea has to give him a Cooldown Hug to calm him.
- C'tron ALMOST gets deleted by Sidwell's management bot, which is absurdly powerful in itself. Lucky for him he was proofed from it. But the ones before him weren't, so the dread he felt was very real until this moment.
