Nightmare Fuel / Devil May Cry 5

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

If you thought Molded, zombies and B.O.W.s weren't enough, then look no further than this critter. Courtesy of RE Engine.

• The flashback scene in Nero's garage has him losing his Devil Bringer to a hooded assailant. Although Nero gets better, we later learn that it was Vergil who ripped Nero's arm off, and he needed it because he's "running out of time"; Vergil is still suffering from his corruption as Nelo Angelo and it physically shows via his body having a pale complexion, blue veins all over, and his skin cracking or almost flaking off.
• Some of the demons fought in this game are particularly gruesome. And thanks to the RE Engine used in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil 2 (Remake), every demon is now introduced in Gross-Up Close-Up style, displaying each of them in all of the engine's photo-realistic, disgusting and vile glory.
  • One of these demons even emerges from a bloody chalice with a menacing glare.
  • Goliath is a nasty looking brute with jagged horns and matted fur. The kicker is that he has a huge mouth on his stomach that swallows his opponents and spits out molten fireballs, taking Body Horror to new levels. His whole appearance wouldn't be too out of place in Bloodborne.
  • Cavaliere Angelo, while less gruesome than Goliath, was a creation of Mundus, but was faulty compared to Nelo Angelo, lacking the "spark" it needed to make it formidable. It doesn't detract from the fact that it's twice as tall as Dante, swings a jagged sword that's almost as long as its height with ease, and sports a permanent dead-eye glare that all but promises pain and death.
  • The Big Bad of the game, Urizen, is a huge towering demon covered in layers of flesh and eyes who is being fed the blood of humans through the Qliphoth tree. The producers of the game have said he is even more powerful than Mundus himself, and he clearly displays that in the prologue where he effortlessly defeats the heroes, including Dante in Devil Trigger, not only making him turn back into human form with a single hit, but also shattering Rebellion. One of his quotes is also pretty chilling.
    It has begun. I will show you... your worst nightmares. I will give you... despair and... death!
  • The most basic enemy types in the game, the Empusas, are each best described as a combination between flies, praying mantises, and cicadas. If the concept of a gigantic amalgamation of insects isn't terrifying enough, have a close look at their heads; the center of their face appears to be a screaming human face with hollow "eyes", but their eyes are actually the eyes of two human faces connected to the first.
  • The first Death Scissors demon is introduced like a horror movie villain, emerging from a painting before charging at Nero with its huge shears. In combat, they retain the teleportation abilities and disturbing laughter of the Sin Scissors from the first game. To make matters worse, their faces morph into a Ghostface-like visage when struck.
  • The Behemoth is a disgusting, rhino-like beast with a gigantic mouth of crooked teeth. It's apparently so horrible and aggressive, it had to be chained up lest it turn on its allies. When its chains are broken, two disgusting limb-like tongues emerge, flailing about madly at anything in sight. Their card in the Capcom mobile card game Teppen adds further nightmare fuel. While most cards have flavor text that acts as a Badass Creed or context for the art, Behemoth's is a warning.
    If you do not wish to die, do not oppose me.
    If you do not wish to fear me, do not free me.
    If you do not wish to suffer, do not run.
  • The Nobodies from the first game also return after almost 18 years but are still as grotesque as ever, with grey flesh on their arm-like legs and exposed bone and muscle covering their body, three eyeballs the size of its head poking out at random points, and a fifth skinless arm jutting out of their spine, with more muscle in it than the rest of the body combined. And if that wasn't enough, knocking off their masks reveals their true face, a featureless mass of tendons with only its inhuman grin. They can also talk and do more than laugh and howl, but can barely put half a word together, sounding raspy like someone having trouble breathing while trying to speak. Niddhogg could at least form a coherent sentence in comparison.
    Nobody: "De-de-de-devvv...!" [After V mentions his turn to play with the Devil Sword Sparda.]
  • Malphas, Urizen's second in command, is absolutely terrifying. She's a demonic woman with three individual upper bodies with a single arm each, with pearly skin and all fused to onyx like structures that glow purple. This is then fused to a giant, featherless, rotting bird, with wings somewhere between human arms and wings with dozens of insect legs pointing out of its forearm. Its head is utterly grotesque, with its eyes (if it has any) being swollen shut, and its beak resembling a nose and the lower beak being skin hanging loosely to its chin. Also, it has human teeth. The worst part is, the bird is hinted to be sentient, and not only was unwilling in its assimilation, this thing was a chick, which is horrifying as it shows how ruthless demons can be, and also brings into question how big this bird would have gotten if Malphas hadn't fused to it.
  • The Hell Antenoras are twisted versions of the Hell Cainas, tortured to the point of insanity and given a pair of cleavers. Nico's report claims that they are in constant pain, causing them to lash out at anything that knocks them down. They physically resemble bloated, hunchbacked Cainas but with purple tentacles and spikes passing through their bodies, their heads covered in a sack, and they also have a noose around their neck. They act as a reminder of how horrific demons can be, even to their own kind.
  • The Lusachia demons are the "evolved" form of the Baphomets, goat-like spell casters, who evolved so they can cast more spells at a faster pace. How? By developing mouths all over their body, even on their hands. Their limbs have atrophied and they don't even have eyes anymore. Was It Really Worth It?
  • One of the most dangerous enemies in the game, the blood red lizard-like Fury, is similar to the Lusachia above, as they're "evolved" from a more basic enemy, this case the Riots. However, while the Lusachia wanted to cast more spells, the Fury just wanted to kill faster. This desire led to it becoming faster and faster until it had the power to flit through dimensions and become intangible. Imagine being alone, and seeing rapid flashes of red. At that point, you can't even run away. You Are Already Dead.
• The icing on the shitcake humanity is stuck in during the opening cutscenes? Humans are now fully aware of demons. Countless soldiers desperately try to fight hordes of demons but are cut down. Badly. To add to the horror factor, these demons are attacking people in broad daylight.
• Red Grave City apparently isn't the only place being encroached on by the Underworld, as revealed in Mission 1.
  Nico: Soldier Boy said city's goin' to Hell and back, taken over by the Underworld. Not just here - but everywhere.
• Controversial as the song may be, "Subhuman" still counts as quite a nightmarish track, as the lyrics continuously refer to an unknown malevolent force threatening to erupt. The lyrics in the second verse deserve special mention as it talks about begging to be saved from an untold destiny.
  Something saved me, put me out of my destiny!
  And dropped me safely in this hell!
  • As well as this line, after the second chorus:
    LET ME OUT!
• While it's no doubt also a Moment of Awesome for long-time series veterans, Dante using what seems to be his Majin Form from the second game (later officially named Sin Devil Trigger in this game) is suitably even more horrifying here because of the RE Engine's photo-realistic graphics.
• There are moments when V shows up with visible cracks on his face as if he's literally falling apart. Given his limp, he very much is; in the later parts of the game, he's slowly rotting away. Why? Because he's Vergil, having cut his own humanity out of himself, and in doing so, he's also created someone who's also in a much worse state than himself. While the horror is slightly mitigated by the fact that he's now on your side, it's also pretty scary to see that Nightmare and a Shadow are back.
• As seen in Mission 2, the demons have already taken over Red Grave City, and the aftermath has numerous people that Died Standing Up and darkly calcified or.. something akin to withered husks, their bodies left behind but their blood and souls harvested. Breaking them apart yields no rewards, just what's left of their body messily falling apart in a way that's more organic than stone before fading to ashes and leaving behind miniature demon trees. Some of them are obviously clinging to each other in terror.
• The Red Orbs have gone from the traditional Narm appearances everyone's familiar with to screaming, withered and almost squishy-looking crystalline faces.
• We see Eva shoving a young Dante into a closet from his perspective as it looks like demons are attacking their home. Dante might be half-devil, but he's also half-human and was also a child, so seeing the naked fear on Eva's face as she's telling him to proverbially hide himself with a new identity if she doesn't return will be highly traumatic to any kid, even future badass devil hunters.
• Late in the game, we have a very creepy moment with Malphas cornering V, who is in no shape to take her on, in an area of the Qliphoth. Thank god Nero showed up when he did.
  Malphas: I'm cooooooomiiiiiiiiing...
• Beating Bloody Palace as Nero has him prove that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree after all as he stands over a defeated Vergil.
  Nero: "I'm the one... [Close-up on his face from underneath his hood, revealing glowing yellow eyes and a wicked looking Slasher Smile] WITH POWER!!"
  • V's victory against Vergil ain't much better. He absorbs Vergil into himself.
    V: "You and I are one!" [while stabbing Vergil with his cane.]
• The Visions of V manga reveals just how horrific Vergil's experiences as Nelo Angelo were whenever V bonds with one of his familiars.
  • After bonding with Griffon, we're shown the moment Vergil became Nelo Angelo, bloodied and strung up by spikes driven through his body and at the mercy of Mundus, who summons a dark substance that engulfs Vergil, and all he can do is feebly reach for the shattered remains of Yamato as he's swallowed completely.
  • When V bonds with Shadow, we're shown a single frame of Vergil, screaming, as chains and Nelo Angelo's armour forms around him.
  • When Nightmare swallows V, just like the boss fight in the original game, he's trapped in an endless void with a giant ruined statue of Mundus, before something grabs and uses him to pull itself out of the ground: Nelo Angelo, who then lifts V by the neck and strangles him. When V places his hand on head, trying to dismiss him as a dream, Nelo Angelo does the same, forcing V to relive all his past suffering at once. It's so much that V can't even fight back. If not for the dream Dante, V would have died there and then.
• Visions of V provides one in the form of Dante himself. When V is trying to hire Dante, he tells him that the demon is none other than Vergil. While in game, the scene fades out as V says the name, that doesn't happen in the manga, and we see just what Dante's reaction was.◊ He seems calm at first, claiming lots of people come to him exaggerating or outright lying about how dangerous or who the demon is, which he doesn't usually mind, as he'll stop the demon all the same. However, he calmly tells V that, if he's lying, he made a serious mistake lying about Vergil, showing him emanating a fiery aura with his face completely shrouded in darkness with the exception of his eyes, which are Devil Triggered, making it clear that V has hit his Berserk Button as hard as he could. Chilling in its own way is that, despite clear fear, V is relieved to see that Dante hasn't changed.