Nightmare Fuel / Devil Survivor

• Don't think that the Super-Deformed art style used on maps is going to save you from seeing Family Unfriendly Deaths. No, you get to see several characters bite it on-screen, complete with blood! Hell, the artstyle arguably makes these deaths even worse.
  • You'd be fooled into thinking the game dilutes most of its own horror thanks to its artstyle. Nope. You get to watch many people getting murdered, parts of the city deteriorating until they resemble a Fire and Brimstone Hell, and the monsters that started off cute gradually getting more and more nightmarish in appearance. Also, add in the fact you have a literal Death Clock hanging over the heads of EVERYONE that most have to fight unspeakable horrors to prolong for brief stretches of time, AND the facts that the Japanese government is planning to microwave the entire city population into melted goo just to stop a demon invasion, the demons want to extend their dominion to the entire planet, and the angels want to do the same. All the above said, this is one terrifying game, and the worst part of all... is that this game somehow got past the ratings board with a Teen rating!
• This game shows the truth of what would happen if you gave humans access to a bunch of Olympus Mons with no supervision or enforcement to keep things in order. The result is not pretty.
• The mere premise of the game is horrifying: you are trapped within Tokyo with little food or water for an entire week while demons roam around doing as they please...
  • The COMP holders are arguably far more frightening than the demons, since it takes less than a week before they start to use demons to get what they want. Even the police aren't above killing to survive or just for fun. With the concepts of law and order gone, some will take advantage of their positions and their COMPs to murder and rob civilians.
  • The artwork of the policemen in both games have Obviously Evil creepy red eyes and a Slasher Smile! You can't rely on the friendly neighborhood police to save you now! (Slightly mitigated in the second game, when there are no corrupt policemen with COMPs trying to kill you for shits and giggles).
  • The Delinquent Thugs are a pretty nasty bunch, using the demons they've contracted to viciously attack anyone who even looks at them wrong. Some even gang up on Midori with the implied intention of raping her.
• Everyone, including children, are trapped in a military-enforced circle with no way to leave without being killed by said military. Even members of the military who become COMP users are thrown in with the rest of the civilians.
• Keisuke after he gains Yama and decides to judge the guilty. His actions are reminiscent of Shin Megami Tensei's typical Law alignment, and his sudden shift from "quiet and reserved" to "so full of rage and hatred you can see it on his face" is pretty terrifying.
• Part of what makes Devil Survivor so dark and horrifying is that it treats the Lockdown's effects on Tokyo extremely realistically. We are shown in graphic detail how one of the largest, most populated cities in the world is completely cut off from the outside world: Food and water begin to be in short supply on the first day, and by the third day, any forms of supplies are virtually nonexistent. The SDF are utterly unable to contain the increasingly desperate and volatile citizens, and by the fourth day, mass riots ensue. Even from the second or third day, increasingly simple access to easy summoning devices has transformed Tokyo into a warzone. Let that sink in. It takes Tokyo's society less than a week to descend into complete anarchy.
  • What also does not help is that this happens in a country where its people in general are considered to be one of the politest, most orderly, and calmest on the planet, most notably shown during the Tohoku Earthquake of 2011. If even the Japanese get desperate enough to start riots in the above scenario, then things would be even more screwed for, say, the French ^note who love to go on strike and hold protests all the time in general with a Boulevarde Peripherique lockdown. Or, say, Americans ^note with their love of carrying guns and being generally hot-headed with a Manhattan/Chicago Loop/Bay Area lockdown.
• At one point, you are allowed to do one of three things with Haru after she runs off on her own, after she strongly hints that she plans to commit suicide. At a specific time during the day, you can choose to ignore her and let her commit suicide, talk to her and calm her down, or... talk her into it, and affirm that she is indeed worthless, her despair is her own fault, and her situation is impossible, and it's hopeless, and everyone is going to die. If you choose the last option, she will show gratitude to you, and then run off to incite the SDF into shooting her dead so she no longer is in pain. Which they do. The next day, your COMP will tell you, as part of its news, that a young woman not carrying identification attacked SDF soldiers, who were forced to shoot her until she was dead. While you never see Haru die, you do see the despair in her face right before she accepts suicide as the only solution, and, to really bring it home, her gratitude for you giving the solution she needs to ending her impossible guilt and sadness is genuine. Have fun trying to console the already-hysterical Yuzu after that, because she will never let you forget it.
  • What is especially terrifying about this scene is that this is a realistic portrayal of a suicidal person. As stated several times in this wiki, particularly in Suicide, a suicidal person may suddenly become happy once they have decided to go through with it.
• The Escape/Yuzu ending. Yuzu is so broken down by everything you've gone through that she begs you to Screw Destiny and break through the lockdown, despite knowing the consequences. "There's no way they would go that far, right?" During the escape attempt, you're pitted against all the defenders while desperately trying to stop what's coming. And when you make it out... you discover the world outside's no better, specifically because God decides to just destroy everyone in Tokyo and enslave the human race forever with an army of Angels if you leave. Congratulations, you just personally ushered in a Crapsack World! To top it off, the formerly stoic Honda is so completely broken that he thanks you for creating this new world, sporting a Slasher Smile the whole time.
  • However, if you're playing Overclocked and move on to Yuzu's 8th Day, you'll be able to screw THAT destiny as well, as you can still make up for your mistake and wrench a happy ending out of this hellhole. You end up fixing or finding solutions for most, if not all, of the main problems, effectively turning the Downer Ending into one of the happier ones. Though unfortunately, you can't do anything for Honda.
• You can optionally escape on Day 6 with Honda instead of escaping during Yuzu's ending, by agreeing to defeat the angels. When you get home, God rains lightning down on the Yamanote loop, killing everyone, and strips humanity of their free will. Then the Mission Failed screen appears. Good job dooming all of humanity.
• The way the government would deal with everyone within the Yamanote loop, if the demons cannot be retained or destroyed. They'll use the UEM field, which would basically cook you alive.
  • The fact that the government of an ostensibly developed nation with a respect for the rule of law has planned for the "need" to commit genocide against its own people, plus the fact that said government was willing to use the military against civilians (even under duress, that's serious), plus imagining the political consequences for Japan and the world for that little foray into full-on lawlessness by the government of an ostensibly stable power.
• The moment in the manga where everyone's trying to sleep to prepare for the battle against the three remaining barrier guardians. Loki barges in and cheerfully drops the still-bloodied heads of said guardians, the skies of Tokyo fully open up into the demon world, and colossal demons like Lucifer and Nyarlathotep descend upon the city.