Nightmare Fuel / Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Moment pages are Spoilers Off by default, so all spoilers were removed. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned

People in the neighborhood
Fear the wild Pokémon — and they should!
Could be strollin' through the town
And some Gyarados decides everyone drowns!
Got a couple Pokéballs
But I can't contain them all
Is that an Ursaring? (Oh, Arceus…)
I'm going to get mauled…

— "Legendary Beatdown" by RecD

For the nightmarish Pokédex entries, check here.

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• This trailer. While we already knew that Pokémon could directly attack Trainers in this game, the trailer plays up the terror that would come from such a violent encounter for all it's worth. The trailer shows a lone Survey Corps member wandering a snowy mountain observing Pokémon before going too far into the mountain trying to see more, and then suddenly getting attacked by something that the viewer never sees or hears beyond a growl and heavy footsteps. What's worse is that we don't hear from the poor Trainer again afterward, leaving his fate a complete mystery to the viewer. The horrendous film quality of the man's Arc Phone doesn't help, either, making the whole thing seem like something out of The Blair Witch Project. The full version of the trailer, with clearer footage, does reveal that the incident was a little less harrowing in context; it's clear the Trainer escaped any serious harm, and the strange force that attacked him was actually an illusion made by a Hisuian Zoroark trying to keep him from getting too close to their Zorua child. But the point about being careful around Pokémon in this region (especially ones you don't recognize) is clearly made.
  • The reason for Hisuian Zorua being Ghost-type is both this and a huge Tear Jerker. As in, they died from the harsh environment and competition with native Pokémon, then their resentment fueled them coming back to life as Ghost-types.
• The game's opening cutscene. You get a perspective shot of a black void with a golden halo of light glowing in the center as Arceus itself speaks to you. After choosing your character's name and appearance, the protagonist awakens in the void, understandably panicking as they start falling into the darkness, before the luminous form of Arceus, looking significantly different and uncannier engulfs them in its radiant light.
  • Aw, heck, the fact that the protagonist has been summoned without so much as a starting Pokémon team should tip off the audience to the likely fact that the protagonist characters are probably not older Lucas and Dawn with amnesia. This can be concluded by the fact that the protagonist already seems to know and show through facial expressions that they don't belong in Hisui at all. The protagonist's looks of worry and dread cement the situation well.
• After being discovered by Professor Laventon and Rei/Akari, you're taken to Jubilife Village and told by Captain Cyllene that you'll be put through a trial to test your worth as a potential member of the Galaxy Team. You are then told in no uncertain terms that if you fail, you will be thrown out into the wilderness to die.
  Cyllene: For tonight, at least, we will provide you with a place to sleep. You may use our quarters there. But if you fail to pass the trial we put you to tomorrow, you must move on. You will be expelled from the village to meet your fate — and perhaps your death — in the wilds.
• Alpha Pokémon.
  • These Pokémon are much larger than other members of their species, have glowing red eyes, are 20 to 40 levels higher than anything around them, and will attack the second they see you, even if their species is normally passive. Their cries are a slowed-down, lower-pitched version of their normal cries. When you’re near one, tense music will play that’s quite different than the standard “being seen by an aggressive Pokémon” music. This becomes even scarier if you hear this music or one of their cries and don’t know where the Alpha is. If you're caught and you decide to run away, run far away, preferably on Wyrdeer, because they will pursue you much further than ordinary wild Pokémon and will likely catch up with you if you're on foot, Ursaluna, or Sneasler. They're also a major source of Jump Scares due to their tendency to appear around corners and their precise attack timing to knock you off of your Ride Pokémon. If you manage to catch one, the red eyes will go away, but they still retain their massive size, even when they evolve.
  • In addition to Alpha Pokémon being monstrously huge, powerful, and aggressive, they also have deeper, echoing cries compared to their normal counterparts. Of particular note is Alpha Froslass, whose cry becomes an unearthly howl that can send chills down a player's spine. It doesn't help that Alpha Froslass is a fixed spawn, and occurs in a cave below the ground in the Alabaster Icelands, meaning it's entirely possible to be walking around the area and minding your own business only to get jump-scared by this banshee wail with no idea where it came from.
  • If an Alpha Pokémon defeats your Pokémon, it turns its red glowing gaze towards you, as if pondering whether it should attack you next. While wild Pokémon do this too, it's especially unnerving with Alpha Pokémon, with their glowing red eyes and big size.
• Pokémon attacking your character is scary enough, but you at least expect to be attacked by wild animals with superpowers. One way of blacking out that doesn't involve a Pokémon encounter is the horrific realization that your character can't swim. If you get stuck in a body of water, you'll be forced to watch a kid of no older than 15 flailing for their life before the screen goes dark.
  • If you’re seen by a Pokémon, it’s possible that it can use Hypnosis to put your character to sleep. If you’re not in a safe area by the time you fall asleep, you might get attacked and you can’t do anything until you wake up.
• Encountering a space-time distortion for the first time counts. When you first enter one, the background turns slightly purple, and the music distorts a bit. Some decently rare Pokémon appear here and there, but it's not so bad, right? Stay there a little longer, however? The background suddenly shifts to a much darker purple, the music becomes completely distorted, and fully-evolved and high-level Pokémon will appear without warning and will attack you on sight. To make matters worse, these Pokémon can and will spawn in sets of three, close in on you, and attack your team as a group in the manner of a Triple Battle in Black and White and its two sequels, only this time you're on the receiving end. At least the game gave you a Survey Tip beforehand to give you some idea what's going on, right? Well, yes... unless you chose to spend more time in Obsidian Fieldlands before heading to Crimson Mirelands, in which case you had no idea what any of the last five minutes was even about. Once you get over the initial shock though, you'll find yourself actively searching for more distortions for their amazing yields of rare items, Pokémon, and Pokédex research points.
• The Noble Avalugg. Most other nobles are noticeably larger and more powerful than typical of their species. Then there's Avalugg, who is even bigger than a Dynamaxed Pokémon and has the power to boot, and during the battle it spams you with icicles from the ground, laser-like Ice Beams, waves of frost and catapult-like bombs, sometimes two types of attacks at once, while your player character is stranded on a tiny iceberg and unable to dodge much... At this point it's less like you're fighting a Pokémon and more of a Metal Gear.
• The day after you bring Avalugg out of his frenzy, you’re expelled from Jubilife Village on suspicion of having caused the frenzies. The sky becomes a reddish purple filled with hexagonal shapes and green clouds, the rift over Mount Coronet expands, and all overworld music is replaced with an eerie, ominous tune.
• Volo's true colors. The affable, laid back Intrepid Merchant who's been at your side from basically the beginning and always willing to lend you helpful advice and gear? It was all an act. In reality, Volo is a deranged, psychopathic Godhood Seeker who's so obsessed with the legend of Arceus that he's willing to put all of Hisui at risk just for a chance of meeting it.
  Volo: Ever since I became convinced that Arceus really does exist, there has been one question that consumed my thoughts... How can I meet such a being myself? It was in an attempt to answer this question that I originally sought out Giratina and had it tear open that rift in space and time... After all Giratina wished to stand against Arceus. But that didn't do the trick... So then I had you gather the fragments of the all-encompassing deity, just as the murals of the ruins directed. Eighteen plates said to be the fragments of the all-encompassing deity... You hold in your hands seventeen of them. So, you must be wondering: Where is the last one? (reveals the spooky plate in his hand) Why, it's right here! (Volo changes his Gingko Guild Merchant outfit into his Arceus inspired outfit) Now, hand over the plates you gathered! I will be the one to bring them all together! My desire to meet Arceus cannot be contained any longer! I need to know what it is! I MUST know what it is! If I can meet Arceus myself, then I may also be able to subjugate its power... And using that, I will attempt to create a new, better world! Of course, if I create a brand-new world, then this Hisui region that we currently exist in will be undone and returned to nothing. You, everyone you know, and all the Pokémon living here will vanish in an instant, as if you'd never been. If you want to keep this world from disappearing, then face me in battle! Not that you have a choice. Even if you don't wish to battle me, I'm not above using force to take those plates from you.
  • Here is where it gets even worse, because he himself states that he was set on this path when Giratina gave him the plate, so is he really like this by nature, or did Giratina's influence drive him so far that even it couldn't control him anymore? Either way, it's horrifying.
  • He gleefully states that his plan to create a new world will erase the current one, killing the player and every other being in the universe.
  • Volo has a few Slasher Smiles throughout this sequence, but the worst one◊ is hidden behind a Freeze-Frame Bonus. There is no denying it when you see it—this man is insane, and he wants to kill you.
  • Then there's the fact that he straight up sics Giratina on you as a Sore Loser after his fight, fully intent on killing the player character with no theatrics or dressing up about it. He's so unhinged in his goal that he dives off the slippery slope to get his way. If that weren't bad enough, Giratina is a two-phase battle, meaning even such a legendary Pokémon is excessively determined to make you meet your maker, and it will break the rules to do it.
    Volo: GIRATINA! STRIKE HIM/HER DOWN!
  • The worst? This guy is still at large, facing no real accountability over his actions bar personal guilt. No arrests, no outlawing, no retributions from any legendary Pokémon or Arceus, nothing. He just gets shrugged off and that's it. At least the personal guilt from his failure puts him in check, but it's still fairly unsettling especially when his actions were so heinous that it would give Ghetsis a run for his money. And this is coming from a franchise that usually punishes its most awful villains heavily and dearly.
    Cogita: I've just been told of the foul plan Volo had concocted. Well, think no more on that scoundrel. Just another tale of passion burning too bright and consuming its bearer. That is what happens, if you allow it to.
• Spring Path and Turnback Cave, two locations from the original games that were retained here, are quite unsettling places. While Spring Path is a beautiful promontory covered in greenery, it's devoid of music, and almost all sound, for that matter, with the exception of the wind and distant Pokémon cries. When you go to the cave itself after defeating Volo at Mount Coronet, you come face to face with Giratina, floating silently inside and staring straight at you. Upon approaching him, your character and Giratina lock gazes for a moment. Then, all of a sudden, Giratina utters a deafening screech, and you're sent straight into battle!
• Giratina's backstory is fully explained in the prequel, and it's the Pokémon equivalent of a Satanic Archetype. It was so obsessed with keeping order in the world that Arceus banished it into another dimension because of its ferocity. Giratina, filled with rage against its Creator, later gave Volo the Spooky Plate after he somehow sought Giratina out, their mutual desire to confront Arceus forging a kinship between them, although it's unclear if it had any knowledge of Volo's hopes to recreate the universe. In doing so, with Volo's help and plans, it tore open the Time-Space Rift to drive Dialga and Palkia into madness and hopefully drag Arceus out from its realm. When that plan fails and Volo's new plan to unite the Plates is coming undone, it arrives to help him and is commanded to kill the player character.
• Speaking of Arceus, obtaining it drops a bombshell on you, the player: The Arceus we are familiar with is a mere piece of the original one. Remember back during Diamond and Pearl where the Pokedex entry stated it shaped the universe with its 1,000 arms, despite it only appearing to have four? Suddenly that entry makes a lot more sense. Arceus is essentially an Eldritch Abomination whose true form and power is something that no mere mortal has been able to grasp. Even merely battling it amounts to just a friendly spar from its point of view with no sign of fatigue or damage despite being bested. Just what is this thing?!?
  • Arceus's battle theme is quite the sound to behold. It starts off the same way as its original theme, but as the battle progresses, the song grows increasingly faster in tempo, to the point where it starts sounding like it's glitching out, which really encapsulates just how incomprehensible the God of the Pokémon world truly is.
  • During the battle with Arceus, there's a point where it seemingly vanishes and the music cuts out. Then suddenly, you hear a "clink" and a crack forms in reality itself... Arceus proceeds to break out of said crack and torpedo straight at you.
• If you remember that Spiritomb has 108 spirits, it can turn the quest to collect all the wisps into a bit of Paranoia Fuel, as you can spend the whole game waiting to find out where the last wisp is and wondering if Vessa is trying to trick you somehow.
• Request 82: Traces of the Lost Village. You are sent to investigate the legend of a village that was abandoned. You find an old journal that hints that a mysterious being (clearly a Froslass) appeared before the writer and both captivated him and frightened him. When you get the last missing pages of the journal after defeating a Froslass you learn that something akin to probably the most famous yuki-onna myth of the real world (wherein a man unknowingly marries a yuki-onna but is forced to be apart from her after he tells her the story of meeting said yuki-onna in his youth, breaking a vow to never tell anyone) occurred to him but with a Froslass as the yuki-onna. This Froslass still carried the journal, and the journal vanishes from your inventory at the end of the quest, having gone back to "where it belongs". This is mostly a creepy Tear Jerker however.

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