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Nightmare Fuel / The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

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  • The Fortress of Winds and Castor Wilds, the latter of which are named after a toxic plant; more generally, the former is just plain freaky overall.
    • Castor Wilds are probably named after the Greek hero Castor, one of the sons of the North Wind.
  • The old man possessed by the ghost. If Link fails to complete a relatively early-game Kinstone fusion, the old man will die from the possession, in what's otherwise a fairly tame game aimed more at children. This also costs Link the Light Bow, a significant upgrade to his regular Bow.
  • It's not the ''scariest" thing in the world, but with the game's mechanic of Link shrinking down in size, it's kinda unnerving and tense just how even the series' weakest enemies — in this case, ChuChus and an Octorok — become dangerous behemoths that are very difficult to fight compared to normal.
  • King's Valley and the Royal Crypt, the latter of which contains an eerie reworking of a very familiar old tune.
  • The Very Definitely Final Dungeon, Dark Hyrule Castle, has the chimes that play while Vaati is draining the Light Force from Zelda. The first two times the bell rings are scripted, but the third is not. If players aren't fast enough, it triggers a Non-Standard Game Over, where Zelda is permanently turned to a lifeless stone statue, with a newly-empowered and now truly unstoppable Vaati triumphant.
    Elzo: (if time runs out) Link! No, it can't be! The bell has rung for a third time!
    • In general, Dark Hyrule Castle is full of Nightmare Fuel by its very nature. Just moments ago, it was still the relatively peaceful, if somewhat hostile due to Vaati's impersonation of the king, place it was before... but as soon as Link finds out where the Light Force that Vaati's been searching for is hidden, he himself enters and finds out before teleporting away to drain Zelda and transforms the castle. Link and Ezlo step out into the darkened halls and even Ezlo is unnerved by the change. The corrupted castle is now filled to the brim with the most dangerous monsters, and it's scored with an unnerving remake of the SNES Hyrule Castle theme.
    • Doesn't help that the room after the second bell contains two Red Darknuts and a Black Knight, the combination of which is pretty much a Boss in Mook Clothing. Oh, and taking too long to defeat them and get to Vaati lands you the aforementioned bad ending where Zelda dies, which only adds to the horrible tension.
  • Judging by the comment about her eyes being "full of life," it seems that Zelda is still conscious and fully aware of everything around her even though she's been turned to stone. And she was in the room when Vaati attacked her father, the King...

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