Scary things in non-horror games
Ah I remember being scared as hell playing those levels in Ecco. Also found the Vortex Queen scary in the Tides of Time even in her larval form, particularly when she rouses and starts chasing you. It didn't help that playing through those was so tense because failing usually meant having to replay an entire level again. Nowadays we realise that it was bad game design; I always find it funny when people accuse modern games like Dark Souls of being unfairly difficult when I think back to game design like this:
I find Minecraft is a pretty pleasant game for the most part, then occasionally I'll just be minding my own business and a creeper will trigger right behind me. It's even worse in VR when those creepers are your height and your first instinct is to run into your nearby real life wall. Ghasts are also occasionally scary, particularly that noise they make which is always really hard to localise and sounds like they're right next to you.
Zelda Majora's Mask was in many parts just really creepy. The music especially, but also other things like the mask salesman and weird copies of yourself you can later summon. And the horrifying mask transformations, where it looks like you're in agony.
lostonearth35
Veteran
Joined: 5 Jan 2010
Age: 50
Gender: Female
Posts: 11,901
Location: Lost on Earth, waddya think?
There's this pirate game, I think it's for the NES, called Wait and See! It's based loosely on an old Russian cartoon. You play the Hare, who looks like a bad copy of Bugs Bunny who is being chased by the Wolf, who looks like a bad copy of Wile E Coyote. They don't look like the characters in the cartoon. Not only is it really terrible, but the game over screen is pretty disturbing. It shows the Hare getting swallowed up by the Wolf, who then taunts you. You'd have to see it to know how creepy it looks.
The ghost valley levels in mario kart on the snes have always been eerie to me, it's the music more than anything, that peculiar desperate drifting waltz it has going on, the ear piercing squeals your pixel tires make as they frantically attempt not to skid down into the abyss, those silently screaming boos in the background just plastered to the darkness with their mouths looking like they are in need of spookhydration or whatever... yeah I never like playing those levels!
When playing Minecraft for the Xbox One, I was scared of the skeletons that come out at night and attack you. I felt safe inside my house until the thing started attacking me through the windows. I guess it's supposed to have a bow? I didn't see it holding anything.
Jenova from Final Fantasy VII, especially when Cloud breaks into the ShinRa building in the beginning of the game and there's an unnerving trail of blood throughout the building that belongs to Jenova. There's also a really scary music track playing when that happens.
Another Final Fantasy VII moment: Hojo's transformation towards the end of the game when you fight him in Midgar. It was terrifying looking.
Moonside from Earthbound is creepy. Everything in Fourside becomes neon on a black background and the people talk really strange. In the end, you find out that the Mani Mani Statue was causing it and you wake up in a warehouse with the statue broken.
Another Earthbound moment: When you travel through time to fight Giygas. It wasn't the battle that bothered me. It was the environment and the fact that all of the characters were temporarily turned into robots.
And not to forget Magicant from Earthbound.
For me, Zelda: Majora's Mask is as whole very scary, especially the motion soundtrack and special effects. The gameboy color Pokémon Red version is fear in lavender town but the legend of young boys' death while playing the first release games makes most. The boss of the chapter 9 in Final Fantasy XIII is pretty awful to me too.
^Did I miss something when I played Pokemon in Lavender Town??? [Nice avatar, by the way!]
_________________
lostonearth35
Veteran
Joined: 5 Jan 2010
Age: 50
Gender: Female
Posts: 11,901
Location: Lost on Earth, waddya think?
I thought Moonside was more trippy than creepy. And it's kind of amusing when Ness calls up his father while a robot and his dad thinks he has a cold because his voice is so strange.
In the original Japanese version of Earthbound/Mother, after Ness brings Porky and his brother back home there are implications that Porky's father spanks him afterwards, and if you go to his room to talk to Porky he tells you his butt hurts. But in the American version it implies Pokey's dad just yelled at him, and then Pokey tells you he's not allowed to have dessert for the rest of the decade.
When I thought about this, I decided having no dessert for several years is actually really scary and even worse than a spanking! You get spanked, that's it, it's over. But being not allowed dessert that long is torture! Especially if your parents and siblings have it and eat it right in front of you. Slowly. AUUUUGGGH!!
In the English version of Earthbound, I always thought that the sound was his father taking a belt to him. I have the Japanese version of Earthbound too and while the sound is different, it all makes me think of the same kind of punishment.
If Nintendo is worried about child abuse in its games, why in the world did it leave in what Doctor Andonuts says to Jeff? It was something like, "Let's meet again in the next ten years."
But, yeah, I agree with you. A decade without dessert is much worse than getting a belt.
There is a myth that in the first weeks after the release of Pokémon Red, there were many reported cases of children's suicide linked to the game played in the Lavender Town, particularly related to the song in place. So, the myth it's kind 'Ghost tone', Lavender Town is believed to be where pokémons were buried if it doesn't. The tone starts in a weird frequency and preceeding the frequency gradually aggraves until it becomes almost unsupportable and then it makes harm and it created a myth that were the buried pokémons haunting, then if I remember well, after these cases the game was edited and republished. Thanks for the comment about my avatar.
lostonearth35
Veteran
Joined: 5 Jan 2010
Age: 50
Gender: Female
Posts: 11,901
Location: Lost on Earth, waddya think?
In the Harvest Moon games for the Gameboy Advance (both the boy and girl versions) you can buy golden lumber if you make a huge amount of money. Gold lumber can be used like regular lumber except it never rots away or gets destroyed. But if you put it on display in your field, the villagers will start coming to your farm and say nasty things to you, because they are jealous and think you are showing off because you're rich and they aren't. And during conversations in the town they will call you "Moneybags" or "Greedy Witch", depending on your gender, instead of your real name, even though they may look happy and normal otherwise, e.g. "Hi Greedy Witch, I'm out doing some shopping for my mom." Only your spouse doesn't call you these names. Get rid of the gold lumber and everyone will be nice to you again and call you by your regular name.
It's creepy to think a little thing like that will turn everyone in the whole village against you. Some "friends" of Mineral Town! But then again, I heard not long ago the surest way to make people hate you on Facebook is to post about events where you've had a lot of fun or "success stories", even if you're not bragging.
Similar Topics | |
---|---|
Horror Stories Anyone? |
19 Apr 2024, 7:22 pm |
How many hours video games? |
07 Mar 2024, 5:34 pm |
10 games that changed your life (a little) |
10 Apr 2024, 9:26 pm |
Name five things that you won't eat. |
13 Feb 2024, 11:10 pm |