History NightmareFuel / FinalFantasyXII

* Nabudis, or what's left of it anyway. There is a reason why it's called "The [[MeaningfulName Necrohol]'', and it's hard to imagine that anybody once lived there. The creepy music, along with the swirling mist and the fact that monsters can jump at you at any moment, really drives the point home.

* Nabudis, or what's left of it anyway. There is a reason why it's called The "[[MeaningfulName Necrohol]]", and it's hard to imagine that anybody once lived there. The creepy music, along with the swirling mist and the fact that monsters can jump at you at any moment, really drives the point home.

--->"We give you now the Stone and task. Administer judgment: DESTROY THEM ALL!"

** The woman attached to Zalera was a shamaness that the Esper fused to himself, and now [[PuppetPermutation literally manipulates]]--that scream during Condemnation isn't just for spooks.
*** The animation for Zalera's super move, '''Prime Lv. Death'''[[note]]which kills all characters with levels at prime numbers: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, and 97[[/note]], replicates Zodiark's Darkja '''[[NightmareFace with the woman's skull]]''' '''coming at you.'''

* '''[[BonusBoss Yiazmat]]'''. For the longest time, this was the ultimate "superboss" for the ''Final Fantasy'' franchise and gaming as a whole, and with good reason. Not only is it NightmareFuel in lore, it's Nightmare Fuel in terms of gameplay as well:
** First and foremost, its design. Even going by the [[OurDragonsAreDifferent thinnest possible definitions]] for a dragon or wyrm, none of them even ''remotely'' look like this, not even in this game, with only the Hell Wyrm being similar due to deliberately being Yiazmat's less-powerful counterpart (and even then it's very strong). The thing is just uncanny to look at, having no visible face and a very abstract design, with giant and colorful energy rings on its neck and wings while its body looks like an animated, draconic suit of armor. It effectively shows its LightIsNotGood nature with how it looks;

** And then there's them [[ISeeDeadPeople using Rasler's ghost to control Ashe]], the final nail in the coffin for their selfishness. This illusion is how they keep Ashe on the path of revenge against the Empire for most of the game's story, showing they're not above using a fresh wound to motivate their chosen ones. Worse, Vaan is heavily implied to be [[ISeeThemToo seeing a ghost too]], except he's seeing his brother Reks. It's all but stated the Occuria wanted to have him as their "Plan B" against Venat should Ashe stray from the path they set for her. They were willing to use ''a teenager'' for their plans of '''''all-out genocide'''''.
* While the Empire is a good example of an antagonist who isn't straight-up evil, Ashe stands firm as the biggest example of [[DesignatedHero a character we're supposed to root for but has destructive intentions]], and some of the ways the game chooses to display this are alarming, to say the least. Before CharacterDevelopment settles in, Ashe is often on the warpath as a furious authority figure for the Resistance, with plenty of legitimate reasons to be angry and seek revenge, but still ultimately so fixated on it that it's scary to think this rude, aggressive {{Jerkass}} of a princess is supposed to be the game's "heroine", especially with the Occuria pushing her into becoming as big of a warmonger as the Empire themselves. Perhaps the worst moment of this comes during Giruvegan as the party beholds the core of the Great Crystal, an infinite source of nethicite brimming with tremendous power. Ashe... [[JustThinkOfThePotential starts bringing up the idea of using it against Archadia]], which Fran points out with exceeding sarcasm that using the Crystal Core [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt could destroy all of Ivalice]]. Ashe looks down and goes quiet, as if ashamed... ''but it's clear she's still considering it''.

*** The animation for Zalera's super move, '''[[KillEmAll Prime Lv. Death]]'''[[note]]which kills all characters with levels at prime numbers: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, and 97[[/note]], replicates Zodiark's Darkja '''[[NightmareFace with the woman's skull]]''' '''coming at you.'''

** The Bestiary defines the Wraith as an agglomerate of the souls of people who died during the construction of the Garamsythe Waterway, most of them fathers and family men, making the creature become attracted towards lone children who wander into the Waterway. The petition is put up by Lowtown resident Milha [[AdultFear after a Seeq child encountered the ghost]].

** The Antlion hunt, which allows the party to venture deeper into the Lhusu Mines, is ripe with AdultFear. The petitioner is a woman whose children ran off into the mines after a disagreement, and this landed them right near the nesting place of the giant man-eating bug. You essentially kill it as it was about to hunt for the two.

** Secondly, the fight itself, the main reason why this ''thing'' provides the page image for MarathonBoss. It is the ultimate definition for a DamageSpongeBoss, with a little over '''50 MILLION HP''' to take out, as well as several different magical abilities, OneHitKO chances on its normal attacks, and worst of all, casting Reflectga on your party so it can ''bounce off Renew at itself'', ''meaning you're essentially starting the entire fight over''. At a high-enough level in the original version and with the proper gambits set, the least amount of time to beat this boss was ''TWO HOURS'' without breaks.

*** The Great Crystal starts off well-lit (and only gets brighter the closer you get to the Core) but becomes progressively darker the higher you go. Several of the enemies are undead, such as the [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Forbidden]] and the [[RaisingTheSteaks Shadonir]], and not only high-leveled, they also seriously love inflicting [[StandardStatusEffects status effect moves]] that usually deal ''all of them at once'', or simple OneHitKO attacks en masse to effectively wipe out the entire party in very little time. The area itself also has the most unnerving DissonantSerenity to its atmosphere, with its music theme being calm and wondrous to accompany the possibly-frantic escapes the player will have to do to avoid the enemies here as much as possible, or run towards the timed gates they need to open in order to continue climbing. About the only "light" the party will encounter at the peak is [[LightEmUp Ultima]], the Holy-elemental Esper, and that battle in itself can be petrifying for an unprepared player.

* Judge Bergan, where do we begin? A HateSink among a faction that's mostly AffablyEvil, his first major appearance has him giving Judge Drace a NeckLift and throwing her across the room, with her weakly remarking that his strength seems inhuman. After the Stilshrine of Miriam, he leads an Imperial attack on Mt Bur-Omisace, slaughtering the local priests and wounding or killing many refugees seemingly ForTheEvulz, before killing Anastasis. It turns out he infused his body with experimental Nethicite, which is the source of his superhuman strength. When defeated, the power overwhelms him and explodes, and while BloodlessCarnage is in effect, Balthier's comments heavily imply the overload ''[[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath blew his chest open.]]'' His corpse then begins to ''dissolve.''

* Judge Bergan, where do we begin? A HateSink among a faction that's mostly AffablyEvil, his first major appearance has him giving Judge Drace a NeckLift and throwing her across the room, with her weakly remarking that his strength seems inhuman. After the Stilshrine of Miriam, he leads an Imperial attack on Mt Bur-Omisace, slaughtering the local priests and wounding or killing many refugees seemingly ForTheEvulz, before killing Anastasis. It turns out he infused his body with experimental Nethicite, which is the source of his superhuman strength. When defeated, the power overwhelms him and explodes, and while BloodlessCarnage is in effect, Balthier's comments heavily imply the overload ''[[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath blew his chest open.]]''

* Do you want to be terrified by the lore alone? Read the [[MonsterCompendium Bestiary]] in the Clan Primer, which provides very insightful commentary and descriptions of the foes you've defeated, with many notable examples. To highlight a few of them:
** Chimera Brains and Gorgimeras, cockatrice-like creatures with ''human faces'', in both cases said to be the result of sorcerers punished by magical powers beyond their control. Gorgimeras were [[EmergencyTransformation forced to inhabit the body of cockatrices]], Chimera Brains are the result of a PainfulTransformation into these creatures.
*** The additional entry for the Chimera Brain is a ''brief'' ApocalypticLog of a poacher who [[TooDumbToLive tried to eat one of the]] [[VendorTrash Chimera Heads]] that can be looted from these beings. The ''very next entry'' is a notice from the Empire that said poacher is "[[DeadlyEuphemism no longer at large]]", with the investigation into his demise terminated. Did he die from eating it? Or given that Chimera Brains were once human, [[FridgeHorror what COULD have happened to him]]? Especially given that the loot description says the Head is used in alchemy and only rarely appears in the open market...
** Chances are high that if the enemy is from the Undead genus, their description will involve at least one variation of AndIMustScream or a FateWorseThanDeath. [[DemBones Dead Bones]], for instance, are humans who made a DealWithTheDevil to avoid death, yet died all the same, cursed to become walking skeletons infested with dark energy that ''keeps them in eternal agony''. Crusaders are warriors who laid siege to old civilizations, cursed by their deceased victims to wander for eternity as armored skeletons. The "[[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghost]]" class is no better, with Necrophobes being spirits so afraid of death they refuse to accept their own, and attack passerby just for ''believing'' they're a threat. Zombie-class enemies like the Shambling Corpses wander with broken, jagged mouths and are often said to be restless souls chasing dreams never achieved in life. But scarier of all is the Reaper class, malformed monstrosities with huge scythe-like hands that prey on the living and eat their souls, having two [[NightmareFace Nightmare Faces]] ''on top of each other'', with some like the Etém even being hinted at being composed of [[IAmLegion multiple wrathful souls]].
** The "nameless inklings" present as additional pages in the Bangaa species entry are both this and TearJerker material. The tale is told from the point of view of an unnamed man and his travel partner who made a living in Nabudis during its glory days. Though they grew apart, they stayed in contact, until the man was called by the kingdom to enlist and patrol the borders when the war came, leaving his partner behind. On the day they were announced to return, he saw his partner in a dream where he couldn't hear him due to the loud wind blowing, waking up in tears for seemingly no reason. When they returned, the [[FantasticNuke Midlight Shard]] had already reduced Nabudis to a barren wasteland, and its people were now undead roaming the territory, [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie with the man's partner among them]].

** Popol, a resident of Nalbina Town, [[GraveRobbing stole an old axe]] from the Necrohol of Nabudis, causing his dreams to be haunted by a Deathscythe who appears in his dreams, repeating "surrender the axe" over and over. The creature, a manifestation of the souls who perished in the Nabudis disaster, is slowly draining him of energy through fatigue. Like with the Gil Snapper, [[FridgeHorror it's likely Popol would've died of exhaustion if the party hadn't intervened]].

* The Nalbina Dungeons. Vaan spends a nightmarish time in these gutters, which are basically the lower portions of Nalbina Fortress sealed off and made into improvised cells by the Imperials. Dead bodies litter the floor and piles are stored and burnt in one of the rooms. An arena is used to execute prisoners at the hands of three ''horrifying'' Seek barbarians, and last but not least, the place is sitting right atop the [[AbandonedMine Barheim Passage]]. A prisoner even mentions that they're unable to sleep, given the sounds coming from the place in the darker hours. As a reminder, the Passage is home to zombies, ghosts, and ''[[GrimReaper Zalera]] [[EvilLaugh The Death Seraph]]''.