This is what happens when a Legion breaks free.
The setting of the game is essentially an apocalypse in which 90% of the world has been killed off and the remaining 10% are trapped on a small island under threat of being invaded by interdimensonal monsters. Naturally, they'll be plenty of scares throughout the game.Unmarked spoilers ahead!
- The first scene in the game is essentially a Chimaera being tortured and transformed into a Legion until it gets brainwashed. Not helping is that Yoseph Calvert isn't unnerved by all of this in the least, even slightly smirking when he sees everything going according to plan. Unsurprisingly, this was when many people who played the game correctly guessed that he was the Big Bad.
- The chimeras are Eldritch Abominations from another plane that are Invisible to Normals. If you're able to see them, and you don't have your own Legion, that's not a good thing, because it means you're redshifted and about to turn into one of those monstrosities yourself!
- For that matter, the Legions themselves. They're actually chimeras who have been subjected to some heavy experimental restraints in order to keep them under the control of the user. And yes, it can happen, particularly in the Astral Plane, that one's Legion breaks free of those restraints and turns against their master; at the end of File 02 this happens to all of Neuron's Legions, and it's only thanks to your talent for Legion control that they're able to get one of them back at first. They're also humanity's only real hope against the chimeras, meaning that if not for you, whatever remained of humanity would've eventually met its end!
- When you first enter the Aegis Research Institute's redshift treatment facility in File 05, it's bustling with activity from medical staff and patients, with the usual routine happenings. You revisit the same place in File 11, only this time it's completely empty, the unnerving atmosphere further enhanced by the sterile white interior design.
- Near the end of File 06, when Earth and the Astral Plane begin to merge. Gates are opening up everywhere and allowing countless amounts of Chimaera to invade, the crystalline red formations from the Astral Plane rise from the ground, and a Kaiju appears to wreak havoc upon the Ark. Nothing Is the Same Anymore.
- In File 07, when you face Homunculus Gamma, already Nightmare Fuel in and of itself, Yoseph has this very creepy, very ominous tone in his voice as he says "Don't let me down, Howard." It feels less like earning his forgiveness and more like you're a gladiator fighting for his amusement. Or you're being set up to die now that Yoseph has Akira and the Ravens in his court, making you disposable. Which isn't all too far off the mark considering that he's Evil All Along.
- The Reveal of the Raven's true nature: perfect clones of Akira, all ultimately at Yoseph's command. Plus, their vacant expressions and behavior are strong signals to the player about one thing: This is not Akira.
- Yoseph creates Noah in front of the Howard twins. This involves having several Akira clones surround the two of you... and then impale each other with their X-Batons to activate Legion Fusion, without hesitation. And then those Legion Fusions (identical to Akira's own, which was a boss fight in itself) kill each other to merge again.
- The simple idea that your only remaining family is going through an existential crisis, and you can do nothing to help them.
- On the flipside, Akira is forced to watch their twin transform into a Legion-human hybrid, and desperately begs them to remember who they are. Just as it all seems to calm down, Yoseph then changes everything with a Wham Line, and proving everyone who guessed he was Evil All Along correct.
"Alright. Aim for the Legion." - Noah's first form is a colossal, three-headed Eldritch Abomination that throws chunks of the Astral Plane's solid matter at you, and tries to swat you like a fly. This first form you can't hurt; you can only run until Noah decides to absorb you.
- The cat hideout theme, while otherwise calming, has an eerie One-Woman Wail in the background, perhaps to affirm that while the cats have a relatively safe place to live, it's still on an artificial island that serves as the last bastion of humanity.
- The Astral Plane itself. It's definitely nowhere on Earth, and simply being there makes humans begin Redshifting if they stay too long. Even worse when it turns out that the Astral Plane is actually made up entirely of data and Redshifting is actually a human being corrupted by that data. Later on, you begin noticing shadowy, translucent humanoid figures that you cannot interact with, who do nothing but march slowly towards red crystals growing out of the floor....and then it is revealed that those figures are humans who have been completely corrupted into data and are being cataloged by the Astral Plane.
