Nightmare Fuel / Tsugu No Hi

When the spirit realm creeps into the real world and starts corrupting and tormenting everything in their vicinity, it's no surprise that Tsugu No Hi contains ungodly amounts of pure Nightmare Fuel.

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In General

• The sheer Uncanny Valley art style of the games make everything look utterly inhuman.
• The apparitions and scares are designed in a way that isn't meant to terrify the main character, but YOU.
• The fact that there is no real explanation as to the evil spirits' actions and why they hurt and torment poor innocent souls. The most explanation given is that the real world trespasses into the spirit realm, but even that is just absurd given how the people seem to just be living their normal lives.
• Nearly every story ends in an utterly horrific Downer Ending, with the protagonist suffering a gruesome fate.
• The games' warning before starting tells you to watch your volume, as there may be loud noises, and that they're not responsible if you end up finding yourself haunted after playing these games.

Chapter 1

While Chapter 1 is probably the least scary of the bunch, it still has some noteworthy creeps.

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• The protagonist is haunted by the ghost of a little boy, who constantly stares at him through the windows and doors.
• On the fourth day, the protagonist notes how his shoulders feel really heavy. And for good reason, as the ghost boy is on top of him. By the gate, a distorted version of the boy's face pops up and abruptly ends the day.
• The hexed day turns the sky blood red, and the walls have the ghost boy's face scattered all over them. The protagonist can only look on in sheer horror as to what's become of the scenery, before the screen fades to black, and the game ends there. Not exactly as frightening as the later games, but it is a taste of what the spirit realm can do.

Chapter 2

• This game has a Panorama Mode which forces you to look at different screens for the scares in order to progress.
• The protagonist notices a creepy girl in red watching her on the second day, and is understandably creeped out and leaves immediately. When she thinks she's safe on the third day, the girl in red charges at her from behind before suddenly disappearing, scaring her into a panic.
• The girl in red appears in front of the protagonist again on the third day in panorama mode, freaking her out as the girl creeps closer and closer to her. No matter where the protagonist runs, the girl is still there.
  Protagonist: EEK! W-what's with you?! D-don't come near me! N-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
• When the fourth day hits, the protagonist's perspective suddenly changes into that of a mirror, showing the corrupted scenery of the spirit realm, and completely unable to move, showing she's been transformed into a mirror post.
• The fifth and sixth days have the poor protagonist be unable to do anything about her predicament, all while the girl in red watches from the corner and gets progressively closer.
• The hexed day starts with the girl in red facing the screen, carrying a rock, which she promptly chucks at the protagonist's mirror, smashing it into pieces. She then glares menacingly at you with demonic red eyes, slowly creeping out of view... before she savagely mauls the screen with a monstrous Slasher Smile on her face!

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 is unique in that there are multiple hexed days, with one per story arc, each with their own scares.

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Prologue

• Tsugumi notices her mom's been acting a little weird, wondering if she'll be okay. And then her mom goes missing.
• The hexed day has a heartbroken Tsugumi wonder where her mother is, when she suddenly passes by her mother before she vanishes again.

Incident

• The first day starts off heartwarming with Tsugumi's dad trying to cheer her up with a race in the rain, which instantly turns creepy when a split second shot of Tsugumi's now corrupted mother appears.
• The kind cop from the second day gets taken by the spirit realm on the third day, which causes a full-on investigation by the police on the hexed day.

Incident (Alternate)

• The alternate route of Incident starts off hilarious for the first three days, with Tsugumi's dad deciding to dress up as her mother, acting as her new mother now, which Tsugumi also finds funny. But then...
• The fourth day takes that hilarity and twists it into something really disturbing. The father suddenly dresses up like a schoolgirl, acting way too girly and declaring he wants to be an idol. The cop also decides to be a creeper and threatens the father to lift up his skirt, and the father runs off crying like a little girl. Tsugumi is... unsurprisingly very grossed out by this turn of events.
• The hexed day now has the father dress up in a school swimsuit in public, acting way too immature for his age. Tsugumi at this point is utterly disgusted and wishes her father would just fuck off and die.
  Father: Today, I'm attempting a swimsuit! Teehee! I even got matching backpacks with Tsugumin!♡
  Tsugumi: I wish you'd just die...
  • The previously perverted cop is just completely disgusted at this point, and screams at the father to get the hell away from Tsugumi. The father proceeds to have a mental breakdown himself, freaking out poor Tsugumi to the point where she can't tell if the person next to her is her father or her mother anymore. It ends with the father being arrested for public indecency, as well as attempted kidnapping.

Kidnapping

• The cop from before is now a jerk who laughs in Tsugumi's father's face when he demands answers about his wife's whereabouts. But it's not the cop's fault, as the real one has already been taken by the spirit realm.
• The hexed day starts with a big Hope Spot, as Tsugumi finally manages to see her mother again. Except... the mother is still corrupted, and promptly takes poor Tsugumi down with her.
  Mother: I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU ALONE AGAIN...
  Tsugumi: (looks up and sees that her mother has been corrupted) ...GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!

Invitation

• The despondent dad is determined to find his wife and daughter again, no matter the cost. It is at this point that he notices the unusually large number of posts in the area...
• Some of the posts are bleeding and look like they've been chewed on by something...
• The father hears multiple ghostly voices in the background on the third day, and is held back by Tsugumi's ghost, trying to stop him from going any further into the spirit realm. Unfortunately, he fails to notice her, and is taken by the witch.
• The hexed day. The father wakes up in the spirit realm to see his wife and daughter's spirits, and is Forced to Watch as the witch transforms his wife into a post and devours her. He desperately cries out to Tsugumi begging her to run away, but the witch proceeds to do the same thing to her. The father can only scream in terror as the witch proceeds to devour him last.

A Closed Future

• The main character resets the day by committing suicide by drowning. She keeps resetting the day to try and correct what went wrong, but ultimately fails and is stuck in a loop of killing herself forever.

The Cat Ghost

• This time, you experience the horrors of the spirit realm through the eyes of a cute, innocent cat, and the apparitions do not let up even for a small animal.
• The game ends with the cat being transformed into an apparition cursed to wander the spirit realm forever.

The Parallel Train In The Dark

• The first sign that something is wrong is when the little girl facing the window suddenly warps to the other train on the second day, leaving only an outline of her face on the glass, all while her mother is still sleeping.
• On the third day, the young woman reading the book slightly lowers her book to reveal that she's missing the entire lower half of her face. She later becomes a disembodied half-head on the hexed day that creeps closer and closer to the screen before smashing against the train window, her gruesome features in full display.
• The salaryman starts constantly spouting apologies in a haggard tone on the second day. He is the second major sign that things are going south at the end of the third day when he suddenly slams against the train door with a horrifying expression right as the protagonist gets off the train.
• The fourth day has the sleeping woman raise her head, revealing one hell of a Ghostly Gape.
• The senior citizens stare straight at you on the fourth day with creepy red eyes, smiling and laughing at you, and creep up from the corners of the train on the hexed day.
• The old man with the newspaper suddenly turns to look at you with the same creepy red eyes, before his head twists sideways with a disgusting noise and his eyes turn hollow. On the hexed day, his disembodied spirit's face turns completely hollow, eyes and mouth.
• On the fourth day, another version of the protagonist can be seen inside the other train, with glowing red eyes and a Death Glare.
• The ceiling on the hexed day starts growing human hands that fall onto the floor, and the protagonist has to walk on them with some very gross sounds.
• By the end of the hexed day, the protagonist notices herself inside the regular train, while she is trapped in the dark train, before being pushed off the train to her death. The credits reveal that she's effectively been replaced by her dark version.

The Ethereal Railroad Crossing

• The protagonist is haunted by the spirit of her deceased twin sister, who killed herself by jumping in front of a train at the titular crossing. The sister torments her with statements of wanting to be together again, and guilt tripping her by claiming the protagonist was glad to be rid of her sister. It's implied her more malevolent statements may be caused by the spirit realm's corruption.
  "Big sister... help me..."
• The policeman gets killed by the twin sister on the second day and is gruesomely impaled on one of the posts.
• The twintailed girl who died on the second day becomes a ghost on the third day that stalks the protagonist, giggling creepily. She drags her mourning family (her grandmother, mother, and little brother) and brutally murders them, dropping their corpses onto the crossing. And then she slams straight into the player's face, grinning madly with her hollow black eyes before her head falls off.
  • It's all but outright stated that the train decapitated the poor girl, with how her head falls off.
• The hexed day has the spirits of all the killed civilians start tormenting the protagonist, asking why she's still alive and inviting her to go together with them and her sister, turning into rotting skeletons in the process. When the protagonist reaches the railroad crossing one last time, she embraces her weeping twin sister and gets struck by the train, ending the story on a sad note rather than a terrifying note.
  Mother: "Why are you still alive...? Why? Why? WHY? WHY?"
  Twintailed Girl and her Little Brother: "Let's go together..."

The Whispering Toy House

• The protagonist, a little girl, walks through the toy house, with innocent looking dolls and toys that cheerfully greet her and are happy to play with her. Of course, as the days go by, the toys grow increasingly twisted and malevolent, and make it clear that they want her to stay here forever.
  • The first doll at the entrance in particular sports a gentle and welcoming expression, greeting the protagonist. But on the fourth day, she starts sneering at her with glowing red eyes, constantly stalking her and wanting her to stay forever.
• At the start of the fourth day, the sounds of multiple sirens can be heard in the background, with the girl looking noticeably sadder. Later on, a toy plane passing by makes sounds suspiciously similar to an air strike. What the hell is going on outside the toy house?
• The story ends with the protagonist being gruesomely transformed into a doll and becoming part of the toy house forever. The final shot of the game has the now corrupted little girl stare straight at the player with one hell of a Kubrick Stare.
• The toy house itself is quite terrifying, being a clearly sentient and malevolent entity. The end of the credits has the toy house suddenly address the player directly, declaring that you're next, before vanishing into nothingness.

The Call From Showa

• The first sign of the horror to come is when the protagonist's grandmother mentions her grandfather's recent death on the first day. Yet if you look closely, the shadow of the grandfather can be seen sitting down inside his room, and is even seemingly alive the next day. As the ghost girl can rewind time, the grandfather's life and death end up mish-mashing horribly, turning him into a paradoxical monstrosity.
• EVERYTHING about the ghost girl.
  • Only the protagonist seems to notice her presence, initially thinking she's a weirdo her grandmother picked up on the first day. She very quickly makes her presence known.
    "私 の 事 見えてるんでしょ？(You can see me, right?)"
  • She starts creeping up on the protagonist in multiple, unnerving ways, including but not limited to:
    • Hiding inside the staircase.
    • Standing on the stairs, bending her neck to make herself known.
    • Hiding inside one of the pictures in the living room.
    • The hagoita's artwork being replaced with her face.
    • Staring from the mirror.
    • Peeking out from one of the laundry basins.
    • Popping out of the freaking curry pot!
    • Multiple outlines of her on the house's walls.
    • Suddenly appearing in the phone booth right next to the protagonist.
  • She's also a straight up Reality Warper, turning back time to an increasingly old time era, until it reaches the Showa era in 1943, where World War II was still ongoing.
• The transitions to the next day grow increasingly old and dated, starting with a middle age TV, then a CRT TV, then a classic TV, ending with a projector screen. Each transition is also punctuated by a static Jump Scare of the ghost girl.
• The hexed day. Good lord, the hexed day. The protagonist tries to call her mother for help, but the phone booth gets warped out of existence. She then witnesses her grandmother being turned to stone by the monstrosity that used to be her grandfather, who ends up assimilated into the monster. All the while, apparitions of the ghost girl are spread all over the place, continuing to stare and start speaking in Sdrawkcab Speech. When the protagonist finally confronts her, she's unceremoniously turned into stone. And then...
  • ...You're next. The ghost girl promptly looks straight at YOU with a horrific Slasher Smile. She advances closer and closer to you, repeatedly asking "You can see me, right?" until she gets EXTREMELY close to your face, forcing you to a sight of her zombie-like features. It ends with a horrible shot of her demonic red eyes with a ghastly wail.
    The Ghost Girl: You can see me, right? You can see me, right? You can see- You can see- You can see- YOU. CAN. SEE. ME. RIGHT?
  • The way the protagonist is suddenly turned to stone presents the heavy implication that she was never really the ghost girl's target, with her real target being YOU.
  • The end of the credits return to the modern day, showing that the grandmother's house has been completely destroyed, as if it was wrecked in an air raid.
  • When you return to the title screen, she is perpetually plastered on the screen, smiling evilly at you, and going through the game again does not make her go away.

Supernatural Supermarket

• The initial reveal surrounding Asuna Meguro on the second day. Yumi Kiritachi, the protagonist, has seemingly been working with her just fine, until the manager asks her if she's seen Meguro lately. Kiritachi naturally tries to tell him that Meguro's right next to her, but then the manager hands her a missing person poster and reveals that Meguro has been missing for two days. Meguro suddenly shifts into a much more horrific appearance, with blue zombie-like skin and nails dug into her eyes, and screams in Kiritachi's face. The transition to the next day shows Meguro's normal smiling face suddenly twisted into a horrifying visage. And things only get worse from here.
• Kiritachi notices graffiti saying "save me" written all over the mirrors, which won't come off no matter how hard she tries. She ends up having to cover it up with paper, and it still bleeds through.
• The encounter with Mai Yoshimura, one of the missing employees, on the third day. She follows Kiritachi from behind, breathing heavily in an uncomfortable manner, and suddenly whispers into her ear to "save [her]" in a very slurred tone. Her near constant Ghostly Gape and Eye Scream does not help one bit.
• The manager and the customers get dragged into the spirit realm on the fourth day, completely freaking out and desperately trying to escape.
  Manager: We're not supposed to be here! AAAAAAAHHHH!!! GET ME OUTTA HERE!!!
• Good lord, the Eye Scream in general. Seeing those nails driven into the characters' eyes and having their eyes gouged out is just plain haunting.
• The spirit realm supermarket is horrifically disgusting, filled with flies, dead rats, mountains of garbage, and of course, rotting corpses.
• The cutscene leading up to the hexed day is pure terror. Kiritachi is trapped in the spirit realm, and Meguro is somehow back in the real world, but gravely injured and screaming in anguish. Kiritachi walks through the dark hallways in first person view, calling out for Meguro, before one of the ghosts pops up right in her face, her eyeless, bloody face in full, disgusting view, and shoves a nail into Kiritachi's right eye.
• The hexed day.
  • It turns out that many innocent people have been trapped in the spirit realm's supermarket and died there, being forced to eat rats for what little survival they could scrounge up.
  • The Hope Spot of Kiritachi finding a door that seemingly leads back to the real world, only to be thrust deeper into the hellish realm.
  • It's revealed that Meguro was used as a sacrifice to bring about the cursed night, and got into a Deal with the Devil to lure Kiritachi into the spirit realm to be used as the next sacrifice, letting her escape back to the real world. It ends up All for Nothing, as Meguro is still gravely injured and dies from her horrific injuries, and the credits show her corpse against the door.
  • Kiritachi gets her left eye gouged out with a nail in slow and excruciating detail. Her screams of pure anguish do not help one bit.
• The very last shot of the game has Kiritachi stare straight at the player with bloody red eyes, asking you to come to the mirror at 2 AM. Sure enough, opening the game at 2 AM after completing it lets you speak with Kiritachi, now trapped in the spirit realm with her memories fading away.
  • Talking to Kiritachi about Meguro has her mention how familiar she sounds, not knowing that Meguro still died from her injuries. Doubles as a Tear Jerker.
  • Once you help Kiritachi reclaim her memories, it goes from fairly heartwarming to really creepy once again, as Kiritachi's red eyes become completely hollow, and she proceeds to give you the same doll that signifies the sacrifice for the cursed night, thinking she'll be able to leave once she passes it on. She then flashes a Psychotic Smirk before she fades away, and the mirror shatters completely, the doll still sticking out from it.

Ai's Silent Cries

• The villain is revealed to be the prototype of Kizuna Ai, who isn't happy about being forgotten, and torments Ai as revenge.
• The final scene has the prototype smile maliciously in your face, before she forcibly drags Ai into the computer, trapping her there. The last shot has a terrified Ai crying and screaming for help from within the computer, before the prototype silences her forever.

Evil God Korone

You thought the very adorable Inugami Korone couldn't possibly be that scary? Think again.

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• One of the ways Korone is portrayed is as a horrific skeletal head perched onto a spine, and it is highly unnerving considering how adorable Korone usually is.
• Koronesukis must follow these rules: Shave your head, never stop smiling, surrender your yubis (fingers), and watch no one other than Korone.
• The protagonist sees a poster of Korone's head, and is understandably unnerved by it. The poster promptly gains glowing red eyes when he walks past it.
  • After that, Korone starts creeping up on the protagonist in the background, seemingly observing him.
• A man can be found standing on a rooftop on the distance, and he doesn't really do anything, until he gets pushed off the roof by Korone. Given how the clinic and restaurant once had the name "Tanigo" posted over it, it's heavily implied the poor guy who got pushed to death is none other than YAGOO!
• The protagonist mentions at one point that he forgot to watch Korone's stream, cheerfully joking at how there are way too many cute girls to watch. Needless to say, Korone does not take this well, and starts to make life absolute hell for the poor guy.
• The Koronesukis are a twisted caricature of the silly icon Korone uses for her fans, having bloated, shaved heads horribly contorted into a wide smile. Not to mention the creepy way they mutter "Koro-san..." in a distorted voice...
• The doctor of the clinic uses what's left of his sanity to beg the protagonist to escape from the town, before Korone drags him back inside the clinic to continue his work.
• On the hexed day, the protagonist gets thrown into a trance, and is reduced to muttering "Korone-sama..." alongside the Koronesukis. He snaps out of it, but is then confronted by two Koronesukis with gruesome iron apparati strapped onto their heads. They ask him: "Do you love Inugami Korone?" Now there are two ways this can go:
  • If you value your life, continue holding down that left button, and receive a hilarious ending for your efforts, although the very last shot can still be a little creepy with what it implies.
  • Click the prompt, and watch in horror as the protagonist is gruesomely turned into a Koronesuki, a highly unpleasant process which involves his head shaved bald, his fingers chopped off, and a device forced onto his face that forces him to smile widely. The doctor from earlier sees him and laments that he was unable to escape too, and is the one who performs the gruesome procedure. The protagonist tries to run away and actually almost reaches the exit, but is stopped by Korone herself, before being viciously dragged back. During the credits, he sees the protagonist from the first game and plans to get him next. The very last shot of the game has the device snap off, morphing his face into a Koronesuki.
    Korone: ...hey... DID YOU THINK YOU COULD RUN AWAY FROM KORONE?

Truth of Beauty Witch

While calling this crossover with Houshou Marine a horror game is really stretching it... it still has some noteworthy creeps.

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• Marine's antics start off pretty funny, with the pirate captain making some seductive advances towards the protagonist like personally guiding him to his room, and playfully teasing him for peeking into her room. Pretty perverted, but very much in character for the lewd Senchou. Once Marine reveals her true form as an old hag however, her antics become significantly more disturbing, especially when Hag Marine starts shaking her boobs, to our displeasure.
• The puppets that start showing up on the second and third days seem quite sinister, haunting the protagonist on the second day, and appear to be forcibly gagged and dumped in random places on the third day. Turns out, Marine did that to silence them from telling the protagonist about her true nature, and the puppets are actually entirely benevolent.
• The meal Marine serves the protagonist starts off quite lavish with a whole cut of meat. The next day, it becomes more ordinary with regular Japanese food. On the third day however, the protagonist is served a measly bowl of rice and a rotten orange.
• At the end of the third day, Marine drugs the sleeping protagonist with her "Dangerous Marine Smell" spray, and drags him to her room.
• The hexed day has the protagonist wake up bound by ropes, and surrounded by the skeletons of the previous crew. It's revealed that Marine drags people she likes from another world into her world, and seduces them to try and force them into signing a "terrible contract", later revealed to be a marriage contract, killing them if they refuse, and sealing their souls into puppets. And judging by how some of the skeletons are female, Marine doesn't discriminate her victims at all. The puppets free the protagonist, but before he can start to run, Marine bursts into the room, her true old hag form revealed, screaming in a rage and chasing him down. Not even the Hope Spot of Marine getting struck by lightning is enough to stop her from having her way with the protagonist, who screams in utter terror.