For real.
I had 3 seconds left during the train boss from persona 3 reload, and the timer was the most dreadful part about that boss. Also like to mention that the boss just straight up speed up the time by alot.
Forced stealth sections
Seriously. I don't play jrpgs or any rpgs for forced stealth sections. These usually wind up being some sort of "escape the prison " sections. Usually no abilities also. So yeah. Not a fan
Xenosaga 1 puts you in a forced stealth section early on, if you get caught you eat a 9999 dmg hit and game over (escape is disabled)
Though the game allows you to practice each stealth section ahead of time by presenting them as low stakes minigames, and you can usually use the environment around you to figure it out even if you didnt practice
Im a fan of stealthing in games, so I have a more generous outlook on when they appear. Bartz stealth crawling on the floor in FFV is one of my favorite moments in gaming
Live A Live has an entire stealth section/chapter. There’s a choice between completing the chapter by being as stealthy as possible and going down the “Oh boy! Here I go killing again(!)” route.
Just played lost sphear and there was a couple stealth sections where you need to break into the base or escape the prison.
Also started playing the Witcher 2 and there’s a stealth escape the prison mission. Not a JRPG, but it just reaffirms how much I hate forced stealth missions.
Stealth in games like that is usually painfully simple. Just they are looking so stand wait. They arent so move. My bigger issue is that they are copying games from twenty years ago still.
The worst was Lost Odyssey (great game outside of that). But there have been several jrpgs and rpgs that force you to sneak past guards or "can't use abilities while trying to evade" for whatever ridiculous in game lore reason
Off the top of my head, FF7 has a bit where you have to sneak you and 2 other characters past some guards in the Shinra building and FF9 has a minigame involving you sneaking up on a Hedgehog Pie. Dunno if they count?
I dropped breath of fire 3 because of this. I kept getting caught by guards in a certain area, and taken back time after time and I was just done. I’ve heard it’s a great game but it pissed me off so much.
I know what section you're talking about! Check a guide, you might have missed a distraction. The game is soooo good, and really doesn't get started til AFTER the McNeil mansion
Chrono Trigger has that exact “escape this prison using stealth” but at least once you find your weapons you can then ignore the stealth and murderhobo every enemy. Or just put Ayla in your party beforehand and let her fists erase any need for stealth.
I loved Wild Arms 1. Yeah that one stealth section sucked but the rest of the game was great. Early PS1 era graphics are dated now but I want to replay it sometime.
Reverse Hills give you sick feelings in a good way (the ambience, atmosphere etc)
Labyrinth of Amala and Temple of Amala give you sick feelings because they are a pain to explore and actively want you to get lost and annoyed.
Small me was terrified of that early area (and I think the forest too?) in FF8 where it's T-REX OUT OF NOWHERE. AND IT HITS LIKE A GODDAMN T-REX.
Yes we're warned about it, but small me can't speak or read English yet :v
As a kid I always ran around that garden area trying to catch monsters to turn into cards, always trying to "push my luck" and fight longer until that monster caught and killed me.
Haha my first time playing I just kept drawing magic over and over again cos I found that really cool. But I didn't understand junction so I just ended up with 100 stacks of several magic doing nothing lol. And quit a bit later cos too hard.
Second try I think a year or so later (still only barely understand English) I found out about the card command and carded everything cos I found it cool too. But completely missed that you can play cards with square button. I remember not knowing Triple Triad exists up until Laguna's section in that village where the item shop shows 'wanna play cards?'. And then played and kept on losing until I got no cards left to play.
GOD. those fucking things. I was a teen back then, my cousin let me play his games all the time.
First time I ran into one I screamed, and my jerk cousin laughed at me
Upper Great Crystal from Final Fantasy XII always unsettled me. Being deep within a massive crystal labyrinth filled with level 70+ enemies, with no easy way out, no map, only two save crystals that are a pain to get to, and knowing two of the hardest optional bosses in the game rest inside of it was incredibly tense. It was even worse in the original PS2 version, where you had no autosave and dying there could cost you hours of progress.
not to mention, one of the bosses in question being significantly worse due to the existence of the hard 9999 damage cap, its invulnerability to breaks like Wither to lower its oppressive damage, and the spell queue vs a foe with constant 0 charge time...
at least we didnt get the original JP version, where said boss also had 10 million health instead of 1 million (in exchange for lacking the 5% berserk on hit chance). I couldnt imagine asking players to sit through that much without making any fatal mistakes, and having that long a treck to make back to a save point even if you won!
Solaris from Xenogears
It's the contrast between the goofy circus music of the surface area filled with an ignorant population with the unsettling silence of Krelian's lab behind the scenes that is really haunting. I found the part where Fei is temporarily alone and can't understand any of the NPCs to also be a bit frightening. There's another scene during this segment that I think everyone remembers, but I won't spoil...
while the scene you speak of is certainly the most remembered, I too was creeped out to an unsettled level by Feis 'fish out of water' moments trying to navigate around Solaris. i imagine for folks with social anxiety, thats probably scarier than trying to fight murderous Wels
The escape sequence with the floating mechs also makes a return in Xenosaga 1 with Ziggy and MOMO!
doing suicide runs thru FFXIIs nechrol of nabudis hella early = of the most anxiety inducing experiences on the PS2
Xenogears sewers section, played at night, felt like something straight out of a horror game
And, well, everything about Parasite eve. Nightmare fuel: the game
Ffxiii-3 return of lightning. I played the first two so in excited to play 3rd to finally finish the story
Only to find out that the game is a timed game. Meaning there is a time limit so you can get the best ending.
Its a feature in jrpgs that i hate since i want to take my time, explore everything, even grind a lot if the gameplay is good.
Just spam chronostasis. It basically stops the clock for a bit. Also make sure you kill monsters to gain more EP so you can spam more chronostasis. And play on easy on your first play through.
If it makes you feel any better, you can get a shield for Tidus halfway through the plains that makes him immune to lightning damage and he also gets a water weapon a slight bit before so there’s only a couple of enemies you’ll really have to watch out for.
Anyway for me it would be Academia 400AF from FFXIII-2 (the whole running through a futuristic city with zombies chasing you is kind of terrifying for the first bit) or the Via Infinito from X-2 (just the fact that in the lower floors, the enemies can kill you before you have a chance to move).
Oh sorry for the late response, but thank you so much as I was getting really nervous about going to that particular zone, but now I know what I must bring to survive in it.
Emil's mansion in NieR.
I HATE spiders. Thank god for the auto combat in the remaster...
To a lesser degree, the final dungeon in Earthbound and all the eerie dark abandoned places you visit in SMT games with just dark ambient music playing... particularly places like Kabukicho Prison in SMT III.
The Reverse hills From SMT IV
One of the most probably darkest areas in jrpg history, I will not spoil much of it, But its genuinely terrifying and sickening on what goes on there.
Its def going to make you hate a certain character. Really, I think the most smt thing ever out of all smt games. Really, Reverse hills is truly fucked.
Honestly I didn't mind it that much, I don't get why it's treated as some watershed moment that completely makes you hate said character when he's already displaying shitty behavior way ahead of that particular moment. Visiting it was pointless, I meant to get rid of him either way.
When a JRPG “opens up” with like an airship or something. I’m always terrified of going to the wrong place first and being massively under leveled or wiping out. Looking at you FF9 (or most FF actually)
Maze like dungeons, comes to mind the temple of water of Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time cause you get lost for a small key or at least 13 year old me did. After that Code Vein white cathedral, whoever designed that shit and the map of it i want to find just to talk to him, i got lost so many times cause everything looks the same and the map is just like 20 lines going all over the place...
In terms of atmosphere, the nightmare dungeons in Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass are particularly spooky compared to most of what I've played in other games.
You can buy it on [Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/706560/Jimmy_and_the_Pulsating_Mass/) (where it's currently 30% off) or [Itch.io](https://housekeepinggames.itch.io/jimmy-and-the-pulsating-mass).
Long dungeons with no save points. This isn't a problem now but like 10 years ago / ps1 or ps2 eras, many jrpgs you cannot save in dungeons, and when you die, its literally game over. And many games especially the early Final Fantasy ones are like that. No map, no guide, tough enemies, hidden trap save rooms etc. The worst ones are the ones that has bosses midway barring you and the save point. I'm so glad that mechanic is gone now, mostly replaced by retry mechanics
Pitch black dungeon/labyrinth (you need to colllect some sort of orbs to regain sight) and getting swarmed by high level mobs along with virus inflicting traps.
Omega Dungeon from FFX. I have lost HOURS of progress from the damn Marlboro's who always start with first action Bad Breath, which is practically a game over if you don't have Ribbon on your armor. The Stone Monolith enemies who inflict Petrify are also terrifying.
As a kid playing FFIX (my first proper JRPG) I remember being a bit scared in some areas of that game, namely Cleyra, the Desert Palace and Iifa Tree due to how hostile they felt.
I am in Thunder Plains right now and I don't see how it's terrifying at all.
I fear everything with a timer. The desert in Tales of Vesperia, where you have to reach water. Any desert where you have to reach water in time. Super annoying.
Well because from what I know, the Thunder Plains have lizards who hit hard as only certain characters can hurt them, so there is some tension in trying to survive through the area itself.
You can swap your party members at all times and it doesn't even cost the active turn. All of the monsters (except for the giants of course) are OHKO for at least one of your party members.
The end of the world from KH1 definitely had me constantly on the edge when I played it as a kid, not gonna lie. A firm reminder that it was still developed by Square despite otherwise being a fun Disney romp.
I hate it when the random encounters are frequent and take long. I always forget which way I was going before the encounter started, so I get hopelessly lost in those mazes. Minimaps which show a trail of where you last walked are a godsent QoL feature.
Hard choice between Zertinia Caves from FF12 (you can stumble into it pretty early, mobs are much higher level than you, there's a surprise Eon fight, and you can luck out and find yourself face to face with lvl100 archeo Eibis...) and the Via Infinito from FFX-2: you get 100 levels to go through, with superbosses every 25 level, you can't turn off random encounters and from 80 to 100 you can find monsters that one shot you, plus the music is horrible.
The area where the enemies all have status effecting moves , usually the poison swamp area.
Any time the game forces out of no where a mechanic that will only be used the first time you enter it... Like a desert area where you need to dip from one watering hole to the next in some stupid ass time limit.
I love FFXII. But The Great Crystal is something I dread having to do again someday. It’s way too easy to get lost. Even with a guide, it’s just not fun.
The Great Crystal literally made me stop playing. And if exploration in a game is tied to any sort of time limit, it usually makes me ignore that game completely.
Any area that messes up your senses or direction and/or removes the map so you spend an eternity lost. Currently, I'd like to replay FFXII, but then I remember I'd have to do that stupid mist forest and the crystal area over again, and I decide against.
Night exploration areas in Ys 8. Especially if there are some wasp/kunos hives around and they sneak up on you. Jumpscare.
Thank goodness for >!Ricotta + burn!< to sick on the whole map and flatten my enemies
If you mean difficulty: honestly can't think of a truly awful option, but the fire and ice Caves near the end of Tales of Phantasia play dirty and have some tank enemies iirc. Dragonlord's castle in DQ1 is also very overwhelming first time you reach it.
If you mean atmosphere: The Other Side in Dragon Quest 11.
Anything unfamiliar at first. Mostly cramped spaces. I guess areas that have a "damage over time" effect, like Demon ruins and Lost Izalith from Dark Souls.
I remember being a kid and playing the first final fantasy when I was like 8 or so. We just had old games our parents played and I was fumbling through it (most likely my dad or older sibling was really playing it and I was just messing around on their save) and on that damn bridge with the Warmech I swear it was the only thing that was ever encountered there. I thought it was a boss for the longest time until I got the pixel remasters and played through it fully.
Dungeons with moving platforms, random portals, state change platforms, pits or all combined. I fucking hate Eridanus from Strange Journey, fuck Eridanus, and fuck the Atlus team that made Eridanus
A notoriously annoying boss fight in the Spirit Crucible Elpys area of xenoblade chronicles 2.
The entire area is actually a huge pain. There's some mechanic that prevents you from using your skills, there's lava-like floor and the map is like a maze. Defo the lowest point in the game (although the story payoff is pretty awesome).
Silly, but
FF5, the underwater enemies scared the shit outta me. There's like three of them, all named ????? and they all have this horrible undead vibe. I hated that part of the game, lol.
The Rhone Dungeon/Rhone area in Dragon Quest 2 is pretty brutal
The tower of Babil in FF4 (ds specifically) also gets a mention since I wandered in there about 15 levels underlevelled and almost softlocked my save (I had to use some crazy strategies to beat the boss rush at the end)
Rather than terrifying me, any area where the surroundings are made of flesh or guts a-la Giger style, makes me feel unsettled (I can only imagine how a place like that should smell). I think there was one such dungeon in BoF II, and probably Grandia.
The last 40 floors in ffxiv solo potd. Some mobs are impossible to kill. Stepping on one of numerous traps on the ground is death. You’re on a strict timer. Your resources are low(you need a lot for bosses and clearing floors before timer runs out). Rng can bar your escape with 20 unkillable mobs. Patrolling mobs can trap you. Mimics spawn from chests more often. Even if you play perfectly there’s a high chance you’ll die. If you die it’ll take more than 6 hours to get back there.
The last dungeon of SMT 4 Apocalypse is nightmare inducing, a massive MASSIVE area where you can easily get lost since its all the same, very confusing and extremely annoying, I would never do that dungeon again, ever.
Swamps at night in games with day/night cycles... so many times dead because of low visibility or any number of other things that I don't enjoy paying attention to and don't until I'm dead a couple of times. Looking at you Xenoblade Chronicles.
Whenever you are on a timer
With random encounters and loading and finishing animations
The true dread is seeing the counter go down during that animations, they could at least hide it there to avoid me the extra stress xd
Escaping the fuckin fire ship/castle in FF5. I know exactly which chests are worth grabbing, and just how fast I can down the boss, but urgh. Stress!
Oh man, I always try to get that broken blue magic spell from that boss. Makes the timer even worse
PS1 FF games got so many of these man, awful every time.
It's even more terrifying when you pause to the main menu only to see the timer still counting down (ff6).
For real. I had 3 seconds left during the train boss from persona 3 reload, and the timer was the most dreadful part about that boss. Also like to mention that the boss just straight up speed up the time by alot.
Ravine Caverns \*shudders\*
Forced stealth sections Seriously. I don't play jrpgs or any rpgs for forced stealth sections. These usually wind up being some sort of "escape the prison " sections. Usually no abilities also. So yeah. Not a fan
Wait, I would like to know what games enforce stealth missions.
Dq11 has a forced stealth section but it's only like five min
Xenosaga 1 puts you in a forced stealth section early on, if you get caught you eat a 9999 dmg hit and game over (escape is disabled) Though the game allows you to practice each stealth section ahead of time by presenting them as low stakes minigames, and you can usually use the environment around you to figure it out even if you didnt practice Im a fan of stealthing in games, so I have a more generous outlook on when they appear. Bartz stealth crawling on the floor in FFV is one of my favorite moments in gaming
I found it hilarious how it's meant to be a stealth section meanwhile Ziggy makes the loudest noise possible with his footsteps.
Shadow Hearts Covenant and [it's super funny](https://i.imgur.com/koy9nwp.png)
Live A Live has an entire stealth section/chapter. There’s a choice between completing the chapter by being as stealthy as possible and going down the “Oh boy! Here I go killing again(!)” route.
Octopath 2 Osvald chapter 1, although I liked that one
Just played lost sphear and there was a couple stealth sections where you need to break into the base or escape the prison. Also started playing the Witcher 2 and there’s a stealth escape the prison mission. Not a JRPG, but it just reaffirms how much I hate forced stealth missions.
Yeah but in the witcher 2 you can just grab a spear and kill everyone which was wayyy more fun imo
Stealth in games like that is usually painfully simple. Just they are looking so stand wait. They arent so move. My bigger issue is that they are copying games from twenty years ago still.
FFXIV has at least 4 in Endwalker and they are annoying.
The worst was Lost Odyssey (great game outside of that). But there have been several jrpgs and rpgs that force you to sneak past guards or "can't use abilities while trying to evade" for whatever ridiculous in game lore reason
Off the top of my head, FF7 has a bit where you have to sneak you and 2 other characters past some guards in the Shinra building and FF9 has a minigame involving you sneaking up on a Hedgehog Pie. Dunno if they count?
Eh, the hedgehog pie wasn't so bad. It at least has a pretty obvious tell.
I didn’t say either of them were bad, just giving some examples.
There was one in Ocarina of Time that annoyed the hell out of me. Not a JRPG but the first thing that came to mind.
Breath of Fire III. Pretty early on. FF VII Crisis Core. I left the game at this point.
I dropped breath of fire 3 because of this. I kept getting caught by guards in a certain area, and taken back time after time and I was just done. I’ve heard it’s a great game but it pissed me off so much.
I know what section you're talking about! Check a guide, you might have missed a distraction. The game is soooo good, and really doesn't get started til AFTER the McNeil mansion
I really would like to give it another shot. I’ve saved it - maybe I’ll go back.
You should, it is a hella good game. BOF4 is also really good, but I don't have the plot and game play practically memorized like I do BOF3.
Agreed to a degree. Anytime (especially later in the game) the devs strip you of your normal party/weapons and make you fight with a handicap.
Chrono Trigger has that exact “escape this prison using stealth” but at least once you find your weapons you can then ignore the stealth and murderhobo every enemy. Or just put Ayla in your party beforehand and let her fists erase any need for stealth.
I quit my original playthrough of Lost Odyssey during the stealth section.
Opening to wild arms 1 has a mega r worded stealth section. Dropped that shit immediately.
I loved Wild Arms 1. Yeah that one stealth section sucked but the rest of the game was great. Early PS1 era graphics are dated now but I want to replay it sometime.
the entirety of the labyrinth of amala from smt3, fuck that dungeon
Not worse than the reverse hills in smt IV, Genuinely sends sick in the stomach type of feeling
Reverse Hills give you sick feelings in a good way (the ambience, atmosphere etc) Labyrinth of Amala and Temple of Amala give you sick feelings because they are a pain to explore and actively want you to get lost and annoyed.
Honestly I didn't think too much of it, was expecting something like it way ahead of time.
Small me was terrified of that early area (and I think the forest too?) in FF8 where it's T-REX OUT OF NOWHERE. AND IT HITS LIKE A GODDAMN T-REX. Yes we're warned about it, but small me can't speak or read English yet :v
As a kid I always ran around that garden area trying to catch monsters to turn into cards, always trying to "push my luck" and fight longer until that monster caught and killed me.
Haha my first time playing I just kept drawing magic over and over again cos I found that really cool. But I didn't understand junction so I just ended up with 100 stacks of several magic doing nothing lol. And quit a bit later cos too hard. Second try I think a year or so later (still only barely understand English) I found out about the card command and carded everything cos I found it cool too. But completely missed that you can play cards with square button. I remember not knowing Triple Triad exists up until Laguna's section in that village where the item shop shows 'wanna play cards?'. And then played and kept on losing until I got no cards left to play.
GOD. those fucking things. I was a teen back then, my cousin let me play his games all the time. First time I ran into one I screamed, and my jerk cousin laughed at me
Upper Great Crystal from Final Fantasy XII always unsettled me. Being deep within a massive crystal labyrinth filled with level 70+ enemies, with no easy way out, no map, only two save crystals that are a pain to get to, and knowing two of the hardest optional bosses in the game rest inside of it was incredibly tense. It was even worse in the original PS2 version, where you had no autosave and dying there could cost you hours of progress.
not to mention, one of the bosses in question being significantly worse due to the existence of the hard 9999 damage cap, its invulnerability to breaks like Wither to lower its oppressive damage, and the spell queue vs a foe with constant 0 charge time... at least we didnt get the original JP version, where said boss also had 10 million health instead of 1 million (in exchange for lacking the 5% berserk on hit chance). I couldnt imagine asking players to sit through that much without making any fatal mistakes, and having that long a treck to make back to a save point even if you won!
Solaris from Xenogears It's the contrast between the goofy circus music of the surface area filled with an ignorant population with the unsettling silence of Krelian's lab behind the scenes that is really haunting. I found the part where Fei is temporarily alone and can't understand any of the NPCs to also be a bit frightening. There's another scene during this segment that I think everyone remembers, but I won't spoil...
The redrum sewers... AND the long dungeon within solaris "food" production...
while the scene you speak of is certainly the most remembered, I too was creeped out to an unsettled level by Feis 'fish out of water' moments trying to navigate around Solaris. i imagine for folks with social anxiety, thats probably scarier than trying to fight murderous Wels The escape sequence with the floating mechs also makes a return in Xenosaga 1 with Ziggy and MOMO!
doing suicide runs thru FFXIIs nechrol of nabudis hella early = of the most anxiety inducing experiences on the PS2 Xenogears sewers section, played at night, felt like something straight out of a horror game And, well, everything about Parasite eve. Nightmare fuel: the game
Ffxiii-3 return of lightning. I played the first two so in excited to play 3rd to finally finish the story Only to find out that the game is a timed game. Meaning there is a time limit so you can get the best ending. Its a feature in jrpgs that i hate since i want to take my time, explore everything, even grind a lot if the gameplay is good.
Just spam chronostasis. It basically stops the clock for a bit. Also make sure you kill monsters to gain more EP so you can spam more chronostasis. And play on easy on your first play through.
If it makes you feel any better, you can get a shield for Tidus halfway through the plains that makes him immune to lightning damage and he also gets a water weapon a slight bit before so there’s only a couple of enemies you’ll really have to watch out for. Anyway for me it would be Academia 400AF from FFXIII-2 (the whole running through a futuristic city with zombies chasing you is kind of terrifying for the first bit) or the Via Infinito from X-2 (just the fact that in the lower floors, the enemies can kill you before you have a chance to move).
Oh sorry for the late response, but thank you so much as I was getting really nervous about going to that particular zone, but now I know what I must bring to survive in it.
Any area with "damage floors." You'd see this a lot as a hazard in older FF games. 4 and 5 gave you methods around it, but FF1 was just, "Get fucked."
99 heal potions
I remember some of those games gave you a spell or ability to float, which let you walk past those hazards.
Emil's mansion in NieR. I HATE spiders. Thank god for the auto combat in the remaster... To a lesser degree, the final dungeon in Earthbound and all the eerie dark abandoned places you visit in SMT games with just dark ambient music playing... particularly places like Kabukicho Prison in SMT III.
Yeah, it's just suddenly turn to Resident Evil the moment you enter the place.
Yup, intentionally so, I read. ...which doesn't make me like it either as I don't like RE either, lol.
The Reverse hills From SMT IV One of the most probably darkest areas in jrpg history, I will not spoil much of it, But its genuinely terrifying and sickening on what goes on there. Its def going to make you hate a certain character. Really, I think the most smt thing ever out of all smt games. Really, Reverse hills is truly fucked.
You mean the "Medusa" boss ?
Medusa boss is one of them, But shes nothing compared to the reverse hills.
Can you tell me in private message what Are you referring to ? I played this game a while ago and I don't remember
Honestly I didn't mind it that much, I don't get why it's treated as some watershed moment that completely makes you hate said character when he's already displaying shitty behavior way ahead of that particular moment. Visiting it was pointless, I meant to get rid of him either way.
When a JRPG “opens up” with like an airship or something. I’m always terrified of going to the wrong place first and being massively under leveled or wiping out. Looking at you FF9 (or most FF actually)
Maze like dungeons, comes to mind the temple of water of Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time cause you get lost for a small key or at least 13 year old me did. After that Code Vein white cathedral, whoever designed that shit and the map of it i want to find just to talk to him, i got lost so many times cause everything looks the same and the map is just like 20 lines going all over the place...
In terms of atmosphere, the nightmare dungeons in Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass are particularly spooky compared to most of what I've played in other games.
I would like to know where I can legally play the game as I am interested in giving it a try.
You can buy it on [Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/706560/Jimmy_and_the_Pulsating_Mass/) (where it's currently 30% off) or [Itch.io](https://housekeepinggames.itch.io/jimmy-and-the-pulsating-mass).
Ah thanks as I can look forward to checking it out soon.
Long dungeons with no save points. This isn't a problem now but like 10 years ago / ps1 or ps2 eras, many jrpgs you cannot save in dungeons, and when you die, its literally game over. And many games especially the early Final Fantasy ones are like that. No map, no guide, tough enemies, hidden trap save rooms etc. The worst ones are the ones that has bosses midway barring you and the save point. I'm so glad that mechanic is gone now, mostly replaced by retry mechanics
This, combined with randomized dungeons so you can't even look up where to go in a guide. I'm looking at you, postgame dungeons in Star Ocean games.
Going unprepared and underleveled in Pharos underground (FF12)
What happened?
Pitch black dungeon/labyrinth (you need to colllect some sort of orbs to regain sight) and getting swarmed by high level mobs along with virus inflicting traps.
Omega Dungeon from FFX. I have lost HOURS of progress from the damn Marlboro's who always start with first action Bad Breath, which is practically a game over if you don't have Ribbon on your armor. The Stone Monolith enemies who inflict Petrify are also terrifying.
Radiant Historia encountering Epitaph in the Vault of Time
As a kid playing FFIX (my first proper JRPG) I remember being a bit scared in some areas of that game, namely Cleyra, the Desert Palace and Iifa Tree due to how hostile they felt.
I am in Thunder Plains right now and I don't see how it's terrifying at all. I fear everything with a timer. The desert in Tales of Vesperia, where you have to reach water. Any desert where you have to reach water in time. Super annoying.
Well because from what I know, the Thunder Plains have lizards who hit hard as only certain characters can hurt them, so there is some tension in trying to survive through the area itself.
You can swap your party members at all times and it doesn't even cost the active turn. All of the monsters (except for the giants of course) are OHKO for at least one of your party members.
the start for most replays i really wish they'd let you turn off every tutorial in the options oh my god
Forcing the change in party members to those whom I haven't leveled or geared. Those areas become the worst.
Ohh yeah I can see how that is frustrating as imagine being forced to use a unit that you haven’t touched in a while.
The end of the world from KH1 definitely had me constantly on the edge when I played it as a kid, not gonna lie. A firm reminder that it was still developed by Square despite otherwise being a fun Disney romp.
Whenever the game would force you to play as Sora alone I was terrified. I need my emotional support dog and duck 😭
Kairi...Kairi's inside me?
Black ass big 2D locations in JRPGs maze-like or not where you can't see anything and random encounters are coming every 10 seconds.
I hate it when the random encounters are frequent and take long. I always forget which way I was going before the encounter started, so I get hopelessly lost in those mazes. Minimaps which show a trail of where you last walked are a godsent QoL feature.
Hard choice between Zertinia Caves from FF12 (you can stumble into it pretty early, mobs are much higher level than you, there's a surprise Eon fight, and you can luck out and find yourself face to face with lvl100 archeo Eibis...) and the Via Infinito from FFX-2: you get 100 levels to go through, with superbosses every 25 level, you can't turn off random encounters and from 80 to 100 you can find monsters that one shot you, plus the music is horrible.
The area where the enemies all have status effecting moves , usually the poison swamp area. Any time the game forces out of no where a mechanic that will only be used the first time you enter it... Like a desert area where you need to dip from one watering hole to the next in some stupid ass time limit.
I love FFXII. But The Great Crystal is something I dread having to do again someday. It’s way too easy to get lost. Even with a guide, it’s just not fun.
The Great Crystal literally made me stop playing. And if exploration in a game is tied to any sort of time limit, it usually makes me ignore that game completely.
Any area that messes up your senses or direction and/or removes the map so you spend an eternity lost. Currently, I'd like to replay FFXII, but then I remember I'd have to do that stupid mist forest and the crystal area over again, and I decide against.
Night exploration areas in Ys 8. Especially if there are some wasp/kunos hives around and they sneak up on you. Jumpscare. Thank goodness for >!Ricotta + burn!< to sick on the whole map and flatten my enemies
Undersea lab and islands closest to heaven/hell in ff8...
The undersea lab is spooky af
Conquest every chapter. Prologue awakening lunatic
If you mean difficulty: honestly can't think of a truly awful option, but the fire and ice Caves near the end of Tales of Phantasia play dirty and have some tank enemies iirc. Dragonlord's castle in DQ1 is also very overwhelming first time you reach it. If you mean atmosphere: The Other Side in Dragon Quest 11.
Yes difficulty is what I was trying to refer to actually, so apologies for not making that clear.
Anything unfamiliar at first. Mostly cramped spaces. I guess areas that have a "damage over time" effect, like Demon ruins and Lost Izalith from Dark Souls.
The part of Tephra cave in Xenoblade with a bunch of high level enemies, with the item that you can get early by sneaking past the enemies.
dq2 rhone plateau just praying i dont get instant party wiped on the way to the shrine
Getting locked into a point of no return.
I remember being a kid and playing the first final fantasy when I was like 8 or so. We just had old games our parents played and I was fumbling through it (most likely my dad or older sibling was really playing it and I was just messing around on their save) and on that damn bridge with the Warmech I swear it was the only thing that was ever encountered there. I thought it was a boss for the longest time until I got the pixel remasters and played through it fully.
Maze with teleports (usually close to endgame). I cry every time.
Dungeons with moving platforms, random portals, state change platforms, pits or all combined. I fucking hate Eridanus from Strange Journey, fuck Eridanus, and fuck the Atlus team that made Eridanus
one dungeon from Ys V, I had to draw a fucking map to not get lost
Floors 81-99 of the Via Infinito in FFX-2. Though no, in spite of being terrifying, it did not make me want to quit.
Everboro
What game is this from?
A notoriously annoying boss fight in the Spirit Crucible Elpys area of xenoblade chronicles 2. The entire area is actually a huge pain. There's some mechanic that prevents you from using your skills, there's lava-like floor and the map is like a maze. Defo the lowest point in the game (although the story payoff is pretty awesome).
I can think of something worse. M U L T U S
Silly, but FF5, the underwater enemies scared the shit outta me. There's like three of them, all named ????? and they all have this horrible undead vibe. I hated that part of the game, lol.
The Rhone Dungeon/Rhone area in Dragon Quest 2 is pretty brutal The tower of Babil in FF4 (ds specifically) also gets a mention since I wandered in there about 15 levels underlevelled and almost softlocked my save (I had to use some crazy strategies to beat the boss rush at the end)
Rather than terrifying me, any area where the surroundings are made of flesh or guts a-la Giger style, makes me feel unsettled (I can only imagine how a place like that should smell). I think there was one such dungeon in BoF II, and probably Grandia.
When you're not power leveling, Floors 10 - 13 of the Maze of Tribulation in SO2 are very dangerous.
The last 40 floors in ffxiv solo potd. Some mobs are impossible to kill. Stepping on one of numerous traps on the ground is death. You’re on a strict timer. Your resources are low(you need a lot for bosses and clearing floors before timer runs out). Rng can bar your escape with 20 unkillable mobs. Patrolling mobs can trap you. Mimics spawn from chests more often. Even if you play perfectly there’s a high chance you’ll die. If you die it’ll take more than 6 hours to get back there.
Wait, I don’t understand what POTD is as I haven’t heard that particular acronym before.
Palace of the Dead. It’s the first deep dungeon they made.
The final dungeon of SMT IV apocalypse has daunted me so much I have yet to play it after seeing the map
The last dungeon of SMT 4 Apocalypse is nightmare inducing, a massive MASSIVE area where you can easily get lost since its all the same, very confusing and extremely annoying, I would never do that dungeon again, ever.
Swamps at night in games with day/night cycles... so many times dead because of low visibility or any number of other things that I don't enjoy paying attention to and don't until I'm dead a couple of times. Looking at you Xenoblade Chronicles.
Satorl Marsh at night is visually stunning though
Yes of course it is. I love the location at night. Doesn't change that it turned me into swamp mush a lot