We can tell just how horrifying games can get sometimes, and RPGs tend to never be an exception. So many games have at least one thing that will likely terrify a young audience, whether it's through character death, world destruction, or just about anything that isn't truly good and doesn't lead to a usually cliche "happily ever after" ordeal. This list counts down five of the RPGs that I truly think are the most horrifying overall, the ones that if you were a character in them, you run the risk of an unfortunate happening at just about any moment.
5. Grandia
Honestly, both of the first two Grandias belong here, especially considering the Eldritch horrors you go through for the endgame dungeons, as well as the corruption of a major figure that is eventually killed. Grandia 1 edges out over its sequel in an interesting way, because it most definitely not a grim RPG on its onset at all. It's only until you reach the second disc and meet Rapp where you realize that things take a grim turn. Rapp's original village has been turned to stone, obviously with no way of resolving the victims. For that matter, the original Laine faired even worse, with petrified bodies floating in a location that sure as hell isn't a friendly abode. The bosses met during this disc also drive the point home, along with the crises that eventually happen all because of Gaia. Not to mention the motif of sacrifice, which attempts to take a toll on certain characters in hte game. Now Grandia II only had the corrupt demonic church as its main horror, but it managed to do so well enough, so it gets an honorable mention. But it's in the shadows when it comes to the horror presented in the second half of Grandia.
4. Live-A-Live
Here's an oddball. You have eight total settings in this game, and yet somehow, all but two of them are rather horrific. So let's leave out both the prehistoric and the Western scenarios, as both tend to be mostly comical in how they are done and the only terror present is shown in the final boss fight. The Ninja scenario is quite nasty with whichever characters you decide to kill, similar to the demon path in Soul Nomad, but this is overshadowed by Ode Iou's true form. The present chapter involving the strong fighters seems fair enough, but then you find out Odie Oldbright killed all the previous competitors. The Kung Fu chapter was something I described a bit in my analysis of doomed hometowns, and my point still stands there when the master's dojo is raided and two students are actually killed. The medieval chapter which serves as the game's culmination shows the emptiness after Oersted takes power as the demon king. And yet the most horrifying chapters are the futuristic ones. Mechanical Heart is entirely a survival horror game in an RPG, with a behemoth that can instantly kill your robot character as well as maul others onboard the ship. And Blood Flow? Surprisingly the most terrifying. It's bad enough the enemies are bikers, it's even worse when the gang is involved in a process to liquefy humans, all to awaken some deity. It somehow manages to be even worse than when Thuris was eating his followers in Soul Nomad. You obviously don't get to see how it's done, and that's for the better, but the mere thought is inane in itself. So somehow, the majority of the game manages to actually be quite the heart-wrencher
3. Legend of Legaia
Yep, this one is on here, and if you played the game, you'll know exactly why. The entire intro shows what went wrong, the idea of cybernetic enhancements to do everything, going wrong thanks to a mist, causing these Seru to go out of control as well as grip and zombify individual humans. There's so many in-game examples of horror in this game. Remember the underground Octam and the earthquakes? And to think again, an actual sacrificial ritual also exists in-game, in which your sole female offers herself up to save a poor NPC from being offered, then the two guys have to save her from the largest Seru. It gets far worse later on. Sim-Seru are considered way worse than the regular ones. You think that fight against Gaza was bad, wait till you reach Conkram, an actual seashell constructed out of a Sim-Seru. Nothing could be done about the inhabitants there, and to make things worse, they are completely doomed. Rim Elm almost suffers this way but is saved at the very end, but those thoughts of all the villagers you know, including your sister, father, love interest, her mother, people you know about, all fused in an abomination so completely fleshed out. It's truly horrifying. No wonder this game got compared to Silent Hill.
2. Breath of Fire 2
I have fond, fond memories of this game. Memories that made me feel like not playing another RPG ever again. This game aces the corrupt church plot far better than Grandia 2 did, and giving in the fact that almost every major boss you eventually fight has not only been a con-artist but a demon at the same time. From the impostor frog prince Quadra/Kuwadora, to the rich businessman Trout. From the tournament chairman Augus to the crazed Highland general Shupkay. And then the terrifying-looking Necroman and his deadly attacks, all of these are demons. Not to mention a zombie status effect that is truly nasty and original for a SNES RPG. Oh yes, this game manages to terrify in its gameplay, which is quite the feat. Let's not forget that you can easily end up killing your own father without realizing he's strapped to the church's main machine, as well as the opening of the demon gate. And the motif of sacrifice rears its head yet again, in order to get Anfini/Infinity, you get to see each of your party members make statements of how they enjoyed their adventures with Ryu, while his clone tells him to sacrifice one of them. The thought of doing so is truly wrong, just like in Grandia. But if that weren't enough, even after the denial of a sacrifice, the actual confrontation against Deathevan is one with circumstances that actually crystallize and shatter all of Ryu's companions right before the final confrontation. Despite the happiness of bringing them back and killing off Deathevan, there's the matter of this game's endings, and most players see the one where Ryu ends up being the new gate guardian, forever dooming himself to a fate such as this. Breath of Fire 2 was not only an extreme tearjerker, but an extreme heart-wrencher.
1. Xenogears
To some, it's no surprise that it's at the very top. For those of you who don't know, this game sure has a lot going for it. Just look at Fei, he's got an omnicidal maniac persona inside of him that doesn't distinguish anything as friendly, so it murders anything: the denizens of Fei's village, the comrades in the Nortune sewers, and the entire city of Solaris, practically destroying the surface landscape as well. Rather horrifying is the fact that Fei is unaware he's responsible for all this thanks to the persona. And the other characters don't help matters. Grahf telling Fei he's the true destroyer of God? Yeah, thanks for that. Oh and speaking of Solaris, can you guess what you go through when you reach there? A high-security compound at first, and an underground laboratory. They really went there when they decided to have a scene with Fei and Elly getting hungry, then eating from canned food without realizing it (making matters worse is that Citan is hesitant to tell them about this). We then see the dead remains of humans, all done because the high city's caste system deems them unworthy of life and to be used as food. Holy cripes. And while Disc 2 was a rushed disc, it provides enough information about those on the surface world being turned into Wels in the cutscenes. Wels, of course, are pretty much zombified humans. Two things make this terrifying. One of course is that the characters realize this fact too late, and have murdered quite a few people who were turned into Wels. The other, well, let's just say that the best efforts of the heroes somehow make the situation worse, causing even more Wels to form. The main characters ought to be extremely lucky about not turning into Wels or used as canned food items, because this game manages to make just about everything grim and horrifying.
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