Final Fantasy XII/Nightmare Fuel

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Final Fantasy XII may be the most nostalgic Call Back to the previous titles in the Final Fantasy series (save, perhaps, for Final Fantasy IX), but it also has its share of frights as well.

But even this is tame in comparison with the sequel and the nightmares it brings to the players.


  • The Espers in this game look either grotesque or uncanny, especially compared to those of previous games. Specifically:
    • If read the lore in the Bestiary, you know that the woman attached to Zalera was some sort of shamaness that the esper fused to himself and is now using as some sort of grotesque puppet. The chilling scream that rings out during the animation for Condemnation is the aural manifestation of her never-ending torment at the hands of her master. Happy nightmares.
      • It's worse when you face Zalera as a boss; his super move is Prime Lv. Death, which instantly kills all active party members whose levels are prime numbers [1]. Here's the kicker: the animation is Zodiark's Darkja with the woman's skull coming at you.
    • Cuchulain's Blight, what with him jumping up in the air, jiggling around his fat only to have a scorpion tail burst out of his back, strike the ground and poison the surrounding environment. His monstrous appearance, which is the result of swallowing the world's corruption, doesn't help matters.
    • Mateus's appearance is more than unsettling after you read the Bestiary. The woman you see is an Ice Goddess he bound to his torso to attempt and overthrow the Occuria. He never let her go.
    • Zodiark is in a way very disturbing- basically, he's a small, immature snake-like being with the power to destroy the universe on a whim. And you have to go up to it and stab it to recruit it. Made so much worse in that the freaking Occuria are scared of what he might do when he reaches adulthood.
  • Looking at the backstory makes many of the random monsters unsettling. All dark humanoid monsters like ghosts, skeletons, or headless are different types of man who, after dying, are put in some sort of half-living state where they are to suffer for nigh all eternity, with the slaughter of others being their only reprieve.
  • There was one creature called Necrophobe or something that was so afraid of dying it instinctively kills the hell out of everything.
  • Malboro Kings were once humans.
  • Nabudis, or what's left of it anyway. There is a reason why its called The "Necrohol", and its 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.
  • The creepy, spidery way Fran's sister Mjrn limps and runs when possessed is certainly this. That was in no way normal.
  • Vayne Novus. He falls RIGHT into Nightmare Face with his distorted features.
  • Barheim Passage at first seems like just another crawl through tunnels, but then, spider-like monsters known as Battery Mimics begin consuming the electricity in the tunnels. If they manage to devour all the electricity, the lights are killed, and sensing the darkness, the undead emerge from dormancy to prey upon the party.
    • If that wasn't enough, there are Mimics that disguise themselves as treasure, and players who blindly open treasure chests will find themselves ambushed by a creature whose first action is to suck the blood of its victim.

  1. 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