Look Outside is a huge surprise: a dark JRPG with a killing art style, challenging, and full of secrets. The player wanders entirely in one apartment building since something outside is horribly mutating people. You have only 15 days to explore, gather supplies, and discover what is happening. And with 100+ grotesque monsters and disturbing bad endings behind every corner, this will not be an easy task.
During these days, you can meet different NPCs. Some are still hiding in their flats, while others come knocking at your door. However, deciding who to trust is challenging, since several neighbors already “watched outside.” Because trusting and welcoming to your place a devious maniac, who then demands your bone marrow, is not the best choice.
Luckily, in all this grotesque madness, there is always Lyle. He is a nice neighbor, well, maybe a bit creepy and stalkerish, but not that bad. Lyle lives in his flat and happily welcomes you inside. He is passionate about photography and even has a dark room in his flat. However, regardless of his kindness, the fact that is wearing a long robe with a hood, and that bug-like appendices are coming out of it, are probably a good sign that Lyle watched outside. In fact, he tried to take a picture of whatever being was up in the sky.
Luckily Lyle retained his personality after watching outside, and he can still help the players by providing them with photographic paper to capture the bizarre phenomena around the building. However, Lyle will ask for something in exchange. Something as simple as taking a picture of the main character… or a kiss. Don’t worry, nothing super pushy, and you can refuse it. In this case, Lyle would break the tension by joking about it. If instead, you accept the wild proposal, Lyle demands you to close your eyes before the kiss. Would you really trust this creepy creature? Luckily you can, except for the feeling of kissing something burning and mechanical, nothing bad happens. However, Lyle will also take a picture of the main character, with or without the kiss.
During the game, Lyle can also help you to develop pictures in his dark room. He doesn’t allow you inside, because he is working on a secret project, but gladly develops the picture for you. Again, he will ask for a kiss as a reward, and again you can refuse. Just try to don’t break his heart, because Lyle is a good guy, especially in a world of grotesque dismembering monsters. But seriously, you can truly break the poor guy’s heart by peaking after closing your eyes during this second kiss. In this moment, you can glimpse Lyle’s true appearance: a mechanical grinning face with a lens in the middle. While the main character’s face appears terrified in the reflection, Lyle’s only reaction is to run away ashamed and in tears. He locks himself in the dark room, crying and with a broken heart. Yes, monsters do have a heart, and you broke it.
As for any other NPCs in the game, the player can also attack Lyle at any moment during the dialogue. However, the battle against Lyle is quite unconventional. First, he doesn’t directly attack the player, he just passively endures the attacks, showing to be stronger than the appearance, with really high defense. After being attacked, with a broken heart, Lyle shows the player the picture he took of them. At this moment, the Polaroid also joins the battle, appearing in the top-left corner. Starting now, the player has only a few turns to kill Lyle before the picture is fully developed. At every turn, the picture reveals a grotesque face behind, each time more disturbing. The problem is that the main character’s portrait also mutates in synchrony with the polaroid, becoming at each turn a far more twisted being. And then, they will become forever trapped inside the picture, reaching a very unexpected Bad Ending. Or not that bad, considering that Lyle will always bring you around in his pocket, taking the picture out only to show you the world around. Sadly, one day Lyle will lose the picture. And the main character will remain there, forever alone and trapped inside the picture.
During the fight, if you attack the Polaroid instead of Lyle, especially using fire, you can challenge Lyle’s true form. If you defeat the Polaroid before being trapped in it, a furious Lyle will reveal his true form. However, Lyle is not exactly angry with you but more sad about the loss of his treasure. He wanted to keep that picture (probably with the main character’s soul imprisoned inside) forever with him, and now everything is lost. The true form is the one of a disturbing bio-mechanical abomination, a sort of caterpillar mixed with cameras and lenses, with grinning mouths, eyes, and pictures all across the body. Lyle’s passion for photography got imprinted in his design after he watched outside. Regardless of the twisted and disturbing appearance, the grotesque Lyle is not a very dangerous enemy, and he is still weak against fire. After all, he needs to protect his body from extreme temperature and light, as if he was made of film paper.
After killing Lyle, regardless of his form, you can acquire the key to his dark room. What kind of mysterious project was he developing there? The answer is easy and only slightly shocking: dozens of pictures of the main character, his apartment, and his door. Apparently, Lyle was truly obsessed with him since he was still human, a crush that started to become a disturbing obsession. After all, we warn you that Lyle was kind of a stalker. Moreover, if pictures all around are not enough, hidden in a corner you will find a copy of the key to the main character’s apartment. If Lyle already used this key or not, and to do what, is a secret that will die with him.
Lyle is a fragile soul, a grotesque being, a helper, and a creepy stalker, all packed together in a well-written character with a striking design. Lyle truly shows the potential of Look Outside, a small game with so many secrets, variables, and details to discover. And, of course, in a world of devouring rats, teeth spreading like a disease, and beings who steal your flesh if you stare at them, Lyle “the kind stalker” is not such a bad NPC.
This article has also a video compendium on the Surreal and Creepy channel, where you can see all about Lyle:
Blue Reflection is one of the rarest games of the last generation, and also a very peculiar JRPG. At first glance, the title looks like a generic school-setting JRPG focused on fan-service. And yes, the game has many scenes of the protagonists in “unusual” situations, but there is also far more to that. While it is true that Blue Reflection is entirely set inside the school, with just some quick missions inside a parallel dimension, the game also shows pretty unique quirks.
The main protagonists are modern magical girls, using their powers to face some really disturbing enemies: the Sephirot. While waiting for the Sephirot’s arrival, the party must explore dungeons inside the mind of schoolgirls heavily disturbed by a feeling, till going insane. And if you think now we are getting to darker territories, let me just focus on how Blue Reflection has big vibes from Puella Magica Madoka and Evangelion.
The references to Madoka are pretty obvious: magical girls fighting disturbing beings, with the truth getting each time creepier. The Sephirot are instead the connection with Evangelion, and the main reason behind this article. Mysterious and powerful beings, there are only 4 Sephirot, and each of them is attracted to the school. The heroines need only to wait enough time till a Sephira shows up. And then, a dramatic battle begins. Exactly like for the Angels of Evangelion.
The Sephirot have a dark and intriguing design, which really stands out from the general “school-life” setting of the game. Moreover, every battle against these beings is extremely choreographic, a long collections of insane action and gorgeous attacks. Seriously, the game completely changes during these battles (which you can see in a video at the end of this article). Each Sephira will attack the school twice, and only in the second and most difficult battle they can finally be destroyed.
So without further introduction, let’s have a look at the 4 Sephirot.
Yesod
The first Sephira is probably the most grotesque and disturbing, a colossal mutant composed of multiple bodies fused together. The lower body is the largest creature, a four-legged mutant with a big and grotesque face. Nested inside the lower body lies another face, the smaller body, surrounded by many arms frenetically moving around. The main body towers above, a muscular and thin mutant with long tentacles instead of fingers.
Yesod appears shooting deadly beams toward the school. The creature will get closer and closer during the battle. From afar, Yesod will target the party with strong beams and explosions. The multiple bodies of the creature are also potential targets and, once all the different heads are destroyed, the main body will get weaker. However, there is few time to celebrate, because Yesod will quickly reanimate them. When getting closer, Yesod can attack by creating shockwaves by hitting the ground, or using a dangerous bone blade coming out of its body.
Cochma
This Sephira looks like a cross between a Gothic cathedral and a tank. Cochma walks around like a tank, a bizarre vehicle harbinger of destruction. Its secondary cannons look like pinnacles of a modern church, thin and pointy, but not less destructive. The main body seems more like a creepy skeleton, with a huge round mouth, which of course works as the main cannon.
Cochma uses its dozens of cannons to attack the party. Some cannons shoot direct projectiles, while others throw grenades. Moreover, hundreds of machine-guns are hidden inside holes in its body, and they can shoot all-at-once for a storm of bullets. The main cannon is of course the most dangerous attack, a massive weapon able to cause insane damage. Cochma’s cannons are divided into two sets: Eas and Wes (East and West?). By destroying them, the party can temporarily disable the cannons.
Tephereth
If you were looking for a closer connection with the insane geometries of some Angels in Evangelion, such as Ramiel or Arael, Tephereth is the closest link. Appearing as what could be described as a flying jewel, the Sephira is a golden creature emitting energy. When it appears, the skies become of unnatural colours.
The creature is a strong opponent, with different body parts able to boost attack and defence. Tephereth mainly attacks by throwing storms of darts and energy bullets, so many that will cover the battlefield with explosions. Moreover, its body can reassemble, like a mechanical being. This includes morphing the main body into a sort of chainsaw, to then crash into the battlefield.
Netzach
The last of the Sephirot has a rather simple design. Netzach is a sort of mix between a knight in heavy armour and a Gundam. The crystallised armour protects the creature, while a spear and a shield work both as weapons and extra protection. The Sephira has some sort of wings, working like a propeller and allowing it to fly around.
Without surprise, Netzach is the strongest Sephirot. Its weapons are both targets, called Drago, probably in honour to dragon-slayer knights. The shield can heavily buff its defence, while the spear can throw many attacks, including an energy beam. The Gundam-like appearance of the boss is also reflected in some attacks, including throwing arrays of missiles from the shoulders. The shield also works as a weapon, transforming into a circular saw. However, the most dangerous attack is when the spear becomes crystallised. The difficulty of this boss battle lies also in the ability of Netzach to inflict many negative statuses, including a deadly poison that will quickly bring a character to death.
In the following video on Surreal and Creepy Games, check all the battles against the Sephirot.
Castlevania and Metroid created their own genre, which is getting a second youth with indie games: metroidvania. These games have in common a 2D aesthetic, a huge map to explore with interconnected elements, many secrets and hidden areas to discover using different abilities, backtracking, and in general a huge focus on exploration. Usually, metroidvania games have a wide bestiary, with many standard enemies, and gigantic bosses to defeat. RPG elements are also quite common, including statistics, levels, and dozens of different equipment.
Surely, both the founding fathers of the genre have their amount of horror elements. Metroid features grotesque aliens and an overall lonely and oppressive atmosphere. Castlevania is also not second in this, with one of the most inspiring dark fantasy/gothic settings, and with a bestiary full of the most disturbing creatures (and you can check them here: Most dark, scary and creepy bosses from Castlevania saga). However, with the new flow of indie metroidvania, the genre got even more refreshed with novel dark, horror, or mature atmospheres.
In the following article, I will describe some of the darkest or horror metroidvania games. I will include only proper metroidvania, with a 2D art-style, a huge interconnected world, and multiple abilities or RPG features needed to explore.
I will focus on metroidvania with dark, horror, or in general a mature atmosphere. It could be for the oppressive or depressing environment, for the brutal combat and the violent gameplay, or for the disturbing elements: whichever is the cause, these games are more mature-oriented than the average metroidvania. Moreover, for each of them, I will analyse the world-building, the bestiary and the bosses, and why the atmosphere is considered dark or horror. The article will be constantly updated, so new fitting games will be included once released.
Vigil: the Longest Night
Details: Vigil was a surprise last year, and one of the best examples of metroidvania directly infused with horror elements. Vigil is a great homage to the legendary Bloodborne, sharing with it the dark themes and the oppressive atmosphere. Vigil is a pure metroidvania with strong RPG elements, including a deep level system, skills, and different playstyles. From fast daggers to the complexity of the bow, the player has the power of shaping the gameplay. The exploration is a focal point, with a giant interconnected world full of secrets to discover, including alternative bosses, hidden eldritch realms, and dozens of different armors and equipment. This is where the game gets even more interesting, because every item not only is very original and interesting to use, but also well characterised in terms of lore.
World: From dense and deadly woods, to haunted mines and a ship graveyard inhabited by deep-sea eldritch terrors, the world of Vigil is a huge and twisted net touching common dark fantasy tropes. Secrets are everywhere, and backtracking is crucial to find the most hidden places and battles, and secondary characters have different quests to fulfill. Moreover, the same world will be visited under three different “conditions” (avoiding spoilers) and many areas will change according to this, with new enemies, items, and bosses. And to conclude, how to forget about the secret eldritch realms accessible only while playing special ocarina on an altar in the depths of a crypt?
Dark/Horror: The horror in Vigil is a very strong element. Secondary characters will face horrible consequences, death and disease are everywhere, and grotesque experiments on innocent people are only the tip of the iceberg. Moreover, secondary quests could end up really traumatically, and not every character should be trusted. Church and religion are also a twisted trope present in Vigil, painting an ever more dark but believable fantasy world.
Bestiary: The grotesque enemies are pure nightmare-inducing, and masterfully portrayed with a gorgeous art style. Every area has several new enemies, with very interesting designs and behaviors. For example, the ship graveyard is full of complex deep-sea creatures, including a sort of snail-woman and an aggressive mass of tentacles. The bosses have also a nightmarish and original design. I challenge you to meet the Broodmother and her spawn without being heavily disturbed (and you can know more about her in my article: Monster of the Week: The Brood Mother and her progeny (Vigil)).
Knifeboy
Details: An unexpected surprise for a crazy metroidvania based on indie comics, set in an insane sci-fi world full of charm and personality. The art-style is very detailed and interesting, especially the enemies’ design and some locations. It could be raw sometimes, but it is full of passion and able to paint a unique world full of colors and details. The combat side is not incredibly deep, with very standard combos and easy but really interesting boss fights. Platform sections are quite challenging, but never tiring, thanks to really well-planned checkpoints. Of course, as a one-man game, there are some bugs that can be a bit bothering. However, the experience is so original and interesting, that I kept playing regarding the bugs. The world, the dozens of characters, the crazy bosses, and the many secrets are too interesting to stop playing.
World: The game is based on a quite big open world, with a lot of secrets and places to explore. A day/night cycle allows different layers of exploration, with some places opening only at a specific time, and different monsters or collectibles only available at night, for example. Each new area is a completely novel and bizarre environment, from a DJ club, to a sort of pseudo-gothic asylum, and an arena managed by a group of pig-butchers on stilts. The game is a crazy tornado of surprises and pulp references, with secondary quests allowing to access a UFO or to see the true face of Santa Claus. Also, the game is a proper metroidvania, since new upgrades will allow the player to explore new areas.
Dark/Horror: Knifeboy cannot be defined as a horror game under any category, but it surely meets the requirement to be in this article for the high level of violence and the grotesque and twisted characters/enemies. Knifeboy is like an indie comic book targeted to a mature audience, a game that is not afraid to show enemies cut in half and some nudity here and there.
Bestiary: This game knows how to create original enemies and bosses. If common enemies like a sort of colorful humanoid bat that looks like a Mexican painting under LSD are already interesting, including sort of pig-like creatures walking on stilts, the bosses have an especially great design. They are difficult to describe using words, just imagine the most gigantic, colorful, complex, and bizarre abomination, and probably you will not be even close to what you will face in Knifeboy.
Blasphemous
Details: Blasphemous is probably one of the most well-known games in this article, a huge metroidvania with strong horror elements inspired by Catholicism. The game is challenging and full of surprises, with an amazing world to explore and many tough fights. Blasphemous has also incredible pixel art, able to convey the brutality of the fighting system in every red pixel. If you are looking for a challenging, brutal, and horror metroidvania, Blasphemous should be your first choice.
World: Custodia is a dark and cruel world shaped by the Miracle, a sort of unknown force that molds the bodies of true believers in horrible ways. The world is beautifully interconnected, using really original and haunted places. From the cold peaks in which is hiding a monastery of nuns that self-burn their bodies, to the rooftop of a gothic cathedral inhabited by twisted angelic beings: Blasphemous knows how to create a complex world using religious references. The secondary characters are an integrated part of this world, insane being touched by the Miracle, forced for example to be constantly whipped by an invisible force, or to be forever imprisoned half-fused in an olive tree.
Dark/Horror: Blasphemous is probably the most horror and brutal metroidvania that is out. Every detail is pure horror and nightmare-inducing, especially how religion is twisted in favor of horror. Moreover, the fighting is brutal, with gory executions when enemies are at low health.
Bestiary: Every single enemy is a grotesque combination of religion, Spanish folklore (the developers are from there), and pure horror. Seriously, every single enemy, from the most common soldier to the most gigantic boss, could be on the cover of a metal album. The religious elements combine with the creatures in very original ways, including a boss inspired by the “Pietà” of Michelangelo, or others with Church architectures inserted in their design (more info here: Catholic Art and Architecture in the twisted world of Blasphemous: how religious iconography can build nightmares). Plus, the bosses are simply great, especially the giant skeleton of a cardinal lifted by giant hands, and the disturbing Exposito, which can only be described as a sort of gigantic baby Jesus that will literally rip the main character in half (which also have an analysis here: Monster of the Week: Exposito, Scion of Abjuration (Blasphemous)).
DemoniacaEverlasting Night
Details: Heavily inspired by Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Demoniaca is a metroidvania combining horror elements, light adult contents (brief sex and nudity), and a combat system typical of fighting games based on combos. The RPG elements are many and well-integrated, including many different items and random drops. However, since here on Dark RPGs you can already find a complete review of Demoniaca, I will just leave here the link for more details: Demoniaca Everlasting Night Review: a dark and mature beat ’em up metroidvania.
World: As mainly inspired by Castlevania, Demoniaca is entirely set in a gigantic castle. There are of course different sections, for example the library or a hall full of mirrors. The exploration is rewarded not only for secrets but also for hidden merchants and moves. A great feature is the special mini-bosses marked on the map, but almost impossible to defeat without coming back much later at a higher level. Some characters are quite original and brilliant, such as Boxman, a mysterious man teaching powerful techniques hiding his face inside a box.
Dark/Horror: Demoniaca is a violent game, especially in the pixel art cutscenes and for some brutal elements in the background. The game has also mild adult content, including brief sexual scenes that appear like random illusions, or nudity, especially involving secondary bosses, or for example, a character seating on a throne while surrounded by half-naked slaves.
Bestiary: Part of the bestiary is not very original and inspired. For example, there are too many variants of skeletons, and some creatures are really too similar to iconic enemies from Doom. However, there are some interesting surprises, especially in the library section and in the second half of the game, with creepy murderous nurse dolls wielding massive syringes or hack-saws. Another brilliant example is a gruesome spiked-skeleton with inserted body-parts that is able to inflict the negative status “thorne,” transforming the main character into a sort of Hellraiser-ish version of herself.
Dark Light
Details: The strongest point of Dark Light is its sci-fi horror atmosphere, a sort of 2D Dead Space, which is something not very common for a metroidvania. Dark Light has also major influences from Dark Souls, especially the level up system, based on converting fragments collecting during exploration in credits. But of course, if death arrives before the conversion, the fragments will be forever lost. The gameplay is very classic, but involving several pieces of equipment, including a firearm, a melee weapon, grenades, and a drone. New items are randomly dropped while exploring, or directly as loot from defeated enemies. Every weapon has a different moveset, from heavy hammers to light plasma swords, and this is also true for firearms, each with different bullets and firing mode. Slashing through hordes of mutants with such weapons is a pleasure.
World: Earth is now a rotten wasteland, a harsh landscape roamed by deadly creatures. The atmosphere is always oppressive, and the exploration extremely cautious. The map is complex and variegated, including citadels made of flesh and sci-fi churches. There are several paths and secret areas to uncover, usually using keys collected in other zones, and hidden bosses to discover. Dark Light also include mutually exclusive factions to join, with their respective quests. The player can even decide to attack members of every faction, killing their leaders, and unlocking several endings including all these possibilities. The backgrounds are gorgeous and haunting, able to paint a horror sci-fi world, with a gigantic robotic hand emerging from the ground, or a titanic cybernetic skull, just to mention some examples.
Dark/Horror: The atmosphere is dense and oppressive, the combat is brutal, and dying is a common occurrence. Enemies will ambush from dark places, and, several times, a double-tap will be necessary to check if an enemy is truly dead. The silence is a constant threat to your psychological health while exploring the wasteland, the equivalent of exploring the silent ship in Dead Space.
Bestiary: In Dark Light, you can expect a series of quite classic but always interesting examples of horror sci-fi creatures. Invisible mutants, deadly parasites, grotesque zombies with huge chainsaws, or chaos warriors in full armor and with a Gatling gun: if you can name a creature-trope from horror-scifi, it is probably in the game. The game of course offers deadly boss battles, including many secret ones, from colossal buther robots and sentinel to more demonic dragons and sci-fi witches.
Salt and Sanctuary
Details: One of the first examples of recent dark metroidvania, Salt and Sanctuary tried to be the first 2D Souls-like. And the experiment succeeded with really good results. The combat is stamina-based, tough and challenging, while the RPG elements are deep and satisfying. The dark world of Salt and Sanctuary is open to any gameplay, with hundreds of weapons, items, and enchantments to collect. The game is also highly-replayable, including a NG+, multiple endings, and branch-based secondary quests with more than one outcome.
World: The world is entirely contained in a huge island collecting castaways from many shipwrecks. The island is a mysterious and ethereal place, a sort of limbo or border between life and death. Salt is the main element comprising the creatures living on the island, a sort of “soul,” but also the main currency to level up in the game. Moreover, the island is a very variegated environment, with cursed forests, colossal pyramids, hidden lakes, and amoral alchemic labs. The world is a twisted maze of areas very well connected, especially vertically. There are also many hidden elements, including bosses, locations, and even obscure guilds to join.
Dark/Horror: The game has a lonely, dark and oppressive atmosphere, a constant tale of silent areas and suffering. In this sort of limbo, there is no space for anything funny or light-hearted, but only for speechless sufferance and existential doubts. The backgrounds, especially of the bosses, retrieved through the bestiary or item descriptions in proper Souls-like formula, will also add drama and horror to the already heavy atmosphere.
Bestiary: From the half of the game, every monster will be incredibly original, dark, and disturbing. From murderous dolls to living cages waiting to imprison the player to be their new son, every new enemy is an unexpected and challenging surprise. The bosses are especially disturbing, imbued with madness or extreme loneliness. A terrifying example is the skinless, a giant alchemic abomination without skin, or a metal “tree” made of tortured bodies that need to be destroyed to defeat the boss. But my favourite example is probably the Queen of Smiles, a deranged and grinning maniac with a psychotic background, which loves blades and decorating her room with corpses.
Minoria
Details: Minoria is the spiritual sequel of Momodora, with a different art-style and the same developers behind it. As the famous Momodra before, Minoria is a proper metroidvania, just on a slightly smaller scale. The game features interesting RPG elements, including levels, and different pieces of equipment to create the best strategy for every situation. The art-style is gorgeous, and it is perfectly fitting for telling a fairytale. But be aware, behind the fable-like facade, Minoria hides a more dark core, touching important topics from religion to coexisting with nature. Minoria is also full of secrets, including a hidden boss after a set of deadly challenges, NG+, and multiple endings. But what I really liked is that, if the player is able to defeat a boss without receiving damage, a secret item will be unlocked, and this is different for every boss.
World: Minoria is almost completely set in dark and labyrinthine corridors, from the majestic beauty of a cathedral to the inner depths of a torture dungeon. A forest can also be accessed later on, creating a more complex world, but still embraced in a decadent and sad-inducing atmosphere. There are also hidden chambers with a lot of interesting details and furniture scattered around. Plus, the player can retrieve diary pages that will unveil even more the dark lore of Minoria.
Dark/Horror: Even if the fairytale art-style could make you think otherwise, psychologically speaking, Minoria is probably the darkest game on this list. Gray morality is at the core of the experience, including delicate topics such as being brainwashed by religion. Several elements will make you feel unexpectedly uneasy, including bosses begging for their life, or random prisoners asking to be killed to ease their sufferance. Gore is also present in the background, including corpses and walls drenched in blood. The atmosphere is so interesting that I also wrote a complete article about it, here is the link if you want to read more about: The gray machinery of the Inquisition behind the cute facade of Minoria [Review and Analysis].
Bestiary: The number of creatures is not as wide as other titles, and the regular enemies far too common, but bosses and sub-bosses have interesting designs, with complex and inspired battles. The main enemies are usually witches or ancient nature forces. The witches tend to have different shapes, for example a gigantic and sexy succubus. Force of nature can also become particularly interesting, such as a giant slug-plant woman.
Grime
Details: Grime is an unconventional metroidvania with a gorgeous graphic, tough and challenging combat with elements from Souls-like, and a quite unique setting and protagonist. The main character is in fact a silent humanoid black-hole, born from a complex cataclysmic phenomenon. The creature will finish purposeless on a mysterious rock world, where heavy creatures will satisfy its craving for “mass.” Grime has everything a RPG can desire: multiple weapons associated with different scaling skills, stats to upgrade with enough experience, and unique abilities to unlock by hunting and devouring specific prey.
World: The world is a joy for the eyes, a surreal land that looks like a desert alien world from a Dalí painting. Light elements, gigantic statues, and primitive art and paintings are all part of this living world inhabited by cryptic creatures and ruled by mysterious principles. The inhabitants of this surreal land are tribal rock creatures, often obsessed with the perfect proportions, since they have abnormally big heads, or with chosen ones able to “carve” the rock. Every encounter is cryptic and hermetic, part of a world that is as difficult to understand as fascinating to discover.
Dark/Horror: Grime is not a horror game by definition, nor it is violent or scary. However, the game is entirely enriched in an uneasy and unpleasant atmosphere related to the fact that the protagonist is basically an embodied law of destruction. Because being a humanoid black hole is not just aesthetic in Grime. Devouring every enemy is a base skill in the game to evolve and become stronger, by completely absorbing the mass of the enemies inside the black hole. The inhabitants will be fascinated and terrified by your presence, some will even worship and offer sacrifices, while the black hole will explore the planet and purposelessly devouring everything. Some scenes before the boss fights are also highlighting this uneasy feeling of “am I the bad guy?” as it was beautifully executed before in Nier. For example, the Whispering Mothers are two fleshy being made of a plant, sort of dancing flowers with a mouth in between. They are somehow teaching art to the stone creatures and, when the protagonist will approach, one of the rock people will run to the Mothers asking for help, in a twisted and reversed heart-breaking scene.
Bestiary: The world is full of dangerous and feral foes, almost all of them made of solid rock or tentacle-like plants. In this hostile world, any enemy should be underestimated. Some rock people use primitive weapons of stone and bones, while other beings are ferocious and aggressive masses of teeth and claws. Other creatures are like incomplete or broken statues, almost static beings that fly around attacking like drills, or will stealthily throw spears while hidden as normal art pieces. The bosses are gigantic and complex beings, where chaotic organic life meets the lifeless stone. An example of this is Amalgam, a grotesque creature with multiple arms and eyes, firstly hidden inside the gigantic head of a statue like a sort of alien hermit crab.
Angel’s Gear
Details: The game is a short metroidvania with an insanely twisted setting. Biomechanical grotesque beings are behind every corner, and the Giger-inspired art style helps to portray this nightmarish world. The main character has a gun with limited ammo to fight the enemies and a weak melee attack. It is also possible to stomp enemies to their bloody deaths, an essential move to recover ammo. The gun can also switch to different projectiles and power up, which can be found while exploring the map. Interestingly, later on, the main character can acquire an angelic and demonic form, together with new movesets. The main hub inside the world also welcomes secondary characters, including some really weird a creepy beings. Even in its short length (around 3h), Angel’s Gear provides good exploration and many boss battles.
World: The world is a twisted and complex reality. Before everything, two factions were in a bloody war for supremacy, while demonic and angelic entities known as Id and Superego were also part of this complex scenario. Then, somewhere else, a biomechanical entity known as The Gear consumed and twisted the entire universe into complex beings. The Gear dreamed of expanding into other universes, and planted its seed into the moon, which hatched into a scary nuclear dragon. This is when the war was over, and lifeforms got twisted into grotesque beings by The Gear. The player will explore this dark sci-fi world, fighting against grotesque beings while trying to stop The Gear, exploring from the depths of the world (full of grotesque sexual imageries) to the high angelic world.
Dark/Horror: A world at war where every living being got twisted into grotesque biomechanical monsters: What more you can ask for a horror start? Everything here is corrupted and disturbing, not only the enemies but also secondary characters, and even backgrounds. The general atmosphere of hopelessness imbues the setting, not a surprise for a world swallowed by an artificial machine. Gore and violence are everywhere, including enemy executions, and the brutal instant-deaths against bosses. Being devoured alive by colossal abominations will be a very common end.
Bestiary: The enemies are quite variegated and always grotesque and disturbing. You can see everything, from angelic larvae shooting rituals from afar to running zombies that can devour the player instantly. Bosses are gigantic and deformed abominations, from brood mothers screaming and trying to decapitate the player to motionless fetus-like creatures controlling chainsaws and flamethrowers. Secondary characters also fall into this disturbing imagery, including a sort of small girl with many robotic arms, a bare-breasted goddess of war constantly executing a weak creature, and a very disturbing and peculiar blacksmith.
Video Section
The official Dark RPGs YouTube channel, Surreal and Creepy Games, now also hosts a video including nine dark and horror metroidvania. Part of them is included in the article, but the video also shows other examples. Interestingly, for each metroidvania, the video depicts a representative boss battle. So have a look at it if you want to see some of these games in action:
Gris is a sorrowful city of mysteries and broken lives. In this city, four people struggle against their lives and past, paralyzed by fear and regret. Meanwhile, a magician studies their journey as a part of a cryptic theater play, while collecting tarots when they face the manifestations of their traumas. This is only the beginning of Frail Hearts, a hybrid JRPG, and adventure with a great setting.
In Frail Hearts Versicorae Domlion, the player independently plays each storyline, deciding which character will reach the end of their road. While playing the story of a specific character, they will not be available during the flights, but you will use instead all the other characters. The battles are challenging and turn-based, with puzzle-like elements. In fact, understanding the correct strategy is the key to win each battle. Moreover, the characters can level up by using the Lust collected from previous battles, useful to improve skills or characteristics. However, Frail Hearts is a linear experience inside each chapter, where every battle is a boss battle (for a total of 22 enemies).
The art-style is full of personality and details, and this is especially true for the monsters. The abominations are a festival of details, going from demons to ancient Egypt-inspired creatures, reaching being so complex that is challenging to understand what they are. The main characters will face huge and tough abominations, especially at the end of their journey, where the boss will take shape from their fears and sorrows. Every monster is also associated with a cryptic tarot deck, which provides information on their symbolism.
In the following article, you can check the four bosses at the end of each journey, including their analysis and symbolism. The description of the tarot card obtained after defeating each boss is reported in italics at the beginning of each description.
Memento Mori
Finally, the silent blade descends on the World in ruins. Nobody can be saved… goodbye. Nobody can save me… farewell. Nobody saved me…
Death pure and simple. Memento Mori is a terrifying being made of different bodies merged together, with a dragon-like appearance. The body is clearly separated in half, with a side completely skeletal and dead, a symbol of its connection with death like a proper god of the underworld. The boss also shows other peculiar features, for example, the centipede-like neck, a creature often associated with evil and death in Japanese folklore. However, the most disturbing detail is the living half of the face, which is in fact the one of a dog. The family dog of the protagonist.
The creature can attack both with the piercing tail and the main body, inflicting a huge amount of damage. But the highest threat of this boss is its Mephitic Breath, able to debilitate even the entire party with poisonous effects. The battle against Memento Mori is a huge skill check and a race against time. Will you kill it fast enough before the poison will do the same to the party?
Memento Mori is the final boss of Anne’s route. The girl is a skilled student from the local university, with a brilliant mind focused on science. However, Anne doesn’t have much outside of her studies, only her family and dog. But this is not enough for her, and quickly, her life becomes an oppressive trap. Too much care morphs into a prison, and Anne is trapped in there. Memento Mori in Latin is to “remember that you will die,” a constant paranoia of dying without achieving anything. And Anne’s paranoia takes the shape of her twisted dog and family, since the creature appears after her doppelganger family spoke to her. The boss is extremely disturbing, especially the way it asks Anne to bring it out for a walk, as if the monster still is her dog.
Lailah
Alone, from their first wailing, those babies do cry the loss of their mother. The hour of eternal sleep comes, forever extinguishing the light in the eyes of the innocent.
Lailah is probably the most challenging boss before the endgame. The flying demon has female features, with a pair of giant wings… and missing her lower half. Similar to the Philippine female demon also missing her lower half, the Manananngal, the boss is also keen to devour infants. Lailah is bold, and her face shows a sort of peaceful smile. The creature has a baby in her arms, an infant, held by the hands of this grotesque mother and connected to her body through a purple umbilical cord. However, in the middle of the battle, Lailah devours the baby, changing her appearance into a more feral form. Her peaceful smile will morph into a grin, while horns and an evil halo will appear on her head.
Lailah is a dangerous enemy, which can constantly fascinate the characters and send them to sleep, possibly doing some combos and unfair killings. She will wake up the sleepers with deadly Nightmares, inflicting heavy damage to the entire party. Especially after devouring the baby, Lailah can constantly fascinate the entire party, transforming every ally into a dangerous new threat.
Lailah is the final boss of Catherine’s route, a nun who will discover the horrible secrets hidden beneath her church. A grotesque secret made of carnivorous demons and children offered in sacrifice. Catherine’s journey will test her faith, and Lailah is the final trial between her faith and her new self-assuredness. Because Lailah represents a sort of reverted version of Holy Mary, a demon cuddling an infant. The connection is even more evident because, to access Lailah’s lair, the player must use a statue of Baby Jesus on Holy Mary to unlock the secret door.
Ben-Nut-Shu
Three are the personalities of one god, long lost in the eternal emptiness of an ephemeral existence. Which is their real face? Is it really that of a vengeful spirit?
The appearance of this boss is truly fascinating. Borne as a sort of forgotten Egyptian god, the figure is composed of three main targets. And at least two separate entities. The main body is a gigantic old man, a hooded god wearing pharaoh-like paraments and sigils, a terrifying monstrosity radiating power. The god has two giant arms, with incredibly narrow and long fingers, with the skin covered in ancient glyphs and chained at their wrists. The god is imprisoned in this dungeon lurking for freedom. The last entity is more simple but not less effective: a bird trying to fly toward freedom.
This boss is an easy battle, once you figure out how to defeat it. It is more a puzzle than a proper fight, but a very satisfying and well-implemented one. While the long arms will strike the party with attacks, the main body will only attack the bird, trying to sacrifice it. On the other hand, the bird will help the party by healing them. However, if you use multiple-targets attacks or directly target the bird, you will lose. So what is happening in this fight? Because the main body cannot be damaged, and destroying the arms is not enough to win. Only in this fight, each character has the Offering ability, which can slightly heal. Only by using Offering on the bird for long enough, the bird will run free. Subsequently, the main body will suicide.
This boss is the final enemy on Arthur’s route, an archaeologist who was adopted and mysteriously lost his father. While the Egyptian inspiration of the boss highlights the main profession of Arthur and his father, always wandering in tombs and ancient temples, the trinity of personalities of the god represents their family. The bird is an emblem of freedom, dreams, and hope, but also an unhealthy obsession for work or family, something that is necessary to let go to be free.
Gabriel
Farewell. Farewell to you, who I loved but didn’t know how to love. Farewell, heaven. Farewell, stars. Farewell, Fiore.
Gabriel is a tragic boss and a very tough opponent. The main body is a weak and harmless heart, which can be destroyed with a couple of attacks. However, the heart will soon shield behind a gigantic humanoid crow, a very aggressive and disturbing being. A human face, sleepy or sorrowful, is buried into the neck of the creature, swallowed by the black feathers. The creature resembles a distorted angel, not only because of the majestic wings but also for the huge halo on his head.
The battle is more challenging than could appear, and a lot depends on luck and raw attack power. The heart will immediately shield by creating multiple targets: the crow’s main body and its pair of wings. All the targets hit quite hard and can easily kill a party member in a single turn. Luckily, they have very few HPs, so it will be easy to expose the heart. The main problem? At every heart’s turn, the crow will generate again, bringing the exact same problems as the battle before. So, even if the heart is very weak, if you finish the crow with very few or no turns before the heart, the challenging battle will start again.
Gabriel is a tragic boss borne by an unspoken love story. He is the final boss of Michael’s route, a gangster with feelings for his best friend. However, both of them never spoke about their feelings… till it was too late. The heart shielding behind a ferocious beast is a clear symbolism of these hidden feelings, of burying the love under a mountain of appearance and toxic masculinity. So to truly reach the heart, it is necessary to defeat the monsters hiding and protecting that fragile and intimate feeling.
If you want to check the complete battles against these bosses, the following video in the Surreal and Creepy YouTube channel will satisfy your curiosity:
Fear & Hunger doesn’t go soft in terms of enemies and bosses, providing a set of disturbing and grotesque creatures, including challenging boss battles against gigantic abominations able to wipe out the entire party in a festival of mutilations. In fact, this is the second entry for Fear & Hunger in Boss Battle, previously featuring the relentless Crow Mauler: When it is impossible to Save: surviving all the mutilations of the Crow Mauler in Fear & Hunger [Boss Battle].
Fear & Hunger has a complex Pantheon of gods, specifically divided into Old and New. While the New Gods are humans ascended to divinity, the Old Ones are ancient twisted and macabre beings, mysterious creatures born at the beginning of time. Usually, the Old Gods are described and portrayed in books scattered around the dark dungeons, manuscripts probably wrote by cultists trying to assign a physical form to their deities, even if this is often far from the God’s true form. At least 5 Old Gods are described in the books, starting with Alllmer, a sort of twisted revisited version of Jesus Christ, to the hermetic Moon God, which has a relevant role in the sequel of Fear & Hunger. However, two Old Gods appear as hidden boss battles in the original game, offering brutal and challenging fights.
Gro-goroth is also known as the God of Destruction, a dangerous and malevolent entity connected with death and carnages. The Old God lies beneath the most difficult dungeon of the game, deep inside the mouth of a gigantic monster, after passing deadly traps and monsters. Moreover, Gro-goroth can be faced only by going for the Ending B, meaning that a party member, the Girl, should be dead (if you want an idea of all the horrible things that can happen to this party member, check my article: Fear & Hunger: the many ways to permanently sacrifice the Girl [Evil Quests]). Gro-goroth will emerge from the darkness below a platform entirely made of dead bodies, ready to fight the party after an existentialist conversation. Only the upper half of the gigantic creature is visible, a muscled torso made of twisted flesh, grotesque organs, wings, and gigantic stone-like claws. Gro-goroth is a visual cacophony of flesh, even having a mouth opening in the middle of its chest, or sort of beak-like elements decorating its neck. The face somehow keeps a sparkle of humanity, a pale mask similar to a marble statue.
As expected from an end-game boss fight, the enemy is a devastating force of destruction. The gigantic god has multiple attacks, caused by different limbs and organs. The sharp claws are its main weapon, able to inflict tremendous damage, including the bleeding effect. Taking this into account, cutting-off the claws is a vital strategy to facilitate the fight. But this is not all, multiple eyes can emerge from the flesh of its body, creating additional enemies. The eyes will cry out a scorching liquid on top of the party, causing moderate damage and the burning effect. Up to 5 eyes can open in its body and, even if they have few HP, not taking action against them could cause a swarming of damages and effects in each turn.
If this is not enough, Gro-goroth also knows powerful spells, such as Burning Gaze or the mysterious Whisper of Gro-goroth. The second enchantment is particularly peculiar: it will mark a party member with a countdown and, when it will reach 0, that character will instantly die. After all, Gro-goroth is the god of death and destruction for a reason.
If you want to look at the complete challenging battle against Gro-goroth, you can check the video in the Surreal and Creepy YouTube channel:
The second Old God was added to the game in one of the last updates. While going for ending C, the player will now reach an empty and dark wasteland, a sort of abyss out of time and space. In this extreme environment, the main character should find again the other party members while avoiding deadly and dangerous hunting creatures. But it is on a stone bridge suspended above a green light that the party will face Sylvian, the god of sex and fertility. If Gro-goroth was very similar to the images inside the unholy manuscripts, Sylvian is drastically different. The books portray her as a humanoid goddess with the body covered in breasts, a fitting representation for the god of fertility.
Sylvian is honoured with orgies from her followers, worshipped as carnal and universal love. However, Sylvian’s love for mankind got twisted during the ages, becoming a sick parody of sex, passion, and love. For example, people marrying in honour of Sylvian will be blessed with an abominable marriage, meaning that their bodies will be fused together in a grotesque mass of flesh. This is also reflected in the true form of Sylvian: a grotesque mass of green flesh and tentacles surrounding a half-exposed ribcage, with pointed breasts and a shark-like head.
The boss battle is probably the most difficult in the entire game. The god has an insane amount of HP and it can use some really dirty tricks. Each tentacle attacks individually causing different negative effects, such as stun or bleeding, but the bigger ones are the true danger, especially if they grab party members, basically trapping them in a suffocating hug. Sylvian can also strike the mind of the characters, complicating the life of spell-casters. Color of the Unknown is the most dangerous between these attacks since it will damage the minds of the entire party.
However, the most disturbing move is related to a sort of tumorigenic mass that will grow at each turn from the ribcage of the god. The attack is very similar to the one of another creature, Uterus (you can read about this monster here: Monster of the Week: Uterus (Fear & Hunger)), just this time it is even more dangerous. If not defeated on time, the mass will transform each turn into a more humanoid figure. The fully developed creature will add an extra layer of difficulty in the battle, with the possibility of completely murdering a character with one attack.
While other Old Gods are present in the game, such as the dead body of Alllmer, only Gro-goroth and Sylvian can be challenged and defeated in battle.
However, as expected from images and Demo, the Moon God, Rher, plays a central role in the sequel Fear & Hunger 2 Termina. The Moon God is very mysterious, hidden in plain sight from humanity and with ambiguous plans. It is also addressed as the Trickster God, described as jealous and incredibly resentful of humanity. On the other hand, in contraposition, Rher is also considered the God of Truth. In fact, people exposed to its “moonlight” mutate into their true selves… of course meaning mutating into grotesque and insane abominations. While common people go into a shared mutating path while “moonscorched,” as if this is a sort of supernatural disease, special people evolve into more dangerous and personalized monstrosities, often keeping a sparkle of their intellect.
Several creatures and characters from the previous title, specifically the disturbing Pocketcat and the Lady of the Moon (which you can read more about here: The Pocketcat of Fear & Hunger: what RPG merchant could be more disturbing than one exchanging items for children? [Evil Characters]) are servants of this mysterious Old God. They are obsessed with children, especially to kidnap them, probably not only to despise humankind but also to remove gifted people from the equation. In Termina, Per’kele is the emissary of Rher, in charge of organizing the Termina festival to select the surviving candidate and admit them to his tower.
As for the two previous Gods before, it is also possible to fight Rher in Termina. To face the God, the player should look for ending B, meaning to become the only candidate reaching the tower alive but still not considered worthy of the Rher’s attention. After defeating Per’kele, he will reveal that the god left this reality, leaving only a trace behind it. And still, as if pulled from a chain, a gigantic smiling moon will drop from the sky to crush the unworthy player. And this is where the battle against Rher begins.
Rher appears as a creepy gigantic face with holes as eyes and a skeleton-like mouth, surrounded by two rings full of eyes. The God is an insanely difficult battle, especially since the player must kill all the other potential party members to face it. So basically you can only fight it alone, or maximum with an evil goat, weak ghouls, and summons. And if this was not enough, Rher has a tremendous range of attacks. Its base attack, Moonscorched, is a column of light falling from the sky, a single-target high-damage attack. Two hits from this attack are enough to kill any character. Lunar Storm materializes a meteor shower from the sky, heavily damaging the entire party. Dreamscape is probably the most visually striking attack. Rher will briefly summon a warrior made of light, which will slash one target. The attack is not as damaging as Moomscorched, but this is not a relief since Dreamscape has a high chance of severing limbs.
However, the most complex side of the battle comes from the eyes surrounding Rher. The eyes attack after Rher using multiple times the All Seeing Eyes ability. In the beginning, these attacks look like a minor concern, only slightly damaging the Mind. But there is a powerful downside to this. When Mind reaches 0 against Rher, each turn there is a 50% chance of simply dying because your Mind cannot manage Rher’s vision. First, you will become blind. Then, you will only see indescribable horrors. In the end, the brain will simply melt.
So while avoiding powerful attacks, without a party, the player must also kill as many eyes as possible while managing their health and Mind to avoid instant death. This is what you call a secret super boss battle against an Old God.
If you want to see the complete battle against Rher, with a powerful set up, have a look at the following video on the Surreal and Creepy channel [Rher’s battle at 8:38]:
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