10 Unexpected Times Video Games Creeped You Out
Seriously, what was up with the moon in Majora's Mask?!
The villagers have been taken over by... something, and they're working together to find anyone who won't conform.
You're sneaking your way through the village, trying to find out what happened, but also working your way to safety. You're doing well, creeping amongst them until you happen to turn around just in time to see it; a man with a sickle he was about to put into your back.
There's nothing quite like that scare. The feeling as your hairs stand up on end and your fight or flight instinct kicks in. The panic as you run away from an un-killable beastie - that notion of a perfectly paced plan being ruined by one mistake.
You expect it when you buy a horror game, and it's likely why you bought it. But there are plenty of non-horror titles out there that manage to get under the skin of their players too. Sometimes it's an enemy that is just terrifying to behold. Others, the situation itself gets the blood pumping. Others still give you a location that just isn't right and creeps you out.
However they manage it, video games demand your attention to function, and the right type of scare will go down in gaming history.
10. Final Fantasy VII - Seeing Sephiroth's Power
Even far removed from that one moment everyone knows, the original Final Fantasy VII was a master of controlling the player's emotions.
Most of the times it did this involved one of two things; the betrayal of certain party members (not calling spoilers on a game that's been out 23 years), and Sephiroth. There's a brilliant moment in the town of Nibelheim later on which could count as a horror section, but that's not what we're looking at here.
Early on you actually play alongside Sephiroth in a flashback, using way more powerful versions of spells than you have access to, in order to wreck an imposing enemy. A little after that, you spend a good portion of the game following him across the world, only just behind him, and arriving in time to see the aftermath of his actions.
At one point, after using a chocobo to cross a small section safely where we'd otherwise have to battle aunbeatable snake boss, only to find Sephiroth has used a tree to spear its corpse in a terrifying monument to his power.