While JRPGs may not have a super strong claim as a Halloween gaming classics, several games in the genre have nonetheless dabbled in the horrific, often resulting in some highly memorable dungeons and levels.
Because whenever a JRPG shifts tone towards the frightful, it’s often an absolute trick and treat. Who doesn’t look a little bit of a scare after level-grinding and character customising for hours on end?
JRPGs love leaning into popular European myth and legend, with Neclord’s Castle from Suikoden taking heavy inspiration fromeveryone’s favourite vampire,Dracula. It’s also possible this massive gothic structure was influenced by the Castlevania series, but regardless of what its paying homage to, Neclord’s Castle is one of the most striking locations in the entire game.
The castle is filled with lots of neat details that add to its gothic horror charm. There’s a zombie who you can pay to reveal secrets within the castle, a room full of coffins acts as an inn where your party can heal themselves, and who can forget the massive organ where you’ll find Neclord himself? Iconic stuff.
6Train Graveyard – Final Fantasy 7 Remake
Where Things Derail Quickly
The Train Graveyard was a location early on in the original Final Fantasy 7 where, as its name suggests, a field or decrepit trains lay abandoned and forgotten in the slums of Midgard. And while this first appearance had its eerie moments, it wasn’t until the location returned in the appropriately titled “Haunted” chapter of Final Fantasy 7 Remake that it really lived up to its horror potential.
When exploring the Train Graveyard in Remake, all the characters undergo some form of phycological distress – whether it’s Aerith recollecting her childhood or Tifa showing genuine terror at the ghostly spirits haunting the ruins. The level stands out for this reason, never making you feel settled the entire time you are there.
For such an idiosyncratically bizarre game, it should come as no surprise that the final dungeon in Earthbound turns the spookiness up to eleven. It’s not that the Cave of the Past is outright frightening, more that it operates as an uncanny liminal zone that always has you feeling on edge.
This unsettling strangeness is present everywhere – from having to navigate the cave as fully inorganic robotic versions of your party, to the grotesque intestine-lined floor of the final section. It’s an appropriately eerie build up to one of gaming’smost memorable final boss fights.
The Pokemon series is known to have some spine-tingling moments, especially those swarming with Ghost-type creatures. Perhaps the most chilling of all these settings is the Old Chateau, which can be found deep in the forests of the Sinnoh region.
The Old Chateau is a memorable ghost house both in terms of its enemies (the previously mentioned Ghost-type Pokemon) and actual undead spirits who haunt the rooms of this already spooky house. Occasionally, you find the ghosts of a girl and a butler wandering throughout the Old Chateau, their identities or reason for being there never being explained.
The buildup to Magus’s Castle during the 600AD time period of Chrono Trigger is immense. After learning of Frog’s tragic backstory and witnessing this era suffer at the hands of the Fiendlord Magus, your party finally makes their way to the island where his towering castle gives off a truly frightening aura.
Entering the castle initiates a gauntlet of increasingly difficult enemies and boss fights through rooms absolutely dripping with gothic energy. This all leads up to the final showdown with Magus, his inner chamber slowly illuminating from a row of candles as one of the genre’s most iconic boss fights commences.
You know that a dungeon is going to be rather sinister when your entire party has to fake their death before they are granted entry. That is exactly what Oliver and friends must do in order to explore Tombstone Trail – easily the most Halloween-inspired location in the first Ni no Kuni.
The dungeon is awash in gloomy colours and a spooky atmosphere, especially when you encounter an abandoned shack at roughly the halfway point where Mr. Drippy spots a mysterious girl who never gets mentioned again. Tombstone Trail does lose some of its scare factor when it later becomes the location of one ofthe best casinos in all of gaming.
The miracle of the Phantom Train in Final Fantasy 6 is that this highly memorable railroad-inspired dungeon is, in essence, no more than padding. The Phantom Train can’t be revisited after you complete it and, other than having some character development for Cyan, this location has very little relevance to the main story of the game.
And yet, the Phantom Train still gets mentioned as one of the high points of Final Fantasy 6. The titular train is brimming with suspense as your party make their way from carriage to carriage, either conversing with or battling the spirits of those who are passing to “the other side”. Like the best horror-inspired locations, there’s an undercurrent of tragedy at the heart of the Phantom Train, which is why it has remained a fan favourite after all these years.
