I love horror, but...

[pettycoat]

People think I'm joking when I say Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future is the scariest game I've ever played. "Oh, you mean that game about that adorable cartoon dolphin?" No, I mean that game where you're constantly drowning in a murky blue void while giant sea terrors pop out of the fog because the turn of the century wasn't kind to draw distance. You guys can keep Akira Yamaoka. This is what immediately comes to mind when I think of horror video game music.

The soundtrack is fantastic, though.

Comments

[alwaysbeenasmiler]

Let me tell you, Shadow Hearts was terrifying to me-- the music was super spooky, and it wasn't really a scary game.. aside from the satanic rituals which at the time to a 19 year old gave me the heebie jeebies. But that soundtrack!

[pettycoat]

Shadow Hearts has been on my to-play list for a long time. Years, even. I'm going to take this as motivation to finally pull it off the shelf and give it a go! I swear I love horror when I'm not hiding from happy little sea creatures swimming around on my TV.

[cabalsruin]

"that game where sharks are trying to kill you and you fight aliens"

i loved this game as a kid bc i loved dolphins but i never got past the first level because sharks are terrifying

[pettycoat]

Right? It's hard to describe just how insane the plots to the Ecco games can be. Weirdly enough, though, I remember being more scared of the whales than the sharks. Something about a large, stationary shape just popping up in the distance creeps me right the hell out.

[cabalsruin]

honestly, the ocean in general? terrifying

[pettycoat]

Oh, most definitely. You couldn't get me on a boat if you paid me.

[masu_trout]

I need to try Ecco at some point, I played it a bit at a friend's when I was younger but never got very far. I love older games like that, where the premise seems so innocuous but the game itself is just wild.

[pettycoat]

I have yet to beat the original 2D games, but I've seen enough to know that they would have terrified me as a child. I never expected a game about a chipper little dolphin to have such an oppressive atmosphere.

[devilswings]

I definitely need to try this game! Scariest game from when I was younger is still probably Clock Tower just because there's something about silence until there's suddenly not silence that gets me. But a dolphin in the void with sharks jumping out of nowhere? That sounds right up my alley nowadays!

[pettycoat]

Clock Tower for the PS1, as dated as it is, got me good a few times. Nothing like the distant sound of snipping scissors to put me into a panic. (And really, my fear of the Ecco games mostly boils down to my phobias of water and wide, open spaces. I'm the kind of person who gets anxious chest pains if I fall out of world in a game.)