New Game Design/Gameplay needed for dealing with Enemies in future games

[caffeine4671]

Spoiler below!

quoting EnDash
That's true for the main boss and Cthulhu's omnipresence throughout the game but it is not the only creature/metaphor-concept you deal with.

Facing Chtuhlu for example in the end of the game or periodically before, should be some scripted events or sequence of puzzles which player must solve without using weapons, of course, because of the nature how Lovecraft imagined it or how developers imagined it.

But what about the other 80-90% of the gameplay?
This is were we diverge our opinions. I think player should choose if he want to engage himself or not.
Furthermore, the player should be able to use environment,skills and wit to his advantage.

but if the player is able to overcome those monsters, even small unimportant ones, the result is that he is no longer afraid. sure you may have the exhilarating survival instinct of "is something going to jump on me?" or the proud feeling of using your wits to overcome obstacles. but those situations are not horror.

i gave cthulhu as an example, he is the extreme of what i'm trying to say. if you can understand and overcome it, you are not scared. which is why making enemies in horror games is so hard.

Spoiler below!

Alexander had lovecraftian properties but he wasn't Cthulu or an embodiment of him by any means.

The Shadow on the other hand rang completely Cthulu, being unstoppable and un-kill able if you got in its way.

exactly, which is why alexander was not scary but the shadow was (although to me he wasn't really that scary because he seemed very limited, he could never hurt you or obstruct you for long).

i still maintain the water lurker is the scariest monster of all times in video games. you can't directly see him, you only know he exists indirectly through water and the unintelligible sounds he make, you can't attack or obstruct him, only distract him. and you can't at any point kill him, in amnesia daniel simply ran away from him as fast he could.

I wish I could quote your post twice. You basically summed up why the water lurker worked so well.