How I did the nightmare forms was like this- I thought- why not take the nightmare part of the characters and make it less about difficulty and more about the characters, specifically their fears, their NIGHTMARES.
Cuphead's fear is losing his soul to the Devil, so he has a devil tail, is soul-less in attitude, and has the card symbols orbiting his waist.
Sans's fear is losing his brother, so he has the same armor as Papyrus, his brother
And Bendy has two fears. His first is being abandoned, so his heart is shown to be in a cage.
And his second, which is dying due to the End reel, which is now sticking out of his chest.
That's a lot.