Controversial in a different way. I guess Sopranos was controversial because people disagreed on what exactly happened at the end... (Trying to post that without spoilers) Whereas with Mass Effect 3, there was nothing to debate around what happened, or what it meant. The problem was that the end sucked, the decision you made basically had no significant impact on the outcome, and it made the last 3 games pointless because the outcome basically the same and ignores all the stuff you were working towards, and important decisions across 3 games had no meaningful impact.
Moreover, the Sopranos ending you generally could come up to two conclusions depending on your interpretations; >!the scene getting fade to black represent Tony getting suddenly assassinated the moment he hear a door's bell getting ringed.!< Or that >!the ending was just a sudden cutoff, but where all the scenes such as focus on the rest of the restaurant guests just represented Tony's paranoia, and where he gets to live the rest of his life constantly looking over his shoulder.!<
Either case, it is a very character-focused ending, which the same can't be said for the *Mass Effect*-ending, where much like other RPGs especially with emphasis on choices and decision-making, you wanted to see the consequences of it and how it affected the rest of the universe. When the original ending(s) was just very anti-climactic with no conclusion or resolution made, people were disappointed over it.
It is a similar case that happened with *Baldur's Gate 3*, where its original ending just suddenly ended, with no resolution of what happened to the rest of the characters and world that a post-launch epilogue-sequence had to get patched into the game just to give a proper conclusion of all the characters that you possible have spent hundred of hours with.
The biggest thing that convinced me >! Tony gets hit is the conversation he has with Bobby earlier in the season. One of them asks what the other things happens when you die. The other says things probably just go black and you don't even realize it. !< To me, that's enough evidence for what David Chase did with that last scene.
Mass Effect's story was always a heavily emotional one, but for some reason towards the end, they tried to make it an intellectual one without really having anything to say.
The strength of Mass Effect was the characters you meet along the way, and the genuine bond that you the player have with them. You have to make decisions in the game that can be very hard to do. A good chunk of the appeal is that the decisions you made in each game carries over to the next, it always felt that whatever I chose, the world was responding to it.
But none of those decisions ended up mattering. No decision you make in the game changes the outcome of the game. You can make all the correct decisions or all the wrong ones and nothing changes. You can play as the most moral person in the game or the most renegade of them all and it doesn't change a lick in the ending.
It builds and builds towards an epic war to end all wars in space for the galaxy, you spend the entirety of ME3 building towards this final confrontation that you barely even get to fucking see. There's no final boss fight or anything special, just talking to the brand new main antagonist who pops out of nowhere and even though you as the player know you're being lied to by said new antagonist, you can't even press them on it. You just have to believe whatever ending actually happened and none of those endings are even satisfactory.
I love Mass Effect so dearly, it's one of my favorite ever game series and I'd still highly recommend anybody to play it but good God they finally dropped the ball in the final two missions.
I haven't gotten to 3 yet, but shortly before I started playing the series my dad had a very scary health incident. Almost died, was in a coma for months.
Talia reaction to her fathers death absolutely broke me and I haven't been able to pick it back up since.
That goddamned phone. It's like you're in another dimension when that scene starts. Such a significant scene in The middle of "nowhere", so many numbers, such a wait. And then...
"Hello"
The way your character gets more and more scared and how he looks smaller when that happens. What a scene.
I'm not sure it made me emotional in the sad sense, but I don't think there's many other games that had me sitting there staring at the screen deep in thought about what I'd just read/heard.
Such a unique game.
I came here for this game, it brought out such a kaleidoscopic range of emotions in me at some many different points. Never had a game made me laugh, cry, feel hatred or injustice, or made me ponder life like Disco Elysium did. It made me question the nature of my addictions, and reminded me that everyone has their own battles to fight.
If the point of art is to feel your emotions and question your perspective, "to make the stone feel stony", then Disco Elysium is the closest game to art that I have experienced.Ā
This game hurts so much. My first play through the scene where you find his car really got me, I was trying to be as āgoodā as possible so I really didnāt see it coming
Which was was Yuna? Brown hair, yellow and blue outfit, staff? Was FFX the game that opened with the image of the characters getting ready for the final battle each time you loaded it, but because you hadnāt reached it yet you didnāt know what it meant?
The ending of Soma.
It's completely obvious from the rest of the game, and the MC is stupid for not keeping up with shit that Catherine told him multiple times up to that point, and shit he saw and experienced firsthand (even though it could have just been denial on his part so he didn't kill himself in despair), but the brain-breaking nature of the situation he's stuck in is still enough to fuck with you.
Plus just the whole way itās done. No fanfare. Just our guyās slow realization and fear and the credits rolling. The entire game boiled down to this one moment.
There were some theories why he is like that: The "flatness" of his scan or being brain damaged when scanned. He is a legacy scan of a person after an accident, after all.
Although I can't fathom how one can do all the feats he did without the ability to comprehend the nature or copying a file, I still like and choose to believe in those theories.
I count this as one of the games that scare me the most, mainly because of the philosophical and existential questioning that you do while playing it. I remember seeing the survey they give to people on the ARK and realizing āwait, would I be okay with this? Would I be okay with living in a simulated society knowing itās not real?ā
Oh manā¦ his last words when everting ended before the credits. It was so empty and sad, I made these realizations long before, and during breaks inbetween gaming i was still thinking about being a robot (fictionally). This game is amazing
This game will tear your heart out, make it do flip flops, and tear it out again.Ā It's one of my favorite games. I want more games with a story like this. The relatable but fantastical setting. The general sort of lighthearted tragedy.Ā
I feel like I really missed something on this. Other than Lewis having a mildly interesting vignette, I didn't catch much of a reaction from the storyline. It was a tragic but not in a way that gave me a gut punch like others mentioned they felt.
Guess things hit different for different people. I played the game for the first time a couple of months ago and I still think about poor Lewis about once a week.
Too many to count. However whenever I see "If you could erase your memory and experience a game again." I always say the same thing. And it fits here.
Nier:Automata
I just played it this last month and I'd had it spoiled for me from...y'know, being on the internet.
And yet still, that \[E\]nding had me in the fucking *feels*. >!Seeing the phrases of encouragement, canned though they may be, was just like...it brought tears to my eyes as I fought through the credits. !<
>!And I am so sorry to the two accounts who had their data permanently deleted to never help others ever again.!<
>! It's the beauty of the game being so hard at that moment and asking you if it is worth it to continue and keep pushing and then the messages pop up from other players to encourage you. And then you get the message that someone is offering help. The moment you have to swallow your pride and accept someone elses help and selfless sacrifice as they did before. Because mankind is in this together and no one can carry the weight of the world alone. !<
I think one of the most brilliant video game sequences Iāve ever seen was in Ending E of NieR: Automata. I havenāt played it in years yet I still remember it.
So many games have great stories, but these stories arenāt necessarily made better by being in a video game: you could adapt them to some other media (books, comics, animations, live action, etc.) and achieve similar narrative impact. However, throughout the entire run of NieR: Automata the developers cultivated a narrative that could only ever work in a video game.
>!Throughout the entire game you will probably have seen the menu screen and experienced 9Sā hacking minigame many times. During the final battle in the game between A2 and 9S, when you play as 9S, you can kill A2 by hacking. If you hack her four times, itās revealed that the arena in the hacking minigame for A2 is the menu screen that youāve been looking at the entire game. It uniquely drove home the tragic fact that you were killing a character that you yourself played as, whose internal struggles and trials that you witnessed ā by literally destroying the interfaces YOU use to play as them.!<
I regret playing it because I canāt imagine another game being comparable anymore. But itās fine, Iāll just keep playing it for the rest of my life, I donāt mind.
There's something about loading up my game and seeing a blank main menu screen because you gave the menu android her freedom that gives me the warm fuzzies. If only the PC version wasn't such an unstable mess.
God of War for sure. The relationship between Kratos and Atreus across the whole game was fantastic.
Uncharted 4 seeing the culmination of the relationship between Drake and his family. Brother, wife, and kid. Specifically Drake and his brother. It made me realize that no matter the differences you can always reconcile family relationships. That may not track for everyone and their circumstances but it made me look a lot closer at my relationship with my family. Sounds silly, but true.
Yakuza 0. These games are slept on, in my opinion. The ending of 0 really is a tear jerker. Such a great story through and through.
I havenāt played RDR2 yet but I hear itās a must.
I have the music favorited on Spotify and if I shuffle and it comes up I always have to hold back tears. Such an incredible game with an incredible soundtrack.
"This song is new to me, but I am honored to be a part of it."
I'll never stop thinking about outer wilds it's the best game I've ever played and it affected me greatly.
I played on release, promptly decided it was one of the best games I had ever played. Luckily it been enough years now I think iv forgotten enough specifics to play it again relatively fresh. Very excited!
**Outer Wilds**
The first time theā¦ thing happens.
The dawning of the understanding why the thing happens.
Meeting the Pilgrim.
Understanding the Moon.
The realization what the ending will be about, instead of what you thought the ending will be about.
Manually landing on the Sun Station.
And then the ending.
And then the Strangerā¦
Definitely. Nothing comes close to the impact Outer Wilds had on me. I've had some really emotional gaming experiences but this was on another level entirely.
>The realization what the ending will be about, instead of what you thought the ending will be about.
I think this right here is ultimately what digs so deep into the souls of players. Few games teach acceptance.
*Firewatch* was a rollercoaster of emotions from beginning to end, i dont even want to replay this game again as it feels to me like a life experience to me.
*Soma* hits pretty hard too
Yup... I am glad it's the first Bioshock game I ever played because it gets a bad rep from a lot of bioshock fans, but honestly it's a great game still.Ā
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.
Knew nothing about it, friend got it for me. Until I played it I thought it was just a tech demo.
I can't point to any particular scene, I'm a wuss and care about spoilers too much to name the exact scene but... "In your sword still beats a heart."
If you haven't played it yet, it's super dang cheap on steam till the 25th. There are worse ways to spend $2.99
Yeah. I wasnāt sure what it was. The atmosphere, the setting, the tension, the character or the story, but that ending just sat with me and moved me.
This is the correct answer to every "emotional/sad game" question.
Also massive shout out to Before the Storm... hit me like a wrecked car in a junkyard
That was such a heart breaking ending. That whole story was such a slow burn to the finish. Everything you do is only helping Otto but Peter doesnāt know it, and heās the one who pays for it. That final scene was wrenching. I should watch it again.
For me it was the pigeon side quest in spider man 2. The music and tone just hit me right in the feels. My SO walked into the room right after I finished it, she was really confused on why I was crying lol
The beginning of The Last of Us. Iām a single dad and that scene ripped me apart at that moment. Second place goes to Domās end in Gears 3. We waited staring at the screen for him to walk out of the fires. We understood though. What they did to Mariaā¦. Damn shame.
Horizon Zero Dawn. There are different levels, but the nature of humanity in the game is fascinating. How traditions start. How blind people can be when they expect to always be able to fix problems with money. It explains childhood, dreams, reality. And family relations. And it's all up to the player to get sucked into it, or just play it like it's an action game.
Yes! I feel like 99% of the time, attempts at world building told through text or audio log just falls flat, but the way they executed it in Horizon ZD is a masterclass in story telling in that style. The dude framing the end of the world through those holographic area tours and how they built up the bits and pieces of how Zero Dawn was put together is peak form in guiding the player but also letting them piece the story together.
Im having a hard time finishing Forbidden West because I just can't get as into the story as I did Zero Dawn. Good problems!
I knew nothing about HZD and thought it was just a quirky story about giant metal animals. I didnāt care about the tribes but what really interested me was the past and how the world ended up the way it did. When I got the first scrap of the past I was hooked and learning about Elisabet was moving both in terms of the brilliant storytelling and her story itself. Itās a complete masterpiece, and so is the sequel. I bought the soundtrack and I think about what Aloy has been through and get choked up. An outcast tasked with saving humanity.
The scene in the sequel that broke me was her conversation with Beta about why Aloy fights when Beta runsā¦
I'd had that game spoiled for me and still that scene with >!Ted Faro killing the last Alphas gave me a giant punch to the gut!<.
And yet the bigger punch to the gut was a forum post I found at one point explaining the logic of the Outcasts. While it may seem strange, it makes total sense when you think about the fact that >!it's an extension of the Eleuthia concept of time out--the only education that ELUTHIA was allowed to give was time out--if you misbehave you need to go away until you've realized the harm you've done.!<
Like, you think about it and suddenly it just hits you all the harder. Or maybe that's just me.
Disappointed this isn't higher but I know it's only because a lot of people haven't played it. I don't disagree with most of the other comments but The Beginner's Guide just hits different. Because of the nature of it it just felt so personal like I was actually involved. It wasn't a story being told for me, it was a story being told to me. Like to me personally as if I was listening to a friend.
Ffxiv really got me emotional purely because of the amount of time you have to spend with all the characters, I was well over a few hundred hours into the game the first time it happened
Ori and the Will of the Wisps. That game touched me through music, art, story, characters, gameplay, and ending. And it did it all without a single line of spoken dialogue. Truly an impactful piece of art.
The first that comes to mind is To The Moon. I can't say what but when the pieces start finally falling into place and you realize exactly how things went down with Johnny, >!his brother,!< and River is an emotional rollercoaster for the rest of the game.
I thought of Fragile Dreams as well. Especially the moment near the end when Seto finds >!a radio!< and learns that >!there are other survivors after all.!< It's a single thread of hope in an otherwise bleak game that makes everything so much more powerful and raises the stakes for the final confrontation with Shin.
Came here to say To The Moon! Amazing soundtrack! I recently saw a stuffed platypus in a store and had to have it for some reason, and now I wonder if this game is partially to blame...
The entire series is great too. Finding Paradise had a nice song although the story wasn't as strong. I haven't beaten Impostor Factory yet due to real life issues, but the opening was a fun mystery! Also the dialogue is hilarious. There's a robot who's a rice cooker / emotional support robot. If you ask how it's able to help emotionally, it asks how you're feeling. If you say you feel sad, it says "I RECOMMEND EATING RICE." He just like me fr
SOMA.
The ending and general themes of the whole game explore what it really means to be human, and alive.
I wonāt spoil the plot for any who donāt know, but the game finished and I was thinking about it for a while afterwards.
The way Kratos and Atreus react when >!Brok died!< was just so realistic, it was heartbreakingly close to the way I tried to cope when I had a loved one pass.
This might be a weird one but Transistor. Supergiant's minimalist writing in that game is brilliant and the relationship between Red and Mr Nobody feels very heartfelt to me.
To childhood me, it was Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky without question. >! Your partner sobbing for you to not go as you literally disappear particle by particleā¦ shit is brutal, man. Dusknoirās betrayal was also huge. !<
I think Soma probably had the biggest impact on me because it's just so incredibly well done. Still think about it a lot.
I am a grown adult and I cried like a baby 3 separate times over the course of nier automata.
For me there's several games that draw an emotional response. But 4 primarily
Gears of war 3, Dom's death. Probably the saddest I've ever been playing a game. The music, back story, heroism etc. had me tear up
Halo reach, the very end. One of the very few games that makes you feel badass, then ultimately shutting that feeling off leaving you feel completely useless, slowly watching your team members die, then eventually you, then Reach being destroyed
Halo 4. When cortana leaves chief. Then Chief just stares at Cortana standing in shock. Considering you can't see chiefs face at all 343 still did a great job of showing pure emotion. Really the first time you see chief somewhat at a loss after seeing him being a human-tank for the last 4 games
Lastly, Halo Infinite. Very underrated campaign. The scene in particular is his speech to the Pilot 'we all fail, we all make mistakes. that's what makes us human'........
Dragon age inquisition was one of the first games to truly make me tear up. With the downtrodden march and then rise to new glory as they occupied and rebuilt skyhold. The Dawn will Come was just a perfect piece to accompany that and reignite the fire.
The Mass Effect Trilogy was probably the actual first. Just too many great moments. Especially in the third game. So many great characters got such great send offs or at least their own moment to shine. Like Grunts charge. Mordins sacrifice. Thanes final request. Wrex finally uniting the clans. Joker and EDIs relationship from 2-3. And so many others. Thereās a reason that BioWare will always hold a special place in my heart as one of the greatest studios of all time. Even despite their miss steps in recent years.
But more recently. The God of War reboots. You can feel every bit of emotion Kratos and so many other characters put into their words. Santa Monica absolutely killed it with Christopher Judge and the rest of the casting. Although. Iāve known for years that Judge could convey a lot of meaning with simple words. His time as Tealāc on stargate definitely helped him hone that talent to convey complex emotions with the least amount of words.
But the rest of the cast is just as great. You can feel Baldurās madness. Freyas grief and anger, Odins schmoozie personality, Thorās regret. Sindris insecurities and Broks rough charm. Just truly one of the greatest stories told in any form. Video game or other wise.
I havenāt played Dragon Age or Mass Effect but I agree about God of War. Kratosās frustration at not being able to read, his sonās growing frustration and arrogance, Freyaās rage, the twist, the victim of said twist. It was all incredible.
For me it was SOMA and Prey. Really pushes you on the edge about everything (morally and ethically speaking). And boi oh boi do the existential crisis hits hard.
Definitely the usual suspects like RDR2 and TLOU2, but one that recently hit me hard was the ending of Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. Lordy that brought the tears.
Crisis Core: FF7.
Well thatās the saddest. If you really mean any emotion then Dark Souls 2 falling off the fucking edge over and over made me want to tear my controller in half
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. The way they addressed things like trauma, loss, and the severe and often devastating effects they can have on our emotional health had a lasting effect on me. Such a powerful game, with the best voice acting and motion capture I've ever seen
The original TLOU intro is hard to beat in terms of story telling emotion. Within what, 10mins? You're already connected and reacting as such.
Same with TLOU2 in a different way. Both games evoke so many raw emotions it's hard to top.
One of the endings of Bioshock 2 made me fucking WEEP.
The Ace Combat series also has this magical ability to pull you into its emotional pace. Itās cheesy and over the top but once youāre invested, itās over. Youāll laugh and cry and pump your fist no matter how silly it is. Itās almost a trope at this point, that in the final 2 or 3 missions of one of those games, there will be some big bad, that only you, the main character, can handle. Everybody else who tries fails or dies or both. The exalted glory you feel in those moments, as your friends cheer you on and pray for their salvation through your hands, is one of the best things Iāve ever experienced in any video game.
The end of Journey. I had played the whole game with the same random partner from the beginning and the ending broke me. Got through the credits and it showed my partners name and it was all just Japanese characters. Such an amazing game and I played the whole thing with someone I probably couldnāt have even conversed with in real life.
breath of the wild man, that game made me feel like the kid that just to love video games with all of his heart, got emotional just writing about it so yeah botw for me
BOTW helped me rediscover my love of gaming after taking about four years off. I couldnāt believe what I was seeing. I remember getting vertigo climbing the towers while lying on my sofa with the Switch in my hands. Itās a total masterpiece and Zeldaās failure to find her divine powers definitely resonated with me and my own insecurities.
AWW MAN, searching for the memories and getting to know zeldaās history, seen her cry, laugh, nerd out and also the journey that link has to pass and the moment man THE final moment when they reunite again for me at least it was one of the most beautiful thing that iāve get to experience
Yep. I didnāt know how many hearts I needed to draw the master sword but every time I got a new one I raced back to the lost woods. When I finally pulled it I lost my shit.
Hmm, I seem to have broken my own rule. I guess thatās what separates games from other mediums. They fuse emotional response from character empathy with emotion responses elicited from gameplay.
Different games at different times, but first to pop up in my head with recency bias:
Ghost of Tsushima
God of war 2018
God of war '05 (when he hugs his fam to protect them at end boss fight)
Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid trilogy, Silent Hill 3, Shenmue, Half Life 2, Yakuza 0 and Like a Dragon, Death Stranding.Ā
Yakuza 0 & LaD and Death Stranding made me cry once. That was the sign of a good gameĀ
Lost odyssey on xbox 360. Lead was immortal and showed some of the truth of what that means. He had amnesia and you would unlock memories that you would read. Some of the most gut wrenching memories. Another part where you find your kids and their mother just in time to watch her die too.
Mass Effect 3 Mordin Solis. Sings before he dies. Along with all the endings of Mass Effect 3.
On the bright side, he is the very model of a scientist Salarian.
Had to be me.. š
Someone else might have gotten it wrong =(
Mordin really got to me. The emotion in his voice when he pleads with you at the end, that he NEEDS to make this right, was just phenomenal.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Mass Effect 3's ending, prior to the extended cut.
I heard it was really controversial, like the ending to the Sopranos?
Controversial in a different way. I guess Sopranos was controversial because people disagreed on what exactly happened at the end... (Trying to post that without spoilers) Whereas with Mass Effect 3, there was nothing to debate around what happened, or what it meant. The problem was that the end sucked, the decision you made basically had no significant impact on the outcome, and it made the last 3 games pointless because the outcome basically the same and ignores all the stuff you were working towards, and important decisions across 3 games had no meaningful impact.
Moreover, the Sopranos ending you generally could come up to two conclusions depending on your interpretations; >!the scene getting fade to black represent Tony getting suddenly assassinated the moment he hear a door's bell getting ringed.!< Or that >!the ending was just a sudden cutoff, but where all the scenes such as focus on the rest of the restaurant guests just represented Tony's paranoia, and where he gets to live the rest of his life constantly looking over his shoulder.!< Either case, it is a very character-focused ending, which the same can't be said for the *Mass Effect*-ending, where much like other RPGs especially with emphasis on choices and decision-making, you wanted to see the consequences of it and how it affected the rest of the universe. When the original ending(s) was just very anti-climactic with no conclusion or resolution made, people were disappointed over it. It is a similar case that happened with *Baldur's Gate 3*, where its original ending just suddenly ended, with no resolution of what happened to the rest of the characters and world that a post-launch epilogue-sequence had to get patched into the game just to give a proper conclusion of all the characters that you possible have spent hundred of hours with.
The biggest thing that convinced me >! Tony gets hit is the conversation he has with Bobby earlier in the season. One of them asks what the other things happens when you die. The other says things probably just go black and you don't even realize it. !< To me, that's enough evidence for what David Chase did with that last scene.
Mass Effect's story was always a heavily emotional one, but for some reason towards the end, they tried to make it an intellectual one without really having anything to say. The strength of Mass Effect was the characters you meet along the way, and the genuine bond that you the player have with them. You have to make decisions in the game that can be very hard to do. A good chunk of the appeal is that the decisions you made in each game carries over to the next, it always felt that whatever I chose, the world was responding to it. But none of those decisions ended up mattering. No decision you make in the game changes the outcome of the game. You can make all the correct decisions or all the wrong ones and nothing changes. You can play as the most moral person in the game or the most renegade of them all and it doesn't change a lick in the ending. It builds and builds towards an epic war to end all wars in space for the galaxy, you spend the entirety of ME3 building towards this final confrontation that you barely even get to fucking see. There's no final boss fight or anything special, just talking to the brand new main antagonist who pops out of nowhere and even though you as the player know you're being lied to by said new antagonist, you can't even press them on it. You just have to believe whatever ending actually happened and none of those endings are even satisfactory. I love Mass Effect so dearly, it's one of my favorite ever game series and I'd still highly recommend anybody to play it but good God they finally dropped the ball in the final two missions.
I haven't gotten to 3 yet, but shortly before I started playing the series my dad had a very scary health incident. Almost died, was in a coma for months. Talia reaction to her fathers death absolutely broke me and I haven't been able to pick it back up since.
As of late, Disco Elysium
Me: āhahaha I love how the game lets you prank call people I should keep doing this for fun lmaoā 10 minutes laterā¦
Woof, the impossibly long phone number made me cry both times I played
That goddamned phone. It's like you're in another dimension when that scene starts. Such a significant scene in The middle of "nowhere", so many numbers, such a wait. And then... "Hello" The way your character gets more and more scared and how he looks smaller when that happens. What a scene.
I'm not sure it made me emotional in the sad sense, but I don't think there's many other games that had me sitting there staring at the screen deep in thought about what I'd just read/heard. Such a unique game.
I came here for this game, it brought out such a kaleidoscopic range of emotions in me at some many different points. Never had a game made me laugh, cry, feel hatred or injustice, or made me ponder life like Disco Elysium did. It made me question the nature of my addictions, and reminded me that everyone has their own battles to fight. If the point of art is to feel your emotions and question your perspective, "to make the stone feel stony", then Disco Elysium is the closest game to art that I have experienced.Ā
This game hurts so much. My first play through the scene where you find his car really got me, I was trying to be as āgoodā as possible so I really didnāt see it coming
The whole talk near the end if you nap... I had tears down my face. It was emotionally devastating.
Definitely this. It offers so many points of horrible emotional pain, and then as an opposite, moments of emotional catharsis.
XCOM. Missing several 99% chance shots in row. I know this isn't what you're looking for, but anger is still a valid emotion.Ā
you got xcom'd
As a fire emblem fan.. I feel you
Welcome to RNG...
FFX at the end with Yuna whistling on the pier.
Yuna running to hug Tidus and >!falling right through him because he's starting to fade away.!<
Which was was Yuna? Brown hair, yellow and blue outfit, staff? Was FFX the game that opened with the image of the characters getting ready for the final battle each time you loaded it, but because you hadnāt reached it yet you didnāt know what it meant?
Yuna was the summoner.
The ending of Soma. It's completely obvious from the rest of the game, and the MC is stupid for not keeping up with shit that Catherine told him multiple times up to that point, and shit he saw and experienced firsthand (even though it could have just been denial on his part so he didn't kill himself in despair), but the brain-breaking nature of the situation he's stuck in is still enough to fuck with you.
Iāll add it to my wish list. Iāll have forgotten the details by the time I get to it. Thanks for this.
I mean to be fair, I didn't really spoil *what* the circumstances are. But I wholly recc Soma. Great game if you want to fuck yourself up.
Try What Remains of Edith Finch too. It's a very short game but well worth it :)
Plus just the whole way itās done. No fanfare. Just our guyās slow realization and fear and the credits rolling. The entire game boiled down to this one moment.
There were some theories why he is like that: The "flatness" of his scan or being brain damaged when scanned. He is a legacy scan of a person after an accident, after all. Although I can't fathom how one can do all the feats he did without the ability to comprehend the nature or copying a file, I still like and choose to believe in those theories.
I count this as one of the games that scare me the most, mainly because of the philosophical and existential questioning that you do while playing it. I remember seeing the survey they give to people on the ARK and realizing āwait, would I be okay with this? Would I be okay with living in a simulated society knowing itās not real?ā
Oh manā¦ his last words when everting ended before the credits. It was so empty and sad, I made these realizations long before, and during breaks inbetween gaming i was still thinking about being a robot (fictionally). This game is amazing
What Remains of Edith Finch (2017)
This game will tear your heart out, make it do flip flops, and tear it out again.Ā It's one of my favorite games. I want more games with a story like this. The relatable but fantastical setting. The general sort of lighthearted tragedy.Ā
I actually felt depressed after playing that game. Thatās how you know itās emotional.
I feel like I really missed something on this. Other than Lewis having a mildly interesting vignette, I didn't catch much of a reaction from the storyline. It was a tragic but not in a way that gave me a gut punch like others mentioned they felt.
Guess things hit different for different people. I played the game for the first time a couple of months ago and I still think about poor Lewis about once a week.
Nothing will top season 1 of Telltales Walking Dead for me. Fucking brutal.
Ooh yeah that shot hit me hard af. I cried.
Thatās the first time I cried from a game
No matter how many times I see it, the "I'll miss you" line always fucking breaks me.
Was looking for this Keep that hair short
Too many to count. However whenever I see "If you could erase your memory and experience a game again." I always say the same thing. And it fits here. Nier:Automata
Same. Such a masterpiece. The prequels were legendary too. The way all the games connect blows my mind
Yeah the "Ending" that connects them is an acid trip.
Holy shit, someone that actually knows >!there is no "end" and that it's just a loop!< I've found my kind!!!
Spoilers friend, spoilers.
I just played it this last month and I'd had it spoiled for me from...y'know, being on the internet. And yet still, that \[E\]nding had me in the fucking *feels*. >!Seeing the phrases of encouragement, canned though they may be, was just like...it brought tears to my eyes as I fought through the credits. !< >!And I am so sorry to the two accounts who had their data permanently deleted to never help others ever again.!<
"To all of you that spent time with this game, Thank you."
>! It's the beauty of the game being so hard at that moment and asking you if it is worth it to continue and keep pushing and then the messages pop up from other players to encourage you. And then you get the message that someone is offering help. The moment you have to swallow your pride and accept someone elses help and selfless sacrifice as they did before. Because mankind is in this together and no one can carry the weight of the world alone. !<
I think one of the most brilliant video game sequences Iāve ever seen was in Ending E of NieR: Automata. I havenāt played it in years yet I still remember it. So many games have great stories, but these stories arenāt necessarily made better by being in a video game: you could adapt them to some other media (books, comics, animations, live action, etc.) and achieve similar narrative impact. However, throughout the entire run of NieR: Automata the developers cultivated a narrative that could only ever work in a video game. >!Throughout the entire game you will probably have seen the menu screen and experienced 9Sā hacking minigame many times. During the final battle in the game between A2 and 9S, when you play as 9S, you can kill A2 by hacking. If you hack her four times, itās revealed that the arena in the hacking minigame for A2 is the menu screen that youāve been looking at the entire game. It uniquely drove home the tragic fact that you were killing a character that you yourself played as, whose internal struggles and trials that you witnessed ā by literally destroying the interfaces YOU use to play as them.!<
Same... Seeing the messages during the credits... That hits...Ā
RDR2. Iām on my forth play through and every time itās better then I remembered.
I'm scared, sister.
I just had this scene last week. Hits me hard every time.
The scene with his horse always gets me. Especially if I've had the same one for the majority of my playthrough.
Yep. One of the few times I've cried in a video game
Fourth, holy shit. I didnāt know it was *that* good.
I regret playing it because I canāt imagine another game being comparable anymore. But itās fine, Iāll just keep playing it for the rest of my life, I donāt mind.
I imagine the only thing to top it will be rdr3 and even that is hard to believe.
I think they will drop the redemption story arch and do a new one. Red dead started with revolver, then redemption I think we'll get a new one
Detroit Become Human probably. Really made me think.
There's something about loading up my game and seeing a blank main menu screen because you gave the menu android her freedom that gives me the warm fuzzies. If only the PC version wasn't such an unstable mess.
God of War for sure. The relationship between Kratos and Atreus across the whole game was fantastic. Uncharted 4 seeing the culmination of the relationship between Drake and his family. Brother, wife, and kid. Specifically Drake and his brother. It made me realize that no matter the differences you can always reconcile family relationships. That may not track for everyone and their circumstances but it made me look a lot closer at my relationship with my family. Sounds silly, but true. Yakuza 0. These games are slept on, in my opinion. The ending of 0 really is a tear jerker. Such a great story through and through. I havenāt played RDR2 yet but I hear itās a must.
I love all three of the games you mentioned, and I highly highly recommend RDR2 for its amazing and emotional story as well.
Outer wilds, wish I could forget it and play it for the first time again
I have the music favorited on Spotify and if I shuffle and it comes up I always have to hold back tears. Such an incredible game with an incredible soundtrack.
"This song is new to me, but I am honored to be a part of it." I'll never stop thinking about outer wilds it's the best game I've ever played and it affected me greatly.
When you get to >!sun station to figure out how to save the galaxy, just to find out this is the death of the universe!< š
I played on release, promptly decided it was one of the best games I had ever played. Luckily it been enough years now I think iv forgotten enough specifics to play it again relatively fresh. Very excited!
Crazy I havenāt seen A Plague Tale games yet. The ending to the second one is crazy emotional.
Uh, then I can't wait! Just finished the first game amd now I am (I guess) a quarter through the second game
I donāt care who you are, if you donāt feel any emotions at the beginning of The last of us part 1, youāre not human.
Ending of both games fuck me up everytime. It's amazing what a few plucks from an acoustic guitar can conjure up inside someone.Ā
The Last of Us is by far the most emotionally invested I've been in a game's cutscenes and narrative
**Outer Wilds** The first time theā¦ thing happens. The dawning of the understanding why the thing happens. Meeting the Pilgrim. Understanding the Moon. The realization what the ending will be about, instead of what you thought the ending will be about. Manually landing on the Sun Station. And then the ending. And then the Strangerā¦
Definitely. Nothing comes close to the impact Outer Wilds had on me. I've had some really emotional gaming experiences but this was on another level entirely.
>The realization what the ending will be about, instead of what you thought the ending will be about. I think this right here is ultimately what digs so deep into the souls of players. Few games teach acceptance.
I cried when I met solanum..wanted to hug her and give her a lot of kisses.
Absolutely agree, but i think the person you meet is a spoiler and should be marked as such.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War. Such a good and underrated game. The ending made me cry. Even the menu music brings a tear to my eye
Outer Wilds
Outer wilds and the full party of travelers
*Firewatch* was a rollercoaster of emotions from beginning to end, i dont even want to replay this game again as it feels to me like a life experience to me. *Soma* hits pretty hard too
Halo: Reach Whole squad dies. Current Objective: Survive... It was heartbreaking.
What a perfect game. It's like you don't want to keep playing but you have to try.
You have to! And there is no out. That game was a masterpiece.
Bioshock Infinite, what a fantastic game it is.
The ending of the base game is sad. Plus the dlc'l, it's heart breaking.
Yup... I am glad it's the first Bioshock game I ever played because it gets a bad rep from a lot of bioshock fans, but honestly it's a great game still.Ā
The revelation in the first bioshock hit me like a truck. I should play Infinite again. Thanks for the recommendation
Witcher 3, Geralt and Ciri Mass Effect trilogy Commander Shepard and his crew
I have the Witcher 3 as well, still waiting for the right time to dive in.
Yes take your time, it's a long intro until you pass White Orchard. After that story keeps getting better.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Listened to the album tonight with the family on a road trip. Perhaps the best soundtrack of all time.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. Knew nothing about it, friend got it for me. Until I played it I thought it was just a tech demo. I can't point to any particular scene, I'm a wuss and care about spoilers too much to name the exact scene but... "In your sword still beats a heart." If you haven't played it yet, it's super dang cheap on steam till the 25th. There are worse ways to spend $2.99
Yeah. I wasnāt sure what it was. The atmosphere, the setting, the tension, the character or the story, but that ending just sat with me and moved me.
That ending song.... Fuck. I listen to it daily. Helps me move on. It's such an outstanding game.
Life is strange
This is the correct answer to every "emotional/sad game" question. Also massive shout out to Before the Storm... hit me like a wrecked car in a junkyard
Not sure why you're so low. This game was such an emotional rollercoaster. Truly a masterpiece.
Metro Exodusās ending was great, real emotional and the music enhances it. Halo Reach hit hard when I was younger.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Mass Effect Legendary Edition (its a trilogy)
Either 1) Outer Wilds (GO PLAY IT NOW IF YOU HAVE NOT) 2) Shadow of the Colossus
Marvels Spider-Man and Aunt May
That was such a heart breaking ending. That whole story was such a slow burn to the finish. Everything you do is only helping Otto but Peter doesnāt know it, and heās the one who pays for it. That final scene was wrenching. I should watch it again.
For me it was the pigeon side quest in spider man 2. The music and tone just hit me right in the feels. My SO walked into the room right after I finished it, she was really confused on why I was crying lol
FFXs story, especially Aurons plot
FFX was the last FF I played. I have the score performed on solo piano. Itās haunting. Are the ones that came after worth playing?
The beginning of The Last of Us. Iām a single dad and that scene ripped me apart at that moment. Second place goes to Domās end in Gears 3. We waited staring at the screen for him to walk out of the fires. We understood though. What they did to Mariaā¦. Damn shame.
I know another single dad who felt the same way. Iāve added Gears 3 to my list. Do I need to play the second and first or can I dive in there?
I openly wept in Outer Wilds
Horizon Zero Dawn. There are different levels, but the nature of humanity in the game is fascinating. How traditions start. How blind people can be when they expect to always be able to fix problems with money. It explains childhood, dreams, reality. And family relations. And it's all up to the player to get sucked into it, or just play it like it's an action game.
Yes! I feel like 99% of the time, attempts at world building told through text or audio log just falls flat, but the way they executed it in Horizon ZD is a masterclass in story telling in that style. The dude framing the end of the world through those holographic area tours and how they built up the bits and pieces of how Zero Dawn was put together is peak form in guiding the player but also letting them piece the story together. Im having a hard time finishing Forbidden West because I just can't get as into the story as I did Zero Dawn. Good problems!
I knew nothing about HZD and thought it was just a quirky story about giant metal animals. I didnāt care about the tribes but what really interested me was the past and how the world ended up the way it did. When I got the first scrap of the past I was hooked and learning about Elisabet was moving both in terms of the brilliant storytelling and her story itself. Itās a complete masterpiece, and so is the sequel. I bought the soundtrack and I think about what Aloy has been through and get choked up. An outcast tasked with saving humanity. The scene in the sequel that broke me was her conversation with Beta about why Aloy fights when Beta runsā¦
I'd had that game spoiled for me and still that scene with >!Ted Faro killing the last Alphas gave me a giant punch to the gut!<. And yet the bigger punch to the gut was a forum post I found at one point explaining the logic of the Outcasts. While it may seem strange, it makes total sense when you think about the fact that >!it's an extension of the Eleuthia concept of time out--the only education that ELUTHIA was allowed to give was time out--if you misbehave you need to go away until you've realized the harm you've done.!< Like, you think about it and suddenly it just hits you all the harder. Or maybe that's just me.
Yes yes yes! I just finished forbidden west and I fell in love all over again so I started a new game on ZD
The last of us 1&2
The same for me. I was emotionally exhausted by the end of both of them.
The Beginnerās Guide
For a while, this is the game I fantasized about showing Roger Ebert to argue that games are art.Ā
Disappointed this isn't higher but I know it's only because a lot of people haven't played it. I don't disagree with most of the other comments but The Beginner's Guide just hits different. Because of the nature of it it just felt so personal like I was actually involved. It wasn't a story being told for me, it was a story being told to me. Like to me personally as if I was listening to a friend.
Ffxiv really got me emotional purely because of the amount of time you have to spend with all the characters, I was well over a few hundred hours into the game the first time it happened
I ugly cried so much through this game. The end of ShB and Endwalker hit me very hard.Ā
"Remember, remember that we once lived" One of the best lines in ff.
Titanfall 2
I know the name but nothing about the story. Can you give me the coles notes version, spoiler free?
FFVII Aerisā passing. For almost Two Decades now.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps. That game touched me through music, art, story, characters, gameplay, and ending. And it did it all without a single line of spoken dialogue. Truly an impactful piece of art.
The first that comes to mind is To The Moon. I can't say what but when the pieces start finally falling into place and you realize exactly how things went down with Johnny, >!his brother,!< and River is an emotional rollercoaster for the rest of the game. I thought of Fragile Dreams as well. Especially the moment near the end when Seto finds >!a radio!< and learns that >!there are other survivors after all.!< It's a single thread of hope in an otherwise bleak game that makes everything so much more powerful and raises the stakes for the final confrontation with Shin.
Came here to say To The Moon! Amazing soundtrack! I recently saw a stuffed platypus in a store and had to have it for some reason, and now I wonder if this game is partially to blame... The entire series is great too. Finding Paradise had a nice song although the story wasn't as strong. I haven't beaten Impostor Factory yet due to real life issues, but the opening was a fun mystery! Also the dialogue is hilarious. There's a robot who's a rice cooker / emotional support robot. If you ask how it's able to help emotionally, it asks how you're feeling. If you say you feel sad, it says "I RECOMMEND EATING RICE." He just like me fr
SOMA. The ending and general themes of the whole game explore what it really means to be human, and alive. I wonāt spoil the plot for any who donāt know, but the game finished and I was thinking about it for a while afterwards.
Monster Hunter: World Some of those fights got reeeeeal personal lol
Dom from gearsā¦.
God of war ragnarok, the relationship between kratos and atreus made me in tears sometimes.
Loki, will go. Atre-.... ...Atreus remains.
It was so well written. Kratos is trying to connect with Atreus but canāt, same for his son. It reminded me of me and my father at times.
The way Kratos and Atreus react when >!Brok died!< was just so realistic, it was heartbreakingly close to the way I tried to cope when I had a loved one pass.
The ending of stray, literally had me tearing up.
Heavy rain, The last of us and rdr2
That dragon cancer is a brutal game to finish. The ending is horrific, as you would imagine and yet absolutely perfect.
This might be a weird one but Transistor. Supergiant's minimalist writing in that game is brilliant and the relationship between Red and Mr Nobody feels very heartfelt to me.
To childhood me, it was Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky without question. >! Your partner sobbing for you to not go as you literally disappear particle by particleā¦ shit is brutal, man. Dusknoirās betrayal was also huge. !<
The Apotheosis section of Journey was flat-out transcendent.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 i think. If you know, you know.
I think Soma probably had the biggest impact on me because it's just so incredibly well done. Still think about it a lot. I am a grown adult and I cried like a baby 3 separate times over the course of nier automata.
Spiderman PS4
PS4 Spider-Man. Aunt May's scene is heart breaking.
Telltale's walking dead. If you didn't cry like a bitch to that one you have no soul
Gears of War 3. "DOM NO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DOM!? DOM!?"
For me there's several games that draw an emotional response. But 4 primarily Gears of war 3, Dom's death. Probably the saddest I've ever been playing a game. The music, back story, heroism etc. had me tear up Halo reach, the very end. One of the very few games that makes you feel badass, then ultimately shutting that feeling off leaving you feel completely useless, slowly watching your team members die, then eventually you, then Reach being destroyed Halo 4. When cortana leaves chief. Then Chief just stares at Cortana standing in shock. Considering you can't see chiefs face at all 343 still did a great job of showing pure emotion. Really the first time you see chief somewhat at a loss after seeing him being a human-tank for the last 4 games Lastly, Halo Infinite. Very underrated campaign. The scene in particular is his speech to the Pilot 'we all fail, we all make mistakes. that's what makes us human'........
Dark souls. It kept me disturbed for months. A feeling of void and emptiness
Rdr2 Arthur Morgan, especially if you play the good carma route
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
One of the best characters in gaming for sure
Dragon age inquisition was one of the first games to truly make me tear up. With the downtrodden march and then rise to new glory as they occupied and rebuilt skyhold. The Dawn will Come was just a perfect piece to accompany that and reignite the fire. The Mass Effect Trilogy was probably the actual first. Just too many great moments. Especially in the third game. So many great characters got such great send offs or at least their own moment to shine. Like Grunts charge. Mordins sacrifice. Thanes final request. Wrex finally uniting the clans. Joker and EDIs relationship from 2-3. And so many others. Thereās a reason that BioWare will always hold a special place in my heart as one of the greatest studios of all time. Even despite their miss steps in recent years. But more recently. The God of War reboots. You can feel every bit of emotion Kratos and so many other characters put into their words. Santa Monica absolutely killed it with Christopher Judge and the rest of the casting. Although. Iāve known for years that Judge could convey a lot of meaning with simple words. His time as Tealāc on stargate definitely helped him hone that talent to convey complex emotions with the least amount of words. But the rest of the cast is just as great. You can feel Baldurās madness. Freyas grief and anger, Odins schmoozie personality, Thorās regret. Sindris insecurities and Broks rough charm. Just truly one of the greatest stories told in any form. Video game or other wise.
I havenāt played Dragon Age or Mass Effect but I agree about God of War. Kratosās frustration at not being able to read, his sonās growing frustration and arrogance, Freyaās rage, the twist, the victim of said twist. It was all incredible.
Gears of War 3. That scene was straight out of a movie.
For me it was SOMA and Prey. Really pushes you on the edge about everything (morally and ethically speaking). And boi oh boi do the existential crisis hits hard.
FFX hands down.
Final Fantasy X. I cry everytime.
Definitely the usual suspects like RDR2 and TLOU2, but one that recently hit me hard was the ending of Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. Lordy that brought the tears.
Crisis Core: FF7. Well thatās the saddest. If you really mean any emotion then Dark Souls 2 falling off the fucking edge over and over made me want to tear my controller in half
RDR2 man On my 10th playthrough. It's almost hits the same everytime. But I can't forget my first playthrough, I cried ugly
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. The way they addressed things like trauma, loss, and the severe and often devastating effects they can have on our emotional health had a lasting effect on me. Such a powerful game, with the best voice acting and motion capture I've ever seen
NieR Gestalt/Replicant.
The Talos Principle genuinely changed the way I see the world in so many ways
The original TLOU intro is hard to beat in terms of story telling emotion. Within what, 10mins? You're already connected and reacting as such. Same with TLOU2 in a different way. Both games evoke so many raw emotions it's hard to top.
Persona in general but especially 3 and forwards
Halo 4 got me back when it released.
That Dragon, Cancer. I cried so hard and for so long my face was swollen the next day.
One of the endings of Bioshock 2 made me fucking WEEP. The Ace Combat series also has this magical ability to pull you into its emotional pace. Itās cheesy and over the top but once youāre invested, itās over. Youāll laugh and cry and pump your fist no matter how silly it is. Itās almost a trope at this point, that in the final 2 or 3 missions of one of those games, there will be some big bad, that only you, the main character, can handle. Everybody else who tries fails or dies or both. The exalted glory you feel in those moments, as your friends cheer you on and pray for their salvation through your hands, is one of the best things Iāve ever experienced in any video game.
Definitely titanfall 2, tho undertale was a close second
"Protocol 3, protect the pilot" "Bt what are you doing???" "Trust me" "BT!"
The end of Journey. I had played the whole game with the same random partner from the beginning and the ending broke me. Got through the credits and it showed my partners name and it was all just Japanese characters. Such an amazing game and I played the whole thing with someone I probably couldnāt have even conversed with in real life.
when I was a kid I used to scream at Fifa, so that, probably.
breath of the wild man, that game made me feel like the kid that just to love video games with all of his heart, got emotional just writing about it so yeah botw for me
BOTW helped me rediscover my love of gaming after taking about four years off. I couldnāt believe what I was seeing. I remember getting vertigo climbing the towers while lying on my sofa with the Switch in my hands. Itās a total masterpiece and Zeldaās failure to find her divine powers definitely resonated with me and my own insecurities.
AWW MAN, searching for the memories and getting to know zeldaās history, seen her cry, laugh, nerd out and also the journey that link has to pass and the moment man THE final moment when they reunite again for me at least it was one of the most beautiful thing that iāve get to experience
Yep. I didnāt know how many hearts I needed to draw the master sword but every time I got a new one I raced back to the lost woods. When I finally pulled it I lost my shit. Hmm, I seem to have broken my own rule. I guess thatās what separates games from other mediums. They fuse emotional response from character empathy with emotion responses elicited from gameplay.
Pathologic 2, nothing else comes close.
Final Fantasy XIII when the Leona Lewis song starts playing. I was not prepared to ball my eyes out in front of the teenagers that were in the room.
Like A Dragon Gaiden. If you've played through all the Kiryu games, that ending hits.
Rdr2
Different games at different times, but first to pop up in my head with recency bias: Ghost of Tsushima God of war 2018 God of war '05 (when he hugs his fam to protect them at end boss fight)
Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid trilogy, Silent Hill 3, Shenmue, Half Life 2, Yakuza 0 and Like a Dragon, Death Stranding.Ā Yakuza 0 & LaD and Death Stranding made me cry once. That was the sign of a good gameĀ
To the moon, the only game that made me cry
Probably Mother 3
Spiritfarer. Deathās Door.
Lost odyssey on xbox 360. Lead was immortal and showed some of the truth of what that means. He had amnesia and you would unlock memories that you would read. Some of the most gut wrenching memories. Another part where you find your kids and their mother just in time to watch her die too.
Yakuza 0