History Main / LonelyPianoPiece

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ_pPq0tjRI This theme]] from ''[=DoDonPachi=] [=SaiDaiOuJou=]'' which plays during [[spoiler:Hina's]] AlasPoorVillain moment in the UsefulNotes/Xbox360 version.
* The Game Over music in the UsefulNotes/PCEngine version of ''VideoGame/{{Valis}} 1''.

** "An Ending," a slow, sad song consisting mostly of piano, with some strings as well. It plays in most neutral endings of the game, [[spoiler: where Asgore is dead regardless of whether or not you killed him, and the monsters are still trapped underground]]. It also plays [[spoiler: if you kill Undyne on a neutral run]].

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': In "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E5AVileHungerForYourHammeringHeart A Vile Hunger for Your Hammering Heart]]", a [[https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8kzmnu?playlist=x7nyow sad piano piece]] is the BackgroundMusic in a scene where Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt are both feeling very lonely even though they live together. Louis is bereft without their vampire daughter Claudia, who fled from their home seven years prior and refuses to respond to any of his psychic messages. As for Lestat, it was his ToughLove lesson in "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E4TheRuthlessPursuitOfBloodWithAllA ...The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child's Demanding]]" that pushed Claudia away, so in revenge, Louis neglects his boyfriend with an austere mix of SilentTreatment and LysistrataGambit. Lestat can't help but suspect that Louis doesn't really love him after being deprived of emotional and physical intimacy for so long.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': In "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E5AVileHungerForYourHammeringHeart A Vile Hunger for Your Hammering Heart]]", a [[https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8kzmnu sad piano piece]] is the BackgroundMusic in a scene where Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt are both feeling very lonely even though they live together. Louis is bereft without their vampire daughter Claudia, who fled from their home seven years prior and refuses to respond to any of his psychic messages. As for Lestat, it was his ToughLove lesson in "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E4TheRuthlessPursuitOfBloodWithAllA ...The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child's Demanding]]" that pushed Claudia away, so in revenge, Louis neglects his boyfriend with an austere mix of SilentTreatment and LysistrataGambit. Lestat can't help but suspect that Louis doesn't really love him after being deprived of emotional and physical intimacy for so long.

* Some of the randomly-triggered background pieces from ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' evoke this. Fitting given the [[TheAloner solitary nature]] of the single-player mode. Actually subverted by one of them, which fades into a more upbeat (though still calm and peaceful) synth piece.

* ''Film/ElmerBernstein'' was the master of this trope. Listen to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alg_V0dJs9c Far From Heaven]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t98LWNwUhI To Kill A Mockingbird]].

** "Empty House," a slower, echoier piano remix of "Fallen Down." It plays in Toriel's house only after her departure, most likely if [[spoiler:you killed her during a Neutral or Genocide run]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' has "An Ending," a slow, sad song consisting mostly of piano, with some strings as well. It plays in most neutral endings of the game, [[spoiler: where Asgore is dead regardless of whether or not you killed him, and the monsters are still trapped underground]]. It also plays [[spoiler: if you kill Undyne on a neutral run]].

* In ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'', [[spoiler:Monika composes the song "Your Reality" which, despite its jaunty tempo, is actually this. Monika sings about her fate as a self-aware side character in a video game, lamenting how her actions to break the status quo caused so much harm and the Heel Realization that followed, questioning if taking someone against their will (the player in this case) is really "love", and her ultimate decision to let them go.]]

Is the hero in a [[HopelessBossFight losing battle against the villain]] and on the receiving end of a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown? Has he or she been [[BreakTheCutie broken down]]? Does the grief of the realization that InTheEndYouAreOnYourOwn overtake him or her? Cue the lonely piano piece.

* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' has a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH3mbB3H57g haunting, beautiful piano piece]] as the FinalBoss battle theme.

* ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'' has a piece called "Darkness Falls", serving as the game over music if the player says no to the continue screen. The game then resets to the chapter select after the music ends[[note]]In the original SURVEY_PROGRAM demo, the game closed instead[[/note]].

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'':
** In the first game, Jill and Rebecca melodically play "Moonlight Sonata" on a piano in the Spencer Mansion.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlu2z2gkhhI Cohen's Masterpiece]] in ''VideoGame/BioShock1''... sorta. It serves as Cohen's theme, and loneliness ''is'' one of the themes. However, the main reason Cohen is alone is because [[AxCrazy he killed as many people as he could get his hands on]] [[MadArtist to complete his artistic works]], and the deranged theme matches ''that'' pretty well. [[AwesomeMusic/VideoGames And it's awesome]].
* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' ends with a simple piece as [[spoiler:all of the alternate Elizabeths disappear one by one following Booker's death]], ending with the screen going black on the final note.

** Roxas's theme. "The Other Promise" is a slightly faster BossRemix of his theme that gets progressively more intense, played during his and Sora's BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind in the Final Mix version of ''Kingdom Hearts II'' (which was just a [[CutsceneBoss cutscene]] in the original release).
** "Kairi III" is her remixed theme song, at a chunk of the game where [[BreakTheCutie you couldn't feel more sorry for the kid.]]
** The most notable example is what has to be the series' ultimate woobie: Xion, from ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 358/2 Days]]''. Not only is a lonely piano piece her main theme ("Musique pour la Tristesse de Xion": literally "Music for the Melancholy of Xion"), but the intro melody of that piece is used in [[spoiler: the music of the final boss fight against her, "Vector to the Heavens"]], which itself is a lonely strings section piece.
** ''Birth By Sleep'' features Ventus' theme, a melancholy remix of [[spoiler:both Roxas' and Sora's themes. This is because Ventus' heart has been sleeping within Sora since prior to the plot of the original game, which is why Roxas (Sora's Nobody) looks like him and can dual wield Keyblades; he has access to both Sora's and Ventus' weapons]].

* The aptly-named "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_SDejECbS0 Sad Song]]" from the ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' soundtrack.

* If you lose in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', a slower, down-key piano version of "Aria of the Soul" plays on the Game Over screen.
* If you get the bad ending in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', you also get a lonely piano piece. [[spoiler:It's actually the music used in the true final dungeon.]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIwyuOXXcus "Inherent Will"]] from ''[[VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga Digital Devil Saga 2]]''. This absolute [[TearJerker heart-wrencher]] of a theme plays during scenes where party members die, most notably [[DyingMomentOfAwesome Cielo]].
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjd8cdp-Oag 'The Order That Must Be Protected']] from ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'', which is a variation of the {{leitmotif}} that crops up here and there throughout the game. This tune is particlarly recognised because it plays during the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8WH4uxmiF8 cutscene that occurs]] after [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Terra]] defeats [[FauxAffablyEvil Kefka]] in the 'Shade Impulse' campaign, as it puts an [[AlasPoorVillain emotional spin]] on the death of an otherwise MonsterClown.

** The original trilogy includes the EasterEgg song "Siege of Madrigal" in ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'', which also appears in subsequent Creator/{{Bungie}}-made games; the unused song "Love and a Piano"; "Heavy Price Paid" and the piano part of "Unforgotten" in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}''; and "Keep What You Steal" plus the last part of the credits music in ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}''.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGLu_EGB7dY "I Am... The Story is Over"]] from ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'' does this, after Shadow [[spoiler: destroys the Black Comet and apparently decides to remain aboard Space Colony Ark]]. It's followed by Never Turn Back, possibly the best piece in the game.

--> '''Narrator:''' "We managed to separate the human clone from Con-Human computer environment, but we could still not stop the violence generated by the Con-Human. [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman Can we call the Con-Human and human clone a new life creation?]]. Are we supposed to destroy this creature? The humans who are fighting against their ominous fate will use their latest strategy, resulting in ''[[TitleDrop Operation Ray Force]]''.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect'':

*** [[spoiler: One of the most powerful is played during Thane's wake as part of the Citadel DLC.]]

* The World 3 BackgroundMusic from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2''.
* The ending music from ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland''.

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDF1US7DkjY flashback to Snake's final fight with The Boss]] in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'' features a literal lonely piano version of "Snake Eater" to intensify Snake's feeling of loss in that moment. To put it into context, he has just confronted [[spoiler: an AI with the voice and seemingly the personality of his mentor whom he had loved... and killed]].

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4UspBs3DGQ Enclosure]], which plays when [[spoiler: Sniper Wolf dies and in one of the two endings where Meryl dies.]] And a more depressing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8uyOyGaY2I version]] plays in Act 4 of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' when [[spoiler:Naomi dies]].

* ''[[VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice Sam & Max]]'', shockingly enough. [[spoiler:It makes Max's death so much more sad to see a lonely Sam helplessly wandering around the city mourning him.]]

* "Explore 7" from ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}''.

* "Memories," the very first song you hear in "VideoGame/{{Deemo}}".The cutscene it functions as the soundtrack for shows Deemo alone in his tower, playing song after song. Not surprisingly, the cutscene's title is "Lonely Deemo".

* ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' has the ''Theme of E-102 Gamma'', which, unlike the other character {{Image Song}}s, only has two recurring phrases as lyrics set to a sad piano with synths. This befits its emotionless nature as an Eggman robot that gained sapience [[spoiler:and that its mission ultimately ends with it performing a HeroicSacrifice to [[PoweredByAForsakenChild free the bird powering it]]]].

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'':

*** Though nothing 'terrible' has happened, the music the Snowpeak ruins may qualify for the sheer loneliness of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1BJlLUieyM sound...]]
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq7LrougGYk Farewell, Hyrule King]] from ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Wind Waker]]'', which is a DarkReprise of the series' Hyrule Castle theme.
** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'', when you play the Song of Healing at the graves of Daruni and Mikau, a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G_aaak-tDE piano rendition of the same song]] plays through a cutscene where their spirits remember all the loved ones they can no longer help.
** This is the ''standard'' for ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'' - most of the overworld music consists of ambient piano tunes, contributing to the melancholy nature of exploring the ruins of Hyrule.