History TearJerker / Pokemon

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh4M2wOyIYw The Japanese trailer for Sun and Moon]] is surprisingly moving. It's about a little boy from Japan who is moving to Hawaii as a NewTransferStudent. He doesn't know English very well, he feels out of place at school, and he misses his home... So when he gets the new Pokemon game, he's immediately struck by the fact that it begins with the player character arriving from oversees and being greeted in a new land [[FantasyCounterpartCulture an awful lot like Hawaii.]] And the sad tears slowly morph into [[Heartwarming/{{Pokemon}} tears of joy]] as the little boy meets a local kid who likes to play Pokemon too, and they become friends.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3bAyRcFUxw A follow-up trailer]] has the boy, Shohei, get in a fight with his new friend, Hoku, because Hoku keeps mercilessly beating him down in Pokemon battles. For a majority of the trailer, Shohei is distant and hurt, but eventually he remembers that Pokemon is what brought them together, and all of the fun they've had. They trade Miniors nicknamed Hokulele and Ryusei, which mean "shooting star" in Hawaiian and Japanese, respectively, and both apologize.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqprMNZ5Tww In the third and final trailer in this series,]] a group of older kids take over Shohei and his friends' 'base', and mockingly challenge them to a Pokemon battle for it. Shohei and Hoku lose horribly. But [[CharacterDevelopment rather than give up and sulk as in Trailer 2]], Shohei immediately perks up and suggests they all seriously train their Pokemon. What follows is a montage of the kids figuring out the best moves and abilities they can get for their 'Mons, battling other kids and doing incredibly well. Then Shohei comes home to his mother sitting at the table, laptop open. She turns to him and nods wordlessly - [[DownerEnding her assignment in Hawaii is over with, and they have to return to Japan.]]
* The ''Pokemon Christmas Bash'' CD is filled with generally happy songs about Christmastime...and then there's [[WhamEpisode "I Keep My Home in my Heart"]], about how Brock and Misty miss spending Christmas with their families.

* In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, Kangaskhan's phrase upon reaching low health qualifies. "I'm done... Please, take care of my baby..."

*** It's even sadder if you're aware of the RealLife ValuesDissonance [[TruthInTelevision that this story reflects]]: in Japanese culture, it is considered extremely improper to "butt in" with other families when you suspect that bad things are happening in that family - this causes many children to suffer from physical and/or psychological abuse from parents/friends/grandparents, such as what happened to Cyrus. His grandfather's regret is a TakeThat to the destructive social attitude of {{Pride}}, as well as the fear of social reprisal, that ruins children from a young age and leaves them messed up in later life - Cyrus represents that "worst case scenario" as the potential consequences of people not saying ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight more. In addition, Cyrus' parents are the absolute extreme of the attitude in Japan that you must try your utter best no matter what - what ''was'' his best was ''never good enough for them'', it's small wonder he was left damaged and nihilistic, when he could have grown up to be one of the greatest heroes the ''Pokemon''-world has ever seen... even without his intelligence, it's a massive waste because he wasn't predestined for evil (as opposed to someone who consciously ignored morality out of selfishness or a cruel streak), but the callousness of his parents ruined him.

--> '''Player:''' (Those eyes... The way those eyes fixed on me...)]]

* In Pokemon X and Y, probably the biggest tearjerker in the entire game was the story of a general in a war 3000 years ago. He was best buddies with his Floette and they did everything together, but in said war his Floette died. He was ultimately heartbroken, so he created a device to bring his Floette back to life, but in doing so he had to sacrifice the lives of other living Pokemon. When his Floette was revived, and found out what he did to bring it back, it was beyond repulsed and ran away. The device had also made Floette and its trainer both immortal. So the man traveled the world ever since, looking for his friend to beg for forgiveness...
** And then it was revealed that he was alive all along... for 3000 years. So he's been WalkingTheEarth for that long, atoning for what he has done. Then he gets kidnapped and imprisoned by the person who wants to use the device he built, the very same device that caused him his eternal punishment. Imagine the heartbreak and sadness he feels thinking of that single incident that robbed him of his best friend. Granted, it ended in a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}, though.]]
* In Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, when one goes to Sea Mauville, the player can find a series of notes in one of the rooms which were written by a child (revealed to be Cozmo, an NPC professor you save early-ish in the game) addressed to his father. In these notes reveal through lots of subtle clues that Cozmo's parents are divorced and are clearly have a very rocky relationship. These notes also reveal that the divorce was due to the long periods of time that Cozmo's father had to spend away from his family due to his job. It ends with Cozmo wishing for his father to come home soon; begging him to come home more often. It even possibly implied that even young Cozmo (despite missing his father) was starting to resent him, as he traded away his Salamence (Which his father fondly gave him, and was probably the last thing he ever gave him) for a Solrock. Though young Cozmo's reasoning was that he preferred Pokemon that resembled rocks more than others. Yet there could still be deeper reasons implied for that trade.

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*** It's even sadder if you're aware of the RealLife ValuesDissonance [[TruthInTelevision that this story reflects]]: in Japanese culture, it is considered extremely improper to "butt in" with other families when you suspect that bad things are happening in that family - this causes many children to suffer from physical and/or psychological abuse from parents/friends/grandparents, such as what happened to Cyrus. His grandfather's regret is a TakeThat to the destructive social attitude of {{Pride}}, as well as the fear of social reprisal, that ruins children from a young age and leaves them messed up in later life - Cyrus represents that "worst case scenario" as the potential consequences of people not saying ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight more. In addition, Cyrus' parents are the absolute extreme of the attitude in Japan that you must try your utter best no matter what - what ''was'' his best was ''never good enough for them'', and coupled with his AmbiguousDisorder it's small wonder he was left damaged and nihilistic, when he could have grown up to be one of the greatest heroes the ''Pokemon''-world has ever seen... even without his intelligence, it's a massive waste because he wasn't predestined for evil (as opposed to someone who consciously ignored morality out of selfishness or a cruel streak), but the callousness of his parents ruined him.

* The fourth generation games manage to pull off one hell of a PlayerPunch as well. The main character arrives at Lake Verity too late, and Team Galactic has already set off a bomb in order to drain the lake and capture the Legendary Pokémon living in it. As a consequence of the explosion, you see Magikarp and Gyarados that were also in the lake, now flopping feebly on the dry lake bed in their ''death throes''. A nearby Galactic Grunt just shrugs and states that those Pokémon are useless, so their mass slaughter is acceptable in order to TakeOverTheWorld.