Line #5 TearJerker/RadiantSilvergun


1	''Radiant Silvergun'' features a surprisingly dark story even by ShootEmUp standards, featuring four humans and a robot mounting a desperate LastStand after all other life on Earth is wiped out by a destructive artifact and the machines it has taken control of. How can it ''not'' be [[TearJerker heartbreaking]]?
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3	'''All spoilers are unmarked!'''
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5	* When the Earth Defense Army is doing a data analysis on the recently unearthed Stone-Like in Scene 2, the moment they are about to see its memories [[OhCrap it decides to first blow up the 3rd Research Division]]. Cue (probably the Stone-Like) summoning an [[NothingIsScarier exponentially increasing number of objects around the complex]] while everyone inside is losing their minds!
6	* The last stretch of Stage 5 "Victim": while the tone of the game is rather sad, what with the crew of the ''Tetra'' being the last remnants of humanity and all, but the specific example is the moment where Gai does his HeroicSacrifice.
7	* In the epilogue, C.R.E.A.T.O.R. is never able to tell the clones of Buster and Reana about the Stone-Like and change the future. All it did is create a StableTimeLoop; there's no guarantee [[ShootTheShaggyDog humanity can be saved]].
8	* The game's premise itself, particularly how it might feel being one of a few {{Sole Survivor}}s of a race left in the universe in a spaceship that barely escaped the DepopulationBomb, knowing you're all that's left and next-to-nothing about what caused it to happened in the first place. At the same time, you realize you'll have to return to the planet in a year or so when you run out of supplies. A few humans simply isn't enough to repopulate the human race, thus even if you manage to destroy the ArtifactOfDoom, there will be nothing but a dead, hopeless planet left.
9	* The fact that '''[[DownerEnding nothing good came out of this entire story]]''': it's all a hopeless LastStand that ends in a StableTimeLoop as a result of EternalRecurrence.
10	** Want it to be [[FromBadToWorse even more heartbreaking]]? A translation of the dialogue spoken in Stage 1 "Link" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qC7FfL2qzI exists online]]; not only is it poignant, but it essentially proves the Stone-Like correct in its assessment of humanity.
11	*** This point is partially refuted by 2 things: the existence of ''VideoGame/{{Ikaruga}}'', and the dialogue of Stage 1 being [[DoubleMeaning symbolism]] for [[ExecutiveMeddling meddling]] between [[http://web.archive.org/web/20080419104927/http://www.emuxhaven.net/~silver/Link%20Stage%20Explanation.html factions of the video game industry]].
12	*** In light of that symbolism, it's small wonder the Stone-Like can't get the result it wants from Earthly life; it keeps expecting new results from a complete (or, as Ikaruga ultimately shows, near-complete) [[CreativeSterility retread of everything.]] Or, in shooter industry terms, expecting {{Creator/Toaplan}} [[FollowTheLeader mimics]] to revitalize the genre all on their own even when something new is called for. It never does anything other than start over because ''it can't conceive of its own assumptions for what will create progress for itself and the planet being flawed, evidence be damned.''

Context TearJerker / RadiantSilvergun