Mayumi's Somnium, PSYNCIN' IN THE SUSTaiN, is heartrending. We see how much she's had to struggle, with Ota's brattiness and their financial troubles leading to her husband's death by overwork. In the end, her Somnium turns into an endless black void in which she's left sobbing all alone, begging Ota and Takero to not leave her. Thankfully, it turns into a Heartwarming Moment in the end, when we finally get a happy memory of Ota and Takero's Mother's Day gift to her.
Speaking Mayumi, it is just heartbreaking to hear there's no cure for her dementia, even if it can be moderated, she's always going to think her husband's out working and her diner's in business. At least Ota realizes his mistakes, giving her some silver lining.
Iris's fate in her route. Thanks to the confusion caused by Iris and Date not having all of the facts, and compounded by their descent into delusion from Iris's Somnium, they desperately try to save Iris from her terminal brain cancer by delving into a Somnium based around a legend of a magical fruit that can gift eternal life. It doesn't work like that, and upon returning to the real world, Iris succumbs to her cancer in Date's arms, rendering their attempts useless.
Aiba's Heroic Sacrifice in the True Ending. Pretty much everything about it, but most notably how torn up Date sounds as he issues the second layer self-destruct command: Telling a lie.
The last decision to make in the game is how Date reacts to seeing Aiba again, with one of the options to cry. Aiba meant so much to Yagyu/Date, that he can break into genuine tears of happiness at seeing her again when he believed he lost her forever.
It's not that much better for her on the other routes either; all routes see her lose Renju and Shoko, and on any route aside from the Resolution Route, she loses Iris too. Poor girl deserves all the hugs.
Hell, Mizuki towards the end of her route. In addition to her parents both dying horrible deaths and her friend being mutilated into a coma and her actual personality being dead and replaced with So's, she sees Date get shot in the eye while trying to save her, putting him into a coma himself, with her brave front eventually crumbling into her tearfully begging Date to wake up. With the Boss's prodding, she Psyncs with Date's Somnium to try to awake him, where she gets to see how much Date had done for her and how much they mean to each other. By the final Mental Lock, she sees the truth behind why Date is distant with her: that he, deep down, thought the best thing for Mizuki was for her to be with her real parents instead of him. When his subconscious tries to push her away, she's nearly broken until she tells him her true feelings that she needs him in her breaking voice. When Date awakes, she (after some prodding) outright tells him "welcome home", and her route ends with the case ending with only a few loose ends and them still being mutually tsundere-y, but both of them clearly knowing how much the other means to them.
Mizuki also reveals on this route that she blames herself for her parents' deaths and even for Shoko's abuse of her. Her crying that "if only she'd been a good girl", her parents would still be together and none of this would've ever happened is absolutely soul-crushing.
There's something very sad and cruel about Saito abusing Pewter's love for Renju to fulfill his own dirty deeds. It becomes apparent that Pewter truly, utterly loved Renju and was willing to do whatever the man asked of him without question. He even later tells Date that he's not doing this because he wants to, nor does he want to do anything to his True Companions Boss and Date that does more than knock them out. In the end, he's so in love that it allowed him to be manipulated, it's no wonder fans wanted him to be in the final dance number.
Mayumi during the Annihilation Route. All the dialogue options have Date unable to say anything. Eventually she breaks the silence by screaming at Date about how it's his fault, before throwing her head onto the table and crying. Date and Aiba leave her to her mourning.
Hitomi is even worse off. She's barely able to answer Date's questions. Even worse is how well her Voice Actress is in playing a mother trying to push down her grief enough to function. Every line she gives is watery and fractions of a second away from being replaced by crying. And then she starts to cry into Date's chest begging him to catch the killer. Her cries are heard while you are selecting the next location to go to on the map. And then by the end of the route, she's made into a bargaining chip by Saito, the person who killed her best friend and killed her daughter, to get his old body back. Whether it works or not, she still blows up, since Saito only promised to say ''where'' Hitomi was being held, not that she would be spared if Date complied, all in one final, spiteful, twist of the knife.
The Resolution Route has a bit of a bittersweet ending for Hitomi in particular, especially apparent as she reminisces about her time with Manaka and Renju, she talks about how they used to go to arcades and talk about what they wanted to do when they grew up. Even though the memories she talks about are sweet, there's an undeniable sound of defeat in her voice to have lost both of them,
The story of Hayato Yagyu, the original identity of Kaname Date. A man who grew up in an orphanage, where he was abused and developed a desire to pass justice on criminals. That path lead to him becoming a detective, but eventually became a Knight Templar focused on disposing of evil, eventually getting unwillingly recruiting as an assassin for the Kumakura gang. By chance, he met Hitomi and Iris, who he had a chance to settle down with and live a normal life, but he was ordered to pull one last job first: killing them. With help from Boss and Pewter, he executed a gambit to save them and put an end to the cyclops killings, only for things to go terribly wrong: Hitomi got a permanent injury in her arm, Yagyu lost his body and memories, and the events leading to the New Cyclops killings would eventually be set into motion.
