Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
And I betrayed him...
It's not uncommon for a detective's case to be full of sadness. Especially if said case involves a serial killer who splits their victims in two.
- Despite also being a moment filled to the brim with Nightmare Fuel, the ending to the Explosion Route is downright heartbreaking when you look into it more.
- Seeing Mizuki in immeasurable pain from losing her eye is upsetting enough, but her crying out from it tugs on the heartstrings pretty hard.
- Lien's desparation to find Kizuna in the wreckage of the cathedral only to be shown by Gen the damage the rubble caused to her legs is both saddening and relatable, as having someone you care about being hurt is always traumatic.
- Ryuki has the greatest blow of all when Date is crushed by rubble and presumably dies (though he is later revealed to have gotten amnesia from this event), eliciting the quote on this page.
- Shoma telling his father, Komeji, that he wishes the latter was dead is tragically realized when he becomes the next victim of the Tearer, only made more upsetting when the kid realizes he didn't really mean it at all. And it's even worse if you did the other branch of Komeji's Somnium first, as that leads to an ending where Shoma does manage to fix his issues with his father, making his death that much more tragic once you've seen how happy they could have been together.
- The Gen and Amame ending, where Gen dies in Amame's arms protecting her from automatic gunfire. His Dying Declaration of Love in his Wink Psync is especially poignant, combined with the music, Tears Overflow
:Gen: I liked you as a friend. At least, that's what I told myself. But I truly loved... I just couldn't accept it. Even after I realized it, I acted like a friend. Treated you almost like a daughter. That's how I acted around you. It was the first time in my life I felt like this. I didn't know what to do.Amame: Genny, you're so cute!Gen: What about me is cute? I'm as rugged as my name suggests.Amame: But I like that about you. I love how big and strong you are! Just being near you makes me feel safe.Gen: Hehe, that would change real quick if I took off my mask.Amame: No, that's not true. I think your face is nice too! I like you whether or not you have your mask on!Gen: She probably likes me as a friend. Or maybe it's something more childish, like her stuffed animal or pet. But I was okay with that. As long as it meant being with her. And then she came to me for help. It made me so, so happy. But it was fleeting, I knew nothing would come of it. I am hideous after all. Oh God, how can you be so cruel?! I wish I never realized how I truly felt. Nothing happens... Nothing's there. I wanted to live a plain, dull life. I wanted to die quietly, alone. And now, everything that's hurt me before... means nothing. Everything that's hurt me before is nothing compared to the hurt I feel now. Oh God, why are you so cruel to me? She'll never love me, She's precious, pure, innocent, and beautiful... Why did you have to show her to me god!? I resent you..."Creator"... I curse you for this terrible fate you've given me!....No, no I can't. That's not the truth. I... I am grateful to God. I...I met you. My fate...was meeting you.Amame: Genny!Gen: Ah... Amame. I am truly... happy... - While still on the topic of Amame, her second Somnium, a repeat of her initial one, though with the questions asked now having a somewhat darker context than the first time, genuinely tries to make players sympathize with her and what she's done.
- The name of the Somnium, Nightmare Irreconcilable, reflects her situation. As much as she ponders on what could have been had she chose different options in the past, that maybe having even one thing that could have made everything different, there is no changing the past and she must face the consequences of her actions. It does not help that all the options Amame chose were always the right ones in the Somnium.
- Which is worse to lose, the father or the mother?: Amane could have chosen to stay with her father during his divorce, but didn't; she felt that she had to support her mother at the time. But by doing so, she left her father to try to take care of Shoma alone.
- Would you rather be truthful and be poor, or lie and make a lot of money?: Amame lied about her age to be able to work at Sunfish Pocket so she could give her father and brother money they needed to be happy. However, this cut down on the amount of time she was able to actually be with them. If she had told the truth, she could have been around to noticed Komeji's money troubles, and perhaps could have kept her father from sinking into debt so bad, he would turn to the mafia and later be tempted to try to blackmail Tearer.
- Would you support your family or your friends, if you could only choose one?: Amame chose to support Iris instead of her father during the night that Jin's half body was found. If she had been there for her dad, Komeji wouldn't have stolen Jin's other half and tried to blackmail Tearer, and thus he would not have been so brutally killed. Mame's shriek of horror at finding her father's corpse painfully shows that even in that moment, she felt she had failed her dad.
- Would you rather have your biggest secret spilled or be part of a dangerous plan?: Amame chose to keep her crime of killing Uru secret by giving into Tokiko's blackmail, even though it involved helping someone kill themself and desecrating her corpse.
- If someone hurt someone you cared about: would you make them apologize or get revenge?: Amame deliberately chose to make Uru die in the same painful way he had done to her father years ago; an incident he wrote of as "a thief who got his" and only served to help make up for Jin's missing/burnt corpse pointing to the Stadium. But to Amame, she saw a murderer who killed her only father for a crazy reason bragging about it and killed him without regret... even though she knew that neither Shoma nor Komeji would have wanted her to do it.
- The name of the Somnium, Nightmare Irreconcilable, reflects her situation. As much as she ponders on what could have been had she chose different options in the past, that maybe having even one thing that could have made everything different, there is no changing the past and she must face the consequences of her actions. It does not help that all the options Amame chose were always the right ones in the Somnium.
- Tearer, a.k.a. Uru's entire backstory. Being driven mad by being experimented on by Chikara (i.e. having part of his face removed so it could be grafted onto the latter's son as half of his body had tumors on it) is truly a sad outcome, and also tragically justifies the scientist actually becoming one of his victims in the story.
- Ryuki's immense struggle with his circumstances, decaying mental health and overwhelming feelings of guilt can be difficult to get through. The poor guy goes through a lot, and it's only until the very end that things begin to let up...
- While the Dance Party Ending is mostly optimistic, the absence of Amame, who has been incarcerated for Tearer's murder, is still felt. Gen's lyrics are dedicated to him expressing hope that she'll be back some day and things can go back to how they used to be.
