Being a Level-5 game, this trope is inevitable. Ni No Kuni II, like its predecessor and the Professor Layton series, contains a fair amount of heart-wrenching scenes that are sure to bring on the waterworks.
This page contains unmarked spoilers. Turn back now if you do not want to be spoiled.
The main game
- At the start of the game, things weren't already going well for the heroes. Then Aranella performs a Heroic Sacrifice. The thing that sells the scene? Aranella's dying message to Evan, followed very quickly by Evan's grieving. Sure, the sadness was cut short in that both had to leave the scene quickly lest Mausinger catch up with them, but it's heartwrenching to see the one last figure Evan looks up to perish.
- Chapter 5: The reveal of Nerea's "Groundhog Day" Loop spell and the reason behind it.
- One of the sidequests in Hydropolis. A little girl asks you to go look for her pet lizard. Except that since the groundhog day loop spell had just recently been broken, 300 years had passed and the little lizard is now a dragon, who longs to see the little girl again. The sad thing about the story is how it did not know that the girl was trapped in a spell and thought she simply did not love him anymore.
- Chapter 6 has Bracken's backstory revealed- she lost a leg in an industrial accident, and Zip personally made her a replacement cybernetic leg. The thing that sells this scene is that Zip has become power-crazy due to Doloran's spell, and Bracken was revealing her backstory to all to remind Zip of how he used to be.
- Another sidequest that shows up in Capstan-Upon-Hull during the Broadleaf chapter is that a girl claims that her father had gone sailing and didn't return. You eventually find his spirit in a cave- he had perished while sailing. He asks you to give her a necklace he was holding on to that he wanted to give to her once he went back home.
- In Chapter 7, Roland's apparent defection. Roland's a really good actor. Well, good enough to fool the sky pirates anyway, but Evan was clearly taken in for a while.
- In Chapter 8, Mausinger learns that he's been played by his own Evil Chancellor, Vermine, after having his kingsbond taken from him by Doloran. The sad scene isn't how Vermine had been playing him so he could usurp the throne (and briefly receives his comeupperance in being Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves), nor does it come during the Kingmaker battle, where Mausinger very rapidly went through a Heel–Face Turn and now acts as a support NPC. It's when Evan hands over his father's diary to Mausinger and a My God, What Have I Done? moment ensues when he sees how much King Leonhard believed in him. The waterworks reach their climax when Mausinger's tears summon the ghost of Evan's father, and Mausinger begs for forgiveness.
- It doubles as Nightmare Fuel, but Roland's nightmare about his son. His son dissolves into ash/dust in front of him and Roland falls onto his knees and breaks down sobbing.
- Doloran having to say goodbye to Alisa once more in the ending. Even after all he did, its hard not to feel sorry for him. Especially when it becomes clear that it's not his fault that Allegoria fell.Doloran: Alisa, no! Not yet! ALISAAAAAAAA!!!
- The ending, when Roland is being pulled back into his world. Evan barely managed to pull together a smile while sending Roland off, but deep inside, he's losing a trusted friend and parental figure who went through so much with him, and they may never see each other ever again. As for the player, it signals the end of the story, and Roland is being sent back to his world, which is almost definitely now engaged in a war and partially in ruins, and his family is most probably dead. It isn't until The Stinger that the player is shown that Roland has been allowed to correct the course of history so that those nuclear bombs were never launched.
Lair Of The Lost Lord DLC
- Tani's backstory. We all know she's an orphan and that Batu isn’t her biological father. But now we hear about how her mother was murdered by bandits in a robbery attempt and died escaping, and then Batu actually scavenged her belongings and made away with a sack, not knowing that he had rescued a baby Tani from the brink of death until he opens said sack. He wanted to return to bury the woman and assure her spirit that her daughter was okay, but he wasn't able to find the place again until a photo in Leafbook jogs his memory.
