History TearJerker / Persona5

--->'''Morgana''': Just then, when you were with [the protagonist], you were laughing. That was your true self, right? You genuinely do like [him], right?

--->'''Akechi:''' (to Joker) I wish I could've met you a few years earlier...

--->''This Robin character was the leader of a group of outlaws ... [[NotSoDifferentRemark He's kind of like you]].''

--->'''Shadow Madarame:''' Hey, Yusuke... what should I do?\\

* Like Yaldabaoth, the player can get an alternate ending if they cut a deal with Maruki, and ''hoo boy'' is it one to get the happy-sad tears rolling. This is the ''VideoGame/Persona3'' sort of bad ending where it would probably serve as a ''GoldenEnding'' in any other context. Ryuji and his track teammates celebrate a victory, "Human" Morgana goes shopping with Ann and carrying her bags, Ann reads a magazine with Shiho about Shiho being a volleyball ace, Yusuke and a [[HeelFaceTurn fully-redeemed Madarame]] work together on a new painting, Makoto has dinner with Sae and an unseen man, later revealed to be their father, Futaba (wearing the uniform of Shujin Academy) walks happily with her mother while Sojiro looks on fondly, Haru and her father celebrate the opening of a new Big Bang Burger, Joker and Akechi play a round of chess and Sumire is now Kasumi and can officially continue her sister's legacy. Sure, they're happy forever, but everything these characters went through is gone, all of their CharacterDevelopment is gone, Maruki is essentially forgotten from existence and becomes nothing short of a nameless man, and Sumire is KilledOffForReal courtesy of [[DeathOfPersonality her old self being wiped out]]. It really ''hurts'' seeing all of them relinquishing everything they've became after all the hell they've been put through by their own insecurities and/or other, awful human beings. The worst thing is that it's heavily implied that unlike the other characters, Joker has RippleEffectProofMemory, which would likely hurt even more for him as he seemingly remembers what he did while the rest of his former friends likely won't remember him anymore. The final shot is all the Phantom Thieves, celebrating at [=LeBlanc=]... and Joker and Akechi at the bar, each giving the player (yes, the ''[[BreakingTheFourthWall player]]'') a [[WhatTheHellPlayer knowing look]]. It's essentially the Fall, but instead of everyone living for a few months of blissful ignorance before the end, everyone lives forever in eternal happiness leaving behind all the hardships and growth that once defined them.

** Afterwards, you can go on a Christmas date with your LoveInterest. However, despite being heartwarming, it's all underscored by the idea that it could be the last time they could ever be alone together for a long time. A similar treatment applies during your party with Sojiro and Futaba if you remain single.

* A [[PlayerPunch gameplay-related example.]] If you try and negotiate with a Shadow whose Persona you once had but have since fused away or dismissed, [[WeUsedToBeFriends it'll call you out]] for [[YouBastard abandoning it.]] It'll definitely hurt the first time you see it, doubly so if it's a Persona you used for a long time.

* While Ryuji may seem like a rowdy delinquent when you first meet him, he has a very good reason for being that way. When he was a former track star, Shujin's PE teacher, Kamoshida, intentionally tried to provoke him by spreading rumors about [[AbusiveParents his]] [[DomesticAbuse home life]]. When Ryuji finally hit his RageBreakingPoint and punched him, Kamoshida ''broke his leg'' claiming self-defense, and subsequently disbanded the track club. Ryuji's former teammates blamed him entirely for the incident, and after the fact, when he was labeled a delinquent by the rest of the school, and he decided that if people thought he was nothing but a troublemaker, [[ThenLetMeBeEvil then he might as well be one.]] All of this left him friendless until the protagonist enrolls at Shujin. But even then, he's still left with irreparable damage to his leg that impairs his ability to run too quick.

---->'''Sojiro''': [[OnlySaneMan She went through such horrible things. Those heartless adults just yelled at the poor girl...]]

--->'''Shadow Madarame:''' Hey, Yusuke... what should I do?
--->'''Yusuke:''' Put an end to all this and use your own artwork for once.
--->'''Shadow Madarame:''' (desperately while sobbing) [[PleaseDontLeaveMe No wait, please! Yusuke! Yusukeee!]]

[[folder:General gameplay]]]

* Picture this. You're an average kid in your hometown walking back home early in the evening. Everything is fine, until you hear two people screaming at each other; one of them sounds particularly distressed. You run to see what's going on, and find a drunken man attempting to force himself on a woman and make her get in his car. [[GoodSamaritan You step in between them and push the man away from her]], maybe a little too forcefully, and he cuts his forehead. The next thing you know, the police are on the scene and [[TheFarmerAndTheViper the woman you protected]] is telling them that you attacked the man unprovoked.[[labelnote:*]] What's worse is that the man turned out to [[{{Blackmail}} have some dirt]] on the woman; the bitch [[UngratefulBastard sold you out]] to [[ItsAllAboutMe save her own skin]].[[/labelnote]] And just like that, [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished you're expelled from your school, taken to court, and sentenced to a year of probation]], [[DisproportionateRetribution all because you pissed off the most corrupt politician in the country]]. These are the protagonist's circumstances and the ones that [[DownerBeginning kick-start]] ''the entire plot of the game''. Oh and it seems like you're being considered as some sort of depraved criminal everywhere you go. At your new school, your world-weary homeroom teacher openly considers you to be a burden, your criminal record somehow got leaked before you can even attend your first class, and rumors are spreading like wildfire. It's made very clear by that point are Public Enemy #1, and seemingly everyone bar twenty-or-so people who open up to you later on would love nothing more than to see you expelled and sent to juvenile hall or prison. Even without that business with Kamoshida's Palace and the Metaverse, it's a highly demoralizing start to a tenure there.

* Ryuji's apparent HeroicSacrifice after beating Shido's Palace. After worrying about his broken leg for so long and resolving to train and get back in shape, he puts it to good use and sprints to a mechanism that frees a lifeboat, saving everyone in the party. Unfortunately, before he can join them, a massive explosion overtakes the ship, apparently killing him. Everyone is weighed down heavily when they get back to the real world, and Ann in particular is completely inconsolable. He shows up fine a few minutes later, completely unaware it looked like he died, and [[MoodWhiplash gets his ass kicked]] [[AngerBornOfWorry after laughing at Ann for crying]], but it's incredibly painful while it lasts.

* Ryuji's apparent HeroicSacrifice after beating Shido's Palace. After worrying about his broken leg for so long and resolving to train and get back in shape, he puts it to good use and sprints to a mechanism that frees a lifeboat, saving everyone in the party. Unfortunately, before he can join them, a massive explosion overtakes the ship, apparently killing him. Everyone is weighed down heavily when they get back to the real world, and Ann in particular is completely inconsolable. He shows up fine a few minutes later, completely unaware it looked like he died, and [[AngerBornOfWorry gets his ass kicked after laughing at Ann for crying]], but it's incredibly painful while it lasts.

* Like Yaldabaoth, the player can get an alternate ending if they cut a deal with Maruki, and ''hoo boy'' is it one to get the happy-sad tears rolling. This is the ''VideoGame/Persona3'' sort of bad ending where it would probably serve as a ''GoldenEnding'' in any other context. Ryuji and his track teammates celebrate a victory, "Human" Morgana goes shopping with Ann and carrying her bags, Ann reads a magazine with Shiho about Shiho being a volleyball ace, Yusuke and a [[HeelFaceTurn fully-redeemed Madarame]] work together on a new painting, Makoto has dinner with Sae and an unseen man, later revealed to be their father, Futaba (wearing the uniform of Shujin Academy) walks happily with her mother while Sojiro looks on fondly, Haru and her father celebrate the opening of a new Big Bang Burger, Joker and Akechi play a round of chess and Sumire is now Kasumi and can officially continue her sister's legacy. Sure, they're happy forever, but everything these characters gone through is gone, all of their CharacterDevelopment is gone, Maruki is essentially forgotten from existence and becomes nothing short of a nameless man, and Sumire is KilledOffForReal courtesy of [[DeathOfPersonality her old self being wiped out]]. It really ''hurts'' seeing all of them relinquishing everything they've became after all the hell they've been put through by their own insecurities and/or other, awful human beings. The worst thing is that it's heavily implied that unlike the other characters, Joker has RippleEffectProofMemory, which would likely hurt even more for him as he seemingly remembers what he did while the rest of his former friends likely won't remember him anymore. The final shot is all the Phantom Thieves, celebrating at [=LeBlanc=]... and Joker and Akechi at the bar, each giving the player (yes, the ''[[BreakingTheFourthWall player]]'') a [[WhatTheHellPlayer knowing look]]. It's essentially the Fall, but instead of everyone lives one more month to die in bliss, everyone lives forever in eternal happiness leaving all the horrible things that made them strong-willed people behind.

** There's also an added layer of sadness when it comes to Ryuji: when Joker approaches him alongside his track teammates, Ryuji is still friendly with him... but then wonders when they ever became friends to begin with. While this helps him to recover his memories, the fact that Ryuji lost his best friend in his ideal reality hurts to see.

* Akechi is one of the first people to realize things are not what they seem because he finds it too hard to believe he's been given everything he wanted in life. This all means that Akechi has suffered so much his entire life that he can never truly be happy, even when given the chance.

* The first week of January is one unbroken string of PlayerPunch tear jerkers. A quick recap: Joker is the only member of the Thieves who realizes that reality has changed. He has to spend an entire week tracking down all of his friends -- the people ''you'' have put hours of work into supporting, comforting, and growing with -- and telling each of them, one by one, that their happiness is fake. Joker has to tell Futaba, Makoto, and Haru that their happy family lives are lies, Yusuke that his sensei betrayed him, Ryuji that he quit the track team in disgrace, Ann that her best friend attempted suicide and moved away, and Morgana that he's not really human. And he has to do it alone, without even Morgana to help this time. His only ally is Akechi, and only because Akechi is already such a bitter shell of a man that he automatically assumes any good thing that happens to him is fake.
** In each case, the character portraits are just expressive enough for you to see the light drain from their eyes. By the third or fourth, you're likely to be wondering whether to just let Maruki win. And you have to do ''all seven.''

* Picture this. You're an average kid in your hometown walking back home early in the evening. Everything is fine, until you hear two people screaming at each other; one of them sounds particularly distressed. You run to see what's going on, and find a drunken man attempting to force himself on a woman and make her get in his car. [[GoodSamaritan You step in between them and push the man away from her]], maybe a little too forcefully, and he cuts his forehead. The next thing you know, the police are on the scene and [[TheFarmerAndTheViper the woman you protected]] is telling them that you attacked the man unprovoked.[[labelnote:*]] What's worse is that the man turned out to [[{{Blackmail}} have some dirt]] on the woman; the bitch [[UngratefulBastard sold you out]] to [[ItsAllAboutMe save her own skin]].[[/labelnote]] And just like that, [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished you're expelled from your school, taken to court, and sentenced to a year of probation]], [[DisproportionateRetribution all because you pissed off the most corrupt politician in the country]]. These are the protagonist's circumstances and the ones that [[DownerBeginning kick-start]] ''the entire plot of the game''. Oh and it seems like you're being considered as some sort of depraved criminal everywhere you go. At your new school, your world-weary homeroom teacher openly considers you to be a burden, your criminal record somehow got leaked before you can even attend your first class, and rumors are spreading like wildfire. It'ss made very clear by that point are Public Enemy #1, and seemingly everyone bar twenty-or-so people who open up to you later on would love nothing more than to see you expelled and sent to juvenile hall or prison. Even without that business with Kamoshida's Palace and the Metaverse, it's a highly demoralizing start to a tenure there.

* Like Yaldabaoth, the player can get an alternate ending if they cut a deal with Maruki, and ''hoo boy'' is it one to get the happy-sad tears rolling. This is the ''VideoGame/Persona3'' sort of bad ending where it would probably serve as a ''GoldenEnding'' in any other context. Ryuji and his track teammates celebrate a victory, "Human" Morgana goes shopping with Ann and carrying her bags, Ann reads a magazine with Shiho about Shiho being a volleyball ace, Yusuke and a [[HeelFaceTurn fully-redeemed Madarame]] work together on a new painting, Makoto has dinner with Sae and an unseen man, later revealed to be their father, Futaba (wearing the uniform of Shujin Academy) walks happily with her mother while Sojiro looks on fondly, Haru and her father celebrate the opening of a new Big Bang Burger, Joker and Akechi play a round of chess and Sumire is now Kasumi and can officially continue her sister's legacy. Sure, they're happy forever, but everything these characters gone through is gone, all of their CharacterDevelopment is gone, Maruki is essentially forgotten from existence and becomes nothing short of a nameless man, and Sumire is KilledOffForReal courtesy of [[DeathOfPersonality her old self being wiped out]]. It really ''hurts'' seeing all of them relinquishing everything they've became after all the hell they've been put through by their own insecurities and/or other, awful human beings. The worst thing is that it's heavily implied that unlike the other characters, Joker has RippleEffectProofMemory, which would likely hurt even more for him as he seemingly remembers what he did while the rest of his former friends likely won't remember him anymore. The final shot is all the Phantom Thieves, celebrating at [=LeBlanc=]... and Joker and Akechi at the bar, each giving the player (yes, the ''[[BreakingTheFourthWall player]]'') a [[WhatTheHellPlayer knowing look]].

* Like Yaldabaoth, the player can get an alternate ending if they cut a deal with Maruki, and ''hoo boy'' is it one to get the happy-sad tears rolling. This is the ''VideoGame/Persona3'' sort of bad ending where it would probably serve as a ''GoldenEnding'' in any other context. Ryuji and his track teammates celebrate a victory, "Human" Morgana goes shopping with Ann and carrying her bags, Ann reads a magazine with Shiho about Shiho being a volleyball ace, Yusuke and a [[HeelFaceTurn fully-redeemed Madarame]] work together on a new painting, Makoto has dinner with Sae and an unseen man, later revealed to be their father, Futaba (wearing the uniform of Shujin Academy) walks happily with her mother while Sojiro looks on fondly, Haru and her father celebrate the opening of a new Big Bang Burger, Joker and Akechi play a round of chess and Sumire is now Kasumi and can officially continue her sister's legacy. Sure, they're happy forever, but everything these characters gone through s gone, all of their CharacterDevelopment is gone, Maruki is essentially forgotten from existence and becomes nothing short of a nameless man, and Sumire is KilledOffForReal courtesy of [[DeathOfPersonality her old self being wiped out]]. It really ''hurts'' seeing all of them relinquishing CharacterDevelopment after all the hell they've been put through by their own insecurities and/or other, awful human beings. The worst thing is that it's heavily implied that unlike the other characters, Joker has RippleEffectProofMemory, which would likely hurt even more for him as he seemingly remembers what he did while the rest of his former friends likely won't remember him anymore. The final shot is all the Phantom Thieves, celebrating at [=LeBlanc=]... and Joker and Akechi at the bar, each giving the player (yes, the ''[[BreakingTheFourthWall player]]'') a [[WhatTheHellPlayer knowing look]].

* Like Yaldabaoth, the player can get an alternate ending if they cut a deal with Maruki, and ''hoo boy'' is it one to get the happy-sad tears rolling. This is the ''VideoGame/Persona3'' sort of bad ending where it would probably serve as a ''GoldenEnding'' in any other context. Ryuji and his track teammates celebrate a victory, "Human" Morgana goes shopping with Ann and carrying her bags, Ann reads a magazine with Shiho about Shiho being a volleyball ace, Yusuke and a [[HeelFaceTurn fully-redeemed Madarame]] work together on a new painting, Makoto has dinner with Sae and an unseen man, later revealed to be their father, Futaba (wearing the uniform of Shujin Academy) walks happily with her mother while Sojiro looks on fondly, Haru and her father celebrate the opening of a new Big Bang Burger, Joker and Akechi play a round of chess and Sumire is now Kasumi and can officially continue her sister's legacy. Sure, they're happy forever, but everything these characters gone through s gone, all of their CharacterDevelopment is gone, Maruki is essentially forgotten from existence and becomes nothing short of a nameless man, and Sumire is KilledOffForReal courtesy of [[DeathOfPersonality her old self being wiped out]]. It really ''hurts'' seeing all of them relinquishing CharacterDevelopment as they live HappilyEverAfter and the concept of suffering, and thus the ''Persona 5'' concept of "rebellion" against the self and against injustice no longer exists anymore. The worst thing is that it's heavily implied that unlike the other characters, Joker has RippleEffectProofMemory, which would likely hurt even more for him as he seemingly remembers what he did while the rest of his former friends likely won't remember him anymore. The final shot is all the Phantom Thieves, celebrating at [=LeBlanc=]... and Joker and Akechi at the bar, each giving the player (yes, the ''[[BreakingTheFourthWall player]]'') a [[WhatTheHellPlayer knowing look]].

* Like Yaldabaoth, the player can get an alternate ending if they cut a deal with Maruki, and ''hoo boy'' is it one to get the happy-sad tears rolling. This is the ''VideoGame/Persona3'' sort of bad ending where it would probably serve as a ''GoldenEnding'' in any other context. Ryuji and his track teammates celebrate a victory, "Human" Morgana goes shopping with Ann and carrying her bags, Ann reads a magazine with Shiho about Shiho being a volleyball ace, Yusuke and a [[HeelFaceTurn fully-redeemed Madarame]] work together on a new painting, Makoto has dinner with Sae and an unseen man, later revealed to be their father, Futaba (wearing the uniform of Shujin Academy) walks happily with her mother while Sojiro looks on fondly, Haru and her father celebrate the opening of a new Big Bang Burger, Joker and Akechi play a round of chess and Sumire is now Kasumi and can officially continue her sister's legacy. Sure, they're happy forever, but everything these characters gone through s gone, all of their CharacterDevelopment is gone, Maruki is essentially forgotten from existence and becomes nothing short of a nameless man, and Sumire is KilledOffForReal courtesy of [[DeathOfPersonality her old self being wiped out]]. It really ''hurts'' seeing all of them relinquishing CharacterDevelopment to literally live HappilyEverAfter. The worst thing is that it's heavily implied that unlike the other characters, Joker has RippleEffectProofMemory, which would likely hurt even more for him as he seemingly remembers what he did while the rest of his former friends likely won't remember him anymore. The final shot is all the Phantom Thieves, celebrating at [=LeBlanc=]... and Joker and Akechi at the bar, each giving the player (yes, the ''[[BreakingTheFourthWall player]]'') a [[WhatTheHellPlayer knowing look]].

* Like Yaldabaoth, the player can get an alternate ending if they cut a deal with Maruki, and ''hoo boy'' is it one to get the happy-sad tears rolling. To wit, it's done much more elaborately than Yaldabaoth's BadEnd, and almost feels more like a GoldenEnding as the Phantom Thieves are shown living happily in the new world if you fail to realize the context:
** Ryuji and his track teammates celebrate a victory.
** "Human" Morgana goes shopping with Ann and carrying her bags.
** Ann reads a magazine with Shiho about Shiho being a volleyball ace.
** Yusuke and a [[HeelFaceTurn fully-redeemed Madarame]] work together on a new painting.
** Makoto has dinner with Sae and an unseen man, later revealed to be their father.
** Futaba (wearing the uniform of Shujin Academy) walks happily with her mother while Sojiro looks on fondly.
** Haru and her father celebrate the opening of a new Big Bang Burger.
** Joker and Akechi play a round of chess.
** Sumire is now Kasumi and can officially continue her sister's legacy. It wouldn't be an exaggeration if one were to say that Sumire is finally KilledOffForReal in the metaphorical sense.
** The final shot is all the Phantom Thieves, celebrating at [=LeBlanc=]... and Joker and Akechi at the bar, each giving the player (yes, the ''[[BreakingTheFourthWall player]]'') a [[WhatTheHellPlayer knowing look]].