Tear Jerker / Phantasy Star Online 2

As a Moments subpage there are unmarked spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk!

In General

• Persona's very existence in itself. Being an alternate future version of the Protagonist, they came from a timeline where they failed to save Matoi's life after she became the Profound Darkness' host. Overcome by grief, they lose themselves in despair and transformed into a Dark Falz. Desiring to avert her death, they used the power given to them by Xiao to go back in time to try and save Matoi's life once more. Despite Persona's efforts however, Matoi's fate was sealed as no matter what action they took to alter the past, she still became the Profound Darkness' host and had to be put down. It got to a point where Persona themselves eventually gave up trying to save her altogether and worked to just kill Matoi instead as a form of mercy. In case that wasn't clear enough, the Protagonist, the ultimate Determinator in-game, gave up.
  • Should the Protagonist agree to kill Matoi, Persona has this to say when holding Matoi down so that the Protagonist has a clear shot at both of them:
    Persona: Take that blade and pierce straight through! Free her... and free me from all this!
  • Further highlighting their despair is Persona's confrontation with the Protagonist in the true ending path of Episode 3. After the Protagonist refuses to kill the then corrupted Matoi, Persona more or less starts to break down as they urge them to do so if only to spare Matoi further torment from her fate. They even use themselves as an example of the Protagonist's future failure which only further frustrates them when the Protagonist still refuses in spite of the odds. Persona can only muse in self-loathing how that same stubbornness is the reason why they're standing in front of their younger self to begin with, as they themselves could never let Matoi go and only ever wished to save her life. Episode Oracle goes further with this where, just before finally saving Matoi, Persona admits that he's killed Matoi over thousands of times in his attempts to save her.
  • Persona's ultimate fate at end of Episode 3. Through their and the Protagonist's combined efforts, Matoi is finally saved from the Profound Darkness and now free to live her life how she chooses. However, in order to do so, Persona had to absorb the F-Factors from both her and the Protagonist which results in Persona becoming the host of the Profound Darkness themselves. In order to prevent it from going on a rampage, Persona uses their time travel ability to send themselves and the Profound Darkness to the moment just before it awakens. When it does, ARKS is there ready to fight it and once weakened Persona repeats the process all over again. This effectively traps both in a time loop, meaning even after saving Matoi, Persona's suffering continues. There's also their final words to Matoi, an echo of what she said to the Protagonist in alternate timeline just before her death and their transformation into Persona.
    Persona: Don't cry. Smile.
• Ulku and Theodore. Where do we start? Theodore is an ARKS member with great potential, but is a Reluctant Warrior. Ulku, on the other hand, is Theo's close friend, who, despite having no photon affinity, is actually passionate to become ARKS member. However, her passion is manipulated by Luther, and by putting her as an ARKS staff and a pilot during a Falspawn raid in Episode 1, she's "killed" in battle. We can see him grieve about her, and by the time he appears in Episode 2, he's way beyond Despair Event Horizon already, even going as far as working for Luther just to see Ulku again.
  • While Ulku is actually alive thanks to the player and Xiao's interference by Time Travel, the record writes her as "dead", and to prevent Luther from noticing, Ulku has to go into hiding. However, Theo doesn't know this, and it only worsens his fall into darkness.
  • When you get to fight him, it is revealed that Theo actually knows that no matter what he does for Luther, he can never bring Ulku back. He just doesn't care anymore at this point. It's only thanks to Ulku approaching him that he stops his rampage, and even it takes a while to remind him that she's real, just to show how far Theo has fallen.

Episode 1

• Echo's reaction when Zeno and Casra are about to Hold the Line against Dark Falz Elder so that the rest can escape. Even more so after the team escapes to the ship, and you can see how Elder's awakening wreaks havoc on huge portion of Naverius. Seeing that, there's no wonder if anyone questions their survivability.
• Quna's relationship with Haddred is chock full of this, being life-long friends. Haddred is an artificial Quartz Dragon created by horrible research and experimentation, and goes berserk because of it. Quna is then sent to hunt him down, only to realize that deep inside, Haddred still has Undying Loyalty to her, and avoids her as much as possible because he's afraid to hurt her.
  • Then there's the F-Factor corruption that Haddred experiences due to his ability to absorb Falspawns. By the end of Episode 1, the player and Quna have to subject him to Mercy Kill.
  • Right after the boss fight, Haddred, being shown to be The Speechless, suddenly talks to Quna, asking her for one last request: singing one last song for him, basically requesting a requiem.
  • On that note, Quna's Eternal Encore is a lot sadder when you have the context and translated lyrics together.
• Later on the episode, Gettemhult and "Melfonseana's" backstory is finally revealed. Turns out that Gettemhult was Zeno and Echo's old friend and used to be a Nice Guy. However, everything changed when Dark Falz Elder attacked. Gettemhult lost almost everyone dear to him, including his lover, the real Melfonseana, who is the current "Melfonseana's" elder sister. No wonder Gettemhult became so bitter.
  • To twist the knife even further, Melfonseana's death isn't purely accidental. "Melfonseana" used to be jealous of her elder sister's happy relationship with Gettemhult, wishing that she could replace her instead. And during Elder's attack, she believed that she led Melfonseana towards her death. Her guilt, in addition to Gettemhult's breakdown, led her to become "Melfonseana" in her sister's place. She got what she wanted, in a brutal way.

Episode 2

• CODE: ABYSS is both Nightmare Fuel and this. Imagine bonding with ARKS member, only for them to be mind-controlled against you, almost all of them. Sure, Regius has reasons to go after you as you have committed several "crimes", but to use a forbidden code just to go after you, especially by using your friends, is too much. You're lucky that a. Matoi is with you, and since she's the former member of the Council, she can unknowingly negate the CODE: ABYSS effect, and b. There are divide between Council members, so half of them join your side. There's also Echo, who, thanks to Zeno, also resists the code.
  • The anime only makes it hurt even further. At least in the game, Afin, by far the closest person to the player aside from Matoi, doesn't appear at all during the Mothership raid. In the anime however, thanks to Adaptational Expansion, Afin appears and attacks Ash under the effect of the code.
• Sure, Klariskrays has been a Smug Super up to this point, but the Trauma Conga Line that occurs during this final stretch makes you feel kinda sorry for her. First she has to fight Huey, which she really doesn't want to do, and then the revelation that she's a clone and has been manipulated by Luther drives her straight into a Heroic BSoD as she begs "Clarissa" for insight, only to be met with silence. It's very much a Break the Haughty sequence that's on the tragic side rather than cathartic.

Episode 3

• Related to Persona above, viewing the Bad Ending is necessary to progress the story, as you work together with Persona to free both Matoi and Persona from their suffering. If you do so, you'll get to see your character transforms into Persona, keeping the Stable Time Loop going.
• If you choose to save Matoi after replaying "Decision Day" story quest, you're still not safe from the Bad Ending. After revealing the situation, everyone, including the Council of Six, agrees to help you save Matoi. When you play "The Reason Behind Your Birth" story quest, everyone helps you going through the Corrupted Naverius so you can reach Matoi, and everyone is counting on you. But then after you defeat Viel Hyunal, you still can choose to kill her and get the Bad Ending. Even Persona, who's watching from distance, is upset. Imagine how sad and disappointed the rest of the ARKS after all of the effort they've done to save Matoi, only for you to kill her anyway. At least if you go for the Bad Ending in "Decision Day", only a few know what happened: You, Persona and Matoi (who are dead in the ending anyway), and probably Xiao.
  Persona: Hmph. In the end, this is what I chose.