Tear Jerker / Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers

• The pre-credits ending. All of it.
  • Specifically, The player was really sent back from the future to change the past, knowing full well that saving the world would cause them to vanish from existence. You only learn of this right before Grovyle throws Dusknoir and himself back into the future to prevent Dusknoir from interfering with your task of saving the world. You progress through The Very Definitely Final Dungeon knowing that the player can't reveal their ultimate fate to their most trusted partner, and after saving the world, has only enough time to give their final goodbyes before disappearing into the light and leaving their partner crying from the shock. Out of three Pokémon who left for the Hidden Land, only one returned to tell everyone about it, and it wasn't you. And that's not counting the Really Dead Montage when the partner recalls their memories of their adventures after they arrive on the beach where they first met you, and breaks down crying again alongside Bidoof.
    • The fact that this was basically the first time we see ourselves talk to our partner, since we only ever see our thoughts and see ourselves 'mime' out decisions to our partner in the game prior. Hearing the good-bye coming straight from the player just made it even sadder.
      You: (starts to glow brighter) (...! The light...The light is getting brighter...)
      Partner: D-Don't! Don't...Don't go...
      You: Thank you for everything, [Partner]. I'm glad we got to train together at the guild...I'm glad we got to go on adventures together...I'm glad...I got to know you [Partner].
      Partner: Wait...
      You: I'm sorry. I'm so lucky that you were my friend...
      Partner: I feel the same way! To me, you're...more important than anything...
      You: Yes...I feel the same way. [Partner]...Even after I disappear from here...I will never forget you... (glows brighter and disappears...)
  • Oh, it gets worse: think about how much crap the partner has been through over the course of the game: the Perfect Apple incident, finding out that your idol is a villain, being dragged into the Bad Future for no reason, witnessing the horrors of said bad future, having to deal with the fact that they are the world's last hope for peace… it's a wonder they don't break down earlier.
• The end of Special Episode 2, "Igglybuff The Prodigy". Poor little guy has to watch his exploring master get arrested, not knowing until now Armaldo was a criminal.
  • Not to mention when Armaldo stopped Igglybuff from attacking Nidoking and Magnezone and then later giving him his Defend Globe before being carried away as Igglybuff cries his eyes out.
• After returning from the Miracle Sea, Chatot makes you give up baby Manaphy for its own health and safety, leading to a painful separation.
  • Especially when Manaphy realizes that he has to leave and has to be dragged away by Walrein, screaming your and your partner's names.
• The end of Special Episode 5, "In The Future of Darkness". When the flow of time in the future is finally starting to resume, the eternal darkness is finally giving way to a sunrise... but this also means that since the past is changed, this future will cease to exist any moment. Grovyle, Celebi, and Dusknoir have to fight to stop Primal Dialga from escaping the future, even though they will all soon be erased. Dialga first, Dusknoir second, Grovyle embraces Celebi as they watch the sun rise, with Celebi describing just how beautiful it is to finally see the sun again as the two of them (and everything else) vanishes.
  • Dusknoir vanishing was especially touching because after spending most of the game hating Grovyle, he thanks him for showing him what it means to live, and that he now has no regrets...
  Dusknoir: Grovyle... Please tell me... My... my life... Did it shine...?
  Grovyle: Yes. Extraordinarily.
• The beginning of Bidoof's Special Episode, with him saying goodbye to his family while sad music plays.
  Bidoof's Mama: If you need us, you can always come home.
  • In that same episode, realizing that Snover and Team Rogue were a bunch of bad guys and they were about to take Bidoof's money from him.
• Team Skull's last scene, Chatot's sacrifice and the scene with Wigglytuff afterwards, and of course, Grovyle's sacrifice.
  • The anime version of Grovyle's sacrifice was just as heart-breaking as the game version, if not more.
  Grovyle: The future of the world is up to you. Protect the sunrise, for everyone's sake.
• When Fake!Cresselia comes and tells you and your partner that you're destroying the world and need to be killed (or kill yourselves) to save it. This can really hit home for those who have felt suicidal in the past.
  • Even worse when the protagonist tries to cheer up their partner, only for them to start to lose hope when Fake!Cresselia confronts them in Palkia's nightmare.
• Although it doesn't touch up on this too much, imagine how Grovyle must feel about the Player Character. His heroic partner, both of you working and fighting hard to save the world. Those two really seemed like a tight-knit duo, evidenced during the Dimensional Scream bits when Grovyle praised his partner's good work and when he muses about how to solve puzzles. When those two enter the portal to the past, something terrifying happens, and he begs his partner not to let go. When he wakes up, he's alone with no information to go on as to where his partner is. But he keeps going. And when he finally sees his partner again, neither of them know who they are and they fight each other. Finding out who his partner is, but also hearing that they have no memory of who he is, must be painful for him to process, after all that they've been through. Imagine realizing that you've basically fought your best friend without knowing that they are under a different form, and finding out that they have lost their memories of you.

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