Tear Jerker / Starfield

• The fate of Earth. It had lost its magnetosphere and humanity had 50 years to evacuate the planet, leaving it a barren, dusty wasteland. There are hardly any signs that this was once the cradle of humanity save for a few landmarks such as the Pyramids of Giza, or the NASA take-off center. A grim, tragic reminder of the world we came from, and the world we had lost.
  • It's also heavily implied that only a fraction of Earth's population was able/willing to escape, and billions of people were ultimately left to perish. To say nothing of all the Earth flora and fauna that are now extinct...
  • And it gets even worse when you learn how it really happened, late in the main story. When a group of NASA scientists first invented the grav drive that would allow for ships to travel faster than light, the prototype drives were still imperfect, and the "gravity waves" being emitted from many years worth of tests were disrupting the Earth's magnetosphere. By the time NASA realized what was happening, it was already too late, and Earth's magnetosphere was slowly collapsing, leaving humanity with only 50 years to evacuate before the atmosphere was stripped away by the solar wind, thus ending all terrestrial life. But the computer logs in NASA's base reveal that the head of the project, Dr. Victor Aiza, had foreseen all of this through a vision he'd witnessed from the artifact he'd found on Mars, and decided to continue with the project anyway, as he'd also been shown visions of what humanity would eventually become as a spacefaring civilization thanks to his invention and believed sacrificing Earth was a necessary evil to bring about this future. One of the other scientists was so shocked & angry by this that she severed all ties with Dr. Aiza permanently, and the last log you listen to is from Dr. Aiza himself, still struggling with remorse many years later, telling the truth about what he saw and leaving his last wish for whoever might be sent to recover the artifact to make better use of it than he did.
• The entirety of "High Price To Pay". The Starborn attack both the Eye and the Lodge, and you have to choose to go help one or the other. The catch? The Constellation member you have the highest affinity with in the location you don't choose will die. For good. It doesn't matter if they're your lover or your spouse, or even if they're just a good friend of yours. They're gone.
  • The more saddening fact is if you let Sam die, Cora rushes in and begs for Sam to stay alive. Cora yelling at you for not coming sooner and saying she hates you and to leave her alone can be heartbreaking especially considering how much she admired you or that if you were her step-parent, loved you a lot and there's nothing much you can even say to make her feel better.
• This includes one of the alternate starts when doing NG+, you can meet a grown-up Cora wearing a Starborn outfit and having her own crew, who wants revenge against you (or some alternate version of you) for not being able to save Sam's life in time. It's sad to see how a cheerful girl who once admired you so much ended up turning into a vengeful person and growing up wanting to kill you over a decision you didn't have any choice but to make (If Sam dies during the aforementioned "High Price to Pay" mission, even though it wasn't your fault, Cora sees your decision to choose to help those at the other Constellation base as betraying her father). Looting her dead body can also show that she did meet the Starborn Sam in the alternate dimension and he tried to convince her not to take revenge and live her life, which unfortunately didn't work.
  • Quite a few of the NG+ alternate universes can be tearjerkers. Several of them involve everyone in Constellation already being dead when you arrive - either killed by the Hunter, an Andreja loyal to House Va'ruun, or even an alternate version of yourself who has gotten bored with being good and massacred everyone.
• During the entire "Mantis" mission, the previous Mantis, Doriane Voclain, died from an incurable disease and bestowed everything she had on her son Leon, who she was distant with because of her occupation as the Mantis. Throughout the voice calls in the facility she really believed her son would have been able to succeed in going through the tests she prepared for him, likely not realizing pirates knew where the base was and would come wanting the Mantis treasure as well. In the end, you can find his dead body and his last recorded slate wondering why his mom did this and if the whole thing was her sick idea of a joke. At the very least, you could do her and the previous Mantis proud by bringing justice to the Settled Systems by wearing the Mantis space gear and flying the Razorleaf spaceship which are both very good upgrades over the Frontier and the default Constellation spacesuit.
  • Hearing Leon's bittersweet thoughts about his mother could be empathized by many people who have had distant parents because of their jobs and never knowing what they did.

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