History TearJerker / TalesOfXillia2

** The Ending where Elle becomes the millionth catalyst. Ludger doesn't want her to do this, but Elle is resigned to it because she's not the '[[CloningBlues real]] Elle'. Years later, Ludger is the new CEO of the Spirius Corporation and meets Elle's mother. While it has a hopeful note to it that Elle will be born, after the events of the game and the drama of the two Millas, it feels hollow because it won't be 'this' Elle.

* A fractured dimension in Rowen's Character Episodes shows that King Nachtigal became a [[TheGoodKing Good King]] instead of the [[EvilOverlord Tyrant]] he originally was. All because of a hairpin of his sister's, a memento, and her words to always be true to himself. He even reveals that Rowen was rather happily married to Cassy, before she died. Rowen is shaken to learn that his old friend was ''this'' close to being redeemable in the original dimension, but is happy to know that their friendship remained on good terms in this world.

!! As ''Tales of Xillia 2'' is a sequel to ''Tales of Xillia'', be prepared for [[LateArrivalSpoiler Late-Arrival Spoilers]]!

--> '''Alt Milla:''' "I don't belong here..."

---> '''Alt Milla:''' "[[MyGodWhatHaveIDone I must have killed my world's Jude when he was a baby...]]"

* The chapter Elle and I is one huge tear jerker and a BreakTheCutie for Elle. [[spoiler: Elle finally makes it back home to her father, Victor, who actually seems like a pleasant fellow. After making Ludger and the others dinner and tucking Elle in for a nap, he reveals that he's actually a divergence catalyst and the final waymarker for Canaan which means you'll have to kill him. That's not the only sad part though, it's the fact that Victor is this world's version of Ludger and he has completely lost his mind to the point of thinking his Elle is the "fake Elle" and that he needs to be reborn in the prime dimension to reunite with the "real Elle". Elle walks in on the group fighting and halfway through the battle she starts screaming for them to stop. After you kill Victor and go back to the prime dimension, Ludger takes Elle back to Drellin to let her rest and makes her dinner, at which point she completely breaks down.]] Poor kid.
* The duel between Julius and Ludger. [[spoiler: Ludger has to kill his brother, so he can create a soulbridge and get to Canaan to save Elle. And Julius is humming the Hymn of Proof as he's dying.]] The battle music during the duel also contains the Hymn of Proof melody.
** The information that comes from the supplementary materials makes this worse: [[spoiler:A sacrifice isn't actually needed to create a soulbridge, Chronos is supposed to create it after someone has collected the Waymarkers. The only reason sacrifices became a common ritual was because someone who did the trial long ago misunderstood and thought a sacrifice was necessary. Meaning Julius, Rideaux, and a bunch of other people died for nothing!]]

** The Bad Ending. [[spoiler: Realizing that he cannot kill his brother, the party leaves him to collect himself, while heading off to confront Julius themselves. They need to get into Canaan and Julius told them that, if Ludger can't do it, they should. Ludger realizes what's going on and rushes over to stop them. Desperate to keep Julius alive, Ludger repeatedly denies going through with it and begging for there to be another way; when Gaius raises his sword, Ludger completely ''snaps'' and attacks the entire party. The ensuing battle pitches Ludger against the Xillia cast, who are all begging for him to stop before he kills them. After, Julius sees Ludger covered in blood and his own divergence catalyst transformation is progressing, to the point that it creeps onto his face. Ludger realizes that he just killed his friends to keep his brother alive, who may not have that much time left... and then Julius admits that this might be the world he wanted, too. A world, where Ludger had forsaken everything for him]].
---> '''Julius:''' "[[spoiler: You threw everything away... for me?]]"
** The Ending where Elle becomes the millionth catalyst. [[spoiler: Ludger doesn't want her to do this, but Elle is resigned to it because she's not the '[[CloningBlues real]] Elle'. Years later, Ludger is the new CEO of the Spirius Corporation and meets Elle's mother. While it has a hopeful note to it that Elle will be born, after the events of the game and the drama of the two Millas, it feels hollow because it won't be 'this' Elle.]]
** The Ending where Ludger becomes the millionth catalyst. [[spoiler: Intent on saving Elle, Ludger transforms again into his full Chromatus form to make himself turn into a divergence catalyst. While Elle begs him to not do this, since she's willing to die for being a fractured dimension's Elle, Rowen points something out to her: Ludger isn't doing this for the prime dimension's Elle or any of the other Elles out there. He's doing it for the one he knew, for the Elle who became friend and family to him. And Ludger vanishes while humming the Hymn of Proof to her.]]

-->'''Sonny:''' (to Rowen) I see... You're the person (my owner) was talking about... Please promise me that after I'm gone, you'll always there for her... Please do this for me...

* The fractured dimension you enter upon Gaius joining your party. In this dimension, Gaius has abdicated the throne and Wingul took over the leadership in Kanbalar. And according to the [=NPCs=], Wingul is pretty much an isolated dictator. And then you meet Wingul and learn, [[spoiler: that Karla was terminally ill in this dimension and Gaius considered abdicating the throne to take care of her. Wingul begged her to try to convince Gaius to not do so, which caused Karla to commit suicide... which caused Gaius such grief that he abdicated the throne, anyway, and Wingul took over. Not out of duty to Gaius, but because out of genuine friendship]]. Knowing that, it makes Wingul's death in the prime dimension much more tragic in hindsight.

--> '''Alvin:''' "It's not 'don't you trust me'! You should say 'I want you to believe me'!"

--> '''Milla:''' "I'm sorry. We won't ever meet again."

* The fractured dimension that involves the Epsilla Ruins. It turns out that the ruins are a Matrix of the people of an old civilization that willingly [[SoulJar digitalized their data]], in the hope of being found and resurrected one day. And Odin, the one in charge of protecting the ruins and data, has been doing so for ''90.000 years''. Unfortunately, he is the divergence catalyst and needs to be destroyed. [[spoiler: It gets worse when Odin reveals that a different fractured dimension's version of the party had ''just'' fought him themselves, but lost and their data was digitalized. And that party thought ''their'' dimension was the prime one, too.]] After the dimension is destroyed, the knowledge that this civilization is probably also in the prime dimension, but completely inaccessible because the ruins have collapsed, just makes it more heartbreaking.

* Elize's 4th Character Episode features a dimension where Jiao actually adopted her, instead of giving her over for Booster research. When it's revealed that Yurgens is in cahoots with some poachers, Elize manages to convince Jiao to not kill him and realizes that Jiao is the divergence catalyst. They follow him into the Sapsrath Woods, [[spoiler: only to see that he has killed the poachers ''and'' Yurgens, because they tried to blackmail him for letting them go. After fighting him, Jiao's final words lament that he wasn't able to give Elize what she wanted: a bunniekins doll, which turns out to be made with the fur of the endangered monster species that the guys were poaching]]. Jiao even calls Elize his 'sun, moon and stars'. It's clear that Elize still sees him as a ParentalSubstitute, so watching him die ''again'', especially when she now knows that things could have been better, makes it worse.

** Spyrite technology has actually flourished in this dimension, [[spoiler: but Jude was killed shortly after completing it, meaning he couldn't even see how the world changed after his hard work]].
** It's an off-hand comment by an NPC, but this dimension reveals that [[spoiler: Gaius is the sole survivor of the mass murder of the Xillia cast. But he is crippled, to the point that he cannot even stand, which is a FateWorseThanDeath to him. One of Gaius' comments in the prime dimension was his existence as King leaving him to live in a solitary existence. In this dimension, he's crippled, betrayed and alone]].
** Even poor Driselle isn't spared. [[spoiler: She's still alive, but she has become a recluse and refuses to see anyone, locking herself in her mansion and focusing solely on work. Because every person she considered family is dead. Even worse, she was the one to identify Rowen's body and likely those of the others, in whatever state Victor left their bodies in.]]
** One of the biggest is [[spoiler: Victor's death. After learning that he's this Elle's father, he's also this dimension's version of Ludger and was the one who killed the party years ago. Elle screams at the party ''mid-boss fight'' to stop, but Victor is still killed. As he's dying, he sees that Elle has begun to turn into a divergence catalyst herself, the very thing he had hoped to prevent. With his plan foiled and goal broken, Victor holds Elle close and smiles, humming her lullaby]].
** Post-dimension, there is the skit 'Idealism And Reality' in which Jude [[spoiler: actually wonders if he needs to die for Spyrite technology to work out]]. Call it overdramatic, but that a 16 year old is wondering that, especially a rather happy-go-lucky guy like Jude, is pretty disturbing.

* The fractured dimension Ludger gets pulled into, after his duel with Julius. It's perfectly happy! Jude's Spyrite technology is succeeding; Leia is an accomplished reporter; Alvin and Yurgens' business is flourishing and Gaius and Rowen's campaign for peace among nations is going swimmingly. And Julius and Ludger are living just fine, with Ludger even being a popular chef at the train station. [[spoiler: Sadly, Julius is the divergence catalyst and Ludger needs to technically kill his brother a second time.]] Rollo's cry at that point will feel like needles pushed into your heart.
--> '''Julius:''' "[[spoiler: I wish I could have eaten Pasta Magherita one last time.]]"

* One of Vera's sidequests has her talk about how Bisley has been placing Princessia flowers on his wife's grave for the last twenty years. She also mentions that this will be the first year he's doing this for his sister-in-law's grave, too, who vanished shortly after his wife died. [[spoiler: Bisley found out about Ludger and knew that the only reason Julius would be taking care of him, is if Claudia were dead.]]

* Pretty much the fates of everyone in the fractured dimensions who have to die/disappeared so the prime dimension can survive and flourish. Most of the inhabitants only major crime is that they are born in a fractured dimension and almost all of them have no clue about that fact. They could had live normal lives and all of sudden they are gone when a Chromatus User destroys the catalyst or when [[spoiler: Origin grants Ludger's or Elle's wish of destroying all fractured dimensions]] wiping them off the face of existence.

-->'''Sonny:''' (to Rowen) I see... You're be the person (my owner) was talking about... Please promise me that after I'm gone, you'll always there for her... Please do this for me...

* In [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary material]], it's revealed that Julius, at the age of thirteen, killed Ludger's mother in selfdefense. He had found her and Ludger on accident and Claudia, convinced that Bisley had sent him to take Ludger away, went MamaBear Mode on him. Ludger was only five at the time and witnessing this has caused him to [[TraumaInducedAmnesia repress]] it, so he can't even remember his mother anymore. And poor Claudia only tried to protect her son from Origin's Trial and the entire screwed up Kesnik clan, which is what caused the death of her older sister, Julius' mother.

** The Bad Ending. [[spoiler: Realizing that he cannot kill his brother, the party leaves him to collect himself, while heading off to confront Julius themselves. They need to get into Canaan and Julius told them that, if Ludger can't do it, they should. Ludger realizes what's going on and rushes over to stop them. Desperate to keep Julius alive, Ludger repeatedly denies going through with it and begging for there to be another way; when Gaius raises his sword, Ludger completely ''snaps'' and attacks the entire party. The ensuing battle pitches Ludger against the Xillia cast, who are all begging for him to stop before he kills them. After, Julius sees Ludger covered in blood and his own divergence crystal transformation is progressing, to the point that it creeps onto his face. Ludger realizes that he just killed his friends to keep his brother alive, who may not have that much time left... and then Julius admits that this might be the world he wanted, too. A world, where Ludger had forsaken everything for him]].

** The Ending where Elle becomes the millionth crystal. [[spoiler: Ludger doesn't want her to do this, but Elle is resigned to it because she's not the '[[CloningBlues real]] Elle'. Years later, Ludger is the new CEO of the Spirius Corporation and meets Elle's mother. While it has a hopeful note to it that Elle will be born, after the events of the game and the drama of the two Millas, it feels hollow because it won't be 'this' Elle.]]
** The Ending where Ludger becomes the millionth crystal. [[spoiler: Intent on saving Elle, Ludger transforms again into his full Chromatus form to make himself turn into a divergence crystal. While Elle begs him to not do this, since she's willing to die for being a fractured dimension's Elle, Rowen points something out to her: Ludger isn't doing this for the prime dimension's Elle or any of the other Elles out there. He's doing it for the one he knew, for the Elle who became friend and family to him. And Ludger vanishes while humming the Hymn of Proof to her.]]

* Alvin's Character Episodes seem to mostly revolve around breaking him down and making him feel bad. In his 2nd Episode, his business with Yurgens is flourishing, but the ore they work with is the divergence crystal. And just before destroying it, this dimension's Yurgens catches up to them and calls Alvin a betrayer for lying to him. And in the 3rd Episode, it also leads to Yurgens cutting his partnership with Alvin, because he knows it won't work out.

* Alvin's 4th Episode has a fractured dimension that brings them to just before the events at the Nia Khera Hallowmont. They see him, Presa and Agria head off and notice that Presa is wearing a ring: she and Alvin are ''engaged'' in this dimension and the ring is the divergence crystal. When Alvin asks her back for it, Presa throws it in his face and demands to know if everything they had shared was a lie... then this dimension's Alvin comes across them and demands to know what's going on. In the chaos, Presa throws herself in front of Alvin and gets shot by the other Alvin, only to [[DiedInYourArmsTonight die in our Alvin's arms]]. One line that Alvin snaps at his other self hits close to how much he hates his past self and wants to improve.

* The fractured dimension that involves the Epsilla Ruins. It turns out that the ruins are a Matrix of the people of an old civilization that willingly [[SoulJar digitalized their data]], in the hope of being found and resurrected one day. And Odin, the one in charge of protecting the ruins and data, has been doing so for ''90.000 years''. Unfortunately, he is the divergence crystal and needs to be destroyed. [[spoiler: It gets worse when Odin reveals that a different fractured dimension's version of the party had ''just'' fought him themselves, but lost and their data was digitalized. And that party thought ''their'' dimension was the prime one, too.]] After the dimension is destroyed, the knowledge that this civilization is probably also in the prime dimension, but completely inaccessible because the ruins have collapsed, just makes it more heartbreaking.

* Elize's 4th Character Episode features a dimension where Jiao actually adopted her, instead of giving her over for Booster research. When it's revealed that Yurgens is in cahoots with some poachers, Elize manages to convince Jiao to not kill him and realizes that Jiao is the divergence crystal. They follow him into the Sapsrath Woods, [[spoiler: only to see that he has killed the poachers ''and'' Yurgens, because they tried to blackmail him for letting them go. After fighting him, Jiao's final words lament that he wasn't able to give Elize what she wanted: a bunniekins doll, which turns out to be made with the fur of the endangered monster species that the guys were poaching]]. Jiao even calls Elize his 'sun, moon and stars'. It's clear that Elize still sees him as a ParentalSubstitute, so watching him die ''again'', especially when she now knows that things could have been better, makes it worse.

** One of the biggest is [[spoiler: Victor's death. After learning that he's this Elle's father, he's also this dimension's version of Ludger and was the one who killed the party years ago. Elle screams at the party ''mid-boss fight'' to stop, but Victor is still killed. As he's dying, he sees that Elle has begun to turn into a divergence crystal herself, the very thing he had hoped to prevent. With his plan foiled and goal broken, Victor holds Elle close and smiles, humming her lullaby]].

* The fractured dimension Ludger gets pulled into, after his duel with Julius. It's perfectly happy! Jude's Spyrite technology is succeeding; Leia is an accomplished reporter; Alvin and Yurgens' business is flourishing and Gaius and Rowen's campaign for peace among nations is going swimmingly. And Julius and Ludger are living just fine, with Ludger even being a popular chef at the train station. [[spoiler: Sadly, Julius is the divergence crystal and Ludger needs to technically kill his brother a second time.]] Rollo's cry at that point will feel like needles pushed into your heart.

* Rowen's first Chapter. The fact that you have to kill a cute talking cat with glasses (that can morph into a catalyst monster, but still...) that did nothing to anyone beyond attacking in self defense is bad enough, but his last words before you deliver the final blow make it all the worse:
-->'''Sonny:''' (to Rowen) You must be the one (my owner) was talking about... Please promise me that after I'm gone, you'll there for her... Please do this for me...

*** Ludger actually tells Alternate Milla to hold on, since she promised to cook the soup Elle likes so much. Just before letting go, Alternate Milla says that Ludger will be the one who has to cook it in her stead.

* Pretty much the fate of everyone in the fractured dimension who have to die/disappeared to have the prime dimension survive. Most of the inhabitants only major crime is that they are born in a fractured dimension and almost all of them have no clue about that fact. They could had live normal lives and all of sudden they are gone when a Chromatus User destroys the catalyst or when [[spoiler: Origin grants Ludger's or Elle's wish of destroying all fractured dimensions]] wiping them off the face of existence.

Being DarkerAndEdgier, this game is even sadder than the first one. Beware of [[LateArrivalSpoiler Late Arrival Spoilers]] for the first game and potentially unmarked Spoilers for this game.

** And during the chapter, she finally asks Jude why he's distant towards her [[note]]In the Japanese version, he differentiates her by saying 'Milla-san'[[/note]] and also gets curious about him. Jude reveals that his father used to be part of Exodus and Milla quickly puts two and two together.

* Elize's 4th Character Episode features a dimension where Jiao actually adopted her, instead of giving her over for Booster research. When it's revealed that Yurgens is in cahoots with some poachers, Elize manages to convince Jiao to not kill him and realizes that Jiao is the divergence crystal. They follow him into the Sapsrath Woods, [[spoiler: only to see that he has killed the poachers ''and'' Yurgens, because they tried to blackmail him for leeting them go. After fighting him, Jiao's final words lament that he wasn't able to give Elize what she wanted: a bunniekins doll, which turns out to be made with the fur of the endangered monster species that the guys were poaching]]. Jiao even calls Elize his 'sun, moon and stars'. It's clear that Elize still sees him as a ParentalSubstitute, so watching him die ''again'', especially when she now knows that things could have been better, makes it worse.

** One of the biggest is [[spoiler: Victor's death. After learning that he's this Elle's father, he's also this dimension's version of Ludger and was the one who killed the party years ago. Elle screams at the party ''mid-boss fight'' to stop, but Victor is still killed. As he's dying, he sees that Elle has begun to turn into a divergence crystal herself, the very thing he had hoped to prevent. With his plan foiled and goal broken, Victor holds Elle close and smiles, humming her lullaby as he dies]].

* In [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary material]], it's revealed that Julius, at the age of thirteen, killed Ludger's mother in selfdefense. He had found her and Ludger on accident and Claudia, convinced that Bisley had sent him to take Ludger away, went MamaBear Mode on him. Ludger was only five at the time and witnessing this has caused him to [[TraumaInducedAmnesia repress]] it, so he can't even remember his mother anymore. And poor Cladia only tried to protect her son from Origin's Trial and the entire screwed up Kesnik clan, which is what caused the death of her older sister, Julius' mother.

Being DarkerAndEdgier, this game is even sadder than the first one. Beware of [[LateArrivalSpoiler Late Arrival Spoilers]] for the first game, due to this game's use of ForWantOfANail alternate universes.

* Many fractured dimensions are this, especially those that involve characters who died in the first game. In many of them, these characters are not only alive, but on friendly terms with the main cast. [[CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption And you have to destroy these worlds.]]
** The mandatory fractured dimension you visit when Gaius first joins your party is incredibly depressing. The Gaius of that world abdicated the throne, and Wingul took over, becoming pretty much a dictator if NPC comments are to be believed. Once you actually meet him though, you find out just how things got like this. [[spoiler: In this world Gaius' sister Karla had a life-threatening illness, and Gaius considered abdicating the throne to look after her. Wingul begged her to convince Gaius to return to his duty, resulting in Karla killing herself... and all that accomplished was to completely ''break'' him to the point where he abdicates anyway. Wingul took over out of not duty to Gaius, but genuine friendship.]] A fact that, to both the player and Gaius himself, makes prime Wingul's death in the previous game much more tragic in hindsight.
** In one, Agria ''did'' accept Leia's help as she was falling, and the two managed to become friends, if more along the lines of VitriolicBestBuds.
** In another, Nachtigal became TheGoodKing rather than an EvilOverlord, all due to a mememto from his sister reminding him not to stray from his path. Rowen is shaken when he finds out his old friend was ''that'' close to being redeemable in the Prime Dimension, but is happy to be able to share a moment with him in happier times as the dimension is destroyed.
** Another dimension features some ruins. The ruins were revealed to be a [[Film/TheMatrix Matrix]] that the people of an old civilisation ''[[SoulJar willingly]]'' [[SoulJar put themselves in he hope of being found and resurrected one day]]. [[spoiler: The problem is that the dungeons itself and the AI in charge, Odin, are that dimension's catalysts and that Odin himself only found out he was this because of previous attempts to kill him by other dimensional counterparts of the party, who were also digitized, an also thought their home dimensions were the true one. The result is one hell of a SadisticChoice, made even worse when Odin tries to add Elle to the list of programs in this supercomputer soul jar.]]
** Perhaps one of the worst, Alvin's 4th chapter involves a fractured version of the moments just before Presa's death in the first game, except this time she and Alvin are ''engaged.'' [[spoiler: She ends up being shot by past-Alvin over a misunderstanding, and [[DiedInYourArmsTonight dies in prime-Alvin's arms.]]]] Just to further YankTheDogsChain, the Divergent Catalyst, i.e. the thing that shouldn't exist, in this dimension is ''her engagement ring''.
*** To be honest, Alvin gets this from 2nd chapter until the end of 4th chapter. [[spoiler: What happen was that they destroy the world where Alvin and Yurgen are successful businessmen selling rare ores in which Alt! Yurgen calls Alvin a 'traitor' before the world's destroyed. Worse at the following chapter, Yurgen decides to cut his partnership with Alvin since it's not working out for the both of them. Poor Alvin]]
*** Alvin's reactions to being called a "liar" or "traitor" in general are always depressing. He's sincere about changing his ways, but the way he was in the past still haunts him.
**** Which, on the bright side, makes it a [[HeartwarmingMoments Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] whenever anyone says they trust Alvin or consider him a friend. Leia says it a lot, and it's one of the first things Jude says to him in the whole game.
** Elize's fourth character episode features a dimension where [[spoiler: Jiao adopted her instead of turning her over for Booster research and loves her dearly. Elize manages to talk him out of killing an alternate Yurgen, who'd been working with poachers, only to realise he's the Catalyst. They follow him to where he'd gone to meet the poachers... and find he'd killed all of them, including Yurgen, for attempting to blackmail him. As if watching him turn into both a literal and figurative monster was bad enough, his final words are only lamenting how he wasn't able to give her what she asked, and calling her his "sun, moon and stars." It's clear Elize still sees him as a ParentalSubstitute even now, so watching him die ''again'', in even worse circumstances, must have been traumatising for her.]]
** In one of the fractured dimensions the party ends up in while trying to find out why [[spoiler: Milla Kresnik has the same given name as Milla Maxwell]] spirit worship has largely died out even in Nia Khera, and Ivar is mocked by the other villagers for still adhering to the old ways and deeply wishing to meet Maxwell. At the top of the Hallowmont, when the party helps him save two children who were mocking him earlier, he sees the Great Four and realizes who Milla is and begs her to let him become her loyal follower. She can't even bear to look at him as the fractured dimension vanishes.
-->'''Milla''': I'm sorry. We won't meet again.
** Pretty much the fate of everyone who lives the fractured dimensions as they have to die for the prime dimension to live. A lot of those people could be just ordinary people who lived as normal lives they can in their dimensions whose only major crime is that they aren't from the prime dimension and thus have to die/disappear. The one possible consolation is that it is implied that the will be added to the Prime Dimension's reincarnation cycle.
* [[spoiler: Alternate Mila's death.]] The game telegraphs it a mile away, but that just makes it even worse. [[spoiler: During the chapter, ''her level up and victory quotes'' are even altered to reflect her questioning her own existence.]]
--->[[spoiler: '''Alternate Milla''': I don't belong here...]]
** Making it even worse is when Jude tells her that his father was a former member of Exodus. She puts two and two together and realizes exactly what must have happened to the Jude of her dimension.
---> [[spoiler: '''Alternate Milla''': [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone I must have killed my world's Jude when he was a baby]]...]]
* A sidequest later in the game has the player find an old man's lost cat for him. The man had apparently been helping Julius out quite a bit over the years and name his cat after him. The cat is pretty much his only family after both of his daughters disappeared twenty years ago. Sad enough in its own, right? [[AllThereInTheManual Supplementary materials]] reveal [[spoiler:that the man's daughters were Cornelia and Claudia Kresnik: Julius and Ludger's mothers. The poor old guy is meeting his second grandchild for the first time, and he can't even say anything about it.]]
* Another sidequest has Vera talk about how for the past twenty years Bisley has placed princessia flowers on his late wife's grave. She also mentions that this year, for the first time, he is doing the same the same for his wife's younger sister, who vanished not long after Bisley's wife died. [[spoiler:This year is different because Bisley found out about Ludger, and he knew [[MamaBear Claudia]] well enough to know that the only way Ludger would be in Julius's care instead of Claudia's is for her to be dead.]]
* Alot of [[spoiler: Elle's fractured dimension]] has tearjerker aspects to it.
** It's only a comment by an NPC, [[spoiler:but in Elle's fractured dimension, you find out Gaius is alive. Alive, but so severely injured that he can't even stand. It can be theorized that he escaped the massacre or was spared, but it'd be nothing short of a FateWorseThanDeath for Gaius. Remember how how Gaius says that the most difficult thing about being a king was that he'll live a solitary existence? In this dimension, he's crippled, betrayed, and alone.]]
** Furthermore [[spoiler: in Elle's fractured dimension the Driselle of that world is alone, with everyone she could consider family dead, she focuses on her work and can't bear to meet visitors. To make it worse she identified Rowen's body and we can assume she also had to identify everyone else too, in whatever state Victor left their bodies in.]]
** In the skit "Idealism and Reality", Jude [[spoiler: contemplates whether he needs to die in order to bring spyrite technology to fruition. A 16 year old actually wonders if he needs to be killed so spyrites can exist. Thankfully if you get Milla to get his attention, she stops that mindset and tells him it's a horrible train of thought, but considering how upbeat and determined Jude is, it's quite disturbing.]]
** Perhaps one of the biggest of all is [[spoiler: Victor's death. This comes just after you've found out he's not only Elle's father, but an alternate version of Ludger. Elle screaming at you to stop ''mid-boss fight'' is bad enough, but him humming Elle's childhood lullaby as he dies really seals it. And Elle's understandable breakdown afterwards is just soul-crushing.]]
* [[spoiler: The final battle between Ludger and Julius and Ludger killing his brother in order to save Elle and head to Canaan...while Julius is humming before he dies.]]
** [[spoiler:Worse yet, the boss theme during that battle is based on the lullaby that Julius often hums to Ludger.]]
** The alternate dimension Ludger ends up in after [[spoiler:beating Julius in their final duel. It's a dimension where Exodus never attacked the train and everything is great there! Jude's Spyrite research is flourishing, Alvin and Yurgen's company is successful, Leia is an accomplished reporter, Gaius and Rowen's campaign for peace is going swimmingly, and Ludger is even a popular chef at the train station. Sadly, it's also the dimension where Ludger gives the final blow to Julius just after his alternate self heads to work, causing the dimension to disappear.]]
* The bad end, and the events/choices leading up to it. [[spoiler: If Ludger tells the party he can't kill his own brother, they leave him alone in his apartment to collect himself, telling him they're going to go and just ''talk'' to Julius. But then Ludger finds out that they're planning on using him as the soul bridge ''behind Ludger's back'' because it's what must be done. Ludger, in a panic, runs to where Julius is waiting, and finds him about to kill himself for the party. At this point the player can either agree to use Julius' life for the soul bridge or outright refuse, over and over again, much to the distress of the party. It's even worse when Ludger's voice is on and you can hear how increasingly desperate he's getting, all while [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88qAlHwHaLE this]] is playing. Gaius then raises his sword to Ludger, saying that he cannot let this stand in the way of the fate of the world, at which point Ludger completely ''snaps'', screaming that he'll protect Julius and attacking the party. The ensuing fight has each of Ludger's friends trying to snap him out of it before he kills them. And when all is said and done, when Ludger and Julius are the only ones left, Julius' transformation progresses to the point where it's creeping onto his face. Ludger comes to the realization that he just killed all of his friends to keep his brother alive, and his brother doesn't even have much time left. And the real kicker? Julius admits that ''maybe this is the world he wanted too'', a world where Ludger would forsake everything for him. It's easy to see how the events of the game would lead to breaking Ludger like this.]]
---> [[spoiler: '''Julius:''' You... You threw away everything for me?]]
* Both serious endings
** [[spoiler:The ending where Elle dies. Ludger is so desperate to find an alternative, but Elle is resigned to death because she's not "[[ExpendableAlternateUniverse real]]". Ludger does meet Elle's mother after a TimeSkip, but after everything with the two Millas earlier in the game, it just feels hollow because it won't be the same Elle.]]
** [[spoiler: The canon ending, where Ludger dies. He willingly turns himself into the millionth divergence catalyst to save Elle from the same fate. Humanity technically failed Origin's trial because of that, but his selflessness made the point the trial was meant to prove. As Rowan points out, he wasn't doing it for the Prime Elle that didn't exist yet, or for any of the possible Elles, but for the one he knew. He vanishes with the other fractured dimensions while humming the Hymn of Proof.]]
*** [[spoiler: Something that makes the scene even more poignant is that during the song you can see everyone's somber yet respectful responses to Ludger's sacrifice, and especially Elle's. She looks at him dead-on with tears in her eyes up until he vanishes. The moment right after, she has this expression of silent surprise as she still can hear Ludger humming the end of the song, even though he's gone.]]
*** [[spoiler:Also in that ending, Milla and Muzet [[ButNowIMustGo return to the spirit realm, for good this time]]. Everyone knew it was coming, but no one, Jude and Milla most of all, can bring themselves to say anything about it, or even look at them as they vanish, while Muzet can only [[ShipTease brush her hand across Gaius's in a silent goodbye]].]]
** It's deeply saddening just that there is [[spoiler:no truly happy ending; someone has to die]].
* In the [[AllThereInTheManual Supplementary materials]] we find out [[spoiler:Julius, at the age of thirteen, killed Ludger's mother after she thought Bisley sent him to take her son and went into MamaBear mode. Ludger was five at the time and witnessing this caused TraumaInducedAmnesia, so this poor guy can't even remember his mother anymore. Even worse, Claudia just wanted to protect her son from Origin's Trial and the Kresnik clan's infighting: the things that caused the death of her older sister, who was Julius's mother.]]

** In one of the fractured dimensions the party ends up in while trying to find out why [[spoiler: Milla Kresnik has the same given name as Milla Maxwell]] spirit worship has largely died out even in Nia Khera, and Ivar is mocked by the other villagers for still adhering to the old ways and deeply wishing to meet Maxwell. At the top of the Hallowmont, when the party helps him save two children who were mocking him earlier, he sees the Great Four and realizes who Milla is and begs her to let him become her loyal follower. All she can say as the fractured dimension vanishes is...

** Pretty much the fate of everyone who lives the fractured dimensions as they have to die for the prime dimension to live. A lot of those people could be just ordinary people who lived as normal lives they can in their dimensions whose only major crime is that they aren't from the prime dimension and thus have to die/disappear.

** It's only a comment by an NPC[[spoiler:, but in Elle's fractured dimension, you find out Gaius is alive. Alive, but so severely injured that he can't even stand. It can be theorized that he escaped the massacre or was spared, but it'd be nothing short of a FateWorseThanDeath for Gaius. Remember how how Gaius says that the most difficult thing about being a king was that he'll live a solitary existence? In this dimension, he's crippled, betrayed, and alone.]]

* The bad end, and the events/choices leading up to it. [[spoiler: If Ludger tells the party he can't kill his own brother, they leave him alone in his apartment to collect himself, telling him they're going to go and just ''talk'' to Julius. But then Ludger finds out that they're planning on using him as the soul bridge ''behind Ludger's back'' because it's what must be done. Ludger, in a panic, runs to where Julius is waiting, and finds him about to kill himself for the party. At this point the player can either agree to use Julius' life for the soul bridge or outright refuse, over and over again, much to the distress of the party. It's even worse when Ludger's voice is on and you can hear how increasingly desperate he's getting, all while [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88qAlHwHaLE this]] is playing. Gaius then raises his sword to Ludger, saying that he cannot let this stand in the way of the fate of the world, at which point Ludger completely ''snaps'', screaming that he'll protect Julius and attacking the party. The ensuing fight has each of Ludger's friends trying to snap him out of it before he kills them. And when all is said and done, when Ludger and Julius are the only ones left, Julius' transformation progresses to the point where it's creeping onto his face. Ludger comes to the realization that he just killed all of his friends to keep his brother alive, and his brother doesn't even have much time left. And the real kicker? Julius admits that ''maybe this is the world he wanted too'', a world where Ludger would forsake everything for him. It's easy to see how the events of the game would lead to breaking Ludger like this.]]
---> [[spoiler: '''Julius:''' You... You threw away everything for me?]]

* Alot of [[Elle's fractured dimension]] has tearjerker aspects to it.

* Perhaps one of the biggest of all is [[spoiler: Victor's death. This comes just after you've found out he's not only Elle's father, but an alternate version of Ludger. Elle screaming at you to stop ''mid-boss fight'' is bad enough, but him humming Elle's childhood lullaby as he dies really seals it. And Elle's understandable breakdown afterwards is just soul-crushing.]]
* [[spoiler: The final battle between Ludger and Julius and Ludger killing his brother in order to save Elle and head to Canaan...while Julius is humming before he dies.]]
** [[spoiler:Worse yet, the boss theme during that battle is based on the lullaby that Julius often hums to Ludger.]]
** The alternate dimension Ludger ends up in after [[spoiler:beating Julius in their final duel. It's a dimension where Exodus never attacked the train and everything is great there! Jude's Spyrite research is flourishing, Alvin and Yurgen's company is successful, Leia is an accomplished reporter, Gaius and Rowen's campaign for peace is going swimmingly, and Ludger is even a popular chef at the train station. Sadly, it's also the dimension where Ludger gives the final blow to Julius just after his alternate self heads to work, causing the dimension to disappear.]]

* It's only a comment by an NPC[[spoiler:, but in Elle's fractured dimension, you find out Gaius is alive. Alive, but so severely injured that he can't even stand. It can be theorized that he escaped the massacre or was spared, but it'd be nothing short of a FateWorseThanDeath for Gaius. Remember how how Gaius says that the most difficult thing about being a king was that he'll live a solitary existence? In this dimension, he's crippled, betrayed, and alone.]]
* Furthermore [[spoiler: in Elle's fractured dimension the Driselle of that world is alone, with everyone she could consider family dead, she focuses on her work and can't bear to meet visitors. To make it worse she identified Rowen's body and we can assume she also had to identify everyone else too, in whatever state Victor left their bodies in.]]

** Another dimension features some ruins, called "Thor". The ruins were revealed to be a [[Film/TheMatrix Matrix]] that the people of other dimensions ''[[SoulJar willingly]]'' [[SoulJar put themselves in he hope of being found and resurrected one day]]. [[spoiler: The problem is that the dungeons itself and the AI in charge, Odin, are the dimension's catalysts and that Odin himself only found out he was this because of previous attempts to kill him by other dimensional counterparts of the party, who were also digitized. The result is one hell of a SadisticChoice, made even worse when Odin tries to add Elle to the list of programs in this supercomputer soul jar.]]

** Perhaps one of the worst, Alvin's 4th chapter involves a frctured version of the moments just before Presa's death in the first game, except this time she and Alvin are ''engaged.'' [[spoiler: She ends up being shot by past-Alvin over a misunderstanding, and [[DiedInYourArmsTonight dies in prime-Alvin's arms.]]]] Just to further YankTheDogsChain, the Divergent Catalyst, i.e. the thing that shouldn't exist, in this dimension is ''her engagement ring''.