The game is rife with sad points considering it revolves around recruiting people before their deaths, even though some are more tragic than others.
Jelanda's death. Especially in the remake, where you get to see her transform into a monster, and hear her screaming and begging for help. She can't be out of her teens and she has to go through that and then have to be mercy killed.
Perhaps the most infamous was the recruitment of Yumei. She's half-mermaid and was treated like shit by her fellow merfolk so she went to land to find her dad...but along the way a kid fell in love with her and they exchange rumours of the Lapis Lazuli that grants wishes. But Yumei then finds that her human father's dead after all so she runs away, gets chased to the beach by the boy who finds that Yumei is half-mermaid, then she swims away and the boy's tear creates a Lapis Lazuli. Instead of wishing for the biggest ship ever like he originally intended, he shouts, "I wish...That Yumei can be with her parents!" and unfortunately it gets majorly corrupted when Lenneth appears and says "So he wishes for her DEATH?!"
Lorenta. Her recruitment scene starts with "And a happy birthday to you", but then Lezard comes up...and feeds her husband Ghoul powder. (Remember what happened to Jelanda?) Well her transformed husband then cracks Lorenta's spine in half, then Lenneth apparently chops his head off...then recruits Lorenta and you don't get to reunite her in Asgard.
Celia is seen throghout like 5 recruitment scenes. It's a huge slap to the face that she wasn't recruitable. (Course you couldn't possibly need another sword user) and that she was left alone after all. The people whose recruitment scenes she appears on are her friends and members of a mercenary band. If what we see is right, then she lost all her friends and is forced to do battle with the 'villain' they were chasing alone. Worst part is, when she does get to the 'villain', he's merely an empty shell of armor whose soul is reaped by Lenneth before she can get even an explanation out of him, turning her whole quest, and the deaths of her friends, into a huge, epic failure that only served to further cement the misery she finds herself in. Would totally make for an awesome RPG though.
Watching Lenneth crying uncontrollably in grief after she regains her memories will hit you pretty hard, considering how cold and stoic she had been for the entire rest of the game.
The Bloody Twins in Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume were really Natalia's lost children. In the path where you recruit them involves Natalia giving herself over to save the lives of everyone in the rebellion, only to hear from Ernest who comes to save her that they were betrayed and slaughtered, the bloody twins execute her regardless.
When Mischke is sacrificed with the plume. He tells Mirelle to go ahead without him, and this is the one time Wyl appears to show regret for using the Plume. It even becomes a Pet the Dog moment if you take the C path.
