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Subjective
TearJerker: Video Games
"Fail 'You're The Inspiration'? Are you insane, or just evil? I've done many questionable acts in games, but let that poor little girl down? I draw the line there. Cut off my hands, and I'll beat the level with my stumps. I. Will. Not. Fail. Her."
— Elite Beat Agents

"I think it will be a shame if we won't be able to cry as we play our own game."
— Nobuo Uematsu on Final Fantasy VIII

Did you tear up when playing through these video game scenes?

Series with pages dedicated to Tear Jerker moments:

Examples

    open/close all folders 

    Tomb Raider 
    Star Fox 
    Elite Beat Agents 
    Ace Combat 
    Halo 
    Xenogears and Xenosaga 
    Mother and Earthbound 
    Super Robot Wars 
    Lufia 
    Metroid 
    Mario 
    Bio Ware 
    Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo 
    The Elder Scrolls 
    Call Of Duty and Medal Of Honor 
    Super Smash Bros 
    Breath Of Fire 
    Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross 
    Okami 
    Bioshock 
    Survival Horror 
    Mega Man 
  • Outcast: Wolfe, to who Cutter had noticably grown attached to during the game, dies. In the final scene we see her being given a special funeral by the Talan (the planet's native race) which concludes in her wrapped body being flown into the sunset by the silly and lovable bird/lizard met earlier in the game after Cutter having said his final goodbyes. During all this a heartbreakingly beautiful tune is played. Afterwards Cutter steps into the teleporter that is hopefully going to take him home, all alone.
  • The ending to Dreamfall: The Longest Journey would be a massive tearjerker if it wasn't such a gigantic Downer Ending that the resulting depression makes it nearly impossible to physically cry.
    • And let's not forget the original; there wasn't one particular moment that this troper can remember, but the entire atmosphere of the second half of the game, when April is risking life and limb in a quest where her reward would be to shut herself off from the entire world for centuries, with no one she'd ever met knowing what had happened to her to be phenomenally depressing.
  • All of Illusion of Gaia/Illusion of Time. Highlights include discovering that the people you've just met have actually been dead for centuries and never got to take the trip they were dreaming of, finding the skeleton of an adventurer and much later talking to his children who don't know he's dead, and, just before the end, meeting people you knew who have been turned into pure souls: "Living with a terminal illness was better than this," one laments. However, it has more of a Bittersweet Ending.
  • Disgaea. Chapter 8. That is all. for those who can't access the original game, allow this troper to elucidate. Chapter 8 revolves around the night of the Red Moon, when the Prinnies who have redeemed themselves are allowed to reincarnate at last. Not only do the Prinnies sing a haunting song called, simply, "Red Moon", but it is revealed that the red "Big Sis Prinny" is Laharl's mother in Prinny form, and now she too is allowed to reincarnate- which leads to some truly touching emotional moments involving Laharl. It could be considered this chapter that truly marks Laharl's transition from Jerk Ass to Jerk With A Heart Of Gold. It's such a sorrowful moment in the game that the anime adaption changed it to be the plot of the second-last episode, the better to fit in with Flonne's fate and Laharl's sacrifice in the series finale.
    • Also, for different reasons, the ending. "You mean... you mean it's my fault she died? That she died... because... of me?".
      • How about the worst ending for Disgaea 2? Not only does Adell kill Rozalin, he is then possessed and in the after-credits sequence... he eats his siblings as they beg him to stop.
      • The ending to Etna mode from the PSP/DS port is another contender. This troper has to choke back tears every single time he watches it.
      • Speaking of the DS port, as soon as the scene where Flonne basically dies finished, I shut off the system, went up to my room, and cried for about an hour. I haven't played it since, and it's been almost two weeks. Whenever I go and start up the game, I start crying.
  • Beyond Good And Evil. Good gravy, where to start?
    • The infamous "lighthouse scene" (as seen in the heading quote of the Heroic BSOD page) is easily one of the most heart-wrenching scenes in all of gaming, and if it doesn't make you feel at least a little sad, this troper will wonder where your soul went. Upon returning to her home, Jade finds her lighthouse completely destroyed, and all of her children are missing. As the enormity of what has happened sets in, complete with Empathy Doll Shot, she collapses against the wall. Her dog appears from the ruins and cuddles up with her; as she strokes his head, she gives a heart-felt, sob-wracked speech that's ostentiably about how useless her dog is—though this clearly isn't the case. Even Double H is clearly fighting back Manly Tears.
    • The "Take My Hand" scene is a triumphant Tear Jerker, as it shows us just how much Jade and Double H have come to care about each other. After she's been chased across the rooftops by General Kehck, Double H waits for Jade on top of a large, floating billboard. He sticks out his hand for her. She jumps. She doesn't make it. Double H briefly panics; he then dives down the other side of the billboard. Jade slides down the front of the billboard, headed for her doom, with an absolutely terrified expression on her face. But as the last portion of the billboard slips through her fingers, Double H, now balancing precariously on the billboard's tiny base, catches her. Cue one of his Catch Phrases, "Don't break up the team", in a whole new context. And Jade gives him a relieved, heartwarming smile that just pushes this troper over the edge.
    • The entirety of the scene where Jade realizes that Pey'j is dead. The music goes quiet, the camera pans out, and we hear nothing... And Double H simply mouths, "No." Staving off those Manly Tears again, he steps out to let Jade have her moment. She then takes Pey'j's hand and promises him...
      I'll get you home, buddy... I promise.
      • He gets better. This does not help in the tear department. In fact, if anything, their reunion is worse. Even if Pey'j's description of exactly how he got better is slightly cheesy, the look on Jade's face as she throws her arms around him says it all...
    • This troper refuses to believe the very, very, very end actually happens. You know, the part where it's revealed Pey'j is still infected. There's a time and place for that kind of ending, game, and that is not it.
      • Then again, they are making a sequel, so I suppose it's okay.
      • I thought the gut-wrenching part was the logical extrapolation of that ending- Combine Pey'j is still infected, with the Domz specifically targeting Jade, add in the bit about the 'power' and finish with the fact that that infected hand is where Jade brought him back to life...
  • The endings of both of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon generations. If you don't tear up at least a little, you're probably lacking a bit in the soul department.
    • This troper reached the ending of the first one and didn't feel especially sad, but he'd spent the whole game trying to return to the human world, which never happened.
    • When I reached the ending of the first PMD I cried so very hard, especially the part where your partner is crying after saying goodbye...
    • Personally, the ending for the sequel was much more heart-wrenching than the first (although that was sad, too) but what with the tearful, sudden goodbye bid to your partner before you cease existing, then your partner later breaking down on the beach (where they met you) and the credits rolling. Its such a sad ending, until Dialga brings you back.
      • This troper is usually one to sit through sad moments of games without showing too much emotion (though there have been a good few that have got me), but the ending to that... I was actually struggling to hold back tears, cause I had completed it during a car journey home. I had to close the DS until I got indoors to my room to continue it. And it got me even worse, considering that I had named my Treecko partner after my best friend, who is a Treecko fan. The ending combined with the thought of losing my best friend... Thank God for Dialga reviving the character, as that would have been too much for me if he hadn't done.
    • One line: "Though the parting hurts..."
    • Let us not forget Manaphy's departure...
    • Grovyle's Heroic Sacrifice could count if it wasn't for Dusknoir's second mouth beforehand dampening your pants. Heck, Nightmare Fuel is a common cure to these sad moments.
      • Nightmare Fuel nothing. That was sad. Heck, for quite a while afterwards, even the music from that scene was enough to make This Troper tear up.
      • The anime adaptation of the scene only makes it even more heart wrenching. "I'll leave it to you to protect... this world's beautiful mornings."
    • "I am, up to the very end, not wavering, honestly. I lived because of you Grovyle. Thanks to you I have no regrets."
    • Add to this the Igglybuff Special Episode on Explorers of Sky. You play the episode as Igglybuff, who makes a friend in Armaldo, a retired explorer. The two of them go exploring dungeons together, and the two grow to enjoy adventuring as a duo. Then the bomb gets dropped at the very end when it is revealed that Armaldo is actually a outlaw that has been avoiding capture for quite some time, and is arrested. Poor Igglybuff has to bear witness to all this, and Armaldo tells Igglybuff that he has had fun exploring with him. And when the day came that he was released, if he felt the same as he did now, he'd gladly explore with him again. He then gives Igglybuff the first treasure that the duo had found together, and is escorted away by Magnezone. Igglybuff breaks down crying for his friend as he's taken away... God, this troper got teary eyed just writing that all up...
      • "There are plenty of criminals out there... they are caught and punished, but... but... truly bad Pokemon... don't really exist anywhere." Cue horribly tear-jerking credits music! :D This Troper still cries playing that episode.
  • The very first Pokemon generation, as well as their remakes, include the Lavender Town plot. The Lavender Town music is slow and kinda sad on its own, and its biggest feature is Pokemon Tower, a graveyard for departed Pokemon. That's not why the town's plot is so heartbreaking. Apparently, Team Rocket tried to capture a rare Cubone, but its mother saved it - and the Rockets killed her. You actually meet both the little Cubone and the vengeful spirit of mama Marowak... and it's up to the player to calm her spirit by facing her in battle. Mr. Fuji is praying alone for Marowak's spirit...
    • Pearl and Diamond manage to pull this off with one hell of a Player Punch as well. The main character arrives at Lake Verity too late, and Team Galactic has already set off a bomb in order to drain the lake and capture the Legendary pokemon living in it. As a consequence of the explosion, you see Magikarp and Gyarados that were also in the lake, now flopping feebly on the dry lake bed in their death throes. A nearby Galactic Grunt just shrugs and states that those pokemon are useless, so their mass slaughter is acceptable in order to Take Over The World. This troper was fully aware of just exactly how useless Magikarps are in battle and still was ready to reach through the screen and personally choke a bitch in a fit of Berserker Tears.
  • The ending of Half Life 2 Episode 2, where Eli Vance is killed by a Combine Advisor. Made particularly tragic in that his last words is to tell his daughter to look away.
    • Alyx's heartbroken sobbing, begging her dad not to leave her as the screen goes dark and the credits begin crawling doesn't help matters either.
    • The fact that it happens right after you achieve your ultimate goal always got This Troper. Talk about bittersweet...
    • Ruined somewhat by the knowledge that Valve are just going to deus ex machina his death away, just like they did with Alyx's 2 hours previous. And with getting rid of the G-Man.
  • The final hallucination in First Encounter Assault Recon, especially the part where the camera pans down and shows Alma's last name, and the entire game comes crashing together in one single moment of clarity, left this troper numb with shock, followed by a few shed tears for just how badly Alma had been brutalized in her lifetime.
    • And what makes it even more powerful is right after you revert to the real world, and you hear Alma whisper "I know who you are...." into your ear.
    • Project Origin has one in a brief flashback showing Harlan Wade first ordering his men to take Alma to the Vault. Specifically, it shows two fully-armored ATC assault troops violently manhandling an eight year-old girl while she is holding what looks like a teddy bear. It was so horrifyingly heartbreaking that this troper had to stop playing for a few minutes to cry.
      • The entire beginning of Still Island as a whole is heartbreaking, particularly when you reach the "hilltop" in the real world. Throughout the whole game you've been seeing these visions of this hill with a lone tree and a swingset, with tall grass and rolling hills in the background. That in and of itself is sad, but its got this ray of childish innocence to it. Its a beautiful place, and you could understand why Alma's mind keeps falling back there. Then you reach the real "hilltop", and it turns out its not a hill, its a muddy patch of dirt with scraggly grass sandwiched into the back sewer system of a nuclear power plant. The tree is this broken, twisted, and gnarled thing, and the rolling hills and blue sky are just children's paintings on the blank concrete walls. Its then that you realize that this dirty, stinking patch of mud was Alma's Happy Place and one of the few places where she may have even been at peace, and all you were seeing throughout the game a child's attempt to imagine a beautiful place amidst all that misery...and in her mind even that ends up being twisted into a hellish mockery by the madness that they helped inflict on her. Absolutely, totally, and completely gutwrenching.
  • Shadow of the Colossus Fits these with the ending and a certain scene involving a collapsing bridge before the final colossus
    • The game taken as a whole is nothing short of heart-rending.
  • Psychonauts is a generally lighthearted game (and even when it's being dark, it's funny), so this troper didn't expect to cry at it. And yet, one simple statement from the ending still gets her choked up: "Is that really what I look like in your mind?"
    • The asylum mates are actually a lot more depressing then their funny-crazy front you see. Gloria's mother committed suicide after Gloria told her she was mad at her for dumping her at that evil school. Fred was so extremely crushed by his defeats at the hands (Okay, mouth) of Crispin that his mind went against itself. Edgar was so utterly depressed by the loss of his girl, and coupled with the bullying from his old friends, it drove him mad (though it did give him a knack for painting), and Boyd, one of the best, silliest character's with the funnest mind-level becomes amazingly sad when you realize this is how he sees the world: Every last thing is against him. The hints about his guilt about sitting his workplace on fire. The mother problems. Jesus, Psychonauts. Just... Wow.
      • Edgar's story becomes all the more sad when a memory vault showing him blissfully lovestruck and going on a date with said girl is accessible - after you clear his mind and therefore already know how the rest of the story goes.
    • This troper was utterly depressed when she found that room in Milla's mind with that vault and that box. Even her sister was silent for a bit before morosely saying 'That was sad' and leaving.
    • This troper's moment is finding Sasha's second memory vault. Her father went quiet for a few minutes afterward.
  • Klonoa: The two console games' endings tear her up every single time, especially the first one.
    • Just to clarify why the first ending nearly got me buckling in my knees with tears: Klonoa discovers the world he lived in was a fake. He belongs in a different Phantomile which he will be forced to go back to once Lephise sings her song. Other then the fact that he has no choice in the matter, he ultimately has to say good-bye to Huepow, his childhood friend—fake memories or not—and the scene they display is just heart breaking. Klonoa gets sucked into a whirlpool and after struggling with his emotions, Huepow tries to keep Klonoa from getting sucked in, because he can't bear to be apart from his close friend. Unfortunately the portal is too strong. Unlike other partings, there's no "We'll see each other again" or even a "We'll always be together", all they do is shout their names in anguish! IT. IS. GUT-WRENCHING.
  • Chibi Robo has a couple.
    • Taking the aliens to the deactivated Giga-Robo is terrible, especially considering the sad theme music that plays. Friend... is dead? Dead...
    • The scene where Mort is just about to confess his love for Princess Pitts and tell her that he's the one leaving dried flowers for her... and Drake Redcrest cuts in with a fresh flower. Not only did it make this troper feel extremely bad for Mort, hence the tears—but it also made me want to scream, "You BASTARD!"
    • The early scene where "Sunshine" explains the fight between Mr. and Mrs. Sanderson. The cut to Jenny's saddened, weary face just makes the cute helplessness of "Sunshine" all the worse. Not to mention that this scene is the first time we hear any words from Jenny other than "Ribbit"...
    • The final concert for the dead Funky Phil. "Just for you..." Even though it's only a Disney Death after all.
      • Heck, pretty much all of poor Freaky Phil's story.
      • No kidding. It starts out as one of the most giddily bright and funny subplots in the game, but not only the concert but when Funky's first found "dead" ("This is the worst joke everrr!"), Dinah trying to push through the whole thing and saying she wants to "do something for those kids", and the funeral after the concert ("Just let him go!") - obviously up until the realization that he wasn't dead all along, rather just shut off all made this troper cry like a child the first time she got to them. And after having beaten the game two or three times, the whole subplot does still manage to wrench her heart a bit.
    • " Chibi Robo! DON'T DIE!" Yeah, we find out about 30 seconds later that he's just fine, but there's just something about it that tears this troper up everytime. The sad music probably doesn't help.
  • The storybook segments in Super Mario Galaxy. The art style and background music is slightly heart-rending to begin with, but this troper had to put down his Wii Remote for a second when Rosalina admits to herself that her mother is dead.
    • Don't remind this troper! At first the music is just like all of the other storyline segments but after the playback of young rosalina's memories the music changes as she has a complete breakdown and wants to go home to be with her family, however she knows that her mother is not waiting for her because she is as she puts it "sleeping under the tree on the hill!" and she has this breakdown all because she wanted to look back at her planet with her telescope.
    Rosalina: I want to go home! I want to go home right now! I want to go home! I want to go back to my house by the hill! I want to see my mother! But I know she's not there! I knew all along she wasn't out there in the sky! Because...because...she's sleeping under the tree on the hill!
    • Not to mention the game's ending: All of the Lumas die due to what appears to be the universe ending... followed by muted baby cries, representing that they have been reborn.
      • And oh dear God, when your Luma chirps and waves goodbye to you before hurling itself into the black hole...
  • Damas' death scene and Veger's following Moral Event Horizon moment in Jak 3.
  • The leadup to the ending of Skies of Arcadia has several. Just about every major plot point from Gregorio's appearance on Dangral Island to just before the Air Pirates rally still chokes this troper up just thinking about them.
    • Drachma's reason for hunting Rhaknam. "They called him...Little Jack." And...those feathers.
      • And the end of Glacia. Especially with the above in mind, realizing that Rhaknam completely turned the other cheek, saving Drachma's life, was quite shocking...only capped by the realization that Drachma had been watching over his former sworn enemy in its dying moments, especially for someone as stubborn as Drachma. This is immediately followed by the most heartrending cry you will ever hear, and Rhaknam crying a single tear upon hearing Drachma say "I see...it's time for you to go. Don't worry. I'm here for you." That's about the point this troper completely breaks down.
    • The credits music. Dear god, the credits music.
  • Sa Ga Frontier 2 has a couple of these, the most notable being Richard Knights' Heroic Sacrifice, where he jumps off a cliff to try and get rid of the Sealed Evil In A Can once he falls into its trap. This sequence is made even worse by the following scene showing the birth of his daughter.
  • This troper cried when, in .hack//G.U. vol. 1 Rebirth, it looked as though during the tournament, Haseo went berserk with Skeith and killed Kuhn. The fact that Kuhn reappeared seconds later berating the former for thinking he'd die that easily and explaining what happened made her want to slap him in a good way.
    • Another troper found Alkaid's death depressing, especially considering "To You, My Dearest" was playing in the background.
    • This troper views the Haseo vs. Kuhn fight in the Demon Palace a little bit differently: it seemed obvious to this troper that Skeith's been overriding Haseo's control since the match with Alkaid. By the end of the fight, Haseo's reduced to being the terrified, screaming audience while Skeith tears Kuhn to shreds and EATS HIM. Then there's the scene near the end of .hack//G.U. Redemption where Haseo confronts Ovan after they defeat Cubia. All Haseo can do is run towards Ovan, screaming and crying...but Ovan still dissolves before Haseo can reach him.
  • Kratos killing his wife and children in the last of God Of War's flashbacks.
    • Even worse: In God of War: Chains of Olympus, upon reuniting with his daughter Calliope he is forced to abandon her to save the world. The scene where he must push his daughter away is made even more tragic as it is interactive, forcing the player to mash on the circle button to ditch poor Calliope as she tries to hold on to her beloved monster of a father.
      • For all the monstrous brutality of Kratos and all the heartless killing he has to do to get to this point, hearing Calliope crying and calling out to him in despair tears right into this troper every time, and forces him to hold back the tears while playing the game in a public place.
  • Betrayal At Krondor centers on the story of Gorath, a moredhel (dark elf) clan chieftain who has lost or sacrificed everything he had without a word of complaint while trying to do the right thing. Finally, at the end, when the problem is finally being finished once and for all, it's him who gets killed and has his life thrown away so wastefully, and in a heart-wrenching Kill Us Both moment at the hand of the very human he has befriended against all odds, no less. When, if he had survived, he would have been free to Return to Elvandar to spend the rest of his days in peace and tranquility with the elves - or return to try to put the pieces of his clan and his people back together, as one of the few moredhel leaders with a lick of common sense and the wish to make them into something more than savages.
  • There were a few in Drawn To Life, which was, actually, a pretty cute game. First was a rather badly-executed death scene in the form of Wilfre killing the Mayor. It wasn't really that cute then. Second being the ending scene, which almost qualified for a Bittersweet Ending when Jowee left Mari to sail the world like he had always dreamed. A truly touching song played over this while Mari walked around the village, remembering everything they had been through before he left. Of course, he comes back. And to top it all off, your character and the ghost of Mari's father are watching in the distance when Jowee comes back. If entire scene didn't jerk any emotion out of you, that last little detail should.
  • The ending of Terranigma. Period.
  • The ending of A Mind Forever Voyaging.
    • The ending felt like Character Derailment for the protagonist. What really felt like a punch to the gut was playing 2071 and 2081 in one sitting for the first time. And, like Planetfall, this was all text.
    • The short story prologue. Most of the Perry Sim sections are Tear Jerker material, and knowing that they're all part of his successful growing process towards true AI just makes it worse.
  • If one is softhearted enough, Tsukihime seems to run on these, with each route having one or two.
  • Apparently the entire point of the in-development Xbox 360 game Cry On.
  • This game. It's the story of one person's life itself, and the end can be either depressing or triumphantly tear-jerking, depending on how you play.
    • This troper encountered a scene where her father nearly succumbed to alcoholism. After talking to her, he had an emotional breakdown in her arms, and finally agreed to go to rehab—he got better. That really got the waterworks going.
    • This troper had his character try out for the baseball team. He tried over and over, but he never quite made it. In his late adulthood, he joined a senior baseball team, and was the pitcher. He got the MVP award for his work. This troper was driven to happy tears at just how perfect that was.
      • There's something to be said for just living an absolutely normal life as well. Started out as a baby girl, moved through life in total normality, and then got the pleasure of seeing life repeat itself with my own children, my own grandchildren, and finally a happy and contented drifting off to sleep...*Sniff*
  • Ever17 has several moments, but this troper teared up most at the Luke You Are My Father moment from Kid, when he and Sara confront unrepentant Jerkass Tsugumi and force her to admit that she's their mother. She wavers for a minute or before finally breaking down into tears, begging forgiveness for abandoning them and hugging both tight as they run to embrace her.
    • For this troper, the most prominent tearjerking moment would have to have been when he finished the game for the first time...on the Tsugumi route. Hot damn, that was a really, really depressing Heroic Sacrifice...
  • The obscure Wii game Zack & Wiki: The Quest for Barbaros' Treasure features a boss stage in which Wiki, a cute, golden, flying monkey thing is frozen inside an ice lion. If you screw up trying to free him once too many times, Wiki will tell Zack, "I'm feeling sleepy...thanks for everything..."
  • This game made this troper tear up a bit. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that this troper remembers playing it shortly after her grandfather's funeral. You might not see why at first, but play it to the end...
  • Shannara. Two words: Shella's death Anyone, who has played, will understand. For a full explanation, see my edit on the Player Punch page. It gets worse in the end when in the sword sequence, she asks you that one question: Why did you kill me, Jak? Soulcrushing. If you didn't feel for her, you have no heart.
  • The game Passage never fails to get me a little wet around the eyes. Especially near the end if you picked up your mate. Seeing that little tombstone and knowing that you have nothing to do but keep moving is heartwrenching.
  • Warhammer 40000 Dawn Of War: Winter Assault has a tear jerker here that invokes true Manly Tears at its awesome.
    "To each of us falls a task, and all the Emperor requires of us Guardsmen is that we stand the line, and die fighting. It is what we do best: we die standing."
    • Considering what sort of world Warhammer 40000 takes place in, a Tear Jerker is probably a good thing.
  • The death of one of your monsters in Monster Rancher can be pretty upsetting—especially if you happen to be a little kid. All the effort you've put into raising your monster makes it even more personal. Monster Rancher 2's is the worst, in this troper's opinion—when you see shooting stars, you know your monster's going to go. In your barn, they keel over, and their pale, translucent ghost ascends to monster heaven. This isn't so bad in and of itself, but your assistant Holly's reaction is. The sad music doesn't help. If you hold a funeral for your monster, Holly ends the entire affair by saying, "Let's come visit sometime..." This troper must've spent an inordinate amount of time mourning poor Pamela the Pixie and Deuce the Hopper, who were far too young to go. Yes, this troper was an easily upset child—why do you ask?
    • It's not just you. It really is that bad. Except for Phoenix.
    • This troper did her best to avoid it by mixing her monsters into new creations the moment they started showing signs of old age, but to unlock the Ghost, you have to let at least one monster die. Harsh stuff. Monster Rancher 3 is both better and worse in this area—better because when your monster dies, you get their "Monster Heart", full of their spirit (and stats) which you can give to your new monster to help them live on, worse because you have to watch the death scene every damned time to get it. Guilt abounding. And speaking of guilt, she'll never forgive herself for not researching what the Stimulants do to the monsters in Monster Rancher 2—specifically, up your monster's stats, but dramatically reduce their lifespan. The moment of shock when she realized she essentially drove one monster to her ludicrously premature grave for the sake of the fight was a very, very unhappy moment.
      • That actually made This Troper stop playing the game. Especially since it always came just as he was really getting into the training and showing serious results.
      • This troper got a generic Merchant Zuum just to work it to death, and it still wasn't any easier to watch it die. Best of all, I wasted about 20,000 on Errantry with no results. "Goodbye, A."
  • A lot of people teared up when playing Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes in Oichi's story mode. Starting from witnessing Nagamasa's death, and then being told to do atrocities by her brother Nobunaga, no matter how much she begged that she didn't want to (Nobunaga, you S.O.B), until eventually she fell and became possessed by her own dark powers, killed her brother and his whole army, and then regained her self, falling down in tears... and then died by the collapsing temple. All with a heart-wrenching song 'Nemure no Hana' by her seiyuu Noto Mamiko as an ending song.
  • Stage Five of Radiant Silvergun is an especially tearjerking moment. Unfortunately, the game is Japanese without subtitles, so it can be hard to pick if you haven't read a translation. The entire tone of the game is rather sad, what with you being the last remnants of the human race and all. But the moment where Gai does his HeroicSacrifice had this troper tearing up.
  • Ikaruga, the spiritual successor to Radiant Silvergun also has quite a sad ending. "Was I useful to you?".
    • Even more when you realize what happens during that last barrage. Shinra didn't know if his final attack worked or not - the Ikaruga was annihilated a mere second before the explosion.
  • No love for Myst?
    • Saavedro's plight in Myst III: Exile. Trapped between a few Ages, convinced that his people are all dead.
    • The line that hit this troper the hardest?
      "I couldn't do it. Atrus, I'm not you."
    • Achenar's death in Myst IV: Revelation.
    • This troper was completely crushed after she finished rescuing Yeesha from Dream... and promptly realized that, in so doing, she had just acted as her favorite character's executioner (Sirrus). And then came the above. The fact that she had gone into the game expecting that it would be like the previous three (i.e., Everybody Lives) just made it worse. SO MUCH WORSE.
  • The ending theme to Darius Gaiden (listen at the 3:50 mark). Normally, ending themes are supposed to give you a sense of accomplishment and make you feel happy. But damn, this ending music is depressing, as if something tragic has happened; in fact, tragic things do happen in the game's Downer Endings: the planet Darius is destroyed, the player is destroyed, or other depressing things happen.
  • Madotsuki's suicide in Yume Nikki.
  • Homeworld. When the Mothership returns to Kharak, and the camera pans to see the entire planet being consumed by a firestorm, and Agnus Dei (the choral version of Barber's Adagio for Strings) starts playing in the background...
    Fleet Command: No one's left. Everything's gone. Kharak is burning...
    • Not to mention the fact that freakin Karren S'jet sounds emotional when she says this.
  • The ending of Heavenly Sword. This needs no explanation.
  • Radiata Stories has a lot of those, particularly considering how hilarious it manages to be the rest of the time. The biggest one, however, is certainly Ridley's death on the human (which I will forever call "bad", because, come on) ending.
  • Hotel Dusk Room 215. Plenty of them, though in this troper's opinion the worst is Dunning being unable to even look up as he quotes the last thing Bradley said to him. "You won't see Robert Evans again." To those of you reading this who haven't played the game, this will mean nothing. To those who have, you'll understand the circumstances. The music helps as well.
    • You missed his big line. Five words: "I just want my Jenny...". Gets this troper every time.
      • And if you got the best ending: ..."Jenny?"
    • This Troper found herself tearing up when Melissa first explained what happened to her Mum.
  • The very end of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. No, not your character dying, or even your child getting married. The very last line your character speaks in the game. When your wife observes how you've both gotten old, and aren't the glamorous young things you used to be.
    Your Character: You're still beautiful.
    • Previous to that; given what a Sugar Bowl the series usually is, Ellen's death in HM 64 doubles as this and the closest thing the series has to a Wham Episode. Elli's reaction just drives the trope home.
  • Gears Of War 2. Ever since the war started, Dom has been trying to find his missing wife, Maria. He doesn't get anywhere in the first game, but it's a major plot thread in the second. Dom finally finds Maria, and at first she seems exactly how he remembered. But, as he embraces her she starts to slip out of his hands, and it's revealed he was hallucinating. Instead of being his beautiful wife, Maria is now an emaciated, brain-dead shell, reduced to nothing after months of torture. Dom tries to talk her out of it until he realized the only moral thing he can do is euthanize her himself. Quite possibly the single most powerful, painful, and gut-wrenchingly horrifying moments this troper's ever seen in a video game. After it was over, I had to put down the controller and just cry for a few minutes.
    • Possibly making it even worse: as Marcus walks away, for just a moment, you can see a flicker of sadness and grief on a face that has before shown nothing but varying degrees of blunt stocism and quiet rage. If someone as impossibly stone-cold as Marcus Fenix can show grief....
    Dom: "Marcus! I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do, man! I...."
    Marcus: "Dom.(whispers) Its okay."
    • Tai's death was also a heartwrencher, especially since everyone thought he was pretty much unkillable, and of course, how it ends.
    • The Rookie in Gears of War 2, Ben Carmine. What else to say? The guy lost his brother Anthony in the first game, gets drafted into the the same squad and exhibits the same impulsive combat behaviour, which greatly concerns Marcus and Dom who still haveIdiotHero Anthony's death fresh in memory. Ben stays upbeat along the way, tries to be heroic and live up to the standards of his teammates while Marcus and Dom, familiar with the grim reality of the war, realize things aren't going to end well this time around either. They're right.
    • Well, borderline case perhaps... but just watch the trailers for both games. Just. Watch.
  • Killer 7: right at the end of the game, when Garcian finally realizes that he's the only real member of the Killer 7, and he's killed all the other members in a previous life. He breaks down, and opens his case to find all the other guns of the other K7 members in it. Meanwhile, a very sad ambient song starts to play while Garcian just repeats "No! It was all just a big mistake! it wasn't me!...
    • For this troper, another one is in the Cloudman chapter, when you have to kill Ulmeyda once he's turned into a Smile. It's the text at the end that gets me: "The day when he stops smiling is the day we remember his smile."
  • Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. Pretty much any scene involving Shanoa and Albus counts, but the major tear jerker comes at the very end, when the now dead-by-your-own-hand Albus, who had given up his soul to Dominus in order to spare Shanoa from making the same sacrifice, takes off for the afterlife after seeing Dracula's end.
    Albus: If you want to repay me, you can grant me one final wish... Smile for me. Please... before I fade away.
    And Shanoa does, as a single tear runs down her hitherto-stoic face.
  • The ending of Yoshi's Story, of all things. Not so much the ending itself as the music, which ends on the tearjerkingest 13 notes ever. Or something akin to them, anyway. Just listen for yourself.
    • I'll see you, and raise you the Yoshi's Island credits theme. This troper dissolved into a puddle of happy tears at the end with the slow reprise of the Level Clear theme from the original Super Mario Bros. And then hearing this remix turned on the waterworks again.
  • Several moments in freeware action/adventure game Iji - the sorrow in the title character's voice after her first kill, the hair ribbons scattered through the complex that belonged to her now-dead sister and if the player fails to save Iji's brother, she suffers a Heroic BSOD and goes on talking to him as if he's still alive.
    • Another: the last stand of the Tasen. It's bad enough watching them be hunted down and slaughtered one by one by the deeply sociopathic Komato if you've been reading the various logbooks, but when they're driven to their very last holdout the conclusion is all the more painful because the Tasen soldiers Paie, her girlfriend, and Vateilika, if they're still alive, are all holing up there, and before you can enter something tears through their defenses and butchers them all. When this troper actually heard the screaming and explosions offscreen, he literally gasped and whispered "Oh no...Paie!"
      • Thankfully, if you take the mostly-pacifist route like he did, all three survive by fleeing before the outpost falls.
  • Valkyria Chronicles has one about half way through. Isara getting shot and killed out of nowhere is one saddest things this troper has ever seen. It doesn't help that she dies with a smile on her face.
    • Then in the next cut scene Rosie only being able to fill her promise to Isara by singing at her graveside is sad, the fact that the song is beautiful makes it totally heartbreaking.
    • It should be noted that, for everone other than plot important character(with the exception of the previously noted), death on the field is permenant. Add this to the fact that every recruit has their own model, personality, biography, and fully voiced death sequence, and this trope is a possible reaction to ANYONE dieing on the field.
  • The very first ending you get in the first Drakengard game is truly a tearjerker. Not only does Angelus show her change in opinion of humans but also Caim finally shows compassion for the first time (we are talking about a guy who killed thousands of people in cold blood and didn't cry when he lost all his soldiers, his sister, and even his best friend). The sequel only pushes it further although it can be actually comforting in that they do not have to suffer anymore.
  • Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines had a few saddening moments, not least of which was Heather Poe's death at the hands of the Sabbat.
    • All the more heartbreaking when, before her kidnapping and murder she actually tells you that she had a dream about being separated from you or dying and the only way you can prevent the latter is by sending her away, even as she she pleads and begs to stay with you. And worse, if you're Malkavian, you use Dementation to wipe her memories of you, Donna-Noble-style.
    • In the mission "Fun With Pestilence," you're given the job of tracking down a vampire cult that's been spreading disease through the city via the homeless and the prostitutes: however, what the job description doesn't mention is walking into a darkened room and trying to interview a prostitute that's almost dead of the plague; honestly, lying and telling the girl that her boyfriend isn't dead of the disease he caught from her is hopelessly depressing.
      • But wait, it gets worse! If you play a Malkavian and want to get answers out of her, you have to impersonate the prostitute's boyfriend, who is actually lying dead in his apartment one story below you. And she says things like "You were so nice to me, Paul, I'm so glad I met you," and "We'll see each other again, right Paul?" so hopefully. Goddamn you, game developers, goddamn you...
    • "More Fun With Pestilence" features a teenage drug addict trapped in the Plaguebearer Cult's headquarters; she's probably going to die when the Zombies find her, and she's just as likely to catch the plague and die painfully hours later. The best you can offer her is a painless death. What makes this saddening is that her last words are "I j-just... just want to go home..."
    • And just to make sure you still haven't lost sight of your guilt, you have Julius the Thin-Blood begging for his life, begging for you to find your heart: Your Mileage May Vary, as the luckless half-vampire's stuttering can be somewhat annoying to some.
    • The second meeting with Ash Rivers, after he's been captured and tortured by the Society of Leopold; he's clearly both disfigured and traumatised, mumbling "No fire... no more fire... they always come back, and it always burn." Even if you set him free, he's little better, resolving to retreat into the shadows and never be seen again- something he'd been trying so hard to avoid earlier in the game.
  • The first time this troper completed the original Fallout, having saved most of the wasteland from various evils, having spent the entire time trying to make life better, your character returns to the vault only to be told that he has changed too much, that he is no longer capable of living in the vault was gutwrenching to this troper. All that effort to go home, where the Vault Dweller's family presumably was, only to be told that the very actions that saved the vault, would forever deny him entrance to it again. Talk about bittersweet.
    • This troper just teared up. She is never going to play this game. Ever.
    • Upon returning to Vault 101 in Fallout 3, and rescuing its inhabitants from the new draconian Overseer only to be told that because I'd killed him I'd have to leave, never to return, by the character's childhood friend and possibly sweetheart was almost too much for this troper. He had to stop playing for a while.
    • This troper was BROKEN by something that was (sorta), my own fault in Fallout 3: having Dogmeat killed :'(
      • This troper is such a softie that he hates seeing friends die in RP Gs, and none more that Dogmeat in Fallout 1. The first time I played through it and found out I couldn't just make him leave the party, I was so determined to see him live to the end that in the Military Base alone, I used over 100 stimpacks on him and was bum-rushing minigun-wielding mutants so I could take the hits instead of my loyal and too-brave pooch. And he made it. :)
    • "If anyone can hear this, this is Bob Anderstein. [My] family and I have taken refuge in a drainage chamber not too far from a radio relay tower outside of D.C. My boy is very sick, needs medical assistance. Please help if you can. We're listening for your response. 3950 kilohertz." This troper had to turn the game off for a while after this encounter...
    • There's a certain house with a housebot that can be programmed to do several different things. If you make it read a poem to the family's children, you can follow it and witness it reading the story to two tiny skeletons. What makes it worse is that the poem is There Will Come Soft Rains, which is a lecture about how nothing in the world would miss the human race after it's gone. This is actually the title to a Ray Bradbury short story, which in turn was named after the real-life poem, by Sara Teasedale.
    • Hell, almost the entirety of Fallout 3 is enough to make me sob. Specifically, the very sad background music that plays when you wander the wasteland; it almost makes you wish something will attack you so the confrontation score kicks in (or you could just use the radio). Even worse than that, though, is the bit with the player's father. Damn, just damn. You have to do so much just to see him again after you leave the vault, and on top of that, he dies soon afterward.
    • Liberty Prime's death. "I DIE...SO THAT DEMOCRACY...MAY...LIVE."
    • The log entries of the nurse in Germantown. Even up to the very end, running out of medication and dying of acute radiation exposure, she and her colleagues still went out every day and did everything they could for their patients, even if all they could offer was whiskey and painkillers. Her last log details her dismay that she couldn't have been the last to die, as she knew there were still people out there that needed care. This troper found herself experiencing two emotions at once: intense professional pride and intense heartbreak.
    • Moira Brown in Fallout 3's Megaton is normally an extremely cheery person, but for the first time I actually clicked on a few dialogues that I've never listened to when I didn't have some sort of MP 3 playing. Her heartfelt explanation for why she wants you to help her create the Wasteland Survival Guide made me tear up, something that never happens:
      Moira:Well, look around at the world we live in. It may be okay to you, but I've read about what it used to be like, and this isn't it. So we all need something that keeps us going, despite all the terrible things around us. For me, it's things like this book... did you ever try to put a broken piece of glass back together? Even if the pieces fit, you can't make it whole again the way it was. But if you're clever, you can still use the pieces to make other useful things. Maybe even something wonderful, like a mosaic. Well, the world broke just like glass. And everyone's trying to put it back together like it was, but it'll never come together the same way... the Wasteland Survival Guide isn't much towards that lofty goal, but its an important one. And that's why I need your help. <voice cracks a little> I don't think I can do it alone.
      • What makes it even worse is that if you actually do help her complete the Survival Guide, when you actually get said Survival Guide the description explains that it's not even that good, and that following its advice would be suicidal, meaning all her work doesn't even help that much.
  • Soul Calibur 4. Sophitia's story ending. Despite the initial {{Narm)) his troper was sent on a snifflefit after one line: "Time is cruel. No matter how much power I have, I can't change the past..."
    • Parts of Tira's ending somehow make the psychotic, bloodthirsty, Magnificent Bitch...into The Woobie. It's just so sad and pathetic, as she's begging Nightmare not to leave her alone...
  • Second Sight had a truly miserable moment: the ending to John Vattic's torture prior to the start of the game (which also functions as a Have A Nice Death sequence should you lose in the "Redemption" level) in which the torturer chooses to finally reveal himself:
    Hanson: Look at me.
    (John painfully lifts his head and looks at Hanson through heavily bruised eyes.)
    John: (struggling to remember) You... are...
    Hanson: I'm your friend... I'm the only friend you have left.
    (John begins crying softly.)
    John: I can't remember...
    Hanson: I can help you to remember- and I can help you to be strong. Just trust me.
    John: Th-thank you.
    Hanson: (Gently) That's quite alright...
    (He turns to his bodyguard.)
    Hanson: Take him to the labs; prepare him for the surgery.
  • Secret Of Mana's ending.
  • In Vagrant Story, the conclusion of Sydney and Hardin's stories: The former is finally free to return to his father's side, his mission to rid the world of Lea Monde completed. But he himself is still cursed by the power of the Dark, and thus, surrenders himself to Duke Bardorba's fatal stabbing... dissipating into motes of light with a saintly smile. Then the Duke himself follows his son unto death. As for Hardin, wounded though he was by Guilderstern, he manages to take Joshua and Merlose to safety well outside Lea Monde's walls, and dies peacefully as Joshua (who had been mute throughout the entire game) cries out to him. Never had an Anti Villain faction gotten such a heartbreaking, yet fitting ending.
  • The ending to Kirby and the Amazing Mirror. It's a Happy Ending, as in all the other Kirby games, since the Big Bad Dark Mind has been defeated and the four Kirbys go home, but the music...
  • The Lunar series has a few. One of the most prominent is the ending, wherein Alex reunites with Luna, just as the Goddess Tower starts to collapse, and the rest of the team has to run without them. They stand on a nearby cliff, and watch the tower fall into the ocean, and can only assume that Alex and Luna died in the crash. When the normally tough-as-nails Jessica and wisecracking Nall BOTH start bawling their eyes out, it's almost impossible not to shed a few tears yourself. Good thing that both Alex and Luna reveal themselves to be perfectly fine a few seconds later.
    • Then there's the first ending of the sequel, where Lucia decides to return to the Blue Star, leaving Hiro to helplessly watch her walk out of his life. Then comes the epilogue, where Hiro decides to FOLLOW HER THERE. Lucia's tears of joy upon seeing him on top of that crystal-thing of her's gets this troper every time.
  • This troper found a tearjerker in God Hand of all places, with Elvis' death scene:
    Elvis: "Tell Shannon....I was the bravest man you ever...."
  • The Downer Ending of Shadow Of The Colossus sent this trope in tears as you try to fight a current to see if the girl you killed sixteen colossi for is okay. Then you shed tears of joy when she wakes up to find your loyal horse who's Not Quite Dead, and then as the credits role, the camera pans over the decaying carcasses of all the collosi. It was so simplistic and honest it was overwhelming.
  • The World Ends With You has one particular moment that really deserves to be here. You see Rhyme running towards Beat and then Kariya and Uzuki send a shark Noise his way. She sees it, he doesn't and she ends up shoving him out of the way and getting erased herself. After beating the next boss, this troper had to save and turn off her DS because she couldn't stop crying.
    • It's even worse when you realize that the scene playing on the top screen during this sequence, with Beat pushing Rhyme out from in front of a car, is how Rhyme and Beat ended up in the game in the first place. Also, the fact that you've ran past the place where they both died, the Underpass, millions of times, hurts a lot too.
      • Don't forget that Beat's price for entering the game was Rhyme's memories of him as her brother.
      • And when Beat is you're partner he'll cry out Rhyme when he dies. I just think that if TWEWY didn't have a Slap On The Wrist Death these would be really effective last words.
    • Joshua's heroic sacrifice caused this troper to tear up. He spent his entire chapter saying how he thinks that getting attached to others is useless, and that understanding them is a waste of his time. He completely contradicts this when he pushes Neku out of the way of Minamimoto's bomb, and stands in front of him while reminding Neku that he still has things he needs to do.
      • The fact that Joshua killed Neku in the first place to make him his proxy in the game kind of makes this moment a bit less tear-worthy.
      • Then it's back with a vengeance when you read the Secret Report saying he really could have died there if he was a fraction of a second slower. The whole Player Punch was based on the Heroic Sacrifice being a ruse to aim Neku to his victory, but it was real. Add in the fact his defeat in it wouldn't come even close to his death, and the fact he gave Neku a chance to shot him in the ending...
      • This troper found Joshua's moment to come in the stinger ending, where he watches Neku reunite with his friends, unable to join them as Neku asked him to, and when Hanekoma tries to talk to him, he flies off without a word.
      • Neku wordlessly taking off his headphones and looking towards the sky could stand on it's own as a tear-jerking scene. But then they paired it with five, simple words: The World Begins With You.
    • This troper's personal breakdown occurs during the ending song, "Lullaby for You," particularly the intro to the last chorus, where the music drops down to just vocals and piano accompanying a shot of Josh's not-so-heroic "sacrifice", and the last "You are not alone" accompanying Neku's "What the HELL?!" shot.
      • This Troper teared up during two of The Reveals, the ones where we learn Shiki lost her appearance as her entry fee, and also how Beat and Rhyme die. Why? Because she has inferiority issues. She hates most of what she is, and wants to change it... Particualrly because of her sibling (who did not inted that at all, by the way)... who she couldn't help but to go out and hug afterward... but couldn't tell why because said sibling was planing on playing the game and does not like spoilers, but still...
      • This Troper cried at the end of Shiki's week too, for much of the same reasons. There's just so much of myself I could see in her, it actually hurt to see it laid out like that.
  • Baten Kaitos Origins has one that was set up absolutely brilliantly. Guillo, one of the members of your party who up until this point has basically been a walking Crowning Moment Of Awesome - a total Bad Ass, a hilarious Deadpan Snarker, and great in actual combat, so naturally loved by the player - is revealed to be responsible for the death of your Guardian Spirit, Marno, and all of his Nakama. Since you have been having flashbacks showing Sagi what happened in his spirit's past, you get to see their whole journey end in absolute futility. Meanwhile the Guillo of the present (who remembered nothing from before being discovered by Sagi) is there watching the whole thing. Seeing Guillo beg Marno for his forgiveness after the final flashback is just so shocking, especially since it's so unusual for Guillo to do that.
    • And speaking of Marno's Nakama, there's also the death of Quis, and Seph's reaction to it. I will never be able to forget that scream of utter agony...
    • After defeating an injured Lord Baelheit, Milliarde is nearly able to get through to him. Just as he is about to consider joining her and stopping the promachination madness, the supposedly renowned Spiriter Verus comes up behind him and quite literally stabs him in the back. This troper will never forget the anguished look on Milliarde's face as she cried over her dying father.
      • On that note, Lord Baelheit shooting Milly - his own daughter - in the face, just to prove a point. Damn it.
    • That, and Guillo's Heroic Sacrifice immediately after beating the Final Boss, just when you thought it was all over. This gives Guillo's line to Milly following the aforementioned scene with Baelheit a whole new meaning. " Make sure you cry when this is done with. And I mean buckets. You'd better not let me down." She doesn't.
    • Even before any of the above happens, there's the "heart-to-heart" that's the turning point of the game. Just as you finally figure out that you, the "Guardian Spirit" you, aren't actually a spirit at all, but Marno - a piece of Malpercio, Le Ali Del Principio starts up and Sagi starts raging against you - not for being Malpercio, but for never telling him anything about your true nature and burdening him with the trials of being a spiriter even though he technically wasn't. Hearing him talk about how he half-resented your presence all his life with Mio Sakuraba's voice singing beautifully in the background is just... Given the Baten Kaitos trend of breaking the fourth wall by including the player in the game as a "guardian spirit," I felt very much like Sagi was actually angry at me. Jesus Christ. This very quickly turns into a Crowning Moment Of Awesome when you decide to become a part of Sagi, rather than absorb him as Malpercio. Inspirational heroic music starts up, you lend Sagi Malpercio's power, and he obtains his Infinity Plus One Finisher. And you just know ownage is going to follow.
    • Bah, the sequel can't compare to the first game, when Kalas flashbacks to the day his little brother Fee died. Other considered the voice-acting bad, but they don't know a thing! Anyone with a soul and a heart would bawl helplessly as Kalas first cries, then with sorrowful fury vows to avenge Fee. Gets me every time I play the game again.
  • This troper manages to always tear up at the end of Xenogears. A combination of the mostly happy ending, the sad, sweet ending song, and the knowledge that the game is over is just too much.
  • American McGee's Alice is intentionally weird and disturbing, given that it's basically the warped version of a child's whimsical fantasy. However, the deaths of the Gryphon, and the Cheshire Cat are particularly heart-wrenching, especially since this causes Alice to have her Heroic BSOD after calmly weathering all the other freakishness she's seen. The latter actually caused one of the guys doing a Let's Play of it to state "That was for the Cheshire Cat, by the way." during his thrashing of the Queen of Hearts.
    • And let's not even get into the fate of the March Hare. At least the Dormouse was so out of it that he barely knew what had happened to him.
    • For me, it's the opening cinematic that gets me sniffling. Alice's voice actress may not sound particularly like a little girl, but the way she cries out, "Mum? Father?!" just — And then you hear her parents screaming for her to get out, save herself, before there's this awful crashing noise. . . .
  • Syberia II: when Oscar does what he was created for and sacrifices himself for his creator. That was especially heart-wrenching, because you had to start the transformation process and he wasn't happy about what he has to do.
  • Mokou's backstory is tragic enough to squeeze some tears out of this troper, especially when paired with her theme song.
    • Yuyuko's backstory is just as bawl-worthy. To explain, Yuyuko's ability was, at first, to manipulate spirits of the dead. As time went on, it grew stronger and stronger, to the point of being able to will death onto mortals. Terrified of her ability, she committed suicide, and her body was used to seal off a misfortune-bringing tree, which later lead to the events of Perfect Cherry Blossom.
    • While this is a fanwork, Cool&Create's S Complex puts a really tragic spin on the less memorable Aki sister, Shizuha. She loves her sister dearly, but feels left out and lonely because Minoriko is constantly being invited to feasts. Harsh words are said, and Shizuha's heart is broken.
    • Double Scarlet tells a story about the Scarlet Sisters. At the beginning, Flandre and Remilia are lonely, so, with the help of Patchouli Knowledge, they go conquering lands and make friends with Sakuya Izayoi and Hong Meiling after besting them in battle. Over time, though, Flandre becomes more distant from Remilia, and is assumedly locked up in the basement. But it gets better. Patchouli shows Remilia a picture depicting the sisters holding hands that Flandre drew. Overcome with guilt, Remilia runs into the basement and shares a tearful and apologetic hug with the sister she's been ignoring for some time.
    • Miku Hatsune's rendition of "Cirno's Math Class" is a far cry from the cute and energetic IOSYS version. The Cirno portrayed here is a much older one who has taken up the mind-numbing life of an office worker in the city. There's a very real sense that an essential part of Cirno's character has been lost over the years, and that she resents the loss of it quite bitterly, as well as the loss of the friends from those carefree days. The video ends with Cirno leaving her job and the city towards an unknown future, presumably never to return.
  • The death of Grom Hellscream in Warcraft III hasn't been mentioned yet, amazingly. Probably the greatest Crowning Moment Of Awesome in a universe made of Crowning Moments of Awesome.
  • In amongst all the mass murder, torture and other metaphorical dog-raping, the opening quest chain for Death Knights in World Of Warcraft has one desperately sad moment: your character is sent into a nearby jail to execute the prisoner of the same race as them. The prisoner recognises you ("I'd know that face anywhere... What have they done to you, <name>?") and begs you to remember the hero you once were before you strike them down. *sniff*
    • The Night Elf version of this quest is particularly adept at playing your heartstrings. The NPC you're supposed to kill actually took care of your character while they were still an infant. They even say that your character was their "little angel".
    • The Wrathgate cutscene. Wow... It goes from a Crowning Moment of Awesome to this. Highlord Bolvar Fordragon marches out, charges into the swarm of undead headfirst, and fights them off. Then come the vrykul, half-giant humanoids of Northrend who seem to be unstoppable. At the last minute, however, Saurfang the Younger himself rides down and one-shots three vrykul after having witty banter with Fordragon. Pretty awesome, right? Oh, wait, I forgot about the part when Grand Apothecary Putress unleashes the Forsaken Blight on the Scourge... and Alliance... and Horde. Fordragon's last view is of red dragons coming to burn the bodies. This troper isn't afraid to admit he cried the first few times, even during Saurfang's awesome speech.
    • The end of the instance Escape From Durnholde has one when the bronze dragon tells you how history is back on it's normal path, and how Thrall will now fulfill his destiny to become Warchief, then turns to Taretha's (Thrall's foster sister) fate: "As for Taretha...her fate is regrettably unavoidable." She's killed by the Lord of Durnholde as revenge for helping Thrall escape.
    • The Shady Rest Inn quest chain is especially a Tear Jerker. You find out that not only was the Shady Rest Inn destroyed, but the child and the wife of the innkeeper was killed during the burning; while, the innkeeper escaped, but became mentally unstable because of it. Luckily, you find out who did it, The Grimtotem Tauren, and get much needed revenge.
      • It becomes a real Tear Jerker during the final quest in the chain, Peace at Last, where you go place a wreath at the grave of the mother and child. Watching that little exchange, almost made this troper cry. You can read the script here. Especially, the kid saying "Mommy, when will we see Daddy again?"
    • The quest line for Rewriting The Battle of Darrowshire. It starts when you encounter the ghost of a little girl, Pamela Redpath, who asks you to find her dolly for her. As the quest progresses, she starts to ask about her daddy, she misses him so much. You start to find living relatives throughout the world who fill you in on her story, and that of her father, Joseph. Joseph Redpath was one of the last defenders of Darrowshire against the Scourge. He succumbed and was corrupted by the Scourge, then proceeded to murder the other defenders, leaving him forever known as the traitor of the Battle of Darrowshire. After a number of other quests, and the help of the Bronze Dragonflight, you are able to relive the Battle for Darrowshire and have the opportunity to defend the town with Joseph and the other defenders. Joseph is still defeated and corrupted, but because of your presence, you are able to redeem him; you are told that, while you could not save him, history has been changed to remember him as the fallen hero of Darrowshire. At the end of the quest, the ghosts of Joseph and Pamela are reunited, and embrace, and Pamela tells you that she is so happy to see her daddy again.
      • Even without having played through the quest, this fan-made video will make you tear up. If you have played through the quest you will bawl like a baby.
    • Crusader Bridenbrad. Anyone who's done that questline knows what I mean, and probably just burst into Manly Tears again. (Also, he was named after a Blizzard employee's relative who died of cancer.)
      • This troper first did the quest as a Restoration-specced Shaman. At the start I went "Great, another quest where I get a magic doodad to heal a guy instead of, you know, using one of my many spells". Then I'm like "That didn't help, I have to try again?". Then "I'm really starting to like this guy, I'll be glad when we get him on his feet". Then "...oh. Wait. I don't want it to end this way. Come on, please? Can't we try something else? Anything else?!" By the end, I was honestly, emotionally upset.
  • Nintendo DS had one in Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, when The Captain Brenner, injured and alone, stalled the enemy long enough for his unit as well as former enemies to escape. Will and Lin were hit particularly hard for some time.
  • The ending of the Star Wars: Republic Commando game, in which Sev, who you have spent the game growing to like and admire as a badass, suddenly goes silent on the com. Your squad-mates try to go back for him, but are specifically ordered to get out of there, forcing you to leave Sev behind, all of you mourning, no idea what has happened to him, your only comfort that you've set the stage for success on Kashyyyk...and even that is tainted by the knowledge that the Republic you've been fighting for, the Jedi giving you orders...all of it is due to end so very soon. This troper was crying for Sev even after watching a youtube walkthrough of the game.
  • Trauma Center, being a medical drama, certainly has its moments. Just... dammit, Emilio, you were just getting better...
  • Rival Schools 2 and its Bad Gedo High ending. It has Daigo dead, Akira breaking down in tears as she mourns him, and both Edge and Gan screaming and swearing revenge on Kurow...
    • The Taiyo High ending is just as bad, with Hyo's death in his brother Kyosuke's arms as he pleads him to not die, and then Kyosuke disappearing from Taiyo in despair.. It gets even worse when you remember that Hyo's seiyuu, Shiozawa Kaneto, had died before the game was finished.
  • Myth series: the song "Siege of Madrigal". Included as an easter egg in the final track of the Halo soundtrack. It would be even sadder if Bungie actually used it in the Halo series.
  • How has Legend Of Dragoon not been mentioned here at all? The moments that stood out to this troper were that scene with Lavitz in Mayfil (although, strangely, his actual death didn't make this troper cry), the ending (especially the short little scene right after the credits) and finally, the scene in Aglis, where Savan dies and so do all the magical creatures he created.This troper doesn't remember exactly what Ruff said, but whatever it was, it made her heart break.
    • He said "it's rough, Ruff."
    • Another scene worth mentioning is when Dart and Lavitz enter the ruined fortress in the swamps: inside, they discover that the Green Dragon's poisonous breath has killed both the attackers and the defenders. As unbelievably saddening music plays, Dart says "In death, there are no allies or enemies. Rest in peace."
    • Rose's flashback to the final battle of the Dragon Campaign, especially the scene when Belzac gets fatally impaled by a Virage while trying to save Shirley from being crushed by falling rubble. And after all that, Shirley refuses to leave Belzac's side and dies along with him...
      • In the same cutscene, Rose trying and failing to reach Zieg before the curse of petrification overcomes him.
    • The sheer amount of Alas Poor Villain in Legend of Dragoon never fails to sadden this troper- particularly Emperor Doel's death scene, in which the Evil Overlord faces death with such dignity that the heroes actually salute him as he vanishes into energy.
  • Shadow Hearts could be the Trope Namer. In the first game, the bad ending is the canonical one, wherein Alice's life slowly ebbs away on the train at the end of the game, culminating in her falling asleep on her lover's shoulder and never waking up. Shadow Hearts: Covenant, not to be outdone, has two tearjerker endings: the bad one, where Yuri loses his soul and all his memories, basically becoming a non-entity under the care of Roger Bacon, and a "good" one, where he's killed before his soul is finished being devoured, granting him a more or less happy ending in death with Alice. Then Shadow Hearts: From the New World turns it up by making the villains so sympathetic that it's almost tempting to let them destroy the world just because watching Lady and Killer die hurts so much.
    • Don't forget in the second game, Alice's attempted resurrection. This troper doesn't even normally like straight couples, and that scene still gets me every time.
      • This troper knows numerous people who cried at that scene...but when Yuri says I love you too... and then starts crying...I felt like an absolute jerk because I actually started laughing as he proceeded to make the silliest sad face ever.
    • Covenant has a rather sympathetic villain too, in the form of Kato, and Nicholai to some extent, but especially Kato. While climbing the stone platform, this troper was still hoping there was a way to avoid fighting.
    • Odin Sphere made my eyes water and Shadow of the Colossus depressed me for the rest of the day, but watching Lady try to resurrect Killer and her subsequent death made me weep. Especially when Ricardo took his hat off, for some reason.
  • Legend of Mana. Each set of quests (Faerie, Jumi, and Dragoon) have their moments. For the Faerie, it's finding out that even though they're both dead and aren't bound by the rules of their lives, Matilda and Irwin still can't be together. In the Dragoon, it's learning that Larc, being bound to Drakonis, can't leave the Underworld despite Drakonis being defeated, and Sierra has to wait for him for a century. And the worst is the Jumi quests: Pearl is a false entity, every Jumi you meet in the game dies tragically, and when they're resurrected, you cry for them and turn to stone. The following cutscene, however, combines this with Heartwarming due to the music and the Teardrop Crystal. "I'm ba-ack!"
    • Let's not forget Final Fantasy Mystic Quest/Seiken Denesetsu...when GIRL says "Bye" to BOY and has to become the last Mana Tree because stupid Julius took out the previous mana tree.
  • Ayane's ending in Dead Or Alive 3. Yeah, lot of converts to team purple here, so to speak. Because sometimes...ninjas cry too.
    • Her entire backstory is a Tearjerker. She and Kasumi are Childhood Friends and sisters...and because of the various ninja politics and the misfortune of her birth, Ayane winds up separated from the only friend she ever had, only to come back when she's assigned to kill Kasumi. And then she has to kill her adoptive father after he's made into a monster? Ayane, a Woobie is you. And then they set it to Dream On. That opening sold me more on the series' storyline than anything in the actual game.
    • For non-ninja characters, Helena's ending DOA 4 is a fairly tear-jerking summary of her entire story to date, as she decides to atone for the pain that DOATEC has caused everyone by blowing it and herself up with the self destruct. The Aerosmith ballad playing in the background just adds extra punctuation, along with Helena's melancholy "Sayonara...". But then Zack swoops in for the Dynamic Entry save, so it's alllll riiiight!
  • I'm pretty sure Clock Tower 3 hasn't been mentioned yet. Firstly May. Just May, and of course Albert and his blind mother. When Albert gives her the shawl, only to be violently murdered moments later i just bawled. Then of course there's Phillip's death scene. It doesn't make this troper cry in and of itself, but Nancy's line just before it, "Phillip darling! Father! Alyssa has laughed for the first time!" think about it.
  • Finding out that Nicole was Dead All Along in Dead Space. Despite being a Heroic Mime, I felt quite sorry for Isaac at the part.
    • What got me was the animation Isaac goes through during the revelation - even though you never see his face, his body language speaks volumes for just how badly it hits him. Even worse if you read his in-game diary, because he knew Nicole was dead, but kept himself in denial up until that point. Ouch.
  • The ending of The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon does this troper in. It's not so much the game that does it. But the fact is she has been a fan of the series since the beginning. Hell, Spyro was the initial motivation for her to begin studying animation. So yeah, there's a lot of nostalgia wrapped up in this little purple dude. So after getting through twenty odd hours of 'infuriatingly difficult gameplay, to then see her favourite character die, (even if it was a Disney Death, we didn't know that until after the credits rolled and receive a Thank You "for helping us complete this series, without you it wouldn't have happened" to the last decades worth of fans, brought the last ten years of her life back in one big, freaking Tear Jerker of a sob.
  • "You're dying, Wilkes".
    • Also, the intro to Double Agent, where Sam learns his daughter was killed, and drops his iconic goggles out of the side of the Osprey into the ocean.
  • The Last Remnant. Imagine the ending to Final Fantasy X, except worse. If Rush's willingness to sacrifice himself to destroy all Remnants to save the world and the revelation that he is one of them didn't have you bawling, and the voice acting didn't do it either, you have a heart of stone. But like the ending to FFX, it's revealed he might just come back. Hopefully sans crappy direct sequel.
    • Worsened for this troper by the final scene of Irina standing with their parents on the same cliff that she and Rush did in the beginning of the game...without Rush. (sniffle)
    • Also, Emma Honeywell II. At first it seems like YMMV because of the timing in her appearance, but then you realize that Emma had been waiting for her to come back from her journey and never got to see her. Emmy showed up minutes too late.
  • The ending to the 2008 Prince Of Persia broke my heart— in it the previously cynical, Ineffectual Loner Prince decides to screw over the whole world and release the Big Bad in order to bring Elika back from the dead. It takes its time to play out, and the Prince, who used to have a smart-assed comment for everything, does not say a single word during it. Plenty of people have called it an Ass Pull or Shocking Swerve ending because it basically means that all the work you've done was for nothing, but if you value your character development as much as I did, it'll tear you up because it is the only way the game could have ended.
  • Fable II has one near the end of the game after Lucien's big Moral Event Horizon scene, after which you end up trapped in a dream world where you're a child and your older sister Rose is alive again. You have a big farmhouse with lots of fun things to do, and parents are mentioned though never seen. In short, it's everything your character could have ever conceivably wanted. After a day spent playing with Rose, however, you hear the music box that started everything playing in the distance, though Rose tells you to ignore it and go back to sleep. However, in order for the game to proceed, you have to head towards the sound of music box, and as you do, Rose's pleas for you to go back to sleep become more and more desperate until you cross the threshold of the farm where Rose cannot follow, and she screams 'Don't leave me again!' as you head towards the music box. It's heart-rending to hear, since you're never quite sure if the dream world is a trick of Lucien's, or if that really IS your sister's spirit, trying to give you the life you and she never had, and you have to leave her behind again to stop Lucien.
    • That scene was so sad! I love Rose. I had two character specific ones with this game. The first was my absolutely good character, when Lucien kills your family to end your bloodline and you choose Sacrifice, condemning them to death forever. To top it all off, that character was gay, so it made their deaths feel horrible and pointless. The second, surprisingly, was with my absolutely evil character. She didn't care about anything or anyone, so naturally she chose riches over the other options... but she already had millions of gold. It felt so empty, that I realized that there was literally NOTHING she could wish for that would ever make her happy.
  • After Bannon's Heroic Sacrifice in World In Conflict, there's a short cut scene where his mother listens to tha last voice message from him. It narrates how good a soldier he was recently, encourages her that the war soon be over, and says he is out of danger for now. Then you realize that she has been crying all along, meaning that the news already reached her...
    • Also, not strictly a tear jerker but it makes one shiver: the cutscene before the New York helicopter-borne assault on Governor's Island - seeing one of the pilots catch a ricochet in the neck, and the other struggling to help him and calling for help, looking back just in time to see an out-of-control helo SMASH into the cockpit (and the camera), cut to screaming soldiers beng flung out the back as the helicopter spirals out of control, and the wider scope of the battle, with the confusion of SAM trails and flares and death...
  • Get a Game Over in any way during "Primal" and you see Jen in her hospital room dead or dying in her coma. A sad tune plays and the camera moves away showing her room in what seems like an empty void with no one there for her. It's even more tragic considering that it could be her lover Lewis that kills her. See for yourself here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGzUsuJ1f2k
  • The first ending to Drakengard. The only living creature Caim gives a shit about, his Pact-Partner, Angelus, becomes the new seal, dying painfully in the process. Just to twist the knife a bit further, she tells Caim her name, as he holds her head, while the magic of the seal is branded into her skin. The other four endings are even worse.
  • In Wing Commander, failing to eject before your fighter is destroyed results in a game over screen that consists of your character's military funeral. It's strangely depressing in a way that made me very careful to bail out if my shields got to low.
  • In Legacy of Kain: Defiance, Raziel's Death. Made worse by seeing so clearly that Kain, Heroic Sociopath, Magnificient Bastard and Raziel's killer, actually cares about him, and is very clearly saddened by his death. Which came as something of a surprise, given how little he seems to care for anyone else.
    • Well, Kain did re-order the flow of time. More than once, in fact. And it was implied that he was doing so, at least in part, to spare Raziel the fate of being absorbed into the Reaver. The final cutscene also enters Tearjerker territory.
  • Nakoruru's "death" and her goodbye to Galford, the Mc Ninja who was in love with her, in Samurai Shodown.
  • Pikmin. Ever heard the song Ai no Uta? The one that sounds "cute" and "calming"? Yeah...that's only if you don't know what the words actually mean. The lyrics are a complete Player Punch to the gut, especially the last line, "...but we won't ask you to love us." This troper couldn't touch the game for weeks after that.
  • Alys Brangwin's death in Phantasy Star IV. Nuff said.
    • Nei's death at the hands of her Evil Twin Neifirst in Phantasy Star II took place eight years before Aeris/Aerith's death.
  • Banjo-Tooie hits you right off the bat by killing off Bottles the mole. It just catches you completely off guard that the sequel to such a bright, fun, cartoony game as Banjo-Kazooie could start out with the death of one of the main characters. And soon afterward you have to face his wife and kids, and Banjo and Kazooie argue for a bit over whether to tell them as everyone goes on about how they expect him home any minute and he's going to be the star of next week's big kickball game. Damn.
  • The Mansion level in Sanitarium is a Tear Jerker, mostly due to music and the flashbacks. However, like almost everything else in this game, it is also Nightmare Fuel Unleaded.
  • Oddworld in general.
  • One of the hidden songs in Simtunes called 'Mishiko' makes this troper cry. Its hard to explain why.
  • Narcissu. No more need be said.
    • Specifically, for this troper, Setsumi's tearful speech toward the end, in which she laments that she has no future and begs the protagonist to just let her give up. No fictional moment has ever brought me to Manly Tears quite like that.
  • A horrible one in Dwarf Fortress: A wood cutter in one of my fortresses is caught outside during a goblin ambush, with inevitable results. However, she is holding an infant, which stops a bolt with its head and saves her life and allows her to run back inside. At first I was just happy my woodcutter was alive, but after the siege, when I saw her standing outside doing nothing at the spot where she was ambushed, I was furious. I looked in the unit screen, and her current task was 'Seek Infant'. I can laugh at the deaths of an entire fortress of dwarves, but that one gets me every time. (She eventually starved to death due to never canceling the Seek Infant job.)
  • In Romancing Sa Ga: Minstrel Song, there's an Assassin's Guild that specializes in Brainwashed And Crazy agents, and they eventually send one after you while you're sleeping. The victim only comes out of it after you've struck the final blow and dies begging for help. To make matters worse, in Jamil's scenario, the assassin turns out to be his best friend Dowd. Who was only alone because you didn't take him along with you (by his request, but still!) Oh, and you have to see this scene to unlock Dowd for later playthroughs.
  • Left 4 Dead of all games has a very particular gut-wrenching moment. In the third stage of the second campaign, the players must get to a church. Inside this church are walls that are just filled up with the names of people and pets, their birthdays, and the days they died with added memorial messages just to make the point hit home. Finding out that some children lost were as young as two years old or a seven-year-old pomeranian is a very powerful sight that actually depressed this troper for hours.
    • Not only that, but throughout the game there are missing persons and missing animal signs. Valve is REALLY good at the whole "immersion" thing.
    • Also, after This Troper's first play through., he started thinking about why the Witch was crying. Don't do it.
  • Conker's Bad Fur Day is basically the "Mrs. Doubtfire" of games. Sure, it's tasteless, but it was so silly, comical and innocent all the way through, and then, the downer ending hits the player unexpectedly in the face. The protagonist has the opportunity to save a life, but instead performs a macho act that gets him crowned king, only to regret is immensely.
  • No Dark Cloud? This troper cannot believe. Okay, seriously, in Dark Chronicle (or Dark Cloud 2), Chapter 3 (The Sage who Became a Star). EVERY SINGLE FREAKING MOMENT after Lin wakes up. In this chapter, you must, at first, find a way to wake the apprentice of a famous Sage called Crest, who died some months prior to Max's and Monica's arrival while trying to protect a great magic crystal from Gaspard. The flashbacks of Lin and Crest are absolutely beautiful, but what really did it for this troper was his death. And even more, Lin talking to his corpse that he was the only sage for her. Oh god, it's happening again... *wipes tears*
    • Gaspard's final battle and death for me. After Max defeats him, he shares his backstory with the heroes in a deliberate Not So Different moment, pulls a partial Heel Face Turn and wishes them well on their quest, and prepares to leave the conflict. Then Emperor Griffon pulls a Villain Override on Gaspard and forces him to attack Max and Monica. After that battle, as Gaspard lies dying, he ruefully says he won't be able to see the end of their journey, and Monica, who had until then hated him for killing her father, grieves for him and curses Griffon.
      • This is made either worse or better, when you realize that the developers realized the scene was so heart-wrenching, they added a scene where Gaspard reunites with his mom, telling her his story about what happened, and with her saying that he found what she asked him to find. This troper always took that statement to mean that he found the will to forgive Humans. In his last breath, he was able to finally forgive.
      • Chapter 7. EVERYTHING in chapter 7. As you run through the Chapter, you get flashbacks that define Griffon's backstory: He came to the Moon Flower Palace with no memory of his past, attempting to look at the flowers. He almost gets reprimanded, but the Palace leader, Alexandra, takes him in and has him watch over the flowers, because of how much he likes them. They develop a great bond for each other, but a great war ravages the area soon after, including the palace in its destructive wake. This war take's Alexandra's life, and all the plant life in the Garden dies soon after. Griffon, in his anger and pain, vows to destroy humans, so that something like this could never happen again. And finally, FINALLY, when you have to fight him, you are thinking in the back of your head about how to save him. And then, right when you think you saved him, the apocalyptic scenario predicted by Griffon and the Ancients activates, and the moon comes crashing down. Griffon (who's true name is Sirus) is the key to stopping this, but he has to give up his life... This game really, REALLY loves that trick. It loves to actually make you sympathize with the characters, and then kills them off as soon as you save them. It really hurts, and I can't stop crying when I think about it...
  • This troper had quite a sad feeling after seeing the first part of (the first) Star Ocean, in planet Roark. It's pretty heart-breaking: specifically, the scene when Dorne becomes stone. Just everything about the scene is sad - he asking to lay on his own bed; he giving the little music box to the girl he loves, Millie, seconds before turning into stone... I think the sole reason why this troper dislike the game is because said plot is pretty much forgotten 10 minutes later.
    • Let's not forget poor Perecci. I didn't like her, but the ending showed her all alone, like she was in the beginning since she couldn't stay in the future with Roddick and Millie. With just her Ocarina. I didn't even like her and I felt like a jerk for that.
  • The game over screen in Ren And Stimpy: Stimpy's Invention. "Well, Stimpy... game's over!!!" with Ren and Stimpy crying, along with somber background music. This troper was only five when he first saw this, and was depressed for a while.
  • One after another gets delivered once you get the cannon in Golden Sun. First, there's the poor fate of Prox, teetering on the edge of infinity with eternal winters. Then, once you get into Mars Lighthouse itself, it appears all frozen, and somewhat counterintuitive. Finally, you meet some Fire Dragons, and battle them, and to no surprise. it's Karst and Agatio. The the final boss is Felix and Jenna's parents and Isaac's father, as a dragon
    • This troper teared up not ten minutes into playing the first game, when the Mt. Aleph boulder destroyed a dock where Isaac's dad, Jenna's parents, and Felix were standing. Of course, the game had to use slow-motion photos of the parents hopelessly trying to escape as the huge boulder came hurtling down inches above their heads. Jenna and Dora's tearful reactions didn't exactly help. Fast-forward to the last ten minutes of the second game, where this troper cried twice:instead of rejoicing over the defeat of the Doom Dragon, the characters are rocked simultaneously by the fact that a) their parents were alive after all, but b) congratulations, they just got killed by their own children. Miracle of miracles, their parents are revived when the lighthouse is lit. However, this joyful reunion is quickly crushed when they all go home and find that their entire hometown has been destroyed by a friggin' volcano. To everyone's surprise (again), it turns out that no one died after all, and smiley faces ensue. But damn, that was emotional.
      • This troper never felt much for Agatio and Karst as villains...until their death scenes. Now, Saturos and Menardi died in a dignified and non-cruel way, so it was even more of a surprise to have Karst and Agatio die like that. Neither having a chance to cure them nor to deliver a Mercy Kill made this whole thing quite depressing. This troper remebers having tried to use healing-psynergy and items on them as well as running back to Prox to try and get somebody to get them out of the Lighthouse. After that did not work, he regularly went back to them during his progress through the lighthouse to check if they were still alive. After having lit the beacon, he ran around Prox in search of them, until some villager told him that they died. Having heard this, the troper could not really enjoy the "happy ending", especially since nobody seemed to care about their deaths. For this troper, it kinda feels like some forced death, there certainly had to be a way to save them, if the beacon revived the adepts' parents, then why not them? The feeling that they didn't really have to die but did anyway because the plot said so is quite frustrating. Oh, and it certainly doesn't help when watching this scene again that, by now, this troper has (thanks to this site, by the way) become a fan of Duskshipping and that Karst has also become one of his favorite Golden Sun characters...
  • Many ofthe endings for Dawn of War Dark Crusade. Especially the Tau, Eldar, and Space Marine ones.
  • The evil ending in The Suffering, in which Torque discovers that he murdered his wife and children; following this, he transforms into his insanity form for good, destroys the boat sent to rescue him, and charges off into the wilderness of Carnate Island in search of prey. As he vanishes into the forest, we see the photograph of his family (now stained with blood and dirt) and read the message on it that Torque couldn't bear to read: "This is us, T. Us without you. The only way we can really be happy. Goodbye forever- Carmen."
    • The sad tale of Horace Gage, an inmate who murdered his wife on a conjugal visit because he believed it was the only way he could keep her safe. After being executed, his spirit remains trapped on Carnate in perpetual agony, at the beck and call of the electric chair he died in. After a lengthly boss battle, Torque manages to put him out of his misery, though not before Horace says this:
    I think we got somethin' in common. We know what love is, we know what it is to love a woman. You'd do anything for her, am I right? And somethin' else we got. We know what it is to lose it, lose it all. To not be in control...
    • Just about any conversation with the ghost of Torque's son, Cory: the worst one was probably during the second game, in which he contacts Torque while apparently high on heroin, whispering "It helps me forget all about you..."
  • Dead Rising pits you against many psychopaths as the game progresses. Most of them are just normal people who snapped and went crazy when the zombies arrived, and the player must kill them to protect other survivors. One of them is a crazed Vietnam veteran carrying a machete, who wanders around in a hardware store. Only after fighting and nearly killing him does he reveal that he has been suffering from flashbacks to Vietnam the entire time. While this was obvious to most players, what he revealed next came as a shock: He had been out on a shopping trip with his young granddaughter when the zombies arrived, and he watched as she was torn apart and eaten by zombies. He tells you this as he hands you his wallet with a bloodstained photo of his family. After his granddaughter died, his vision "flashed white" and he starting suffering from flashbacks. He tells you this after you, the player, have just ensured his death.
  • Wang Jinrei's ending in Tekken 5: it's really rather sad how Wang had to destroy the Tragic Monster Jinpachi's become, but their last talk together puts a lot of emphasis on the "Tragic" part.
  • The entire game Broken Hearted. It's a visual novel (without any sort of gameplay other than pressing the space bar and crying) about a guy who loses his closest friends, including one he was going to propose to, in the 9/11 incident. Arutoa, who happens to be This Troper, cried his eyes out, playing through hoping for a happy ending. There wasn't one.
  • The ending of Soul Nomad And The World Eaters. "So please... Gig. Just come back. Gig? Gig! GIIIIIG!!!" The credits music right afterward really drives it home.
  • Nobody mentioned Thief 3 yet? Two words: Edwina Moira, poor wife of unlucky Captain Robert Moira. When This Troper went up to her tower and she asked him to bring her some wine because nobody else would... he just went out and blackjacked the fail out of every single person in the mansion in blind rage: servants, guards, relatives, everyone. And he brought her the wine, of course. And, in the only instance of him leaving a spotted loot behind in the entire game, he didn't take the money Captain Moira specifically left for his wife. Just couldn't do that, and the MST 3 K Mantra be damned.
    • This troper stuck to Garrett's personality and took the money. Garrett doesn't care about other people's wellbeing.
  • The Darkness video game is essentially a First Person Shooter version of It Gets Worse.
    • Jackie's girlfriend and best friend since they were kids, Jenny, is shot in the head by one of the Big Bads of the game while The Darkness holds him helpless, making him watch. Then makes fun of him when he breaks down.
    • Most of the interactions with the dead WWI soldiers in the "Hell" levels. Some of them understand that they are dead, that they are in Hell, and are sadly resigned to their fate of reliving an even more nightmarish version of the war forever as far as they know.
    • The Downer Ending: Jackie finally gets the Big Bad, who is responsible for the death of Jenny. In the process he gives up his soul to The Darkness. At game end, there is a brief, dreamlike cutscene showing Jenny sitting on a park bench holding Jackie's head in her lap. Jenny has to tell him that he can't stay with her there, and Jackie tells her that he misses her so much. The final words of the game are Jenny whispering "Jackie, you have to wake up now."
  • In Space Channel 5, when Fuse sacrifices himself to save Ulala. When they escape the exploding space station and Ulala screams out his name just did it for me.
  • I'm very surprised Resistance 2. As if the utterly empty towns and cities that you romp through should be unnerving and depressing enough, you have to contend with Henry Stillman's radio broadcasts. The first broadcast seems innocuous enough, it's a professional radio man reporting a disaster. A day after you hear the first one, Henry's radio news man shell falls and he is audibly shaken by the slaughter and the loss of his wife. And then how he gets his hopes up over what he sees on the street is the worst. To hear this man's hopes get up over the first sings of human contact he's seen in days only to have it robbed from him. And then his brief sojourn outside you can hear how much he's come apart. And then his last broadcast ends with his declaration of defeat and his decision to throw himself to the grims. Listening to the spiritual destruction of a man over the course of the game is likely todrive anyone to tears.
  • In Super Mario Sunshine (Yes, that Mario), the mission "Chain Chomplings" you have to throw them into water, and in later missions, you don't see them ever again, this implies that you ''put them down'', this is painful when you compare Chomplings to puppies, and my dog died, so this becomes a bit saddening, I know Chain Chomps aren't something you should pet, but, still...
    • That's a good bit of Fridge Logic you found. I never thought of it that way.
  • No More Heroes: Sorry, Jeane. This hurts me too." It was a hard, annoying fight to be sure, but...
    • The second game gives us another moment with Captain Vladimir (the 3rd Rank), who, in his dying moments, realizes that he's finally back on Earth after spending decades in space.
    Captain Vladimir: Blue skies... fresh oxygen... beautiful as I remembered...
  • Okay, so it's fairly Narmy in retrospect, but This Troper just broke down the first time she played Suikoden all those years ago and got to Odessa's Heroic Sacrifice. The later Player Punches were just as bad, especially when it was finally made clear that it's the fault of your True Rune that everyone you care about is dying. It's known as the Soul Eater for a good reason.
    • Suikoden II: When your sister Nanami falls (whether she dies or not is up to whether you recruited all 108 stars), it is a huge Tear Jerker moment, especially when she tells the hero how happy she was to be his "Big Sister". Also, Pilika's plotline is a huge Tear Jerker. She loses her village and her parents, is rendered mute when she is nearly butchered by Luca Blight, is apart from her beloved caretaker Jowy for a long time, and in the end, there is a scene where Jowy tells Pilika than when he leaves, its "goodbye forever". Pilika tells Jowy to hold her like her father held her.
    • Then there's the sequence in Suikoden III where you finally catch up with the Flame Champion... Or, rather, with his long-widowed wife, Sana, who explains how he sealed away the True Fire Rune and traded immortality for the chance to grow old and die with her. It's heavily implied that the strain of sealing away the Rune sapped so much of his strength that they didn't get to enjoy much of their new life together, to boot.
  • How have you guys not mentioned Valkyrie Profile yet? The game is rife with sad points considering you see their deaths, even though some are more tragic than others. (Lawfer's death was never actually explained...my fan theory was that he helped Arngrim's brother escape and then tripped and fell into a plothole and died.) Jelanda's story was definitely sad.
    • 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?!" This troper personally came somewhat close to crying when he saw it, and he knows several others who actually did cry at this.
    • 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. Not as sad as the above, though.
    • Celice. Seriously. She 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.
  • When this troper learned the truth that the Bloody Twins in Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume were really Natalia's lost children and 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 comes to save her that they were betrayed and slaughtered, the bloody twins Execute her regardless. Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't make the connection....9
  • There were a few parts of Tactics Ogre that were hard for this troper...
    • The ending where Vice is blamed for the assassination of Count Ronway...and hanged when he was just following orders.
    • Denim finding out he wasn't Walstanian but Bacrumese (his ethnic enemy) from his father...who was nearly tortured to death and dies in his arms.
    • Picking the wrong options when Denim was talking to Kachua and watching as she stabbed herself right in front of Denim.
    • In the neutral path, Guildus dies and is reanimated by Nybbas
      • In general, how little Nybbas cares for his son Debordes and daughter Olias.
    • Accidentally letting Seleye die...right in front of Sisteena.
    • Finding a broken and desperate Shelley in Baramus.
    • Finding out the canonical ending in its Prequel-Gaiden Knight of Lodis was The ending where Rictor is possessed by Shaher and then killed by Alphonse, then when he faced Shaher, Eleanor grabbed onto Shaher's hands when he was dying and died with him...thus sending Alphonse back to Lodis to have his name changed to Lans Tartare...and then raid Denim's home village This troper MUCH preferred the ending where Cybil' Eleanor's older sister, dies with Shaher and Alphonse and Eleanor are never heard from again after they elope.
    • Accidentally continuing the path where Kachua commits suicide in front of Denim and then watching as my chaos frame was too low and Denim, the new ruler of Valeria, is assassinated by a gunner.
  • A little known PSP came called Jeanne D'Arc involves Jeanne (Aka the Joan of Arc) getting thrown out of the story while Liane acts as Jeanne's double. You all know what happened to the real Joan of Arc...right? If you don't...she was burned at the stake for witchcraft by English...obviously this is what happens to Liane and you actually DO see her outline burning at the stake right as Jeanne walks up.
  • Pretty much a lot of [1].
  • City Of Heroes has some sad moments for a bright, fun game of playing superhero (or supervillain).
    • The Faultline arcs. They open in an area where hope is being reclaimed; an area of the city that had been devastated by a city-shattering earthquake by the crazed earth-controlling villain Faultline is slowly being rebuilt after the horrors of the Rikti Wars. You gain a cheerful, ditzy sidekick, Fusionette, for a while, and her more sombre, but still decidedly Kid Hero-ish boyfriend... Faultline? As you explore deeper into the past of the villain, the zone, and the hero named Faultline, cracks appear, and the mystery deepens. Eventually, you discover that the first Faultline had been a hero, one of the city's best and brightest. But one of his enemies, Psi Curse, had created the Psychochronometron, altering the timeline and making him into a villain to try and turn his foe into an ally. Unfortunately, Psi Curse' knowledge of Faultline was incomplete, and the resultant temporal stresses drove Faultline mad, making him lose control of his powers and killing both Psi Curse and Faultline's closest friend, and setting Faultline down the path that would orphan his young son, Jim Temblor, and leave him torn for much of his life, with two sets of memories in his head. Thankfully, you can get to the bottom of the mystery, and have it end with Jim Temblor taking up his father's mantle to make Faultline a hero's name again...
    • The Dark Watcher's aptly named 'The Horrors Of War' arc. mainly the death of Lt. Sefu, but also the truth behind the origins of the Rikti War.
  • Sophia's letter to Anton during the ending of Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. I've got something in my eye. *sniff*
  • He handled most of Fable without tearing up, but there was one moment that did it for This Troper. One of the Demon Doors in the game will only allow his three friends to enter it: a gallant knight, an evil mage, and a bandit. Naturally, this means you need to wear a bright plate outfit, a dark Will user outfit, and a bandit outfit in that order. Once his requirement is met, he allows you entry. When you get in, you discover that the reason he hasn't seen them in so long is because once they were inside, they fought amongst themselves for the treasure and ended up killing each other. It's bad enough on its own, but the Demon Door just sounds so happy at finally seeing his friends again.
  • So, we're gonna talk about a little gem of a series that goes way back to the NES, namely Star Tropics. It's the story of one boy, a yoyo and some of the most trollish level design to ever come out of Nintendo. Ever. Moving along now, you play through the game in search of the main character, Mike Jones's uncle, an esteemed researcher after he's been kidnapped by Prime Invader Zoda, an alien conqueror. Upon reuniting with him one act before the finale, you find out that he has been kidnapped in order to help Zoda find some very important relics that had crash landed deep under the tropical region you had been in. After a hurried reunion ending and a plea from Mike's uncle to continue forward and reclaim said items, you are challenged to the most brutal triathlon of levels yet aboard the alien spaceship that crash landed a good bit further. After each level however, you pick up a strange set of cubes that give you some awesome perks. The first one & my personal favorite gives Mike the otherworldly yo-yo known only as the Supernova, the second one gives you the maximum possible amount of health Mike can have in the game(a Godsend at that point in the game), and the last one you get upon beating Zoda for the last time. After all of that effort, a nearly botched bail out from a crashing alien spaceship and a subsequent rescue by a dolphin you saved earlier in the game, you are asked to put the three cubes together. As soon as you do, you are treated to a flash of light and then seven children from noticably different and otherworldly origins appear out of nowhere. The oldest one and the princess of their entire planet, Mica, starts to talk in her normal tongue only to pause herself and in plain English thank Dr. Jones and Mike especially for finding them and freeing them. She also tells you of how they fled from their planet due to Zoda's complete destruction of said planet but not before saying that now they were homeless. The Coralcolan chief then decides that they were all going to be adopted by himself as the game comes to its final conclusion. To put things into perspective, my family got this game launch day in 1990, and I only recently found it again and played it to the ending. I am 20 and I still had one manly, yet heartwarming tear to shed at that conclusion.
    • Zoda's Revenge: Star Tropics 2 then comes along and adds to this all with a return of the Prime Invader as he travels through time in search of some very special blocks called "Tetrads". Of course, you go through the numerous trials the different times give you and eventually stop Zoda from acquiring all of the Tetrads on the same island the first game began. You then hand them over to the Chief of Coralcola who then puts them all together (because he is a master at Tetris, go figure), and just like the first time around, they are graced with yet another Argonian figure, the King of the entire planet and the father of the seven kids who was once thought to be dead with the rest of the planet. Upon finding his kids in good hands, he then thanks everyone who made it possible and just as suddenly as he arrived he departs with his children off to create a new world with them, but not before Mike chases them off towards the sunset and Mica, who at this point was Mike's established crush, promises that they'd meet again. Cue credits theme. I wish if they would make a third game every time I reach that part... I loved those characters.
  • King Of Fighters 2000: While in other teams' endings Kula's just standing on Zero Cannon with intentions of destroying it, in her ending she succeeds and promptly plummets from orbit. Candy catches up to her and shields her. She survives and all that is left from Candy is her head calling her "Friend".
  • Brutal Legend had a few, much to this troper's surprise:
    • The cutscene of Ophelia throwing herself into the Sea of Black Tears.
    • Drowned Ophelia's poem.
    • Eddie's dream about lying in the grass and sharing a tender moment with Ophelia, followed by a Crowning Moment Of Funny of them holding hands and frolicking together while slaughtering demons.
    • After defeating Doviculus, Eddie diving into the Sea of Black Tears to get the real Ophelia back, giving his mother's necklace he previously gave her back to her once her discovers her body, and swimming back up with her body only to be pulled down himself—that is, until the real Ophelia pulls him back up by his tags and they share the same kiss Eddie had in his dream. The fact that there were no words exchanged between them (or needed to be, for that matter) made it all the more of a powerful Tear Jerker for this troper.
    • The post-game meeting with Lita, where you mourn over Lars' grave with her in silence.
  • Saya No Uta. Due to Saya being an Eldritch Abomination and Fuminori's nightmarishly distorted senses, both of them are surrounded by people who they cannot or can barely tolerate interacting with. Both are completely alone in a hostile and alien world. They fall in love, and it forms a bond that is truly unbreakable. Even in the midst of all the High Octane Nightmare Fuel, Nausea Fuel, and Moral Event Horizon-crossing, they somehow manage to stay sympathetic characters. Of course, considering the genre, there's really only one way it can end. Bonus points for the True Ending's End of the World As We Know It being completely overshadowed by Saya's goodbye, even though said goodbye is what causes the End. This Troper admits to sobbing openly at some parts, but there may be some underlying factors to that.
  • Some of the endings to Daniel Benmerugi's game I Wish I Were the Moon, and pretty much all of Today I Die.
  • The scene that gets to this troper the most in Blaz Blue is Ragna's flashback in the beginning of his story mode. Dear god...
    • This troper preferred the end of one path in Rachel's story, where she realizes it's too late for the world to be saved and she'll be forced to keep reliving the events until Ragna succeeds. After begging Ragna not to give up or accept his fate, she travels back in time, lamenting on the fact that she can only continue observing.
  • The first part of Phantom Brave is depressing enough with its absolutely brutal All Of The Other Reindeer moments, but the new scenario in the remake makes it even worse by introducing "Carona", who is a Marona from a world without Ash. Also, everyone in the world dies in the opening cut scene. It's like NIS looked at the original and asked "How could we possibly make this more depressing?"
  • Assassins Creed II has several powerful moments, especially at the beginning, where Ezio watches his father and two brothers be hung. Later on, reading some of the letters to Templars from their family members can be heartrending, especially Carlotta Moro's letter to her mentally-handicapped former husband, Dante Moro.
    • Another incredibly sad bit from ACII is the final The Truth video, where you hear what were probably Subject 16's last words before he committed suicide: My mind is gone. Lucy, I can't wait any longer. I'm ready to go now. She sees me raise the knife... Especially sad due to the contrast to the earlier Truth videos where Sixteen is barely managing to hold himself together due to the trauma of extended stays in the Animus. This time he is completely calm, and at peace.
  • The Hobbit is mostly a brightly-colored, action-adventure version of Tolkien's book. Then you get to Mirkwood, and meet Corwin, a soldier from Laketown, whose entire party was just killed by spiders; including his brother. The music alone will tear your heart out.
  • E.V.O. The Search for Eden had a couple of these. One involves talking to the spirits of a mother-and-child dinosaur killed by falling meteors (your creature conveniently time-travels to escape this fate). In another, you kill a male yeti and then his wife. Right after she dies, their child runs by wailing and wanting to know where his parents had gone.
  • Worms, of all things. You wouldn't think so, but just listen to the Wormsong and tell me you don't feel some Manly Tears coming on.
    We are Worms, we're the best, and we've come to win the war,
    We'll stand, we'll never run, stay until it's done,
    Though our friends may fall and our world be blown apart,
    We'll strike with all our might, we'll fight for what is right,
    'Til the end.
    • It's the way they sing "'Til the end" that does it. It has this forlorn, wistful quality to it that suggests they really just wish it was all over, or that they know "'Til the end" means "Until we're gone too." But no matter how bad things get, no matter how long it lasts, no matter how many of them die, those little guys will keep on fighting. Godspeed, you tiny pink psychopaths.
  • "This used to be our only refuge..."
  • Arthas gets one in Wrath of the Lich King. He lies broken and sees his father's ghost. His father tells him that his reign is over and the "no king rules forever." Arthas finally realizes the folly of his actions and dies, but not before giving some gut wrenching final words. "I See....Only Darkness...Before Me." After all that evil and cruelty he dies broken and alone. Manages to actually make you feel sorry for him.
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