For a game named "Torment", it can be quite funny and lighthearted at times. But when it does get serious, you will quickly realize that the name is very apt indeed.
- The ending(s) are tearjerkers. The best ending is bittersweet. The bad ones are crushingly tragic.
- Deionarra's plight is one of the most Tear Jerking aspects of this game, for those who have any tears to shed. Her haunting theme
helps a good bit.- The "Longing" sensory stone in the Sensate Hall contains a memory that describes, in a most heart-breaking way, how Deionarra perceives the Nameless One. The experience is amplified by his own memory of that event, revealing that the Practical Incarnation didn't actually return Deionarra's love, but was planning on letting her die from the start. You can continue where he left off and ensure that her love remains hopeless. It's worth noting that when you tap into that stone, the Nameless One has a complete emotional breakdown... regardless of alignment. Even the most horrific Chaotic Evil Nameless One can't stand the experience (although that's probably because he's feeling what Deionarra felt while knowing the truth, essentially living the experience of being his own victim, not because of Even Evil Has Standards reasons).
- When you talk to Deionarra for the last time, you can choose to spin a Practical Incarnation-style lie to get her to help you, and she does. After you are gone she lingers for a little while and says "I forgive what you have done... my Love". She knew all along she was being had.
- Any character back story in that game is liable to crush your soul. Morte being beaten by the Practical Incarnation. Ignus's training. Dak'kon's... everything. And their respective scenes in Fortress of Regrets, when it is revealed what happens to those who travel with The Nameless One. Annah's is a particularly sad and emotional one. Yes, they all die in his stead so that he may reincarnate, and they become the shadows that h(a)unt him relentlessly. At least, with the best ending, they recover.
- There's a woman who works in the Smoldering Corpse just so she can be near Ignus - which is already a sad thing, since he seems much more in love with flames than with everything else. Then, after freeing him, you can talk to her. Ignus first reaction? He hugs her. And she's just so happy that she lets herself burn. Maybe flames weren't really everything for him.
- One of the sensory stones - stones that capture someone's experience and allow others to relive it - is called "horrible regret". The contents are particularly deep and heavy, even for this game:I stood on the deck of my flagship, the Divine Hammer, as it floated over the continent of Agarheim, held aloft by the winds of magic. The very landscape roiled and shuddered beneath the bombardment of my fleet, one thousand ships' cannons and bombards hurling their sorcerous fire down like vengeful gods. The shockwaves had begun to hit my ship only minutes ago - a constant vibration that sent shudders through the whole of the ancient craft and moved my very bones - accompanied by a constant, rumbling bass. As the land's mountains began to sink and the seas that surrounded it begin to boil off into the atmosphere, my first officer came to stand beside me.
First officer: "My Lord Admiral... permission to speak freely, sir."
I nodded my acquiescence, my stomach sinking as I guessed at his question.
First officer: "My lord... forgive me, but how? What gives us the right? A billion lives..."
I spoke without turning to him, unable to take my eyes off Rhumos, the nation's vast capital city, as it vaporized into a cloud of super-heated gasses twelve miles across and growing ever-wider.
Admiral: "If you only knew the full treachery of the Agarites, First Officer Felm, one which is beyond most any man's comprehension... then you would know. You would speak of our right to annihilate them? We've no right to let them live."
First officer: "But... sir? Traitors, all of them? Surely, among the hundreds of thousands. How many innocents-"
Admiral: "Silence! Speak of it no more - our king has spoken, His will be done. The task set to us is a horrible one, not fit for contemplation or questioning. There is no room for pity, no room for remorse - only *duty.*"
The two of us stood silently for a time, watching the last minutes of Agarheim. At long last I sighed... a low, stuttering exhalation that sounded as if something had broken inside me. Beneath the brazen plate that covered the ruined half of my face, my dead eye began to weep...
Admiral: "Falm... my friend... I would have you understand. I know now, as I look down at what I have wrought here, that were I to think upon what I have done... what I have *truly* done... I would be struck mad. A deed such as this... the anguish would overwhelm, destroy me. So, First Officer Falm, it must be that there *are* no innocents in Agarheim... no mothers, no children, no *people.* Only traitors. Vile, cunning traitors, who deserve no less than the full brunt of our most Holy King's wrath. Do you understand this?"
First officer: "Y-yes, m'lord."
Admiral: "Good. Now go... I wish to be alone, here."
First officer: "By your command, Lord Admiral."
Falm bowed his head and returned below deck, leaving me to stand over the end of a civilization.
