Tear Jerker / Sonic Adventure 2

"Maria... this is what you wanted, right? This is my promise I made to you."

• Shadow's Heroic Sacrifice. He uses the last of his power to warp the falling Space Colony ARK back into orbit using Chaos Control— as shown in the page picture.
  Shadow: Maria... this is what you wanted, right? This is my promise I made to you.
  • Equally poignant in the Japanese version.
    Shadow: Maria... will this do?
  • During the final battle, there's some of this on Sonic's end as well. As the fight progresses more and more towards the time limit, Sonic begins to realize that there's something wrong with Shadow: that he's losing power, which ultimately leads to his near-death. Unfortunately, given the current situation — the five minutes until the planet is destroyed, and all — there's not much he can do to provide direct aid.
    Sonic: Shadow, your power's getting weaker! Hey, are you okay...?
    Sonic: At this rate, you won't last! Get back to the Colony!
  • What also makes it tear-jerking is the people of Earth end up realizing they're not going to die after all, and then they rejoice.
  • The closing cutscene gives closure and underscores the tear-jerking nature of Shadow's heroic sacrifice.
    Sonic: He was what he was. A brave and heroic hedgehog, who gave his life to save the planet: Shadow the Hedgehog!
  • And as everyone leaves at the end of the game, Sonic stays behind for a moment to say the last lines of the entire game.
    Sonic: Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog...
  • "A new day brings new adventure. But for now... rest easy, heroes." This is then followed by a still of Shadow superimposed on the moon.
  • Not to mention, this was the last Sonic game on Sega hardware, as the Sega Dreamcast was discontinued (primarily thanks to the PlayStation 2). It was the true End of an Era as Sega transitioned from the first company to truly challenge Nintendo in the console arena, to simply another third-party game maker.
• As narmy as the theme songs are in SA2, it's kind of sad listening to the full version of Unknown from M.E. (Knuckles' theme). Though there are obvious offenders ("But every time he looks for the sun can't find it"), the worst line is rather difficult to make out the few times you hear it: "Freedom will be waiting when serenity is restored". We never really get the idea that Knuckles resents the whole 'guardian' thing in-game (a little in the original SA, but not here), but there are a few other lines that reference 'fighting for his destiny'. It's a little depressing to think that he may be fighting for freedom from his duties when it's quite obvious that it's not going to happen. Of course, the lyrics switch focus so often that it's easy to forget the above.
• Amy reasoning with Shadow to save the Earth:
  Amy: I know that people fight over the most trivial things. Some people may be selfish, like the Professor said... but they're basically good. If they try their best and never give up on their wishes, they always have a reason to be happy; that's why you should help them out! Saving them is a good thing! Shadow, I beg you, please do it for them! Give them a chance!
  • And then when she does get through to him after she unknowingly reminds him of Maria, he's seen shedding a Single Tear as he hurries off to aid Sonic and friends in stopping the Space Colony ARK from falling.
• Tails and Eggman's heart-to-heart in the ending.
  Eggman: When I was a child, I looked up to my grandfather for all the great things he accomplished in his life. He was my hero, and I wanted to be a great scientist like him! But... did he really mean to destroy us?
  Tails: I dunno, but what I do know is... we all did it together!
  Eggman: (fondly) ...you're right.

• For True Story, the boss music during the second Sonic vs. Shadow battle at Space Colony ARK, is narmy for sure, but if you can look past that, it's also very sad, since it paints a picture of Shadow's bleak despair. Stars don't twinkle, the moon doesn't shine, stars don't twinkle, the moon doesn't shine...
• The backstory of Shadow is quite sad: he had a decent life that was taken when the military stormed his home and killed all of the researchers (as well as Maria in the crossfire) there, under the pretense that he was a danger to everyone. He watched Maria (essentially a sister to him) die in front of him, and his "father" Gerald was arrested, went insane from grief (a Tear Jerker in of itself) and was executed. And then they put him in stasis for 50 years.
  • Think about Shadow being put in stasis for a bit. Shadow was likely captured and put on ice very soon after Maria sent him away from the Ark. Possibly within as little as one or two days. What this means is that even if it's been 50 years, as far as he's concerned he watched her die mere days ago! And what does this mean for all that "emo" behavior he exhibits? It means he's simply going through the natural stages of grief, albeit 50 years delayed. Who wouldn't be messed up after watching their closest friend die?
  • And the ride doesn't stop there, folks. Not only was he sealed away right after a traumatic event, but according to Gerald, his mind and memories had been tampered with to make him believe Maria desired revenge for her death rather than for humanity to live on peacefully. Imagine what it must have felt like to go to sleep one day mourning your best friend and wake up the next with a sudden, inexplicable-yet-unquenchable lust for revenge. With how much Shadow recollects on his memories of Maria and how zoned out and depressed he gets about it, you almost get the impression that he knows something is wrong with the whole scenario, but can't bring himself to not respect (what he thinks is) his friend's dying wish. Amy talking some sense into him and helping him remember Maria's true wishes becomes even more of a heartwarming moment with all that in mind.
• In some ways, the Biolizard can be seen as this, due to its very, very flawed biological makeup. Its hind legs are half-formed and useless — forcing it to move around by painfully dragging itself along the ground — appears to have cameras connected into its eye sockets to see, and has evident trouble breathing; needing to pause every once in a while to catch its breath, and relying on a huge life support machine hard-wired into its back and head to survive. Then the second time it's fought, the Biolizard's previously-impenetrable skin starts breaking out into huge swelling boils. It's almost a mercy kill when Shadow and Sonic finally put the poor creature out of its misery.
  • There is the possibility that the Biolizard, since it's portrayed as a mindless monster, might not have cared, making this not really tragic.
• When a Chao dies, a short funerary-sounding jingle plays. In addition, this game removed the Chao's ability to die through running out of HP by being hurt by player attacks. A Chao will only die if its happiness is too low at the end of its life. While a Chao's decision to reincarnate is visible through its the color of its death cocoon in the rereleases, on the Dreamcast version a Chao will be looking down and shaking its head if it is going to die. It's not hard to interpret it as Death by Despair.
• In Chao World, there is the option where you will have to send your Chao through the Chao Transporter Machine. As you choose to send your Chao away, the description reads "Your Chao will live a happy life in a faraway forest. You will never see your Chao again." The music that plays makes it even sadder. Listen for some major waterworks.
  • Regarding the Chao Transporter Machine, the HD version of the game takes away its menu options except for the Good-Bye option (mainly because of the absence of the Game Boy Advance link). Now it's simply named the "Chao Departure Machine".
• Sonic's presumed death. Let's see...
  • Amy being held at gunpoint, helpless.
  • Sonic's last words:
    Sonic: I'm counting on ya, Tails. And Amy... take care of yourself.
  • Amy's reaction when Sonic "dies" inside the exploding capsule. Just listen to the heartbreaking way she says his name when she realizes that her crush has apparently been killed, before breaking down in tears.
  • The battle against Eggman as Tails, especially since he's fighting the man who killed his best friend.
    • Even worse: after you defeat Tails as Eggman, Tails utters the line "Forgive me... Sonic...". That gives you the impression that he has failed to avenge his best friend, whom he fully believes has died.
  • Even Eggman and Shadow seem a little sad to see him go.
    Eggman: Farewell Sonic... My admirable adversary!
    Shadow: I guess he was just a regular hedgehog, after all.
• Even though he is ultimately responsible for setting up the major final obstacle and setting Shadow on the path to complete it, Gerald's story is tragic when you realize he only did all this after G.U.N destroyed his life, killing people he worked with as well as his uninvolved and hinted to be terminally-ill granddaughter, imprisoning him to continue his work under their supervision and ultimately sentencing him to death. This happened because G.U.N believed Gerald's work was too dangerous and they got scared.
  Gerald: I plan to give you a taste of my revenge, once all the seven Chaos Emeralds are collected — once I initiate this program, it cannot be disabled. All of you ungrateful humans, who took everything away from me... will feel my loss... and despair.
  G.U.N. Operative: Is there anything else you want to say?
  Gerald: No...
  G.U.N. Operative: (gives the execution order) Ready!
• Gerald loved his granddaughter, Maria, so much, that her death was the genesis that drove him to wanting to destroy all of humanity as revenge... and yet, he didn't love her enough to not alter Shadow's last memories of her, twisting his thoughts of her for the sake of revenge, going against everything Maria wanted.
• If you get hit with zero rings playing as Shadow, then you will hear him whispering "Maria..." when he dies. It's as if Shadow is telling Maria that he's sorry that he failed his mission for her.
  • Similarly, if you run out of HP as Tails, he weakly mutters "Son...ic....." as he dies, which could be either a cry for help or an apology for failing. It gets even worse in the Eggman fight above, especially on a first-time playthrough, since you will be hearing it a lot, and it feels like you failed Sonic too.
  • Worst of all is when you defeat Tails as Eggman, where as he collapses, Tails sadly utters this instead. As if he goes down knowing full-well that he got Sonic killed by running his mouth, and then failed to avenge him:
    Tails: (weakly) For... g-give... me, S-Sonic...
• While it was probably meant to sound cool or creepy, there's something oddly somber about Shadow's theme, "Throw It All Away". While it starts out fairly intense with lyrics about how Shadow will stop at nothing to achieve his goals, as it progresses it takes on a more sullen tone, with a slow, haunting instrumental and the lyrics changing to reflect how Shadow is willing to risk anything, including all life as we know it, just to avenge Maria, thinking it's what she truly wanted. The mentions of "a light" could refer to Shadow's flashbacks of Maria, and how he wants them to stop, yet he is forced to continue facing his past. It certainly does a good job of capturing his inner pain...

Oh dark the darkness that dozes in the dusk

Throw it all away

No one can break you, nobody can tear you

You live an endless life forever

Oh dark the darkness that dozes in the dusk

Throw it all away

You see a light wherever you go

You have to face it again and again...

• Tails' theme, "Believe in Myself." It reuses the lyrics from Adventure, and, well, see the song's entry on that game's Tear Jerker page. However, the tune is changed completely, removing the Lyrical Dissonance and making it sound just as sad as the lyrics imply. There are a lot more minor keys in this version, and the tune overall sounds more wistful and melancholy, with just a faint bit of hope in the chorus.
• The music that plays during the final scene is easily the saddest in the entire franchise. Story-wise in that it has all of the main characters reflecting on Shadow's sacrifice and how the world's greatest scientist nearly destroyed all of humankind mere minutes ago.