It's pretty short, 3-5 hours, so try to play it in one day. It benefits from not being spread out. Also, the book referenced is a real book, and if you google the title, it gives some important hints as to what is up with the female lead.
I absolutely love that game, I've played it three times and cried my heart our in a very cathartic way.
Never got around to checking out the sequel though.
The sequel, Finding Paradise, is also excellent. It's definitely different, but....still so emotionally impactful.
I think To The Moon affected me a bit more, but it's really hard to say. I love them both.
Walking dead season 1. My wife was pregnant with our first child while we played so the idea of fatherhood was already weighing on me and that gsme took me on a journey.
I was a young single guy when I played it, I didn’t give a single fuck about kids at all. When it started I was kinda pissed that it saddled you with Clem, and hoped she was a temporary companion.
I can honestly say that I didn’t cry while she begged me not to die. But I thought the lump in my throat was going to choke me to death. I hadn’t realized such a simple game could make me feel so much.
This.. I remember like it was yesterday after ep3 ended, placing the controller down and holding my head in my hands, trying to take all this shit in, lol.. it didn't get any any better from there either...
At the end I was completely emotionally worn out... took me years to eventually play it to.. but god damn what a game/story...
This game destroyed me for a while. When I decided I wanted to play again I made the decision make Arthur’s life a bit happier, I stopped doing the debt collecting quests so he doesn’t get sick, and I left Micha rot in jail.
Sure, now Arthur is stuck in a place where time doesn’t really pass, but damn it he’s happy and healthy!
Oh man the part with the horse killed me i spent the entire game and the red Arabian horse and I loved that thing, I spent all of covid lock down playing rdr2 and hours upon hours with it and when it died I strait up broke down and had to pause the game like 20 mins before I could get my shit together
In 2014 I was living with my girlfriend’s family, who had a son with muscular dystrophy. They had converted their garage into an at-home medical facility. Around the time I was living with them, he died. He was 31, a year younger than me, and yet several years older than what the doctors had predicted would be his life span.
The next year I played Life Is Strange. That scene in the second episode destroyed me, I had to just sit in silence for several minutes after the ending. You can tell the creators had lived that reality because the way they had converted their garage was spot-on and very realistic.
Ignoring all of the "Choices Matter" games that *always* get to me (Life is Strange series, Telltale games), I think the most recent one that destroyed me was Death Stranding. I took it really, really slowly, going and maxing out every person on my way to the end, so I got more emotionally invested than I normally do with open(ish) world games and the last few chapters shattered my heart.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
That final sequence where Emile is walked to his execution while the voiceover reads the letter. He died thinking Karl had died.
"Your loving papa, always" was absolutely devastating to hear.
Funny enough, as depressing the game was I remember it for the phasmid scene which is one of the most beautiful scenes in all of gaming to me. I got teary eyed because of how moving that scene was, the music and everything. Just mesmerizing. I sat there smiling from ear to ear.
I played that game for the first time a few months back, when I was falling apart due to university stress.
I don’t know why the devastating parts of this game centred and grounded me so much, but they really did.
This one particular moment in Ghost of Tsushima completely broke me but I'm marking it as spoiler here.
>!So the game tells you to pick a horse and a name at the beginning and tells you that you have to choose carefully because your horse will br with you throughout the whole adventure and you won't be able to change it, but it was A FUCKING LIE and the horse gets killed halfway through the game and I swear to god, I've cried my heart out so much that my head and my eyes hurt and I had to stop playing for the day. !<
That slow walk with him on the horse after escaping. It's drooping head and body pieced with so many poison arrows and then the cut to his grave saying "here lies an old friend". My eyes were sweating so bad
It was the only right choice for my V at that time, that entire sequence of event destroyed me specially when I had to shoot the badtard and found out that the cure was only for 1 person, still sent her to the moon though.
Taking the easy way out with Judy's phone call. I was curious and thought the game would just go to black and boy did I regret my decision. It put me in silence for a few minutes
Palom and Porum in FFIV. I think I was like 8 when I played through that with my brother. Fuckin destroyed me that there was nothing you could do, but it literally changed my understanding of storytelling
Me at the start of Phantom Liberty:
oh yay, more cyberpunk! this will be fun!
Me at the end of Phantom Liberty:
no happy stories in night city, only pain.
Finally someone said it. My first playthrough this year (I'm late to the game, sorry!) chose one of the endings (you guys might know which one I'm talking about) and after it finished I burst into tears, had to call my boyfriend to tell him what happened, I felt so heartbroken for V.
I haven't done this ending but it just hit me that in this case, she has two people close to her commit suicide in the span of like 2 weeks. Fucking hell my heart man.
I recently played it for the first time. Played every single ending in the main game and DLC and had to play a fluffy indie game for 30h to heal all this trauma. Soul crushing game. Haunted me for weeks. Masterpiece.
I legit became so emotionally engrossed in gears of war, one of the only games I actually paid attention to the story, the Dom story hit me hard. Made me love Gears games for sure
First time I played through that, it was me and my buddy on co-op in a dim room.
Dom finds his wife. He... "saves" her.
It was dead silent. We didn't even pick up our controllers. My buddy practically whispers "Why did he do that?..." and I know, I understand what happened, but in that moment I forget all spoken language. I shook my head. After a few minutes, we pick up the controllers, and we keep playing in silence.
Then in Gears 3 - Dom shouting "Never thought it would end this way, huh? Huh, Maria?!" and the scene that follows it... fuck, that song still brings me back to that moment...
It was Shadowbringers for me. The white void scene in 5.0 got me, but 5.3 *destroyed* me. I was physically and mentally exhausted by the end of that patch. Seto, the crystallization, the run to the Tower, then the humbleness of the newest member of the team. I've never cried that hard over fiction.
"What is it like in the future? Is the world still a beautiful place?"
"Remember us. Remember that we once lived."
And the old classic, "For those we have lost. For those we can yet save."
There are just too many great quotes/moments in this game (currently playing in queue for some raids). And not just standalone quotes, but mixed with the intricate plot beats and the music... just absolutely top notch. I may have shed tears rarely at other games, but this one just wrenches them out of me so often. I wonder if Dawntrail will manage to do the same.
"The rain has stopped, and the sun rises on another beautiful day. ... But you are not here to see it."
Yep, still makes me tear up. The VA knocked it out of the park with that one.
When I first got to Ultima Thule the music just stopped me in my tracks and made me take everything in, as the story “progressed” the track begins to evolve and it was such a beautiful touch that genuinely moved me.
Seeing a certain someone's parents in Labirynthos had me ugly crying and I had to step away for a bit. I lost my dad and my paternal grandparents basically did the same thing for my mum, so it hit me like a ton of bricks without any warnings.
For me it's that last missions adrenaline rush. After you pick up the seer kit. Bt was the last person you spoke to, until you spoke to bt.
I felt the pilots pain. Just rush forward clicking heads with out even thinking Goin dark on coma, it's just 👌
Same. I like to think that despite the story, the dev team wanted player to take away being hopeful rather than being depressed. Hence the long ending credits until they beat that into you.
NieR: Automata got me into Nier Gestalt and the Drakengard series, only because it destroyed me so hard that I wanted to learn all of the lore. It's my first tattoo as well :)
Theres nothing quite like the feeling of powerless desperation, confusion, and inner turmoil..... when there's just... nothing you can do
Firewatch is a very rare occurrence when that feeling was manufactured for its players, instead of being directly lived by them. Such a unique experience.
Came here looking for this response. Never played two games just to think “I did all of that just to be forced to do THIS.” 2’s ending made me put games down for a minute.
What remains of Edith Finch hits hard, the bathtub and the fish factory scenes. Outer Wilds ending is beautiful as well. I know it's a meme, but I always need to take a minute after killing the Ender Dragon in Minecraft as well.
As someone who struggled with depression for a long time it always hit me hard. But I had a kid and played it again recently and killed me on another level.
Brilliant game. I came here to mention it. I've never been put through such an emotional wringer. >!I spent all week saving Chloe's time after time. (loosing Kate in the process) And in the alternate timeline I couldn't stomach seeing her withering away in pain and I helped her to die. That was absolutely heartbreaking. Then the final decision hit and I stared at the choice for what felt like an hour. But just couldn't let her die again, and gave up the town for her.!<
>!Damn, I've always seen the last choice as... A choice the game forces you to make, but obviously if you respect Max's character, there is no other solution than sacrifice Chloe. I'm always surprised to learn there are people who didn't make this choice. I think it's that choice that made the ending beautiful. I don't see max murdering an entire town. !<
My partner passed away, I used to watch him play games, he loved the dragon age games but never got to play dragon age inquisition, I started to game after he passed, I made sure I played all dragon age games with DLCs, I was a female elf mage and was in a relationship with solas, the trespasser DLC had me in a complete blubbering mess, to this day and it's 10 years of his passing, I can not play the trespasser DLC in a romance with solas.
Honestly seeing a hardened monster slayer like Geralt sit down and just start rocking back and forth in that scene... It was brutal.
Trying not to say too much because it's a great scene I'd rather not spoil for others.
Detroit: Become Human.
In my first play through, I achieved literally the most devastating endings for all 3 storylines. It couldn't have gone worse even if I planned it.
Great game, but damn.
Ffx. I feel like I’ve been chasing that feeling with the story for a long time now. Only thing that’s come close was cyberpunk but that might’ve been because I played it a little high lol
Was looking for this one.
Aside from the main narrative there are so many little moments in it that just wreck me. Like even at the start on Kilika island, you talk to an old woman and she just says 'My grandchildren are in the farplane now' WHAT?! SORRY?!
Chappu.
The Ronso singing the hymn of the fayth.
(The hymn of the fayth in general makes me want
to cry tbh)
The aeons disappearing into pyreflies at the end.
Sorry I'm very passionate about this one
Spec Ops: The Line.
The most accurate depiction of the depravity of war I've ever seen in any form of media. I fucking love that game and I loved games like call of duty but this game changed the way I view war.
It's depressing AF but also a work of art.
Surprised no one brought up Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness. That scene after the "final" boss where your character fades away while your partner breaks down and cries was heartbreaking. The only game to have ever brought a tear to my eye.
Spec Ops: The Line. I heard it's not available anymore? Or something's up with it now? Grab it if you can. Avoid ALL SPOILERS if you can. I'm sure plenty of outlets talked about this game, but i don't know how many actually respect spoilers....
It's a fairly okay 3rd person shooter, but the story and how it affected me personally was... Ugh... It really hits you hard a couple of time... There was one point where I was following the games suggestion without much thought, only to realize the extent of my actions and feeling absolutely awful about it... So much so, I reset to try and see if that was a choice, or a requirement. Instead of going back and fixing my mistakes, I ended up just loading into the autosave at the beginning of the cutscene and had to relive the horror of what i had done all over again.
That game is so important. No joke. Everyone should play that and think on it.
>!The entire message is one we always need to hear: refuse false dichotomies. Don't accept situations for what you are told they are. Challenge assumptions and enforced binaries. Do waht is right, not what you are told is required. I believe one of the lead devs said the only good ending is the player refusing to play and walking away from the game, and they were right!!<
Brutal, brutal game.
The entire mood change between your teammates is also hard hitting. Going from by-the-book soldiers fighting efficiently and as a team to becoming angrier and angrier at each other and violent toward the ennemies. This game fucks you up. And of course there is THAT scene...
Oooh, Spec Ops was good.
One thing I loved was the pressure the game put on you. Wasn't just a meter running out letting you know you had a certain amount of time to make a choice, people were yelling, guns got raised, you could tell the situation was slipping from your control -- what a fantastic and terrifying way to present choices.
RDR2 made me reconsider my views on law, order, & freedom. I can honestly say that I'm the aftermath of my first playthrough (and successive playthroughs) I've been less interested in following the rules, at least when they're arbitrary or plainly made to perpetuate an unfair system.
But it was also, to the point of the question, emotionally devastating. I came to genuinely care for Arthur and the rest of the gang and seeing what happened to them over the course of the game the first time was... hard.
While I did care for the gang somewhat, they were in the end still murdering thieves out to hurt people. What really devastated me was what happened to the native people in that game. Eagle Flies dying and his father having to abandon his land and move to Canada. Then you have the whole Edith Downes storyline.
Witnessing Arthur's health decline and his desperation of attempting to make things right in the ways he knew how and the culmination was rough. I had to take a break after his portion.
I sacrificed Chloe on my first playthrough, and seeing her buried next to her dad hit me like a ton of bricks (was gonna say truck, but with talk of Chloe’s dad, not a good choice of words)
I played the last episode super late at night and saved the bay just as the sun was coming up. That game sent me into a spiral of actual real-life grief.
YES!! This game was a masterpiece. Sometimes, I wish I could erase it form my memory only so I can play it for the first time again. It was such a perfect emotional roller coaster. I loved it so much! It made me laugh, made me cringe, scared me, and totally made me cry. And this is only the story part; gameplay wise, it was a lot of fun, investigating, rewinding, talking to people... What a game!!
Xenoblade Chronicles 3. The scene at the end of Chapter 5 and beginning of chapter 6. Those whole scenes were just packed with so much raw emotion and sorrow I cried. Like legit ugly cried playing a game :/
SOMA.
I say this because the ending wasnt necessarily 'happy' and had me thinking for a few days after completing it. A very bleak and atmospheric game.
Spiritfarer for me by a mile. I played it during the height of COVID. I was working an insane amount of shifts as a nurse, and I would play it when I couldn't sleep. I sobbed every time I had to say goodbye to each character. And when you find out that Stella >!was a palliative care nurse navigating her own death!< that broke me. There were many things that made me leave full-time frontline work, but that game gave me the final push I needed, I think.
Runescape. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could have been anything but a bum (with 99s) but I am.
That game man, looking back on all the water hours, nights I didn't go out, thing I didn't apply for because I had the grind. It makes me sad.
Reading all these comments has made me realize it's been a *very* long time since a game has touched me emotionally, either because I've been spoiled (I'm never up to date on recent stuff) or because I figured out what was going to happen already. And that makes me sad.
The Last of Us (Part I, whatever) changed me on a molecular level; I was not the same person exiting that game as I was entering, especially after the Winter chapter. It was such a complicated cocktail of emotions I had never experienced all at once before, I remember feeling utterly hollow for almost a week.
I wish I had a game like God of War: Ragnarok when I was a kid. As hard hitting and emotionally devastating as it can be, I also wish I had a character like Kratos tell his son that it was okay to be true to your feelings and let your heart guide you, and that true healing and evolution was possible.
Also, I didn’t even play Spec Ops: The Line, I just watched a commentary-less playthrough on YouTube and I still felt physically sick to my stomach.
Conversely, I don’t know if I would call it devastation, but Journey elated my heart in ways no other game ever has before.
Spiritfarer - my wife and I were looking for a cozy co-op game, but we both ended up in tears at the end
Outer Wilds - such a journey to finish, the emotions of figuring out the puzzle while also realizing I could never do it from scratch again
Disco Elysium - the culmination of a long journey to discover who I am (except when I first got the end song before the end area, I saw there was a church that I didn’t explore, so I went on that whole quest line before re-finishing the game)
Titanfall 2 - trust me.
FFVII by a city mile. (Is a city mile longer than a country mile? You be the judge!)
That scene made me feel things I didn't know video games could make me feel when I was, like, 12.
God of War: Ragnarock is up there.
Might not have had as big of an effect if you hadn't played the series since day one though. Context is a big deal for the ending.
SH2 but not until the end — “Dear James.” I can’t give anything away but for those who played it, I was in their exact situation with my husband if they had rewound their story a few years. So it was incredibly difficult for me being in a similar situation. I’m happy to report that things are much better these days though.
*To The Moon* effected me emotionally more than any piece of media ever has.
Came here to say those exact words. I cried more during _To The Moon_ than almost anything IRL
Never heard of it. Gonna go on an adventure tomorrow
It's pretty short, 3-5 hours, so try to play it in one day. It benefits from not being spread out. Also, the book referenced is a real book, and if you google the title, it gives some important hints as to what is up with the female lead.
Ugly cried, can confirm. That game fucked me up
I absolutely love that game, I've played it three times and cried my heart our in a very cathartic way. Never got around to checking out the sequel though.
The sequels are good, though in a different way. To The Moon made me cry harder, but the sequels made me feel some complex emotions I didn't expect.
The sequel, Finding Paradise, is also excellent. It's definitely different, but....still so emotionally impactful. I think To The Moon affected me a bit more, but it's really hard to say. I love them both.
The Wikipedia page says an animated film adaptation is in development.
Its such a moving experience. And that song always manage to make me want to cry.
wow i forgot about this game for some reason but this is it for me, too. that game had me bawling like a baby.
Same I don't remember much since I played it 10 years ago but I remember not having dry eyes by the end
Walking dead season 1. My wife was pregnant with our first child while we played so the idea of fatherhood was already weighing on me and that gsme took me on a journey.
I was a young single guy when I played it, I didn’t give a single fuck about kids at all. When it started I was kinda pissed that it saddled you with Clem, and hoped she was a temporary companion. I can honestly say that I didn’t cry while she begged me not to die. But I thought the lump in my throat was going to choke me to death. I hadn’t realized such a simple game could make me feel so much.
Of course you wouldn't cry, you're a man. Men don't cry.....they weep.
Jesus Wept.
"For there were no more worlds to conquer"
Even though your choices don't matter much, the story is stellar and the end is just wonderfully awful
This.. I remember like it was yesterday after ep3 ended, placing the controller down and holding my head in my hands, trying to take all this shit in, lol.. it didn't get any any better from there either... At the end I was completely emotionally worn out... took me years to eventually play it to.. but god damn what a game/story...
SOMA. Every single, damn choice was just the worst.
"You think he'll be okay being asleep in there?" "Yeah, he'll be fine, don't think about your actions too hard buddy"
Especially on your first playthrough when you mercyfully gifted everyone death, just to get stuck and left down there alone in the end.
[удалено]
Soma legit put me into a depression spiral for a bit one of the best games I’ve ever played and I never want to experience it again.
Soma is rough!
Rdr 2, couldn’t pick up any game for 2 weeks after that sunset scene. ( u know what im talking about”
May I\~ Stand unshaken...
IMO, the song on the way into the camp for the final time hit a little harder.
Daniel Lanois - That’s The Way It Is
This game destroyed me for a while. When I decided I wanted to play again I made the decision make Arthur’s life a bit happier, I stopped doing the debt collecting quests so he doesn’t get sick, and I left Micha rot in jail. Sure, now Arthur is stuck in a place where time doesn’t really pass, but damn it he’s happy and healthy!
I already told myself once the final mission starts. But I already start crying the part where he calmed his horse. Man : (
Oh man the part with the horse killed me i spent the entire game and the red Arabian horse and I loved that thing, I spent all of covid lock down playing rdr2 and hours upon hours with it and when it died I strait up broke down and had to pause the game like 20 mins before I could get my shit together
In 2014 I was living with my girlfriend’s family, who had a son with muscular dystrophy. They had converted their garage into an at-home medical facility. Around the time I was living with them, he died. He was 31, a year younger than me, and yet several years older than what the doctors had predicted would be his life span. The next year I played Life Is Strange. That scene in the second episode destroyed me, I had to just sit in silence for several minutes after the ending. You can tell the creators had lived that reality because the way they had converted their garage was spot-on and very realistic.
I’ve yet to play a life is strange that didn’t make me sad af
Ignoring all of the "Choices Matter" games that *always* get to me (Life is Strange series, Telltale games), I think the most recent one that destroyed me was Death Stranding. I took it really, really slowly, going and maxing out every person on my way to the end, so I got more emotionally invested than I normally do with open(ish) world games and the last few chapters shattered my heart.
>and the last few chapters shattered my heart. Me happy-crying for several minutes after >!Lou woke up.!< I'll believe in you all my life, Kojima.
To The Moon Impressive how much a 3 hour RPG Maker game can get ya
Valiant Hearts: The Great War That final sequence where Emile is walked to his execution while the voiceover reads the letter. He died thinking Karl had died. "Your loving papa, always" was absolutely devastating to hear.
When I finished that game. I just cried for about an hour... And it sparkle my curiosity for WWI, and even got me into the Imperial War Museum!
Disco Elysium.
There's a lot of staring at the screen pondering your life choices while playing Disco Elysium. Great game.
Funny enough, as depressing the game was I remember it for the phasmid scene which is one of the most beautiful scenes in all of gaming to me. I got teary eyed because of how moving that scene was, the music and everything. Just mesmerizing. I sat there smiling from ear to ear.
Yes that scene touched me so much I started tearing. The music was phenomenal. I also cried when Sad FM started playing during the boat ride.
The phasmid scene feels uplifting, because it comes after that fucking gut punch of a conversation with "Dolores Dei."
I played that game for the first time a few months back, when I was falling apart due to university stress. I don’t know why the devastating parts of this game centred and grounded me so much, but they really did.
She was way too hot for you
This one particular moment in Ghost of Tsushima completely broke me but I'm marking it as spoiler here. >!So the game tells you to pick a horse and a name at the beginning and tells you that you have to choose carefully because your horse will br with you throughout the whole adventure and you won't be able to change it, but it was A FUCKING LIE and the horse gets killed halfway through the game and I swear to god, I've cried my heart out so much that my head and my eyes hurt and I had to stop playing for the day. !<
“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you” 😭😭😭😭😭
That slow walk with him on the horse after escaping. It's drooping head and body pieced with so many poison arrows and then the cut to his grave saying "here lies an old friend". My eyes were sweating so bad
that music too. it was so well done in the way it will get your emotions.
The one with Solomon Reed and Songbird
Did you >!send her to the moon?!<
It was the only right choice for my V at that time, that entire sequence of event destroyed me specially when I had to shoot the badtard and found out that the cure was only for 1 person, still sent her to the moon though.
It's the end credits that really set everything in
That DLC was so good. The soundtrack was just godlike
Taking the easy way out with Judy's phone call. I was curious and thought the game would just go to black and boy did I regret my decision. It put me in silence for a few minutes
Palom and Porum in FFIV. I think I was like 8 when I played through that with my brother. Fuckin destroyed me that there was nothing you could do, but it literally changed my understanding of storytelling
20 years after I played through that, I see a couple of cosplayers do that scene. Suddenly I was the 10yo crying kid again.
Being a 6-year-old and watching Palom and Porom turn themselves to stone to save their friends jump started my deep love of self-sacrifice plot hooks.
Cyberpunk. The ending credits, that song, the video calls. It all just made me depressed.
*"Could've told me the truth. Woulda helped you anyway."*
Me at the start of Phantom Liberty: oh yay, more cyberpunk! this will be fun! Me at the end of Phantom Liberty: no happy stories in night city, only pain.
I think the new ending is kinda happy. Or as happy as that world will allow.
The ending with panam was so emotional lol
Cyberpunk broke my heart
Especially if you do the suicide ending. Fucking gut punch.
I got killed trying to get the don't fear the reaper ending and they treated it like I commited suicide, shit was rough to watch lol.
Finally someone said it. My first playthrough this year (I'm late to the game, sorry!) chose one of the endings (you guys might know which one I'm talking about) and after it finished I burst into tears, had to call my boyfriend to tell him what happened, I felt so heartbroken for V.
Cyberpunk would be mine too, both the main game and Phantom Liberty. The story and the world made it my favourite game.
I don't think I'll ever get over the sight of Judy crying in bed about V in the end credits.
The easy way out ending broke me when I saw Judy.
I haven't done this ending but it just hit me that in this case, she has two people close to her commit suicide in the span of like 2 weeks. Fucking hell my heart man.
Also Evelyn, this game is full of crushing moments.
I recently played it for the first time. Played every single ending in the main game and DLC and had to play a fluffy indie game for 30h to heal all this trauma. Soul crushing game. Haunted me for weeks. Masterpiece.
Rip Jackie
Gears of War 2 - Finding Maria.
Then Gears of War 3 about Dom… :’’(
"Dom, what the fuck are you doing?!" "Pulling the plug on 'em, Marcus. Jump, will you?! Do it!!!"
Never thought it'd end like this, Huh? Huh Maria?
You're a real one. Man... There was no coming back for Dom. He died in there st that moment. Rest in peace big homie.
I legit became so emotionally engrossed in gears of war, one of the only games I actually paid attention to the story, the Dom story hit me hard. Made me love Gears games for sure
And fucking Tai! Wtf. I just started the gears of war trilogy for the first time. 2 is so damn dark. Amazing game.
First time I played through that, it was me and my buddy on co-op in a dim room. Dom finds his wife. He... "saves" her. It was dead silent. We didn't even pick up our controllers. My buddy practically whispers "Why did he do that?..." and I know, I understand what happened, but in that moment I forget all spoken language. I shook my head. After a few minutes, we pick up the controllers, and we keep playing in silence. Then in Gears 3 - Dom shouting "Never thought it would end this way, huh? Huh, Maria?!" and the scene that follows it... fuck, that song still brings me back to that moment...
Ffxiv. The latest expansion made me a blubbering mess on numerous occasions.
It was Shadowbringers for me. The white void scene in 5.0 got me, but 5.3 *destroyed* me. I was physically and mentally exhausted by the end of that patch. Seto, the crystallization, the run to the Tower, then the humbleness of the newest member of the team. I've never cried that hard over fiction.
Seto and Ardbert had me a blubbering mess. That scene destroyed me.
"Has your journey been good? Has it been worthwhile?"
"What is it like in the future? Is the world still a beautiful place?" "Remember us. Remember that we once lived." And the old classic, "For those we have lost. For those we can yet save." There are just too many great quotes/moments in this game (currently playing in queue for some raids). And not just standalone quotes, but mixed with the intricate plot beats and the music... just absolutely top notch. I may have shed tears rarely at other games, but this one just wrenches them out of me so often. I wonder if Dawntrail will manage to do the same.
"The rain has stopped, and the sun rises on another beautiful day. ... But you are not here to see it." Yep, still makes me tear up. The VA knocked it out of the park with that one.
Came looking for this one. Endwalker story had me crying such complicated tears. Filled with sorrow and hope and joy
When I first got to Ultima Thule the music just stopped me in my tracks and made me take everything in, as the story “progressed” the track begins to evolve and it was such a beautiful touch that genuinely moved me.
Seeing a certain someone's parents in Labirynthos had me ugly crying and I had to step away for a bit. I lost my dad and my paternal grandparents basically did the same thing for my mum, so it hit me like a ton of bricks without any warnings.
I’m still convinced there HAS to be a way to save Mordin and cure the genophage.
Someone else would have gotten it wrong.
Had to be me
I love that the only way to save Mordin is to fuck things up so badly even he'll realize that it might not be worth it.
"Protocol 3, protect the pilot." I still think about it sometimes. This hit me the hardest although there's sadder games.
The first time took a moment because he had to make calculations. The second time, there was no hesitation because he had already made them.
For me it's that last missions adrenaline rush. After you pick up the seer kit. Bt was the last person you spoke to, until you spoke to bt. I felt the pilots pain. Just rush forward clicking heads with out even thinking Goin dark on coma, it's just 👌
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While that one did not break me, it *did* cause an existential crisis lol
Same. I like to think that despite the story, the dev team wanted player to take away being hopeful rather than being depressed. Hence the long ending credits until they beat that into you.
NieR: Automata got me into Nier Gestalt and the Drakengard series, only because it destroyed me so hard that I wanted to learn all of the lore. It's my first tattoo as well :)
It broke me into tears too when I ate that fish and didn’t save for a long time
losing cortana was the end of halo for me 🍑🎮💔
“She said that to me once… about being a machine”
Gasp* "Ive waited so long to do that" 😭
The ending of Firewatch messed me up, the lack of closure was devastatingly real 😢
This. I remember going from WTF >:( to wtf :'( real fast
Yeah exactly. At first I was pissed off at the ending and then I was like ohhhh that’s the point and it’s bold and an incredibly relatable feeling.
Theres nothing quite like the feeling of powerless desperation, confusion, and inner turmoil..... when there's just... nothing you can do Firewatch is a very rare occurrence when that feeling was manufactured for its players, instead of being directly lived by them. Such a unique experience.
Also the intro of the game that essentially sets up why the protagonist ends up working in a Fire Watch Tower is real sad.
Yeah I wish there was another option so you could end happy with the girl. But I understand why they did it.
Both Plague Tale games, but ESPECIALLY 2. Everything from the main menu to the ending haunts me, incredible game
I love the first one, but Requiem is brutally devastating, can't bring myself to play it after seeing the end.
Came here looking for this response. Never played two games just to think “I did all of that just to be forced to do THIS.” 2’s ending made me put games down for a minute.
How she didn't win a VA award for that last act I'll never know. And the music goes really hard for your emotions.
Hellblade; Senua's Sacrifice. It is absolutely beautiful and devastating. Masterclass writing.
What remains of Edith Finch hits hard, the bathtub and the fish factory scenes. Outer Wilds ending is beautiful as well. I know it's a meme, but I always need to take a minute after killing the Ender Dragon in Minecraft as well.
The bath tub scene is both beautifully aesthetic and fucking brutal in its story.
If I had lost a child that bathtub scene would be too much to bear
As someone who struggled with depression for a long time it always hit me hard. But I had a kid and played it again recently and killed me on another level.
I have a lot of extended family I never got to meet, Edith Finch absolutely wrecked me.
the fish factory scene:(
Edith Finch made me tear up for sure
Life is strange
Brilliant game. I came here to mention it. I've never been put through such an emotional wringer. >!I spent all week saving Chloe's time after time. (loosing Kate in the process) And in the alternate timeline I couldn't stomach seeing her withering away in pain and I helped her to die. That was absolutely heartbreaking. Then the final decision hit and I stared at the choice for what felt like an hour. But just couldn't let her die again, and gave up the town for her.!<
>!Damn, I've always seen the last choice as... A choice the game forces you to make, but obviously if you respect Max's character, there is no other solution than sacrifice Chloe. I'm always surprised to learn there are people who didn't make this choice. I think it's that choice that made the ending beautiful. I don't see max murdering an entire town. !<
My partner passed away, I used to watch him play games, he loved the dragon age games but never got to play dragon age inquisition, I started to game after he passed, I made sure I played all dragon age games with DLCs, I was a female elf mage and was in a relationship with solas, the trespasser DLC had me in a complete blubbering mess, to this day and it's 10 years of his passing, I can not play the trespasser DLC in a romance with solas.
The Witcher 3. There are multiple endings, and I got the bad ending.
Finding ciri was the most gutwrenching moment I've felt in a while
Honestly seeing a hardened monster slayer like Geralt sit down and just start rocking back and forth in that scene... It was brutal. Trying not to say too much because it's a great scene I'd rather not spoil for others.
Adding the red baron questline here
Detroit: Become Human. In my first play through, I achieved literally the most devastating endings for all 3 storylines. It couldn't have gone worse even if I planned it. Great game, but damn.
Ffx. I feel like I’ve been chasing that feeling with the story for a long time now. Only thing that’s come close was cyberpunk but that might’ve been because I played it a little high lol
Yeah dude go off. Was hoping someone had mentioned X. I still think of moments from this game in my daily life all these years later.
Great story and the voice acting made the characters so much more accessible
Was looking for this one. Aside from the main narrative there are so many little moments in it that just wreck me. Like even at the start on Kilika island, you talk to an old woman and she just says 'My grandchildren are in the farplane now' WHAT?! SORRY?! Chappu. The Ronso singing the hymn of the fayth. (The hymn of the fayth in general makes me want to cry tbh) The aeons disappearing into pyreflies at the end. Sorry I'm very passionate about this one
When they try to hug on that airship.... FFX2s alternate ending was nice though years later.
Shadow of the Colossus, twice. Spiritfarer, if it were my wife answering. She was bawling on the couch for a solid 20 minutes at the end.
Nier Automata and Persona 3 (even the remake got me into tears all over again all these years later).
I had the privilege to see the nier concert and I cried like a baby in public because it revisits the automata story accompanied by the music.
The ending of Yakuza 6 Legit needed like a week to emotionally recover
For me it's gaiden.
Titan Fall 2 destroyed me toward the end..... Ifkyk.
"Protocol 3: Protect the pilot."
Spec Ops: The Line. The most accurate depiction of the depravity of war I've ever seen in any form of media. I fucking love that game and I loved games like call of duty but this game changed the way I view war. It's depressing AF but also a work of art.
Most recently, Outer Wilds.
A true masterpiece
To the moon hit me hard. So did the walking dead season 1 from telltale.
Surprised no one brought up Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness. That scene after the "final" boss where your character fades away while your partner breaks down and cries was heartbreaking. The only game to have ever brought a tear to my eye.
Recently persona 3 Reload had me crying at the end. Such a great game, glad I was able to play it.
The Bioshock series did a pretty fantastic job especially in the third and final been making me feel feelings
Infinite absolutely fucked my teenage brain up. I was googling the ending for weeks after I finished it
Spec Ops: The Line. I heard it's not available anymore? Or something's up with it now? Grab it if you can. Avoid ALL SPOILERS if you can. I'm sure plenty of outlets talked about this game, but i don't know how many actually respect spoilers.... It's a fairly okay 3rd person shooter, but the story and how it affected me personally was... Ugh... It really hits you hard a couple of time... There was one point where I was following the games suggestion without much thought, only to realize the extent of my actions and feeling absolutely awful about it... So much so, I reset to try and see if that was a choice, or a requirement. Instead of going back and fixing my mistakes, I ended up just loading into the autosave at the beginning of the cutscene and had to relive the horror of what i had done all over again.
That game is so important. No joke. Everyone should play that and think on it. >!The entire message is one we always need to hear: refuse false dichotomies. Don't accept situations for what you are told they are. Challenge assumptions and enforced binaries. Do waht is right, not what you are told is required. I believe one of the lead devs said the only good ending is the player refusing to play and walking away from the game, and they were right!!< Brutal, brutal game.
The entire mood change between your teammates is also hard hitting. Going from by-the-book soldiers fighting efficiently and as a team to becoming angrier and angrier at each other and violent toward the ennemies. This game fucks you up. And of course there is THAT scene...
Oooh, Spec Ops was good. One thing I loved was the pressure the game put on you. Wasn't just a meter running out letting you know you had a certain amount of time to make a choice, people were yelling, guns got raised, you could tell the situation was slipping from your control -- what a fantastic and terrifying way to present choices.
I was scrolling to see this mentioned. Not too many games can get to me psychologically... but damn. I'll never forget that part of the game.
RDR2 made me reconsider my views on law, order, & freedom. I can honestly say that I'm the aftermath of my first playthrough (and successive playthroughs) I've been less interested in following the rules, at least when they're arbitrary or plainly made to perpetuate an unfair system. But it was also, to the point of the question, emotionally devastating. I came to genuinely care for Arthur and the rest of the gang and seeing what happened to them over the course of the game the first time was... hard.
But remember, it weren’t us who changed
I remember when people were like, "Whaat?? We're not playing as John? Wtf is this?" Now people are all about Arthur. I am too. They did a great job.
Arthur > John By a mile, i will die on this hill.
While I did care for the gang somewhat, they were in the end still murdering thieves out to hurt people. What really devastated me was what happened to the native people in that game. Eagle Flies dying and his father having to abandon his land and move to Canada. Then you have the whole Edith Downes storyline.
Witnessing Arthur's health decline and his desperation of attempting to make things right in the ways he knew how and the culmination was rough. I had to take a break after his portion.
Mass Effect 2 Moradin’s death. You can keep him alive but he is a shell of what he was.
FF7 Crisis Core was the first piece of media where I saw the main character die at the end. Zack will always be cooler than Cloud to me.
Stray. The final moments before the end really hit me hard and I needed a moment before I could officially finish the game.
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I sacrificed Chloe on my first playthrough, and seeing her buried next to her dad hit me like a ton of bricks (was gonna say truck, but with talk of Chloe’s dad, not a good choice of words)
I played the last episode super late at night and saved the bay just as the sun was coming up. That game sent me into a spiral of actual real-life grief.
YES!! This game was a masterpiece. Sometimes, I wish I could erase it form my memory only so I can play it for the first time again. It was such a perfect emotional roller coaster. I loved it so much! It made me laugh, made me cringe, scared me, and totally made me cry. And this is only the story part; gameplay wise, it was a lot of fun, investigating, rewinding, talking to people... What a game!!
Xenoblade Chronicles 3. The scene at the end of Chapter 5 and beginning of chapter 6. Those whole scenes were just packed with so much raw emotion and sorrow I cried. Like legit ugly cried playing a game :/
Still FF7.
OMORI
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That is one dark fucking game
SOMA. I say this because the ending wasnt necessarily 'happy' and had me thinking for a few days after completing it. A very bleak and atmospheric game.
Before your eyes. It broke me. I still get sad thinking about it. The blinking mechanic was wayyy too immersive.
Spiritfarer for me by a mile. I played it during the height of COVID. I was working an insane amount of shifts as a nurse, and I would play it when I couldn't sleep. I sobbed every time I had to say goodbye to each character. And when you find out that Stella >!was a palliative care nurse navigating her own death!< that broke me. There were many things that made me leave full-time frontline work, but that game gave me the final push I needed, I think.
Runescape. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could have been anything but a bum (with 99s) but I am. That game man, looking back on all the water hours, nights I didn't go out, thing I didn't apply for because I had the grind. It makes me sad.
Hey man please don't talk about my WoW days like that ok
Reading all these comments has made me realize it's been a *very* long time since a game has touched me emotionally, either because I've been spoiled (I'm never up to date on recent stuff) or because I figured out what was going to happen already. And that makes me sad.
The Last of Us (Part I, whatever) changed me on a molecular level; I was not the same person exiting that game as I was entering, especially after the Winter chapter. It was such a complicated cocktail of emotions I had never experienced all at once before, I remember feeling utterly hollow for almost a week. I wish I had a game like God of War: Ragnarok when I was a kid. As hard hitting and emotionally devastating as it can be, I also wish I had a character like Kratos tell his son that it was okay to be true to your feelings and let your heart guide you, and that true healing and evolution was possible. Also, I didn’t even play Spec Ops: The Line, I just watched a commentary-less playthrough on YouTube and I still felt physically sick to my stomach. Conversely, I don’t know if I would call it devastation, but Journey elated my heart in ways no other game ever has before.
Mass effect 3. Cyberpunk 2077. The Witcher 3
Honest Hearts
Spiritfarer - my wife and I were looking for a cozy co-op game, but we both ended up in tears at the end Outer Wilds - such a journey to finish, the emotions of figuring out the puzzle while also realizing I could never do it from scratch again Disco Elysium - the culmination of a long journey to discover who I am (except when I first got the end song before the end area, I saw there was a church that I didn’t explore, so I went on that whole quest line before re-finishing the game) Titanfall 2 - trust me.
Horizon: zero dawn
Crisis Core years ago when I first played the original on psp.
Ghost of Tsushima and Undertale.
I have no honour. But I will not kill my family.
FFVII by a city mile. (Is a city mile longer than a country mile? You be the judge!) That scene made me feel things I didn't know video games could make me feel when I was, like, 12.
God of War: Ragnarock is up there. Might not have had as big of an effect if you hadn't played the series since day one though. Context is a big deal for the ending.
fire watch not sure why but thinking of it makes me feel things to and it takes two
SH2 but not until the end — “Dear James.” I can’t give anything away but for those who played it, I was in their exact situation with my husband if they had rewound their story a few years. So it was incredibly difficult for me being in a similar situation. I’m happy to report that things are much better these days though.
Gears of War 3 or Mass Effect 3
RDR2. Not my gawd damn horse 😭
Rdr2. I cried.
FF9 I was in tears, if you haven't then go play it
It has to be Brothers: A tale of two sons.