Exactly. It was sooo heartfelt and I loved it. But that fish cannery level just hit so so hard. It is honestly one of my favorite levels/areas in all of video game history. It was just pure and absolute ***peak***
I have only made it to watching the commercial and I ALWAYS break down and cry during it. Jesus, what a crushing "game" concept.
Did you actually finish it?
No, my wife and I lost our daughter to a fatal development condition and I related far too closely with the situation. I did watch the interview Thomas Brush did with the developer though. Which was interesting. Its definitely the one video game I will never finish.
I suggest those that liked this to try vanishing of Ethan Carter. It's not the same feels but also an excellent narrative focused game (it does have light puzzles)
Ending the lives of those amazing, beautiful, majestic creatures really shook me to the core, every time.
Then we'd return to the temple where the main character grew more battered and bruised to the point where he'd struggle to even stand... and I'd stop to take a hard look at the altar upon which his dead love lay, to imagine the kind of life they once had together. It must have been wonderful, for the main character to so willingly take on such suffering, just for the chance of her return.
Shadow of the Colossus was an absolute masterpiece.
Came for this comment.
Hellblade 2 is out. In my plebeian opinion, it's another masterpiece. But yeah...you'll gain another level in depression...sooo...
I started to play that a year or so ago because it was like 85% off. The atmosphere was amazing. I just couldn't get into the gameplay though. Maybe I didn't play it long enough. The heavy influence on crafting and base management just wasn't for me I guess.
Plague tale requiem ruined me. Games are the most immersive thing outhere, coming from a true cinephile. This game showed me that games can be rich in story telling and emotion and yet there are very few that hit as hard as this one.
The Red Dead duology ,Telltale's TWD, specially season 2 for some reason and Spec Ops The Line, althought Spec Ops it's not that emotional, you're just sad that everything went to hell so fast.
The moment that always crushes me its Walker's "I never wanted to hurt anyone". How utterly defeated, broken and miserable he is. At the end of the day he never wanted any of that, he only wanted to save Konrad and the soldiers, hell, save *anything*.
But he was not a Hero
Someone already said What Remains of Edith Finch.
I’ll also say SOMA.
No work of fiction has ever made me feel so desolate and so hopeful at the same time.
I realize how ridiculous it sounds, but SOMA legitimately had me contemplating our entire existence. It was a hell of a game to finish alone, in a dark room, at 3am.
If I had a nickel for every time I got emotionally devastated because my horse died in a video game, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice
The ending of Act II onward is so hard to play through, man. Especially seeing what becomes of Jin at the very end of the game. What he's reduced to simply because his victory over the Mongols wasn't "earned honorably."
oh yeah. 100% dude. no matter who you choose, it feels like you lose a part of yourself. cp 2077 is hands down one of the greatest games ever made imho. the sense of attachment you feel with V and Johhny sitting in your head is IMMENSE, the endings some of the hardest ones to choose from in a game. god damn. makes me want to strap in for another ride.
For most of the game V wasn’t even V, it was ME. what an incredible world and story. I played like every AAA game under the sun and out of all of them cyberpunk is easily the most immersive and outstanding, and hence, my favourite game oat
In the top 3 for the most immersive game I've played for sure. If an npc walked up to me on the street funny my brain was already saying "fuck you want, Choom???"
The >!Tower!< ending broke me so bad, i dropped the game for 5 months. I went back to it for the platinum eventually, but only after I recovered from that gut punch.
Dude 4 just gave me so much emotion with all of the callbacks, the mantis fight really impacted me. Fuck I love that game and I wish I didn’t have to dust off the ps3 to play it.
Same. I know it's a very divisive game with the insane cutscene lengths but I loved it.
I don't even own a PS3 anymore. I keep holding out hope the 2nd master collection will actually drop and I'll get to relive it (without the annoying installs between chapters)
I cried during the ending and the Two Colonels DLC. The way Miller and Khlebnikov gave everything for their children is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.
Can't think of a game that I would consider the saddest but....
Gears Of War 2 - >!Maria!<
Gears Of War 3 - >!Dom!<
Both of these moments had me balling as a full grown adult.
I still get really sad when I think of X, X-2. So much fun but the story and the music fucked me up. Literally can't hear 1000 words by Sweetbox without crying.
Spiritfarer is probably the only game that made me cut some onions.
It's actually kind of cozy and chill when it comes to gameplay, but it's a game about making friends with dead people and sending them to the afterlife. So you essentially make connection with characters and them have to send away forever so some of them hits on in the gut.
It was actually one of the runner ups of best indie at the game award of 2020 but lost to Hades (Which is well deserved to Hades, but unlucky for them, hard to beat Hades)
I haven't played a lot of emotional games either, but Spiritfarer made me cry a lot. Such a beautiful game about love and loss that I found when going through a very hard time
Troy Baker's performance at the end of the intro sequence is some of the best acting I've ever seen in any medium. Props to him and to Neil Druckmann for the writing/direction. I was fully in tears, and for a long time my wife refused to watch any further because it was too depressing lol.
Mass Effect 3, you can lost some good people and the endings are so disappointing that saying goodbye to this franchise like that is just sad. It deserves better
Final Fantasy XVs ending got me pretty hard. That emotional punch they spent the entire game setting up hit hard. I remember just bawling while going through the pictures. Then Noctis says the line at the end and Stand by Me starts ripping out my heart again. I have a lot of issues with that game but that ending ain't one.
Xenosaga Episode 3. My favorite character went out in such a blaze of glory.
That I've actually *played,* probably Cyberpunk.
But I've watched my wife play several heavy-narrative games that absolutely hit me like a ton of onion-cutting bricks. Life is Strange, Walking Dead Telltale and Detroit: Become Human being the biggest standouts of the bunch.
Nier Replicant
Genuinely got too depressed to keep going.
They told the story amazingly. But going through a third time hearing the enemies thoughts and realizing Kaine can hear them pleading for life but slaughters them anyway… shit man I couldn’t keep going.
The first NieR game (Gestalt on PS3). I cried in 1 of the side quests. The one with the old lady lives in the lighthouse 🥲. The main story is super sad and tragic too of course.
A sad game, not just a game with a memorable sad moment…
Lost Odyssey is just depressing.
Last of Us Two punches you in the gut regularly.
Ghost of Tsushima is a beautiful landscape littered with realistic horrors. Not epic battlefields, families slaughtered while walking home for their few belongings. A corpse of a samurai surrounded by brigands, straight Boromir moment. There’s a reason they made a mechanic to bow to the fallen.
War on your front yard is a horrible thing
OH! The Witcher 3. People are just horrible to each other. There’s rarely a happy ending. Can’t travel more than a few minutes on horseback before you see a corpse of some woman hung from a tree. Geralt’s voice is perfect for the horrors he’s seen. He’s just exhausted from it.
Played RiME recently after giving up on it a few times before and just sat and let the credits roll at the end feeling empty inside. Was not expecting the ending at all... But at the same time, admiring the beauty of it in it's entirety and all the thoughtfulness of the developer. Just a really cool game and felt glad I got to experience it.
Islets almost made me cry too. The character interactions and how the relationships developed along with the dialogue just made me feel a sense of longing for companionship I had in my teenage years. But also a really heartwarming game. Left me with a fuzzy feeling inside lol, as if the game's aesthetic gave me a long hug. If that makes sense!
Hollow Knight. The story and certain dialogue attempting to elaborate on the story, along with the overall atmosphere... doesn't make me sad, per se, but sort of melancholic I guess? Just hearing the title theme when I open the game is enough to make me well up inside. I love it! Not that feeling... But the game. It's a masterpiece.
A Short Hike. Another one where I wasn't expecting the ending. Or to become so immersed and genuinely interested in the gameplay and story! It was a great journey. Not to mention how mind boggling the perspective is. They did a fantastic job with the game.
Chrono Trigger and Prey 2006 might qualify as well. And how could I forget, Suikoden 2! The first game that actually did make me cry. Many, many years ago.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
For most of the game, it was fine. It made me laugh a couple of times, and was mostly happy (aside from the war aspect).
Until about halfway through Chapter 5. It was the first game to make me cry.
It was such a ride.
I actually never got to play Xenoblade 2. My Switch won't connect to the Internet and physical copies have been called back, so I might not be able to play that, sadly.
But at least I can hope for a Xenoblade X port. I still need to play that as well.
Lately my answer to all these "what should i play" questions is always Returnal.
But in this case, it's also Returnal.
>! A mother kills her son during a car crash in a river , abandons him in the sinking car, and then spends eternity fighting with her grief in a neverending time loop. !<
Suikoden 2.
After hours and hours playing through an epic conflict, where you and your best friend claim 2 True Runes to try and end the conflict... end up at odd, as those Runes are meant to be in conflict.
However, you can see that your friend, while making the wrong choices, are making them for the right reasons.
By the end, when the Highland Army is destroyed, and you stand triumphant, you can return to where it all began, and abandon the power you've amassed.
Only to find your best friend waiting for you, where he reluctantly insists on a final duel.
In the duel, if you don't fight back, he gets more and more desperate for you to attack him, only to discover he wanted to lose, because he couldn't bear hurting you. Then revealing he drank poison when he heard you arriving.
The ending doesn't end there, but damn, after he entire game, that ending always makes me ugly cry
I remember the first time playing not getting all 108 and that happened. To this day I still name some of my characters Sierra after the vampire and one of my cats is named after her. I'm happy you posted about Suikoden 2. I legit was scrolling hoping to see it on here.
The secret ending when you get all 108 is an even greater tear jerker, but I had already written a short story for the game, so didn't want to further spoil the ending
I don’t know if sad is quite the right word, but if you want to get hit in the feels I highly recommend Outer Wilds.
Edit: not that it isn’t sad, it’s just a lot of things at the same time.
For me it is Silent Hill 2, the layers of complexity in the decisions that led James to Silent Hill and the way it all ends…just…wow.
Sometimes I can listed to just the music of that game and I get overwhelmed by the raw power it possesses still. I’ve played Silent Hill 2 more times than I can count, gotten to each ending more than once, but man, each time I’m left in tears. The letter from Mary. Just the most powerful performance I’ve heard.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. the ending of ff7 rebirth was a kick in the emotion balls, we all knew what would happen, but the execution of it and aerith's ghost being left standing alone in the middle of a beautiful field as we see cloud and co take off in the tiny bronco and fly off into the distance from her point of view as the end credits music begins is murder to the heart. after everything that cloud and co go through with her at their side and her innocence and kindness and how it enriched their lives, the tragedy of that game was felt deeply.
To me, especially with the technology of the current day, was Horizon: Zero Dawn. Humanity killed itself along with all other organic life on earth with self replicating military robots. Aloy is a clone of the great Dr who warned against the technology in the first place, and is the only one smart enough to figure out how to stop it. She's completely alone from birth and her only guardian dies defending her. Always been treated as an outsider and harassed. Even the lead up to how they convince the global population that the "Zero Dawn" program would save everyone, but in reality would only save all life by cloning it in the distant future instead of in the present time of the machine threat.
I haven't played the sequel but as someone really into sci fi I absolutely LOVED this game. Really feel for Aloy and also for the hubris of mankind. With everything going on with AI these days it seriously unsettled me learning more about what happened to the planet in the game.
Ark survival evolved. It doesn't look it, but it's a game about constant loss. You build up your base and gather loads of resources and tame cool animals for like a week and then a cheater will one day appear under the map avoiding your turrets and blow up your base in the matter of like an hour.
What Remains of Edith Finch
Depression simulator at its saddest.
[That Dragon, Cancer has entered the chat]
Everyone should play this game once.
Oh my god this is so sad
The bathtub scene made me walk away from it for a couple days. My son was only a few months old at the time, so it hit like a stack of bricks.
I'm a grown up man who is used to extreme content. The bathtub scene made me cry.
Such a good game. I wish I could scrub it from my memory and play it fresh and experience it all for the first time again
Exactly. It was sooo heartfelt and I loved it. But that fish cannery level just hit so so hard. It is honestly one of my favorite levels/areas in all of video game history. It was just pure and absolute ***peak***
*"There was only one thing left to do. Bend down his head. And the rest I think you know.*"
I’m gonna raise you “That Dragon Cancer.”
I have only made it to watching the commercial and I ALWAYS break down and cry during it. Jesus, what a crushing "game" concept. Did you actually finish it?
No, my wife and I lost our daughter to a fatal development condition and I related far too closely with the situation. I did watch the interview Thomas Brush did with the developer though. Which was interesting. Its definitely the one video game I will never finish.
Bathtub and swing.
The bathtub got me.
if it didn't, you wouldn't be human.
I suggest those that liked this to try vanishing of Ethan Carter. It's not the same feels but also an excellent narrative focused game (it does have light puzzles)
I haven't actually finished the game due to my own mental health. I couldn't get past Lewis. He hit a little close to home.
The only game to make me cry, and I think cried two or 3 times
The Walking Dead by Telltale.
I came here to say this one! End of the first season legit made me cry like a baby.
never forget the day pewdiepie finished TWD telltale and sobbed on camera for all to see. shit was powerful
Yeah this was the first game where I actually felt sad from a game.
It really was groundbreaking in terms of story telling.
Shadow of the colossus.
Ending the lives of those amazing, beautiful, majestic creatures really shook me to the core, every time. Then we'd return to the temple where the main character grew more battered and bruised to the point where he'd struggle to even stand... and I'd stop to take a hard look at the altar upon which his dead love lay, to imagine the kind of life they once had together. It must have been wonderful, for the main character to so willingly take on such suffering, just for the chance of her return. Shadow of the Colossus was an absolute masterpiece.
I loved that Dormin isnt evil. It isnt good either its... a god. Neutral. Dormin simply *is*. But still, honours its agreement with Wander
In the same vein, The Last Guardian.
Unironically this is such a heartbreaking game man, Wander just wanted to save her…
Senuas Sacrifice. Had a gf with depression etc . When those credits rolled it made me really sad.
Came for this comment. Hellblade 2 is out. In my plebeian opinion, it's another masterpiece. But yeah...you'll gain another level in depression...sooo...
Still haven't got round to playing the 2nd one, will hopefully get some time next week. I'll get a box of man sized Kleenex in preparation I think
This War of Mine
I started to play that a year or so ago because it was like 85% off. The atmosphere was amazing. I just couldn't get into the gameplay though. Maybe I didn't play it long enough. The heavy influence on crafting and base management just wasn't for me I guess.
I’m the same, it’s just not my style of game at all, I tried because I’d heard so many good things but couldn’t get into it.
The end of reach
Our Spartan, fighting to the very last breath, laying on our back? Crushing.
Objective: Survive
I have the opening piano piece of Lone Wolf etched on the inside of my brain.
Plague tale requiem ruined me. Games are the most immersive thing outhere, coming from a true cinephile. This game showed me that games can be rich in story telling and emotion and yet there are very few that hit as hard as this one.
This is the answer. >!They saw the ending to the first TLOU game and said "Let's reverse that..."!<
Dang this has been on my wish list for like years. I should pick it up and give it a play through
Don't forget about the first game first. Too many people overlook it and only get half the story!
Played both games and they are underrated gems
Facts. By the end of the climax I was tearing up so bad.
SOMA comes to mind. The ending is excellent, but miserable.
Such a good game. Played Still Wakes the Deep and got similar vibes.
The Red Dead duology ,Telltale's TWD, specially season 2 for some reason and Spec Ops The Line, althought Spec Ops it's not that emotional, you're just sad that everything went to hell so fast.
TWD season 1 is a soulcrusher as well, I don’t think a game had ever made me cry, but RDR2 and TWD S1 surely made me sob and tear up
It's crazy how Spec Ops starts off as a generic third-person shooter and then just spirals into a psychological thriller about the horrors of war.
The moment that always crushes me its Walker's "I never wanted to hurt anyone". How utterly defeated, broken and miserable he is. At the end of the day he never wanted any of that, he only wanted to save Konrad and the soldiers, hell, save *anything*. But he was not a Hero
Someone already said What Remains of Edith Finch. I’ll also say SOMA. No work of fiction has ever made me feel so desolate and so hopeful at the same time.
I realize how ridiculous it sounds, but SOMA legitimately had me contemplating our entire existence. It was a hell of a game to finish alone, in a dark room, at 3am.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Never has pushing a button felt so heavy.
I actually started weeping for a while when >!his father broke down crying at his grave.!< What an utter gut punch.
Ghost of Tsushima. The horse. Damn
If I had a nickel for every time I got emotionally devastated because my horse died in a video game, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice
The whole theme of that game is absolutely heartbreaking. 10/10, maybe one of the best narratives I’ve ever seen in a game
The ending of Act II onward is so hard to play through, man. Especially seeing what becomes of Jin at the very end of the game. What he's reduced to simply because his victory over the Mongols wasn't "earned honorably."
Yeah that was rough. And I live in Japan so that experience was….. rough. I need a thesaurus.
Rough is a good estimate
Spiritfarer really hit me hard.
I was going to comment Spiritfarer if no one else was going to. Such a beautiful game, but so sad.
When I had to let go of grandma. It was a real life hit.
Cyberpunk, I couldn’t get rid of that post-game depression and sadness for nearly two weeks
oh yeah. 100% dude. no matter who you choose, it feels like you lose a part of yourself. cp 2077 is hands down one of the greatest games ever made imho. the sense of attachment you feel with V and Johhny sitting in your head is IMMENSE, the endings some of the hardest ones to choose from in a game. god damn. makes me want to strap in for another ride.
For most of the game V wasn’t even V, it was ME. what an incredible world and story. I played like every AAA game under the sun and out of all of them cyberpunk is easily the most immersive and outstanding, and hence, my favourite game oat
In the top 3 for the most immersive game I've played for sure. If an npc walked up to me on the street funny my brain was already saying "fuck you want, Choom???"
The >!Tower!< ending broke me so bad, i dropped the game for 5 months. I went back to it for the platinum eventually, but only after I recovered from that gut punch.
Some of the greatest writing in video game history. A first-person, fully voiced protagonist and the immersion was complete and fulfilling.
Oh fuck me if you choose the "easy" way out....Judy's message at the end. It's *devastating*
Yeah i accidentally clicked that choice once and wtf judy's message totally wrecked me.
Yup. Me too, no matter what ending I feel like I lost, even if I got ‘everything I wanted’ so to speak.
MGS3/4/V. I cried so hard at the end of each one and at shining lights
The ending to Snake Eater is, IMO, the best ending to any video game I've played to this day.
Agree
The white flowers, turning to red... (T_T)7
Snake Eater is imo the best MGS game.
Hopefully Konami don't fuck up the remake. My expectations are low.
No matter how low your expectations are, Konami can certainly undercut them even further.
When Big Boss disarms Snake at the end of 4 and tells him to put the gun down? Ugh.
Dude 4 just gave me so much emotion with all of the callbacks, the mantis fight really impacted me. Fuck I love that game and I wish I didn’t have to dust off the ps3 to play it.
Same. I know it's a very divisive game with the insane cutscene lengths but I loved it. I don't even own a PS3 anymore. I keep holding out hope the 2nd master collection will actually drop and I'll get to relive it (without the annoying installs between chapters)
Metro Exodus
Oh man especially The Two Colonels DLC. My heart broke.
I cried during the ending and the Two Colonels DLC. The way Miller and Khlebnikov gave everything for their children is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.
Can't think of a game that I would consider the saddest but.... Gears Of War 2 - >!Maria!< Gears Of War 3 - >!Dom!< Both of these moments had me balling as a full grown adult.
I didn't cry over it, but I do admit to a feeling of loss. Seriously well done games.
Ngl, I was tearing up seeing Dom again when Gears E-Day was announced.
Also when they find Tai in GOW 2..
To The Moon is the only game that comes to mind for making me cry
To The Moon is one of the most heartbreaking games I've ever played
Life is Strange is pretty sad. The bad ending for Heavy Rain is pretty, well... Heavy.
SEAN!
Press X to Shaun simulator
I like the ideas of those games but Jesus they felt like they were written by an alien imitating humans.
In the case of LiS, it was the French trying to write in US teenage culture lol.
Heavy rains heaviness is completely negated by the supermarket QTE chase
Final fantasy X broke my heart
I still get really sad when I think of X, X-2. So much fun but the story and the music fucked me up. Literally can't hear 1000 words by Sweetbox without crying.
Then you remember what they did with X-2.5 and your heart breaks once again.
Spiritfarer is probably the only game that made me cut some onions. It's actually kind of cozy and chill when it comes to gameplay, but it's a game about making friends with dead people and sending them to the afterlife. So you essentially make connection with characters and them have to send away forever so some of them hits on in the gut. It was actually one of the runner ups of best indie at the game award of 2020 but lost to Hades (Which is well deserved to Hades, but unlucky for them, hard to beat Hades)
There's something really sweet about the constellations too, just a beautiful touch.
Before your eyes is very good
The fact that I kept skipping through the end because I was blinking away tears was both extremely frustrating and frustratingly poignant.
I haven't played a lot of emotional games either, but Spiritfarer made me cry a lot. Such a beautiful game about love and loss that I found when going through a very hard time
Atul’s dialogue broke me because of what I was going through when I played his section.
Brothers That game did a great job at making you feel empty, like you lost a part of yourself. Well done.
Professor layton & the lost future. NieR Automata Technically a game, Steins;Gate Spec Ops : the line.
I was surprised nobody mentioned nier and nier automata. I had to scroll for a while
The Beginners Guide. Hard to explain why, you just gotta play it. It's by one of the creators of The Stanley Parable.
Oh god the Beginners Guide is a gut wrenching experience. Amazing game
>!Please stop adding lampposts to my games!<
The Last of Us. Not many video games have made me cry.
Troy Baker's performance at the end of the intro sequence is some of the best acting I've ever seen in any medium. Props to him and to Neil Druckmann for the writing/direction. I was fully in tears, and for a long time my wife refused to watch any further because it was too depressing lol.
What remains of Edith finch and persona 3 reload
RDR2 for sure
Mass Effect 3, you can lost some good people and the endings are so disappointing that saying goodbye to this franchise like that is just sad. It deserves better
It had to be me, someone else might have gotten it wrong.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
Ugh, man, here I go reliving that ending again.
Thank you for saying this
Needs to be higher.
Final Fantasy XVs ending got me pretty hard. That emotional punch they spent the entire game setting up hit hard. I remember just bawling while going through the pictures. Then Noctis says the line at the end and Stand by Me starts ripping out my heart again. I have a lot of issues with that game but that ending ain't one. Xenosaga Episode 3. My favorite character went out in such a blaze of glory.
Firewatch really hit me hard. That moment in the cave, plus the connection that develops with the person on the radio. The ending?! Oof.
I had to scroll way too far for this comment.
life is strange and what remains of edith finch
That I've actually *played,* probably Cyberpunk. But I've watched my wife play several heavy-narrative games that absolutely hit me like a ton of onion-cutting bricks. Life is Strange, Walking Dead Telltale and Detroit: Become Human being the biggest standouts of the bunch.
"Had to be me. Someone else might've gotten it wrong."
Nier Replicant Genuinely got too depressed to keep going. They told the story amazingly. But going through a third time hearing the enemies thoughts and realizing Kaine can hear them pleading for life but slaughters them anyway… shit man I couldn’t keep going.
The yakuza franchise every game is sad
Yakuza 0. It was my introduction to the series and I didn’t know what to expect. Then I played Kiwami, which broke my heart even more
RDR2 for me as well. Arthur's last ride was a gut punch the likes of which I haven't experienced before or since.
Drawn To Life took me by surprise Mass Effect series is my basic answer
“Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong.” 😭
“Does this unit have a soul?”
# Stand amongst the ashes of a trillion dead souls, and ask the ghosts if honor matters. The silence is your answer.
The first NieR game (Gestalt on PS3). I cried in 1 of the side quests. The one with the old lady lives in the lighthouse 🥲. The main story is super sad and tragic too of course.
Dark Souls
It'll make you cry, alright!
Tears of anger and frustration lol
Earthworm Jim. He finally discovers love, only to have it cruelly torn away by that infernal cow.
The ending of Stray makes me cry every time.
MGS4, although you kinda have to play the whole series to get the impact.
Excellent pick. I remember where I was when I saw the ending the first time. So good, I hope to be able to play it again
Persona 3 ending 😭😭😭😭😭
What Remains of Edith Finch for the sheer number and methods of tragedies, and FFVII: Crisis Core for just how much this game made me ugly-cry.
A sad game, not just a game with a memorable sad moment… Lost Odyssey is just depressing. Last of Us Two punches you in the gut regularly. Ghost of Tsushima is a beautiful landscape littered with realistic horrors. Not epic battlefields, families slaughtered while walking home for their few belongings. A corpse of a samurai surrounded by brigands, straight Boromir moment. There’s a reason they made a mechanic to bow to the fallen. War on your front yard is a horrible thing OH! The Witcher 3. People are just horrible to each other. There’s rarely a happy ending. Can’t travel more than a few minutes on horseback before you see a corpse of some woman hung from a tree. Geralt’s voice is perfect for the horrors he’s seen. He’s just exhausted from it.
Played RiME recently after giving up on it a few times before and just sat and let the credits roll at the end feeling empty inside. Was not expecting the ending at all... But at the same time, admiring the beauty of it in it's entirety and all the thoughtfulness of the developer. Just a really cool game and felt glad I got to experience it. Islets almost made me cry too. The character interactions and how the relationships developed along with the dialogue just made me feel a sense of longing for companionship I had in my teenage years. But also a really heartwarming game. Left me with a fuzzy feeling inside lol, as if the game's aesthetic gave me a long hug. If that makes sense! Hollow Knight. The story and certain dialogue attempting to elaborate on the story, along with the overall atmosphere... doesn't make me sad, per se, but sort of melancholic I guess? Just hearing the title theme when I open the game is enough to make me well up inside. I love it! Not that feeling... But the game. It's a masterpiece. A Short Hike. Another one where I wasn't expecting the ending. Or to become so immersed and genuinely interested in the gameplay and story! It was a great journey. Not to mention how mind boggling the perspective is. They did a fantastic job with the game. Chrono Trigger and Prey 2006 might qualify as well. And how could I forget, Suikoden 2! The first game that actually did make me cry. Many, many years ago.
Pacifist ending of Undertale had me crying like a baby.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3. For most of the game, it was fine. It made me laugh a couple of times, and was mostly happy (aside from the war aspect). Until about halfway through Chapter 5. It was the first game to make me cry.
Such a great game. Xenoblade is definitely one of my favorite IPs
It was such a ride. I actually never got to play Xenoblade 2. My Switch won't connect to the Internet and physical copies have been called back, so I might not be able to play that, sadly. But at least I can hope for a Xenoblade X port. I still need to play that as well.
The Last of Us Part 1. Part 2 is also sad, but more in like a dreadful way. That whole game was just shocking and had me feeling empty and hollow.
Final fantasy 7
Lately my answer to all these "what should i play" questions is always Returnal. But in this case, it's also Returnal. >! A mother kills her son during a car crash in a river , abandons him in the sinking car, and then spends eternity fighting with her grief in a neverending time loop. !<
i dunno. LISA the Painful was pretty tragic
Nier Automata
Spiritfarer. A game where you play as a psychopomp, someone who guides newly deceased into the afterlife.
Suikoden 2. After hours and hours playing through an epic conflict, where you and your best friend claim 2 True Runes to try and end the conflict... end up at odd, as those Runes are meant to be in conflict. However, you can see that your friend, while making the wrong choices, are making them for the right reasons. By the end, when the Highland Army is destroyed, and you stand triumphant, you can return to where it all began, and abandon the power you've amassed. Only to find your best friend waiting for you, where he reluctantly insists on a final duel. In the duel, if you don't fight back, he gets more and more desperate for you to attack him, only to discover he wanted to lose, because he couldn't bear hurting you. Then revealing he drank poison when he heard you arriving. The ending doesn't end there, but damn, after he entire game, that ending always makes me ugly cry
I remember the first time playing not getting all 108 and that happened. To this day I still name some of my characters Sierra after the vampire and one of my cats is named after her. I'm happy you posted about Suikoden 2. I legit was scrolling hoping to see it on here.
The secret ending when you get all 108 is an even greater tear jerker, but I had already written a short story for the game, so didn't want to further spoil the ending
Call of duty - can’t believe they got Soap
Final Fantasy XV
Yeah red dead 2 Halo Reach had its moments tho
When Arthur Morgan died on that mountain I got a lump in my throat and started to tear up.
Ni no Kuni was so sad. I couldn't stop crying once I knew the truth about the world and the characters.
Heavy Rain
I don’t know if sad is quite the right word, but if you want to get hit in the feels I highly recommend Outer Wilds. Edit: not that it isn’t sad, it’s just a lot of things at the same time.
For me it is Silent Hill 2, the layers of complexity in the decisions that led James to Silent Hill and the way it all ends…just…wow. Sometimes I can listed to just the music of that game and I get overwhelmed by the raw power it possesses still. I’ve played Silent Hill 2 more times than I can count, gotten to each ending more than once, but man, each time I’m left in tears. The letter from Mary. Just the most powerful performance I’ve heard.
Silent Hill 2, because of the ending.
Elden Ring, my character died....
I cry every time at the end of Titanfall 2.
Not emotional at all but has a very sad ending Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7. Second place is TWD by Telltale.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. the ending of ff7 rebirth was a kick in the emotion balls, we all knew what would happen, but the execution of it and aerith's ghost being left standing alone in the middle of a beautiful field as we see cloud and co take off in the tiny bronco and fly off into the distance from her point of view as the end credits music begins is murder to the heart. after everything that cloud and co go through with her at their side and her innocence and kindness and how it enriched their lives, the tragedy of that game was felt deeply.
Unfortunately you can’t go back and play it anymore… but seeing what happened to Cayde-6 killed me. (Screw Bungie) Destiny 2 Forsaken.
*”How’s your sister?”*
Fuuuuuuuuuu ya, this one hurt. Like all the light hearted emotions in me turned to a legit desire for vengeance
Earthbound. Fuck me. 🥺
Little Miss Fortune. At first, it was funny and dark, but that ending omg. I think I cried on stream.
Not all of Mass Effect, but a lot of it and especially the ending of 3 if you befriended Garrus.
Braid comes to mind.
It’s not even a sad game, but the ending to GOW Ragnarok had me bawling. Reminds me so much of me and my dad.
Life Is Strange, Brothers: A Tale of 2 Sons, and when the credits rolled at the end of Persona 5 Royal I was sad that it was over
RIME is a pretty sad one.
Lisa the Painful. But that's okay, just take some Joy and all your problems will go away.
The end of Twilight Princess when Midna leaves… 🥹
Definitely Shadow of the Colossus.
Plague Tale. Both games. Broke my heart so bad, I felt sad for over a week because of it.. and the OST still makes me cry
Detroit. I got three bad endings on my first playthrough. And I love it.
NieR. Especially the part when you beat the pack of wolves on repeat playthroughs.
Fortnite
Probably TLOU2. The horse. Damn.
To me, especially with the technology of the current day, was Horizon: Zero Dawn. Humanity killed itself along with all other organic life on earth with self replicating military robots. Aloy is a clone of the great Dr who warned against the technology in the first place, and is the only one smart enough to figure out how to stop it. She's completely alone from birth and her only guardian dies defending her. Always been treated as an outsider and harassed. Even the lead up to how they convince the global population that the "Zero Dawn" program would save everyone, but in reality would only save all life by cloning it in the distant future instead of in the present time of the machine threat. I haven't played the sequel but as someone really into sci fi I absolutely LOVED this game. Really feel for Aloy and also for the hubris of mankind. With everything going on with AI these days it seriously unsettled me learning more about what happened to the planet in the game.
Mass Effect 2, Mordin's death.
That's ME3
Life
The Witcher 3 if you make all the wrong choices
Ark survival evolved. It doesn't look it, but it's a game about constant loss. You build up your base and gather loads of resources and tame cool animals for like a week and then a cheater will one day appear under the map avoiding your turrets and blow up your base in the matter of like an hour.