Now I can’t find a thread on this but if one exists already then oops.
Anyway, just like books and movies, games can have sad and gut wrenching moments too! So I’m going to write down (in hidden details) what sad parts of games really stuck with me.
Do not read these if you don’t want major spoilers you HAVE been warned
Major Spoilers for Final Fantasy 7
The death of Biggs, Jessie and Wedge were definitely made more heartbreaking in the remake because you get to know them more, however it’s still super sad in the original. The way it happens especially, it just feels extremely unfair.
But also…the death of Aeris. My lord, I don’t think I’ve ever cried so hard while playing a game. She’s such a lovely character. Her theme will now make any FF7 fan cry if they hear it.
Beeg spoilers for Final Fantasy 9
There are quite a few gut wrenching moments I mean, the biggest theme of FF9 is death so… Yeah
But the moments that wrenched my guy the most was Odin destroying Cleyra and Atomos destroying Lindblum (which was a terrifying scene) they encapsulate the theme of death in the sense both attacks are inescapable (just like death) and kill anyone caught up in it, even at one point you think one of your party members has been killed.
Final Fantasy 10 Spoilers
One of the major themes is sorrow so obviously there are some extremely sad moments. Especially at the end when Tidus has to disappear, I cried like a baby but not like, tears in my eyes I mean full on ugly crying and struggling to breathe it was that rough. Suteki Da Ne playing.
Spoilers for FF14 realm reborn and heavensward (plus patch content)
The first death that hit me was Noraxia but then it just kept getting worse.
The next that kept me awake crying was Haurchefant which only made me cry more after the trial with Niddhogg when him and Ysale appear as ghosts to help you free Estinien with Alphinaud and it’s just so emotional.
The next was Ga Bu’s parents that questline was EXTREMELY ROUGH they were sacrificed to summon the primal Titan and when you do that fight there’s a change to the usual dialogue. He mimmicks the cries of Ga Bu. This was both gut wrenching and extremely sad because not only do you see the poor little guys reaction to his parents bodies, you can see Titan copying it. The quest is called The Beast That Mourned at The Heart of The Mountain.
THEN there was the death of Papalymo that was just so sad. I chose the option to have my character stay with him but he used a spell to throw me onto the airship
xD Also forgot to mention
Pokemon mystery dungeon spoilers Removing the character from time in the most emotional way of doing it in front of their partner. Seriously, cruel game, especially for bringing them back right after.
Xenogears, Episode V: After spending the first several hours getting to know everyone (and getting attached to the hilarious shenanigans) in this little town that the MC grew up in, the MC ends up going berserk in a mecha suit and blows up the whole village. Very few survive. (This is a VERY good game that I’ve been waiting for a remake of and it just won’t ever happen)
Kingdom Hearts: LEAVING RIKU BEHIND…or, rather, Riku forcing himself to remain.
God of War: Realizing Kratos killed his own wife and kid in berserk mode (Xenogears hit harder, though, and was the older game…so, I wonder if the people working on God of War wasn’t just a tad inspired by Xenogears at some point).
FF7 (MAJOR spoiler for anyone playing the remake): Aerith.
Star Ocean, the Second Story: Rena’s parents sending her off by herself to save her from the planet’s destruction in classic Superman style.
Spoiler for final fantasy 14 stormblood patch content and stormblood also a slight TW for mention of attempted suicide
Spoilers
So in stormblood there’s a character called Yotsuyu and she’s a villain, she’s the extremely cruel acting viceroy of a place called Doma that was taken over, but you learn that she’s cruel because of the fact she was never treated or helped and was just constantly kicked down by the world, she was never shown any kind of love and was just completely traumatised. Which doesn’t excuse her actions but it also doesn’t deny the responsibility people have in creating that monster. In the patch content she has lost her memory due to her blowing up the palace she was in, in a last attempt to win and she’s basically a new person called Tsuyu, she’s looked after by a great character called Gosetsu who basically really cares about her and acknowledges she did all these awful things but there was more to it and she is basically a different person.
The sadness comes when her even more evil brother decides to trigger her deep hidden memories of trauma and she remembers things then kills her parents who did nothing but abuse and belittle her. But before doing that she was going to end her life because she didn’t think she deserved the kindness Gosetsu showed her.
She ends up becoming a primal (a big boss fight) and during the fight she summons specters of people to make her suffer more in order to make her more powerful THEN Gosetsu is one of the specters that appears to save her because obviously she does care about him and she knows he cares about her and it was just completely heartbreaking but obviously it ends sadly too because she dies happy after killing her brother, the only thing that could let her die happy was killing her brother. It was rough.
I can’t believe I didn’t mention this, well it’s not a game game but you can interact with certain parts of it and it definitely has…an extremely rough story.
It’s called That Dragon Cancer, it’s the real life story of a family who have a child with terminal cancer, it’s completely heartbreaking and it just really shows the extent of how f*cking awful cancer is.
Here’s a video of Markiplier playing it, he’s his usual self but of course serious when he needs to be and I wouldn’t recommend watching it if you don’t want to be sad.
There’s a few scenes in Endwalker that are a bit sadge. Such as watching the original world end. Venat having to sunder it, then watching her walk through scenes of despair and take all our misery while Answers plays (it super made answers change meaning for me)
But also there’s a scene at the very end where all of your friends sacrifice themselves one by one so that you can continue onto the final boss, I now can’t go into the area of the game without the music ripping my heart out. But like, let’s just say my feelings of “hope” weren’t wasted.
At the start of this thread I said there was no video game that made me cry harder than when Aerith died in FF7, well when I actually got to play Crisis Core Reunion, I cried like an absolute baby and I was sad for the following days afterward. It’s not like I didn’t know it was going to happen but seeing Zack lying there, covered in blood and dirt after playing as him trying so hard to fight against the soldiers was just so unbelievably gut wrenching. The game takes such a gigantic tonal shift, you go from just having fun being a hero in a very silly storyline to the actual Niebelheim Incident and after that point, the game is just so much more harsh feeling and sad.
