By John Walker on August 3rd, 2009 at 12:00 pm.
I’m teased for a number of things. Whether it’s Kieron’s most backhanded, “The Funny One”, or Kieron’s calling me a bad healer, or Kieron… Wait, I’m teased by Kieron for a number of things. But perhaps the most common is to suggest that a game is likely to make me cry.
It’s my own fault. I’ve written quite openly about it in the past. I brought it upon myself. But thinking back, I can only think of two occasions when a game has brought me to tears. I may be forgetting something, but as is so often the case with the things for which one is mocked, it’s a pretty rare occurrence. I would much prefer it happened a lot more often.
I still deserve the mocking. I cry all the damn time at the most ridiculous things. Mostly TV shows. I recently saw Up at the cinema in the States and as well as snivelling all the way through, at one point let out the most extraordinary blub (the moment with the book, midway, people who’ve seen it), the person with me trying hard not to laugh out loud at me and instead calmly passing a tissue. Then after the film she laughed and laughed and laughed. I say this lest anyone who knows me thinks this is my attempt to claim to be anything other than a giant embarrassing crybaby. Games are simply a small part of this.
The two games that I can recall are Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon, and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey.
Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon
I’ve written about this game and crying before, so I can only summarise the moment here. It was a moment of extraordinary self-sacrifice in a thoroughly decent point-and-click adventure. Er, spoilers to come? George and Nico’s friend Bruno sacrifices his own life so the two characters can escape a collapsing temple. A noble act like that is impressive, but not the sort of thing that tends to jerk my tears. Instead it was the moment between George and Nico immediately after, as George’s face crumples as the reality sinks in, and Nico pushes aside her need to tease and just holds him. It was such an incredibly human moment, so honest, and while I didn’t really care about Bruno (despite his having been a regular in the series of games), it turns out I did care about George, and even more, about seeing the reality of how close they were, long before the game’s ending kiss.
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
I’ve written enormous amounts about The Longest Journey, most recently (and I think finally successfully saying what I’ve been trying to say about it for a decade) in our Gaming Made Me series. But I’ve written far less about its sequel, Dreamfall. However, a lot of it was discussed in the enormo-interview I did with creator Ragnar Tørnquist. (I think the discussion about the role of the death of faith in the game makes for the best interview I’ve conducted.) Here I put quite a hefty warning of spoil if you’ve not played the game.
The moment of weeping was more about the death of Faith than the death of faith, but of course one was analogous for the other. Well, in fact, I cried twice during the game, both times over Faith’s death from different angles. The first time is in the Russian laboratory, where you find the room in which Faith was imprisoned. This is a child, an eight year old child at the time of her death, incarcerated and experimented upon. You already know the horror of her existence, having refused death to the point where she’s undoing reality. And now you see the awfulness of her life. It’s cleverly done. The first time you go into her room you don’t know what it is. Zoe, the main character, gives neutral descriptions of the crayon drawings on the walls, the small bed, the dollhouse. Confused, but neutral remarks. You then watch the security footage, realise what happened in there, and can go back in after. This time Zoe’s descriptions are heart-tearing. This 20 year old is empathising with the dreadful plight of the small girl, and the horror of her life. And at the same time, this is the story of faith falling apart. Zoe’s faith is being torn.
The second time comes at the very end. In The Winter, the reality Faith has built around herself in this non-existence, Zoe wanders in her TLJ-requisite underwear (I think the fragility this gives her justifies the decision), discovering the haunting full-scale version of Faith’s dollshouse, insanely tearing open at the front (as a dollhouse does) to reveal the cross-section of the rooms inside. Inside is this eight year old girl, sat on the floor, crying. She’s a terrified child, clinging on to a mockery of life. And Zoe’s role, Zoe’s reason for being dragged into this story, is to convince her to die. Here’s Ragnar’s words about that moment.
“Faith is clinging on to faith, because she’s clinging on to herself, and the concept of having faith that she’s still existing, while she’s obviously not existing. She’s dead, and she’s trapped inside the machines. That is destroying the world, but it’s also destroying this little girl. In order to save faith, you have to kill Faith. You have to destroy the past. Faith vanishes, and where she goes we never said. If that’s her spirit, then she goes to a better place. If that’s it, if you believe that’s the end, then it’s really kind of bleak. But it’s bleak in a way that has to be. You have to accept that transformation, and if that transformation is the end of everything, then that’s what you have to accept.”
I reiterate both these examples because I want to once again bang the drum I spend so much of my life banging. Games can be this good. They can have moments this remarkable. It takes a lot of passion, and most of all, a lot of honesty. I think perhaps honesty is the commodity most missing from game stories, and when it appears it can be the most remarkably evocative and moving experience. Cecil’s moment in Broken Sword was complete simplicity – two people who love each other putting aside their cat-and-mouse play acting for a moment of pure honesty, where they shared their love for each other when it was most needed. Tørnquist’s moment in Dreamfall was the culmination of two beautiful games ending in not only the necessary and non-exploitative death of a child, but the deaths of characters’ personal faiths. I have no issues at all with declaring that these moments brought me to tears. I’d be slightly concerned had they not.
I’m not asking for all games to make me cry. It would just get awkward and exhausting. But I am saying, game stories can do a great deal, and our expectations of them should be permanently very high.
Which raises the question: what specific moments of games have made you cry? Fess up, you’ll only get mocked forever.
Hmmmm.
I can’t think of any, which somehow dissapoints me, as if games have affected me so very little that I am left with no powerful memeories after years and years.
I remember being fairly emotional at the end of World of Goo, on account of it being unbelievably lovely.
Same for the end of Baldur’s Gate, most times I’ve played it through, but I imagine thats more down to the fact that a 120-odd hour journey has finally come to an end, and the adventure is over.
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I cried once during Dreamfall. At that same point. Finding Faith’s room with the drawings, and the moment of realisation hits you. I can watch most things undisturbed, but I’m hopeless when it come to kids.
I felt like I should have felt something during ‘that moment’ in Outcast. Maybe I was too young. But I didn’t feel very attached to the moment. If I played again now, but with no memory, who knows.
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Just been racking my brains over this and I am sad to report that while PC gaming has brought me a massive amount of enjoyment over the years, especially in the realms of multi-player games, it has never successfully played the emotional card for me. Any and all truly emotive experiences I have had with games all played out on consoles, specifically those made for the PS2 in fact.
How odd…
Hmm… I’m actually a little shocked by that. Has there really been no PC title that has moved me in the way, say, Ico moved me? I’m gonna have to run through every game I have ever played now just to double check but so far i am coming up with zilch…
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I geniunely can’t remember a game that’s taken me that close to blubbing, but I’ve had plenty where I’ve had to set the mouse/controller down and think for a good five minutes.
Most recent will have been Braid – not at the generally ambiguous ending I took on face value, but after having gone back to it, armed with the more in-depth reading of the finale and the allusions it makes to something much less trivial than one man’s fleeting relationship. I felt it was a particularly powerful and (perhaps overly) subtle description of the power of obsession, and realising your dreams.
Being deliberately vague to accommodate those who didn’t catch the references the first time, or are yet to reach it. Google theories on the ending and the plot’s key theme if, like me, you didn’t put it together throughout the game. I found it a particularly humbling moment when it all slotted into place; made more so by the fact I’d almost written the story off as too self-involved.
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A friend of mine cried during FF7. You know the bit.
I laughed at him then gave him a dig in the arm.
I don’t remember any times I’ve cried at games, but there have been a ton of times games have had a significant emotional impact on me.
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I cannot cry. I am too manly. I simply flex my chin and gaze off at the horizon.
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Just reading about the Russian lab in Dreamfall again brought goosebumps (although, admittedly, not tears)
What a beautiful game.
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Movies, yes, but no game has yet managed to hit me on that level. I’ve certainly been moved to sadness by games, but I’ve never been able to truly empathise with game characters on the same level as a good film performance.
I suspect that for me it would require not only a particular alignment of relevant themes and excellent voice acting, but also a few more iterations in graphical fidelity, including more realistic facial expressions.
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It’s not a PC game, but Elite Beat Agents on the DS made me blub on the “You’re the Inspiration” level, which is incredibly cheesy, blatantly (emotionally) manipulative and yet ridiculously lovely. The other “Ouendan” games have similar sequences, but only this one has actually made me weep.
I am not ashamed, but I probably ought to be.
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If we’re talking movies, the only one I can think of that makes me cry is LA Story.
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Postman Pat on the Spectrum. One time the clock ran out and it was a big game over. I cried my tiny eyes out. I’d have been about four.
Otherwise, no. Though I did mist up a bit when Cleitos the Great, warrior-king, dynamic dynast, helmet enthusiast, died. He died in his bed, an old, old man. Despite conquering most of Asia, Greece and eastern Europe within his lifetime he never achieved a glorious death in battle. How tragic.
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Passage’s ending.
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The only 2 films I’ve ever cried/had a lump in my throat at are The Lion King when I was a wee nipper and This Is England. Maybe I need a game about a young child revoking Nationalism/Facism to give me the tear-jerkiness I need.
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I’ve never really cried at a game, although recently playing The Path I did get unexpectedly emotional at playing the Little-Red-Riding-Hoodiest of the girls, as her movements directly reminded me of my 4-year-old niece.
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Unwize: it doesn’t need graphical fidelity, or even voice acting. It needs only context. Take Hal’s personality in 2001, done with just a blank emotionless voice and constantly cutting to a red dot.
Or take the famous early cinema experiment (Russian. Can never remember the name) where a shot of an impassive face is intercut with different things. Put next to the image of a baby and audiences said the face showed a kind, paternalistic emotion. Put next to an image of war and the audience said the faced showed the emotion of horror.
The face stayed exactly the same. Thus the same trick could be pulled with simply a jpeg and some text describing what that face is ‘reacting’ to.
So the point is that it is not that games ‘can’t’ do emotion yet, but that they don’t.
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I’m basically the same as you, John. I tend to cry a lot. Even if you think, “Jesus Christ, this is schmaltzy.” it’s normally followed by, “But… also… so beautiful…”
And then sobbing.
So yeah. Too many games to list.
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Wing Commander II. BioForge’s ending. And that particular Silent Hill 2 ending brought tears to my eyes.
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I don’t think I’ve ever cried at a game, but I found the part in Beyond Good and Evil when Jade returns home to find all the kids gone very, very sad.
The last time I cried at something along these lines was at Turner and Hooch when I was 5.
I’ve probably almost shed a tear at a great number of things, the most surprising of which would be a Futurama episode (“Jurassic Bark”, I just love the pooches) and an ep of The Simpsons (“And Maggie Makes Three”.)
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Baldur’s Gate’s epilogue’s description of my life with Viconia had me teary eyed.
Also: apostrophe triple-whammy!
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None, sad to say. Darwinia came damn close, at the moais and the Temple, and that cruel cruel end-credits montage of the battlefields and their ghosts that I had put there. World of Goo’s ending with the same montage trick and the Goos I couldn’t save, thanks for reminding me Lilliput King. Team Ico’s come pretty close twice, though through the whole game rather than at specific moments.
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Games, movies, books, music, pretty pictures… I’ll cry at anything. It’s rather inconvenient.
A bit surprisingly, the game that got me the worst was Crescendo, which is one of them visual novels of questionable moral character that you can’t admit to having interest in in polite society. I’d just gotten out of a fairly difficult long-term relationship, though, and I suspect my total breakdown wasn’t all the game’s doing.
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As I mentioned the other week, Galatea’s probably come the closest, getting me a little watery-eyed.
Er. I think that’s it. Dear Esther sent tingles up my spine and actually left me properly speechless, but not teary. Same with a section in GTAIV that resonated for a particularly personal reason. But yeah — just Galatea.
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Actually Dreamfall didn’t make me tearful. Photopia, on the other hand…. I can’t describe the game without spoilers or without trivialising what it did, but it moved me to tears.
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Well, this is pretty spectaculame, but the moment that immediately springs to mind is the end of Unreal 2. Not a great game, to put it generously, but the ending … just … got me.
Team Ico! Having watched the trailer for The Last Guardian, I suspect that if I do come to play it ever, and if the bird thing does end up dying as everyone seems to suggest it must, then West London will have a new river running through it.
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I have been known to well up (something in my eye of course) during many kinds of movies and, oddly enough, more often at happy sweeping finales where all was lost but somehow someone has managed to save the day than the traditional dying parent gives last words of never spoken before pride etc etc.
This is more likely to occur in a darkened movie cinema with large screens and bombastic surround sound systems pummeling my emotions until they leak out of my eyes.
Although music and books can make my eyes well up (someone cooking onions of course) too.
YET – I do not remember ever crying at (with?) a game before. Not even with frustration at it’s unfair AI or a corrupted save file. Its bound to happen eventually and I look forward to it. A good cry is a cathartic process that cleans out the system I say or maybe as FOTC would sing- ‘an inflammation in my tear gland’
I did feel deep sadness when I lost a squadmember in Mass Effect. This wa only a couple of nights ago but it’s still on my mind. Surely a sniffle or too can’t be far behind those feelings?
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I don’t remember crying over a game either. Now that doesn’t make me a cold-hearted monster because to this day my most favorite games are the ones that moved me most emotionally – Grim Fandango, Planescape Torment, Braid, and I cherish those more than other games that are arguably more technically perfect as gameplay, production values etc.
But I’ve never got to crying over any of these, it’s just something rarely happens to me even in the most saddening circumstances.
The only one game that has really come close though is Grim Fandango. I still remember watching the ending credits heart-broken, 10 years ago.
HOW COULD IT END?
I’ll never get over that. I’ve replayed it 3 or 4 times. I’ve never replayed anything else more than a second time and it’s a damn adventure goddammit, nothing changes, everything is exactly the same. And I already feel it’s time to visit it again.
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Yeah, I cried at the FF7 bit. I didn’t even like her but I’d never played a game where that could happen so I think it was shock as much as anything, that and the lovely score.
MGS4 gave me a lump in my throat towards the end too.
Some people will probably never be moved by a game as they don’t/won’t invest in the story or characters.
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It was predictable, but: Mafia ending.
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I almost cried at that bit in Fahrenheit when the ex girlfriend comes over. I didn’t actually know there was a potential sex scene at the end of that until I played again (which is just awkward). I think one of the other options leads to a stand-up row.
In any case, they drank, chatted and played some mediocre guitar. In the end, choosing between kissing her and saying goodbye, I said goodbye. The hurt in the actor’s voice and the eyes of the model gave away the love and need that was still there, but the pain of knowing it wasn’t going to work which had made the preceeding scene so awkward but touching.
By far the best acting I’ve seen in any game came from Fahrenheit – in that it was genuinely moving and managed, on occasion, to illicit real empathy for these uncanny valley characters.
In any case, that game had some moments of incredible inspiration and acting like no other game. It also had annoying QTEs and went batshit crazy half way through. Shame.
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EDIT: Last sentence not to be construed as an attack on anyone here who ain’t blubbed. Sorry for double post.
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I love the section with the song that plays out just after the section in the russian laboratory. It seemed to me perfectly in tune with the numbness, failure and helplessness that Zoe was feeling at the time. You are given no goals, no objectives, no puzzles left to solve you are just left with nothing to do but make your way back to Zoe’s room alone and friendless through the quiet streets of her hometown. All the while a perfectly judged haunting song plays with a female vocal lasting, in my case, exactly as long as it took to reach Zoe’s room. One of my favourite gaming moments.
Eyes were definitely moistened.
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Oh and Photopia gets an honorable mention – still didn’t manage to break my walls, but saddened me a lot. But funny – made me at the same time very happy that I had read/been involved into something so beautiful. :)
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Bah too busy doing push ups and ignoring cover systems to cry, although one time my eye did water after a back-drft of smoldering cigar ash hit me in the eye.
off now to do 5000 sit ups, and to steal candy from babies
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Never cried over a game, but came close a few times. The last time I remember was the end of HL2: Episode 2. That haunting “Don’t leave me” of Alyx while the screen faded to black really shook me up.
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I’m sad to say that I’ve never cried playing a game.
There have been many manly lip-wobbling moments though, a couple both in TLJ/Dreamfall and Syberia. The others I’ve mostly forgotten.
But generally speaking, I am surprised at realising what makes my eyes go watery. Tha fact that poignant music is usually involved doesn’t surprise me. What does is the fact that too often there’s a patriotic side to the moment.
For example, watching footage of Churchill’s funeral with Battle Hymn of the Republic playing in the background. Or Kenneth Branagh delivering the St. Crispin’s Day speech in Henry V.
And I’m not even English.
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I can’t think of any game that has made my eyes water, which is the nearest I ever come to crying (I haven’t cried since I was a child; not even when a close relative passed away) .
There have been plenty of movies that have moved me, but not a single game. The ending HL2: EP2 almost moved me, it was certainly a downer, but it just wasn’t enough to tip me over the edge.
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@sfury You beat me to it… I was also going to mention Grim Fandango, and Planescape Torment. The latter didn’t make me want to cry, but it is the only game where I’ve had to go for an hour of walk & think before I could answer a single question posed to me in a dialogue.
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@chrisc: High-Five! I totally shed a tear at that bit. The worst bit was my girlfriend staring at me as if I were mad.
As for other gaming moments that have made me cry….. It’s not really a gaming moment per se, but http://animalcrossingtragedy.ytmnd.com/ still gives me goosebumps. :’(
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Nikos: Photopia, yes, that’s another that came close. That slow realisation of what’s going on, then that second where it all falls awfully into place… really magically tragic stuff.
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And yeah, that scene in Fahrenheit too. That bit before it becomes impossibly shit.
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@sfury : the last “Viva la revolucion”, with a broken voice, from Salvador…
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Final Fantasy 8 when I was small. The ending credit where everyone is reunited, even Laguna finds bittersweet conclusion to his journey, made the whole game (50hrs +) seems not wasted. Childhood are good times.
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Most examples already mentioned I’ll second. Loom’s ending upset me when I played through the game as a kid. There were also both Klonoa games (PS1/PS2 respectively) which had such sad endings. Yeah, I’m a wuss. Fable 2 had its moments as well.
Also, not actual tears, but I did feel sad when I found Alma’s tree and tyre swing at the end of FEAR2. You’ve been seeing it in all her visions as this wonderful place with green rolling fields, and it turns out to be just another prison. Course, any emotions the game managed to provoke from me were utterly destroyed when it decided to jump the shark (in slow motion) right at the end.
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The “bad” ending of Silent Hill 2
The bit in FFX, when it’s revealed what happens to summoners after fighting Sin.
The end of Ico
Near the end of Shadow of the Collosus
At this rate, I’m sure Team Ico’s next game, The Last Guardian, will reduce me to tears at some point, and is probably when I’ll get a PS3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqvIITrYdyo&feature=related) They’re just so good at making you bond with those pixels.
On a different note, Shenmue has retroactively moved me to tears, because 3′s never, ever, going to be made at this point.
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And oh of course, how can I forget, the part in Planescape Torment where you look into the vision sphere left by Deionarra, how you see your evil self manipulating her, and how you react to it. Most powerful part of the game, and told by mere words is simply a great achievement in games.
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Oh yes, lots of bits in Grim Fandango including that wonderful ending. How could I have forgotten? This wasn’t intended to be a +1, I came back to say that for some reason I found the ghost bride sequence in Curse of Monkey Island quite moving.
On the negative side, I am apparently twisted through the fourth dimension WRT Psychonauts; the whole world thinks it’s a brilliant emotional story with shoddy gameplay, I thought it was a very enjoyable platformer (meat circus, no problem) polluted by disgustingly clunky, exploitative stories. Agent Klein and Coach Somethingorother were the only ones with the restraint to carry their worlds. I literally shuddered in disgust at “Oh, you don’t want to go in there, darling” and “Why doesn’t he shut up and kiss me already?”
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Don’t think I’ve ever cried from a game, or not in memory anyway (who knows, may have cried from frustration at Whizzkid or something as a small child). Closest I ever came was probably the second mission of Homeworld. Part of it is just the cheap trick of using Agnus Dei. But the sadness anger inside of me and the cold, shellshocked voices from Fleet Command and Intel. Damn. Helped I think that I’d read the full back story of Kharak in the manual before playing as a result of having got the game when away from the PC for a few days.
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I liked the quick-time events in Fahrenheit. Am I a monster?
The second half admittedly isn’t as good, but I never thought it was bad at all. The flying-fighting was a bit shit though. Not really as epic as it was supposed to be. :p
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Ian: oh bloody hell – that ep of Futurama! assuming it’s the same one i’m thinking of…
i hadnt cried for something like ten years or more – got a bit choked up and all that, sure, but never *cried* – until i saw THAT episode. the whole thing was giving me a rising sense of dread, and that ending, with the dog just waiting there, while they played that song… that just killed me. i still get choked up thinking about it :(
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The end of Ico.
Okami – conversely a beautiful game about the rebirth of faith. I was coping fine until a moment when someone decides to be a hero.
Today I Die, being all poetic and unexpected.
The ending of the first Syberia.
I’m sure there’s something else on the edge of my mind too but I can’t quite think of it.
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I’m pretty sure I’ve never cried at a game while playing, but thinking about Okami sometimes makes me feel all teary, mainly from all the happy memories. It’s one of the most uplifting games ever, in so many ways, and it makes me kind of glad to be alive, like some of the better Studio Ghibli movies do.
Plus, wolves and mythology are two of my most favouritest things, so…
Where’s my PS2?
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I’m another one of the never-brought-to-tears people. But that goes for life in general, not just videogames. I keep everything pent up and will probably snap and die pathetically at some point.
One game moment that did have a pronounced impact on me was Pey’j “dying” in BG&E.
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Oh and the bathysphere with Atlas’ family inside getting torn apart by splicers in Bioshock was also rather profound the first time around.
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Grim Fandango’s ending. I was a teenager then and blame the hormones.
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Off the top of my head I haven’t cried during any games. What a shame! Eastenders, Paradise Lost and lots of anime have all made me cry at some stage, so I’t can’t be that hard.
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Kuleshov’s Experiment
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John, I’m surprised you didn’t include the ending of Dreamfall. That was just sad :(
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No game has ever moved me in a way that certain movies, novels or TV shows (specifically, The Wire) have, but Mafia was one game whose narrative I found myself invested in. And the ending did … affect me.
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I should really think these responses though and consolidate them before typing away. Another honourable mention, but perhaps not as much due to the game’s own writing, music, and pacing, as my more personal game experience was Far Cry 2.
Because I wasn’t terrifically good at the game and started it as a homicidal maniac shooting anything that moved, I went through the NPC characters rather quickly and never got attached to any of them. when the missions started getting tougher I befriended Quarbani Singh and we did quite a few of them together, he saved me a lot and I did his side missions every time out of some kind of gratitude (I ignored them before, preferring to just shoot the NPC’s and take their weapons when they came to bother me). After going through roughly 50% of the game with him we inevitably reached a point where he was gunned down. I ran over to him dramatically and knifed the angry mercenary that brought him down before diving onto my friend and jamming a syringe into his cringing body. Where normally the NPCs got up, rearmed, and continued shooting, Quarbani didn’t. I fumbled for another syringe, followed by another but he went limp and I could not produce another syringe.
While I’m not sure if the game did it or not, in my memory of this event the battle sounds dimmed down a bit as I stood up in a rage and lobbed grenades at Quarbani’s murderers before charging at them with a rapidly emptying pistol and a knife. I survived that fight and rather anti-climatically Quarbani’s body had magically despawned, I’m sure the game wouldn’t have let me bury it anyways, but the moment called for such an action, I desired such an action. And that says something I think.
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It’s not a PC game, but Elite Beat Agents on the DS made me blub on the “You’re the Inspiration” level, which is incredibly cheesy, blatantly (emotionally) manipulative and yet ridiculously lovely
Really? I found that story rather creepy. Some of the fail screens are fucked up.
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Penumbra: Black Plague – The almost final scene, before the end. (I don’t wanna spoil). That twisted me up good and proper, horrible and beautiful. I then had to leave that room, weeping with the deed I’d committed, only to be thrust into the one of most terrifying endings to a computer game. Damn that was amazing.
Outcast – The ending made me cry my lungs out then spit acid revenge. I’ve never been driven to anger like that by a fictional character.
Max Payne 2 – Not the “good” ending, but the normal ending. I guess I’m not being manly enough but it made me rather upset. Poor Max.
Final Fantasy 6 Advanced – Locke’s sidequest, I wasn’t expecting that at all!
American McGee’s Alice – Several events throughout the game upset me, not so much the ending though.
Cave Story
Black & White – When my savegame got wiped. :( My creature died, and with him, so did a bit of me. :(
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This is the most commented-on story on the front page, despite being the newest. Turns out RPS-readers like to talk about their feelings.
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giovanni said “wing commander ii”
for me it was wing commander 3 when prisoner of war angel was brutally executed by kilrathi hands. those bastards! i’m glad we blew up their homeworld.
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I felt something like that in various moment in Planescape Torment, but the one time I nearly had tears in my eyes was at the end of Max Payne 2. You have to play the original and the sequel in rapid succession to really appreciate how moving the ending is. I’d mention the final phrase (and the great “Late Goodbye” song that follows), but I want this comment to be spoiler-free. ;-)
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The thing that happens to Eli Vance.
The thing that happens to the Nameless One.
The thing that happens to the Vault Dweller.
The ending of any game by Fumito Ueda.
Hell, the fucking TRAILER to The Last Guardian had me welling up.
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The Russian lab in Dreamfall is of course incredibly powerful, but I found Tassadar’s death in Starcraft to be very moving as well.
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Hmm. Only three moments really stand out. A paticular scene in Alabaster almost bought me to tears, but not quite.
Immortal Defence, an unusualy heart moving game , and finaly, the scene in the longest journey mentioned earlier.
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I cried in FF7, but not at Aeris dying, but at the battle afterwards. That battle had the loveliest music(I think it was Aeris theme tune) and it also had the rage in what he just did. I think this shows when I cry, i don’t cry at people’s deaths but I cry at the aftermath. Like I Am Legend that bit in the shop scene when hes willing the dummy to talk because he has lost his dog is very emotional and I always cry.
I also cried at the end of FFX, that was a really sad ending since I really wanted Yuna and Tidus to be together but it wasn’t to be.
I do shake my head at people who say games can’t make you cry, they can and some of them should really. To get our emotions in, not every game should be an action packed blockbuster.
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The Dig made me cry for the right reasons, sniff :(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OlCCG6lNy0
Crying for the wrong reasons (frustration, anger etc.) = All other games :)
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Mother 3 made me cry like a baby.
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Well, a few gaming moments have made me slightly emotional:
The aforementioned Dreamfall.
Planescape Torment, when the Nameless One finds out that he was the one who orchestrated Deionarras death.
Sanitarium, in the dream sequence when you cannot find your dying sister’s teddy bear in time. That is actually the only gaming moment where I have actually shed a tear.
And last, but not least, Quest for Glory IV, when the vampire woman sacrifices herself to save you.
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I may have cried a bit at Metal Gear Solid 2, at that sniper bit. I reloaded to play the section again to try and avoid that tearey scene, but there’s nothing you can do.
More recently, I almost cried at the end of Prince of Persia. If it wasn’t for the Prince’s permanently smut grin making me laugh I think it would have got me.
As for films and television, I cry every time I watch the end of Leon, and when I watched the last episode of Justice League season 2 for the first time I cried for a couple of days non-stop.
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@sfury
I echo your Grim Fandango sentiments. I didn’t burst into tears, but I sat there, watching the final cutscene, and felt an overwhelming sense of loss. The game’s broad, four year structure really makes you feel like you’ve been on an incredible journey. You feel like you’ve grown with these characters and when it finally ends, it’s a joyous ending, but also so very sad.
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Breath of Fire IV – the PC version, natch, which I bought at the behest of a love for the first two instalments of the series and a mid-sixties PCG review from John Walker, or Richard Cobbett, or.. someone. If it was Walker’s that’d be nicely appropriate, but it probably wasn’t.
All of the games in the Bee-Oh-Eff series are deliberately manipulative in the teary-eyed department – usually entirely whimsical and light-hearted adventures for the first two-thirds, before killing off an incidental character or two, then someone a little more important to the story, drip, drip, before the knives really come out, the metaphors really start to mix, and anyone even tangentially related to a party NPC becomes a marked man/woman/anthropomorphised creature. If there’s someone you’ve set out in particular to rescue, then you should probably give up on them from the off, in accordance to the incontrovertible rule of game fiction that a character’s chances of survival are inversely proportional to the amount of time spent questing for their rescue (Princess Peach aside). And to ensure that the player is thoroughly beaten about the head with the Sad Stick, he or she usually ends up killing, unwillingly or otherwise, this particular character his- or herself. The games share a carefully measured, irresistible ramp-up, and despite the iffy translations and somewhat rudimentary cutscenery, for me they never failed to serve up at least one hefty emotional wrench. The dictates of masculinity oblige me to point out that outright weeping was, of course, never an issue.
But with IV (spoilers ahead, at that magical two-thirds point, Capcom forego the traditional patient build-up of emotionally-escalative murder and square a jab straight into your soft, spongy blubber-core, giving you no time or warning to tense up the appropriate machismo-muscles that would wince shut a tear duct in the nick of manly time, or for your brain to assemble that shiny veneer of ironic detachment that so easily sneers away the pain. On reaching the chamber of the poor girl you’d set out to rescue [check], who happened to be a sister to one of your party members [check], you are treated to the revelation that the evil hand of Science has put your would-be rescuee far beyond any hopes of salvation, what with the weirdly organic dungeon you’ve spent the last hour traversing turning out to be, in fact, a giant housing for her, yes, organs. Conveniently funnelled through a hole in her bed, and thus with covers drawn not immediately apparent from the vantage of her room, the girl has undergone quite a horrific spurt of internal/external growth, and you’ve just fought your way through the hernia that, as hernias go, would Rule Them All And In The Darkness Bind Them. The only compassionate course of action, the only way to ‘rescue’ this wronged, utterly guiltless girl from her nightmarish plight, is for her best friend (and hinted-at lover) to end her life [check].
The particularities of the mutations and abhorrations may vary, but this is a fairly done-to-death plot device, turning up most recently (and most predictably) in Gears of War 2, which perhaps indicates how ‘sophisticated’ a twist it really is. I’m sure TVtropes has a pageful of snarkily summated examples as testament to the duncery of anyone who gets caught in this most obvious of emotional snares. But… but. There was something in the game’s execution of that moment. Probably, it was the (anti-)climactic employment of Pavane for a Dead Princess on a music box, that instrument most effectively hardwired to the ‘weep, thou, for innocence abused’ emotive receptors of the human brain. Or perhaps it was the sudden realisation that the game, imperceptibly and quite masterfully, had made me care about the emotional wellbeing of these characters, even in spite of my eye-rolling assertions up to this point that everything had been a little too formulaic and predictable to invest in. It might even have been a reaction not borne of sorrow at all, but anger – at the (remarkably contemptible) antagonist responsible for the deed, at the game’s creators for that sleight-of-hand hope they’d allowed to stir within me, or at myself for not catching onto the fact that I had a few minutes prior clambered through what were clearly some unholy abomination of experimental science’s intestines, and that therefore the complete lack of an unholy intestine-themed abomination boss to fight was as much signposting as anyone should need to realise what was going to happen next.
But whatever it was, tears did flow. I’m not entirely sure how to feel about it, except perhaps that in some vague sense that it was important enough to expend a page-and-a-half’s worth of self-indulgent effort detailing it. Probably the worst thing is that it wasn’t even the only part of the game I cried at.
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No game has ever made me cry, I just end up laughing at the bad storylines :D Most of the time I just want to skip cut scenes
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Wait, there’s a dungeon where you crawl up a lady’s bottom?
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Only once, when playing Persona 4, have I ever cried (a PS2 game, yes yes Booh, hiss etcetera) when playing a game. *Major spoilers ahead* When Nanako dies in the hospital, and Teddie just stands there and cries. *Spoilers end* Mostly just because he was one of two characters properly fleshed out via events ‘n’ social links.
Oh, and the end of FFX was rather emotional, nothing more than a slight hmmph from me though, because I still saw Tidus as a massive cock at that point.
And for the record, I really don’t see what everyone found so sad about FF7, I just found the whole game vaguely un-inspiring. I blame society for my lack of emotional fine tuning.
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Asides from PST, possibly the most moving sequence I’ve played is the very end of PW: Trials and Tribulations.
Spoilers obv. but; After the gloriously OTT in-court exorcism that you think will end the series on a high, you are forced to destroy the most sympathetic character in the game valiantly defending the likeable lawyer that actually killed the sympathetic character’s own mother to protect her in the memory of her dead sister (who the lawyer blames you for not saving.) Victory cues tears of blood from the lawyer, resolute statements from sympathetic character to stay strong for her nine year old cousin (who indirectly forced the likeable lawyer to kill the mother) and a cascade of bitter sweet fairwells from the cast. Frankly it was the best soap opera I’ve ever played.
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@AndrewC: Hitchcock used that technique effectively in Rear Window. He spliced the same footage of Jimmy Stewart looking through binoculars and smiliing with kids in a playground and a woman changing. In one moment, he looked like a kind individual, in the next, he was a slimy creep.
D:TLJ made me feel something, but not to the extend of tears. The death of Faith was sad, but the girl knew nothing else, so her death was in a sense a freeing.
The most a game moved me was HL2E2. The ending was so unexpected, on a character that was previously “safe” (safe in the sense that you thought nothing would happen to them), that it struck a chord of mortality in me.
Of course, that I had just been through a very rough breakup the previous day (itmade me break down in tears when finishing Portal and hearing “Still Alive,” but that’s not something I can attribute to Valve so much as my own situation).
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I didn’t find any part of FF7 tear-inducing. Aeris was barely developed as a character and the story really didn’t make a whole lot of sense. I find the whole cult of worship of that game rather nauseating.
On the other hand, the ending of FFX did it for me. It really was a terrific semi-tragic heroic ending. I wouldn’t call the game a masterpiece, but it told its story very well, and the characters were all quite nice, in spite of the poor English voice acting.
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I cried when my parents took away my copy of Chrono Trigger before I beat it. Does that count?
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*cries, clenching fists*
John Walker, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!
It’s time for a group hug. There, there. It’s all gonna be alright.
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Shadow of the Colossus is probably the one game to make me cry.
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Man this is going to make me feel old. Final Fantasy 3 (US) or FF6 (Japan) on the SNES. The bit where the royal Figaro brothers, Edgar and Sabin toss a coin (rigged) to see who becomes king. Both did not want the throne but Edgar seeing that his brother longed for freedom used the coin that had both their faces stamped on it to allow his brother to leave (Heads you win all day). The song immediately following was awesome.
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Max Payne 2.
I recently found out there’s another ending.
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Bizarrely, as there was nothing particularly special about its very standard story, the final mission in FreeSpace 2 often gets to me, as you and your squad fight desparately to protect as many escaping civilian ships as possible, before having to decide whether to bug out yourself or remain and inevitably die.
That was one long, poorly written sentence.
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Even though I knew what was going to happen, the ending of HL2:E2 almost had me cry, which says something about how well it was directed.
Thinking about it, although it’s easy to get me to cry in films, I think the “worst” I’ve had from games was deep sadness.
Along with HL2:E2, I think pretty much every bleak ending for a game (even, console-wise, the one for R-Type:Final) has done it to some extent. But, then again, I felt horribly guilty the first time one of my guys died in Cannon Fodder, too, so… (Hell, I felt disgusted at myself for the way in which I was forced to kill the Stroylent Creature in Quake 4, and I’m one of those weaklings who’s never played a System Shock or Thief game because they were too scary – so perhaps I’m just not prone to crying, but am to running like a scared guy.)
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Fable 2 made me cry like no other game I’ve played. There was genral air of loss and of an age that was coming to an end. Just playing catch with my dog on the shore of Bowerlake and listening to the music moved me! But one particualr quest at the end got to me. It was the quest called A Perfect World. As soon as I saw what was happening i welled up straight away. It’s a lot to explain, but it sort of shows what your character has lost in his/her life, via a sort of dream sequence. Her (my character was a woman) sister who was killed at the start of the game, is alive, she’s living in a beautiful home, and their parents are out for the day, so they have the day to themselves to play (they really lived as orphans in what would be best described as a lean-to in a poor part of town). You eventually have to leave all this behind to carry on the quest (I’m not explaining it very well :D best thing to do is play the game!). Such a lot of Fable 2 seemed to be about sacrifice. It was a brilliant moment that caught me totally off-guard.
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@LactoseTheIntolerant: I definitely get where you’re coming from with that. There’s something tremendous about that final, disastrous battle – about the scale, the spectacle, and in particular about your relation, in terms of significance, to both. You can play as big a part in the survival of the human fleet as you want (and are able) – you’re not designated the hero, and I think you can shift out at the very start if you want and still see the (an) ending screen. There’s no way to save everyone, so you do what you can, what you want, and make your escape. Or not. It’s all up for passive and active interpretation, and that makes it so unlike the meticulous scripting of just about every other story-driven game finale ever.
@AndrewC: In effect. But, as a Japanese game, this is not actually all that remarkable in itself [/casual racism]
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One game ending made me not cry but pretty emtional:
Rune.
SPOILER!!!
The only way to beat Loki was to become one of the monsters you fought all the time before without any chance to turn into a human afterwards again. What a terrible fate and what act of sacrifice for a greater good!
You turned into the monster and beat Loki.
Then you died. Now the final cutscene:
The hero crosses the rainbow bridge to reach Valhalla in HUMAN form being restored to this form + having the highest honour possible (to sit among the greatest warriors at Valhalla’s tables) as a reward for having chosen the right thing to do.
That made gave me goosebumps. Best ending ever!
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@Gnoupi dude I probably know half the script by heart, I can even recite the poems – the one Olivia says in the Blue Casket and the one Manny says for Lola at the lighthouse. I could even say most of their lines as they speak them when I replay. :)
I don’t. It’s creepy.
Ok, just Manny’s lines…
@Demikaze – indeed, I’ve felt sad that games have ended before and after that, but never such an overwhelming feeling of emptiness. GF is a very special game.
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I recently found out there’s another ending.
O_o
I found out just now.
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Portal and HL2:EP2 endings made me cry. It was pure awesomeness!!!1
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never actually blubbed, but Ico on the beach scene and the futility of Sota both moved me. In a more old school way Both Zelda64 and Majoras mask got me a little choked, i think it was more just the time and group effort a bunch of us had put into the game and hanging out with all the npcs made me really attached to their fates.
However and I know this is a bit of a counter, but the most emotional I have ever been is probably during a guild breakup in WoW, mainly because I knew a little too much about some of the individuals personal lives combined with the in-game manifestation of the fallout.
Braid moved me much more just reading the various ‘interpretations’ than ever actually playing the game.
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I have never actually cried during a game. I’ve felt tears sort-of well up, but they rarely fall.
Two games I can think of off the top of my head are, as many people have said, Dreamfall (and I have you to blame for me getting it, Walker!), and The World Ends With You. Shut up.
The former, the exact same place.
The latter… I can’t really describe when without spoiling. Most of it revolves around Beat and Rhyme, so anyone who’s played probably knows what I’m talking about.
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I wish I could still cry at fiction. When I’m subject to something really heart-stabbingly tragic, a massive knot builds up in my chest and my throat and tears well up in my eyes but I cannot for the life of me actually cry to gain some damn relief.
I blame our culture.
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@Demikaze Exactly like that! I replayed it recently for the first time in years and experienced it all over again.
@sfury Do you mind if I use your image as my avatar on Twitter? :)
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@KBkarma – I thought the whole Beat/Rhyme relationship was a little contrived – that said the slow transformation of the player character from a selfish callow arsehole into a decent human being was wonderful. The happy ending for everyone felt earnt for once.
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I cried to the two Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games.
It’s especially depressing if you don’t play on after the credits.
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Isn’t Dreamfall basically a movie though?
Not to undermine your point, but I spent most of it laying back on my bed and *watching* the thing, occassionally picking up the 360 controlled I’d plugged in to play it on to move to the next scene.
[This text cut for dramatic effect]
Sod it, this is getting too long, I’m just going to email you.
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I actually haven’t with any game, though I’ve found many to be emotionally draining. I’ve been shocked at endings, but I’ve never cried, because I simply find it very difficult to. I’d like for there to be a game that manages it though. That’d be pretty special.
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I cried a lot at video games but not because they were sad, because they were freaking hard and I was going insane trying to beat them. I can’t think of any game where I actually cried (but I’m almost certain I HAVE cried at a video game’s story line, I cry at everything else)
********Spolier Alert!!!!!***********
Don’t read this if you’re in the process of reading the dragon lance novels, JUST DON’T . Look away now! Read something else!
The worst time I’ve ever cried with any type of media is when I was reading the Dragon Lance series where Flint dies of a heart attack. I cried for like an hour or so and every time I tried to go back and start reading again I’d have to stop. Then they’d mention him again later being dead and I’d start tearing up again and have to take a break. Was very hard on me (and happened in my adult life not when I was a child) There are a few movies that have given me the slow tears but that book made me cry like it was my own family member that died :P maybe I was just in a strange place at the time I dunno, I’m about to cry now just thinking about it.
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I’m not sure if I’ve cried, like many here have said, but I have been shaken.
Dreamfall: Faith’s room and the death, despite the lack of facial animations, and to a lesser extent, the realization that Zoe’s boyfriend had died, more so on the method of his oblivion (being mentally picked apart and consumed by that… thing, I know it had a name, but I can’t remember it)
Bioshock: “Would you kindly” inspired shivers up my spine, I never played system shock 2, so the following betrayl also felt somewhat unique, first time I openly yelled at a single player NPC, “You son of a bitch, YOU MOTHERF****** BASTARD!”
Half Life 2: Episode 2 I felt like a lost something when the credits rolled, I mean, I read the ending beforehand, spoilers not bothering me, but still something felt wrong about it all.
Pathologic It didn’t inspire any downright sorrow, but it did inspire desperation and fear like no would be horror game had ever inspired in me. I feared that fricken plague, the ridiculously cartoony particle effects of skulls and robed figures aside, I ran like hell from that thing and when my health was low, I was literally pushing harder on the keys to run, to a frakken bakery or something, for food, which made my character sleepy, but there was a quest and if I didn’t do it someone would “die”. I often found my character sleeping with a tiny amount of health left and then waking to starvation. I always play the good guy, maybe it’s because I have form attatchments with inanimate objects more easily than others and thus sympathize to some extent with poorly textured meshes of poorly animated people walking, choking, dying in the streets. Still, I had a hard time making the “good” choices in that game when so much was at stake; IE the choice between killing the butchers and the Earth Bride, killing the bride would raise my popularity, so people wouldn’t hunt me like the devil or something, but would also mean killing a relatively innocent virtual life (that existed to either live or die and only for that purpose) in exchange for popularity. I killed the butchers, but damn if it wasn’t a hard walk home dodging villagers (who have a strange 6th sense about me). Beyond that, the game got creepier and freakier till the endings, which were all so disturbing and yet workable (within the game’s world). That game was a mix between Pac Man (without the super pills, or rather, with having to buy them with an amount of money you could never get) and some old movie about the Black plague (relating it to some satanic death figure that helped a kingdom survive it in exchange for allegiance to Satan and the rejection of God, which of course ended in an even worse plague befalling the kingdom that made people into zombies (mentally, they just kept dancing) that were hemoraging all over their bodies, those of which obeying the king, all ending up in Hell, while those tortured by him wound up in… well, it technically makes no reference to heaven or that they had good afterlives, it made only one point; that making deals with satanic figures usually ends up poorly, because their SATANIC, damn it, you don’t trust Satan)
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Beyond Good & Evil (poor Pey’j) and Shadow of Memories (when I got the fifteenth ending which tied the whole thing together).
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Up was beautiful; there’s no shame in what you did.
*holds John and cries pathetically, as well*
Oh, yes, games. I don’t think I’ve ever cried, actually, though I have had a few sublime moments.
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The end of Chrono Trigger. It’s not a sad ending, but a powerful, drawn out goodbye to all the characters.
Man that game had me wrapped around it’s little finger.
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Oh God, no, forget what I said; I was a blubbering mess at the end of Episode Two. Eliiiiiiiiiiii! :’(
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I think I cried at the end of Chrono Trigger too Sir Fanciest of Pants. I cried again when I beat it earlier this year on an emulator, probably worse than the first time :P
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When I was a kid, I would be happy to play a game simply to see more of the narrative, to see what happens next; that “just one more chapter” feeling you get from a well written book.
As I’ve become a bitter old and jaded 20-something crank, though, I find myself struggling to think of the last game where I even bothered to pay attention to the story, much less be involved enough to feel emotionally moved by what was happening on screen. Nowadays I fairly exclusively play games that are immediately rewarding, “jump in and play” deals, your Team Fortress 2s, your Dawn of Wars, your Rock Bands. I have a stack of single-player focused games that remain un-played just because they require such a large time investment, and so much of it is spent faffing about listening to characters I really don’t don’t care about scroll text.
I think the heart of it is when I pick up a game, I expect it to be INTERACTIVE, and so many of these “emotional” moments are simply movies, small scale low-quality indie clips that tear me from the flow of actually PLAYING my game. I don’t mean to be a curmudgeon (except for how I’m really being a curmudgeon), and if you can have an emotional experience from a game, more power to you, but it really does baffle me, I mean it really is completely beyond my ken, to think that I would be moved to tears over a vidya game.
Or maybe the heart of it is that I have no heart. I’m not willing to rule that out. I haven’t personally verified it, myself.
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- The last bit of Planescape: Torment was a wringer.
- The final cinematic of Fallout landed like a ton of bricks.
- The end of The Last Express was even heavier, like the simultaneously epic and tragic weight of the world (and world events).
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Sfury: WAIT. WHAT POEM FOR LOLA???
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Kieron is rubbish and John is lovely.
So there.
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@sigma83 – it’s your fault:
It shone pale as bone
as I stood there alone
and I thought to myself
how the Moon that night
cast its light
on my heart’s true delight
and the reef where her body was strewn.
@Lars Westergren – Manny probably wouldn’t mind you using his image as avatar, hasn’t said anything to me at least and I’ve been using his mug as an avatar for ages ;)
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That’s not for Lola, he says it with Velasco
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cinemaware’s wings has a rather heart-wrenching narrative.
it made me feel as hopeless as i would get when i was a kid.
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“and the reef where her body was strewn.” that line’s definitely for Lola methinks :)
although he might have said it in the harbor with Velasco when looking at the Moon
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Up had me choked up the whole way through. Pixar bastards. They’ve moved from visual mastery to mastering us. Next thing you know we’ll all be slobbering crying messes at Pixar head quarters vowing our undying love for steve jobs.
Nothing to be ashamed of. Nope.
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Ah, I just remembered another gaming moment of sadness :
In Azrael’s Tear, when you finally get out of the underground labyrinth and Geoffrey lies dying on the ground, outside for the first time in almost a thousand years. His last words are how happy he is at seeing the stars again before he dies.
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Mpuncekar – I believe they posted a story here at RPS a few weeks ago about a little girl’s dying wish to SEE Up and THAT made me cry like a 4 year old with a broken leg at work right in front of my boss :P Pixar flew out the movie and let her watch it at home before it was released on DVD and gave her toys ect and at one point she was in so much pain she couldn’t even see the screen and then died shortly after (Her mother had to describe what was going on) I can’t imagine that the movie itself could be much worse than that, but ya never know.
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I’m struggling to remember a game that has made me mist up. It’s annoying because I’m sure there’s at least one.
Films that made me cry:
2001: Hal degenerating as he has his circuits removed. The loss of personality before his shutdown is what did it. I just noticed I wrote ‘he’ and ‘his’ for a character that’s a computer!
The Fountain: Bloody excellent film! The point where Hugh Jackman’s character cries just tore me up.
Changeling: Two points, the kid’s confession and the kid digging up the bones.
Solaris: The Hollywood remake, I’ve not seen the original yet. The thought of having someone you lost appear again and you knowing they are not that person. Bad description, but it brought a lump to my throat.
I nearly cried when I started playing ‘Planescape: Torment’. You see I purchased a copy that had a little novel with it. I assumed that this would give some background to the story and read it before installing the game. Then I found out that the novel WAS the story and I knew what would happen in the game. It completely ruined it for me!
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I was wailing like a little girl when Manny said Good-Bye to Glottis, at the end of Grim Fandango… they were such great friends, and it was definitely forever, as Manny was crossing over to 9th heaven. I was crying for the whole end credits!
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I may have shed a tear at the end of CoD4 (won’t say what happened here even though it’s been out for a while)
There was most certainly another gave I’ve beaten recently that made me cry at the end but I can’t for the life of me remember what it is ! :(
I cried when Banon died in World in Conflict. I cry a lot at war movies where a hero bites it.
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Wow, like sfury said, a group hug is in order :)
But an observation: a lot of (console?) JRPGs have been mentioned as the culprits for getting all misty. Potentially as many as any PC games in this thread. Is there a particular reason for this i.e. do JRPGs achieve better emotional links with the players, or is it just a demographic glitch? (I dunno, I’ve never played any JRPGs myself.)
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@nikos
JRPG’s aren’t so much games as anime movies these days. Make of that what you will.
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the cutscene after mission 3 of homeworld, when fleet intelligence says “he did not survive interrogation”. That made me feel immensely satisfied, followed by a bit teary when I tried to work out WHY I was so satisfied. The slight catch in fleet intelligence’s voice describing the what’s happened, as well as the bewilderment of fleet command, in the mission itself, got me a bit on subsequent playthroughs
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I was a blubbering mess through most of Wall E.
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@nikos While western rpgs have traditionally allowed the player to shape his/her own character, jrpgs have traditionally had pre-chosen characters which allow more focused plots and character developments, but which in my opinion are detrimental to gameplay. Too much railroading, all meaningful choice and interaction removed.
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I don’t think I’ve ever cried because of a game, but during movies it happens often enough. I’m not ashamed to admit that the end of Saving Private Ryan had my waterworks going.
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Yup, I cired at the end of Saving Pirate Ryan too, why did Tom Hanks have to die?!? WHYYYY!!??!!!???!?!
I’m pretty sure Band of Brothers made me cry often as well.
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The end of the original Fallout.
Advent Rising when I found out that I will never know the end of how the story unfolds.
Oh and definitely TLJ when Zoe… dies?
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Serondal: :o
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Yeah, CoD 4 caouse a lip wobble for me too.
On the other hand, I wished Tom Hanks died sooner in Saving Private Ryan.
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Not really crying (hey, I’m a MAN ;), but getting “watery eyes” in some games did happen. One I can remember is Outcast. The ending. For spoilery reasons on one side, which I won’t write about here — someone died — and on the other side that the whole world, “real” as it felt, and the game, had ended, or better, that there wasn’t anything more to experience in Adelpha. I’m still sad that Outcast 2 will never be.
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Yep, it’s Dreamfall for me. The Russian lab and the return home right after it. And as Dan Lawrence mentioned, the song that plays as Zoe’s just slowly walking back home, utterly defeated, with nothing left to try, nothing to hold out hope for, is absolutely perfect.
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I’ve never actually cried at a game but the one that moved me the closest to it was a recent Steam Weekend purchase – Penumbra: Black Plague.
A master-class in psychological manipulation. You go through the whole insane underground madhouse crapping yourself at things you hear lurking in the darkness that you might not be able to survive meeting, horrors subtle and gross working away at your imagination, all the while wending your way toward the oh-so-comforting voice of normality leading to you come find her. Then THAT moment happens…
I’didn’t cry, but it messed me up BADLY, I’ve never felt so much genuine hatred towards a character in my life as I did when I was reeling from the shock of what I’d been tricked into doing. That was bad enough, but the camel-shattering straw came when the callous [SWEARWORD DELETED] behind it starts taunting you about it as if it were of no more consequence than hitting you with a water balloon. I was literally shaking with genuine rage, and very nearly stopped playing altogether! But I would have my vengeance if it was the last thing I was ever going to do…
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PC Monster they should put that on the back of the box/on the steam page I think it would sell the game a lot better than what is there.
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True. Her death was so ridiculously contrived as well. You as a player hardly knew anything about her, and then she died because the plot needed her to. And… eh, what? That didn’t even make sense, considering how many times she’s been stabbed, shot and exploded during regular battles. What is one more stab between friends?
I mostly felt annoyed when it happened. Partly at how it completely blew away any attempt at suspension of disbelief, and partly because I was a bit curious about who she were and what her deal was.
Also, is anyone going to tell us what the “other” ending to Max Payne 2 was? :D
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Do I sense a “Gaming Made Me a Crybaby” theme coming on? :P
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Actually, yeah, the last sentence in Max Payne 2 made me well up a bit.
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Kickin’ it old skool here: Trinity (Infocom) got me teary-eyed when I played it as a kid. The “ending” — so tragic in its implications for yourself and the world. I also got weepy, probably moreso, after dying in the past in Japan, and you find out the significance of that lost umbrella at the beginning *snif*.
I second The Last Express, another game with a horrible, tragic sense of inevitability. The ending is like an emotional punch to the gut (I would love to get that closing credit music, btw — beautiful!)
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But hey, crying in videogames.
I think the one game to this date to hit me with an emotional punch was Planescape: Torment. “What can change the nature of a man?” is pretty strong, but when you get through the whole game and find yourself in the Fortress of Regrets, only to see Deinonarra was bound to the place waiting for the Nameless One… Sorry, but no other effing game, especially no teenage angst soap opera filled with characters with ridiculous hairdos and ginormous swords, can ever hope to compare.
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I also had no idea MP2 had an alternative ending. Turns out you get it when you finish it on the hardest difficulty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGER40F0JzE [spoiler obv.]
It doesn’t of course have the same impact if you haven’t just played through the whole thing.
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Thanks, Serondal – I’ll take that as a wee compliment, wilfully ignoring the jarring typos and grammatical errors. :)
Ego aside, the Steam blurb is horribly bland, isn’t it? Talk about not being able to judge a book by its cover…
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The first ever movie I cried at was The Land Before Time when I was in kindergarten. I remember they got the entire class together in one room and made us watch it and when Little Foots mother dies or what have you I started tearing up and sobbing but luckily there were enough kids around and it was dark that no one saw me :P
Sadly enough I was fat and had glasses so I got picked on all the same. Then I grew to be 6 foot 4 inch when I was still in middle school so suddenly people stopped picking on me at least physically.
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Well, it’s rare that I cried over a piece of fiction.
The first time I can remember was while watching the Disney movie The Fox and the Hound when the old woman returns the fox to the woods and says good bye forever, singing the song. That movie was a true tear-jerker. I don’t know how old I was, maybe 9, 10?
Otherwise, I may have cried a few times out of frustration while playing games. I remember being very frustrated by the controls of Cultures. My sister was worried and tried to calm me down. Ah…
Hm, otherwise, the ending of Syberia, water certainly welled up into my eyes.
Some other games made me think very much, but not cry. The ending of TLJ, Planescape: Torment, maybe the Gabriel Knight series…
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Since we’re including films now:
Flubber: Webo’s death
I was little, but I still feel a knot when I watch that robot die
Micky Blue Eyes: The wedding “shooting”
probably others I can’t think of right now
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HL2: Episode 2 didn’t quite bring me tears with its ending.
The most emotionally invested a game has ever made was Homeworld. Truly amazing story telling in that game. It made you feel so righteous killing those bastards who stole your planet.
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Yah PC Monster you’ll have to forgive my horrible spelling/typos ect I’m typing these comments in between doing work so I have no time to check my typing. My words tend to come out of my head and through my fingers in a jumble. (and I’m spoiled by my Microsoft Word at home which spell and grammar checks everything as I type it even internet comment boxes)
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I don’t recall ever really feeling choked up over a game, but some definitely have had an emotional effect. The end of HL2: Episode 2 made me feel incredibly sympathetic for Alyx, whose rather heartrending final words in the game were very human and very emotional, while at the same time experiencing an impressive amount of rage and wishing I could go out and kick those advisors’ asses right away. Damn you, Valve, for taking so long with Ep. 3.
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I’ve actually cried at quite a few games:
- PoP Sands of Time: When Farah falls from the tower
- Beyond Good & Evil: When Jade returns to her burnt-down lighthouse
- Dreamfall: When Faith dies
- Halo 3: When MC finds Cortana
- Lost Odyssey: Many, many of the short stories in the game
- Gears of War 2: When Dom finds his wife
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Well I didn’t cry, but i was very very upset in Chrono Cross when Surge had his body stolen by Lynx who then stabs kid. It was a horrible moment of helplessness and after the cut scene ended I was empowered with a vigor to get my body back and set things right.
Also FFVI where Celes finds herself on that island with Cid who eventually dies no matter how many fish you give the poor lad. Then your alone and you make a choice to end it all jumping off a cliff….that one hit home.
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I teared up at the end of Mass Effect. Both times. I blame the musical score.
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@mrmelons:
Yeah, the scene with Cid and Celes was not only a highlight in FFVI but also an example of why I wasn’t the slightest bit moved with Aeris. The downfall of Cyan’s kingdom was pretty bad, too.
Also, while not as emotional for me, when Chrono sacrifices himself against Lavos, I wasn’t expecting it.
Doublealso: Jock’s helicopter being blown in Deus Ex. I only realized the bomb until it was too late, having paid no mind to the suspicious mechanic.
Triplealso: Not really emotional but uplifting after a somewhat downbeat ending. When you destroy the creature in the Wind Fish’s lair in Link’s Awakening and find Link adrift at sea thinking it was all a dream. Then the Wind Fish stirs above you, temporarily blocking out the sun and then sailing the skies.
@Fumarole:
I got that too with Saving Private Ryan, particularly in the war bits. Like the guy looking for his arm. I was bored to tears with the whole patriotism at the end of the movie, but the scenes of conflict were pretty hard on my mind.
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I had tears at the end of Dawn of War 2 simply because it was so freaking awesome. That game did a really good job of making me feel heroic although I do feel they rushed the very last part of the final level (There is a little old skool trick used to make the battle continue around you while you’re doing the final objective where neither your allies nor your enemies would take any damage and were just locked into battle forever. I think it would have been cooler if you only had a certain amount of time to finish the final objective with your allies dieing ect as they were over come by the swarm)
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Serondal: the end of the Twins trilogy, where Caromon sees the half finished extension he was building for Raistlin. Shit, I’ve got something in my eye just now… (I never cried for Flint, mind. Sturm, though, another matter…)
BrokenSymmetry: was going to sneer at your Halo3, but then noticed you’d put Gears 2, which got me in exactly the same place (actually played that bit co-op with the Missus, was an awkward pause, lookinto middle distance, don’t blink, sigh and move on moment…
Beyond Good and Evil is a good call.
There may have been a triumphant righteous tear or two at the end of Mass Effect.
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Lots of people have cited the HL2E2 ending but the specific (and so far unmentioned) thing that got me about that was Eli’s line ‘Don’t look’ to Alyx. Pitch perfect – I do believe there may have been a welling.
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HL2: EP2 at the end got me rather teary I must say.
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sebmojo: For me, actually, it was the utter futility of Eli’s “struggle”, and Alyx’s voice over over the fade to black.
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Closest to crying a game has brought me was Shadow of the Colossus. Not actually, crying but…affecting.
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PC Monster: i had the *exact* same reaction to Black Plague, and that particular scene. never in my life have i HATED a villain so much, i think, as at that point – never have i been so determined to kill the thing.
so, obviously, he was one of my most favourite villains, certainly in the videogaming medium :) not just for that scene, though, but what he does to you all throughout the game, and how it made me genuinely question whether my character was sane or not (plus, the bugger… due to his making me question my senses, i once jumped to my death thinking the chasm was an illusion :P ).
… i might actually post something more on-topic and list some games that saddened me some time later, but nothing has made me outright *cry*, though some have come close.
OH, actually, there’s one thing i want to mention. Odin Sphere. you know, most japanese games i play do drama really poorly, i find (Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, obvious exceptions – the ending of the latter, especially, tore me up, i struggled against fate to the very end), but i thought that many of the death scenes in Odin Sphere were really well done. in particular… even though you know nothing about the character, the death of Gwendolyn’s sister at the VERY OPENING CINEMA almost always chokes me up badly. the combination of the actually (imo) decently-done writing, the decent (japanese) voice acting, the *beautiful* visuals of the game, and the music (in the best death scenes of the game, the music becomes *subtlely* more intense right before the actor dies), and the *details* in the bits of direction… it’s just a sensory overload for me.
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Many many movies… Field of Dreams most notably no matter how many times I see it (“no Ray, it was you”…. CRY CRY CRY CRY dammit), but no video games. I even consider myself pretty sappy. Some have been very powerful emotionally, as mentioned parts of Homeworld, Max Payne, and also Dreamfall TLJ. I even felt really bad when I sacrificed whiny Kaiden in Mass Effect.
No tears tho. I would LOVE a game to be written so well and emotionally captivating to make me cry.
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wait, mrmelons:
“Also FFVI where Celes finds herself on that island with Cid who eventually dies no matter how many fish you give the poor lad.”
you *do* know you can save Cid, dont you? you just need to feed him the good fish (which generally are the ones which move fast – you can see which are good and which are sickly fish by checking your inventory after you catch them).
of course, *i* didnt know that the first time i did it, and ended up killing him too. which, frankly, is a much more powerful scene than saving him. to make that scene all the more dramatic for me – the game was a rental, and i’d been playing the game to the very last moment of my rental time. i had to return the game *right* after she rafted away.
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@funky Badger – Ah yes, I forgot all about Sturm’s valiant last stand. Thanks now I’m misting up again. The whole back and forth between the brothers was very mentally and emotionally taxing for me as well. With Caramon’s almost Jesus like unconditional love compared to Railtin’s thinly veiled hatred.
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@Feightnt – I was gonna say I didn’t remember killing Cid :P I wasn’t going to say anything because it has been so long.
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Some of the stuff mentioned here left me completely cold, or worse sneering at the fumbling and crude efforts to suddenly wring emotion out of a game (HL:Ep2 for one, similarly that bit before the final boss in SotC) which are remarkably juvenile compared to the subtlety of great literature or cinema. On the other hand something as simply told as this from Osu Tatakae Ouendan works superbly in a way only a game can, providing a literally physical connection to the emotional narrative: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx7L2muh71k . Jaw manfully clenched almost every time I play that level.
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“Noone’s left.
Everything’s gone.
Kharak is burning.”
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Oh my yes. I’ve just remembered the only entertainment that has moved me to tears.
Not a game, but in response to those mentioning emotional Futurama episodes earlier on – the episode with Fry and the seven leaf clover.
At the end, when the twist is revealed, the music kicks in and the camera pans back from the graveyard.
It’s just too much.
*Sob*
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Someday… Someday, I swear, I will play through Planscape: Torment in its entirety. I was a little young to appreciate it when it came out and I never finished it.
The last time I actually full-on cried was when I was a little drunk and watching the Shawshank Redemption. The last time I came close was driving home on the 401 and passing, in the other direction, the convoy carrying the latest Canadian Forces casualty from Afghanistan. There were hundreds of people, with flags and whatnot, on every. single. overpass. For a couple hundred kilometres. Also I had (coincidentally) Yes’s Gates of Delirium playing. That didn’t help.
As for games… I got nothing. I’ve certainly felt strong emotions, but no tears – and, just so we’re clear, they would definitely have been very manly tears. Yep. Manly tears. But yeah, quite strong emotions, from a lot of the games people’ve mentioned already. Grim Fandango, Dreamfall (and The Longest Journey), Half-Life 2, Homeworld, Prince of Persia…
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I think I didn’t go into Faiths room once again after discovering the tapes and stuff documenting the Experiment. I did cry for a solid 20 minutes though starting with the Ending and all the way through the cast. Like, crying out loud.
Yeah, and the end of Episode 2. The whole presentation and splendid voice acting did me in.
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while they were certainly not crying moments or anything like that, i’ve occasionally had an odd bit of quiet sadness at certain points in some of the games akin to Morrowind. one was probably intentional, the other two i’m thinking of cetainly couldnt’ve been.
in the expansion to Oblivion – the little mini-quest to kill the suidical man. he wanted to die, so i obliged. it still seemed like a sad little end – but what capped it off was taking his house key and checking things out in there. the place was a mess, and you find little more than a suicide note (thanking you for helping him) and an unused enchanged happiness ring.
the killing of Umbra in Morrowind seemed a bit morose to me. again, another person who wanted to die (but this one gave a fight). it was just rather pathetic when it was done – one last bash against the skull, he falls limply to the ground. it was in the middle of nowhere, so everything was very quiet, and – in spite of the fairly difficult fight – his corpse looked so small and pathetic in the end.
another odd point, in Fallout 3 – i was exploring around the outside of Megaton City, when some guy with a sniper rifle started shooting at me. after i realized where he was, i chased him down and started firing furiously at him. my aim was terrible, though, so it was taking quite a while – when i got closer, he paniced and started just running. i kind of had the feeling that, if i just left, he’d stop trying to kill me, but i was determined to finish him off – after a bunch of poorly aimed shots, i finally dropped him. again, he looked quite pathetic there, and i was a bit startled to see that he had a *name* – wasnt just some random raider or something. the fact that he was named, combined with his pitiful death in the wastes and the fact that i chased him down for *quite* a while, determined to kill the man, made it all rather morose for me in the end.
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God damn HardWar (kind of an Elite knockoff, by Gremlin. Remember them?)
Misplaced Optimism (the colony on Titan) was knackered, theres no resources left, all factions have managed to obtain nukes and have no reason to avoid flinging them about, the final mission has you flying the length of the map with no weapons, pretty much everyone is out to get you…
And then the final FMV kicks in, and you watch everyone you’ve ever come in contact with die… i was 18, but that game had been my world for a couple of weeks, and then boom, it was over!
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… i should’ve checked my last message for spelling mistakes. bloody hell! “enchanted” ring (among other things).
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Good article, and good comments.
Some games that did it for me:
Cave Story, my first playthrough before I knew I could save the blonde girl, I had a tear in my eye when I realized she had given me her air-tank and died herself. Just stood there for five minutes trying to find a way to bring her back.
Fallout 1, the final cutscene, as plenty of other people noted.
Final Fantasy 8 definitly had me in tears at multiple points. The one that stands out the most was when Squall and Rinoa were together in the cockpit of the Ragnorok as it descended to earth. Brilliant, and I’m a sucker for that sorta stuff.
Max Payne, various points. Loved the cheesy film noir style.
HL2:EP2, alyx’s voice over the ending credits, was so haunting.
Warcraft 3:Frozen Throne… It was a custom map online, Night of the Dead, ridiculously hard, but the first time I survived an hour-long ordeal with 6 other compatriots, and finally escaping and succeeding…
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And then in the sequel they retcon the Kushan into ex-Nazis who were banished for their genocide along with an impossibly valuable magic weeblediwoo, well done there Relic.
I did respond to Homeworld, but not as strongly as some and more at the Garden of Kadesh and the Bentusi infection in HW:C than the initial Taiidan attack.
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i cried twice playing Dreamfall.
first at Faith’s death, then at the end.
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hi Morgania, thanks! i think you’re the first person who said they cried during my game. what part in particular — the ending?
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Shadders: I probably cried through half of The Fountain. As soon as I realized what was going on, I just kept getting hammered with wave after wave of emotion.
Same thing with the scene where Kaneda dies in Sunshine. I’ve seen that movie at least four times, and it always gets me.
Nothing in the gaming world has affected me nearly as much. Although the second mission of Homeworld (just thinking of the line “Kharak…is…burning” makes my eyes well up), and parts of Dreamfall nearly did it. Or Man-bot’s sacrifice in Freedom Force. Or any Team Ico game. Or the end of Grim Fandango. And Mass Effect.
Now that I think about it, I’m kind of an almost cry-baby, when it comes to games.
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Can we be a LITTLE careful with the spoilers folks? That is, at least put them after enough text that they don’t show up on the front page. I’ve deliberately kepy my nose out of this thread for fear of Dreamfall spoilers, but when they pop up on the front page side bar they’re kind of hard to avoid.
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I misted up a bit when Vinraith died at the end of Dreamfall
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COD4, at the nuclear explosion, very emotional moment, really impressive.
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I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Sara
http://pianotutorial.net
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@Gpig
DAAAAAAAMN YOOOOU!!!!!
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Mafia ending QQ
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Lost Odyssey had a few parts that made me tear up. Also, the end of HL2:EP2 was a killer.
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@nikos
About the JRPGs.. I think it’s more than the demographic. JRPGs have never shied away from trying to elicit an emotional response. The best of them really hit home while the worst of them come across as cheesy. I’d suggest that anyone looking for an emotional reaction in gaming who isn’t put off by typical JRPG game mechanics and a little Japanese-ness to at least try one of the top tier examples.
Lost Odyssey made me cry a few times. Mostly it was the 1000 Years of Dreams stories, but one in game moment was (spoiler warning)…
Kaim’s daughter’s death scene just after they’re reunited. He’s an immortal, and due to certain events, is now your typical amnesiac RPG protagonist. He does have one memory though, of his daughter falling/jumping off the edge of a cliff. Eventual you meet these two annoying kids who take you to see their sick mother, that turns out to be Kaim’s daughter Lirum. Anyway, she dies then and there after a brief, confused reunion. The reactions of all the characters is pretty genuine and the tragedy of it all really grips you when you’ve been playing for X number of hours (although, it’s pretty early in comparative to the actual length of the game). If you’ve been reading the 1000 Years of Dreams stories and absorbing the soundtrack for all that time, you’re in the mood for a good cry anyway.
Persona 4 when (spoiler warning)…
Nanako is kidnapped and then dies in hospital. She’s the young kid (I think she’s 8?) of your cop uncle who you’re staying with through the course of the game. Anyway, you’re on a fixed schedule each day, and she’s always there when you go home. Her dad, as single parent cop dads do, rarely comes home at a reasonable hour, and doesn’t really spend any time with her. Anyway, she’s like the constant of the entire game that you can rely on every day to be there. Eventually through events in the game she gets kidnapped (you’re trying to solve a series of murders that follow kidnappings). Suddenly, the only constant in the game is gone, and you have to save her, returning to an empty house every day. Of course, you manage to save her, but she ends up in critical condition in hospital. Then, the game makes the dick move of killing her, followed by your inevitable tears. She does come back to life mysteriously when your supernatural friend Teddie returns to his own world. That bit might sound absurd, but it is actually quite emotional in itself because it gives him a purpose, which is what he craves.
It might be a cliché, but Aeris death in FFVII got me as well. Sure, it’s not the best written dialogue ever, and it’s early PS1 3D blocky characters are far from expressive, but the game really builds a strong relationship between the strong, awkward Cloud and Aeris who likes to gently tease and flirt with him. She is the most genuine and pure character in the game, mixed up in something because of who she is, but also managing to fulfil her desire for adventure and to be free. In the course of the adventure, she just ups and leaves on her own. You go a fairly long way to save her, not believing they’d kill a member of your party that you’ve spent a good 30 hours levelling up at this point, only to have her suddenly die within a matter of seconds, left hanging on the sword that was plunged through her back.
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Half Life 2: Episode 2
The scene at the end with Eli was heart wrenching. Even more so because you are rendered completely helpless to stop it.
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Got close but fairly certain I didn’t cry: Alien Hominid’s (PS2 version) ending was so primally beautiful. I heard the downloadable AH for the 360 changed that scene some, which is heresy. Then again I was younger when I beat the original & I haven’t seen either ending since.
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No, no, no, Serondal – I was referring to MY typos! :)
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none for me there are games like fallout 3 where the ending pissed me off a bit but thats it. i am a (mostly) cold emotionless game playing machine
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I’ve been tempted many time to comment on some of the games suggested, but I realize it could easily devolve into a flamewar if people start to argue against games that others obviously feel very strongly about.
Lets just say I have issues with games that have plot twists that you can spot long before they happen, and those that have heavily-handed added scenes that are a bit too obviously added to elicit an emotional response, but which have little else to do with characters and plots in the rest of the game (the “girlfriend in freezer” syndrome from TVTropes an example…).
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God damnit people, would it kill you to be more vague with the spoilers, instead of typing XXX DIES! in the first sentence??
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I cried at the launch of Vanguard MMO. I cried rivers.
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Azrael’s Tear is probably the only game I’ve teared up on upon completion. Basically, you’re a thief stealing the holy grail, and in the ending when you’re successful the old guardian who’s been underground for thousands of years finally get to see the stars again. He says how happy he is to see them again… and dies. Because of your actions.
Instant wet eye generator, that one. More games should have bittersweet endings.
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I finally remembered what I was thinking of. The ending (or the sequence just before the ending) of Myst 4 – the real ending of the series, and the one that succeeds in integrating the puzzle/exploration gameplay with the story and the trust theme. It’s a challenging game, but none of the puzzles are as hard as the decision you have to make at the end and the consequences for the family either way. I know, you can save before you make the decision. But that’s not the point – the first time you get there (and it takes work to get there) it’s real. Poor Atrus.
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“It’s not a PC game, but Elite Beat Agents on the DS made me blub on the “You’re the Inspiration” level, which is incredibly cheesy, blatantly (emotionally) manipulative and yet ridiculously lovely.”
Seconded.
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Oh god, I forgot about the short stories in Lost Odyssey
At *least* 3/4 of those left me a blubbering mess.
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I’m glad I have bad memory. Because by the time I get around to playing these games that you guys have relentlessly spoiled, I’ll have forgotten them.
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Not to spoil too much, the Snake-Otacon handshake in MGS 2.
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I had a lump in the throat and a tear in my eye a couple times during Dreamfall at the points mentioned, but I did actually cry at the end of Dreamfall. In was invested in the edn of the game as I played for 5 hours straight. That’s how good it was.
Spolier!!!!
I also had a tear when your long time partner in Metal Gear Solid gets shot by the sniper. I think it was about shock more than anything as I just did not think she would. I mean, that’s just not done in any genre than adventure games really!
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Correction: I did actually cry at the end of The Longest Journey.
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HL2:Ep2 ending and Shadow of the Colossus had me close, but no actual tears. Wall E (the film, not the game) pretty much did me in though. Bloody robot.
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RE: HL2:Ep2 – I really don’t get the love for it, but then I never really got the “love” for Alyx, either. (I laughed at a couple of her jokes though.) I expected most of the “events” that occurred, more or less.
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I was going to cite the exact same games as JB. The ending of Episode to had me choked up, never actually crying, but right on the very edge.
As for Shadow of the Colossus though, it was killing the Colussuses? Colossi? Anyway, killing them always hit me hard. I’m a sucker for animals and killing them just really took it out of me… I never actually beat the game because of that.
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Episode 2*, sorry, forgot to proofread before posting.
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ohnoabear:
Same thing with the scene where Kaneda dies in Sunshine. I’ve seen that movie at least four times, and it always gets me.
That’s a beautiful scene. Really beautiful (wish I could track down the soundtrack) – Danny Boyle’s a helluva film-maker.
Onto movies, for a moment…
The funeral in Seven Samurai, where Heihachi grabs the flag…
Huge smathes of Last of the Mohicans, but I think that’s the soundtrack that does it…
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FF7/8/9, Syberia, Oni, Grim Fandango, TLJ, Dreamfall, HL2Ep2, BGE, VtM-Bloodlines (although not so sure about that), Fahrenheit, World of Goo, Braid… in no particular order and to very different degrees of course. Oh ffs it seems I’m quite easily impressionable.
Out of all mediums though, easily the last episodes of Cowboy Bebop after another 22 episodes and a feature film.
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Ooh ooh ooh it didn’t make me cry BUT the denouement of NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer was suffused with melancholy in a way that I found powerfully affecting.
And yes as many people’ve mentioned Max Payne 2 is a kicker.
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I’m just rewatching Cowboy Bebop for the first time since it first aired. I can’t wait to see if the ending still devastates me :\
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Scandalon: oh, I don’t really get the Alyx love either (although I think Eli is wonderfully acted), but the ending for Ep2 still got me.
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The thing I loved in Ep2 was the final battle. The last scene was very emotional and with solid acting of course, but it’s basicly one of the techniques I almost hate in HL2 – just leaving you there watching helplessly so that the scene can act out exactly the way they scripted it.
Now I know it is supposed to evoke exactly such feelings of helplessness and no control, but I really dislike that – it goes in a way against the whole idea of gaming. Jonathan Blow said some very insightful stuff about this in one of his lectures. And that scene comes exactly after such a high point for the entire Half-Life 2- that epic battle with the striders, which (seemingly) gives you so much freedom that I cannot help but feel horribly cheated at the end.
p.s. I swore I wouldn’t talk here about other tearjerkers than games, but Cowboy Bebop…. yeah. That’s one other thing I’ve felt completely devastated when it ended – at levels comparing to Grim Fandango and maybe even beyond.
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Corey – go finish SotC now. (And just wait till you see what they do w/ the ending.)
Funky brought up something that I meant to – so many times, really “affecting” moments, esp. for me include music. Take away the music, and it’s nowhere near the same. Maybe that’s one reason Ep2 did punch me as much – I love their action/suspense music “stings”, but don’t remember any “sad” music…
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…didn’t punch me as much…
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Found the HW Kharak is burning clip on you tube.. awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJvYZXUT5Bk
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@Rei
Bang…
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Max Payne 2, yeah. I think the downer ending was the reason why I pushed myself to beat it repeatedly to get the hardest-difficulty “good” ending — I just couldn’t leave it that way. Of course, now that the sequel is out, all that is out the window…
Beyond Good & Evil might have done it, if it weren’t for having seen the BG&E2 trailers a little while ago — thus, no tension about the main characters dying. Curse you, Internet!
FFX, natch. An ending that’s both very up and very down at the same time.
Anything that involves dogs dying will generally get the waterworks started; for some reason, that just kicks me in the balls. Other than that, although there are plenty of games that have made me sad, there aren’t many that have made me actually cry. Far fewer than movies. I wonder why the mediums would be different in that respect?
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Testicular Torsion: Probably because the orchestration of emotion in an interactive medium is harder. The payoff is much greater though.
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You know, I disagree. I’ve played huge piles of games over the years, but none of them have ever kicked my ass harder than, say, the film of The English Patient or the novel of The Unbearable Lightness of Being — or Grave of the Fireflies, for fuck’s sake.
I’m thinking it’s the interactivity itself which is at fault to some degree — that we can accept sitting back and letting someone else tell a story, but when we have partial control over the events, there’s always the distracting tension between what you want to do and what the designer wants to do.
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I feel slightly ashamed to say that the ending of KOTOR (as in the final cutscene – lightside) made me a bit teary. I think it’s something to do with the redemption plot.
Having said that I’ve realised most of the time when I feel the urge to blub at a film/game/tv show it’s usually not purely the plot that does it, but it the music that they set to it that pushes me over the edge.
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F’ing’ hell guys, I’ve not played Dreamfall yet! >:-( Have some decency!
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Ok damn, I’ve been postponing this long enough – I’m having next two weeks off work so I guess I’ll finally play Dreamfall. Based on the comments above I guess it will be my most depressing vacation ever.
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I don’t think I’ve ever had a video game actually make me break down and cry, but there are a few that have pushed me pretty close. Oh, and spoilers ahoy:
* World in Conflict: Soviet Assault: I know Capt. Malashenko probably came across as a stereotypical hardheaded commie, but I saw him as a man whose patriotism is the only thing that keeps him going after the death of his family, who follows his orders to the death because he would fall apart otherwise. It also doesn’t help that you almost certainly kill him in the last American mission.
*Dreamfall: The Longest Journey: Yeah, this was pretty obvious, though the part that really got to me was the sequence where you walk April to the pier, knowing full well that it’s a trap, then you switch back to Kian, so you can close in and finish the job. Way to twist the knife, guys.
*Iron Storm: Believe it or not, this actually god a bit of a sniffle out of me. I mean, how would you like it if you’d spent all your time trying to get ahold of an enemy wonder-weapon that could end a 50-year old WWI, only to discover right at the end that the war’s a sham, the main baddie was powerless, and that your entire mission was completely pointless and the war is going to continue forever. Oh, and you’re killed off-camera.
*Outcry: So, you start out in your estranged brother’s house, looking at a mysterious device that he used to teleport himself somewhere. You turn it on, and spend the next few hours wandering through several abstract dream landscapes, reactivating machines and collecting your brother’s diary entries. Curiously, the farther into the game you go, the older and older the entries get, going from the present to his university days to his childhood, where he makes some cryptic references to an accident on a frozen lake. Then, in the final level, you stumble out onto the lake and you realize the truth: you don’t exist, and you are actually just a fragment of your brother’s personality that he created in his grief over getting his actual brother killed. And then you have no choice but to walk down into the lake and reenact the central tragedy of your brother’s life once again.
*Oh, and Silent Hill 2 and anything Team ICO makes.
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Entire comments section is babies.
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Looks like I need to play Dreamfall and HL2EP2 sometime.
Haven’t actually cried at a game yet, although some that I’ve played have been quite ‘affecting’ as some people say. BG+E and Planscape specifically.
Just want to put my vote in for Hostile Waters : Antaeus Rising (is that the name). I’m very fuzzy on the details, but one of the later missions where you find out that the guys you have been fighting all along aren’t the real bad guys, and then you go and land on an island and see what the *real* baddies did to the leaders of the previous *not so baddies*. Ick
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I am not used to cry usually but some games were really too emotional and i did cry like a baby…
Beyond good and Evil was really emotional at times (when peyj dies…) (You must play this game as it is the closest thing ever made to merging a animated world in a glorious full 3d world….imagine if they made tailspin !! )
SHADOW of MEMORIES made me cry as it can get really sad depending your choises throughout the game…
Mafia’s was really sad towards the end…(i hope someday they make a remake or simiral era game based on the upcoming mafia 2..)
The longest journey and dreamfall too were really emotional..
Advent Rising was really emotional and sadly we never are going to see the conclution…(Mass effect is in sort of a way a spiritual successor through..)
The gabriel knight games also made me cry as well as the ending of the blade runner game…
Also farehnait and omicron had some very emotional moments..
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These comments make me sad. Spoiler central…
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There’s no crying in baseball….
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Bang…
Well, I just finished the last episode and it still works :’(
I need another drink.
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Cryostasis. Fantastic, underrated game with a perfect ending. All it takes to prevent (i.e. undo, as there’s some sort of time travelling going on there) all the tragedies is one simple act of friendship and kindness.
Dreamfall too, same as John. And Photopia, at the end when Alley is a baby and you know about her fate.
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Re: Episode 2. Are you guys telling me that you weren’t expecting the death of a character who said “I’ve got important information, but I’ll tell you later”?! You clearly haven’t watched enough Inspector Morse: it’s a death sentence (pun not intended)!
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The only game I have ever cried at happens to be a console game: MGS3.
Outside of that, I really can’t think of any time I have cried while playing a game.
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@Kester: As I and some others have mentioned, we knew fine well what was going to happen as we’d been spoiled for the ending before reaching it. And it still worked on an emotional level.
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@Ivan – Nothing for when they Nuke the small town and Bannon dies finally doing his duty in the main campaign?
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Well done. Over 200 comments and it’s not one of them about piracy. All about getting a bit weepy over games.
Mr. Walker and RPS readers. I love you all.
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@TCM
Oh, god…
That scene takes the theme song from silly, to tear fuel.
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@rei
Bang…
Wanna feel even more depressed? I’ve found this video that does the job well for me :]
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ieo2_amv-cowboy-bebop-only-in-dreams-wee_music
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+1 to HL2:EP2 ending. I’ve been dying to spoil it for my mate for ages as he is currently playing through Ep1 having just completed HL2 after 5 years of playing it.
I’m replaying HL2 just now and when Eli, this kindly old man, made a jokey remark about Alyx and Gordon and then winked at Gordon in Black Mesa East, I must admit I had to blink forcibly a couple of times to clear my eyes, as I now know exactly what his future holds…
I will also admit that I crumpled and wept like a broken-hearted baby while playing Thief 3, but not perhaps for the reasons Ion Storm would have wanted…
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God, I feel like such a wimp saying this. The ending of Final Fantasy X on the PS2 put me into tears all 3 times I’ve finished it.
Surprisingly, no PC game has ever made me cry, that I can remember at least.
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Ooh, and MGS3. I knew I should have logged in.
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Define “cry”. As in tears trying to push through coupled with a tightness of the throat?
Bioshock’s good ending resonated with me, and still does. The game stops being about shooty philosophy and becomes a game about a betrayed automaton of a man with no past or future who is rewarded with a family (and thus, both). I think it’s remarkably poignant.
Dear Esther got me going at the end, and just booting it today gives me the same associations of grief and desperation. First time near the end as things were popping into place, and at the final “come back”, that really got to me.
The Darkness, “That Scene” and the very end. It’s a fantastically emotional shooter.
Here’s a funny one. Ace Combat 5. It’s a complete mess of a melodrama, but it’s delivered with such conviction that at the very end, with defectors and allies joining up with you in an armada, singing (poorly) the same battle anthem, that moment just made me laugh and blubber a bit at the same time.
Overall i think game designers often fail to understand how much an emotional hook can feed gameplay. I don’t think The Darkness is a particularly stellar game, but the revenge arc of that game is absolutely intense, and gave the rest of the proceedings a sense of vicious purpose i can’t remember coming across in any other games.
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The Darkness:Meh gameplay, very emotional story.
@Sfury
No AMV can match the OST
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSYZmTguXP8
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the intro movie of final fantasy 10, or something ( the mmo one)
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I’ll admit to being caught up in FFX as well. I can’t say anything on the PC has particularly moved me.
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I have to admit, the ending of Episode 2 seemed really really really obvious to me, and he never felt developed enough as a character for it to really resonate.
People have mentioned Bioshock. Before it turned into a ridiculous slapfight with that atrocious caricature of a con man. The Big Reveal, even though it wasn’t technically the ending. Didn’t make me cry–matter of fact, I can’t think of one game that has–but watching that whole “a man chooses” bit just… hhhhhhh. Knocked the wind out of me. I sat and stared at the screen for a little while, considering what had just happened, and what it meant.
Freespace 2 did make me a little morose at times, as LactoseTheIntolerant said. I think it’s a credit to the writing in that game that I can get attached to faceless nobodies in spaceships.
I’ll echo the nuke scene in CoD4, too. Again, nothing to get weepy over. Still astonishing, though.
Re: Dawn of War 2. Mind-numbingly predictable storyline. Atrociously unlikeable characters. That said, at the very end, expecting death and huddling together when suddenly Captain Angelos descends from on high to crush the Tyranids made me ridiculously happy. YES, YES, KILL EVERYONE.
Console-wise, most every Zelda game I’ve played has resulted in a tiny little twinge of unmanly emotion at one point or another. I suppose it’s a result of having grown up alongside them.
Got very attached to a number of characters in Baldur’s Gate II. Not so much in a weepy-if-something-bad-happened-to-them sense, more of a reverting-to-a-previous-savegame-if-one-of-them-gets-offed sense. Felt a little bad about what Yoshimo did, though.
Meanwhile, I’m going to have to disagree with the large-enough-to-beat-me-up majority of posters here who have had their heartstrings tugged by JRPGs. I always find myself bored and just a wee bit insulted by the storylines and characters in most JRPGs (though I’ll admit I haven’t played a handful of the ones mentioned).
While I’m complaining, I’d like to object to the big emotional twists you see in games that already know ahead of time that they’re going to be blockbusters (See: Gears of War, Mass Effect, etc.). I can just imagine the story designers snickering and elbowing each other, congratulating themselves and each other on what great weavers of prose they are.
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Funny thing is I found the good ending of BioShock very moving but it also felt to me very strange and somewhat artificial (and not only because of the ridiculous end-fight before that).
When the voice-over started listing what I did at the end I was like “Wow! I really did that?!” … O_o What the character did was moving and heart-warming indeed but was such a surprise for me, so very disconected from the game thus far, that it didin’t have the right impact on me at least.
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The Big Twist ™ was the other high point and very well played one, but as a System Shock 2 veteran I was expecting something along those lines from the beginning, so it didn’t come as much of a shock to me, I was only left to admire the way they pulled it off and not the actual turn of the events.
In the end the things that moved me and that I still love about BioShock were the immersive atmosphere, the music, Rapture itself and all its small details. In terms of gameplay though – nothing special (except Fort Frolick maybe), sometimes even working against the game’s strenghts.
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The Darkness was the only game i came near to crying. The scene when you chill out with jenny got me so emotionally attached to her so when (spoiler) uncle paulie pulled the trigger to her brains i was overwhelmed with sadness as well as a anger towards paulie and eddie shrote. If you try to revisit her apartment you are flooded with memories and the darkness procedes to mock you. Very heart wrenching stuff. I just wish there was a pc port (sigh!). Oh and the endings very emotional.
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Oh, dont forget far cry 2 (spoilers) i keept on reloading in vain at the last stand at the bar trying to keep my buddies alive. I managed to get emotionally attached with my buddies especially Paul Ferenc when he died i was very sad.
p.s. did any of you managed to not kill your buddies at the end of the game. I just picked up the breifcase and legged it good and proper ‘cus i couldnt bear to kill them
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CMaster: Yes, Homeworld. The introduction, where the Exiles launch the Mothership to the heart-wrenching triumphant-sounding Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, is a thing of beauty. I looked it up on YouTube and it still sent a shiver down my spine.
But the third mission, when the Mothership returns from her aborted shakedown to find Kharak a blasted cinder… the music returns, and the sadness is heart-wrenching despite you never saw (or see) the face of a single Exile.
Not even Battlestar Galactica did it better, and I’m prepared to lay the cause on the lack of Adagio for Strings.
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I cry every time Ms Pacman kills “blue” Inky. He’s my favourite monster/ghost. Booo hooo.
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@Serondal
Flint, fuck… that did it.
I’d forgotten that bit. It’s Tasselhoff and Bupu after… sob.
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The ending of the first fallout game.
Months of sacrifice, near death and enduring the abject horrors of post apocalyptic california… All in a mad race against time to save the lives of everyone the vault dweller had know for the first 18 years of his short life and return to the relative paradise that was his home vault.
The revelation that the world had changed him to the extent that he could no longer return home (and that those he had saved had turned their backs on him) certainly got a *sniff* out of me (that closing shot of him striding back out into the wasteland, to some unknown fate…).
About as close as a game has gotten to soliciting a real emotional reaction from me.
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I’d say the ending in MGS4 was the most emotional rollercoaster I’ve had in a game ever.
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In Bioshock, when Atlus’ family “gets killed” in the Submarine, I had to stop playing for about 15 minutes to compose myself. Also, when I was much younger, in Marathon 2 when You have to shut down Durandal’s Core Logic Center. I really, REALLY didn’t want to destroy that last circuitry panel. Oh, and in Final Fantasy VIII, though I can’t quite remember why.
I too am a huge crybaby, and I also cried during Up.
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Bioshock’s good ending made me feel weepy too. For emotional impact, the Bit With Yer Man (You Know Which Bit I Mean) was a great piece of writing; here’s a character who, despite being an absolute bastard, you are left almost admiring for being true to his ideals at the end.
P.
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I know now why you cry but its something I can never do.
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Oh wait, yeah! I found certain moments in Amnesia too hard to handle, and when I’m really creeped out my eyes water, which is kind of like crying. Does anyone else get that?
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Nope, i’ve cried at a few TV shows & movies in the past, but never a game. One day, i’m sure i will though.
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