PLAYABLE sequences in games that moved you to tears?
- Thread starter LastNac
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Everything makes me cry. đź‘Ś
But I'll agree with Journey, Last Guardian, FF7 Rebirth trials, and Mother 3, mentioned here.
I was very emotional during the final boss of Xenoblade 3 lol. I was very emotional presenting the final evidence in Great Ace Attorney.
But legit, probably every game has made me teary at one point in time.
But I'll agree with Journey, Last Guardian, FF7 Rebirth trials, and Mother 3, mentioned here.
I was very emotional during the final boss of Xenoblade 3 lol. I was very emotional presenting the final evidence in Great Ace Attorney.
But legit, probably every game has made me teary at one point in time.
The last level in Hi-Fi Rush
Might've just caught me in the right night, but that spot had me holding back tears
When everyone finally comes together and agrees they're all in it together while Whirring is playing. It was such an amazing ending to a perfect game for me.
Might've just caught me in the right night, but that spot had me holding back tears
Probably Kirby Star Allies when you fight the post post post game final boss on max difficulty. Att the very end realizing what the game has been hinting at while the final section of the 5th musical movement is so hauntingly sad and ends with a sad little rendition of Kirby's 8 bit theme. Can't remember a gameplay section ever making my heart ache as much, and those pause screen lore bits made it worse. Never would've expected a Kirby game of all things to hit me so hard, especially since I didn't become a fan until a year or two ago.
It isn't even that the gameplay was somehow sad, just the combination of everything in context made it heartbreaking.
View: https://youtu.be/bkj-PVpiJYQ
It isn't even that the gameplay was somehow sad, just the combination of everything in context made it heartbreaking.
View: https://youtu.be/bkj-PVpiJYQ
The walk home in Earthbound was unlike anything id played before.
Parts of Red Dead 2.
The last parts of Plague Tale 2.
Parts of Red Dead 2.
The last parts of Plague Tale 2.
Yep, came to post this. All the songs hit you in the feels in this level: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCnNBOwekVM (obvious spoilers for anyone clicking the link lol)
Even more bittersweet after the recent news :/
Final Boss in MGS4. It going through the various health bars and theme songs from the series and Liquid taking the poses before it reverts to full "Ocelot" and he does the gun pose from MGS3 which is one of my favorite games of all time. Mixed feelings on the game as a whole, but it didn't waste its time being all subversive or cheap on the ending. It hit you with all the nostalgia the end of a massive series needed while incorporating that into the fight.
I don't get teary + cry that often in cutscene or non-cutscene moments, so it's always really fascinating when it happens -- and with this thread, I realized the majority of those moments were actually interactive sequences.
The Last Guardian -- Everything, really, but particularly the end.
Stray -- The interactive component of the ending. I was sobbing.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker -- The soundtrack is such a memorable part of the game, along with the player's interactivity with it. I bawled over both Medli and Makar in their awakening moments (the music continuing through generations got to me!), so of course, any time Link had to manually play the associated melody, I ended up either in tears or blinking back tears. Because Link has to play those melodies a lot in the Wind and Earth Temple... it happened a lot, lol.
Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and The Lost Demon -- The lead up + final boss. Really amazing emotional pay-off for Cereza's character growth, and Cereza and Cheshire's friendship.
NieR: Automata -- Ending E. Iconic.
Kentucky Route Zero -- Act IV and Act V. I still can't believe that in the same year that the incredible The Last of Us Part II came out, it was Kentucky Route Zero that repeatedly destroyed me.
The Last Guardian -- Everything, really, but particularly the end.
Stray -- The interactive component of the ending. I was sobbing.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker -- The soundtrack is such a memorable part of the game, along with the player's interactivity with it. I bawled over both Medli and Makar in their awakening moments (the music continuing through generations got to me!), so of course, any time Link had to manually play the associated melody, I ended up either in tears or blinking back tears. Because Link has to play those melodies a lot in the Wind and Earth Temple... it happened a lot, lol.
Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and The Lost Demon -- The lead up + final boss. Really amazing emotional pay-off for Cereza's character growth, and Cereza and Cheshire's friendship.
NieR: Automata -- Ending E. Iconic.
Kentucky Route Zero -- Act IV and Act V. I still can't believe that in the same year that the incredible The Last of Us Part II came out, it was Kentucky Route Zero that repeatedly destroyed me.
This one for certain. I played it for the first time last year with Reunion. I kept holding back Shinra soldiers until the game basically timed me out. I knew what was coming and wanted to keep fighting to avoid it.
I don't cry during video games for some reasons, but this scene from Void Stranger made me feel some way. If you plan to play the game, DON'T check it out. Otherwise, I highly recommend watching the video. It is really well done.
View: https://youtu.be/mnX9DalgxBM?si=I2W1pJtn0uiVdGJf
View: https://youtu.be/mnX9DalgxBM?si=I2W1pJtn0uiVdGJf
I generally don't cry too much from games but the last time I can remember during a playable sequence was literally just riding around the open world of Breath Of The Wild triggering something in me. Nothing was even happening, I just remember just kind of taking it in and feeling like I'm never going to see anything as magical as this game ever again.
GRIS - the ending sequence hit me so hard and suddenly. I wasn't even particularly invested throughout the game, but it was done so beautifully. Felt like it brought me some sort of closure I didn't know I needed.
Outer Wilds - many moments made me emotional, but "finishing" the DLC brought me to tears. Such a well told/discovered story, and one where its impact was completely enhanced by the medium.
Outer Wilds - many moments made me emotional, but "finishing" the DLC brought me to tears. Such a well told/discovered story, and one where its impact was completely enhanced by the medium.
The start of The Last of Us was fucking brutal. Can't remember how much was playable, but fuck man.
I platinumed the game and have no memory of any ending being emotional :(
I love you for this comment. I still remember that I actually got up from the couch during the last sequence because I was worried about the events and tried to will it into existence that nothing bad happens.
This is one of my all time favorite tracks but I never realized that it was built into the game sequence in a powerful way. Damn I would love to play it now but I couldn't even finish the first scenario.
Final Arthur Morgan ride!
View: https://youtu.be/WoxFRRf9DJM?si=OteaO70ZP-9uDUdc
this thing just broke me in a way I couldn't even describe!
incredible heart broken for me!
beautiful, beautiful and sad game.
View: https://youtu.be/WoxFRRf9DJM?si=OteaO70ZP-9uDUdc
this thing just broke me in a way I couldn't even describe!
incredible heart broken for me!
beautiful, beautiful and sad game.
Being forced to shoot Zeke multiple times and watch as he weakly tries to get back up after every shot.
Can't remember the last time I cried at a game (Movies and shows yea)
But
I could feel the emotion during the final battle of Lisa the Painful
Undertale's finale was brilliant
THAT scene after the 2nd Main game during Your Turn to Die, you know the one.
Recently the Epilogue of Sun's Social Link as well as the ending of Persona 3 Reload was very well done.
But
I could feel the emotion during the final battle of Lisa the Painful
Undertale's finale was brilliant
THAT scene after the 2nd Main game during Your Turn to Die, you know the one.
Recently the Epilogue of Sun's Social Link as well as the ending of Persona 3 Reload was very well done.
This is it. And also why I give revisionist GOTY takes the tiny pinch of salt they're worth.
This whole damn game was leading up to this and that ridiculous Ocelot fistfight. 20 hours of buildup for payoff in those two scenes. Masterful.
There's a fairly short and mostly uninvolved quest in Warframe to get the Sevagoth warframe, and during the course of the quest there's one section where the gameplay portion isn't very important, but a song plays that for some reason really struck a chord with me at the moment.
Weirdly enough, in the same game there's another song that also ended up moving me to tears, but that one actually "makes more sense" (for me at least) since it involves an earlier questline that was fairly emotional.
For context, during the quest itself you are chasing a literal ghost starship that has been sorta haunting a captain of an enemy faction, and the song is from her perspective, after being left for dead in the cold space surrounded by the corpses of her crew. When the song happens, it's fairly unexpected, and the lyrics ended up hitting for me since I didn't expect to empathize with the enemy captain, after also having chased her for a while during the quest.
Weirdly enough, in the same game there's another song that also ended up moving me to tears, but that one actually "makes more sense" (for me at least) since it involves an earlier questline that was fairly emotional.
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan when you as a ghost have to contact your still living loved one.
View: https://youtu.be/EXjY_mFS60g?si=UMjmX2hWFWR7OVv-
View: https://youtu.be/EXjY_mFS60g?si=UMjmX2hWFWR7OVv-
I genuinely think Death Stranding is one of the most accomplished interactive works in evoking an potent emotional resonance from the player by engaging them in deceptively simple concepts, and does this routinely through the symbiotic nature between narrative, play, and presentation. Almost if not every game system, tool, device, structure, vehicle, and so on, is not just interwoven into the narrative, but meaningfully integrated into the moment-to-moment experience in such a way that they don't feel compartmentalised to cutscenes but instead an extension of your ability to interact with a virtual world.
This is further supplemented by the core gameplay loop being one that is passive. All the fluff of combat and stealth and whatever else are just sprinklings on what is ultimately a game about getting from A to B to C. It is, in the literal sense, a "walking simulator" in that every game system informs the act of traversal and journey. There's maybe not a single game in existence that devotes so much delicate attention and detail to the experience of navigating the world, where the ground beneath you feels genuinely, and you feel your presence with every step. This isn't a "hold forward and zone out" kind of game, but one where the challenge of moving between habitats demands your attention and engagement. There's a deep, intimate connectivity between your avatar and the world.
And given how the game so masterfully intertwines traditional gameplay concepts into this basic act of journeying, the immaculate production brings everything together to result an experience that is magical. For example, the early game first stretch to Port Knot city, the game building up its introduction to gameplay systems, and finally tasking you on long, challenging stretch of complex topography culminating in claustrophobic, BT dense rocky path, timefall rain rapidly deteriorating your essential cargo, is one of the greatest moments in video games for me precisely for the moment that you make it through and for the final stretch the rain clears, the sun shines, you have a gorgeous vista of the base, and Asylums for the Feeling kicks in as you make a passive descent down the mountainside.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKEZ47j6dP8
The game is loaded with so many of these moments of gameplay, music, visuals, challenge, and narrative coming together organically in a real time, interactive experience, that you can't help but be genuinely, deeply moved by what's happening on screen.
And that's why Death Stranding is one of the greatest games ever made.
This is further supplemented by the core gameplay loop being one that is passive. All the fluff of combat and stealth and whatever else are just sprinklings on what is ultimately a game about getting from A to B to C. It is, in the literal sense, a "walking simulator" in that every game system informs the act of traversal and journey. There's maybe not a single game in existence that devotes so much delicate attention and detail to the experience of navigating the world, where the ground beneath you feels genuinely, and you feel your presence with every step. This isn't a "hold forward and zone out" kind of game, but one where the challenge of moving between habitats demands your attention and engagement. There's a deep, intimate connectivity between your avatar and the world.
And given how the game so masterfully intertwines traditional gameplay concepts into this basic act of journeying, the immaculate production brings everything together to result an experience that is magical. For example, the early game first stretch to Port Knot city, the game building up its introduction to gameplay systems, and finally tasking you on long, challenging stretch of complex topography culminating in claustrophobic, BT dense rocky path, timefall rain rapidly deteriorating your essential cargo, is one of the greatest moments in video games for me precisely for the moment that you make it through and for the final stretch the rain clears, the sun shines, you have a gorgeous vista of the base, and Asylums for the Feeling kicks in as you make a passive descent down the mountainside.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKEZ47j6dP8
The game is loaded with so many of these moments of gameplay, music, visuals, challenge, and narrative coming together organically in a real time, interactive experience, that you can't help but be genuinely, deeply moved by what's happening on screen.
And that's why Death Stranding is one of the greatest games ever made.
Persona 3 Portable's last day was probably the most difficult and emotional thing I have ever played.
When Spiritfarer waited for me to push the button at the very end I basically had a complete emotional breakdown, and sobbed for like 5 minutes straight. I've never in my life had a reaction to a game like that. I think I have some stuff about death I need to work through.
Different strokes, man, but I can't imagine getting to Endind E and not being touched.
"I have come to the conclusion that I cannot accept this resolution" followed by
Pod 042 hacking the game itself and fighting the gods of the game's universe with the other players who've come before you to force a happy ending is fucking beautiful to me.
Death Stranding: Lay BB to rest.
The Last of Us Part II:
The final fight on
the beach… I thought for sure Abby would die
and wouldn't have been able to accept that.
Gonna try to remember other sequences, I cried the first time I finished Ghost Trick, but I don't think it was during a playable sequence.
The Last of Us Part II:
The final fight on
the beach… I thought for sure Abby would die
and wouldn't have been able to accept that.
Gonna try to remember other sequences, I cried the first time I finished Ghost Trick, but I don't think it was during a playable sequence.
Similar vein, but rescuing Aqua has to be one of the most powerful moments in KH3. Her theme playing in dramatic fashion for that bossfight is awesome.
KH3 is a lot of things, but man the payoffs for much of the major plot beats and conflicts are worth it in their own way
Except Xehanort himself, I hated how "easy" he got off
right here for me too. the first time i was moved to tears by a game. i've probably cried since but that one always sticks with me even though i dropped the series after season 3 ep 1
Okami at the half way mark during the final boss fight ist the most intense so far.
Had to pause, because I couldn't see.
Can't remember a single game where everything you did before and seemed unimportant culminates in that single moment so beautifully.
Brothers Tale of Two Sons near the end
Journey final level
Had to pause, because I couldn't see.
Can't remember a single game where everything you did before and seemed unimportant culminates in that single moment so beautifully.
Brothers Tale of Two Sons near the end
Journey final level
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