Final Fantasy X/Tear Jerker

• The pain Yuna must have been feeling each time you're forced to kill one of the aeons after it is possessed by Yu Yevon. And then her pain quickly turns to resolve as she prepares to summon the next aeon, only for the party to kill it as well.
• Tidus being comforted by Valefor after finding out that Yuna would die at the end of her pilgrimage.
• The ending, wherein not only does Yuna have to kill every single one of her beloved aeons and Auron must be sent to the Farplane, but Tidus is revealed to be a dream of the Fayth. Yuna tries to keep him from leaving, only to fall right through him in a heartbreaking scene. Before he departs, Tidus takes Yuna into a ghostly embrace from behind (cue the most bittersweet rendition of "To Zanarkand" in the entire game), then dives off the airship and reunites with his father. A montage of all the best moments in the game as seen through Yuna's memories. Yuna's final line: "The ones we have lost, and the dreams that have faded...never forget them". This editor bawled non-stop for at least ten minutes. Most Downer Ending he's ever seen (though some would consider it merely a Bittersweet Ending), mitigated only if you watch the credits to the very end and see The Stinger (or play the sequel). But so elegantly and effectively done, perfectly executed. Damn you Squaresoft-Enix.
  • This troper tears up every time when during the above mentioned embrace, the music swells to its highest crescendo, and then as Tidus goes through Yuna, a measure of silence...then it resumes into its dwindling ending as he leaps off the airship.
  • Specifically, this troper found the part of the ending where Yuna is standing at the docks whistling to be heartbreaking, due to the particular significance that had been attached to the action earlier.
• Tidus reaching out to Jecht as he falls off a ledge in Zanarkand before becoming Braska's final aeon. This is followed by Jecht resurfacing in his aeon form and Tidus, trying to pull himself together, saying "I promise this will be quick! Hit me with all you got, Dad!"
  • If the play chooses the 'Talk' option for Tidus during the fight, it will say that Tidus' voice seems to affect Jecht.
• After the ship from Besaid fails to stop Sin, you get a cutscene showing a happy, quiet little moment in Kilika. Children playing with their blitzballs, a young mother singing to the baby in her arms, that sort of thing. Then Sin comes. The blitzball is next seen bobbing up and down amid the wreckage, and when Yuna performs the Sending, you clearly see a minuscule mortuary wrapping among all the others, and that same young mother collapsing to the ground in uncontrollable tears as pyreflies come out of it.
• The Spring cutscene walks on the thin line between Heartwarming and Tear Jerker. Yuna and Tidus get completely excited with their imaginary future, together in Zanarkand, having fun and watching the sunrise...and then Yuna cries when she realizes that it will never happen. And we, the players, who know that better than her...
• Even though this troper had seen the ending on the Internet, seeing the full ending on her TV after having just beat the final boss...she bawled for the first time in a long while. It doesn't help that the aeon's "enemy descriptions" include "Soon... Eternal rest." and "Please, defeat me."
  • Other examples include "Extinguish me," "Let it end here," and (from Anima) "Thus I atone."
  • The scene with Luzzu after Gatta is killed at the Djose Temple is hard to take. For that matter, the sheer shock of witnessing Gatta's lifeless body slump to the ground, or if Luzzu is killed, Gatta screaming that Sin "tore him apart." The worst part about this is that you unknowingly choose which of these scenes you will witness.
• "Dad?... I hate you." The inability of so many characters in this game to communicate with each other leads to several very sad and painful moments in this troper's opinion, but this scene by far takes the teary cake in respect to this.
  • *chuckle* "I know, I know."
    • That Jecht sphere... It starts off with Jecht asking Auron if the latter caught the Blitz game, and ends with an emotional-and-trying-to-hide-it Jecht telling Auron to turn the sphere off. Jecht was crying? Hell, and throw in that toxin-spurred shot of Jecht standing in the doorway of their home back in Zanarkand.
      • "You know...for the first time...I'm glad to have you...as a father."
• How about the memories in Zanarkand, where we see Auron trying to plead Jecht and Braska to not go through with the Final Summoning? And after the scene to hear Auron's cracked-and-sorrow-filled voice saying "And the cycle went on." AND see a flashback about his desperate attempt to get revenge on Yunalesca while being in a grief fueled rage.
  • This troper got so many teary chills during that scene. Having to "live" (if you can call it that) with that knowledge for the next ten years - knowing the truth of what actually happened to two friends to whom he'd trusted his life during their pilgrimage, while everyone in Spira thinks he's a Big Damn Hero - really brought home just *why* he was so cynical, why he always seemed to know more than he was letting on, why he hated himself and beat himself up so much during the game.
  • What did me in the most was Auron slashing away with his sword at the image of his younger self. Seeing Auron break down like that, so full of self-loathing for what he couldn't do and over the friends he couldn't protect.... It was incredibly powerful, even beautiful in a way.
• The destruction of Home. The Al Bhed, whose only crime is the salvage and use of "forbidden" machina ^[1], is the most hated and disenfranchised race in Spira. They never even had a nation or a homeland until Cid built Home on the sands of Bikanel Island. Then the Guado and the Church of Yevon invade it and kill everyone in it with hordes of fiends. When Cid takes whatever survivors he can find and escapes with them on the Fahrenheit, he orders his own son to destroy Home to avoid pursuit. And as the missiles fly, all Al Bhed on board sing the Hymn of the Fayth, both in honor of their dead as well as to soothe their own hearts.
• "To Zanarkand" is a heartbreaking piece of music on its own, especially the orchestral version.
• Wandering Flame is pure tearjerker fuel.
  • As well as Phantoms.
• Almost Fridge-y, but for this troper, all it takes is Seymour offhandedly calling Kimahri the last Ronso.
  • Related to this, upon playing through the game again, the scene at Gagazet where all the Ronso first tell Yuna they will bar Yevon's way and prevent anyone from attacking her party, and then sing the Hymn of the Fayth in her honor. First time around it was brave, noble, a possible Offscreen Moment of Awesome that proved how truly heroic the Ronso were, and the song was powerful and poignant. Upon second viewing, knowing they truly did sacrifice all their lives (rather than just the possibility it might happen) turns the whole thing tragic and heartbreaking, with the hymn becoming their own funeral dirge.
• "Suteki Da Ne" can really tug at your heartstrings.
  • Especially when you translate "Suteki Da Ne" to find out that in English, it's "Isn't It Wonderful?" This troper bawled the next time he heard the song with the title's implications.
    • The lyrics are worse. "Isn't it beautiful / To walk together in each others hands / I do so want to go / To your city, your house, into your arms."
• Operation Mi'ihen. This troper has a hard time getting through that section of the game. Seeing the tower that, as we see seconds before, still had people in it EXPLODING when their attack against Sin backfires. The corpses of people littered across the battlefield after the fight ends. Depending on what you chose, seeing and hearing a horrified Tidus as he tries to wake up a dead Gatta or seeing Gatta totally lose it because of the battle aftermath. The implications that Kinoc retreated his faithful followers so that only the Al Bhed and excommunicated would perish (an act that makes this troper hate Kinoc more than Seymour). The whole event is Nightmare Fuel AND a Tear Jerker, all rolled up into one!

1. ↑ a crime Yevon is equally guilty of, as you find out upon reaching Bevelle