Persona 4/Tear Jerker

What, you thought the happiest game about murder ever wasn't going to have any Tear Jerkers? Come on, this is Shin Megami Tensei. Of course you're going to cry.

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• Persona 4 pulls off a string of moving moments, from the beginning of the final kidnapping. You finally get the opportunity to tell the truth to your uncle about what has happened, only to watch it come just a tad too late for his daughter, who is kidnapped and thrown into the TV world. You chase down the guy who is responsible for the people being thrown in, and he seems certifiably insane. Upon completeing the rescue arc, you reach the scene that is a CMoA for the game's creators. It was too late for Nanako, who dies in her hospital room with you, Teddie, and her father at her side. As Ryotaro walks calmly out of the room, your team realizes he is going to talk to Namatame, who threw Nanako in in the first place. As the police hall him off to his room, they leave the suspect unguarded, prompting you and the others to enter the room for a grand confrontation. This is the ending fork for the bad or normal ending. Take it from this troper, it's kind of hard to read the options the game gives you with tears in your eyes. But it isn't over yet. If you make the right decisions, you get to cry tears of joy as Nanako is miraculously resurrected by the will of Teddie, who has finally realized what he is: a Shadow... with a Persona. As Igor states, the Velvet Room is no place for beings without an Ego. So, only humans can enter.
  • This troper teared up during Nanako's s-link when she's wondering if her dad really loves her and says a single heart wrenching "mommy"
    • Chie, Rise, and Yosuke's Social-Links can all tug on your heartstrings. Chie wonders aloud if other people think about what makes them worthwhile because she doesn't want to be just that girl who looks out for Yukiko. Rise used to get picked on when she was a little girl because she wasn't very good at talking to people and she'd always look at the ground; after she became an idol, she publicly campaigned against bullying, then met a girl who would get picked on just like Rise was. That girl would send Rise letters and tell her about the improvements in her life; it really meant a lot to Rise. Yosuke tries to work through how awful he feels about Saki secretly hating him. Two girls at Junes start bad-mouthing Saki, but then Yosuke stands up for her, even though she's dead and she hated him.
    • The Sun Link again has a chance to be a very moving one, if you choose the Drama Club. Yumi is dealing with her personal issues of a father who abandoned her, but is now dying. Through the course of the S-link, she begins to truly appreciate and accept her father as his condition gets worse. In the end, she thanks him for the gift of her own life as he dies with her at his side. One of the many examples of why the Social Link stories are what this troper loves most about these games.
  • This troper found the final battle quite touching. After wearing Izanami's HP down to almost nothing, she starts targeting the protagonist with an unblockable instant death attack every turn. One by one, the other party members shove you out of the way and are sucked down into some misty dark world. And then it hits you anyway.
    • After you're hit by the instant death attack, all your friends and family tell you how much you mean to them and convince you to fight against Izanami one last time; that's when I cried.
    • This troper gets choked up simply from the fight's music when it swells into an epic version of Reach Out To The Truth. Probably the only time I've shed a tear not because of anything plot-related, but simply because it made me realize the game was coming to an end after spending 80+ hours making me give a damn about it.
      • I almost got choked up when Reach Out to the Truth kicks in not so much because it was the end to a great 80-90 hour game, but because, when that moment of the song kicks in, it felt like someone was cheering you on against Izanami (a legitimately difficult boss unless you broke the game).
      • Watching the final cutscene, with the main character leaving and all the friends he made coming out to say goodbye. The train pulls away, the credits roll...and I utterly lose it. I was trying to will him to stay!
  • The texts you receive after leaving the hospital.
  • Hisano Kuroda's Social Link. It manages to invoke the Death Arcana's true meaning in a really tragic way: by having the person closest to you forget all about you.
    • What mattered the most was remembered the least, huh?
• Nanako's apparent "death" (really just a bunch of laymen overreacting to asystole). But she recovers if you don't give in to your desire for revenge (i.e. not get the worst ending).
• The final true boss battle where your friends take the instant death spell meant for you three times, all while Rise is screaming and crying in the background.
• Can a song be a Tear Jerker? Because Corridor is soul-crushing.
  • Alone. This song (spoilers in the comments) reduces anyone with a soul to TEARS the first time you hear it in game.
    • Which both have nothing on Heaven. Poor Nanako...
• Hearing Nanako's monologue about how, to quote Kanji, she's telling herself that she isn't alone just so she doesn't fall apart.
• Hisano's backstory, combined with a dose of Adult Fear. So, your husband has Alzheimer's, you speak to him, and the response is "Who are you?"
• When the MC is dragged down by Izanami's attack. Soon after that all the social links you've maxed out, all the people you've befriended appear one by one, encouraging MC to not give up and putting their thoughts with him. This troper was touched.
• "Children of man... well done!"
  • Are you mistaking this for the Crowning Moment of Awesome page?
  • Considering that that line comes right on the tail of a legitimately difficult final boss fight and is a magnificent payoff to all the trials and tribulations you endured throughout the entire game, no, I think it deserves a place here.
• This troper can't be the only one who cried when Souji leaves Inaba and his friends ran after the train, crying and talking to him
  • I get a little happy-sad and teary every time I hear Never More, the ending song for this game. Partially because of this scene, but partially because I've linked it strongly in my mind with my graduation from college.
• Ai of the Moon Social Link at first appears to be a real jerk. Get far enough in her social link and then you find out why she's that way. She was bullied and ostracized for her appearance and weight, but when her family came into some money, she dieted like crazy and changed her looks, all because she just wanted friends and to be loved. Her change in attitude, however, just made the rift bewteen her and other people grow wider. Then there's whole scene of the Hero trying to stop her from jumping off the school's roof.
• When Nanako is kidnapped and Dojima is in hospital from trying to save her, the MC returns to an empty house. No Nanako cheerfully calling out 'Hi big bro!'. No Dojima chillaxing and drinking coffee. Even the music changes to a slower, sadder version, and it is heartbreaking. This troper burst into tears the first time she played that part.
• Naoki Konishi, the Hanged Man Social Link, is absolutely heartbreaking. Dealing with his struggle to understand his feelings over the death of his sister. It reaches it's peak in the ninth rank, where the player and Naoki goes to the scene of his sister's murder. After spending months being tormented by his emotions, he finally cries.

Naoki: She must've wanted to live more, huh?

The Anime of the Game

• The small details the animation team added to the relationship between Yosuke and Saki really do help to make the latter's death all the more heartbreaking. For one, there's the fact that Yosuke had actually gone as far as to ask Saki out on a date, and there's the scene at the beginning of #2 where after being turned down by Yukiko, he perks up and says that Saki is the only woman for him. And then there's the crestfallen expression when Saki's death is announced and it's hard not to feel sorry for him in light of the context.
• The anime does an excellent job with the Shadow Yukiko bossfight, with the first part being an almost Lampshade Hanging of how it was That One Boss, and the second part being pure Tear Jerker.
• Much like with her Social Link, the moment where Rise learns that her manager is replacing her with another Idol Singer. Yu's Armor-Piercing Question doesn't do much to help Rise with her Identity Crisis, resulting in her running away and getting kidnapped by the Murderer.
• Yu's crestfallen look when it appears that the mystery has been solved and that there won't be a need for the Investigation Team to hang out anymore.
  • In the next episode, Yu suffers a Heroic BSOD and shows his nightmare: a world in which the investigation is over and one by one the team members distance themselves from him. It's a very sad and heartbreaking deconstruction of Fire-Forged Friends.
    • Yousuke's casual remark about how "it just goes to show that we were the only ones who thought we were friends," - followed immediately by Yu overhearing Kanji complaining about the group still meeting up for no reason and having to act friendly - hits particularly hard. In the end Yu is completely alone, unable to summon any of his Personas to defend himself because he has no connections to anyone any more.
• Episode 14. Hisano. All our tears.
• Episode 16. The anime rendition of Naoto's confrontation with her Shadow. Setting aside the possible issues about the character for a while, it's rather... well, heartbreaking to see the until then coolheaded Naoto have a breakdown when she's at the end of a brutal Hannibal Lecture about her identity as a whole.

Naoto: "I'm not... I'm not even a boy!"

• Episode 18. Nanako and Doujima-centered episode, maxing out both of their S-Links. God. Damn. It, even /a/ couldn't help crying at the livestream. ^{[dead link]}
• Episode 21. Just...damn. Nanako's kidnapping, and Yu's subsequent breakdown.
• Episode 22. Nanako's heart rate monitor flatlines.
  • To rub salt in the wound Dojima rushing desperately to reach Nanako's room in time, only to arrive too late
• Episode 23. The episode opens with the entire team crying over Nanako's death and Dojima trying to get to Namatame's room
  • Yu breaks down crying in the snow after Nanako dies. He asks Yosuke if he did the right thing letting Namatame live, who doesn't say anything, just gives Yu a shoulder to cry on. And the poor dude does.
  • While Namatame is a really crazy person, the scene in which he fails to save Mayumi from dying in the Midnight Channel is surprisingly effective in these regards.
  • Teddie vanishing into the fog, broken and depressed
• Episode 25. Yu's departure. It's both sad to see him go, but also happy since it's not necessarily goodbye forever, and it's clear how much he valued his time in Inaba. The last shot of him still holding his glasses is particularly effective.