Video Games/Tear Jerker

"Fail 'You're The Inspiration'? Are you insane, or just evil? I've done many questionable acts in games, but let that poor little girl down? I draw the line there. Cut off my hands, and I'll beat the level with my stumps. I. Will. Not. Fail. Her."

—This page's section for Elite Beat Agents

For the most tearjerky-ness, listen to this or this while reading.

Did you tear up when playing through these video game scenes?

Examples

Note: If a game has a Main page, create a new subpage for Tear Jerkers rather than listing here.

• Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee- The game opens with Munch swimming with his fellow Gabbits. But then the net comes in.

One time, there were lots of us. But that was before there was any webs. Now, I can't find anybody. My name is Munch, and I've been singing for them ever since. beat But nobody sings back.

• • Stranger's Wrath had a pretty heart breaking scene. The Stranger goes on another mission to find the doctor needed to perform an operation he was saving up for hung. He is then knocked out, only to wake up to find out that the outlaws found out that he is a Steef. If that weren't bad enough, the Clackerz even turn on him upon this revelation. Stranger just runs while being fired at, with his only reliable friends being the Grubbs.
• The obscure Wii game Zack & Wiki: The Quest for Barbaros' Treasure features a boss stage in which Wiki, a cute, golden, flying monkey thing is frozen inside an ice lion. If you screw up trying to free him once too many times, Wiki will tell Zack, "I'm feeling sleepy...thanks for everything..."
• This game made this troper tear up a bit. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that this troper remembers playing it shortly after her grandfather's funeral. You might not see why at first, but play it to the end...
• The game Passage never fails to get me a little wet around the eyes. Especially near the end if you picked up your mate. Seeing that little tombstone and knowing that you have nothing to do but keep moving is heartwrenching.
  • It really depends on how the game is played. You may die alone with regret.
  • Or... when your love dies, you can choose to stay by her grave and join her.
  • And the character is the creator, Jason, of the game himself. And his mate is his real life wife.
• Ribbon of Green's ending.
• Jason Roher's other game Gravitation is also heartwenching. To get by, you must play ball with your girl. If you are greedy and go for the box points for long, you'll fall down and find that see it gone and your environment gets darker. And the little girl is modeled after his own girl.
• There is the very short 2D game from Armor games and Kongregate. Which is possibly the saddest game ever made. It is called ImmortTall. You play as an alien, crashed on earth. You find some humans and befriend them. Then a war breaks out. You control the alien to act as a "human" shield for the family from the soldiers. You eventually make it through the warzone. And then the alien dies, surrounded by the family it protected, on an unknown planet far away from home. Then it starts snowing, and the body is eventually covered, and the family leave. YE GODS! It certainly puts a new spin on the traditional "Aliens crash on earth and start killing everyone": this time, the alien dies protecting innocents from the traditional "heroes". Oh yeah, and you never kill. Not one person. You merely act as a shield. You physically can't attack. Play it, and tell me you don't cry.
  • The first time I played it, it was even worse than the ending you describe. Due to slow reflexes and stupid moves on my part, the entire family was killed aside from the little girl. In that ending, after the alien dies, she sits down and never leaves. You can see the snow start covering her until the screen finally blacks out and returns to the menu.
  • The metaphor, the Heroic Sacrifice, the music...
  • God damn it. It's worse when you fail and The family dies too
  • This game made This Troper sad. She must now play it over and over in an attempt to get all the endings, in the hopes that at least one will make it somewhat less bleak. The 'fail to save the family' ending was somehow familiar..

Rock Giant: "They look like big, good, strong hands. Don't they? ... My little friends. ... I couldn't hold on to them. The nothing pulled them right out of my hands. I failed."

• One the topic of flash games, The Last Stand: Union City. Towards the end, you meet 'the protagonist of the first 2 Last Stands, Jack. He sacrifices himself so you, your spouse, and your ragtag group of friends can escape via boat. If you recall from the first 2 games, most prominently the second one, the only hope for Jack and his small crew is to get to Union City as there are still boats and planes taking people out. When Jack simply says to go on without him, he'll cover our exit, it was almost too much for this troper, as he played the first 2 Last Stands almost religiously.
• The entire game Broken Hearted. It's a kinetic novel (without any sort of gameplay other than pressing the space bar and crying) about a guy who loses his closest friends, including one he was going to propose to, in the 9/11 incident. Since it's based on reality, you get no happy ending, but damn, EVERYBODY that was ever important in his life.
• The ending for Sanada Yukimura in Samurai Warriors 3: anyone who knows their Japanese history knows that Yukimura was fighting a losing battle during the Siege of Osaka, but SW3 puts an emotional spin on it. After an emotional duel with Ina, his sister-in-law and a fellow warrior, Yukimura prepares to make a final charge at Tokugawa Ieyasu. Ina begs him not to throw his life away, but Yukimura would not waver. He is last seen charging at Tokugawa before the screen fades to white, and his spear is shown standing alone on the final battlefield...
• This troper was surprised by Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. Although it seems like just a cinematic shoot 'em up, the story hits hard sometimes. Throughout the first few levels of the game, Kane is sent on a job to steal something for a gang of mercenaries that have his wife and daughter. After botching it, they are brought before him as he's lying in a ditch, helpless. They shoot his wife in the head, and are about to kill his daughter before he becomes enraged, grabbing a shovel and beating the shooter to death, screaming "YOU SHOULD HAVE LET ME TALK TO THEM!" Oh, and let's not get into the ending...
  • That ending is made worse considering you can save her. All it requires is leaving Shelly, Riffic and Lynch to die out in the jungle, once again betraying everything you know and knowing that your daughter hates you even more now. Some people say this game sucks. I want them to find me a shooter that can deliver that kind of ending.
  • Either ending is a Tear Jerker for This Troper. After picking the save Jenny ending (albeit accidentally) I was fired up for what I fle tsure was going to be one huge Big Damn Heroes moment. You then of course arrive in the town to find that Rific is already dead, and it just gets worse from there. To have very nearly reached the dock (and escape) only to have Jenny gunned down by the last man between you and safety broke my heart. It's made even worse by Kane's frantic denials of the fact she's dead, yelling at Lynch in deranged fashion to shut him up and carrying Jenny's limp body on his shoulders to the boat. Oh yeah. then Shelley dies too. The waterworks came on with a vengeance.
  • The developers know. The achievements in the 360 version for getting each ending are, respectively, "Damned If You Do" and "Damned If You Don't."
• Poker Night At the Inventory of all places. One of the conversations that can happen among the characters is Heavy telling about when he was a kid and saw a sparrow on a fence, then another kid killed it with a throwing knife and ran away. "I pick up sparrow and hear his last breath before digging him tiny grave".
  • Made all the more poignant by the silent shock on the faces of the others, Tycho bursting into tears, and Strong Bad saying "That's not even a little bit funny," to which Heavy replies, "No. It's not."
• The Dead Island Trailer. Made all the worse by the music and the montage at the end. Imagine going on a vacation with your family and/or friends, all of you expecting to have the most awesome time. All of a sudden, zombies attack and you watch in horror as your loved one get mauled and turn against you as they reanimate.
• The "sad" stages in Elite Beat Agents and both Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan games.
  • Particularly crushing is the EBA stage's third segment, seen in its entirety here. A little girl whose father has died tries to see him in her dreams. In the dream, she chases after his silhouette, and at the end of the segment leaps at him, falling short. She screams "DADDY!" If you're doing badly, he just keeps walking... but if you do well, he stops and then turns to her just before she wakes up. No one will think less of you for pausing the game to collect yourself at that point.
    • Fail that scene. Seriously, fail it, and if you aren't scrambling to reset to do it correctly, or at least are feeling like a giant dick, then you aren't human.
    • This scene is so sad that the Elite Beat Divas (and Commander Kahn) don't do their normal dance moves to it. They just wave their arms like a normal Agent.
    • Dude, this troper hasn't even played the game, and reading that description evokes tears and sniffles.
      • If you want to feel even WORSE, fail the stage itself. If you don't feel like a horrible human being for letting her down afterwards, then you truly have no soul left in you.
        • Fail You're The Inspiration? Are you insane, or just evil? I've done many questionable acts in games, but let that poor little girl down? I draw the line there. Cut off my hands, and I'll beat the level with my stumps. I. Will. Not. Fail. Her.
      • This game ruined that song for this troper. Forever. Because now she bawls like a baby just from listening to it.
        • Ruined, you say? In Theenglishman's opinion, it turned a rather formulaic and plodding love song into a heartrending tribute song from daughter to father.
      • Hell, I just watched the mission, thinking I wouldn't be affected (I'm rather stoic at points), read these, and even I was affected, That. Song. Will. Depress. You. She's desperately trying to remember her dead dad! How does that not make you sad!?!
      • This troper decided to fail that segment (and the song) to see if it was as sad as everyone said. It was. He felt like a colossal dick.
    • The Ouendan sad levels are similarly rough (the first a dead man trying to help his girlfriend move past his death, the second a teenage skater trying to take her late sister's place), but this troper still sat through them stone faced. You're My Inspiration makes her cry every damn time and she still tears up over the song.
      • Over the Distance didn't move you nearly to tears? What the hell is wrong with you?!
      • This troper could see not being all that moved by the sad stages in Ouendan, but it would require not knowing Japanese at all. If you do, the stages are much sadder than You're the Inspiration because not only are the stories sad, but the songs themselves are tearjerkers in their own right, even without the games. If anyone understands the song and text and doesn't cry at the last section of Believe, there's something seriously wrong.
    • This troper found a nice Tear Jerker among the non-slow songs: the second bonus stage of Ouendan 2, where you help a young boy confess his love to his crush before she moves away. Especially if you do well, because then she responds that she feels the same way, and you get a final picture of the boy waving goodbye to her, with tears in his eyes. That stage has also made the song, Glamorous Sky, into a Tear Jerker as well.
    • Well... think about the first bonus stage in Ouendan 2. The beloved toy monkey getting given out, to the dismay of the owner, who had loved that toy as a child. The stage involves the monkey using amazing, ninja-like skill to get back to its owner. Failure to complete the stage results in the toy monkey, damaged, broken, and unable to get back to its owner. :(
    • On the subject of You're the Inspiration, this Troper has a display where he works that holds CDs and randomly plays segments of them if you press a button. One of the buttons will play a song off a CD by Chicago. Yes, the song played is You're the Inspiration. If this Troper is not on cash, I walk over and turn it down every time. I just can't listen to that song after EBA. Can't do it.
  • This troper thought that the Elite Beat Agents getting trapped in stone was also a Tear Jerker. The people in the game agree...
    • Also a crowning moment of heartwarming afterwards. "E... B... A... * clap* "
      • followed by a Crowning Moment of Awesome as the music starts to swell, the chanting grows louder, and the Agents rip out of their petrified state, cheers erupt, and much alien ass is kicked with the sheer badass of the Rolling Stones
• Even the Crash Bandicoot series has a subtle yet effective one. In Crash Nitro Kart after defeating Krunk, Crash offers the broken champion a gift from his world (his beloved yo-yo). An annoyed Velo teleports Krunk away for his failure. While Crunch and Coco both give rather irked reactions to this, Crash just looks on, visibly saddened at his new friend being sent away.
• A far less well known game- sadly- Resonance of Fate has a heart-wrenching moment on a bridge, complete with a dramatic, rainy backdrop and a dramatic and emotional last minute rescue by an unexpected party. For those who wish to know, Your main protagonist, Zephyr, is actually the murderous lunatic seen in the opening scenes of the game who is 'dead' to everyone but a select few. After surviving and being given a 'second chance', he is hunted down by a witness to his mental breakdown and brought to the bridge to 'talk', which consists of a one-sided, painfully detailed recount of several people who died that day, their final words, the words of their loved ones, a complete reaming of Zephyr's character, and ends with these coldly delivered words- 'why did YOU live when they died? Is your life worth more then theirs?It sickens me to even look at you. Your life is a blaspheme! Your very existence shakes the foundation of faith! Only your death will satisfy me!' The worst of this, though, is the entire time the only reaction from the character being so emotionally and mentally torn apart is for lips to tense and quake subtly as he fights back the sobs, physically retreating under each word. While you do defeat Lagerfeild in battle- or rather, Leanne steps up and ends him for you after a boss battle you win anyway...>.> the ending cutscene is just as heartbreaking as the start, with your characters sobbing in the rain, one only wanting to die and the other wanting him to live, but torn apart knowing what he's done.
  • Yeah. And this is just one of a few gut-wrenching scenes, guys. This game is one mood whiplash to another, and when it decides to put the hurt on a character, it does.
• The ending of The Maw when Frank must leave Maw. He evens gives Maw's EYEBALL a good-bye hug.
• The ending credits of The Munchables where Munchy, Chomper, Great Elder are bawling their eyes out and staring at the night sky simply because the game was over.
• This cutscene from Chocobo's Dungeon 2.
• Arc Rise Fantasia: Walking around Antrax after it is attacked and taken over. The music is gut-wrenching, and listening to what the survivors (and even some of the soldiers) have to say made this troper get misty-eyed. Even worse, this comes right after half your party betrays you and leaves and is followed by Zamuel dying. This troper actually started getting angry at how depressing the game was at this point.
• Of all games, Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 does this in the Dominance Ending where you murder Noire, Uni, Blanc, Ram, Rom, Vert, and Neptune in that order just to power up the demon sword.
• Though it's not exactly related to playing video games, there's the Dreamcast page on this site. Call this troper crazy, but it seemed really sad, like a farewell to Sega hardware and the greatest Sega console that died out too early. It's Still Dreaming...
  • I put that there as a salute to the last system SEGA made before they left the hardware business (someone else added the pothole later). Never forget the Dream and it will never die ;_;
• You wouldn't believe that a tropetastic Wide Open Sandbox Grand Theft Auto clone like Saints Row 2 would have Tear Jerker moments, but the story arc taking place during the Ronin missions, starting with the last part of 'Road Rage' and ending with 'Rest In Peace,' are suspenseful and ultimately heartbreaking...and yet they still somehow don't compare to the end of 'Red Asphalt.'
  • There was also the secret last mission, where you and Julius fight together one last time against Ultor. It's just like old times, you and him shooting it up in his custom Zenith. You think everything is forgiven, even Julius thinks so, calling you playa' like a friend one more time before The Boss shoots him. He calls you a sociopath, and tells you--more or less--that the path you are walking down will doom you. Then you kill him. The worst part of it all is that you realize he's right. In a game that is all about goofy escapist fun, the seriousness of this scene can be a shock.
• In the Mobile Phone Game Chronicles of Inotia: Children of Carnia, to defeat the God of Darkness once for all, Lydia has to be sacrificed. Lucio tries to argue with her, that they would find a way to avert it. The way she explains that there is no other way is simply depressing and even more depressing when the screen shows the Spirit Kings saying "The sacrifice was completed." And then, the memories of the party are erased, while rolls a Where Are They Now? Epilogue, at the voice of Ji Yoon Park. I cried, seriously. On the brighter side, they get better.
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat has you form a Five-Man Band with four guys you have come to know and be friends with to get through a dangerous pathway into Pripyat. A cheerfuly optimistic deadbeat, a reformed Monolith member, the hapless surviving pilot of a military operation-gone-wrong and a former Dutyer that you first met after he drank you under the table. With snorks, hamsters, zombies and Monolith cultists all gunning for you, there is a very good chance that one or more--possibly all--of them will not be coming out of that tunnel with you. And even if they all do, the reveal that you are an undercover military agent leaves the ex-Dutyer feeling betrayed and he walks off, never to be seen by you again.
• Zone of the Enders certainly gets you with Viola's death. Ok, she was a villain, bordering the Complete Monster level, but, she became that after losing everyone who was important to her through her life, from her parents, to her lover. Her death scene is heartwrenching, with her mecha slowly disintegrating while entering Jupiter's atmosphere, while she has one last conversation with Leo, telling him her story, before being completely destroyed by the planet's stormy atmosphere. By the time she dies, she's glad that her "ill-fated days" and suffering are finally over, and she can reunite with her beloved one, finally. Ah, the music that plays during the scene doesn't help to heighten the mood either.
• The Sims brings a few of these. Whenever your sim dies and you invested a lot of time into building them, you can fell this way. If they weren't happy during their lives, they try to take the hourglass away from the Grim Reaper.
  • Agnes Crumplebottom. The Scrappy from The Sims 1. However, when we see her in The Sims 3, she's more of a Jerkass Woobie. She lives alone in a mansion built for three, having lost her husband during their honeymoon. If one checks, you can see the half-built nursery in the mansion as well.