Yggdra Union/Tear Jerker

While playing Yggdra Union, one may want to have a fresh tissue box on hand.

• Nietzsche's backstory is one of the first ones, way back when the game is still pretending to be cute and cheerful--she's a twelve-year-old girl who was exiled from her country because her sister got duped into handing over her race's greatest treasure to a human who ran away with it. Her sister killed herself, and her people see Nietzsche herself as a traitor, too; in order to reclaim her honor and save her race, she's bent on recovering said treasure by herself. As the Royal Army--which she is a part of--essentially destroys the entire country's government, this just gets more and more personal for her as she shoulders her people's burden. At twelve.
• Elena is another one--she loves her brother, her teacher, her friends, and her country; she hates fighting. But she believes that her brother's coldness and cruelty has to end so strongly that she is willing to sacrifice the place she belongs to personally ensure that it will. Even after she defects from the Imperial Army, she's met with nothing but suspicion from the Royal Army--and after they learn that they can really trust her, Elena never forgets her cold reception and her own people's sense of betrayal, and continues to nurse them both. Small wonder she's The Eeyore; you probably would be too, especially if you still had to keep trying to kill your friends and family even after all of this.
• The simple fact that Gordon can die permanently at the end of chapter 5, made even more shocking by the fact that this is the first time the Imperial Army has been willing to kill anyone other than Yggdra and Milanor.
• Chapter 6 and its Shoot the Dog battle against Roswell or Rosary, which likely as not you probably still feel a little guilty about by the time this happens. Yggdra's reaction does not help.
• These start to pick up speed in Chapter 7--first there's the final battle with Zilva, who is killed alone without her comrades even knowing and given a tearful sendoff by Elena, and then Baldus pulling a You Shall Not Pass despite Eudy and Emilia's anguished protests. Right after that, there's Monica and Canaan, and Emilia sacrificing herself in a useless attempt to protect the civilians and the capital city. The fact that this chapter sees the Sympathetic POV gradually sliding over to Bronquia's side only makes it that much worse, as does the way that it shakes Yggdra's resolve so badly that she decides to try to negotiate with Gulcasa, who up until now she's only been able to vilify as her parents' killer.
• Things come to a head in Battlefield 42, however, as this is where both Gulcasa and Yggdra reach their breaking point. The former gets the news that his little sister just got killed, and we see him crying alone and begging for her to forgive him for not being there to save her. The latter breaks down in the middle of the battlefield during a high-stress fight after her attempts to make Gulcasa surrender fall through. The deadlock can only be broken by Kylier's Heroic Sacrifice, which causes the comic relief sidekick to go ballistic.
• And after that, you have Luciana and Aegina, and the reaction of one to her sister's death and Gulcasa's decision that he'll have to kill himself and release Brongaa to make the war end. Right on the heels of which comes the death of the surviving sister as she and Gulcasa try to make one last stand, despite his best efforts to save her.
• Gulcasa's death. Even if you don't know his whole story, it manages to be emotionally powerful, especially in the greatness of heart he shows by honoring his own creeds and accepting Yggdra as a worthy conqueror.
• And after all this, there's Kylier again.
• Finally, while Nessiah is... an acquired taste at best, there's nothing like his Final Speech and death for making you feel like a terrible person. His last offhand remark about his own blindness is usually the clincher.
• Nearly all of these are made many, many times worse if one has played through Blaze Union--which explains why Leon is the way he is, what Gulcasa was really fighting for, and what the members of the Imperial Army really meant to each other.