Poll: Beautiful Game Endings: Do They Bring You To Tears?

[Leemaster777]

I have never, ever cried because of a game.

...that being said, two games have come close.

First is Persona 4. I've never really become attached to characters like I did in Persona 4, so having to say goodbye to them like that was... oddly bittersweet.

Then there's Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. I've got a few problems with that game, but the ending isn't one of them. Seriously, tear-jerker right there. If that was the only game in the series you'd played, you'd think it had one of the most depressing endings in a game ever (it still kinda does).

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

The only time a game has ever turned me to tears was when a save file that I had been playing for a good 30+ hours corrupted, but I guess that doesn't really count.

I'm not really an emotional sort though. I'm not a brick wall by any means, but it's generally hard to tear my heart at things in fiction. Not sure why, that's just the way it is, I suppose.

 

[Souplex]

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective made me feel things in my cold shriveled heart.
As did Professor Layton and the Unwound Future.
Space Wizards (Mass Effect) 3 nearly brought me to tears, but for very different reasons.

 

[Semudara]

I played Klonoa for the first time on Wii, and it made me cry. Not at the ending, though.

Everyone mentions the ending, and it certainly is bittersweet (and more than a little confusing), but what really got to me was an earlier scene in the game, when Klonoa goes back to his house. That whole scene just broke my heart. The game has a mostly whimsical tone up to that point, which is what made it so shocking and so sad.

If a game is clearly just forcing drama in an attempt to make you sad, it never works to the extent that I shed actual tears. But some games set things up so effectively and naturally that the emotion is raw, and it's real, and a game that can do that is pretty special. I'm fortunate enough to have played a LOT of pretty special games.

 

[Azahul]

The Walking Dead is still to this day the only game to make me bawl like a little ***** at the end. But games like Flower and Journey have come damn close just from their sheer spectacle and emotionally charged soundtracks.

I think that might be it, actually. The sound. Because I was choking up at the end of Walking Dead and fighting back the tears, and then when Take Us Back came on, I fucking lost it. Dunno if it was just everything finally sinking in, or if it was just good selection, or both.

Exact same thing happened to me. First and only time a video game has ever actually succeeded in making me cry. A few have come close in the past, but that's the only one that managed it, and it happened exactly as you describe. Stupid credits.

 

[JagermanXcell]

MGS3's almost made me cry. I had to hold it in, I had to be a soldier... just like Big Boss. ;_;7

Buuuuuuuuut Persona 4's True Ending on the other hand left me so emotionally wrecked I think I saw my manhood fly out screaming "NOPENOPENOPE"
No regrets either, that goodbye impacted me hard when I first saw it. So beautiful T_T

 

[Anthony Corrigan]

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey did it for me.
It's a pretty sad ending, and leaves a LOT of unanswered questions.

Another notable example would be the 'good' ending to Bioshock 2.

God I forgot about Dreamfall, what ever happened to that series. Can't actually remember much about the story because I played it so long ago but I do remember thinking, ok where's the sequel

 

[sextus the crazy]

I think 9 hours 9 persons 9 doors got me close, but otherwise I can't think of anything.

 

[scorptatious]

Well games like Shadow of the Colossus, ICO, Final Fantasy IX,Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater have all gotten me pretty close to crying. Not quite though.

 

[MCerberus]

Half-Life 2: Episode Two had a knife-twist at the end that gave me a minor case of the sads. Especially that fade to black.

No tears, but the end of Borderlands 2's act two I had to put the controller down for a bit because it sank in just how dark, hopeless, and broken the entire setting is behind the meat puppets and redneck jokes. At least Angel got her last laugh.

 

[FPLOON]

I have never, ever cried because of a game.

...that being said, two games have come close.

First is Persona 4. I've never really become attached to characters like I did in Persona 4, so having to say goodbye to them like that was... oddly bittersweet.

Then there's Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. I've got a few problems with that game, but the ending isn't one of them. Seriously, tear-jerker right there. If that was the only game in the series you'd played, you'd think it had one of the most depressing endings in a game ever (it still kinda does).

Persona 4 or any game where I have to say goodbye to characters that I have grown attached to still gets to me... usually in the feels... Although I never do cry on-the-spot during these momments (even in the more tear-jerking-induced momments), after about a few hours of reflecting on said ending, that's when it really gets to me in the feels...


Oh... And in referenced to 358/2 Days...

Spoiler

"Who else will I have ice cream with?"

That line always gets me every time I refer back to that ending...

 

[skywolfblue]

"Actually cried"? I don't think so. Sniffles yes, tears no.

But a whole lot of them have been really really close, which counts in my book.

Mass Effect 3
Portal 2
Red Dead Redemption
Bastion
Bioshock 2
...and so on.

 

[velcrokidneyz]

i came close at the end of walking dead but other than that no

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

Not a very good poll. The options go from "all the time" to "not often" without any decent middle ground.

Ico, certainly. A PC "kinetic novel" called Planetarian once reduced me to helpless sobbing for about 10 solid minutes because the ending was just THAT sad. I think the end of Terranigma got me a bit moist-eyed as well. Come to think of it, I think the ending of Illusion of Gaia did the same thing, although I know I got rather more sad at Hamlet's death several hours earlier in the game. Secret of Mana, I think. Possibly Lufia II. It was mainly back in the old days. These days I don't actually FINISH many games and the ones I do beat don't tend to have tearjerker endings.

 

[Voulan]

I've cried at the end of every Kingdom Hearts game because the endings are always so tragic. And then of course you have your token answers like The Walking Dead and the such-like.

So most definitely, yeah.

 

[Da Orky Man]

Parts of To The Moon came close, but I'm not an especially emotional person, so I don't think I've ever cried at a game.

Ooh, and during that scene near the start of Homeworld. Ok, so I was only about 6, but still.

 

[Sarge034]

I have come close on a few occasions, but only one has brought me to my knees (figuratively speaking). The Walking Dead. I just cared so damn much. I felt like I was Lee taking care of Clem. I was proud of her, and sorry I couldn't keep protecting her, and... manly tears. Be good Clem, stay safe.

Spoiler

 

[Vladimir Stamenov]

Bastion, the scene in the Winter in Dreamfall, some part of The Longest Journey... The first time I cried though, was in Planescape, when all my companions, and Annah and Fall from Grace specifically, died defending me.

 

[AgedGrunt]

It's extremely rare, usually the accompanying soundtrack gets me, not the story. Metal Gear Solid 3 was a bit of both. Guild Wars 2 was almost exclusively the song that plays at Fort Trinity at the epilogue. It nearly redeemed the ending, which was a complete embarrassment to gaming, and actually made me feel for the characters and their world.