What game has evoked the most emotion in you?

[King of the Sandbox]

With the advance of both technology and story-telling in the video game world, there have been some pretty dramatic moments in these games that have touched certain people's hearts in one way or another. Whether you howled in rage when a close and beloved friend becomes and enemy, or sobbed uncontrollably at the loss of a deeply invested character, it provoked a true emotional response.

I love the story-telling of games. It's an interactive media. I get sucked in to adventure and, if the writing's good, lose myself in the tale.

Recently, while playing Red Dead Redemption, I was at a point in the game where I was

Spoiler: very minor spoiler

crossing into Mexico after saying goodbye to my new acquaintances in New Austin

I was thinking about all these characters and the involving story, when this song came on...


Along with the story, the expansive view, and my immersion in the world, this song was the perfect catalyst to make my heart move. I don't know what I felt, but I felt it. A little melancholy, with some nostalgia thrown in.

I just sat there, taking it in, feeling my heart beat in my chest, realizing that a video game was making me feel.

What game, if any, has had that one single greatest emotional response from you? Or are you more about the score, less about the drama?

 

[Marter]

Final Fantasy X made me feel really good while playing it. I'm not sure what it was about it, but the entire game felt very good.

Nostalgia only makes it better, and remembering it reminds me of good times in my life.

 

[Julianking93]

Metal Gear Solid.

The whole series. Aside from the first one, I've cried in all of them.

4 especially. I actually just replayed all of them in a row and cried in all of them.

Other than that, Kingdom Hearts. Both of them.

Ah, those are some amazing games.

 

[Worgen]

hmm.... Ive had a game get the emotion of bloodlust from me but I have rage problems with certain games..... hmm is there a game that made me sad... oh wait, yeah the original silent hill, when you are in the hospital and there is that nurse in the room, not the monster nurse she looks normal and she was just so happy to see someone normal and later on when you see her she starts bleeding from the head and begging you not to leave her and you run out and block the door as she bangs on it begging, I remember that seeming so sad since she was all alone. Later on I read a plot synopsis that said she was created by one of the forces in silent hill to keep you there or something and that took some of the impact of it out but at the time my heart went out for her since she seemed lonely

 

[Doctor VonSexMachine]

For sheer shit-your-pants terror, try Penumbra.
Wait...fear is an emotion right? Fear, anger, amusement and boredom are pretty much the only emotions games have ever evoked in me.

 

[arsenicCatnip]

Metal Gear Solid.

The whole series. Aside from the first one, I've cried in all of them.

4 especially. I actually just replayed all of them in a row and cried in all of them.

I did the same. Oh god, the end of 4

Spoiler

with the microwave corridor, and Snake struggling along bravely. I sobbed like a little ***** with a skinned knee.

The Persona games also do this to me. I ran the gamut from sorrow to rage to pure happiness while playing both 3 and 4.

FFVII still makes me cry too. No explanation needed.

 

[MisterShine]

The first game that really made me feel something, and the reason I hold it in high regards, is FF7. I was 11 or 12 at the time, and it was the first game I'd played that had any kind of serious storyline, or at least one that I was able to follow. My team was always Barret and Aeris, and I thought they were all great characters. When she went missing from the team, I played straight through the night to get her back, only to catch up with her around 4 am.. to watch her die. I cried pretty hard at the funeral scene.

I had some pretty strong feelings a year or two later when I first played Baldur's Gate 2,

Spoiler

namely when Irenicus sucked out my soul (I'm gunna KILL that guy!), I was forced to kill Viconia because we were in a romance (I didn't figure out til a much later playthrough that it was possible to save her), and finally when I got sucked into hell to deal with Irenicus (Yeah! EAT THE BASTARD!)

Being scared shitless while playing System Shock 2 (got that the same day I got BG2). Literally everything terrified me. I couldn't play for more than an hour at a time because I would get so nervous and jumpy. I started freaking out if people yelled for me while I was playing.

And easily one of the biggest surprises and "OHMYFUCKINGGODDIDTHATJUSTHAPPEN" moments, thanks to Bioware and my own misogyny

Spoiler

KOTOR. I was playing as a girl my first time through. The game NEVER refers to Revan with a pronoun before Revan's identity is revealed. I ASSUMED the badass Sith Lord was a guy. I was wrong. I fell OFF my couch during the reveal sequence.

I could name a few more, but these are the main reasons I love gaming. Some can move you even better than the best books or movies.

 

[banksy122]

At the end of Half life 2, when the citadel blows up and G-man takes you away, for days I felt bad because didn't know what happened to Alyx. Pretty bad I know >.>

 

[Julianking93]

snip

For me

Spoiler

It was twice. Once when Naomi plays her final message and Otacon is sobbing over his computer and again when I heard the gunshot when Snake supposedly killed himself. I freaked out when they showed he wasn't dead and that- Holy fucking shit Big Boss is alive?????!!!

 

[TheTaco007]

Bioshock 1 mindfucked me so badly...

 

[ward.]

God of war 2, during the art where kratos has to swim through that underground water passage way while dodging the falling gates.

The emotion in question is rage, as my tv was broken without my knowledge and I couldn't see the alcoves you had to hide in along the way.

 

[arsenicCatnip]

snip

For me

Spoiler

It was twice. Once when Naomi plays her final message and Otacon is sobbing over his computer and again when I heard the gunshot when Snake supposedly killed himself. I freaked out when they showed he wasn't dead and that- Holy fucking shit Big Boss is alive?????!!!

Oh jesus, yeah. Poor Otacon had some MAJOR sob-worthy moments.

What about

Spoiler

Big Boss's final speech as he lies dying? Or Raiden's sacrifice, then the moment he wakes up in the hospital with his family?

Even Sunny's last line made me sniffle a little, in a weird way.

"Come quick, it's ready! They look... yummy. Like the sun. It's rising again."

 

[Dexiro]

Probably Demon Souls. What little i've played of it has bought out a ton of each emotion, mostly fear ;D

 

[octafish]

Baldur's Gate 2. For me it was...

Spoiler

Yojimbo, dude we were tight, I leveled you up and everything. How could you do that to me?

 

[Julianking93]

What about

Spoiler

Big Boss's final speech as he lies dying? Or Raiden's sacrifice, then the moment he wakes up in the hospital with his family?

Even Sunny's last line made me sniffle a little, in a weird way.

"Come quick, it's ready! They look... yummy. Like the sun. It's rising again."

For some reason,

Spoiler

Boss's speech didn't do anything to me. I thought it was cool, but I didn't cry. Now, Raiden's sacrifice (both of them) made me tear up and think about how awesome he is, but his meet with his family didn't. I just kinda thought that part was a little cheesy

But one thing I didn't get emotional at until recently was

Spoiler

The end to MGS3 when Big Boss is standing over Boss' grave, saluting and tearing up

I hadn't cried at that before until about a week ago. Plus, that whole twist at the end with Eva was just amazing.

 

[the1ultimate]

I'm not sure I've played many games that have effectively moved me emotionally, but some games definitely make me feel something... It's just hard to describe what.

Legend of Zelda games for example, are usually especially good at immersing me in a magical world and making it feel cool. Usually a Zelda game makes me feel good, just not with an emotion I can put words to.

For more standard emotions, Fallout 3 made me feel sad and braid made me feel sorry for the protagonist.

The only positive emotions I usually feel are more like when I'm having a good day in Oblivion.

 

[King of the Sandbox]

I wonder, does the instillation of emotions itself validate video games as an art? Hmmm.

Regardless, I thought of another good one. At the end of Mega-Man 2, as the Blue Bomber wanders through the seasons, it lent me to thinking that it was the end of the series, especially the shot at the end where you see only his helmet left behind, almost as a memorial.

As a kid, the ending left me feeling something I couldn't quite comprehend at the time, but now I know it was a kind of melancholy dread, fear that Mega Man, despite successfully defeating Dr. Wily again, eventually went offline.

Of course, part 3 remedied that worry pretty fast. ^_^

 

[arsenicCatnip]

For some reason,

Spoiler

Boss's speech didn't do anything to me. I thought it was cool, but I didn't cry. Now, Raiden's sacrifice (both of them) made me tear up and think about how awesome he is, but his meet with his family didn't. I just kinda thought that part was a little cheesy

But one thing I didn't get emotional at until recently was

Spoiler

The end to MGS3 when Big Boss is standing over Boss' grave, saluting and tearing up

I hadn't cried at that before until about a week ago. Plus, that whole twist at the end with Eva was just amazing.

Reading the special edition guide to MGS4, and seeing where everything ties together, just made every scene that much more gutwrenching.

Spoiler

The Boss is a true American heroine.

FFVII would take the cake for me as well, it's more visual then 6 and thus it can convey more emotions in me. Also, scenes from Half Life 2 made me cry as well...

Aerith's Theme makes me tear up.