I haven’t done this in a while, but you can bet that when I start to resort to the 100 theme challenge and the 30 day gaming topic…um, thingy for blog post topics, I’m running out of ideas. You’re welcome for the honesty. Ahem, today’s 30 day video game topic is #9, the saddest game scene. There are several scenes that have made me rather…misty in the past, but I think there are two main ones that need mentioning. Yes, I’m kind of cheating, but who’s going to put a stop to my reign of rule-breaking terror? No one. So there.
The first one I’d like to talk about is a certain scene from Illusion of Gaia on the SNES. This particular section of the game gets to me every single time, without fail. Kind of like episode 42 of Hoshi no Kaabii. If you’d like that translated, what that boils down to is, yes, I cried during an episode of the Kirby anime. And The Lion King, but we all know that movie’s sad. I’m deep like that. But, I digress. Anyway, what happens in Illusion of Gaia is Will has a dream. His friends and he are traveling on this ship after he beats the boss of the Incan Ruins or what have you, and he falls asleep, only to dream that he is back home. He goes downstairs to spot his deceased mother (okay, while we’re on the topic of sad events related to mothers, I cried during Super Mario Galaxy, as well). When you talk to her, all she does is ask him if he believes the comet approaching their planet is good or bad. I know it’s a rather silly thing to weep over, but the music is very sad in this scene, and it just…gets to me, you know. Every time. Sniff, snort.
And yet, while that scene wins for the sheer number of times it has made me sob, this next scene is actually far sadder, but it contains major spoilers for those who have yet to finish Final Fantasy X. Proceed at your own risk.
Now, a bit of back story is required for this one to make sense. And even then, it won’t, because some bits of FFX were baffling. The game opens with a young man named Tidus who lives in the city of Zanarkand, until a monster named Sin comes. Tidus wakes up 1,000 years in the future, long after Zanarkand has been destroyed. He ends up meeting a summoner named Yuna and travels with her and her guardians as she goes on a quest to temporarily defeat Sin (as it always comes back some time after it is killed). As you may expect, a relationship blossoms between Tidus and Yuna, but Tidus comes upon a most disturbing discovery. He is fake. Apparently he is simply something that has been dreamt up by the Fayth. (Am I losing you? Just bear with me.) Okay, so I still don’t know how that works, but the Fayth have something to do with the Aeons summoners use to fight Sin, and Zanarkand, including Tidus, a former resident of the place, are merely dreams mistaken for real people. Yeah…
Well, the characters figure out a way to defeat Sin permanently, but if this happens, there will be no use for the Fayth anymore, which means they will stop dreaming. And you know what that means, doesn’t it? At the end of the game, at first only the player and Tidus know that this is the end. No more dreaming Fayth means no more Tidus. While he manages to keep a happy face about it, bless his soul, I did not. I started to bawl my head off, especially when Yuna tries to hug him, but is unable because he has already started to fade away. I can’t listen to Suteki Da Ne anymore, either. It makes me cry so hardcore. And so that, dear readers, is my saddest game scene. Now I need a tissue.
A Duck with Leaky Peepers
I somehow already wrote this post in the past without realizing until now, so for a slightly different version, you can find the original post from June 13, 2014 over at the Duck of Indeed. That’s awkward….
Oh man – Thessia falling in Mass Effect 3. Lik dis if u cry evertim.
Bawl(ed) like a baby every playthrough. I’m sure if I went back I would weep again.
It’s strange how something can make us cry even when we know what’s going to happen. I cannot get through Illusion of Gaia without crying at least once. I’ve only beaten Final Fantasy X twice, but if I played it again, I’d probably still cry at the ending. It’s nice, though. I like games that make me feel something.
If you had played Persona 3 FES, you’ d bawl like a baby, too. I have never cried that way for anyone or anything in my whole life. And the music at the end……….
The hardest I have ever cried at a piece of fiction is when playing video games or watching a particular episode of Hoshi no Kaabii (the Kirby anime, but there is one episode that is seriously depressing). I don’t think books or movies have ever made me cry like video games do. I guess we get more emotionally invested in video games than other forms of media, because we play an active role in them.
I looked up that game. It sounds really interesting. I should check it out sometime.
It was Game of the Year at one time, ( I don’t know what year, though ) and Sony’s top 10 of all time at # 5. It looks very cartoonish, and that put me off the game for a year after its release( like, the character has to fight tables, ha ha ) I watched my brother playing it and I was like, what the heck is that ! Try it, you’ll like it, he said, and I did, and not only did I like it, I became obsessed with it, played the game for 800 hours. ( the # of hours is recorded in the game )
Wow, that’s a lot of hours. I didn’t want to play Ni no Kuni because of the graphics, but I have learned that I shouldn’t judge games based on just their graphics. It’s always fun to find good “older” games to check out, so I might need to try it someday, especially now that I’m running out of new games to play.
Crying forever at that FFX scene. Too heartbreaking!
I don’t think I’ll ever get over the ending of FFX. Not only did I cry during the ending, but every time I listened to Suteki da Ne ever since made me start crying all over again. I can hardly even think about that scene without weeping. That is why FFX is one of the best games ever.
I don’t know if a game has ever gotten me to outright cry, and by that I mean if it did I don’t remember. However, there were a few scenes that got me feeling a bit choked up. There’s the Death of Aeris in FFVII (sure it’s cliche, but it hit me alright, and this was just last year too!), the “death” of Crono in Chrono Trigger (it was shocking, okay?), and what happens at the end of BioShock Infinite’s Burial at Sea DLC. Everything about that last one was so sad and tragic…If you’d like to know more about it, just let me know. It’s sad, but very, very, good!
Then there’s stuff that got sad after the fact, like the battle against Rundas in Metroid Prime 3. Not sad at first, but very much so after the fact considering the music and what’s actually happening in the fight.
This scene in FFX though, sounds even worse…not sure I’d want to play through it…
I wish I was more upset about Aerith’s death in FFVII, but since I expected it due to hearing about the game’s plot before ever playing it, I didn’t end up being super sad. It was sad, just not as sad as I would have hoped. I do love Cloud’s dialogue in that scene, though.
And yes, I would indeed like to hear more about what happens in Bioshock Infinite.
FFX is one of my favorite games because of how sad the ending makes me. I love games that affect me. So did Okami, another favorite game of mine.
BioShock Infinite is more of a tragedy than it looks at first glance. Everything that happens in it can be traced back to a single decision that one of our protagonists, Booker DeWitt, made in his most desperate hour. It’s a game that has an almost bittersweet ending without the dlc, and an absolutely gut-wrenching one with the dlc. If you ever plan on playing it, I probably shouldn’t say anymore. It’s one of those endings that stays with you for awhile after all is said and done.
That sounds really interesting. I’ve been considering playing BioShock for a while, and I wonder if I might want to start with that one. My only issue was that the game was rated M. Is there anything regarding the rating I should be concerned about?
Every BioShock game is violent and has some blood effects, but they aren’t gory. There’s “dug use” in the form of “Eve” in Bioshock 1 &2 and “Salts” in Infinite, both of which fuel your powers. Other than that, they’re games that deal with some dark ideas and themes, so be prepared for that.
All that said, if you’re just starting the Bioshock series, I recommend playing the original game first. You don’t need to play it to know what’s going on in Infinite (they’re very separate games), BUT the payoff at the end of Infinite will be MUCH bigger and memorable if you’ve already played the first game, ESPECIALLy if you get the “Buried At Sea” dlc for infinite.
You can pretty much ignore BioShock 2 if you want. It’s fun and interesting in its own right, but it has absolutely nothing to do with either BioShock 1 or Infinite.
That’s good to hear. I really wanted to try the series, but I was worried about that rating. (I’ve been weary of M-rated games ever since playing Conker’s Bad Fur Day….) I think I shall check the series out, and I shall start with the first game. Thanks for the info.
I almost forgot. You need to be careful with the combat in Infinite. Most of the time its just some blood effects, but there is one combo that uh…causes enemies heads to..blow up. Found it by accident, its triggered by shocking them and then hitting them with a melee. Also, don’t do the strong melee attack (triggered by holding the melee button), it’s not a pretty sight.
Thankfully, those two examples are the only times it gets really nasty, and they’re both easily avoided.
One last thing to be aware of, the first BioShock has some horror elements to it. The two opening levels have one or two jump scares in them.
Also, I’ve never played Conker’s BFD. Is it pretty bad?
Thanks, that’s good to know. I shall avoid those attacks, then.
Yeah, Conker’s Bad Fur Day has, as far as I remember, quite a bit of violence, swearing, and um…naughty stuff. A lot more than I am comfortable with. I know it is rated M, but I had played Halo before that game, and it didn’t seem that bad.
The ending of Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP made me bawl like a baby even though it was made so very clear what was going to happen. I think it also had a lot to do with the fact that I was dealing with a lot personally and was using the game as my “safe place” and was so sad that the game had ended.
Which reminds me of when I was at PAX East in line to play Capy’s new game, Below, Jim Guthrie (who made the music for/produced S&S EP..and is also a character in the game) was just hanging out and it took me a while to recognize him, but once I did I had to use all of my willpower to not start crying. I felt really bad for staring at him confused while I was trying to figure out why he looked so familiar, because he definitely noticed me looking at him (sorry Jim!)
I’ve had games that made me feel safe, too, and I feel really sad when they’re over. Majora’s Mask sometimes makes me teary, both because it’s sad and because it makes me feel safe because it reminds me of carefree days in the past, and I get depressed whenever it ends.
I was staring at a guy at a comicon about a year ago because I swore he looked like the owner of my local game store. He wasn’t. Which made it even worse when he saw me staring at him.