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?

Series with pages dedicated to Tear Jerker moments:


 * .hack
 * Ace Attorney series
 * Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney
 * Apollo Justice Ace Attorney
 * Ace Attorney Investigations Miles Edgeworth
 * Ace Combat
 * Advent Rising
 * Alan Wake
 * Alter Ego
 * American McGee's Alice
 * And its sequel Alice Madness Returns
 * Amnesia the Dark Descent
 * Animal Crossing
 * Assassin's Creed
 * Asuras Wrath
 * Baldurs Gate
 * Banjo-Kazooie
 * Baten Kaitos
 * Batman Arkham Asylum
 * Batman Arkham City
 * Beatmania
 * Betrayal At Krondor
 * Beyond Good and Evil
 * Bioshock
 * Binary Domain
 * Blaz Blue
 * A Boy and His Blob
 * Breath of Fire II
 * Breath of Fire III
 * Breath of Fire IV
 * Brutal Legend
 * Call of Duty
 * Call of Juarez
 * Castlevania
 * Cave Story
 * Chibi-Robo
 * Chrono Trigger
 * City of Heroes
 * Clock Tower
 * Conkers Bad Fur Day
 * Corpse Party
 * Crysis
 * Darius
 * Dark Cloud
 * The Darkness
 * Dead Island
 * Dead or Alive
 * Dead Rising
 * Dead Space
 * Deus Ex Human Revolution
 * Devil May Cry
 * Disgaea
 * Disgaea 3 Absence of Justice
 * Dragon Age
 * Dragon Age II
 * Dragon Fable
 * Dragon Quest
 * Drakengard
 * Drawn to Life
 * Dwarf Fortress
 * Earthbound
 * The Elder Scrolls
 * The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion
 * The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim
 * Epic Mickey
 * Eternal Darkness
 * Eternal Daughter
 * Eternal Sonata
 * Etrian Odyssey
 * Ever 17
 * EVO Search for Eden
 * Fable
 * Fahrenheit
 * Fallout
 * Fallout New Vegas
 * Fatal Frame
 * Fate Extra
 * Fate Stay Night
 * Final Fantasy
 * Final Fantasy II
 * Final Fantasy III
 * Final Fantasy IV
 * Final Fantasy V
 * Final Fantasy VI
 * Final Fantasy VII
 * Final Fantasy VIII
 * Final Fantasy IX
 * Final Fantasy X
 * Final Fantasy X 2
 * Final Fantasy XII
 * Final Fantasy XIII-2
 * Fire Emblem
 * First Encounter Assault Recon
 * The Force Unleashed
 * Free Space
 * Gears of War
 * Guilty Gear
 * God Hand
 * God of War
 * Golden Sun
 * Grand Theft Auto IV
 * Grim Fandango
 * Half-Life
 * Halo
 * Harvest Moon
 * Heavy Rain
 * The Hobbit
 * Homeworld
 * Hotel Dusk Room 215
 * ICO
 * The Idolmaster
 * The iDOLM@STER 2
 * Iji
 * Ikaruga
 * Illusion of Gaia
 * In Famous
 * Infocom
 * Jade Empire
 * Jak and Daxter
 * Jeanne D Arc
 * Katamari Damacy
 * Katawa Shoujo
 * Killer 7
 * King of Fighters
 * Kingdom Hearts
 * Kirby
 * Klonoa
 * Knights of the Old Republic
 * LA Noire
 * The Last Remnant
 * Left 4 Dead
 * Legacy of Kain
 * Legend of Dragoon
 * The Legend of Zelda
 * The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past
 * The Legend of Zelda Links Awakening
 * The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
 * The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask
 * The Legend of Zelda Oracle Games
 * The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker
 * The Legend of Zelda the Minish Cap
 * The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess
 * The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass
 * The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks
 * The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword
 * Live a Live
 * The Longest Journey
 * Lost Odyssey
 * Lufia
 * Lunar
 * Lunar Eternal Blue
 * Lusternia
 * Marathon
 * Mass Effect
 * Max Payne
 * Mega Man
 * Metal Gear
 * Metroid
 * A Mind Forever Voyaging
 * Tear Jerker
 * Monster Rancher
 * Mother
 * Myst
 * Myth
 * Narcissu
 * Nie R
 * The Neverhood
 * Neverwinter Nights 2
 * Nintendo Wars
 * Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors
 * No More Heroes
 * Odin Sphere
 * Okami
 * Okamiden
 * Oni
 * Outcast
 * Penumbra
 * Persona 3
 * Persona 4
 * Phantasy Star
 * Phantom Brave
 * Pikmin
 * Planescape Torment
 * Planetarian
 * Planetfall
 * Tear Jerker
 * Tear Jerker
 * Hey You Pikachu
 * Tear Jerker
 * Portal
 * Prince of Persia 2008
 * Primal
 * Professor Layton
 * Prototype
 * Psychonauts
 * Quest for Glory
 * Radiant Silvergun
 * Radiata Stories
 * Ratchet and Clank
 * Red Dead Redemption
 * Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare
 * Ren And Stimpy: Stimpy's Intervention
 * Republic Commando
 * Resident Evil
 * Resistance
 * Rival Schools
 * Romancing Sa Ga
 * Rule of Rose
 * SaGa Frontier 2
 * Sam and Max
 * Samurai Shodown
 * Sanitarium
 * Saya no Uta
 * Second Sight
 * Sengoku Basara
 * Shadow Hearts
 * Shadow of the Colossus
 * Shannara
 * Shin Megami Tensei
 * Silent Hill
 * Skies of Arcadia
 * Skullgirls
 * Solatorobo
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Soul Calibur
 * Soul Nomad and The World Eaters
 * Space Channel 5
 * Splinter Cell
 * Spyro the Dragon
 * Starcraft
 * Star Fox
 * Star Ocean 1
 * Star Tropics
 * Star Wars Battlefront
 * Star Wars the Old Republic
 * Street Fighter
 * The Suffering
 * Suikoden
 * Suikoden V
 * Super Mario Bros
 * Paper Mario
 * Super Robot Wars
 * Super Smash Bros
 * Syberia
 * Tactics Ogre
 * Tales Series
 * Tekken
 * Terranigma
 * Thief
 * Tokimeki Memorial
 * Tomb Raider
 * To the Moon
 * Trauma Center
 * Tsukihime
 * Twisted Metal
 * Umineko no Naku Koro Ni
 * Vagrant Story
 * Valkyria Chronicles
 * Valkyrie Profile
 * Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines
 * Warcraft
 * Warhammer 40000
 * Wing Commander
 * The World Ends With You
 * World in Conflict
 * World of Mana
 * World of Warcraft
 * Worms
 * Xenogears
 * Xenosaga
 * Yo Jin Bo
 * Yggdra Union
 * Blaze Union
 * Yume Nikki

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

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


 * Stranger's Wrath had a pretty heart breaking scene.  If that weren't bad enough,
 * 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
 * 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, the music...
 * God damn it. It's worse when you fail and
 * 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  ending was somehow familiar..


 * One the topic of flash games, The Last Stand: Union City. Towards the end, you meet  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.
 * This troper was surprised by Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. Although it seems like just a cinematic shoot 'em up, the story hits hard sometimes. Oh, and let's not get into the ending...
 * That ending is made worse considering 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  ending (albeit accidentally) I was fired up for what I fle tsure was going to be one huge Big Damn Heroes moment.   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 ) 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 my 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 . 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 :(
 * 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,  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.   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.
 * 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 and is followed by  This troper actually started getting angry at how depressing the game was at this point.
 * Of all games, Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 does this
 * 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  fight together one last time against Ultor. It's just like old times, you and him shooting it up in his custom  . You think everything is forgiven, even  thinks so, calling you  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.   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,  I cried, seriously..
 * 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 . 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.