EarthBound/Tear Jerker

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • The Eight Melodies in this game are also very touching, especially when you listen to it from the simple music of the Sound Stone.
  • When Jeff meets his dad. Nothing really happens. Jeff meets his dad for the first time in ten years, his dad does nothing but offer him a donut and help him continue, yet he clearly wants to see his son, and yet he knows it wouldn't be really able to keep him happy. Poor Jeff. Poor Dr. Andonuts.
  • Just the horrifying nature of that fight along with being uncertain of how to beat Giygas (I found myself going all-out every time, praying after the fifth retry, then thinking that after every other prayer, NOW was the time to attack) gives an intense feeling of panic and dread, contrasted with almost every single character you've ever met sensing your danger and stopping to pray for your safety, culminating with Ness's mom and sister. And then of course, YOU pray to defeat Giygas in a sort of Neverending Story twist.
  • Lumine Hall and Magicant reminded me of my own lonely, lost childhood spent mostly indoors studying while everyone else was out having fun with friends. When Ness started talking to his younger self, who only wants to play catch; his personified courage starts dying off; he meets up with all of his childhood friends, his first crush, his rival Pokey who only wants to be friends, with the snowman he made on one snowy day, ('Thanks for remembering me') with everyone he had to beat up in order to reach this point, and at one point he expresses frustration with a clone of himself I cried like a bitch. I don't know of any other games or movies that have managed to make me cry like that.
    • This Troper actually goes to a site called Lumine Hall named after the very same one, and he's seen people there vent about problems in their life, and that pretty much gave the whole area another meaning to him.
  • Am I really the only one that had tears in his eyes when, in Earth Bound, Paula's call was absorbed by the darkness and then she started begging for someone, anyone, to save them from Giygas after she had already reached everyone they met on Earth?
    • Not to mention the ball-punching way the game delivers the line. No buildup. No pause.

Paula prayed from the bottom of her heart.
"Please, give us strength... if it is possible... Please..."
".........."
"Somebody help us..."
Paula's call was absorbed by the darkness.

  • Giygas's cries of pain from a mind so utterly broken, alone and lost in a void he doesn't even understand are heart wrenching. All he wanted was a friend, and all he was was scared.

"I'm so sad, Ness..."

  • When Giygas loses control, this troper shed tears for him after she had played Earthbound Zero beforehand.
    • This 8 Melodies video sums up the two above examples of just how tragic a character Giygas really is.
  • The ending credits song "Smiles and Tears from when you've beaten the game. Instant tearjerker, just add the proper atmosphere and fitting music.
  • I won't say that the whole "pray" thing during Giygas final fight wasn't tear-inducing, nor that it turns out you, the player, start praying as well, no, what really got me with my guard down was after the fight. Okay, I need to explain, and please feel free to nod if you felt something similar. Right, so, the spirits of the protagonists return to their bodies, that's very cool; Poo goes back home to help his people out, that's very correct of him... oh, wait, he left some presents... Oh, it probably isn't anything fancy--uh, three letters from family members and friends of Ness, Paula, and Jeff... Okay, that was very touching, but I'm sure nothing else will--Ah, yes, Jeff will stay with his father, well, that makes perfect sense... and he mentions that if Ness and Paula ever get hitched then he can repair their electrodomestics... uuh... Okay, that's... oddly sweet... No, i'm not--it's something in my eye, really--What, what? Now Paula asks Ness to escort her back home? I guess that's--oh, all right. So, goodbye, everyone; cue Teleport Beta to Twoson. Uhm, cute music, very calm, the town is tranquil. Okay, Ness escorts Paula, they walk to the school... and right when they're approaching, rigtht then, right in that moment, I realize "She's going to say good-bye... She's going to say good-bye, and the adventure will be really over...". And that's when it hit me in the gut and I started crying for good. You don't need high-definition graphics to reach into a person's soul and give it a good squeeze.
    • Seconded by this troper. That scene meant that they really were "just kids" again.
  • Before reading this, you think that Giygas was an evil tyrant. Afterwards, however, you realize that he was just so lonely and wanted a friend. He just is evil by definition, he didn't care and probably didn't even know that he was turning everyone evil. And you killed him anyway. You Bastard.