Would I still feel sad even though I already know that Lee would die? I got spoiled before I can even start playing it lol.
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Probably. It’s done well.
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A study in steampunk really had some hard hitting emotions. this story really made me love the characters and i was not expecting any of it going in. So when you read the story you feel like you have known these people for years. not every emotion is positive…but it is done in such a clever way that i wanted to give this author a standing ovation.
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I concur. It’s one of the best written story. Spoilers for the game:
If you become a light eater and you meet Finch. You can either kill him (sad…) or admit that you’re beyond any help and let him kill you (big sad…). If you choose the light eater path you meet one of the saddest endings in the game.
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Rent-a-vice left me with a bittersweet taste, to be sure. Not the longest game in the world, but it really did suck that you couldn’t explain to your ex that the reason you missed their call was because you were talking someone down from suicide! Left me sad.
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The Lost Heir trilogy broke my heart into a billion pieces when I discovered who the Red Wizard was. There’s other sad events that can happen or that definitely happen, but that one was by far the worst. Particularly with what happens in the final scenes of Lost Heir 2.
Evertree Inn can also get depressing with certain experiences on different read throughs and the main story’s underlying details too. For some reason, Orion’s quote to the MC about how he would “do what he’s told” if it came down to killing Jewel or not really broke me. It’s just so clear that this man has been through it and for it to be so matter of factly put… it hurt my heart.
The Versus series is a heavy-hitting, emotional ride. So far, you have had to choose between characters to die twice and this choice must be made. There is no inbetween or way that everyone can be happy which was gut-wrenching for me as someone who usually attempts to play the peacekeepers.
I also second a couple of choices from above:
In Choice of Magics it is very possible for the MC to lose everything and everyone in horrible ways if you aren’t careful so it was pretty heartbreaking at times despite being an ultimately hopeful story.
And Community College Hero. It’s mostly an uplifting and often humorous game, but there are serious character deaths including that of a child, and they hit in a big way. Some of them are unavoidable. You really get the feeling that there’s big stakes and no one is safe in that game which I like.
For other games that had me broken up inside for a while:
Broken Age: This is equal parts hilarious, surprising, heartwarming and sad. It’s a great click adventure game with a beautiful soundtrack, fantastic visuals and voice acting from some greats like Elijah Wood and Jack Black, so check it out if you haven’t.
Stardew Valley: Another one that lifts your heart and smashes it at the same time. It’s a very nostalgic, sunny game and it is relaxing to just chill for hours on your track of land. But the story itself, particularly with some characters, gets real for a farming game, haha.
The Beholder Series: This takes place in a dystopian world where you actually work for the government. It’s an interesting and unique look into elements that are usually coming from the flip perspective.
I have others, but this list is getting long already and those ones are more suitable for specific interests anyways so I wouldn’t suggest them here.
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In CoG and hg, i would say samurai of hyuga 4 (or not, depends of what is to come, but I’m not really hopeful… And somehow, I think it’s best for both character who are really toxic for the other but can’t stop loving each other at the same Time).
Grim and I was sad with the romantic route.
Choice of Magic.
Choice of the Vampire too (still waiting for the 3 ^^)
Fallen Hero
Harbinger head.
In other game… Forgotton Ann really hurt. Loved this game but I will NEVER EVER touch it again.
Calfree in chain (campaign from shadowrun Hong Kong)
Without being the saddest, Code Vein had a really good tragic feeling.
Persona 3
Vampyr
Life is strange
The Letter too can be really really sad (dépend of our choices, but when this game has a Bad end IT IS a Bad end).
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Definitely the grim and i , that short but sweet game left a bittersweet taste for me , the mortality of our life and the life of those whom we leave behind after our death and them gradually moving on , its all kinda grim man(grim get it? Hah)
I would like to mention Asura’s Wrath here as well ot is a ps3 game , MC who is asura is betrayed , his wife is killed he spends his entire life seeking revenge and at the end when he reunites with his daughter he loses his life to his injuries in the final battle , damn that game made me shed tears.
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Fallen Hero, due to it touching on some heavy mental health topics that I have experienced and read about.
Spoiler is for trigger warning re: suicide, not due to game spoilers:
I read an article years ago about how people sometimes seem happy and carefree right before committing suicide, and I incorporated that into my MC, Charlie. She is engaging with others, making “friends,” and it looks like she is “getting back to normal” but in her mind what she is doing is checking off her bucket list and disregarding danger because, fuck it, who cares? She’s not getting out alive, may as well do whatever appeals to her. She’s about the momentary happiness right now and damn the consequences.
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Definitely ''the last of us ‘’ such an emotional game to play i can remember myself almost in tears att some scenes
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Choice of Broadsides gay tragedy ending. Choice of the Vampire tragic romances, especially if there isn’t going to be a third book. Fallen Hero was a brilliant portrayal of trauma, but the sense so far is that things can only get better from here.
For other games, Sunrider was a tragedy of unsatisfaction and frustrated potential. I find all the COG titles have a certain sadness to them though, with each tiny, beautiful world so bound by choices and endings. For every character you make, happily ever after is essentially a death.
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Creatures Such as We, Choice of Rebels I wanted to be gay and happy with Breden, and then my own soldiers killed her, damnit.
As far as WIPs, Blood For Poppies, every route.
Non COG games, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Night in the Woods
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Sign up for the V3 beta.
Choice of Robots has always have that wistful, melancholic undertones for me, no matter what kind of ending that i get. Then there’s Rent-a-Vice, A Study in Steampunk : Choice by the Gaslight, The Grim and I, and Tin Stars
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In CoG/HG territory, I’d say…
- Fatehaven - for the melancholy feeling I got from it, the twist by the end and I don’t know, the general feeling.
- Fallen Hero - well, as lots of people said I guess… It’s a heartbreaking depiction of trauma and an overall awful situation. I feel so bad for the MC. But it is only one part of a series, so we may yet be able to do something about that.
- Nothing Left (to burn) - that one’s a WIP. The only WIP I’ll include. But it’s one of the few text based games that made me cry. Actually CRY literal tears. It’s a revenge plot too, but quite different from Fallen Hero. I highly recommend it.
- Samurai of Hyuga - that thing depresses me all along. It’s like the MC is cursed. Every single time things seem to get a bit better in his life at last,something awful happens and it gets even worse.
Now, these games are sad and all, but none can equal the ones that are not CoG/HG…
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END ROLL - an indie game by Segawa. This author makes sad games, but END ROLL is a whole category of depressing on it’s own. It tackles heavy mental health issues (sociopathy, or something akin to that) and regret. Redemption, but at what price. MC is a young teen, but also a sociopathic killer. He’s being subjected to a new revolutionary “treatement” to cure people like him - a simulation in his dreams, where he lives a peaceful life with people who basically are the victims he killed in his waking life. The thing allows to learn compassion and regret. But the more he becomes “normal” and gentler, the more the world is destroyed. The aim of the experiment is for the dream to be destroyed, and the subject to be able to go back to normal life. But all subjects so far clung onto that dream and never woke up, only to die with it. The MC can chose to do so. Or he can wake up, become the first “success”, only to resolutely kill himself out of the new acquired guilt. The second ending, which is the main one, IS satisfying in it’s own way, but it’s so sad.
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ENIGMA: - a visual novel about terminal illness, with fantasy elements. Basically the MC is terminally ill, and finds himself on an isolated islands with very few people living there. He decides to live there till the end of his life (in most endings). You have routes for various characters, but death IS inevitable. The good endings of the routes are the ones where the MC could really help the other character in his life, set him up for a better future, make him forgive himself for past sins, and things like that… Also, traumatic horror-like bad endings all around… But seriously, this is hours and hours of non-stop crying.
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Sweet Pool - a BL game by Nitro+, so yeah, that’s telling something already. It’s by far their saddest BL, and honestly I don’t think I can make it justice by talking about the plot. But it has one of my favorite endings in any game ever, which I consider a happy ending for the characters, even if sad from an objective point of view. It’s “The Red Road” ending, if you want to try it out / know about the game.
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Live a Live - eh, the game that’s basically the ancestor to both Undertale and Octopath Traveler. It’s a great game by Square, an old one too, in which you play various scenarios with various characters, each one from a different time period and location: Prehistory, Ancient China, Ancient Japan, Middle Ages, Far West, Current Day, Close Future and Distant Future. Then you play one last chapter and select the “main” hero, while recruiting the others, and facing the main ennemy. And well… the knight, MC of the Middle Ages period, has only horrble things happeing to him, and from a very pure and noble being, he becomes the literal demon lord, and he actually IS the main ennemy of the game. You have to fight him with whoever you select as the main hero at the end of the game, and put an end to his misery. Or you can select him and play an alternate scenario that leads him to killing all the other MCs. Depending on how he does it, either he calls the Apocalypse and everything is destroyed, or he simply kills them an remains alone in his now desolated country…
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Tales of Xillia II - last but not least, one of the Tales of titles. Seems weird to include it here, right? Well, that game has three endings. During the course of the game, you often decide on the answers the MC gives to all sorts of situation. These choices don’t have much consequences on the overall story, BUT they actually allow you to shape the MC’s personality. The MC is mostly mute, but you see, with how he acts and how the characters react to him and so on, depending on how you picture him because of your choices (and well, some of the consequences of these choices), he can be very different from player to player. Because of that, some of the endings will feel totally out of character for one person, while not for another one. One of the endings, is all about MC’s brother, a character who sometimes serves as an antagonist, sometimes not. And is one of the things your choices most affect. The MC can love him dearly, support him and obey his will as much as possible, avoid fighting when he can, and so on, or he may hate and reject him, and fight him etc. Very late in the game, you have to kill the brother in order to progress to the next location, and ultimately save the world. But the MC can reject that possibility, and defend his dear brother with all of his powers. He doesn’t hesitate in killing all of his teammates, just for the opportunity to spend a tiny amount of time with his brother before everything ends, because that’s more precious to him than everything else. It is an EXTREMELY touching ending, that will be out of character for most players, except for those who, like me, played in favor of that character. To me, it is the only ending possible to that game. But it makes it extremely sad. Though, with a strangely heartwarming side.
Okay, I feel like I wrote a novel… sorry about that! 
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DMC turned out to be very saddening …
The Outer Wilds tore me to pieces. It annihilated me. I’ve never cried so hard. I felt so totally out of control.
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Don’t remind me.
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Red Dead Redemption 2. Recently finished my second playthrough. I was as much of a mess the second time round as I was the first.
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Assassin’s Creed 2. the time when Ezio’s father and brothers were hanged for false accusations.
CoD MW2. when roach and ghost are betrayed and killed by General Shepherd.
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