What moment from a video game made you cry?

Brothers: A tale of two sons.

The game has a pretty unique mechanic. It makes you control two characters at the same time. It's not a coop game, with optional solo. It's strictly a single player game, where you use one controller to move two characters, the titular two sons, one on each control stick. Throughout the game you use movement and interactions with the environment to solve simple puzzles to remove obstacles in your way and travel to your destination. Usually, by having you do different things with each character simultaneously. After a while, it becomes second nature to control both brothers in a synchronous and flowing manner when you get used to the challenge of moving and paying attention to two different things at the same time.

The ending of that game still makes me tear up after all this years as it makes me think of my own family. Even writing this comment I'm getting emotional. And it does it all without a single line of dialogue, text or voice acting. All by animation and vocalizations along with game mechanics. It's one of the most effective uses of gameplay I have ever seen in a video game and forever has made me think of this as one of my favorite games of all time.

Other video games, and things people call emotional are usually about story elements, plot lines, events on a character's arc. Things that have books upon books of analysis and history. Not that they're any less valuable or deserving of praise, but using gameplay this effectively to convey emotion is, however, kind of unique and rather harder to pull off effectively.

I don't think I ever cried playing a video game, but I can think of three moments that almost got me. Spoilers, obviously.

1. Metal Gear Solid 3. Hearing how much The Boss had to sacrifice for a country that will forever hate her and remember her as a traitor.
2. Fighting the Hollow Knight and at some point it starts stabbing itself. The music changes from this epic battle theme to a tragic lonely little violin. It can barely even stand, yet is still forced to keep attacking. At this point it changes from a battle to assisted suicide.
3. Doki Doki Literature Club. Living with depression myself, I knew exactly how Sayori felt. I'm not even talking about THAT scene, but the day before.

“To the moon” Nice little point and click adventure. I played it through one afternoon and was sad for the following two days.

"Would have liked to run tests on the sea shells." ~Mordin Solus (Mass Effect 3)

The end of Red Dead Redemption. Spoilers for a game that's over a decade old, but John's death was a brutal cruelty that stayed with me for a long, long time.

Being 7yo and trying to play MegaMan 3. Different kind of cry, but you asked.

The opening of The Last Of Us

The time I kept fucking restarting in GTASA trying to follow the damn train.

The end of bl2's Tiny Tina's assault on dragons keep where she admits she knows Roland is dead, and gives his statue a big hug. A rare moment in those games

League of legends. Top picked teemo. Mid was saying that he couldn't speak because of chat ban. Jungler went afk after dying to wolves. Bot yelled at me all game for his feeding.

I cry everyday.

The end of disc 1 for the original Final Fantasy VII. (I’m being intentionally vague here for anyone that hasn’t played it and will be playing the newer FF7 games)

Probably an obvious one, but Life is Strange was a pretty emotionally fraught game to play through. Everyone's probably aware, but it is filled with choices that determine lots of different small outcomes as well as the main ending. So after I finished it, I spent the evening watching streamers react to the ending and sniffling along with them.

Personal story about that, a good friend passed away unexpectedly right before the pandemic, and his wife asked for my help finding some things on his computer. He was a great guy, big burly dude not known for being overly-sentimental but a wonderful imagination/DM. As I was going through stuff she was reminiscing about him. So we opened his Steam library and he had 2 games installed. Fortnite and every chapter of LiS. She had no idea what that game was, but imagining him secretly huddled over his laptop, guiding Max & Chloe along just broke me.

Another game that drew me in instantly was Hellblade: Sennua's Sacrifice. Seeing the character's backstory in the first couple of scenes and knowing that this was a story game dealing with mental health and loss was major, and I was immediately motivated to help her get through the healing process.

"See you tomorrow, Harry" -Disco Elysium, final dream

But also Priscilla's song.

And also in RDR2 the cutscene with Unshaken. Arthur is alive and out from prison but broken, sick, and the writing is on the wall.

Ff7 when aerith died.

"Keep that hair short"

Puuuh, a fair few over the years.

• Same one as you, Rosalina's backstory made me tear up a little bit. It was really really well done, and so unexpected in a Mario game of all places.
• When first reading through Katawa Shoujo, Shizune's path (botched as it is) still hit me really hard with Misha being an aside that can't fit in, then later Rin's neutral ending also got me really bad.
• Teenage me at the end of disc 1 of FF7, of course.
• The ending of Signalis just recently.

And probably a lot more. FFXIV has a lot of sad and emotional moments, although none of them hit me quite as hard as some other games did.

The intro to Ori and the Blind Forest, and the end of Ori and the Will of the Wisps.

The ending of Outer Wilds legitimately made me cry, it's a very bittersweet ending.

The last of us part 1, Pittsburgh, with Sam and Henry. Gets me every fucking time, even though I know exactly what's coming

Rosalina's story is incredibly sad. Mine was the end of Undertale (when you get to the house). The music in both was a huge contributor to the sadness.

To the moon

Hades has some emotional moments. That game is so well-written. Trying to avoid spoilers, but the first time escaping was one, then the nth time escaping where they play that awesome track was another.

"Does this unit have a soul?"

Two games, that I can remember.

One was a particular Journey playthrough, where I happened to match with another really good player. We spent basically the entire game airborne, which if you know Journey mechanics, takes some doing. They drew me a heart at the end, that did it.

Second was my first successful Suzerain run. A morgna wes core.

Bit of an odd one, but the "Jump Up, Superstar" sequence from Mario Odyssey. It was just a crash of nostalgia combined with the unapologetic celebration of Mario games in general and a heap of affirmation that you, the player, are awesome. It was so beautiful that I couldn't help it.

And other givens like the endings to Mother 3 and Undertale.

The epilogue of Life is Strange: Before the Storm

Portal endings. Especially the ending of Portal 2.

FFX ending. Since VII has been mentioned a few times. But after 100 hours on X. That ending got me good.

Ezio meeting Altair for the first and last time at the end of AC: Revelations

Also the "I'm Afraid" scene with Sister Calderon in RDR2

2 for me: Arthur's death in RD2 and Aunt May's death in Spider-Man PS4

Shaauuunn! Shaun! Shaauuunn! Shaaauuun! Shauuun! Shaauuunn!

Probably an unpopular opinion, but- The ending of Starfield.

Edit: I guess Boost's spoiler tags dont work? This is pretty spoiler heavy, so avert your eyes if you don't want Starfield spoilers! If anyone can suggest how to fix the spoiler tags it'd be much appreciated.

Ending/story description:

Why it made me cry (Includes some spoilers, but trying to avoid explicit descriptions of story events):

Post-ending enjoyment (mechanics and different perspectives):

TL;DR: It loosely ties story and mechanics such that I got really invested in the mechanics. When the story hit me hard, it also gave a massive mechanical impact that was particularly impactful given my play style. Those combined were overwhelming and made me sad, but also gave me a better appreciation for how some systems were designed to support the story, rather than oppose or ignore it. Overall, I really enjoyed it.

Oh, and Presentable Liberty. You can see the ending coming, but it makes you so dependent on someone then takes them away from you right before you can show your gratitude. It's concentrated dependence and a great short game.

The ending of Limbo when I realized what that game had been about left me fucked up for weeks.

Similarly, the bathtub scene in What Remains of Edith Finch ensures I can never play that game again.

Titanfall2. Damn I got attached to BT

Bastion's near-ending, if you forgive ::: spoiler spoiler Zulf and his boys gradually stop trying to off you. :::

When doomguy picks the super shotgun in doom eternal. Most moving moment of video games history

More of a playable story, but the entirety of Dear Esther is a bit heart wrenching.

Stray ending

Fallout: New Vegas.

At the end of Boone's companion quest, we're watching the sunrise, having barely survived the night. He confesses what really happened to his wife. Nat King Cole comes on the radio with "Love Me." I weep.

Apollo 11 VR. I would be amazed if it's a common response as most folks would probably just think of it as a very boring simulated rollercoaster. For me it produced an overwhelming feeling of awe as I reflected on humanity's path to that point and the enormity of lifting off from our little blue pearl.

Shane’s 6-heart cutscene on the cliff in Stardew Valley.

Also the very last story moments of Tears of the Kingdom. The dive reach grab bit.

Damn near everything in Nier Gestalt/Replicant. That game wrecks me every time I play it.

There have actually been a lot of games that have made me cry over they years. Some of the ones I remember are:

Metal Gear Solid 1, 2, 3 and Peace Walker

Kingdom Hearts 1, 2, BBS, Re:Coded and 358/2 days

Final Fantasy 10 and (obviously) Crisis Core

Castlevania Order of Ecclesia

I'm pretty sure there are more but I can't really remember any others. I've kind of always been very sensitive to emotional things, so a lot of games get at least a tear or two but the ones I mentioned were games that I remember being wrecked after playing.

I got all fucked up inside when Agro died in Shadow of the Colossus.

Borderlands 2, the ending of the Tiny Tina DLC.

Brothers. Damn ending making me feel empty…

Mafia 1. "Mr. Salieri sends his regards". Need I say more?

Life is strange. Repeatedly.

Mass Effect 3: "Leaving Earth"

I was pretty emotionally stunted and depressed as a teenager and had trouble crying even when I wanted to (it's a horrible feeling, physically) so Earthbound and Mother 3 were therapeutic