Becoming Emotionally Attached to Game Characters and Feeling Sad After Beating a Game

[ZodiacMaster101]

Recently I just beat Persona 4: Golden, and I also made sure to unlock the true ending and extra epilogue. After doing so I have to say that I feel somewhat depressed and happy; kind of like a melancholy sort of feeling. This happens every time I get so emotionally invested to the either the characters or story of the game that I actually start to care about both on a much deeper level, almost as if both were actually real. I realize that it's all fictional, but I still can't help feeling that way. So I was wondering if anybody else ends up feeling this after beating a game they really like, and if so then how about sharing some stories or examples of times it actually has happened to you?

 

[MatParker116]

Clementine in The Walking Dead

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I'm still not totally heartbroken and bitter over Mass Effect 3's ending. Nope...no tears from me.






...Oh Tali...

 

[an annoyed writer]

I'm still not totally heartbroken and bitter over Mass Effect 3's ending. Nope...no tears from me.






...Oh Tali...

*hugs*

I know your pain ;~;

hurts even more when I think about just how much the Mass Effect games did for my actual, personal life.

 

[Xeros]

6 years later, the wounds still haven't healed.

Spoiler: *Kingdom Hearts spoilers*

Who will I eat ice cream with?

 

[Dizchu]

Undertale. Both times when I finished the pacifist ending I was in tears. The amazing music, goofy dialogue and ludonarrative synchronicity combine to be absolutely overwhelming. It's like listening to the last movement of Beethoven's 6th Symphony when the strings swell and release. It's just so perfect, and that ending scene... god damn I was openly weeping at that point.

I can't bring myself to play it again because in order to do so, I have to undo that "happily ever after". That's the tragic part. The fact that the game allows you to replay and just slaughter everyone after such a perfect ending... wow.

 

[Mister K]

Oh Final Fantasy X. How I love it. When I was a teenager, I've completed it about 6 times and every damn time I heard the ending theme I got watery eyes.

 

[09philj]

Mass Effect, of course. The simple pleasure of wandering down to the lower decks and chatting to your favourites was one of the best things about the series.

Every route in Katawa Shoujo is tinged with melancholy, and even though I always got the good endings, I was never not sad. The characters were travelling off into their futures and I was being left behind, with nothing else to do but turn back the clock and see another way things might have played out.

 

[otakon17]

Recently, Undertale definitely. In the past? Mass Effect for sure and even Fable 2. Clementine in The Walking Dead as well for me.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Lots. Particularly the ones with bittersweet endings that leave them in trouble of some kind.

My Bounty Hunter crew in SWTOR was probably my favourite of them, and the one I'd like to see more of. Of course they are now the enemy of every self-righteous Jedi in the Galaxy for what they did. Anyone who said they're enlightened and don't hold grudges is a damn liar.

The Maxwell Gang in Wild Arms 3 saved the planet from its final death, but no one but them knows that. And when the game ends there's a several million dollar bounty on their heads for killing the head of a major world religion (not what you think, the religion was good and they didn't actually kill him).

 

[Evonisia]

Constantly. Hell I almost felt this way when I beat Bloodborne the other day, and my character never even spoke.

The best example for me is Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. I got quite invested in Harry Mason's plight to search for his ever-elusive daughter, so when that culmination happens I'm just kinda left joyful to have experienced such a good story but... damn, that ending. Not even Silent Hill 2 got quite as poignant as that.

 

[Lufia Erim]

I never knew how attached i became to the characters of xenosaga, until i got to the end of episode 3. I couldn't stop the tears for flowing.

 

[Totenkreuz]

Sometimes I just can't bear to finish a game as I have become to attached to the characters or something else in the game. When I feel like "This is all just to emotional" I just stop playing, never finishing it. In so doing I never have to say goodbye to world. I'm weird I know.

Cheers.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I've become attached to fictional characters in general, game, novel, even self-created tabletop rpg characters or other PCs even. If I become invested in something, yeah I feel.
Thane. Big softie here, but I loved ME2 and 3's Shep/Thane. Hurt, a lot.

 

[WoJ]

Mass Effect 3 for sure. As weird as it sounds it took me forever to truly detach from that world. I probably played through the trilogy twice after got sucked into the multiplayer for a year and then Citadel pulled me back in. I still need to do a trilogy reply with all DLC. I started it to get knock out some of the early questing in ME1 but didn't get much further.

Final Fantasy X would also be on my list. It's been a long time since I've seen the end to that game but I remember the feels.

Metal Gear Solid 2 for me as well. I know that's not often considered high on everyone's list of the series, but I got sucked into the mystery of the Patriots and played the hell out of that game.

 

[Kotaro]

I am going to be the third person to say Undertale.
Stupid game, making me feel things...

I just wish there was one thing that could be changed about the (true) ending... I won't say what, to avoid spoilers, but anyone who's played the game knows what I'm referring to.

 

[FPLOON]

6 years later, the wounds still haven't healed.

Spoiler: *Kingdom Hearts spoilers*

Who will I eat ice cream with?

I'm with you all the way... and not even the HD ReMIX could truly recapture that moment the same way for me...

Other than that, the closest I've been that emotionally attached to a[nother] game character was the Minum I traded in Pokemon Ruby..

 

[deleted+75193]

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