Cutscenes/Moments in games that really get to you.

[latiasracer]

Haven't posted in ages!

I recently just finished my marathon of playing the new Metro Reduxes back to back (They are amazing!)


For those of you who haven't played it, there is as scene in Last Light where you are exploring the surface of post-apocalyptic Moscow. There are entities called "Shadows" that are essentially trapped souls forced to relieve their death to the nuclear blasts over and over, and some give flashbacks.


This is one of them, as you clamber through a crashed airliner



Gets to me every time. I always get goosebumps and choke up a little...


So what about the rest of you? What bits of games always get to you?

 

[tippy2k2]

A lot of people seemed to have turned on Spec-Ops The Line for whatever reason. I am not one of them. In fact, right now, it's less than $5 on Xbox Live as part of their sale. You really really really really really should go get it if you haven't played it yet. Go on...I'll wait here.

Did you play it yet? Good, now that you've played it, you know what's coming...

Spoiler: Seriously, I would strongly recommend you go play it rather than just watch this

That's right boys and girls! It's the "horribly slaughter a bunch of civilians on accident using one of the most horrifying weapons imaginable!

As someone who still actively loves MMS games, this scene really sucker punched me. During the bombing run beforehand, I was just bombing whatever was around. It was almost boring since there's really no way for the enemy to fight back during this part and was very much like the AC-130 of Call of Duty fame. We've seen this before Spec-Ops in CoD Spec-Ops, you're going to have to do...better.....than.....

...fuck me. What the hell did I just do?

Holy balls what a gut punch.

 

[latiasracer]

A lot of people seemed to have turned on Spec-Ops The Line for whatever reason. I am not one of them. In fact, right now, it's less than $5 on Xbox Live as part of their sale. You really really really really really should go get it if you haven't played it yet. Go on...I'll wait here.

Did you play it yet? Good, now that you've played it, you know what's coming...

Spoiler: Seriously, I would strongly recommend you go play it rather than just watch this

That's right boys and girls! It's the "horribly slaughter a bunch of civilians on accident using one of the most horrifying weapons imaginable!

As someone who still actively loves MMS games, this scene really sucker punched me. During the bombing run beforehand, I was just bombing whatever was around. It was almost boring since there's really no way for the enemy to fight back during this part and was very much like the AC-130 of Call of Duty fame. We've seen this before Spec-Ops in CoD Spec-Ops, you're going to have to do...better.....than.....

...fuck me. What the hell did I just do?

Holy balls what a gut punch.

Ah yeah, i remember that. I remember restarting the level and trying to find away to not use it - i thought it was another one of the multiple choice bits...

Great game though

 

[Catfood220]

People talk a lot about the "good" ending of infamous 2, but this is my favourite cutscene in the game and one of my favourite moments in gaming. Its basically two friends chilling out, I'm sure we have all done this at some point.

 

[leberkaese]

The Normandy Reborn Scene from Mass Effect 2 always gives me goosebumps. Scenes with ships leaving the hangar are always great and never get old.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Especially at this moment it feels just great after the old Normandy gets destroyed.

Also, as already mentioned: Spec Ops. Made me hold my breath like no scene in any movie or game before.

 

[Evonisia]

Silent Hill 2 spoilers right here, don't watch if you don't want it spoiled (and I'm afraid a lot of the scene is lost if you don't know the characters).

Spoiler

If you stay in the room after the cutscene is over, you see her slowly walking up the stairs and into the fire, disappearing in it. I also feel like this scene proves that Angela at least was important in James' story and the plot of Silent Hill 2. I have read and kinda understand people when they say that Angela, Eddie and Laura are just extras (I don't agree, but there).

As much as I love Silent Hill 3, I must give props to Silent Hill 2 for this scene. When it was over, I spent the rest of the game just in total silence, like I was actually kinda awe struck by that scene. I finished the game that night, and I've not been able to think of Silent Hill 2 without also thinking about that scene. No moment in a game has had that affect on me, and it's why the character focused on in the scene is my favourite in video games.

 

[Mohamed Medhat]

Connor fighting for his Village during the Tyranny of King Washington. That was amazing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31Mrity0MEg

Also, Charles Lee's death. It was basically a mutual respect between the two enemies in silence. Lee's look at Connor "well, you found me, you crazy bastard" and then the drink "Well, here's to your victory and my death" with Connor accepting. It was an awesome moment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-gRROe0xW4

 

[Evonisia]

Snip

I think that's kinda the beauty of SO:TL. Most people would be drawn to it by the whole "it's taking down the MMS genre" aspect of it, but the fact that it uses a gameplay bit we've seen in CoD 4, Black Ops and MW3 (well, in different ways, MW3 was literally just a god mode) makes the scene all the more gut punching. As a player of the genre (including the singleplayers when they are available) I was quite surprised that it did that, though it didn't gut punch me like it did some other people.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Pretty much every dungeon in Persona 4 since I always love good character focused moments and every dungeon is the darker side of a soon to be party member's psyche warped into a type of dungeon + a twisted version of themselves as a boss monster.

I remember playing Kanji's boss fight again for my second playthrough and I noticed that Yosuke is weak as hell towards him, you could take that as simple Electric beats Wind game mechanic but who needs that when it's totally a message of how Kanji's troubles with his sexuality disturb Yosuke so much. Seriously, look at a few of their interactions (I'm remembering the camp trip one myself) and tell me Yosuke isn't being a homophobic jerk.

This is why Persona 4 is so good. We have the (secondary?) comic relief character being a total sexist and homophobic dick on multiple occasions and the entire fanbase still call him "Brosuke" out of affection.

While i'm on an overthinking spree i'll mention Yukiko's Persona. You know how her Konohana Sakuya has no feet but only elegant stumps? That's because she feels like she has nowhere to go and is stuck forever in Inaba. Now her evolved version still has those same stumps because instead of not being capable of leaving, she simply decides that she's happy where she is.

Spoiler: Reference material

They call me the Overthinking King. Looking at it now, her evolved version has long flowing hair over the short hair of the previous version... An expression of freedom perhaps?

 

[Bandages]

That cutscene from metro last light was one of the first that came to mind but since it is taken I'll second Spec Ops but a different scene the final confrontation with the general.
Also though not exactly a cut scene the last part of Telltale's walking dead season 1 was more emotionally affecting than anything else I can think of in recent years. (haven't finished season 2 yet though)

 

[Trinket to Ride]

Spoiler: The first (and to date, only) time I ever cried in from a game.

Also Tali's romance scene in Mass Effect 2 before the suicide mission. She's just so darn cute.

 

[CelestDaer]

... The intro cinematic to Wild ARMs, with the king's passing, and Cecelia cutting her hair. It always gets me, and I guess, superficially linked, is

Spoiler

Final Fantasy 9, the whole segment after Queen Brahne passes and Garnet goes into a deep depression, up until she cuts her hair and gets better.

The only other moment in any Final Fantasy game that I've ever felt... well, anything about was Celes' Opera scene. The other big moment that really got me was

Spoiler

the ending to Saints Row the Third where you go off to catch Killbane, instead of saving your gang. Sure, you get personal closure, but it's just so damn bittersweet. Probably didn't help that I took that option second, so I'd already seen the good ending, so, defeating Killbane just felt wrong.

Oh, oh, man, I forgot in Mass Effect 3 when Wrex tells you that the names Mordin and Shepard will be celebrated. As if Kalros taking down a Reaper wasn't awesome enough already.

 

[Ironshroom]

The end of Professor Layton and the Unwound Future. Hooooly hell, I actually cried. Saddest ending to anything ever.

 

[Blow_Pop]

Shadow of the Colossus Agro's death. Got way too attached to that stupid horse and it gets me every time

Spoiler

That said, apart from killing some of the colossi, that's all I care about in the game

Though, killing Phalanx is kinda heartbreaking to me too. Since even when you're trying to kill it, it doesn't try to kill you (until it tries to revive itself before you kill it by diving into the sand....)

 

[JimB]

Nothing, but nothing, makes me cry like the moment in Chrono Trigger when Frog claims the burden of Cyrus's dreams and his Masamune as Frog's own.

I also like the somewhat cliched moment you'll see in games now and then, at the final boss fight when the hero is beaten down and everyone he's helped along the way starts cheering him on, sending love and support. The end of Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door comes to mind, as does the end of Okami.

 

[Asita]

Coming as no surprise to anyone who's seen me comment in prior threads in this vein: The end of that final level in Bastion.

Spoiler

Absolutely beautiful handling of that scene

Also, the Suicide Mission in Mass Effect 2. Getting out of there with everybody still alive is incredibly cathartic.

 

[Tanis]

Chrono Cross's Opening:
This was the first, and I think, ONLY, 'cutscene' that got me to buy a game without reading any reviews!

Final Fantasy 8 Ending:
Seriously, THE FEELS! THE FEELS! THE FEELS!

 

[ChupathingyX]

While i'm on an overthinking spree i'll mention Yukiko's Persona. You know how her Konohana Sakuya has no feet but only elegant stumps? That's because she feels like she has nowhere to go and is stuck forever in Inaba.

Those stumpy feet are a common feature of demon designs in P3/4.

Take-Mikazuchi, Orpheus, Messiah, Himiko, Thanatos, and a bunch of others had them.

Not to mention Aigis, Metis and Labrys.

 

[deathmothon]

I could post stuff that made me feel when I was an angst ridden teen, but the only game that's gotten anything out of me in the last 5-10 years has been The Walking Dead.

 

[Ryallen]

I'm gonna be the minority here, and say that it isn't anything from Spec Ops: The Line. Mostly because I haven't gotten that far yet, but I already knew what was gonna happen, so don't feel too bad, guys!

Anyways, if you can't already tell from my picture, I love Borderlands 2. I love it to hell. It has some of the most under appreciated writing I have ever seen in video games, and I find that to be a shame. The scene that got me the most was Roland's death after killing Angel. You see, I have a problem. I look up video game plots before I play them. Usually, that dramatically takes away any sort of surprise that games can offer, and my mind is "pre-blown", if that makes any sense to you. But throughout the game, I grew attached to characters, despite my foreknowledge of their fate. So when Roland was killed, I put down my controller, walked out of my room, and just sat down to process that. Roland, the most civilized and formal person on a planet forsaken by God, the only man to attempt to bring some sort of justice to that hell-hole so many abandoned mine workers gone insane call home, was just killed by an arrogant douchebag who justifies his behavior in a way that we can easily see. We lost a great man that day, one that was respected by friend and foe alike, and I had already known what was going to happen. And yet, this game still made me care. Because, despite it's quirks, it's jokes and inability to take itself seriously, I had grown to care for these characters in a way that I have not done so before or since. No Last of Us, or Spec Ops: The Line, or Xenoblade Chronicles, or even Mass Effect will ever make me feel like I did when I saw that bullet fly through his chest and splatter blood on my eyes. Lilith's cry of despair will echo throughout my brain as his body slumps to the floor, and that one, solitary word, haunts my dreams forevermore.

"Sup?"