Hall of shame: games that have made you cry

[Sassafrass]

Spoiler: These didn't make me cry, but they certainly got me teary eyed. Contains spoilers for Gears 3, The Walking Dead, ME1, ME3, Final Fantasy X, Borderlands 2 and MGS 2.

Gears 3, Dom's death. Whenever I hear Mad World now, I remember that scene.
The Walking Dead, way way too many to count. Ones that stick out are Kenny watching his family die, the kid in the attic, Ben (I HATED that fucker but...god damn.) and telling Clem we might not have time to find her parents.
ME1, when I failed to talk Wrex down. Fuck you Ashley.
ME3, Mordin's death.
Final Fantasy X, the ending.
Borderlands 2, Angel and Jack's reaction during that entire fight. I mean, it was needed but...fuck.
MGS 2, Otacon and the Big Shell. That's all I need to say, really.

 

[Dawns Gate]

Red Dead Redemption.

 

[Dfskelleton]

The Ending to Silent Hill: Shattered Memories:

Spoiler

"You've been with me for so long..."
"I always will be."
*freezes over*
The manly tears... Oh God, the manly tears...

Oh, and Spec Ops: The Line nearly had me in tears at several times. Not manly tears, but guilty tears. Sour, guilty, white-phosphorus flavored tears...
Heck, it wasn't even... that scene that really got to me. It was watching Walker and his squad's slow descent into hopelessness, madness, anger and despair after that point that hit me the hardest.
And then the loading screen messages came...

NO, SHUT UP GAME, IT'S YOUR FAULT
IT'S... YOUR... FAULT...

 

[Savo]

Persona 4

Spoiler

When Nanako died and at the end when everyone is telling you to get up after the boss kicks your ass into next week. Manly tears were shed.

None.

Whenever this topic comes up I'm always left wondering whether everyone else here has emotional issues or if I'm just dead inside.

It's strange, because movies, TV shows and sometimes even books can make me tear up at the drop of a hat. Hell, I cried while watching Avatar. But games just cannot do it, no matter how hard they try. They can make me feel sad, shocked or desolate (Yes, HL2: Ep2, I'm looking at you) but cannot seem to induce tears.

Mostly I think it's just because the standard of writing is abysmal. For all the arguments of "games are art and a totally legit storytelling medium now", 90% of them are unwilling or unable to go beyond "save the world by murdering everything that looks at you funny and get the girl if we remember to put one in".

The good ol' uncanny valley effect doesn't help either. It's hard to feel sorry for a dead-eyed puppet.

Do I just not get it?

Hmm, its a bit of the opposite for me. I form emotional connections much easier with games due to the interaction and the sheer length. Quality of writing aside, I've got a much better connection with the people I spent 80 hours endeavoring to save the world with, than the characters in a two hour movie.

Also, this is on a whole different topic, but I wouldn't call the standard of writing abysmal. There's a load of well-written games out there, it's all about applying Sturgeons law and sorting the good from the crap. It's more of an issue of lack of variety than anything else if you ask me. Infamous, DMC3, hell even the first Army of Two have fine writing, it's just that they have no ambition to be anything more than power fantasies. It makes for a fun and engrossing game story, but not a story that can translate well to other mediums.

 

[GildaTheGriffin]

Borderlands 2 spoilers:

Spoiler

Borderlands 2, when Bloodwing died. It was heart breaking to see her go in such a way. I made Handsome Jack pay after that. God, I got so angry, I had legit nightmares of seeing her die over and over in my mind. It's psychotic of me, but after a few days, it receded into the void of my memories.

I will forever miss you Bloodwing :'(

DUDE, WHAT THE FUCK SPOILERS MUCH.

That game JUST came out.

Not cool.

Sorry, but it's very minor to the storyline. I didn't mean to spoil it.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Persona 3, nothing says powerful like the most likable character saying goodbye, thanks to you, and actually cries for the first time.
Persona 4, haven't beaten it, but this forum alone is pushing me to finish it, for the ending...
Infamous 2, good/bad ending, yeah...
RDR, also yeah...
Shadow of the Colossus, so much love at the end...
No More Heroes, symbolism alone was tears of joy worthy.

I'm a sensitive guy, and I can safely say all these games made me shed a tear. But the award goes to Persona 3, I was alone in when I got to the ending so it was safe to cry like I was watching the end to Forrest Gump. Congrats Persona 3, and thank you Aigis for the most powerful final monologue ever delivered in gaming history.

 

[DanielBrown]

No games have, but I gotta admit I felt pretty awful after

Spoiler: Borderlands 2 spoilers

Handsome Jack killed Bloodwing

 

[Karoshi]

I literally sobbed during Mordins part in ME3, since I botched that arc so hard. Argh, why did that game have to be so damn depressing?

Starcraft 2 ending made me cry a bit as well, as much as Beyong Good and Evil did.

Honorable mention goes to Dear Esther and Bastion who didn't make me cry, but tugged my heartstrings so hard, it hurt for several days.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Mass Effect 3: Many different points in the game.

Bastion: I was crying while I carried Zulf away from his people. Plus the ending, choosing to live with the Calamity and take Zulf with me. The ending was so beautiful that I pretty much had to shed some tears. Plus the music during both of those parts is just gorgeous.

Halo 3: When I thought Chief was dead (ya laugh it up).

Borderlands 2:

Spoiler

Bloodwing's death. Me and him were pals in the first game. Same with Roland's death. It's weird to have a character gunned down when you actually spent a lot of time using them in the previous game.

 

[Austin Howe]

The only game that I think has ever legitimately made me cry was Kingdom Hearts at the end. That still gets to me a bit.

Ok, actually, I think the ending of every Metal Gear has at least gotten me watery-eyed, but I don't think it's every gotten the waterworks.

 

[Zeren]

Hall of Shame? Please explain what is shameful about crying about things that evoke emotions?

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

Tears of sadness:
Riven (if you become attached to the world, the ending just tears your heart up)
Silent Hill 2 (the letter at the end, especially since the actress' emotions sound so genuine)
Ico (the whole scene right after the final boss fight, when the theme song plays)
Dragon Age: Origins (the first ending I got, in which Alistair died; I had to replay it just to get a happier one)
Dear Esther (yeah, I was going through a thing at the time...)
Mass Effect 3 (oh, Mordin)

Tears of happiness because I'm really depressed and when something makes me feel joy I just cry:
Journey
Botanicula

More to come as I play more games, I am sure.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Putting aside the question of why simply crying is something to be really, really ashamed first, of course.

[sub]You judgemental sluts[/sub]

I'll go with Ace Attorney 3. The end of that last case is pure brilliance. Persona 4 made me start crying three seperate times within ten minutes (the ending man!) annnnnnnnd oh just like 5 minutes ago when I was watching Cry's LP of the new Walking Dead, the first part. Funny how i'm more emotional over a dog dying than of some random kid dying. Seriously I did not care about that kid at all. You ever own a pet you'll understand ;_;


Oh and a non-game example. Gurren Lagann. Episode 8. Fuck.

 

[IrradiatedFish]

Too many games have made me cry. But only one has made me sob like a baby. Lost Odyssey.

*sniff* Some of those memories/stories/dreams (whatever they are!) are so incredibly touching. Kaim is certainly one of my favourite characters in any game ever just because of his depth of character depicted in those stories... And yes, some are incredibly sad... I'm not really the kind of person who easily lets the tears role, but some of those stories had me all teary-eyed for sure :').

Also, haven't finished the game? Do it, haha! It's great, even if just for the sake of reading the rest of those wonderful short stories!

Metal Gear Solid 3

This one too! MGS3 is always the very first game I think of when the topic of sadness inducing video games arises... That whole ending sequence is something I simply can't describe in words. After the final confrontation with The Boss I could hardly focus on what was going on in the game for the next 10 minutes because I was so distraught... And then of course things get even more progressively depressing at the conclusion of the game. *sigh* What an experience that game was...

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Edit: Also, to the inevitable mentioning of FF7 by various people, I'm just going to say now that Galuf in FFV > Aeris/Aerith (whichever you prefer) In FFVII.

 

[likalaruku]

None, but I'm a cold unfeeling b**ch who hasn't cried since she was 7. I blame the ADHD medications.