Some of The Most Emotional Video Game Moments To Date
Author: S.A.
As a gamer, it’s inevitable for us to get invested in the people we play as. We spend hours of our lives as these characters. We fight along side them, get hurt with them, and feel accomplishment at the tiny or large goals we achieve throughout the game. That’s why the water works break out when ever something bad happens, and our tempers flare. We believe our characters to be infallible and even invincible. That said, when something bad happens to them we cannot help but feel morally crushed and devastated along side of them.
There are a variety of moments throughout gaming history that get characters to break down into emotional upheaval, whether that be in grief or anger depends solely on the game. Here though, I’m going to give you the top five in recent gaming history that sent me into fits of denial, anger, or grief. However be warned SPOILERS TO VIDEO GAMES EXIST HERE. I would suggest you move on if you are still making your way through any of the following, or intend to at some point in your gaming career: Tell Tales: Walking Dead, The Last of Us, Final Fantasy 10, Journey, Bioshock.
Now without further ado – here comes the frustration.
1. Tell Tale’s Walking Dead – Lee’s Death
The Walking Dead world is a perilous place, often filled with death and dismemberment of our heroes on a regular occasion. That said, we often times forget this due to our narrowing escapes again and again from near death situations. However Tell Tale didn’t forget, slapping me right in the face with Lee’s sudden death in the gaming version of the hit TV show and comic giant.
I was completely shocked at the abrupt way in which Lee got infected. A man that had managed to escape hordes of zombies on numerous occasions, fell to a zombie hiding underneath a card board box. It seemed surreal to me, and I even went so far as to cut of his arm in an attempt to save him. However it all proved for nought as the infection had proved to spread far to quickly, and took the life of a beloved character.
2. The Last of Us – Sarah’s Death
I knew her only for a short time, but in those few moments, she proved to be both upbeat, kind, and loved dearly by her father. Thus it was easy for Naughty Dog to manage to hit me right in the gut with the sudden removal of our protagonists daughter, Sarah.
The Last of Us forces us to make a narrowing escape from a city that has gone mad, facing the beginning of an infection that would ruin their world. However despite our success at making it out of the madness that will soon become the norm of our world, we find ourselves not only shot down, but trying to stop our daughter from bleeding out. As the screen cuts to black, and all we hear is Joel begging for Sarah to stay with us, one can’t help but feel crushed for this father.
3. Final Fantasy 10 – Tidus’s Death
Anyone who has played this game has to know one thing, Final Fantasy X built us up only to tear us down. We spent hours with our crew of characters, trying our hardest to ensure that Yuna didn’t need to sacrifice her life in order to save the world. We did all this only to find out that to save the world….would mean the death of one our own. It was heart wrenching, it was maddening, and caused me to go into denial about what was already a certain outcome.
However come it did, and years later still reverberates as one of the saddest game endings to date.
4. Journey – Final Moment into The Light
A game that was surprisingly moving despite the complete lack of conversation within it. Journey proved to quite entertaining and heartfelt despite the short nature of our adventure. We seemingly grow from an individual who knows nothing about the world, to one who has seen it at it’s highest points, and to its lowest. Thus when we finally see our character die, and make our final trip into the white light, its a bitter sweet parting.
5. Bioshock – Atlas Reveal
We often trust to easy in video games, without question, and without consideration. Bioshock finally showed me the error of my ways when I put my faith in a character that had been guiding us from the onset of our landing in Rapture. Atlas, our trusty companion that has led us through thick in thin throughout Rapture turns out to be Frank Fountain. He isn’t our friend, and is revealed to have been brain washing us from the beginning. Through a series of flash backs we are forced to confront the fact that we’ve been used…and that we are about to die. The betrayal runs deep, and has left me trusting far less characters that are friendly to my main protagonist.
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