Title: Video Game Feature: 5 Games That Have Made Me Cry
Author: MG Thabo
Recovered Author: MG Thabo
Published Date: 2016-03-03
Original URL: https://geeknode.co.za/2016/03/video-game-feature-5-games-that-have-made-me-cry
Wayback URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20170710212104id_/http://www.geeknode.co.za/2016/03/video-game-feature-5-games-that-have-made-me-cry/
Recovery Confidence: high
Categories: Games
Tags: feature, featured, gaming feature, life is strange, list, persona 4, the beginner's guide, the last of us, the walking dead, top 5, top 5 games that have made me cry, top 5 sad games

- MG Thabo

- 1 year ago

- 7 0

From all of my interactions with people that are non-gamers, I’ve noticed a bit of a trend. Games aren’t respected as valid narrative artforms in the same way that something like books or movies are respected. Fair enough, gaming is still an emerging artform and it doesn’t have the pedigree that other mediums have, but we really do have something special going on here. I know this for a fact because I’ve played games that have touched my life in more ways than one and the level of emotions I have felt while sitting on couch with a controller in my hand is through the roof. Games have the ability to move you like you’ve never been moved before because it is such an intimate way of experiencing a story. You are in the shoes of a character for a good long time and whatever happens to them, indirectly happens to you because you control them. You live the story, rather than just being a spectator of it.

Many games have narratives that have shaken me up or affected me in some way, but there are few games that manage to do something truly incredible to me. Make me cry. I’m a 23 year big dude with a bit of a soft side and it doesn’t take much to affect me, but something really has to be powerful if it can make me cry like a teenage girl that just got broken up with by Zac Efron. There’s some variables at play that can elicit such a powerful response from me.

First, there is my state of mind at the time when I played the game. There can be something I’m going through at that moment that causes me to strongly relate to a situation and in turn make it hit me much harder. Secondly, the music. My second passion apart from gaming is music and through my years of discovering and listening to music, I found that it has a much stronger effect on me than other people. I understand the movements behind it and I can really focus on what the instruments are doing and what feeling a song wants to convey. If there’s a particularly moving piece during a very emotional scene, I just break down.

Games that have managed to make me sob like a white kid getting the wrong iPhone have a very special place in my heart and I hold them in very high esteem. Some of the games are far from perfect, having a few noticeable flaws, but this is where I separate the critical part of my mind with the emotional. Because I got that strong response, all of the little gameplay niggles and design problems fall to the wayside and that powerful experience is what resonates with me the longest. I got the inspiration for this feature by a game that I recently played and reviewed on this site called Unravel that managed to make me cry. You can read all about how that happened in the review, if you wish.

So without further ado, let’s jump into this. Don’t worry about spoilers, I will avoid them as much as I can.

5. The Walking Dead Season 1

This was arguably one of the first games that has ever made me cry and I totally didn’t expect it. Not to sound like a hipster or anything, but I was actually one of the first few people to give the first episode of the game a shot way back when it released. The first episode definitely interested me and I wanted to see where this story was going. The subsequent episodes after were just knocking it out of the park, giving us impossible choices and tales of human jackassery that I have not seen much of before in other games. There’s a reason why this game put Telltale Games on the map and cemented their place as one of the few developers that can really nail a narrative.

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The earlier episodes got me very close to bawling already with some tragic and horrifying moments, but the final episode really just let the dam burst. Just thinking about the final moments is sending shivers down my spine. I had a proper sob and was out of commission for the rest of the day after the episode sent me on an emotional rollercoaster. The music here really nailed the sadness that the final sequence was going for. It was very Walking Dead-like with a more somber tone that brought you back to Earth and it blended with pin-point precision. I will always remember the triumph that was this game and I hope Telltale can continue to give us games of this caliber in the future.

4. Life is Strange

Life is Strange is a fairly new addition to this list since I’ve only played it really recently. I’ve always heard from people about how awesome it was, but I didn’t really pay it too much attention. Boy do I regret that. Life is Strange is simply fantastic. It’s a brilliantly written and presented coming-of-age story with some really interesting time manipulation mechanics involved. Besides the supernatural time powers, it’s a very human and personal story of a typical high school girl just trying to fit in. The characters were just top notch and the story was such a rollercoaster of emotions through its five episodes.

The game hit many notes with me, since I can very strongly relate to some of the situations within the game. Being bullied, having existential crises, not being part of the cool crowd and so on. They tackled some really taboo subjects in the game ranging from things such as suicide all the way to abortion. I went through so many things along with Max Caulfield and by the end of the final cutscene, I found tears streaming down my cheeks. The final episode had quite a few problems, but the culmination of all of the emotions along with the music that played just pushed me over the edge. If you haven’t checked this game out, please do. You will not regret it.

3. The Last of Us

Not a lot of games manage to make you cry within the first 10 minutes. In order to pull that off in the first place, you need to get attached to the characters first, know their situation and be really invested in the story so that it can hit you like a freight train filled with people going to the Obesity Appreciation Festival. But the start of The Last of Us was so tightly written and brilliantly acted that not a lot of people can help feel their hearts go up their throat a little. I almost want to say what the moment is since it’s so early in the game, but I really don’t want to ruin it for the 5 people that haven’t played the game and the Xbox fanboys.

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Gustavo Santaolalla, the composer for the game, delivered a beautiful soundtrack to the game that was just made to get under your skin. He employs unorthodox instruments to give the game a further grounded feel and his implementation of orchestral pieces and downtuned stringed instruments elevates the experience tenfold. It’s possibly one of my favourite soundtracks of all time which speaks volumes (heh) since I’m such a music nerd. His piece during this scene I’m talking about could have moved me to tears by itself, but instead it just intensified everything.

I watched a documentary about the game and within it, Troy Baker, voice and body actor of main character Joel, explained how insanely intense and riveting that scene was to act and I can believe him. They went through a ton of takes and many shifts in direction and good lord does it show. Besides the scene I’ve been talking about, The Last of Us has so many more incredible moments that it’s comfortably one of my favourite narratives in gaming. It was the last hoorah of the previous generation that still resonates with me to this day.

4. Persona 4

Oh man, where do I start with this one. Persona 4 is a Goliath of a game. Under the sort of cute visage of a dungeon crawler with social elements set in a Japanese high school, is a game that tackles incredibly complex and relevant issues. It was almost jarring just how deep this game goes with some of its concepts. They deal with things ranging from gender identity and sexuality all they way to suicide. It’s also not a passing discussion of these subjects, but they really dive deep into them. The game is unbelievably intimate and personal since you, the protagonist, deals with people on a much deeper personal level and you become a part of their story.

The entire narrative of Persona 4 is top-notch and you will find yourself infatuated with the characters and finding yourself deeply caring about everyone you interact with. I’ve played the game quite a while ago and I still remember all of the names of the characters along with my interactions with them and my memory is about as good as a drunk goldfish. The game is a journey through all of those themes I talked about and even if the “power of friendship” thing is a strong trope in JRPGs, this is probably the most genuine tale of friendship I’ve ever seen.

Sufficed to say, this game eventually made me cry. There were two distinct moments where the level of gut-wrenching sadness just opened my tear ducts and let the emotions flood out. But that sadness was just a drop in the ocean that is this game. Besides the sadness, the game also made me shed a few tears of joy a bunch of times. I never thought that some game I bought on a whim on my PS Vita would be so powerful and so important in my life. If you can, go play this game now. You will not regret it at the slightest.

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5. The Beginner’s Guide

Now this is something that I didn’t expect to floor me the way it did. It’s a game developed by Davey Wreden, or as you would probably know him as, the developer of The Stanley Parable. The game is much in the same fashion of The Stanley Parable, with it also being a “walking simulator”, even though I hate that term. It’s a narrative focused game that uses a lot of clever movement and exploration elements to tell its story. It’s a relatively short 2 hour experience, but the story that is told is breathtaking. At least, for me.

This game is the best example of the scenario I mentioned at the start where a game can affect me based on how I’m feeling at the time. The story of the game fit my situation like a glove and it hit me way closer to home than I ever thought a game could. By the end, I was sobbing uncontrollably to the point where I had to pause the game and just take a moment to compose myself. It stuck with me for weeks after I played it and still sticks with me today. A short little 2 hour game made in Source with a voice over managed to put me in this state. Isn’t that just a beautiful testament to what gaming can deliver us?

I have deliberately kept the details of the game obfuscated because explaining what happens in the game is both futile and riddled with spoilers. It’s cheap on Steam, it ran like butter on my potato laptop and takes the same time as four episodes of The Big Bang Theory so you have absolutely no excuse. Go play this and see what it does to you. It might break you down like it did me, or it might just give you something to think about.

Conclusion

And there you have it, the games that caused me to bawl like a drunk guy that started to love his friends way too much. These are of course not the only games that have made me cry with notable mentions including Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Lost Odyssey and Bloodborne. The last one was mostly because of fear. What are some games that have touched your life the same way that these have touched mine?

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MG Thabo

Guest Contributor

Marko has played way too many games, listened to way too many metal albums and is probably taller than you. He is a qualified language and communication practitioner and likes to write about the good things in gaming.

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Article Tags:
feature · featured · gaming feature · life is strange · list · persona 4 · the beginner's guide · the last of us · the walking dead · top 5 · top 5 games that have made me cry · top 5 sad games

Article Categories:
Games · Video Game Feature
