Top 10 Games to Move You to Tears
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Oct 16, 2008 14:29 JST
- Tags: Clannad, Comparison, Final Fantasy, Ranking, RPG, Tales Series, Visual Novels
This recent survey, asking of Japanese gamers “Which games moved you to tears?”, presents some interesting results.
The resultant ranking:
1. Final Fantasy X (PS2)
2. Clannad (Xbox360, etc.)
3. Crisis Core – Final Fantasy VII (PSP)
4. Metal Gear Solid 3 – Snake Eater (PS2)
5. Kanon (PSP, etc.)
6. Tales of the Abyss (PS2)
7. AIR (PSP, etc.)
8. Dragon Quest V (DS, etc.)
9. Final Fantasy VII (PS, etc.)
10. Little Busters! (PC)
Via Dengeki.
The sample was mostly male, and this perhaps goes some way to explaining why 53% of those asked reported never having been moved to tears by a game. Presumably they were unmoved by film or novel either?
Personally, I was surprised to see a Metal Gear game make the cut – perhaps they were tears of joy that the story had finally ended. The presence of RPGs and visual novels is quite expected however, and it is gratifying to see a magnificent title such as Tales of the Abyss feature.
Since it perhaps would not be in the spirit of the investigation, I will spare you any evaluation of the statistical validity of the results and instead pose the questions: what do you think of these results, and which game have you found most moving?
Final Fantasy twice? Metal Gear Solid 3? Dude where is Kana: Little Sister in this? That was the first game I ever cried at, and still can’t replay to this day as I don’t want to cry again.
Teh Japanese didn’t really care that much about kana.
Kana! I just started playing it recently and I was thinking the same thing shortly before I saw your comment! Except for the “First game to make me cry” thing, Clannad and a couple others beat Kana to making me cry already
Digital Objet (Kana’s maker) is probably just a doujin-level company with only a handful of titles produced. Its production was not the best, its writing not flawless (more so after the notoriously sloppy translation), the art is also somewhat average even for its day. The game itself even had a few glaring plotholes, things that can easily broke the willing suspension of logic when noticed. Check Kana’s Left Kidney (an old fansite, still great after all these years though) for further details. Kana’s main impact lies within the fact that it was among the first ’serious and deep’ eroge/VN translated to English in more recent times.
Another possibility is that the survey does not touch the people who actually play Kana. Eroge and VNs as we know it had a high turnover rate in Japan. Coupled with more big names (Key, Circus, and the like) entering the fray, it left old games like Kana with little chance of actually touching the hearts of more recent gamers. Worse still, sparse publicity also took its toll.
Not that i complain. I also bawled my eyes off on Kana.
I understand all except FFX, MGS3, FF7(regular) and TOA. I never played DQ5 so I don’t know about that one.
FFX. I can understand why, but at the top of the list? Wow. Still the ending was very sad indeed, and the story.
Personally Clannad should be illegal for the amount of times it moves you to tears.
its counted as an EWMT emotinal wepon of mass tears~
I have to agree with your opinion of metal gear.I can’t say I have ever been moved to tears by a game.
isn’t it kinda of weird to be moved by a game? just my opinion.
Isn’t it kind of weird to be moved by a novel or a film?
yeah your right.
i dont find it odd at all.
if the story is compleing and the charicters (ether 2D or 3D) give the fealing of self and life i can see someone geting moved to tears i my self have bean moved by a few games, when you start to get in to them (few days of playing and Good strong story helps)
i would find it more obscur if peopel didnt get moved to tears at somepoint for something
isn’t it kinda of weird to be moved by an anime? just my opinion.
Isn’t it kinda of weird to be moved? Just my opinion.
It’s it kinda weird? Just my opinion.
Isn’t it? Just my opinion.
Isn’t? Just my opinion.
Is? Just my opinion.
I… naah give it a rest…
You wrote it backwards I swear.
Little Busters should be #1 ^^
That would make Clannad #9…
blasphemy
Well, I certainly cried about how dreadful FFX was.
All of them except 8 and 10. If we’re talking about Dragon Quest, I’ve to say it DQ-VIII, Metal Gear 3: Snake eater was the best for me although not many tears were shed unlike for those FF series.
Crisis Core was indeed amazing. The ending was so emotional I almost cried indeed.
the only reason i’ve cried at a final fantasy game, is to mourn the loss of my precious time, that could have been better spend on something less retarded.
clannad should have been the top.
and anime wise, texhnolyze (or however you spell it) would be near the top of my list, with a few others.
Tex is a favourite of mine too, along with Lain… Both have superb endings.
Game wise, though it may not be Japanese, Baldur’s Gate II has a particularly epic storyline.
indeed baldur’s gate II was definitely an interesting play through, and a great time waster if your bored. (yay for turning all your teammates into giant dragons that won’t even fit on most maps!)
I’ve been meaning to rewatch lain sometime, it saddens me that we won’t ever get the lain game for ps2, since it apparently gives a few more hints on what actually happens in lain.
it also saddens me that there is not nearly enough (good) lain fan art out there. and that goes for pretty much all of ABe’s work, haibane had such a perfect setup for delicious yuri doujinshi. (one of my goals in life is to produce my own haibane yuri doujin and sell it at comiket)
Only the ending of Texhnolyze is interesting – the rest of the series is quite boring. But, Lain, yes – I rewatch it all of the time.
Quit bashing FF. I’ve cried at it.
for being that bad?
strung out?
time sink with lack of good plot?
actualy being good?
Other? (If other please write why?)
pick one
I’m really amused how this list is solely composed of 1) video games and 2) Key works
even though it’s so true, when I expected some of the other popular visual novels to make the cut (Ever17, Tsukihime, etc).Equally surprising because I thought the word was that Little Busters wasn’t up to previous Key standards.
Then again, this is a survey for gamers, who may or may not be a different subset from anime fans in Japan.
Now all we need is a similar survey for anime and I’ll have a list of stuff to watch…
Cursed lack of an edit feature. And HTML.
That “even though it’s so true” is supposed to be strikethrough’d in that comment. Sorry.
OK, now I’m not sure if my second comment went through at all, but I’m getting pretty badly demolished by your comment system.
But anyway, “even though it’s so true” in regard to the Key VNs is supposed to be strikethrough’d there, and if that’s not possible, I’d like to request The Powers That Be to remove that clause. Sorry for the trouble.
Changed that for you, sorry to see it troubled you.
Strikethrough tagsworked when I tried it… Not sure about that.Most of Little Busters! backlash came from Clannad fans expecting it to be an exact copy of its predecessor, even though Maeda said himself the game wasn’t anything like their previous works.
After the pre-release, when people bitched and moaned to their heart’s content, they started playing the game seriously and noticed it wasn’t so bad as they tried to make it sound. Even more when EX came out and added more awesome heroines, which can be considered one of the best Key games ever made and a big financial success. Long story short, never believe pre-release hype.
Final Fantasy X? What? No.
Final Fantasy VII can be sad at times, not devastating, though. If you want to cry with the tears of a thousand nutslaps. Play Lost Odyssey. Please.
Pretty please.
Key should have a whole river of tears for their awesome VNs. lol.
They could probably fill a moat around their office with the tears shed by their customers.
Some people have grown up with Solid Snake and Big Boss, so seeing the tragic end of his “mother” and her true role in the story is pretty sad. Plus the mgs theme is epic.
Where’s my Yume Miru Kusuri and Ever17 in this list.
I agree, I just played Yume miru kusuri, and it has one of the saddest stories I’ve ever seen.
Heh, i did remember crying in MGS1 after the boss battle against Sniper Wolf. The whole presentation brought by the game was impactful, and i think more and more games should have emotional impact to the players.
after all, we did invest our time to the game.
Personally i think AIR should be at the top of every good list in the world. It’s the greatest thing to come out of japan since Pocky.
Also, i know the japanese didnt take to it, but Half Life 2: Episode 2 was incredible when it came to tear jerking.
Kana – “my little sister” should be in the list.
It is the saddest story for H-games even for normal story.
Ok… where the fuck is Planetarian in that list???!!!!!!
no planetarian?, madness
I’m missing Planetarian too. That game made me cry like a little girl caonstantly for half an hour
Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, anyone?
FFX? Naw. AIR deserves a spot SO HARDCORE HIGH it’s hardly funny.
Tales of the Abyss had plenty of emotional ups and downs. Luke rules for making me care about a character that sucks from the outset.
Alice dying in Shadow Hearts was kinda…you know…SAD. Alice and Yuri go to sleep on the train in the ending, but Alice doesn’t wake up. WOW.
but there is no Shadow Hearts on this list. Oh well, the Japanese can keep liking their beloved FFX.
Kimi ga Nozomu Eien is way too over-the-top to be truly moving.
And maybe FFX should not be the highest, but I would definitely expect it to be on the list.
It’s sad that the only 4 visual novels on this list are Key games. It’s not surprising, just that there should be more of them here.
Legendia moved me so much more than Abyss when it came to stories, especially during the character quests.
FFX I could get a little, and VII had it’s sad parts, but I can’t think of anything in those two that would’ve made me cry.
Where the hell is Ico in this¿ The pain of guiding her around and she doesn’t stick with you.
The result is a bit skewed as Japanese prefer console more. Even Clannad was listed under the 360 even tho it was originally released for the PC, and the fact that only one PC game was listed further proved this> I think a better result would be one that listed it separated by gaming consoles. Then you should see the real picture
I don’t think any game has ever moved me to tears, but by far the closest would have to be either Terranigma or Lufia 2 (both SNES games). Currently playing FF7:CC though, so we shall see…
What? Where is School Days?
I would assume MGS3 made the list solely for the ending, and well justified…
Clannad, Narcissu, Planetarian, Kana… short games are overlooked and forgotten…
I would say most of key’s work, like Planetarian Kanon Clannad etcetc… metal gear solid? I was stunned when i saw that…
I want to download this, can i? Anybody please reply me…
Wait, Little Busters? Granted, it’s not without its own moments (and a nice OST, on an unrelated sidenote), but hey, one of the games of ALL TIMES where you had to shed tears? I didn’t play Kana, but from the sound of it, it should be much more fit to be on this list. Well, maybe I’m just a heartless bastard…
Most gamers would be moved to tears by some cryfest like Guitar Hero.
I know I started crying when I had to play it.
lol I didn’t cry, I lost the ability to think correctly because I was so bored.
It’s a pity Planetarian wasn’t more widely played…
Planetarian needs to be made an anime. That would boost it popularity.
Right, Kyoani? Riiiight???
Sure, why not LB too? ^^
There’s alot of other great PC games that’ll make for nice anime I’m sure…
AIR’s at seven?!! I thought it would make it to the top 5 at least :S
Anyway, for a game such as LT to make it at the top 10’s quite interesting (since it’s only been out for less than 2 years).
~Meant “LB”#
How is AIR not #1? Ah well, clannad really does make a good number 2. good list artefact
Embodiment of Scarlet Devil moved me to tears.
Whenever I have Flandre in front of me, to be precise.
T_T
Fails to include MOTHER 3. List fail :(
Visual Art’s / Key sure are epic. :B
they shud make a survey on the top ten anime to make u cry
Anybody who’s played MGS3 wouldn’t be really surprised by the mention. I dare anyone to tell me that the final battle in MGS3 isn’t utterly heartbreaking: Snake going up against his mentor and killing her for betraying the US, despite the fact that she’s his mentor, taught him everything he knows, and was like a mother to him.
And then he finds out she was a Fake Defector.
Heartbreaking.
kanon T_T
haha yes Clannad on 2 is fine, I cried in the game and the anime.
I remember ,when the ending of Crisis Core started, I almost cried because it was over. really enjoyed plaing it, the story could continue endlessly <3
rest in peace, zack.
CoD: World at War moved me to tears…
How can a paradigm of a game like CoD4 have a successor like that?!
hmm…
i’ve never played those games before…
but i wanna get my hand on key’s product… >.<