Top 10 Games to Move You to Tears
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Oct 16, 2008 14:29 JST
- Tags: Clannad, Comparison, Final Fantasy, Rankings, 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?
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Embodiment of Scarlet Devil moved me to tears.
Whenever I have Flandre in front of me, to be precise.
T_T
CoD: World at War moved me to tears...
How can a paradigm of a game like CoD4 have a successor like that?!
Indeed. Also, that one scene in CoD4 after the nuclear explosion was kinda sad too...
hmm...
i've never played those games before...
but i wanna get my hand on key's product... >.<
Having played Metal Gear Solid 3... it actually makes sense to be on this list. It has an incredibly powerful ending, if you make it that far.
I definitely cried when playing CLANNAD, multiple times, too, and the AIR anime. I don't agree with FFVII and I can't really speak for much else on the list.
Surprisingly, I didn't cry at Planetarian, though I can understand why people think that should be on this list.
Not exactly a game, a graphic adventure indeed...
Narcissu...
http://narcissu.insani.org/
this one made me to cry like a baby...
Ahh, I remember it all too well - it was the first visual novel I ever read, and at the same time the first one (the only other that managed to achieve this was 'Planetarian: Chiisana Hoshi no Yume') to actually make me cry, although I managed not to until the last chapter, and those are only 2 visual novels out of many I've been able to read that had that kind of effect on me...
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.
i watched the crisis core ending six times. cried hysterically every time.
kanon T_T
Fails to include MOTHER 3. List fail :(
How is AIR not #1? Ah well, clannad really does make a good number 2. good list artefact
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.
More precisely, she was a Fake Defector because of someone else's screw-up and had to die knowing her deed will go unsung and the people she died to protect will not remember her for any of her heroic legends but for this one 'betrayal'.
If I understood MGS4 correctly, her unjust death was the what inspired both Big Boss and the PATRIOTS to lose faith in the world and attempt to rectify it in her memory.
damn skippy!
Visual Art's / Key sure are epic. :B
The bit right b4 the ending of Beyond Good and Evil did it for me. =P
beautiful. crisis core is here.
err... WHY THE FRICKIN' HELL IS FFVII 9TH?
-hardcore ffvii psycho
Oh wow. OP obviously hadn't played MGS 3.
Yes... I have to agree with Crisis Core. The ending is just so... epic.
MGS3... beat it, and I found it okay...
Dragon Quest V was touching too when ...
spoiler...
....
...
..
..
Your father died saving you.
Your wife got turned into stone.
I played Metal Gear 3 and enjoyed it! It didn't make me cry though... That one electrified guy (can't remember his name) was a bitch to kill though. Fighting him almost brought me to tears...
The only games that have moved me to tears have been visual novels.
Clannad, saya no uta, utawarerumono and ever 17 to be precise.
Final Fantasy X... #1?
What is this? Explain this madness.
MGS33 had the nice touch of makiing you pull the trigger at the end, it shifts out of the cutscene with you immobile standing there and press[] boom!
I choked up in Klonoa and Zone of Enders but maybe im just a crybaby. The MGS1 characters were emotive despite having smudges for faces
i think final fantasy X should fuck off and give its place to Tomoyo After ~ It's A Wonderful Life~ that is the most heart touching game I've ever played
hitomi little sister.
^^^ i mean kana little sister. lol
hitomi little sister, rofl.. good stuff.
Indeed Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII really moved me to tears
CLANNAD, everybody says that is really sad, but its quite normal
Normal? If you mean it's realistic, sure.
The only game that I have ever cried for was Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. The ending sequence always gets to me.
Sorry, but the only game I can remember moving me to tears was Halo 3.
!SPOILERS! !SPOILERS! !SPOILERS!
When Sergeant Johnson died, it was easily one of the most emotionally moving scenes in video game history. Here is a character who has been with us for almost a decade and he dies. Plus his last words are manly tears worthy.
"Don't ever let her go.."
I would have to say metal gear solid 3 was the only one that made me cry. For those who are suprised, it doesnt make you cry until you see the ending!
The other games didn't really force me to tears. Even tho arguably AIR has the most tragic fate of any character (kept being reincarnated), MGS3 had the best cinematography, so I thought it was effective.
If the author of this article is surprised MGS3 made the list its because he clearly did not played the game.
My first and only game I've cried to in my life. Fucking awesome and the best MGS game out there to date closely followed by MGS4.
only 2 games that have ever made be wibble were estopolis 2 and ICO
ICO is particularly worth mentioning since there's probably less than 50 spoken lines throughout the whole game, but it's beautifully moving in manners far less conspicuous and direct
grandia 1 & 2 had some moments, grandia 3 could make you cry with it's terrible-ness and shadow hearts had a few fairly poignant parts
though oddly enough MGS3 never did anything for me...
Final Fantasy XII was so BAD It made me cry.
never cried while playing games. but mgs3 was the first that i felt my throat getting tight and my eyes start to burn a little. the ending drove it home i think.
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"#
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.
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...
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.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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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 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 kinda of weird to be moved by an anime? just my opinion.
Isn't it kind of weird to be moved by a novel or a film?
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
yeah your right.
Isn't it kinda of weird to be moved? Just my opinion.
It's it kinda weird? Just my opinion.
COMBO BREAKER! ...NOT!
Is it weird for human to be moved by any STORY when they have been gifted with emotions?
Isn't? Just my opinion.
Is? Just my opinion.
I... naah give it a rest...
Isn't it? Just my opinion.
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~
FFX. I can understand why, but at the top of the list? Wow. Still the ending was very sad indeed, and the story.
I dno. I personally felt a more bitter-sweet sensation then actual sadness.
Then again, I personally felt the game was pretty weak overall and found the only thing that truly kept me going forward in the story was the chance to meet and get more Blitzball players.
Seeeriously, the story was nothing really that new or original enough to shake the feeling of deja-vu or complete ridiculousness... The first one being "How the fuck are you still living after a day spent underwater? What're you, Aquaman?" In which case, if he was, he'd be a bit lame because he failed at communicating with fishes.
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.
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.
Not only was Kana not that big with the Japanese, it wasn't big at all. (Outside of this site) There really are hardly any people who played this game, but anyone that did..
..Well, let's just say that the only bad thing they could find about it was that they carried a certain sadness with them from that point. I mean, even the good ending ends with a depressing tone.
actually, final fantasy was there thrice.
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
I understand all except FFX, MGS3, FF7(regular) and TOA. I never played DQ5 so I don't know about that one.
You wrote it backwards I swear.
Little Busters should be #1 ^^
That would make Clannad #9...
blasphemy
Crisis Core was indeed amazing. The ending was so emotional I almost cried indeed.
Yah, I just played it, and Zack was epic in the end.
yes...at the end of crisis core i actually teared up...no other game/anime/movie has actually made me do this...and this coming from a person who has watched clannad and chrono crusade...
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.
Well, I certainly cried about how dreadful FFX was.
I want to download this, can i? Anybody please reply me...
I would say most of key's work, like Planetarian Kanon Clannad etcetc... metal gear solid? I was stunned when i saw that...
Clannad, Narcissu, Planetarian, Kana... short games are overlooked and forgotten...
What? Where is School Days?
I would assume MGS3 made the list solely for the ending, and well justified...
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.
tetris was so full of raw, human emotion, that i just couldn't help but cry over it. i cry everytime i think about it. in fact, i'm crying now.
lol I didn't cry, I lost the ability to think correctly because I was so bored.
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...
I think it quite a great idea, but I would've started with either Planetarian or Narcissu, as these novels are short enough to make a theatrical anime (aka. movie) or an OVA series out of it, and I'm pretty sure that's a better way to portrait it than the whole series (if it's ever made into something like this then I guess it won't be as good as we'd like it to be, so OVA/movie is the way to go).