Games that have emotionally messed you up

[NatalieZaki]

I just finished playing Echo, the horror visual novel. It's fantastic, some of the best writing and characters I've seen in a long ass time, and I highly recommend checking it out. However, it came at the cost of that game absolutely being a punch in the gut. Several punches. I wanted to know if y'all have had a game like that. You like finish the game and you just sit there and feel hollow.

 

[RustySK]

I know plenty of people hate it, but The Last of Us 2 was this to a tee for me.

Especially in the sense that for me the emotional climax happened a good while before the game's actual finale so by the time I actually did reach that finish line, I was just as drained as Ellie, the devs nailed that aspect.
Couldn't look at the game for a good long while after that, what a devastating, bleak experience. Loved it.

Another one would definitely be the original Nier.

Though with that game the endings are just one more gut punch in a long line of gut punches in my mind.
To this day several of the songs in that game - the Devola/Popola renditions - make me tear up.
I still feel like the father/daughter dynamic of Gestalt works WAY better than the brother/sister dynamic of Replicant btw.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

To the moon....

Still can't replay that damn game....

To the Moon (2011) - MobyGames

To the Moon is the first game in a planned series about two scientists, Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr. Neil Watts, who specialise in a peculiar field. They practise a technology that allows them to alter people's memories. People who hire them can thus have...

www.mobygames.com

 

[Envy_VV]

Either is the first time i played silent hill 2, Night in the woods, nier or the beginner's guide, i mean, there're more that have pull alot of emotions out of me, but those are the one that immediately comes to mind, i could mention visual novels and rpgs but ill be here forever

 

[Bakuma1997]

LISA: Especially the First, the harsh consequences of Sexual and Physical abuse lingering even after the perpetrator is long gone being disguised as yet another Earthbound clone with the lingering end of the world being the lesser problems made the game the ultimate soul wrecker, Joyful, however takes the cake (Cries in Free Ending)

 

[oxyhime]

I could cite Zero Escape, but it's Kotaro Uchikoshi's previous work Ever17 that really "messed me up". Maybe it's the amount of time you spend with the characters and how many story/character beats everyone goes through (and the toll that it takes on them), but when the "plates stop spinning" and stuff comes crashing down, it crashes down hard.

Definitely not a perfect game or a perfect story, and the translation we got was a bit shaky at times, but certain tracks still get me emotional.

 

[prnzo x BOOZE-o ka-BEER-o]

Shin Megami Tensei III

I love psychological thrillers n trippy, esoteric games

...but that's my conscious brain that feels that way.

my subconscious is a fuckin fragile asshole lol

n so mindfuck games or other media need to be approached carefuLLy n only experienced when my brain is utterLy bulletproof against triggers that unsettle a part of meh mind that I can't even relate to

 

[Raggs]

I can't remember what the Youtuber's name is, but the guy legit came emotionally unglued playing Chrono Cross and would have crying spells at points of the game. It was hard to watch.

Me personally, I was listening to some random JPop compilation with Ayumi Hamasaki this one time; and playing Fallout 4 of all freakin' things. Something in me just snapped and I starting crying thinking about my mom dying someday. That was so damn bizarre. Feelings are weird. I may have been settlement building at the time.

 

[DunkeyKong]

There's a similar thread like this I think (https://retrogametalk.com/threads/games-you-do-not-feel-emotionally-ready-for.4427/#post-67952). Anyway, mine is Shadow of the Colossus, self explanatory

 

[FlamGardeno]

Okey, i lived for this question/ somehow, all of my favorite games become like this due to emotional damage(i wanna believe its not, but i have no reason why all of my fav games so devastating)

First. Lisa The painful. there is no game that give me this mood swings, and last few hours of game is just definition of title. Pain and only pain.

Second. Fran bow. I played it like few years ago, but still i remember this game so well. Maybe someone might think that there s only this horror trip and the ending is just "hooray, everyone s happy, only happy joyful future ahead", but if you start think about wtf is this world about you will understand how crapped it all is.

Third. I m not sure if this really my fav game, but it s clearly left something in my heart. Shadow of the colossus. I don't thing i need to explain anything.

Forth. You can already guess from my avatar, but yeas, it s deponia. Don't get me wrong, this game is really funny and almost the whole the game is just a big stupid joke. BUT o god, the last game in the series... let me just say, i feel the same way about Lisa. It really painful to finally understand concept of the whole game and watch for 10 hours as everything collapses.

Maybe there is more but this is my top

 

[SpectreOverflow]

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future is the only game that's ever made me cry, period.

 

[Jeff]

Mother 3, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

 

[Ícaro Oliveira Santos]

 

[Annohalder17]

For me its 'The Last of Us'. I literally cried playing it but then Part 2. Leaks came out and broke me completely. To this day, I never forgive Neil Druckman for killing off the franchise that I deared for.

Another one will be Klonoa. This game really teaches out something.

 

[werewolfgimmick]

Echo mentioned! I wasn't expecting to see it here lmao along with it's sequel it's one of my favorite games, and indeed they are full of gutpunches. The one that always makes me cry is Flynn's whole ending.
But other than that i don't connect emotionally to art often, especially with video games. Even something like Mother 3 did nothing for me. The one other example in gaming i can think of is the ending of Killer7's Target05: Smile. The Kill The Past games usually feel pretty detached emotionally, but this scene, man. I wont spoil it, but seeing a certain stoic character completely break down makes the whole tragedy of the situation suddenly hit you all at once. The fantastic voice acting also does so much to sell you the moment.
Gosh, Killer7, what a fucking game.

 

[svanrioluvr]

doki doki literature club messed with my brain chemistry at the ripe age of twelve?

 

[Bonkers225]

Corpse Party on the PSP. Had me sleep with the lights on for a week.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Rance X only cause its the final chapter of Alicesoft's most successful erotic games. Also the most successful Japanese Erotic game series. So the emotional build up was huge after a decade of playing all of them.
Ace Combat 7 or any of the Strangereal Games final levels always tear me up.

 

[TotzOnGaming]

I am Setsuna
Lost Sphear
Oninaki
Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons
PS2 Fatal Frame Trilogy has some good scares
Silent Hill 2 when you're a kid and experiencing it for the very first time.
Fear and Hunger Series is really disturbing.

 

[AkiraSO4]

Funny enough, Kizuna Encounter.

HEAR ME OUT.

It starts kinda chill, CPU isn't so bad early on, but the atmosphere is really off. The streets are wrecked, deserted. There's crows everywhere. You NEVER see a person on these backgrounds. It's really off-putting once you realize it.

And then King Leo shows up, and the game turns upside down. That guy is one of the cheapest bosses in SNK history. Reads everything you do and punishes accordingly, dealing tons of damage in the meantime. Last time I beat him it took me AN HOUR.

And you'd rightfully think that's it.

No.

Suddenly, a sword goes through the mf's heart, and a goddamn crow is perched on top of the sword.
I remember seeing this as I was younger and almost shitting out bricks.

The order select screen is your characters against the freaking crow on the sword.

He then morphs into Jazu, crouches, starts doing some black magic and the whole background turns into some twisted version of the palace you were in earlier, not to mention his theme song. Nightmare fuel.

Granted, he's a little easier than King Leo, and it definitely took me less tries, and the ending despie being bittersweet as hell, with the ending song and King Leo SOMEHOW staying alive, I'll always have a funny memory of facing this boss sequence for the first time. Scared me more than any horror game ever could.

 

[King Koopa's iconKing Koopa]

Omori. If you struggle with mental health issues/grief playing it might make you cry a lot.

 

[SolemnlyDoc]

Obligatory mention of Detroit Become Human and Life is Strange, but that was the point of those games. For a game that shocked me emotionally, I go to Watch_Dogs. I sat there staring at Maurice, gun in hand, for over 10 minutes.

The dialogue between us, those few lines that Maurice delivers.. With the game wrapped up, I lost all my hatred toward him. He killed my niece, but he's been held and tortured for weeks now. He's a broken man, and at the end of the day he was just a foot soldier who didn't know she was in the car. I stared at my controller for so long debating that choice, shoot or spare. Live or die.

I've gotta tell you, putting a bullet in his head.. It didn't help me sleep at night. I told him he was the last loose end, the last one who needed punishment, but he was right. "There is no last." I'm in this now, and I don't think the killing will ever stop.

 

[Neopolitan]

Second. Fran bow. I played it like few years ago, but still i remember this game so well. Maybe someone might think that there s only this horror trip and the ending is just "hooray, everyone s happy, only happy joyful future ahead", but if you start think about wtf is this world about you will understand how crapped it all is.

I'd also list Fran Bow, but was the ending happy? It seemed like a huge downer to me, only a few points away from being totally miserable.

Four more games I'd add to this list; Little Misfortune (by the same people who did Fran Bow, I think), Alice Madness Returns, Shady Part of Me, and Silence. The ending for Silence in particular always makes me tear up.

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

Link's Awakening ending disturbed me as a kid.
30 years later, SOMA.

 

[Neopolitan]

I love SOMA, but instead of getting emotional at it, I mostly got annoyed with the main character. I understood the concepts at play far better than he did, and his constant inability to comprehend the things being explained/shown to him drove me up the wall. It's the same sort of annoyance I feel when trying to explain to people IRL why Star Trek/SciFi transporters are not great things and I would never use them.