Red Dead Redemption comes to mind. I guess I didn't really know what to expect from it. I didn't think it was going to be super depressing, and it wasn't, but there were some real feel bad moments. I think the one that got to me the most, outside of the ending, was what happened to Luisa. She literally lived and died for Reyes and he didn't even remember her name or even care that she sacrificed herself to try and save him. It didn't make me cry, but it did make me feel really bad. Reyes isn't worthy of that surname, my character Nora Elena Reyes is much better. As alluded to before, there's the ending too. That did make me cry.
Halo: Reach didn't make me cry either, but "Objective: Survive" and what followed was a huge punch in the gut. The rest of the team's deaths were kinda lame and random, but Noble Six making an incredible but hopeless last stand was one of the better moments in the series.
Mass Effect 3 might have had an incredibly bad ending, but it has some really great moments before that. Mordin was an awesome character and his last scene was the perfect way to sunset the character. I did cry, but not ugly cry at least.
I had read a bunch of the comics so I wasn't expecting it to be rainbow shitting unicorns, but The Walking Dead really triggered my ugly crying. It was a three hit combo that started with Carley's (or Doug's) shocking sudden death and while you're still reeling from that, Duck and Katjaa aren't far behind. Some ugly crying happened and it was multiplied by the ending. Holy shit, that ending is one of the biggest emotional moments in gaming for me.
I didn't outright cry, but the ending to Silent Hill 3 gets me every time. Heather walking away after finishing off the final boss, only getting a couple steps before she collapses and starts crying while thinking of Harry. Hits my feels every time.
Final Fantasy 5 had a pretty lighthearted story, but I think some of you know where I'm going with this. Galuf's last moments were both incredibly badass and super duper sad. Aerith is the more famous example, but I'm on team Galuf. Best gramps ever.
By nature of how you recruit party members, Valkyrie Profile choked me up a few times. While she is a minor character, Celia's story is a fucking rough one. All of her friends die one by one in their search for Grey and when she finally finds him, she can't bring herself to harm him, as he was the last of her friends. He asks for her forgiveness and then his armor collapses as his spirit leaves it. Celia understandably breaks down over this and you never see her again. It's weird, it's not like I want her to die, but if she did she'd be reunited with all of her friends. It's just unfair and tragic that she was left alone.
I didn't know what to expect from Shadow Hearts and while it had a few sad moments, I was not prepared for the canon ending. Yuri and Alice on the train together, just relaxing together as the credits roll. The credits end and Yuri goes to wake Alice, but she's dead. He starts crying and her head slumps. Like, goddamn man. It wasn't melodramatic or anything, just simple and really well done.
I also didn't know what to expect with Night in the Woods, I just knew it had cute animal people and a neat style. What I got was a heart wrenching tale about mental illness, growing into being an adult and the reality of things changing or going away entirely. Sadly, I related far too well.
Okay, so it was in the comics and not the game proper, but Left 4 Dead deserves a mention. Zoe's realization that she was
Wrong Genre Savvy and killed her uninfected father for nothing was a real punch in the gut, not even mentioning what happens to Bill, who she'd grown quite close to, not long after.
Ori and the Blind Forest. Naru's death at the beginning was bad enough and Ori gaining new abilities by absorbing Light from the deceased Spirits, who you get a blurb about, is really sad too. The bittersweet ending choked me up, one of the few times someone coming back from the dead felt appropriate and knowing what happened with Kuro was really sad too. What a fucking awesome game.
Nier is pretty well known so I don't have much to say. Beepy and Kalil was the worst though.
Goddamn, they were the most innocent of everyone and their demise was over a gigantic misunderstanding. There were plenty of other tearjerker scenes throughout the game and it all culminated to the final ending. Jeeze, what a downer of a game and shit didn't even get better afterwards either!
Deadly Premonition is a pretty silly game, but I felt the ending with York and Emily was genuinely really heartwrenching. And then you see Thomas in a matching dress with all the murdered women. Japanese as all hell.
Oh, hey Valve! Half-Life 2: Episode 2 is a really good time. Wait, Eli! Nooooooo! I'm not sure how I feel about Half-Life: Alyx changing things. It could turn out interesting, but I get the feeling it won't happen soon, if ever. x)
Oh wow, that's a lot of examples. I guess I'm a bit of a wuss.
To end on a more silly note, when I played Sonic 2 as a kid I cried every time that Tails' Tornado was shot down before the Wing Fortress Zone, thinking Tails died. Obviously he didn't, but it took me a long time to get past that level!
