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[Landshark RAWR]

I just beat Undertale and I have never before with a game had an emotional joyride from start to finish. This game is proof that bullet patterns are an effective form on emotional conveyance from sleeping puppies and dancing bunnies to a rapid ddr section that slows down significantly during your opponents final breaths.

[bitserum]

Terranigma. In pretty much all games you go through a LOT of stuff. Relationship drama, battles, dilemmas etc. But for me, Terranigma really hammered the weight of all that you accomplished down.


At the end, you return back to Crysta and face Gaia. There's a weird mix of futility and progress that I felt there, but what really tore me up was the day you were given at the end. That's just brutal. A lot of games acknowledge the end of the game with the credits, some do more, but rarely do we see bittersweet endings. Terranigmas ending was way more bitter than sweet. It stared you straight in the face and said, "This is it. When Ark goes to sleep, this story is 'over'."

To not only have a proper, mostly bitter, ending, as well as acknowledging the end of the game in ingame terms, is to me a stroke of genius.

Both Terranigma and Illusion of Gaia were very moving to me throughout. Especially: in Illusion of Gaia when that pig sacrifices itself to feed the starving tribe, or in Terranigma when that goat practically forces you to eat it once it's dead so you can survive

Link's Awakening moved me more than most other games. And more recently The Talos principle and more-so its expansion, The Road to Gehenna have been really emotional experiences at times. (Gehenna's ending, though short was really amazing).

[muppetWolf]

This War of Mine was emotionally exhausting to me. Seeing all these people you're trying to keep alive slowly succumb to starvation/sickness/depression/ etc.? That was super draining. I could only play the game for so long at a time.

[tylerfunk]

The Last of Us (not sure if it was mentioned prior). I'd say the best way to have a moving game is to have the story - or even the gameplay to some degrees - to create attachment to what is going on in the game. If you have that, and it is done well, the player will be moved. TLoU was amazing at that with the motion capture/graphics, level design feeling like a living place, the written story and how well the VAs did with it, etc. Definitely one of the single greatest games in my mind since it is just so perfectly well rounded.

EDIT

Oh, and winter. Winter was amazing in that game. Still gives me chills thinking about it. Some of the best stealth gameplay (in an action game) I've had.

[Fegon]

Secret of Mana, when you first reach the mana tree and see it, from up on that cliff. First time a video game made me cry. More recently the last of us had me hooked emotionly throughout the entire game, not sure what it is about it that just worked.