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[Eigen]

The end of Little Big Adventure 2 when you defeat Funfrock and the ending video starts playing with Baldino and the kids in the spaceship rising from the lava pit ... that is just so moving. You go trough this rather difficult game and you succeed in saving the children of Twinsun and they smile and wave at you and this epic music plays. Honestly, the best feeling I've gotten from a game. Ever. You can see the video here but it's not as rewarding when you haven't gone trough the effort to get there. But still, very touching I'd say. I'm misty eyed already ...

[BattleBeard]

Mother 3.

 The only game that made me ever have tears in my eyes.

Emotional reactions are not common from me. I think because of that, I could really jerk at emotions one day.

EDIT: Yoshi's Story ending song, pure bliss and joy

[iffi]

Chrono Trigger is full of little moments. I hate turn based combat in games (as opposed to turn based combat IRL -_-) but CT did everything right for me. I was a bit late to the party and hadn't played it up until a couple of years ago, but at 19 it still had an emotional impact on me. I think that's a pretty powerful thing for a 20 year old game to be able to do, with what we would now call technical limitations. The first thing that comes to mind is Robo being identified as defective and getting his metal ass kicked. I think regardless of how old you are, that was just plain sad.

I've actually been playing Chrono Trigger for the first time over the past few days, and just got to that part you put in spoilertext last night. It really is painful to watch.

[cystem glitch]

Chrono Trigger is my favorite game of all time. iffi, you have so much good stuff ahead of you, I'm jealous that you get to play it freshly

[Jackson31]

Chrono Trigger is my favorite game of all time. iffi, you have so much good stuff ahead of you, I'm jealous that you get to play it freshly

Ok, that's enough, I'm going to play it too

[JMStark]

While I am not the largest fan of the Nintendo 64 era Zelda games, I do appreciate Majora's Mask for its sensation of absolute hopelessness. This feeling is evoked when each good deed performed is erased after traveling back in time. There are too many problems in the world and Link just does not have the time to solve all of them. This is in contrast to the majority of games where time, at least in regards to plot, is of little consequence.

[retrohelix]

While I am not the largest fan of the Nintendo 64 era Zelda games, I do appreciate Majora's Mask for its sensation of absolute hopelessness. This feeling is evoked when each good deed performed is erased after traveling back in time. There are too many problems in the world and Link just does not have the time to solve all of them. This is in contrast to the majority of games where time, at least in regards to plot, is of little consequence.

I've been playing Majora's Mask recently (it's one of my all-time favourites) and I must concur. Solving lots of small problems, albeit for a grander purpose but knowing full well it's going to be undone - that always left me feeling pretty hopeless as a kid. That and... some parts are just downright eerie, even now.

[VortexCortex]

Vortex...were all these retro games really the most emotional experiences you've had in videogames?

Those games were groundbreaking when they were new.  We had to use our imagination a lot more back then...  Also consider that I was much younger and more impressionable back then.  Soon afterwards my parents got divorced, and I became almost as jaded and cynical as you.  So, for me, yep all the games that came afterwards invoked far less emotion comparatively.  It's fucking pixels on a screen man, how emotional can you be?

[Joof]

Journey when I was climbing the mountain near the end and my partner and I are slowly beginning to pass out. Having another person to experience the journey really made it for me.

[WhiskeyCabinet]

My first, biggest emotion I can remember was from beating Captain Comic. I was probably six years old, and to me that was a great achievement.

Shadow of the Colossus got me good. First the long searches in the empty world, then a hard battle with a giant thing, which always ended in a sad silence.

Then there's Silent Hill 2. All the survival horror games are weird to me, as I know that I have (usually) lot of guns and ammo and can take care of anything the game throws at me, but still don't want to look behind the corner. SH2 did that and on top of that pushed the player character deeper and deeper, which started to freak me out for real. I love that game.

[theRayDog]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned the final scene of Half-Life: Episode 2.

In once scene they manage to make you feel helpless, vengeful, and incredibly sad.

Kind of how I feel about Episode 3.

[BorisTheBrave]

I've always been fascinated by the "big moments" in games. Any well written game can give a decent emotional blast at the ending - that is all the investment paid in. But more interesting are the ones orchestrated from the stories or characters.

Here are some games that I will always remember by a single emotional tone *not* merely of joy/accomplishment. You probably know the feeling I mean for each game.

Aquaria:         The Veil                             
FFVII:           Aeris dies                           
FFVI:            Failing to save the world           
Portal:          Realizing you can escape Glados.     
System Shock II: Realizing you've been duped by Shodan
Super Meat Boy:  That "oh shit" feeling every time you see a tough new level, particularly the Kid levels.

[Muz]

I'd say the Silent Hill games. I don't find a lot of horror movies scary at all, but Silent Hill makes me scared to go through it.

If you sit down in a bright room, play pop music, have friends over, it's really not that bad, the worst thing that can happen is you take damage. But when you're really into it, it's one really scary game for some reason.


Also the original Mafia; the game got you really attached to those guys, especially when they're fighting and doing stuff with you. And having it turned around later sucks.

[Graham.]

Mareg's self-sacrifice near the end of Grandia II. I watched my much younger step-sister play through that part the other day. That game does an excellent job of representing space. I feel like my characters are always somewhere, and that somewhere relates to the rest of the world. The devs managed to do a lot with a little.

I like it more for its ingenuity than its power.

[Waave]

Nobody has said this yet but I'm sure everyone here has played Cave Story, so I guess this isn't too much of a spoiler: the part where Curly dies if you don't get the tow rope is pretty depressing. I remember going through the entire water works just sad.