Two games really stand out for me as being emotionally draining in the best way possible.
The Walking Dead is a taxing affair. I am a huge fan of the books and after my disappointment with the TV show, I was ready to discount Telltale's effort before I hit the enter key.
The entire season, from start to finish, took me on a roller coaster ride that I will never forget. When I finally reached those final moments in the season finale, I cried. My girlfriend who was watching me play and who hates video games, she cried. I've never cried from a video game before.
It has already been mentioned here before, but Kan Gao really hit the nail on the head with To The Moon. That game was funny, depressing and ultimately heart warming in ways that I never expected.
@smashed_pumpkins: you should watch assassins creed embers as its basically the epilogue to ezio's story. they give ezio one of the more meaningful send-off's and i think if you're real invested in the character, cant help but be a little teary-eyed at this movie.
I know I'll catch shit for this one but I found myself surprisingly invested in the Dom n' Maria situation and was quite moved by the climax of that sub-plot.
fuck those people that will give you shit for that, where that plotline ultimately goes for both those characters in gears 2 - 3 is tear-jerking . especially for where that plotline ultimately goes for dom.
I know I'll catch shit for this one but I found myself surprisingly invested in the Dom n' Maria situation and was quite moved by the climax of that sub-plot.
Y'know, I'm kinda there with you. For me it wasn't so much Dom & Maria I found affecting more than Marcus & Dom. I cared about Dom through his and Marcus's friendship. For that reason I also found the (unstated but obvious event) in Gears 3 pretty affecting too.
It's not the most I've been affected by a game by a good margin but I still got a sad face :( And EMOTIONS.
The Walking Dead. Final Fantasy X (which was ruined a bit by FFX-2).
Also, the way the Phoenix Wright trilogy ties up in Trials and Tribulations wasn't necessarily sad or moving in that sense, but it was touching and really fulfilling.
The most impacting? Flower. I played it at a hard time in my life and its kind of story of nothing kind of impacted me. You mainly just feel a sinking feeling with little notes of an elevated mood (I won't even good so far as say "little notes of happiness", it is more just a slight elevation from despair).
Halo: Reach and Braid are the two that come to mind, Braid's ending was crazy, and Halo: Reach's over all tone and story was super sombre and sad, I think it put Halo 4's story telling to shame to be honest.
Metal Gear Solid. The sniper wolf death scene always makes me weepy as well as the later conversations between snake and Naomi. Yes, there is a level of heavy handedness to the Metal Gear games all being obsessed with particular issues like MGS 1's focus on GENES and Nuclear War but there is a human element to those games that are very real and still manage to pull emotions out of me. I can confidently say this as I just finished MGS again for the first time in years Monday.
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