Zwiebelchen
Hosted Project GR
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2009
- Messages
- 7,234
The title says it all...
And I'm not talking about tears of frustration or disappointment.
I'm talking about good old manly tears about a story or atmosphere so good™, even Stalin would cry in his coffin.
Name your three favorites and the situation. But please mark them with spoilers.
Third Place
The Walking Dead (Telltale), Season 1.
Second Place
Final Fantasy VI
First Place
Terranigma
And this is when the credits start. And the music kicks in. This music.
If you have never played Terranigma, this is what you should do right now. Forget whatever you have planned for today. Get an emulator, get the ROM and play it. It's an experience for your lifetime and it will make you think different about what it means to be alive and how all cultures, ethnics and countries do not matter as we are all but pity humans in the end.
And if you have played the game, do yourself a favour and just watch this remaster of the ending score track. And if you don't get the goosebumps by the time the full orchestra kicks in in the middle of the track, you are a greater man than I am.
It's unfortunate that games nowadays don't have such powerful scores anymore. Music is the door to your soul, after all.
And I'm not talking about tears of frustration or disappointment.
I'm talking about good old manly tears about a story or atmosphere so good™, even Stalin would cry in his coffin.
Name your three favorites and the situation. But please mark them with spoilers.
Third Place
The Walking Dead (Telltale), Season 1.
The first and only game that made an escort mission about a kid worth your time. Needless to say, TWD had a sad ending. An ending everyone expected, but still nobody wanted to believe. After surviving for so long and getting reunited with Clementine, there was no way how the death of the main character wouldn't hit you. And it hits you hard. And the choice you have to make at the ending makes it even worse. Will you let Clementine shoot you and find closure? Or will you let her walk away, not taking away her last hope? A masterfully crafted ending that couldn't have been more perfect.
Second Place
Final Fantasy VI
Celes wakes up on solitary island after the world has ended. With her only an old man named Cid, who is terminally ill. No other scene I have ever seen has rivaled this in the feeling of hopelessness. You expect everyone but you to be dead. You expect this to be the final moment. All your efforts in helping the dying old man (catching fish) are ultimately in vain and will only extend his life for just a little bit longer to ease you about your own loneliness. It wasn't until almost 10 years later that I found out that you can actually save Cid. This is just how masterfully this scene was crafted. You don't even think about the possibility that you can succeed after having all your hopes crushed. Support that with the eerie, sad music playing in the background and you'll cry buckets of only the manliest of tears.
First Place
Terranigma
That's it. That's the show. One of the most depressing endings of game history. And for all the right reasons. After all you did, destroying the world, rebuilding it, guiding the nature and humans into a brighter future, fighting the evil overlord that wants to defile all your progress, you will eventually have to return to where you belong - the underworld. And you know that there's no coming back from this, because if you did, it would mean that you have failed. At this point, add into the mix the daunting certainity that all history will ultimately repeat itself... after all, Fluffy doesn't assume things when he says that the cycle of destruction and rebirth will continue endlessly. He knows from experience. You are sacrificing yourself, leaving all your friends and love behind, and all that for just one more iteration of the same procedure that you can not escape.
And then, when you finally found peace, you will die silently in your bed, dreaming your final dream.
And then, when you finally found peace, you will die silently in your bed, dreaming your final dream.
If you have never played Terranigma, this is what you should do right now. Forget whatever you have planned for today. Get an emulator, get the ROM and play it. It's an experience for your lifetime and it will make you think different about what it means to be alive and how all cultures, ethnics and countries do not matter as we are all but pity humans in the end.
And if you have played the game, do yourself a favour and just watch this remaster of the ending score track. And if you don't get the goosebumps by the time the full orchestra kicks in in the middle of the track, you are a greater man than I am.
It's unfortunate that games nowadays don't have such powerful scores anymore. Music is the door to your soul, after all.