“Let’s see how far they fly… On borrowed wings…”
From Armored Core 6.
One of my favorites is from Hollow Knight; at the start of the game, Quirrel makes a comment about your weapon not being very good, saying you should pick one off a corpse as “the dead shouldn’t be burdened by such things.” Later in the game after you kill the teacher and talk to Quirrel for the last time, when you come back, all that’s left is his weapon.
The part at the end of earthbound. I was playing it without a guide back when, losing to the final boss, and in a panic I selected the girl’s “pray” move. Throughout the game that move has a small chance to heal you or debuff the enemies. But in the final fight instead it pops up
"{Girl} prayed from the bottom of her heart! “Please give us strength… If it is possible… Please. …Somebody help us.”
And then it cuts to the first character’s mother in her kitchen, and has some dialogue of her worrying about him. Each subsequent prayer cuts to other characters that you met throughout the game.
Mind completely blown as a child when this happened.
I don’t know the name of this trope but it gets me teared up every time.
I’ve always appreciated that every Mother game turns the last boss into an unwinnable fight like that, and into a story. I’ll cry at the end of Mother 3 every time, too.
I think the game also calls out the player as the final action during that scene as well.
Yeah. Hours earlier, in the middle of unrelated stuff, the game asks you something like “Hey, you holding the controller, what’s your name?” Easy to forget and then be completely mindblown when the game is like “Will {your name} pray for the party??”
It’s almost too obvious now that everyone is into it, but the “Baby girl” callback in Last of Us sure got me at the time.
F to pay respects
F
Wolfenstein 2 - The new Collossus:
“Caroline. I’m hurting. Will you lend me your wings?”
“A Hideo Kojima Game”
“What gets bigger the more you take away from it?”
Loss?
A hole.
I got it when it was first asked, but when Mimir finally gets it, it really hits you in the gut considering the context.
God of War: Ragnarok, by the way.
"Everyone I have cared for has either died or left me. Everyone - fucking except for you!”
My first thought was simply “Okay.”
Man I felt my heart drop and had to sit through all of the credits.
For sure. I don’t want to imagine the number of takes it took to get that “Okay” just right.
Ashley Johnson nailed it too. I respect Bella Ramsey and think she did a great job but some of those lines just didn’t carry the same weight.
Last of us 2?
First part, when Joel tries to hand off Ellie to his brother Tommy. But the second has some heavy lines as well (loved them both).
My guess is Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077.
Not a line, but when you finally need to swim in Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons, and you overcome your fear by using the big brother’s controls. That game was emotionally taxing.
“Pling.” “Pling. Pling!”
- Journey
“Press F to pay respects”
Fuck took me ages to beat that part
“I have a home!” - Tali’Zorah vas Normandy, Mass Effect 3
“War is where the young and stupid are tricked by the old and bitter into killing each other”
- Niko Bellic
Probably not the absolute most touching, but, yeah, I think it’s a pretty touching scene in context.
Spoilers for Brok the Investigator:
During chapter 2 there’s a scene where Brok and Graff go up to a spot where Brok and Graffs mom used to go on dates, outside the dome. They have a father son bonding moment and at one point Graff asks:
Is it… wrong if I can’t remember her? Not just her but… My father too.
It’s an emotional moment where he wonders if not being able to remember his birth parents makes him a bad person and to me is a pretty emotional moment, with the music playing a just as equal role as making it emotional as the voice acting does.
