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The Witcher 3. Sometimes there were no good choices to make and one had to choose the better of two bad outcomes. Sometimes the obvious good choice led to bad things happening to a village. That game was a rollercoaster of emotions.
I also second This War of Mine.
I fell into a week long depression after finishing the game for the first time. For me the Witcher 3 is the best story you'll find in a game, period.
A game that's not mentioned here yet: Outer Wilds.
You know how your high school English teacher tries to get through your brain about what "sublime" means and why the Romantic Era writers cared about it so much? The meaning of the word never really clicked for me until I played this game. It is pure, distilled sublime. It presents nature as this simultaneously jaw-droppingly beautiful and existentially scary entity that I've never seen any other game come close to replicating. For anyone who hasn't played it yet, I heavily recommend it.
Note: don't confuse Outer Wilds with Outer Worlds. They sound similar, but they could not be farther apart
Yeah what an unbelievable game. The music really hit the feels button for some reason. I still need to play the DLC!
I highly recommend the DLC! The best thing I can say about it is that it's more Outer Wilds, with the same level of world-building, puzzle-solving, and emotional impact.
To the Moon. Omg. All of the feels. Def recommend, but keep some tissues with you!
To the moon is cheating. That game's ending belongs in an oscar winning movie.
The original Life is Strange was it for me back when I first played it. I have to admit, I was feeling a bit down at the time, so the soundtrack, the atmosphere, and the emotions in the game really resonated with me. I'm actually a bit hesitant to play it again because I don't want to lose the special memories from my first time through the game.
The original Life is Strange is a masterpiece and I wish I could reexperience it anew. I played it twice to see how choices mattered and it's not quite the same the second time around.
The other Life is Strange games are also really great, but sadly they can't quite match the original.
Journey.
I don't think it works quite as well nowadays with much fewer people playing it but it was an incredible experience when it first came out. I still play it whenever I need to calm down or just having a bad day. It's truly a special game to me.
I don't think I've ever emotionally connected with a game more than Disco Elysium. It had a profound effect on me, that game can truly do sadness
A Short Hike
A lot of it is because of where I was in life when I played it, but playing this game felt like an oasis in a very turbulent time for me.
I had just graduated university in the middle of a pandemic, feeling lonely and scared of the transition to a new career. I ended up feeling surprisingly emotional the whole time I played it.
That game is really nice. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Ori and the Blind Forest hit me hard practically before the game had even begun, even more so than Firewatch though it and This War of Mine are definitely up there. Mass Effect (1–3) had a lot of emotional moments for me.
The only game I just couldn’t finish for emotional reasons though is That Dragon Cancer. It hit me harder than This War of Mine, probably because it was a lot closer to home.
I still think I'll never play a game that will make me feel like One Shot did. Especially the post game. It really pulls you into the story personally.
Overall I think the life is strange series is okay but in 2 there's a scene where you have the option to come out to your dad and it just felt so authentic. Like I remember having to pause the game and walk around a little.
Final Fantasy X
God Eater 2
VA-11 Hall-A
Trials of Mana
There are just so many.
I'm probably missing more but that's just a few that I have a strong connection with and make my heart soar.
The Last of Us first play through, hands down.
Breath of the Wild first ten hours after release, close second place.
I’m told Outer Wilds will be number one when I get to it.
Ok so I'm a huge Final Fantasy fanboi, but for some reason when I first finished Nier;Automata with all the main endings, I just couldn't help but tear up. For the first time in a long while I felt and thought, yep, that was a masterpiece.
If I can play a game for the first time again, I'd choose Nier;Automata.
Soma. If you know, you know.
This one’s pretty up there for me. Short and sweet. Top 5 on a philosophical sense.
Final fantasy 14 The main story quests were amazing. Especially loved the shadowbringers storyline.
just in case, if you liked papers please you may love "the return of the obra dinn". really good game from the same guy.
Spiritfarer gave me a small existential crisis at the end. Edith Finch was heartbreaking but hopeful. House of Fata Morgana was achingly beautiful storytelling.
I played Spiritfarer a while back after seeing all the positive reviews, but only made it an hour or two in before I fell off and stopped playing. I think I just got bored by the pace? Is it worth restarting and pushing through the early parts of the game, or is it pretty much the same throughout?
To The Moon
SOMA gets me pretty good. To the Moon, too.
While maybe not exactly what you mean, Tunic.
It made me feel all kinds of things. Mostly it was the mind blowing "aha" moments when I learned something fundamental about the game that had been there all along, I just hadn't pieced it together, yet.
It's such a unique game that I seriously doubt could ever be done again.
I've never been more moved that I was during the final cutscene of the Mass Effect trilogy. The first time through, anyway. When the nameplate(s) went up on the wall of fallen crewmates, my soul overwhelmed my fucking body, emitted a bunch of involuntary sad noises, and then cried until credits rolled.
I was absolutely blown away by the bittersweet culmination of everything, and the musical score helped to rip the emotions right out of me.
As far aa good feels go, I get a lot of positive things out of Stardew Valley. It provides me with a steady drip of seratonin, and the music and visuals bring me back to the changing of many seasons throughout my childhood, growing up on what used to be an apple orchard.
Lots of good answers in this thread but I haven't seen anyone mention this one yet:
Spec Ops: The Line
Got me right in the feels. That scene, obviously, but I can remember plenty more moments too even though I only played it once when it was new and never since. No spoilers here but if you can put up with the (I think deliberately) generic third-person shooter mechanics it's worth your time. Also note the strangely muted tone in the Zero Punctuation review because I think it got him in the feels too. It's a fine game but it was a great experience.
Kinda surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet but Undertale definitely did that for me
“That Dragon, Cancer” made me stop halfway through, not because I was stuck on a puzzle, but because I was crying so hard I couldn’t see the screen.
“Papa y Yo” made me understand how it feels to be the child of an alcoholic parent, on a really visceral level.
“Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture” is emotional in the fullest sense of the word—it made me feel a full range of emotions over the course of its characters.
Oh, and you’re right about ”Gone Home”. People say it’s not really a horror game but I was absolutely terrified going up to the attic at the end, because I thought I knew what I would find there. Thankfully I was wrong.
Shadow of the Colossus
Some excellent games mentioned so far, so I'm gonna go with "Night in the Woods". It's this crystal-clear reflection on what it's like to grow up now, what it's like to live in America--good and bad. It's gut-wrenching and funny and beautiful.
I’m surprised I haven’t seen anyone mention Ghost of Tsushima. What an incredible emotional journey. I saw the ending coming from a mile a way but that didn’t matter in the least. The voice acting is unbelievably good. The way the game design, writing, and acting all fit perfectly together is not something I’ve seen matched in any other game. It’s a wonderful piece of art. My partner was watching me play when I started the game for the first time because the beginning grabbed her attention and she ended up watching me play basically the whole game. We both had wet eyeballs at the end. But it didn’t just give me sad feels, I’ve never played a game quite so just overall beautiful? Visually, again, the game design itself is beautiful, serene. And that’s just the main story, there are such good small stories told in tiny side quests that I still haven’t forgotten from my first play through. On top of all of that you get feel like a badass slicing up fools. I can’t say enough good stuff about that game.
Shadow of the colossus has to be up there as one of the most memorable video game experiences I’ve had. Jaw dropping and thought provoking at the same time. I’m not sure what kind of wizardry and blood magic was involved in making this game run on playstation 2.
Eliza. If you are a software engineer working on product there's no game that will come as close as being relatable than this. It's just perfect. Is very short and there's barely any interactivity. The "scifi" layer than runs the main plot is good, as it's extremely believable and well done, but its nothing groundbreaking that has been talked about in other places. But the characters, good lord, the way they speak and experiences they tell... I swear that I have met carbon copies of some of them. Probably the best description of burnout and long days I have ever seen. If you don't work with software this is just a short, flawed VN. But if you do, I highly recommend it.
Disco Elysium. IMHO the best writing in any game, and by a fucking mile (planescape was good as well but found DE much better). The phone call was ridiculously relatable and there were several other emotional moments that hit hard as well. The silliness was too much at first but it grew on me as it made the rest of the game much more palatable without becoming dark satire.
Mass Effect. Okay it isnt as well written as the other two above but still manages to pull emotional strings with the characters. Specially Thane and Mordin.
Just Shapes and Beats, of all things. It tells a very basic story in such a charming way and the characters are simple but easy to get attached to. Friend of mine had the same experience when I gifted him the game.
Titanfall 2... I legit cried at the ending. No other fps has ever made me cry lol.
Mother 3. Not just the sunflowers, but Porky’s end. “I don’t know…”
The Xenoblade Chronicles trilogy have had immense moments of emotional ups and downs. Few games just make me sit there to contemplate what just occurred to its story, conflicts, or characters; XBC games have many moments sprinkled through its entire playtime that do that.