Looking for emotional game recommendations

セリャスト@lemmy.blahaj.zone to Games@lemmy.world – 112 points –

My favorite games are Omori, Disco Elysium and Outer Wilds. I cried for hours at the end of those games, and I think the common point in them is high-quality emotional writing and stellar OST (music really affect me) and my attachment to the characters.
I also found that my taste in movies was similar (Hana-bi by Takeshi Kitano is my favorite movie)
I've been trying to find something similar, so has anybody any recommendation?
I'd like to add that I basically hated Nier Automata (way too pretentious imo) and Before your Eyes (I wasn't a fan of the game concept, and found the story pretty weak), and really loved the horror aspects of Omori.
I also heard about To the moon, but games talking about disease are hard for me to enjoy

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The first walking dead game from telltale was good, but if you've played anything they've done its largely the same.

Papers please can get emotional, but it's mostly intense pressure.

I was so scared for and protective of Clementine.

So good.

But not even a mention of everyone's favorite character, Kenny?

Kenny will remember that.

I haven't played it myself, but I've seen playthroughs of The Last of Us. Even though there's a sequel, I've heard the first one is better. Anyway, if engaging story is what you're after, I'd check that out.

I've also never played this one, but I've heard SpecOps: The Line is also a gutpunch.

It's a bit of a commitment, but I always found the Halo series to be kinda emotional to me, but then I also grew up with it and got invested in the characters. Your mileage may vary with Halo.

Final recommendation would be Ori and the Blind Forest if you're into platformers.

Already played through Spec ops the line and loved it, but not as muxh as those other games.

I never played TLOU, might try it out
And yeah Halo wasn't for me at all
Ori has been also recommended a lot to me but isn't it hard to get attached to characters with the presentation the game is going for?

Yeah, Ori is emotional but there isn't much to attach you to the characters if that's what you're looking for.

Might I recommend Witcher 3? I didn't play the other ones, but I found myself getting attached to the characters by the end all the same.

Edit: just saw you didn't care for Witcher 3 much.

The Last of Us can be very intense, and the ending of both 1 and 2 are heart wrenching. I definitely recommend them both. Also take reviews of 2 with a grain of salt. A lot of red pill misogynists hated it.

The Last of Us 1 has been the only game to ever make me emotional. It's still the gold standard for what a video game is capable of in terms of narrative. The sequel was jarring, but not heart wrenching in the same way the first was.

I'm not super familiar with the examples you gave but I'm gonna say anything from Supergiant Games: Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, Hades. Fantastic music always, I would say the storytelling is done best in Transistor and Hades.

I thought Ori and the blind Forest was rife with emotion

Ori and the Blind Forest made me shed a few tears. It was a beautiful game that was full of emotion while telling an amazing story.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps made me bawl like a baby for days.

Bastion has a good story and great OST. There's a pretty heavy moment toward the end of the game.

🎵I'm coming home, sweet home🎵

I just finished OneShot this week and I think it could be what you're looking for. It certainly would if you play the whole game.

You can get very personally attached to the characters in a way that I've not had in a game before. It was very hard to finish the game amongst all the tears.

Oneshot looks like it's what I'm looking for. I'll try to play it soon! Thank you

You're welcome, I hope you have a good time!

Just finished the game (and yes it includes solstice) and I loved it! I don't know if it will be as memorable for me as the other games I mentioned but it was definitely very enjoyable. Thank you! Small note tho, getting some puzzles to work on linux were kind of a pain

Oh wow you got through quicker than I. I'm glad. At least now you've met Niko!

I'm not surprised there were Linux issues tbh. With some of the mechanics involved I'm surprised you managed to complete it at all. Truly this might be one of those real unsupported steam deck games if you really want the solstice ending

Niko may be the cutest protagonist Ive ever played. Everything worked really well until the solstice where I had some trouble, stuff like: ::: spoiler spoiler transparency, and getting _____ to actually run :::

Mass effect and dragon age series from bioware are excellent, they're a little involved but the story telling is incredible in both. While it has aged and may be depending on a love for star wars, their knights of the old republic series was also excellent.

They're really damn good at making a story that's worth being part of, often one of my first recommendations aside from the last of us, outer wilds, and a couple of others I've seen here already.

Since you’re ok with horror, I highly recommend both Detention and Devotion by Red Candle Games. Both of them start out as horror, then gut punch you as you realize what’s going on. Devotion is an amazing example of domestic horror (the horror that can happen inside the home), and Detention is the horror that people do when they don’t realize the consequences of their actions. Devotion has stuck with me, and to this day the last line makes me want to cry.

Thank you for reminding me of this. I loved Detention, they did a great job of transitioning to an intriguing story once the horror elements got less scary (as they naturally do as you get used to a horror game.)

If you haven’t played Devotion, I really can’t recommend it enough. It’s a completely different style from Detention, but they did that same really good job of transitioning to the story.

Woha never heard of that, I'll look into

Edit: Managed to find detention, it looks very very cool and might exactly fit what I'm looking for, but why is there only the soundtrack for devotion on steam?

You can only get Devotion on Red Candle’s website, thanks to Chinese censorship bullshit. It got pulled off Steam, then when GOG said they would sell it, they freaked out because they were worried about CP2077 sales and claimed “gamers” complaining made them change their mind (but wouldn’t respond to anyone asking for specifics).

Why would it be affected by Chinese censorship? Is it critical of the ccp? Or just because it's a taiwanese game?

There was a random art asset that compared Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh that didn’t get taken out in time.

Their partner in China got their business license pulled, and they took the game off Steam when it started getting review bombed. It was a big mess over the stupidest thing.

Damn, that's unfortunate

Luckily, they were eventually able to get it up in their own site for sale, but the damage is done. They lost so much in sales and momentum. The game truly is amazing, and this game had just started to really get buzz around it when all this happened. Barely anyone even knows it now, even though it’s one of the best psychological horror and family tragedy games out there.

I look at everything happening with the Silent Hill 2 remake and wish Red Candle hadn’t gotten kneecapped by bullshit so they could be the ones doing it.

Maybe What Remains of Edith Finch? Also, maybe it was just a weird time in my life, but I think I bawled hardest at the end of FFVII: Crisis Core back in the PSP days. Braid is an emotionally weird one as well.

I loved Crisis Core. But Final Fantasy X got me a lot more emotional.

Funnily enough, I own FFX on like three different platforms but still haven’t played it through to the end.

I played ff7 crisis core when I was 10 or so... It was wonderful I never heard of Braid

Braid is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer with a mind-bending and somewhat heartbreaking twist at the end. I played it ages ago, but will never forget it. I don’t think it was very long.

Edith Finch is pretty squarely a "walking simulator," but by far the best one I've played (Firewatch is up there, but didn't stick with me the same way). It makes the most of its relatively simple gameplay by adding in a bunch of unique gimmicks and visuals for each section.

Death Stranding had me all over the place. Also the first season of Telltales The Walking Dead.

Basically anything with kids can set me off and I find somewhat difficult nowadays as I have children of my own.

As an MGS fan I'm trying to get into death stranding but struggle to do so...

It took me a couple tries with DS too. The first few chapters don't do it justice but once you get past that it's just amazing.

It's worth it. Mads Mikkelsen and Léa Seydoux should have won awards for best supporting actor(s). Emily O'Brien had some tearjerker parts too. It's far more than the sum of its parts.

Final Fantasy X still holds my personal ugly-cry record. To this day, I can't hear some of the music from it without tearing up. It's one of those games that has emotional react videos on YouTube.

Shadow of the Colossus manages to be emotional with very little explicit story. A lot of it has to do with its use of dynamic music in an orchestral soundtrack.

Persona 3 just had a remake, and that's part of a series that can really gets its hooks into you. A big part of it is the parasocial gameplay, but even if you're not the type to get into that, the story is still very moving. Persona series composer Shoji Meguro recently said the ending theme in this game was his magnum opus.

Huge RPGs kinda scare me... But Ive heard a lot about Persona 3 that might get me to play it

Persona 3 is one of the "shorter" ones in the contemporary Persona series at a mere 60 hours. Persona 5 Royal is a beast, though. Hard to get through that one in under 100 hours without rushing.

I really wanted to suggest Nier Replicant, but, seeing as you didn't like Automata, I guess there's no point. I enjoyed both, though, since I kind of was in a specific headspace the time I played them. I also took both at face value initially, which has helped

Other than that, may I suggest Beacon Pines? It's all about the story, so I think you'll love it. The way you discover different branching paths the story takes is also quite novel.

I also loved FAR: Lone Sails. It's more of a "show, don't tell" kinda story

There's also this itchio game I found once -- Under a star called Sun. It's super short, though

My recommendation would be RiME and Spiritfarer, both managed to make me cry.
Spiritfarer talk quite a bit about death, sometime through diseases (cancer, demencia, etc.), but in a different way than To The Moon, and you may find it ok.
RiME topic is a bit different, but cannot be spoiled unless you want to diminish the impact. In my case I went blind and damn it hit me like a truck 😅.
On the stellar OST side you could try Gris. Pretty emotional too, but in a way more abstract way than the first two.
On the topic of war and its horrors you got Torn Away, as well as This War Of Mine, both very emotional journey.

Spiritfarer has been on my backlog for a while, I might actually try it someday

I'll also add Celeste to the list, amazing OST, lovable characters, but damn, it is hard ! But that's because I play it at the default settings, you can change them all, even getting immortal if you just want to enjoy the story itself.

It's a long game, but Xenoblade Chronicles 3 messed me up in all the right ways. Especially if music moves you, I recommend it. Mostly standalone too, if you didn't play the other 2 main games.

This game has very powerful moments.

Unfortunately I think I kinda got spoiled a few months ago... But I'll consider it

Not sure what part exactly was spoiled to you, but I'd be surprised if it can ruin the emotional impact.

There is one twist I will not reveal that I can see might take a bit out of it, but I am not sure how you'd encounter such a specific story beat in isolation. Not convinced even that would completely spoil it too.

Xenoblade Chronicles 1-3 & X

Bought a switch just for this series. Well worth.

I wish I can play Xenoblade 2 for the first time again.

I know a lot of people dislike 2 for how anime it is compared to the other two, but being the first one I played, I have such a soft spot for it. And it's fun, to boot.

I would wholeheartedly recommend the A Plague Tale duology (Innocence and Requiem). They both had a lasting impact on me (especially Requiem) and the overall presentation is really great IMO.

I found "Journey" to be very emotional at the end. Also, although it's real slow and not everyone's cup of tea, "Everybody's Gone To The Rapture"

To the Moon was great. It's made with RPG Maker and it shows, but it hits hard.

I started playing this game about a month after my dad died of cancer, I had to just nope out entirely. I could dig my teeth into Stellaris or build a flying guitar in Kerbal space program, but I couldn't handle To the Moon or Firewatch.

Oh hey, there's a recommendation, play Firewatch, it's got some big feelings too.

Brothers: A tale of two sons.

Only game that ever made me cry alone.

I immediately thought of Arise: A Simple Story.

There's no dialogue, but the imagery and soundtrack are very powerful.

I too love emotional games. Here are my personal favourites. Some of these have been recommended by others but idc:

What Remains of Edith Finch - as Edith Finch, you go back to the house you grew up in and explore your family's history. The Finch family have had much misfortune, and many did not grow old. As you explore the house room by room, you see that person's last moments. I cannot recommend this game enough. It's only 2 hours long and best enjoyed in a single sitting.

Life is Strange - you (Max) have recently returned to the town you grew up in for a prestigious art programme at the Blackwell Academy. One day, you discover you have suddenly gained the ability to rewind time. In this game, you explore your powers and reunite with your old childhood friend, Chloe. Don't worry too much about the superpower thing, it's without any Marvel BS.

Detroit: Become Human - in this game, you explore a world where robots are servants to humans from the POV of three robots. There are three stories that you follow that do meet each-other at some points. Not all stories are equally exciting, but two of the three are pretty great imo. It really makes you think about what it means to be human.

Kentucky Route Zero - this is an odd duck that you may enjoy as well. You start as Conway, an old man driving for an antiques shop doing his last delivery, as the shop will close down soon. As you try to find your way, a gas station attendant gives you cryptic directions to Highway Zero. As Conway and several other characters, you explore the surrealist world beneath Kentucky. It's a game filled with mystery, grief, loss, and being lost. This game is more like a strange dream rather than a videogame, and is therefore best played in the later hours of the day.

I hope there are some interesting picks here for you. Enjoy!

+1 for Life is Strange and Detroit Become Human. Both are on my favoeutie games list.

Also check out The Beginners Guide.

If it's emotional you want, you can't beat To the Moon and its sequel, Finding Paradise. They're walking sims, but they've got great stories that'll make you ugly cry

Came here to say the exact same thing: To the Moon is definitely a game for ugly crying. I even replayed it a couple of years ago, and even when I already KNEW what was going to happen, I still found myself crying for hours and being overemotional for a week. Great games with beautiful storytelling. I can feel myself tearing up just by thinking about it. Maybe it's time for another replay haha

Dont forget there is a 3rd in the series now called Imposter Factory which was good too!

To the moon had the best story and made me very emotional, the other two don't his quite so hard but still left an impact. I'd highly recommend the series if you like that kind of story.

Telltale's The Walking Dead games. Made me cry more than when my dog died.

A thousand times, this!

Playing the walking dead games made me finally realize what the zombie genre is really all about. Zombie apocalypses are really a metaphor for the experience of life, In the end death takes everyone, in a zombie apocalypse it's just accelerated. But death is a reality we all face, there's no escaping it, there's no running from it, there's no outsmarting it; eventually you slip up or maybe you're careful and responsible the whole way through, it actually doesn't matter, you'll still die in the end. What does matter are the choices you make along the way, the people's lives that you touch, the world you can either leave better than you found it, or worse.

Several games I'd have recommended have already been said, so I'll chuck in a nod for Thomas Was Alone, incredibly moving despite the only 'characters' being a range of shapes.

Absolutely! You are going to feel some very big feelings about these little squares and rectangles.

The Talos Principle, despite being a puzzle game, has a gorgeous story if you take your time to listen to the audiologs and read the files you find in the world.

Iconoclast is an action platformer with great story and characters. It takes a bit to become interesting imo, but it grew on me the more I played it and I remember it fondly.

Signalis is a survival horror game that combines a presentation similar to that of old school Resident Evil games with lovecraftian cosmic horror. The story is very cryptic and requires a bit of effort on the player's part, but I really enjoyed it both for its themes and the characters (more than the actual gameplay).

A Plague Tale Innocence/Requiem are two action adventure games with an enthralling story, well written characters and a gut punching ending. The disease aspect of the story is not prominent in the first game, and the ending is satisfying imo, so you could stop there if diseases are a no-go for you.

I really liked Life is Strange 2 and its themes really resonated with me, but it is very divisive among fans.

I also enjoyed Haven's sci-fi love story, and found it one of the best depictions of an actual relationship in gaming: where most games tend to end when two characters declare their love/share a kiss/whatever, Haven's beginning is well after they got together and the entire game is them being together, talking and joking and stuff. If you're a bit sentimental, you may like it.

These are just games from the current/last gen, but you can find other great stories if you are willing to play with an emulator or have old consoles lying around. Xenogears is a JRPG from the old PS1 days, and it's still the best one of its genre. Oddworld Abe's Oddysee is a puzzle platformer with very modern themes despite its age, and its mix of fairy tale-like storytelling and horror/splatter presentation is very unique and engaging. I still think of Rue's story in Threads of Fate as one of the most emotional stories I've played as a kid.

I could go on, but I already listed waaay too many titles lol

I've been looking to play Haven as it is from the studio that made another of my favorite games, Furi. Signalis might also be for me

The Witcher 3 has some really emotional scenes, and an immersive soundtrack.

I'm trying to get into it, played 15 hours already but I struggle to get attached to the world or characters.
Cyberpunk 2077 and edgerunners had way more of an impact on me, with The Witcher's strong points

The game takes a while to warm up the plot. It picks up with the Baron quests, and the big emotional parts come out full steam towards the last third of the story.

If you manage to finish it, replay it with different choices. Some of the character reactions can be really endearing, others can be terribly heartbreaking.

Both expansions also have excellent stories, one with a Faustian plot, the other with dark stories in a fairy tale veneer.

I would suggest you try to make it as far as the botchling quest. If you still don't care for it after that then I'll concede that it's not your style of game.

Borderlands 2, then the expansion Tiny Tina's assault on dragon keep.

The last of us 1 and then 2. There are video games and then there's TLoU p1&2. If you can, play 1 on pc. The controls aren't great in 1 (IMHO) but kb&m made that so much better. P2 they made the controls much better. It's a more fun game to play in my experience with less frustrating sections, and whilst people prefer 1 or flat out don't like 2, I think the drivers for that aren't to do with the story or game not being good, in fact, I would say p2 is the best story driven game I've ever played (better than rdr2 which I loved and is another one you should consider, 1 and 2 actually). People will just not like 1 specific thing or another (there are lots of small things in the game that certain people will have issue with, you'll understand when you play it) and then because of that 1 thing say the whole thing is bad. People that complain are often louder than those who praise.

Before Your Eyes

That one fucking broke me once I realized what was happening. Absolutely beautiful game. With the eye tracking I found myself desperately trying to stay in the moment only to inevitably blink and have time move forward.

I am into emotional storytelling as well, I think what gets you involved most are well drawn characters.

I would recommend planescape torment for an epic adventure full of stories, characters and heartbreak.

Really good stories/characters are few and far between in computer games but "The longest journey" comes to mind and even the first Witcher game.

Unavowed comes to mind as well as a rather affecting story.

And a couple of dozen books, but that's not what you asked for...

Could you recommend books either way? It might interest me

I always loved the Song of Ice and Fire books by George Martin, be aware that the series is not finished, though. I am a big fan of Stephen King as well, he writes great characters. It, Shawshank Redemption, The Dark Tower... Thuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom is very emotional, I could not even finish it. Deadhouse Gates by Stephen Erikson. The Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb just to name a few...

Kattawa Shoujo.

Drops mic

If you're new to it, maybe check out Katawa Shoujo: Re-Engineered. Same story but ported to be more modern under-the-hood. Apparently there's even a web version thanks to Wasm!

How modern does the code for a visual novel need to be?

For a better Linux experience for example (Wayland). Also it apparently has some added accessibility improvements too

Ahhh I see. I thought it was cross platform a decade ago when I tried it, but memory doesn't serve so specifically.

I'd recommend "in stars and time". It is a turn-based RPG with loveable characters. I think it is best played blind so I'm hesitant to tell you more, but if you like games like undertale then I think you would like it.

THAT WAS IT!!!!!!!!!! it was WONDERFUL, THANK YOU VERY MUCH! if anyone reads this and recognizes themselves in the games i enjoyed, I would tell them to play this first if they haven't!

Haha. Glad you enjoyed it. Really great game that I think deserves more attention.

It was already at the top of my wishlist before posting this, waiting for the steam sales to get it!

I'm surprised no one mentioned it. Hellblade (full title: Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice) had me in literal tears. Not only it's a decent game, it's also an essay on heavy topics like mental health and the story of viking invasions.

Undertale and Deltarune are easy recs, emotional and fun to dig into the lore and details. Deltarune in particular is an ongoing series, so there's lots of speculation and theory crafting if that's your thing. Amazing soundtrack as well. Undertale should be played first, though. Deltarune isn't necessarily a sequel, but Undertale gives some context to certain things. Both are best played blind.

Inscryption is a really fun deck builder with a very intriguing story and some surprising twists and turns. Even if you're not much into deck builders, the game is structured such that it's pretty much impossible not to get a winning deck over repeated runs. The atmosphere is also top notch.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective isn't on steam, but it's definitely worth a buy on one of its supported systems if you have them. Great puzzle game with a lot of humor and mystery. Not quite as emotional, but very strong characters and an ongoing mystery that kept me invested.

Oxenfree is a really intriguing mystery game with some horror elements and a great soundtrack (I originally checked it out after hearing Beacon Beach and loving it). Overall the game really scratched the itch of that feeling of reading horror stories before bed.

There's also a free, short Silent Hill game on PS5 called The Short Message. It has mixed reviews, but my friends and I found it surprisingly engaging. At first it seems pretty on the nose with its message, but things get a little deeper as you go on. Aside from some cartoonishly evil characters and a somewhat frustrating final sequence, it's worth a look.

Death stranding, a space for the unbound, celeste, Dust: an elysian tale, pokemon mystery dungeon Red rescue team (GBA) or blue rescue team (DS). Baldur's gate 3 has some personal stories that are extremely wonderful. Bad things happening to good people, and things largely working out depending on how you play. Battlefield One's campaign had some stories that made my heart ache for characters. People laying down their lives so that their friends can get back to their families.

Detroit: become human was SO close if not for a hamfisted twist. Inscryption isn't as emotional but packs a wildly interesting story.

I'll give a recommendation for something that hasn't been posted yet. Danganronpa: trigger happy havoc is a very emotional game and has a well written story that takes you on a journey.

Dark Souls 1 can be emotional with a strong and deep atmosphere but the narration is kind of loose.

Shenmue 1. Really special game focused on the feeling of losing a relative with emphasis on the story. Tons of bittersweetness in that game.

Resident Evil HD remaster has some very sad moment, even if overall it is more scary than sad.

If you hated Nier Automata then perhaps Drakengard 3 would be more up your alley?

It's still emotional by the end but that game has more humor and is more whimsical/strange - especially during route A. The initial humor can be a hit or miss but I think it's used nicely to contrast with later parts of the story.

Unfortunately it's a PS3 exclusive and considering how the game runs on that system the best way to play it is emulation.

My recommendation would be God of War (2018). Haven't played Ragnarok yet, so I can't talk about that one. You really attach to the characters. Their personalities are well defined, and it presents some father/mother/son dilemmas along the journey. Great OST, too.

I know it's not known as "emotional," but it's the only game I recall that made me cry a little at the end,

I don't think playing previous GoW games is mandatory. A quick recap is enough.

The Last Guardian

Can't recommend that one without also recommending Ico and especially Shadow of the Colossus before it. Shadow of the Colossus may be my favorite gave ever even. It's so good. I really wish Sony would release all three on PC or something. I still haven't played The Last Guardian because the last Playstation I owned was a PS3.