Tearjerkers--When the in-game Feels hit ya hard'

We've all been there--we're blithely playing our favorite game when all of a sudden a real soul-crushing moment presents itself.  I'm talking about the moments where you find yourself blubbering all over your keyboard (or controller if you prefer consoles...).  This seems to be a question that pops up all the time in many of the gaming groups I follow and it really got me thinking about some of mine.  There might be some spoilers ahead so read with caution.

1.) Ori and the Blind Forest

Seriously, who cries in a platformer?  A freakin' platformer!  A game that is about jumping and running and double jumping and floating....  Ori manages to pack a ton of feels from the first ten minutes of the game all the way until the end.  I was already bawling like a baby after watching the opening prologue.  Watching Ori get rescued and grow up with his big, goofy friend is so cute!  Then watching the big, goofy friend basically sacrifice itself to keep Ori alive AND seeing all the memories of the fun things that they did together...grab the Kleenex 'cuz you're gonna need 'em.

Later on in the game you discover why the villain (a large, very angry raven-like bird) keeps trying to kill you.  You wind up even feeling bad for the thing that is trying to kill you!  I applaud Ori and the Blind Forest for managing to be a fun and challenging platformer and for having such touching stories woven throughout the game.

2.) Mass Effect 3

The Mass Effect series has been one of my absolute favorites since I originally picked up the first game for a steal.  By the third game in the original trilogy, players had gotten to know the crew of the Normandy pretty darn well and had definitely developed some feelings of attachment.  I was excited when I reached the point in the game where I would finally get to help the Krogan out and cure the genophage.  I took all the best paragon stances--I told the Salarian dalatrass to shove her offer of support in exchange for sabotaging the mission, I warned my loyal crew members about her shady dealings, and everything looked like it was proceeding well.  In one of the many dramatic and memorable moments of the game I guided Shepard,  as she sprinted past a FULL ON REAPER, to reach the maw hammers and watched in awe as a flippin' thresher maw destroyed the giant, robotic monstrosity.

It is directly after this amazing moment that you witness one of the most heroic sacrifices in the game.  Mordin Solus, the singing Salarian doctor (the very model of a scientist Salarian), tells Shepard that the Shroud is damaged and that the only way the cure for the genophage can be administered is if he travels to the top of the rapidly disintegrating Shroud.  You can try to talk him out of it (and if you've chosen some specific major choices it's possible to)  but he demands:  "It had to be me, someone else might have gotten it wrong."  Then you mostly just mop the snot off your keyboard.

3.) The Witcher 3

I love big RPG's that have strong storytelling and characters.  The Witcher 3 is a grand epic and one of the few open world RPG's that really manages to hold tight to the story and characters.  The tutorial for the game (if you opt to play it--I play it every time even though I've done it about six times) not only gives you a basic run through of all the controls in the game, it also gives you some great insight into the relationship between Geralt and his adopted daughter Ciri.  Ciri was rescued by Geralt and then raised by the witchers in Kaer Morhen.  It's cute to see the freckled little scamp running around the crumbling castle while all four of them dote over her.  From those very first moments it is completely obvious that they have a close father and daughter type of relationship.

The bulk of the main storyline involves trying to pick up Ciri's trail and find her.  Geralt runs around following leads in at least three different zones before he's finally able to extract the information (and a magical, weird, glowy firefly-like object) from the mysterious elven mage, Avallac'h.  The clue leads him to the Isle of Mists--a forsaken, magical island from which no one returns.  It all seems very ominous....

You find yourself leading Geralt through a boneyard of scuttled ships and onto a misty, freaky, desolate island.  As you search the island, you find a small, locked cabin smack dab in the middle.  Upon examination you discover that it is currently the hiding place of some unfortunate dwarves who have managed to become stranded.  They demand your/Geralt's help to find their three missing friends before they will unlock the door.  You scamper around the island helping (but mostly not helping) the remaining dwarves.  As you guide the only surviving dwarf back to the cabin the dwarves drop some definite bad news--a girl matching Ciri's description is inside, but she was dead when the dwarves arrived.

There's so much about this scene that is amazing--the way that Geralt cautiously moves towards her, like he's scared of what he's going to find; how he is so dejected that he has failed to find her; how he embraces her body and just seems absolutely crushed.  And then...that weird, glowy, little spark floats right into Ciri...and she opens her eyes!  She's alive!  As she wakes up we see a flashback from when she was a child at Kaer Morhen--she sees Geralt in an open field and runs toward him to give him the biggest hug.

If this doesn't give you a hardcore case of the feels--you're like Olgierd von Everec and have a heart of stone.