For me, in no particular order:
- Firewatch
- This War of Mine
- What Remains of Edith Finch
- Gone Home
- Papers Please
- Doki Doki Literature Club
- I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
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.
Arguably the best story telling in a game. Each side quest was given a lot of attention to detail and never felt like any were copy-paste jobs.
I was gonna say Witcher 3 also. The Heart of Stone DLC especially. My eyes were sweating.
Mass Effect " … someone else might have gotten it wrong …"
I am the very model of a scientist salarian…
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.
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 actually played Journey for the first time just several months ago! I think there’s still enough people around that you can still run into other players on your journey. Maybe I ran into you at some point?
Journ
Couldn’t agree more!!
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.
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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.
- Spiritfarer
- Forgotten Anne
- Honkai Impact 3rd (believe it or not)
- The Last Campfire
I was scrolling for Spiritfarer. All the feels. But fun to play, build, & explore.
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.
Final Fantasy X
God Eater 2
VA-11 Hall-A
Trials of Mana
The music in FFX brings me tears. So good!
FfX has my vote too. To zanarkand takes me back
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.
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
Oh man… I don’t know why this wasn’t the first thing I thought of when ever since I played it earlier this year, I have had the phrase “I don’t want to be this kind of animal anymore” stuck in my head. I think that daily.
I wish there was a disco option…
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?
Final fantasy 14 The main story quests were amazing. Especially loved the shadowbringers storyline.
Couldn’t agree more!
Soma. If you know, you know.
@BeAware @3rdBlueWizard Agreed, SOMA is amazing and I wish I had more opportunities to talk about it. I don’t know anyone else who has played it but it stayed with me for months after I’d finished it.
I was incredibly emotional and blindsided by that ending and afterwards I was like, “How did I not see that coming, omg!”
