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From sacrificial acts of love to devastating revelations, these endings left players stunned and tearful. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the saddest video game endings of all time.
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00:00If somehow the Lord gave me a second chance at that moment, I would do it all over again.
00:09Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 most tragic and
00:15gut-wrenching story endings in video games. It's self-explanatory, but just to be safe,
00:20massive spoilers for various game endings ahead. Consider yourself warned.
00:24You're strong, Clem. You can do anything. But I'm little.
00:32Doesn't mean nothing. You're gonna say bad stuff, but it's okay.
00:40Number 10. Losing the Elder Brother. Brothers, A Tale of Two Sons.
00:44Brothers, A Tale of Two Sons is not only a tale of two sons, but of their father as well. We
00:58simultaneously control a younger and an older brother in their quest to fetch water from the
01:02Tree of Life so that they can save their father, who has fallen ill. Finally reaching the Tree of
01:07Life, the older brother, Naya, had been injured on the journey and must stay behind, while the
01:11younger brother, Naya, goes to fetch the water required to save their father. Upon his return,
01:16our gut sinks as we and Naya find Naya dead. He buries his brother, as we're made to control
01:21just the younger brother, while he returns home, now all by himself, a total gut-wrencher.
01:41Number 9. Remembering Love to the Moon. Throughout the game, two doctors delve deep
01:47into their patient Johnny's memories as we uncover his childhood and adult life. Johnny
01:51had lost his twin brother in a traumatic accident, so he had been given beta blockers to help forget
01:56about it, which had caused him to forget meeting with his wife, River, as well that he had promised
02:01to meet her on the moon if they ever got lost. The doctors altered Johnny's memories to erase his
02:06amnesia, and allow him to think that his brother never died, resulting in him not taking the beta
02:11blockers, and not forgetting his wife. In his fabricated memories, Johnny ends up achieving his
02:15dream of going to the moon with his wife near the end of the game, and we hear his heart rate monitor
02:20flatline. Number 8. The Perfect Ending. Mass Effect 3. In the synthesis ending of Mass Effect 3,
02:25Shepard sacrifices themselves in an effort to activate the Crucible, which, as a result,
02:30merges all synthetic and organic life together. This ensures the survival of Earth, but it comes with the
02:35bitter cost of Shepard's death, and altering the entire universe into a single unified force
02:40outside of their consent. In some ways, it's actually kind of a good ending, but nothing comes
02:45free in Mass Effect, and the loss of Shepard is tough to come to terms with, not to mention forcing
02:50our beloved characters to come to terms with and ally with themselves with the Reapers.
02:54When can I go to the stars?
02:58One day, my sweet.
03:00Number 7. The Finch Family's Fate. What Remains of Edith Finch.
03:03Grandma, you know what I said about alcohol. Some of your medications are very specific-
03:09Edith, I left a present for you in the hallway. Why don't you go open it?
03:14Edith Finch's family is cursed, and any time any member of the family tries to escape it,
03:19they pass away. Edith is the last family member alive, and she returns to her child at home to
03:23discover how her family members passed away. Throughout the game, we experience the last
03:27moments of their lives. Years later, at the end of it all, we learn that Edith herself seems to
03:32have died during childbirth, leaving behind the journal she was writing in for her son
03:36Christopher. The ending straight up tells us that Edith became very lonely after Dawn died,
03:41and you can almost deduce that the cycle will continue. Overall, it's a very thought-provoking
03:45and sorrowful story.
03:46This is where your story begins. I'm sorry I won't be there to see it. It's a lot to
03:52ask, but I don't want you to be sad that I'm gone.
03:56Number 6. Lee Everett, The Walking Dead.
03:58Do you know who I am?
04:03No. I don't know anything about you.
04:07At the start of the outbreak, Lee escapes from a crashed police car after having been arrested.
04:11It doesn't take long before he makes it to a small neighborhood and befriends Clementine,
04:15who we later find out had lost her parents, unbeknownst to her. They journey together and
04:19fight for survival across five episodes, and at the end of episode four, Lee goes searching for
04:24Clementine in a panic, but ends up bitten. We spend the last episode finding and saving her as Lee
04:29slowly succumbs to the infection. Having barely escaped the horde, Lee cuffs himself to a radiator as
04:34Clementine is forced to make a choice. Mercy kill our beloved Lee, or let him die slowly,
04:39a choice no one wants to make.
04:41Don't worry. All right. I'll miss you.
04:51Me too.
04:53Number 5. The Truth, Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater.
04:56It was all a lie. I tricked you. And I'm sorry.
05:03Metal Gear Solid 3 has us play as Naked Snake during the Cold War, carrying out various missions
05:08for the U.S. government. His mentor, The Boss, taught him most of the things he knew, but in
05:13the game, we're led to believe that she betrays the U.S. in favor of the Soviet Union, which leads
05:17to Naked Snake being ordered to carry out her assassination. Yet, after all of this, it turns out
05:22that The Boss was ordered to defect by the government, and that she was forced to become the villain.
05:26Even worse, Snake inherits her title and is praised for killing someone he loved, forever reminded
05:31of it thanks to his new title of Big Boss.
05:34Snake, history will never know what she did. No one will ever learn the truth. Her story,
05:46her debriefing, will endure only in your heart.
05:51Number 4. The Cost, Shadow of the Colossus
05:53Wander is a young man who travels to the Forbidden Lands to resurrect a sacrificed girl known as
06:08Mono. He's promised by an entity known as Dormin that if he can slay the 16 Colossi,
06:13he will have his wish of bringing Mono back granted. As Wander slays each Colossus, he starts
06:18to hear Mono's voice, and he gradually gets more pale and demonic looking. The truth is that Wander
06:23was being used by Dormin as a vessel for Mono's resurrection, and Wander ends up corrupted and
06:28lost. In the end, despite Wander's noble intentions, he was used.
06:32Number 3. Protect Your Honor as Soldier, Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII
06:36Embrace your dreams, and whatever happens, protect your honor as soldier!
06:48After playing through Cloud's story in Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core just hits so hard.
06:52It's a prequel to VII, showing us as Zack fares progression as a soldier as he adventures
06:57and uncovers Shinra's sinister secrets. But as he discovers them together with Cloud,
07:02they're both caught and experimented on for four years. Zack finally breaks out and takes
07:06it upon himself to escape with Cloud, as they are hunted down by Shinra and branded as traitors.
07:11Eventually, Shinra catches up, and Zack bravely stands up to an entire army of Shinra grunts.
07:16The game has us playing through this, as Zack eventually starts slouching and limping,
07:20at the end getting gunned down by Shinra. In his last moments, he passes on his principles
07:24to Cloud. Zack made the ultimate sacrifice for his friend, and was denied his dream of
07:28returning to Aerith.
07:29If you want to be a hero, you need to have dreams. Thank you.
07:352. A Red Dead Redemption
07:42Red Dead Redemption 2
07:44As a prequel to the original Red Dead Redemption, 2 has us following the Vanderlyn gang through
07:57their greatest exploits. We play as Arthur Morgan, who acts as Dutch's right-hand man, as well as main
08:03enforcer, and most importantly, debt collector. It's during these collections that Arthur
08:07starts to have second thoughts, and he starts to question the morality of his leader Dutch.
08:11Arthur gets infected with tuberculosis during an attempt to collect debt, and spends the
08:15rest of the game trying to right the gang's wrongdoings, coming to a head during the final
08:19section of his story where the Pinkerton agency finally catches up to them. The gang had tragically
08:24fallen apart and been betrayed, and Arthur spends his final moments trying to make things right.
08:28The way he dies depends on your honor level, but is tragic and heartbreaking regardless.
08:35I must say, Arthur, it's been a lot of fun.
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09:07The Last of Us was already a very emotional rollercoaster with a sad ending, but the sequel
09:27kicks it up ten notches. After having spent the entirety of the first game building up
09:31the bond between Joel and Ellie, the sequel kicks off some years later.
09:34By the end of the first one, Joel had chosen to save Ellie, in turn losing a potential cure
09:38for humanity, as well as killing the doctors experimenting on her. Joel is hunted down and
09:43murdered right in front of Ellie, by Abby, as revenge for Joel having killed Abby's father,
09:48one of the doctors. Ellie tries hunting down Abby, and after years she finally catches up
09:52to her, but she can't do it. It's an incredibly bittersweet ending, where Ellie decides to end
09:56the cycle and let Abby live. And it's an extremely tragic end to an extremely tragic story. She
10:02returns home broken, and is unable to play on the guitar Joel had gifted her thanks to her
10:06now missing fingers. Did we miss a game? Of all the endings in this video, which one impacted
10:19you the most? Was it loss, or the futile effort of our beloved protagonist? Let's talk about
10:23these endings in the comments. She got better for a while, and then she didn't.
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