http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx3duFYCcho

The boss battle shown here, I never fought a JRPG boss battle with such reckless abandon and just all-out damage in every attack. About as close as I could get ever to raging from a single player game.

hhmm.... i am seeing mostly more recent games in peoples lists..

I wonder, is it because they are more fresh in our minds... are they written better... maybe some people haven't played older games....

hmm... Interesting....

Final Fantasy 7 celebrates it's sweet 16 this year

Aerith's death actually didn't make me cry...it wasn't even really sad. Zack Fair's death, was gut-wrenching.

I dont cry in JRPG'S, I think western RPG'S make me cry more.

i said "mostly" . alot of people are saying MassEffect, Bioshock, Halo, Last of us, etc.. all of which are more recent games

really? its the other way for me... JRPGs seem to have stories that I get more emotionally involved in, and as such make me cry (or during plot twists just stare thinking "ohh my god... did that actually just happen?!") then with Western RPGs..

IMO most devs of JRPGs put more effort into the plot and characters, while most Western RPG devs put more effort into fun and engaging Gameplay mechanics... Although, there are exceptions.
But hey, thats just my opinion

GoW 1

Never cried playing any game.

However, if you want to see me cry, just tell me you paid full price for Final Fantasy XIII.

I did. And i don't regret it one bit

On topic, literally none, but there are some powerful scenes that moved in some games. Like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXNQNeLDg5s. Good stuff, especially for a strategy game. Even Blizzard hasn't matched that, if you ask me.

And some music alone does that too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icms6Y1ChxI

Are the newer FF games any fun? Last one I played was X-2, which wasn't as good as X to me. I want something more along the lines of X or IX.

Closest thing would be XII. It was decent. Vaan is a little less annoying than Tidus. XIII is nothing like the other FF games and I think it is pure crap tbh. Crappy and irritating characters, annoying combat system, linear first half of the game, etc etc.

Planescape Torments end. A story of mortality, how strongly your previous lives have affected others and then it all being culminated, with everyone willing to help (if yer a nice fella and not a neutral evil bastard) and then seeing how that ends up. Also realising that Ravel can... Well, you know.

I laughed at his death. ben carmine's death made me a little bit. I was so happy when Clayton survived.

Save Carmine

We're sobbing over the Carmine deaths but not:

Shameful!

Aerith's death is pretty sad when you realize that it was Cloud that killed her.

The ending of Dragon's Dogma left my efforts feeling kind of futile, and packing that on with the overall depressing tone of the game evokes a little emotion.

You broke the cycle. There is no Seneschal. That shouldn't feel like a futile effort. Your Pawn even gains true humanity.

Btw, why depressing? I cannot recall it being all that depressing. Then again my point of comparison is Dark Souls and the Dark Arisen expansion for Dragons Dogma. Both were much more depressing. Was it the undead voices that was depressing?

As for the first portion of your post, maybe I'm just a little selfish like that. I've never been a fan of martyrdom in RPGs, and it seems particularly overdone in JRPGs (for blatant cultural reasons). I've always been a fan of sad endings, but now it looks like they're becoming clichéd and tired. I'd enjoy a nice, happy ending in the old Teutonic tradition, where everything works out and there aren't any dark clouds still hovering overhead. But that's just me.

As for the latter half, I couldn't tell you why; something about a once happy countryside now flanked on all sides by encroaching darkness just doesn't make me feel lighthearted. I felt the same way in Ocarina of Time. To contrast, Dark Souls' atmosphere didn't really affect me, because it was always crapsack.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5sHqcv61bM4

Toruviel in TW1 came close. White Rayla as well. Brutal ending for her.

Having mentioned Rayman 2: The Great Escape in another thread, I remembered that its ending left me a little emotional. Beautiful game, by the way.

Oh yeah, talking about platform games, the cute Klonoa: Door to Phantomile for the PS1 have one of the most sad endings I've ever encountered.

It is arguable whether you do become a martyr or not. Lets move to spoilers though.

Fair enough, I find the everything works out in the end, ending, boring and clichè. Although I do still like to see it from time to time.

Sorry about that. Trust me though, nothing has really been spoiled yet. You don't know anythinf about what we are talking about yet. Unless you are already at end game. Even then there is still plenty you don't know.

Ain't a lot of games who's characters I get invested in enough to actually care about when they die.

The Walking Dead had a lot of feels in it but I think of it as more of an interactive tv-series than I think of it as a video game.

As to Red Dead Redemption which has been mentioned here, I was actually happy about the ending and had no sympathy/empathy for Marshal(?).

Depends on what you mean by cry, I've never full blown cried but I have gotten a little teary eyed in Red Dead Redemption.