VGC Day 9: Cutting Onions

AmbiGaming continues its “30 day” video game challenge! Missed a couple days? You can catch up here.

Sniffle sniffle *wipes away tear*

Who left these onions here?? Today’s challenge asks:

Day 9: What is the saddest game scene you’ve experienced?

Spoilers for Metal Gear: Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, and Mass Effect 3, in that order, because I can’t pick just one, as per usual. I also don’t know how to black things out as “spoilers,” so read at your own risk 🙂 (And if you know how to cover spoilers, please let me know).

#3. Sniper Wolf’s death in Metal Gear: Solid Snake

Even though she shot Meryl, I really liked Sniper Wolf. She seemed to have a connection to Snake, as well, as she told him her story, called him “Hero,” and then asked him to kill her at the end of their fight. It seemed like their battle was nothing personal, just business, and Sniper Wolf’s fatalistic attitude was heartbreaking, especially after hearing her backstory. And then wolves started howling mournfully in the background and… sigh.

Darn you, Hideo Kojima!

After mentoring Snake during the first few missions of the game, betraying the USA, and defecting to the USSR, The Boss reveals that she had been ordered by the USA to pretend to defect to the USSR in order to… okay, well, it’s really complicated, but the US told her she had to “betray” the country and then be killed by Snake – her protege – in order to avoid an international incident between the USA and the USSR. And she did, because she loved her country so much.

But the worse part was that the killing shot had to be dealt by the player. The cutscene ended and literally the only action you could take was to shoot her as she lay helplessly on the ground, telling you to end her life. I stared at that screen for minutes on end. I had to watch the final cutscene twice because I missed the first few minutes of it, so upset was I.

#1. Thane from Mass Effect 3

… Let me preface this by saying I don’t cry often. And I’ve certainly never cried during a video game, not when The Boss or Sniper Wolf died, not when Midna disappeared back into the Twilight Realm… nope. Maybe I felt sad, but that was it.

Then this drell walked into my Shepard’s life. While I haven’t (yet) romanced him in Mass Effect 2, his death brought me to tears. I played through that part many times, trying to desensitize myself, but… no luck. There’s just something about his death… Perhaps it was how, in his final moments, he wanted to pray for his friend Shepard, who I suspected – even though they weren’t romantically involved in that playthrough – he shared a special bond with. He was close to death, she had died once already; he was a tool for killing, she was called in to rain down destruction on the galaxy’s enemies (read: a tool for killing). And now, he was dead.

Credit to jj0ck33
So it’s not my Cmd. Shepard, but… yeah. Sigh.

I was a mess. It was terrible. I’m glad no one was there to witness it.

… So… I have no snappy transition for this, but those are my top three saddest video game moments. See you next time for a hopefully happier question.

What is the saddest video game moment you’ve ever seen?

Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll see you soon
~Athena