Top 10 Most Heartbreaking Video Game Endings

Top 10 Saddest Video Game Endings

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today were counting down our picks for the top 10 most tragic and gut wrenching story endings in video games. Its self-explanatory but just to be safe, massive spoilers for various game endings ahead! Consider yourself warned

#10: Losing the Elder Brother

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (2013)

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is not only a tale of two sons, but of their father as well. We simultaneously control a younger and an older brother in their quest to fetch water from the Tree of Life so that they can save their father, who has fallen ill. Finally reaching the Tree of Life, the older brother Naia had been injured on the journey and must stay behind while the younger brother Naiee goes to fetch the water required to save their father. Upon his return, our gut sinks as we and Naiee find Naia dead. He buries his brother, as were made to control just the younger brother while he returns home, now all by himself - a total gut wrencher.

#9: Remembering Love

To the Moon (2011)

Throughout the game, two doctors delve deep into their patient Johnnys memories as we uncover his childhood and adult life. Johnny had lost his twin brother in a traumatic accident, so he had been given beta-blockers to help forget about it, which had caused him to forget meeting with his wife River, as well that he had promised to meet her on the moon if they ever got lost. The doctors alter Johnnys memories to erase his amnesia, and allow him to think that his brother never died, resulting in him not taking the beta-blockers and not forgetting his wife. In his fabricated memories, Johnny ends up achieving his dream of going to the moon with his wife near the end of the game, and we hear his heart rate monitor flatline.

#8: The Perfect Ending

Mass Effect 3 (2012)

In the Synthesis ending of Mass Effect 3, Shepard sacrifices themself in an effort to activate the Crucible, which as a result merges all synthetic and organic life together. This ensures the survival of earth, but it comes with the bitter cost of Shepards death and altering the entire universe into a single unified force outside of their consent. In some way, its actually kind of a good ending. But nothing comes free in Mass Effect, and the loss of Shepard is tough to come to terms with. Not to mention forcing our beloved characters to come to terms with and ally with the Reapers.

#7: The Finch Familys Fate

What Remains of Edith Finch (2017)

Edith Finchs family is cursed, and anytime any member of the family tries to escape it, they pass away. Edith is the last family member alive, and she returns to her childhood home to discover how her family members passed away. Throughout the game we experience the last moments of their lives. Years later at the end of it all we learn that Edith herself seems to have died during childbirth, leaving behind the journal she was writing in for her son Christopher. The ending straight up tells us that Edith became very lonely after Dawn died, and you can almost deduce that the cycle will continue. Overall, its a very thought provoking and sorrowful story.

#6: Lee Everett

The Walking Dead (2012)

At the start of the outbreak, Lee escapes from a crashed police car after having been arrested. It doesnt take long before he makes it to a small neighbourhood and befriends Clementine, who we later find out had lost her parents, unbeknownst to her. They journey together and fight for survival across 5 episodes, and at the end of episode 4 Lee goes searching for Clementine in a panic but ends up bitten. We spend the last episode finding and saving her as Lee slowly succumbs to the infection. Having barely escaped the horde, Lee cuffs himself to a radiator as Clementine is forced to make a choice: Mercy kill our beloved Lee, or let him die slowly. A choice no one wants to make.

#5: The Truth

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004)

Metal Gear Solid 3 has us play as Naked Snake during the Cold War, carrying out various missions for the U.S. government. His mentor The Boss taught him most of the things he knew, but in the game were led to believe that she betrays the U.S. in favor of the Soviet Union, which leads to Naked Snake being ordered to carry out her assassination. Yet after all of this, it turns out that The Boss was ordered to defect by the government, and that she was forced to become the villain. Even worse, Snake inherits her title and is praised for killing someone he loved, forever reminded of it thanks to his new title of Big Boss.

#4: The Cost

Shadow of the Colossus (2005)

Wander is a young man who travels to the Forbidden Lands to resurrect a sacrificed girl known as Mono. Hes promised by an entity known as Dormin that if he can slay the sixteen Colossi, he will have his wish of bringing Mono back granted. As Wander slays each Colossus, he starts to hear Monos voice, and he gradually gets more pale and demonic-looking. The truth is that Wander was being used by Dormin as a vessel for Monos resurrection, and Wander ends up corrupted and lost. In the end, despite Wanders noble intentions, he was used.

#3: Protect Your Honor As SOLDIER

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (2007)

After playing through Clouds story in Final Fantasy 7, Crisis Core just hits so hard. Its a prequel to 7, showing us Zack Fairs progression as a SOLDIER as he adventures and uncovers Shinras sinister secrets. But as he discovers them together with Cloud, theyre both caught and experimented on for four years. Zack finally breaks out and takes it upon himself to escape with Cloud, as theyre hunted down by Shinra and branded as traitors. Eventually Shinra catches up, and Zack bravely stands up to an entire army of Shinra grunts. The game has us playing through this, as Zack eventually starts slouching and limping, at the end getting gunned down by Shinra. In his last moments, he passes on his principles to Cloud. Zack made the ultimate sacrifice for his friend, and was denied his dream of returning to Aerith.

#2: A Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)

As a prequel to the original Red Dead Redemption, 2 has us following the Van Der Linde gang through their greatest exploits. We play as Arthur Morgan, who acts as Dutchs right hand man as well as main enforcer and most importantly debt collector. Its during these collections that Arthur starts to have second thoughts, and he starts to question the morality of his leader Dutch. Arthur gets infected with tuberculosis during an attempt to collect debt, and spends the rest of the game trying to right the gangs wrongdoings, coming to a head during the final section of his story where the Pinkerton agency finally catches up to them. The gang had tragically fallen apart and been betrayed, and Arthur spends his final moments trying to make things right. The way he dies depends on your honor level, but is tragic and heartbreaking regardless.

#1: Revenge

The Last of Us Part II (2020)

The Last of Us was already a very emotional rollercoaster with a sad ending, but the sequel kicks it up ten notches. After having spent the entirety of the first game building up the bond between Joel and Ellie, the sequel kicks off some years later. By the end of the first one, Joel had chosen to save Ellie, in turn losing a potential cure for humanity, as well as killing the doctors experimenting on her. Joel is hunted down and murdered right in front of Ellie by Abby as revenge for Joel having killed Abbys father, one of the doctors. Ellie tries hunting down Abby, and after years she finally catches up to her, but she cant do it. Its an incredibly bittersweet ending where Ellie decides to end the cycle and let Abby live, and its an extremely tragic end to an extremely tragic story She returns home broken, and is unable to play on the guitar Joel had gifted her thanks to her now missing fingers.

Did we miss a game? Of all the endings in this video, which one impacted you the most? Was it loss, or the futile effort of our beloved protagonists? Lets talk about these endings in the comments!