Just for the heads up, this thread will probably have a lot of spoilers. I'm gonna try to go vague on spoilers for anybody that hasn't played Hotline Miami 2. If you've played the game, you'll probably know what I mean, but I'm going to say some purposefully esoteric shit to keep it out of full spoiler territory.
My pick has to be Richter's plotline from Hotline Miami 2. One part that makes me cry is when Richard, arguably a god of death, helps Richter escape from his previous entanglement. In these games, Richard doesn't show up to help. He shows up when someone did some fucked up shit. Richard consistently shows up to help Richter though. He just tells him "run" in that moment and you feel the fucking urgency to get out like nothing else. One of the harder levels I've ever played, but holy shit I wanted Richter OUT. I was so frustrated with the game but I just would not stop until Richter had escaped.
Hotline Miami is a series of bad endings, but there are 2 happy conclusions in the sequel, both are direct consequences of Richter and his love for his mother. His ending isn't even THAT happy. But there's something about his final conversation with Richard that just made me fucking bawl the every time I played. Richter's indifference to what Richard is saying. He barely got any time to enjoy what he had been fighting for for years. But when he knew it was over, he was comfortable because he was just vibing with his mom in Hawaii like they had always wanted. He was just happy that he got to spend his last days with the person he loved the most.
His love for his mother can even give Evan, the writer, a happy ending where he picks up the letter instead of the pen. Richter's plotline manages to poignantly deliver the point of Hotline Miami 2 in one short and digestible bit. Love the people you hold close. Wanting violence only brings violence. The only way forward to true peace is accepting whatever terrible situations you're in and just going forward.
I could rant about this forever. It was just such an amazing part of the game. What are your favorite emotional moments from games?
This is probably my favorite answer so far. One thing I love about Nintendo is that it's made for kids, they can't do THAT much to shock you. They can only tell what I'd call human stories, stories that anybody on the globe will be able to understand. N64 Zelda is fairly simple as far as writing goes, but it does the simplicity extremely well. It reminds me of Greek tragedies more than anything else, where the tragedy, the main situations can be understood even without dialogue.
Yeah Zelda games are the complete package every time. I've played half a dozen zelda games with her, and we loved each one of them (except Twilight princess. It was too dark/depressing and we didn't finish it). She's 7 now, and she has forgotten a lot of what we played when she was younger. It's bittersweet, because she doesn't remember the fun we had, but I get to play the same games with her again.
Well that's the great thing about kids forgetting the fun they had, there's nothing stopping you guys from playing the same games over and over again with her. She'll remember everything as she gets older though. Loved playing Halo co-op with my Dad when I was a kid, it was so fucking cool.
Nice! Hope she one day comments like this