Breath of Fire III/Tear Jerker


 * Breath of Fire III pulls this off after the first boss battle.
 * It gets worse from there. For one thing, Balio and Sunder show up and throw an incredibly vicious Player Punch very shortly after that.
 * Also, while it could just be Capcom's Giant Space Flea From Nowhere instincts demanding that just about every important scene have a boss, there are a lot of really likable characters who for whatever reason insist you kill them to inherit whatever power you were there to learn from them.
 * Among the tragic deaths are: the Nue (see above) the Mutant Plant, The Old Man in the volcano, the dragon spirit (which may have been ) Garr's former Guardian friend, Jono the   and even the Final Boss herself! The game makes the hero revisit many of these just before the end in case you missed the theme.
 * The endgame has to be the worst, though. The game really twists the knife on this one with, though.
 * And if you're not reduced to a wreck immediately after that, go camp and talk to Rei. Watch his reaction...