Final Fantasy VI/Tear Jerker

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • This troper barely remembers how most of Final Fantasy VI went, but one thing that really got him was simply hearing the Game Over music ("Rest in Peace"). The song plays in such a sad way as you see your lead character kneeling down in a black screen and then fades away as the music fades to a close. Possibly the saddest Game Over theme he has ever heard.
  • The part of the ending where Shadow stays back, tells his dog to go on without him, and promptly dies, made this troper tear up.
    • You know it's not actually made clear whether he dies or not, right? Actually, the (semi-) ambiguity of Shadow's ultimate fate may make it a lot more tragic than him simply dying. What's worse: knowing exactly what happened, or never finding out whether he survived or not?
    • (Jump.) (Wait.)
  • The saddest part of the game for me dealt with Cyan's storyline. The death of his wife and kid as part of the poisoning of Doma Castle wasn't too bad, emotionally. It's soon followed, however, by a level where you accidentally board a train to the hereafter. You fight your way to the engine, defeat the train, and it agrees to take you back to the land of the living. But while it drops you off, it picks up all of Doma Castle. Cyan gets one last desperate goodbye to his wife and son, the last words you hear from them as the train rushes off into eternity is the son promising to look after his mom. That's about the point that I start breaking down.
    • Credit to whoever can make it to that last, mournful train whistle without tears in their eyes.
    • And then, just to make sure you're feeling Cyan's pain, the game lingers on the scene for a good 30 seconds afterward while Cyan stands at the edge of the depot in despair, staring at where the train once stood.
  • The entire game is pretty much a succession of tear jerkers. Celes' attempted suicide if Cid dies and the cutscene after getting the Phoenix magicite are particularly powerful.
    • The scene described in your spoiler sets up a Heartwarming Moments when Celes survives and discovers Locke's bandanna, setting off the rest of the game's chain of events.
  • After being completely blindsided by the Wham Level in Final Fantasy VI, this editor was absolutely crushed by the tableau of Celes and a dying Cid stranded on an island in the World of Ruin. Left with nothing to do but pointlessly cling to life catching fish on a monster-infested piece of rock which might be all that remained of the world, being confronted with an offer to commit suicide truly seemed like the only fitting end to the game.
    • For a double whammy, those who cried during that scene end up feeling the grief all over again when they learn it's possible to save Cid's life, if you catch good fish for him. If that scene isn't enough, knowing that it literally is all your fault makes it ten times worse.
    • The most heartbreaking part of Celes trying to kill herself is that she's crying when she throws herself off the cliff.
      • Strangely enough, in the GBA retranslation, the scene after Celes throws herself into the ocean is a Tear Jerker because of how heartwarming it is. Celes yells at a pigeon and tells it to leave her alone because she has lost all hope. Then she sees a blue bandana wrapped around the pigeon. Celes recognizes it as Locke's trademark bandana. At that point, the pigeon flies away and Celes regains hope because she knows that, somewhere out there in the post-Apocalyptic world, the man she's secretly in love with, Locke, is still alive. It's incredibly heartwarming because Celes starts the game as proclaiming that she is "not some love-starved twit" and her love for Locke is what motivates her to do something about the World of Ruin.
  • For this troper, it was the injured soldier in Mobliz and his girlfriend in Maranda. They upset him even before The End of the World as We Know It causes the former's death. Cyan's lonely attempt to protect Lola from the truth and eventually to persuade her to carry on with life tore me to pieces.
  • Celes singing Aria de Mezzo Carattere during the opera gets me every single time.
    • Seconded by this troper. This troper bawled his eyes out the last time he tried to sing along.
    • Thirded by this troper. And fourthed by The Spoony One in his Final Fantasy VIII review.
    • Think about it. Maria is a fictional character even within the fiction that is FFVI. The makers of the game can make us cry about the fate of a fictional character played by a fictional character. THAT, my friends, is storytelling gold.
      • Let us also take into account that a very heartwrenching version of this song plays in the background during Celes' suicide attempt. Now I can't even think of the opera house scene without tearing up.
  • This troper had to swallow a major lump in her throat in the scenes leading up to the final confrontation with Kefka, where the main characters realize that killing Kefka will result in the end of magic in the world, and probably that of half-Esper Terra as well.
    • Then perhaps this troper should add that, in an earlier version of the script, Terra actually WOULD have faded away along with the magic of the world... However, the guys over at Square decided that after all the sh*t Terra had been though by that point, she had really earned her right to a well deserved happy ending... Take a moment to reflect upon that: The only reason FFVI didn't have a downer-ish ending with Terra pulling a Heroic Sacrifice by killing Kefka was because the script authors couldn't bring themselves to do that to her.
  • Even Gau generates one. "Father... alive. Gau... ha..ppy.."
  • While it's not tied to any one specific moment in the game, hearing Terra's Theme always makes this troper shed a Manly Tears or two. Or three. Or more... *sniff*
  • While it is only short, this troper found the scene where the parents are killed by Kefka protecting their children incredibly sad.
  • How is the scene after finally defeating Phunbaba not mentioned here?! First, Esper-Terra descends after going Mama Bear on a monster that has been terrorizing her, and the orphans she's been caring for, causing her wards to flee in terror, thinking she's another monster coming to hurt them. The look on that deformed sprite even is enough to make a stone cry. And then, when one of the children comes forward slowly, starting to realize who the "monster" is, with the simple "Mama? It's you, isn't it? I can tell..." makes the scene a more Heartwarming Tear Jerker. And THEN Terra finds her resolve, and says her farewells to the children, who all promise heartily to be brave for her, as she goes off to fight an Omnicidal Maniac to make the world safe for them once more. *snf* Something in my eye. Really.
  • For this troper, the entire scene at the end of Daryl's Tomb did it. The moment Searching for Friends kicked in and the Falcon took to the skies, I just broke.
  • The entire story with Locke's previous love interest, Rachel. In the scene where he brings her the Phoenix magicite, and it only works for a few minutes... and she tells him to be happy with Celes, I was crying. And then i stopped and thought, what the hell? Over little pixie sprites!

Rachel: Please, let go of the chains that bind your heart... I release you... Give your love to to the one who now dwells within your heart... Love her... as you loved me...

  • When Sabin and Edgar decide the fate of Figaro with a coin toss is a very powerful scene that seems to get something in my eye.
    • And if you bring the Figaro Brothers to the Opera, and subsequently to Setzer's airship, you find out while at Figaro Castle that the toss was rigged, against Edgar...by Edgar himself. Edgar literally threw away his own freedom... to give Sabin his.
  • My god... No-one has mentioned Mog, yet? You know, Mog? The one and only moogle who survived Kefka's reign? Who, when you find him in the World of Ruin, is simply staring at one place in a wall in the empty cave that formerly housed his family, friends and Molulu, his girlfriend? Do you know what you'll find if you examine the spot in the wall Mog was staring at when you found him? Molulu's Charm.
  • If you fail to get Locke back in the World of Ruin, Celes' ending is the same as the heartwarming ending, except that Setzer saves her and yells at her for going back for Locke's bandanna. After he leaves, she looks down (at it) and says, "Locke, promise me some day you'll look after me again." before walking out the room. Ouch.
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