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?
To The Moon.
I think the game is full of different emotional triggers. The one that got me was the revelation why the person in question actually wanted to the moon. All the mysteries in the game around weird behaviors and circumstances suddenly made sense and the implication of what the moon really meant to this person made me cry. That was so damn sad. It still makes me cry just thinking about it.
Played that one only 2 or so years after my mother’s succumbing to cancer.
That game helped me im more ways than one - fantastic experience, still can hear some of the musical themes of it in my head as I type this out.
Art is just so cathartic for some reason. I think it’s just easier for us to think about another fictional person’s emotions than our own.