What moments in gaming will stick with you?

[Wookieetank]

I distinctly remember a particular moment in Fahrenheit (aka. Indigo Prophecy). The game switches between multiple viewpoint characters, so you alternatively play both a suspected murderer and the policemen trying to catch him - and also there a ton of strange paranormal things going on.

In one scene with the police officers, I was asked to recreate an image of the culprit in the murder case. At first I tried to complete the little picture-matching mini game as well as I could, as you are used to doing as a player. But suddenly it occurred to me that it might be in my best interest to perform poorly. You see, I identified more with the suspected killer than the cops, so I didn't want them to catch him. I reloaded the scene, and tried to mess up the challenge as much as possible.

Now, I never finished the game as it got increasingly weird, so I don't know if what I did actually had any bearing on the final outcome, but just the way the game turned all my usual assumptions about games and goals on their head was memorable in itself. I know that multiple viewpoints and actions that have consequences down the line are par for the course in the era of a billion Telltale games, but back then it felt really novel, and really made me think.

Quantic Dream is really good about your choices changing how things turn out, and most of their games have a wide variety of endings. Beyond 2 Souls does fall a bit short, cause you kinda get to pick your ending at the last bit, instead of the ending happening organically from everything else that happened.

On Topic:
Playing Heavy Rain and finding out who the Origami Killer actually is. Such a gut punch.

2nding Last of Us.

The final boss and ending of Portal 2. Absurd, epic, and oh so satisfying.

Finding out that Id and Fei are the same person in Xenogears.

Solving that one puzzle that's been giving you grief in any given puzzle game.

[sleepy hedgehog]

A lot of moments from Tales games.
Most of Tales of Symphonia. The first real RPG I played.
Especially playing through it, getting to the "end", and wondering why there's a second CD, still unused.

Killing Ragou in Talkes of Vesperia.

The betrayal in Baten Kaitos.
It's still my favorite betrayal that has ever happened in any game.
Also I really liked how items aged over time, in the game.

Ascending in Nethack.
Doing it again without a helmet of change alignment.

[Toric]

The betrayal in Baten Kaitos.
It's still my favorite betrayal that has ever happened in any game.

And when said traitor comes to his senses and rejoins your side.

My IRL response: "Don't you ever do that again! You're on friend probation until further notice!"

[Wraith]

Fallout (the first one from 1997).
The ending cinematic broke my heart (spoilers for a 22 year old game, by the way). You start the game as some schmuck tasked to cross the desert, find another Vault and grab a new processor chip for your water purifier, and you have a hundred days to do it before your own Vault dies of dehydration. Along the way you recruit allies, uncover a world-domination plot and an intended genocide by a mutated Vault Overseer, and you almost single-handedly take them all down and narrowly escape with your life to go back home...
...and the Overseer refuses to let you back in. Your time in the wasteland has changed you too much, and the Vault-Tec protocols insist that it would be an irreparable detriment to Vault 13 if you were to try and reintegrate.
Your body is scarred and wounded
Your allies are gone.
Your best and most loyal friend is (canonically) dead.
You saved your Vault and everyone in it; your friends and family included.
You saved the world.
And the game ends with you, alone, limping off into the wasteland as the wind pulls at your ragged Vaultsuit and the Inkspots play the haunting melody of "Maybe" as you fade away into the dust.

Baldur's Gate 2: The Throne of Bhaal
I spent several hundred hours grinding through some of the worst and most dangerous places in the Forgotten Realms (and beyond) and Viconia was with me every step of the way. The romance dialogues with her were funny, tragic, witty and scathing and I did everything that I could to show her that life in the Overworld was... tolerable, if only because she was there with me. In the very end I gave up Godhood and let Bhaal die forever, for I would rather be with her. I couldn't bare to have shown her so much of the world when there was still so much more for us to see together.
And then... she dies. The closing credits reveal the end of the story; we marry and have a child together, but she is tracked down by Drow Assassins who poison her, and she dies slowly in my arms telling me how much she loved me. I didn't cry, but I damn well could have while reading that.
The last line of the game is me and our son heading into the Underdark and burning every last bit of it down in her memory. And by that point, I was a 7 Fighter/Epic Level Druid with all of the most powerful magical artifacts ever known in any of the Realms; there would BE so very much burning...

Red Dead Redemption
Again the ending, and specifically the death of John Marsden. RDR2 was pretty good, but I kind of knew what to expect by that point - John's sacrifice was inevitable, but at the time still startlingly poignant and one of those moments that you kind of knew had to come, but deeply wished that it would not.

The Mass Effect series.
There are a lot of moments throughout the games that stay with me, pretty much all of the set-pieces in fact. The bomb at Virmire, the confrontation with Saryn, the death of the SR-1, the rousing speech at the Collector Base, the invasion of Earth, Kalroth, Legion's ascension/saving of Rannoch, the armada arriving at the Sol system, the moment where your friend/love interest is wounded and Shepherd goes on alone... They're all pretty breathtaking.

But none of it more fondly than the party at the end of the Citadel DLC, where everyone of the crew gets together and remembers those who aren't there. I don't have many head-canons in video games, but for me this is how Mass Effect really ended; the Crucible worked, the Reapers were defeated, and then everyone had a party to celebrate. Even now, I'll occasionally sit and watch the whole thing played through on Youtube, just for nostalgia's sake.

[IthilanorStPete]

Bastion, the first time you meet Zia. The gorgeous graphics, Build That Wall playing...it's just a moment that'll stick with me for a long time.

Oh, and...

As is Bastion, by the same developers. There is one scene in particular, though, when

Spoiler: Bastion spoilers

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you find Zulf again, and choose to carry back his body. Walking that gauntlet while all the Ura just watch, after you've fought and killed so many of them, with Zulf's sorrowful theme playing in the background... the whole thing is intense. The fact that their Captain also strikes down one of the Ura that tries to shoot you while you're defenseless is just really intense. And this is right before the ending, which presents what has to be one of the most interesting moral choices I've ever been presented with in a game.

This scene, too.

[0wca88]

Conversing with the companions of Planescape: Torment about...anything.

[Varen_Tai]

Conversing with the companions of Planescape: Torment about...anything.

Truth. Morte is particular gets me. He's so hilarious and light-hearted but that one memory of yours where you remember the heartbreaking truth of the two of you meeting while he is casually telling you a lighter (and mostly untrue) version of the same encounter seared its way into my memory and I have never forgotten it.

Also P:T - unlocking the Unbroken Circle of Zerithimon was an incredibly cool experience - I loved the philosophy and always look forward to unlocking it every time I play.

[Misereor]

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

I played the second game first, and the reveal was even more awesome after spending an entire preceding game hearing stories about this Revan dude without realizing. It certainly explained some of the more odd Revan related dialogue options in "The Sith Lords".

In the very end I gave up Godhood and let Bhaal die forever, for I would rather be with her. I couldn't bare to have shown her so much of the world when there was still so much more for us to see together. And then... she dies. The closing credits reveal the end of the story; we marry and have a child together, but she is tracked down by Drow Assassins who poison her, and she dies slowly in my arms telling me how much she loved me. I didn't cry, but I damn well could have while reading that.

I quit Pathfinder: Kingmaker after a certain character was turned into a book, and have never touched it again. It was the only characer in the game I actually liked and took pains to remain on good terms with.

[AlanMac]

One of my favorite moments in RPGs in the last few years was the moment when Geralt finally finds Ciri in The Witcher 3. That was pretty heartwarming.

[TheRatAlliance]

Man quite a few. Wraith has already said Red Dead Redemption and I second that, and add on Red Dead 2. I only played the first one a couple years ago and managed to avoid spoilers until I finished, so it was a complete shock. And Red Dead 2 instantly became one of my top three games.

Spoiler: Red Dead 2 Ending spoiler

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The moment that comes to mind though is when you lose your horse. The fact that Arthur and John are literally running for their lives and Arthur still takes the time to comfort and say goodbye to your horse just, man. Just hits RIGHT in the feels.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Okami as well. Such a good game with so many heartfelt moments. My main one is when you figure out about Rao and Queen Himiko. Sprinting back to the palace and walking into the throne room is just... man. I can hear that music and feel the atmosphere when I think about it. So good.

[Hunter Noventa]

Finding out that Id and Fei are the same person in Xenogears.

I figured that out well before the true reveal, but that was still good stuff.

Also, the first time Grahf just descends from the heavens with his awesome music to bestow someone with THE POWER.

Or when Id recovers from having the Yggdrasil dropped on him. "Well that was interesting. but dropping a warship on me is cheating. Take it back!"

So many good moments in that game. I wish I could see it be remade properly.

[Traab]

FF6 The opera song I dont know why it feels so powerful even in all its original nintendo glory, but I didnt even need to click the link to hear it again. That music will never be gone from my mind.

[Velaryon]

I can think of quite a few over the 30-ish years I've played video games. In no particular order...

Arc the Lad (PS1): When I made it to floor 50 of the Forbidden Ruins, not knowing whether anything was down there (my friends who got me into the game assured me that there was no reason to bother with the place, that it was just an endless dungeon where you could do some leveling up). I stumbled into an insanely difficult boss named Choko, who I was NOT prepared to fight. I barely managed to eke out a victory after exhausting all my healing items, all the MP on all my characters, and with all but one of my characters (Tosh) dead... and then I had to climb back out of the dungeon!

It was all worth it in the long run, though, as Choko joined my party (sort of) for defeating her! (She becomes a summon that you can call on, but only during random, non-story fights. But if you convert your save file to Arc the Lad 2, she is a fully playable and ridiculously powerful character there).

Dragon Warrior (NES): Defeating the dragon that was guarding Princess Gwaelin for the first time and taking her back to Tantegel Castle. It's one of only a couple big milestones in the game (which had a very simple story) and it was the first big breakthrough I had in the game, which I played the heck out of while I was home sick with chicken pox in... 2nd or 3rd grade, I think.

Chrono Trigger (SNES): Uh... the whole game, pretty much. I played through this game SO many times that I'm not sure I can narrow down to a single most memorable moment. Some of the standouts, though:
-seeing Lavos arrive on the planet in the distant past, and realizing that Magus wasn't really the one behind him after all
-Crono's death
-seeing the Kingdom of Zeal come crashing down
-beating Spekkio's final form for the first time
-beating Lavos from the beginning of the game on New Game+ and getting the special ending where you meet the game's development team
all among many others.

Castle Crashers (Xbox 360): The crazy humor and fun throwback to the beat-em-ups back I enjoyed back in the 16-bit days were so awesome that I ran out and bought a 360 after playing this at a friend's place, just so I could keep playing.

Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360): John Marston's death scene. I should have seen it coming, but somehow I didn't, at least not until the cutscene where he rushes Abigail and Jack out the back door.

Final Fantasy VII (PS1): I had two moments for this: 1) finally recruiting Cid, who looked like the coolest character in the instruction book and who I wanted to get so badly. 2) when I finally made it out of the Great Glacier on disc 2. This one requires a bit of explanation. I first got the game on PC because I had a Nintendo 64 and not a Playstation. Turns out the PC game was a buggy mess (especially on my old Windows 95 computer) that would crash regularly. By the time I got to the beginning of disc 2, the game crashed on my PC after literally every encounter, so I had to give up playing. Fast forward a couple years, and a friend who I didn't see very often lent me his Playstation, but only gave me the first disc of the game! I played through and eagerly waited to see him again so I could borrow the next disc, but then he wanted his console back. It wasn't until college (late 2001) that I finally had the chance to buy my own Playstation and finish the game.

[Brookshw]

Have we mentioned Dead Space and finding out that not only was your girlfriend dead the entire time, but that the character knew it and had blocked it out?

[Toric]

I have a few more:

Final Fantasy 6: The departure of the ghost train. It's a poignant end to a party member's tragic backstory. This effect is somewhat tainted by the fact that another party member suplexed the entire train in the preceding boss fight, but really, how can that be a bad thing?

Deus Ex 2: Invisible War: The conclusion of the "Coffee Wars" sidequest chain. Arpund the world you've been meddling in a feud between two coffee shop franchises - one using 100% organic non-GMO beans and another using genetically designed, hydroponically grown beans. Finally the owner of one side's shop wants you to investigate why all his lawsuits against the rival shop in town keep disappearing, so you have to break into government records and learn ... the two chains are subsidiaries of the same parent company, which started this feud to drive coffee drinkers to one end of the spectrum or the other, eliminating any middle-ground competition and giving the company an invisible monopoly.

That was the first example I'd seen of a staged feud and I couldn't believe it was uncovered by something as mundane as following a lawsuit paper trail.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Dragon Age Origins: Morrigan’s offer before the final battle. Twice, in fact. In my first play through I was so stunned that I rejected it outright. In my second play through I gave it a try and found the overall effect disturbing. Thankfully the flow of the game didn’t give me much time to dwell on it.

Fallout: New Vegas. Meeting Mobius face to face. Coming off the back of an over the top boss fight against a huge robot, the reveal was jarring in how subdued it was. I found myself genuinely thinking that killing him and the Think Tank would have been the merciful choice, even though the ending narration seemed to indicate I had gotten a “good” ending by sparing their lives.

[oxybe]

FF6: Celes' bad start to the world of ruin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok6qjPj7O3g

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After her sickly and aging grandfather figure dies in her (and the player's) care, Celes is now alone on a deserted and desolated island in the post-apocalyptic future she and her (possibly dead) friends failed to stop due to the ambitions of the Empire the former General once called home.

And then it kicks you in the feels with her hauntingly beautiful leitmotif, a version of the in-game opera score, Aria Di Mezzo Carattere, which Celes performs... this plays as she attempts suicide by jumping off a cliff.

Note that it's possible, if difficult, to save Cid

FFIX will always be my favourite FF, but IMO FFVI will always be the best.

[TaRix]

FF6: Celes' bad start to the world of ruin

Spoiler

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After her sickly and aging grandfather figure dies in her (and the player's) care, Celes is now alone on a deserted and desolated island in the post-apocalyptic future she and her (possibly dead) friends failed to stop due to the ambitions of the Empire the former General once called home.

And then it kicks you in the feels with her hauntingly beautiful leitmotif, a version of the in-game opera score, Aria Di Mezzo Carattere, which Celes performs... this plays as she attempts suicide by jumping off a cliff.

Note that it's possible, if difficult, to save Cid

Spoiler

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It's not that hard to save Cid, actually. Just grab the faster-moving fish instead of the slower ones. The slow ones are apparently sickly and show up in key items as "Fish" and "A rotten fish". However, I don't know if this is different in any of the remakes.

[The Glyphstone]

Another one that just came to mind - the prologue to Descent 2, with the corporate suit signing off after weaseling the player into doing another set of missions.

"Good luck, Material Defender. Dravis, out."

Even to this day I can still hear his smug voice.

[oxybe]

Spoiler

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It's not that hard to save Cid, actually. Just grab the faster-moving fish instead of the slower ones. The slow ones are apparently sickly and show up in key items as "Fish" and "A rotten fish". However, I don't know if this is different in any of the remakes.

Spoiler

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yeah but it's never explained the first time around or ever to the player that the mechanics of Cid's life is on a timer and fast fish raise timer, slow fish decrease it and to save him you have to keep doing getting fish until you get his timer well above the starting point.

i remember going on Gamefaqs as a young'un to figure out how to save him.

Canonically, I believe Cid is meant to die which is why even if you save him he doesn't add much else to the story past giving Celes a home to return to and less depressing start to the second half of the game.

[Wookieetank]

So many good moments in that game. I wish I could see it be remade properly.

Indeed, and with a fully fleshed out 2nd half. I didn't mind the info dump bits since I'm a rabid reader, but actually getting to play through them instead, yes please.

If I wasn't in the middle of working through the Kingdom Hearts series with my family (and just started Persona 5 earlier this week), I'd be firing this up when I got home tonight.

[danzibr]

Oh man. Doki Doki Literature Club. Some moments, never forget.

Edit: ha, wrote that one already.

K, I got one. Star Control 2, when you free the Chmmr.

[Malphegor]

Extremely modded Skyrim: That moment when I discovered that the Superman mod's ludicrously fast flight speed and passive slow time aura meant that he could move stupidly fast, where often you were waiting half an hour real time for a person (who is often still in the T-pose even after you hit them with your laser vision) you've killed to fall down. Probably the most excruciatingly memorable example of what it's like to play a speedster I've ever experienced in a video game.

Fable 1: Discovering the trophy-rent loop in Bowerstone. Bash down door, put house up for rent, place trophy inside, evict tenants, remove trophy. I forget the exact loop but was the first ever infinite gold loop I ever exploited.

Mass Effect: Finding the other Prothean Beacon that suggests that humans were uplifted by the Protheans, and then later on discovering that this doesn't really come up in the sequels.

[ellenate]

just cause 2, a mission involving blowing a space shuttle/missile out of the sky... with a jet

Jak 2, docks mission. every quest or so would just find a way to bring you to the brink of a complete and utter mental breakdown.

ratchet and clank deadlock, announcers' banter.

all of the old gta's radio banter.

(banter in video games is so underrated.)

The original Fable. just about everything about that game has stuck with me.

God of war 2's combat system. parrying was so rewarding in that game.

[Tentreto]

One moment I rememer is from Mystic Quest (Final Fantasy Adventure) where, at the end of everything, you realise that although you saved the world, you have to leave the girl behind, so the world can continue, with the knowledge that if she dies at any point for the rest of eternity, the world is doomed.

Another was from Rimworld, where my first colonist survived with her pet direwolf until the end of the game. At this point, the direwolf had lost a paw, an eye, and was brain damaged, while the colonist had lost an eye as well, but was otherwise fine. I decided that, as the base was to be left to the wildreness, that the wolf needed to be euthenised. The first colonist did it with a single shot, and walked straight into the spaceship, bringing on the credits music. This almost brought me to tears, as it was the cumulation of an entire playthrough into a single moment.

[Man_Over_Game]

Fable 1: Discovering the trophy-rent loop in Bowerstone. Bash down door, put house up for rent, place trophy inside, evict tenants, remove trophy. I forget the exact loop but was the first ever infinite gold loop I ever exploited.

There's also the apple-selling loop.

See, the game had an algorithm for "supply and demand" with each merchant, where they'd lower and increase costs based on their stock and money available. This makes sense...except for the fact that you can buy/sell in bulk, bypassing any cost scaling. That is, you can buy 100 apples at the lowest price, and then turn around and sell 100 apples for the highest price. If an apple ranges from 1-3 gold and he buys them at half value, you can flood his market with apples (reducing them to 1 gold each), selling them at maximum value at 3g apiece (halved, because he's a merchant, to 150 gold), then buy them back at 1g apiece (for 100g), sell them back for 150... You see where I'm getting at.

Apples in particular were a good way of abusing this, because they're commonly found and their shear quantity causes the entire loophole to be exacerbated.

[JNAProductions]

Beating Binding of Isaac for the first time.
And then subsequently realizing that the game added MORE final bosses.

Pretty much anything from Undertale.

[NRSASD]

A few more moments:

Figuring out the Nameless One's name in Planescape Torment. Discovering how the Nameless One's resurrections affected the setting.

The ending of Baldur's Gate 2 Throne of Bhaal. Not because anything especially cinematic happened, but because the saga was finally over. I loved every moment of its 200+ hours, and knowing that the story had finally come to an end, and that there would be no more, forever, was quite the moment.

In Rimworld: when I had to choose between performing a life-saving surgery on my best sniper, a 17 year old girl named Jaguar, or using the last of our medicine to give our best surgeon a 30% chance of surviving the plague. I chose to rescue Jaguar, but man that decision haunted me for days afterwards.

The ending of Bioshock Infinite. Even if the story got a bit muddled, the music and the scene were beautifully done.

There's many more, but I can't think of them at the moment.

[danzibr]

Wait... I don’t recall figuring out his name. Huh. Time to go do some reading.

But yeah, lots of sweet moments from that game. As earlier said, the banter. And figuring out the NO’s past. Very memorable.

[NRSASD]

Spoiler: Planescape Torment Spoilers for danzibr:

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You... sorta figure out his name. It's never explicitly stated what his name actually is, because the writers correctly realized that any name would fail to live up to expectations. But in the true spirit of PT, the actual name is not nearly as important as *knowing* the name, because by knowing your name you *know* yourself.