Calling these video games “games” might be doing them a disservice. These ten titles are heavy hitting narrative experiences, deep digital dives into the heart. Oscar worthy stories about the some of the darkest aspects of the human experiences – Best Picture winners, all. Each one of these games is a study in suffering, stories to help the player tackle difficult feelings in their own life. Granted, hopefully none of us will have to deal with the sorrow that comes with a zombie apocalypse or the extermination of mystical race of giants – but sometimes you have to look outside of real life in order to get a handle on day to day emotions. These are ten of the best video games about loss and grief, to be played with a tissue box on hand.
God of War Ragnarok
The 2018 revamp of hack and slash franchise God of War was an emotional doozy, trading the franchise’s trademark violence for an intimate story between father and child. The game’s sequel was arguably even more of a tearjerker, as divine dad Kratos struggles to parent his teenage son. While fighting against the worst father ever, the Norse god Odin, Kratos attempts to serve as a role model for Atreus – a difficult task when all you’ve known in your life is suffering, trauma, and rage. The game features on of the most insightful, goose bumps inducing quotes about the nature of loss: “the culmination of love is grief.” It’s a phrase spoken to Kratos by a vision of his deceased wife, as she attempts to coax him to open his heart to his loved ones despite the inevitable pain such intimacy will cause. Devastating, complicated, gorgeous – God of War Ragnarok will teach you more about grief than any psychology course.
Gris
Gris is a surrealist story about a young woman platforming her way through a dream, an emotional landscape that represents her heavy emotions. Rendered in a blurry, can-barely-see-through-the-tears watercolor style, Gris follows its titular heroine through a grieving process, represented by a journey through the subconscious. While the game is light on plot details, it’s heavy on mood and tone – communicating just enough about Gris’ experience of loss. The best part of the game’s minimalist story is that it allows you to fill in the emotional blanks, serving as a narrative stand in for the grief that we’re all destined to feel in our own lives. Rapturously artistic and painfully sad, Gris is a one two emotional punch in the jaw.
That Dragon, Cancer
That Dragon, Cancer – a game that can make one cry from the title alone. It was developed by a small team including Ryan and Amy Green, and tells the story of the Green’s son Joel, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer when he was a year old. A minimalist point and click experience, the game serves as a window into Joel’s brief and beautiful life – as well as the lives of his parents who struggled to deal with his tragic loss. Despite being only two hours long, That Dragon, Cancer packs a lifetime worth of emotional punch. It’s a throughly devastating game, one that captures the exquisite beauty and fragility life – a game that reminds you to savor your time with loved ones while it lasts.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
The darkest Zelda game to date, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is a hallucinatory epic about a doomed and dreary world. After Link’s horse is stolen by a forest spirit called Skull Kid, he wakes up in the land of Termina – a dark parallel of the Hyrule found in the franchise’s previous release Ocarina of Time. Termina is cursed – its swamps are poisoned, its mountains are frostbitten, its seas are dead, and its canyons are haunted by restless spirits. If that wasn’t bad enough, the moon is set to fall in three days – obliterating the world unless Link can figure out a way to stop it. The game is often interpreted as an exploration of the five stages of grief, as its characters deal with the impeding apocalypse with a cocktail denial, anger, and deep depression. A story of trauma that ultimately culminates in healing, Majora’s Mask is the most emotionally complex Zelda game ever made.
The Last of Us Part II
While the Last of Us Part I served as an exploration of grief in its own right, the sequel turns the emotional dial up to eleven. Told in parallel between two grieving teens, the story of The Last of Us Part II demonstrates how complicated emotions can cause us to lash out against the world. The game’s duel protagonists Ellie and Abby are both motivated by a sense of deep personal loss, and in this mushroom zombie ridden world, the only emotional outlet that available to them is violence. A brutal story of suffering, the game teaches that grief can twist innocent people into something unrecognizable, instruments of hatred and pain capable of spreading that suffering to others. Ellie and Abby never meant to become killers, but the murderous world had other plans. The question is, will they learn to move on from their trauma? Or will they become fully consumed by it?
RiME
RiME is a deceptively devastating game rendered with sunny colors, an island adventure floating on an ocean of grief. The story follows a boy who washed ashore on a mysterious island after he and his father with separated by a storm at sea. As the boy navigates the island, he’s led by a ghostly apparition of his father – guiding him through physical representations of the five stages of grief. The psychologically turbulent game culminates in an emotional drop kick to the solar plexus, RiME‘s twist ending really twists the knife. It’s the kind of title that will leave you will tears streaming down your cheeks, an understated adventure game that delivers an oversized slap of feelings to the face. Beautiful and heartbreaking, this game can’t be missed.
To the Moon
A mediation on memory, To the Moon packs the emotional wallop of Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind. It’s the story of Eva Rosalene and Neil Watts, two doctors hired to fulfill a terminally ill man’s dying wish: to go the moon. Johnny Wyles isn’t exactly sure why he wants to go to the moon, and using a technology that allows them to artificially manipulate memories, Eva and Neil decide to find out the reason. As the doctors dive into Johnny’s mind, they begin to uncover the details of his past: his tumultuous relationship to his high school sweetheart River, and his childhood memory loss that informs his adult psyche. An emotional detective story, To the Moon is a thoroughly devastating mystery whose answers will leave you a sobbing puddle on the floor.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
While the Metal Gear Solid series is no stranger to heavy emotions, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is arguably the heaviest hitting of the bunch. The game takes place after the tragic events of Ground Zeroes, where mercenary leader Big Boss suffered the loss of his home, his comrades, and nearly his life. After waking up in a hospital nine years after the attack that cost him everything, Big Boss vows to rebuild his mercenary company and take revenge on the clandestine organization responsible for the assault. An alternate military history with the drama of a Baroque opera, The Phantom Pain is the story of a man haunted by past suffering, holding out for a cause worth fighting for.
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is about as kind to its child protagonists as a Stephen King novel, which is to say not very. It’s the story of two brothers who set out on a quest to help their sick father, journeying through a fantasy world full of fairytale creatures and monsters to find a cure. As the brothers navigate the land, they come across people in heavy circumstances – suicidal, sacrificial, and seriously violent. A dark tale about the light of innocence lost, Brothers is a coming of age adventure game that refuses to pull its emotional punches. I’m still getting over the ending – the grief is palpable.
Shadow of The Colossus
Like The Last of Us Part II, Shadow of The Colossus is parable about the madness that can come from devastating loss. The story follows a young man named Wander, who journeys to a forbidden land in order to resurrect a young woman. Wander is told by a dark god that the only way to revive the girl is to kill the Colossi – towering giants that wander the land. With every colossus that Wander fells, he becomes slowly transformed in both body and mind by a shadowy force of darkness. The ultimate “ends justify the means” story, the game asks what you would do bring back a lost loved one. Would you kill monsters? What about innocent monsters? Monsters just minding their own business? Unspeakable sorrow can make us do unspeakable things.
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