The whole game is of course a masterpiece to me and there are dozens of moments, but this ending affected me emotionally more than anything ever in a game. Kind of self explainitory why. Joel's tears, and then Ellie leaving the guitar behind. Just incredible.
I ended up loving the game overall and it's my goty runner up. Non stop adrenaline, but especially the entire final level and the Icon of Sin. It was just beyond chaos all the way through and an endorphine rush.
Also: The tonal shift midway through Umurangi Generation
and the burial ceremony in Kentucky Route Zero Act 5
edit: plus the persimmon substory in Like A Dragon
The whole chapter 9 was an absolute joy, but Hell House was the climax. In the lead up to the game many people were wondering if this magnificent bastard will show up in the remake, and boy, did he show up. I loved everything about it.
After I beat the game I watched the launch trailer and was shocked to learn that they spoiled his appearance. I was so glad that I skipped the trailer before playing the game. Why, Square?
Wall Market. Just the entirety of Wall Market. I could die before the rest of the remake is finished and I'd be satisfied. The squats, the sidequests, the fucking Hell House! And that rhythm game!
I was absolutely giddy during the whole walk from the Honey Bee Inn to Don Corneo's mansion in Cloud's best and most beautiful look. Just a chef's kiss moment.
- Confrontation at the theatre, fighting Ellie as Abby
- Abby crossing that sky bridge (as someone with a fear of heights, this moment... spoke to me)
- Confrontation at the end, fighting Abby as Ellie
- Porch scene
Demon's Souls:
- Getting schooled to Flamelurker repeatedly like in the good ol' days before I finally got gud, then beating Maneaters (melee) first try later
- Evil ending. It was really disturbing (in a good way), more so than the original.
- Ku "dying", which broke me
- The ending with Shriek dying alone and broken, having never known love or acceptance in her whole life. That shit hit me way harder than it had any right to.
Ghost of Tsushima:
- The "slaughter" stealth kill animation
- Unlocking Ghost stance for the first time and going nuts with it
I will never forget the endgame scene where Ellie tells Joel she isn't sure if she will ever forgive him but she would like to try.
The dinosaur boss fight! That was such fun spectacle. And actually quite a good boss fight for a game I didn't expect one in.
Hailey Cooper in Miles Morales. I've never seen a deaf character or sign language in a video game before. It really struck me as something I've never seen before. I loved the whole game for lots of little reasons but the diverse character identities were especially appealing to me.
I know this isn't a 2020 game but I only played it for the first time in September and damn. Ending E. That's all I'll say. If you get it, you get it.
When Aerith visits Marlene in the bar during the plate fall. I have a special sensitivity for compassion towards children. It makes me very emotional. Marlene's VA in this game is so authentic, which is really uncommon for child characters in video games — including other children in FF7. That whole scene was just really rare and special to me. You do not usually have a playable character whose greatest moment of heroism is connecting personally with a scared little kid. It was really wholesome.
I think a lot of it is probably quarantine brain but a lot of games hit me hard in the heart this year. No regrets for all the times I got sappy.
Including some things that happened in games that released for the first time on Steam this year, despite releasing earlier elsewhere.
TLOU2 spoilers:
arriving at the theater as Abby. I was so fucking ready for their confrontation. She shouldn't have done what she nearly did to Dina, but TBH after Ellie's self destructive rampage I was ready for Abby to get a little bit of payback. "We let you live, and you wasted it." I was in absolute agreement with her. I know plenty of other people will disagree, and that Abby's own search for revenge is hypocritical, but Ellie's wanton disregard for the well being of her own friends and family, and her complete unwillingness to examine her own actions really irked me. Despite all that, I was so relieved when at the end of the game, both of them managed to walk away with their lives. I do not feel sorry that she lost her fingers or her relationship. She made her choices knowing full well what they might cost her every step of the way. The irony that it's only because she made them that Abby lived at all doesn't really absolve her of them.
Control's
ashtray maze
actually turned out to be really cool once I finally got there.
The Outer Wilds spoilers:
When I matched trajectory with the sun station and ejected myself into it. Watching the sun expand to slowly envelop it. Also, successfully navigating the dark seed. Also, entering the ash core and realizing what I was doing. Also, triggering the quantum anomaly or whatever by closing the black hole before the probe entered, but after it emerged. Also, the ending. Just a game with a lot of really cool moments.
Doom Eternal. I don't know. It's hard to pick a specific moment. It was just sort of all one big combat high. Any time things were going your way in that game just feels fantastic.
Ori 2 spoilers:
Becoming a fucking tree wtf.
Black Mesa's 1.0: Questionable Ethics, surface tension, Lambda Core, Xen. Your arrival in Xen was bonkers good. For an indie fan remake, they did a really good job on this game. Some other bigger better funded outfits should be fucking embarassed tbh. Not calling out SE for FF7R, haven't played the new or old game, have no opinion on either.
Any of the very very few times I solo aced a whole squad in Apex.
E-E-E-EWAH, RAP BATTLE. So many great moments in this game but the first fight against DK West was amazing
When Britney Spears' Toxic started playing on that one stage. They did that stage so damn well. All the music stages are amazing
The entire Day of Fates. From the music that plays to the last boss fight and then the LAST boss fight where you and the boss are just punching each other.
When you enter the final dungeon for the last time, after around 120 hours of spending time with all of your friends, and "I Believe" starts playing. Running up that last staircase to confront Maruki while jamming out to that song is one of my favorite moments in gaming for sure.
The entire Museum/Birthday level, up to the gift. Really made me realize just how much I love Joel and Ellie, a huge smile throughout, then just full on crying at Joel's "I do okay?", looking so proud and Ellie just being so happy. But also it being the final bright moment in their relationship just makes it all so bittersweet. Chokes me up just thinking about it.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
"He's our Spider-Man" and that end shot with Pete and Miles, can not fucking wait for the game starting both Spideys.
There was a 4 galleon alliance doing the Fort of the Damned in Sea of Thieves. They were stacking it in the vault and not turning it in. My crew (another galleon) decided to do regular forts to get 4 mega kegs. We ended up getting 4 mega kegs and 4 row boats while the alliance stacked. Each of us rowed over and synchronized docked our boats just as they finished the fort and ran the mega kegs to the bottom decks—somehow undetected. In one of the most beautiful thing i have ever seen all kegs exploded at the same time. In a real hurry we had all alliance members swarming us. 16v4. We killed all alliance crews and sunk all four ships. There was little they could do. Opened the vault to find 6 athenas..nice little yoink.
Guys, your TLOU Part II Spoilers are making me tear up again. :( I don't know why that ending moved me so much-- but it really did.
Aside from that ending scene,
1) The Dinosaur Exhibit: Just a wholesome moment in general. Who knew that just walking around an abandoned museum could bring me so much joy.
2) Aquarium Section with Yara: Particularly the section with Alice(the dog). Before this particular section-- I'll admit-- I hated those fucking dogs. When Ellie killed Alice a couple of scenes prior-- I felt no remorse. I'm glad I killed the stupid dog. The dogs were such a fucking pain to deal with!
But watching Yara (who probably had similar feelings that I had about said dog-- seeing as she probably had to deal with them the same way that Ellie did-- being a Scar and all) put her fears aside for a moment to play catch with the dog-- it put a lot of things in perspective for me. I could write a whole essay about how we dehumanise and deface our enemy into something faceless and alien to make it easier for us to forget that those people on the other side are human too (which was one of the main themes in TLOU2 too of course). And watching Abby reassure her and go: "See, it's okay. She's just a dog." Everything just clicked for me. It's so easy for us to fall victim to the same prejudices. It was such a small and simple scene but it touched me nonetheless.
FFVIIR Wall Market and Shinra building
XC Future Connected ending and Melia quiet moments with (spoiler)
GoT title drop
Hades every new character introduction
FF7R had a bunch in part due to nostalgia but they knew exactly what they were doing and did it great but if I have to choose one its
First meeting with Aerith when her theme kicks in when she shows you the flower.
Expected to get teary eyed did not expect it so soon. In general they exceeded my high expectations for Aerith in the Remake and hearing Maaya Sakamoto voice Aerith for more than just a few scenes in AC or crossover games was great
"If somehow, the Lord gave me a second chance at that moment, I would do it all over again."
I was tearing up during the ending, and then when Joel said that to Ellie, I lost it. The museum segment of the game was fantastic too. I loved Ellie listening to the Apollo 11 launch. It's probably my game of the generation.
Final Fantasy VII remake (I'll put it in a spoiler tag just in case)
The Airbuster boss battle especially because of the remake of Those Who Fight Further.
Doom Eternal. When I realised I had gotten used to the game, and was actually kicking ass instead of running away like I was for at least the first third of the game.
FFXIV Shadowbringers ending arc. I was late to the party and only got to it this year. It was fucking amazing.
Honestly, just simple act of playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2. Playing through classic levels with updated mechanics & amazing new songs on the soundtrack brings me a level of joy few other games this year have.
Bobby's sacrifice. The music and dialogue were well-done, and the fact that it followed a major gameplay segment with just you and Bobby made it extra effective.
Finding a Rare Drop☆KOI☆KOI music disc in Yakuza 7 made me audibly gasp
Ikenfell
Finding out just how Safina hurt Perty before the game began
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Kuro D:
Manifold Garden
All of Yellow. A shame the game kind of fell off afterwards and the only way Yellow could've been better is if you could only take one red cube out the door and needed to bring the other one alllll the way back through the central tower and unsolve your puzzles to get it out the other end.
They changed up the ending if you're playing as Vergil to have the final fight be a 1v1 vs Dante and ohhhhhhhhhh shit that bury the light acapella version that kicks in ? whew
When a sculpt I made from scratch in Dreams finally came together and animated exactly as I imagined it. Probably my favorite moment of the generation. Runner-up would be finally having a breakthrough in Dreams after struggling with how to get certain things to work. Basically all of Dreams is my favorite moment.
Outside of Dreams, I'd go with every single time I used the gravity glove to fling something at myself in Half-Life: Alyx. Never got old.
The ending of Yakuza:Like A Dragon. Hands down some of the best VA along with facial animation work I have ever seen. Kazuhiro Nakaya is insanely talented and amongst my favourite VA after seeing his portrayals of Nishiki and Ichiban.
Started typing these out expecting there to be more from other games that I played this year, but really all I can think of are Ghost of Tsushima and TLOU Part 2 moments. Those are ones that stuck with me the most and there are several from both games.
The title card drop in Ghost of Tsushima was one of my favorite gaming moments of this past gen. Perfect combination of music and visuals that really gets you pumped for the journey you're about to go on.
Jin becoming the Ghost and unlocking Ghost Stance during the battle of Yarikawa. The music and the chanting when he activates Ghost Stance and chases the Mongols down through the gates was such an incredible moment.
The final fight with Shimura. The visuals of them fighting in the flowers near the graveyard where Jin's father was buried, and the conflicted feelings they both had before their inevitable fight made for a really intense duel. Also loved that they gave us a choice to kill or spare Shimura. I chose to spare him because in my view, Jin no longer cared about honor by the end of the game. He wouldn't kill Shimura no matter what. Loved the "The Ghost will be hunted for the rest of his days." line from Shimura and then Jin says "I know." and walks away slowly while the music swells. Just a gorgeous ending to a fantastic game.
Ellie singing Take On Me to Dina in the music store when they get to Seattle. It's a moment that you could miss pretty easily if you weren't fully thorough while exploring, and it brought me to tears watching it. Beautiful cover by Ashley Johnson and it just fit the moment so well. I've rewatched it many times.
Joel and Ellie's flashback to the museum. Such a poignant sequence filled with great interactions, with the spaceship moment being my favorite. Just really encapsulates so much about them and their relationship.
This is a two ended one, but the moment when the game flips over to Abby's perspective and then the moment towards the end where you fight Ellie in the theater. I know the perspective change was divisive for people but I absolutely loved it. It completely changed how I viewed the characters and I thought it was genuinely brilliant.
Joel and Ellie's talk on the porch. The culmination of all the emotions they had built up over the years just let out there. Heartbreaking.
