For me, in no particular order: Firewatch This War of Mine What Remains of Edith Finch Gone Home Papers Please Doki Doki Literature Club I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Outer Wilds
A random reddit clip introduced me to the game years ago, and my life has never been the same since…
Yes!!! I was hoping someone would have commented this… The sense of just scale and epicness, the loss, and feeling so small. I wanted to keep learning more and more about the story. It doesn’t seem like it’d be fun, reading in a game? No shooting? No killing? But it’s honestly in my top 3 favorite games of all time. Also Last of Us-- strong feeling of loss in a specific scene in that game.
Doki doki was great. I played a lot VNs and this one hits you really hard.
I buyed the Plusversion on Steam again a few years later
Rime completely wrecked me. I downloaded it because it looked like a cute fun puzzle game. I was not prepared for the emotional journey it would take me on.
I should probably try that game again. I got stuck on some puzzle in the beginning, and uninstalled it last time.
Abagail Foy in Prey (2016)
That one chapter in Spec Ops The Line
The scenes where you go back to your childhood home in Wolfenstein The New Colossus
Firewatch
Night in the Woods. It’s hits you in places you never knew were sensitive until you’re acutely aware of each and every exposed nerve.
Nier Replicant really hits hard (even more than Nier Automata)
Cyberpunk 2077. Talking to Angel/Skye in Automatic Love. I was in an emotional state at the time where that dialog really got me.
Also Jackie’s end. That got me good. Animators really nailed that scene.
Pokemon mystery dungeon. Hit like a freight train out of no where
Final Fantasy 15 hits you in the feels pretty hard.
Gone Home is fantastic, and yeah, the ending hits right in the feels.