History Heartwarming / ZeroPunctuation

* Yahtzee's review of ''VideoGame/Persona5'' was surprisingly positive (for [[CausticCritic Yahtzee]] anyway), given that he'd never played a ''Persona'' game before, and his usual attitude about [=JRPGs=].

* Even though his review of ''VideoGame/EndlingExtinctionIsForever'' is a bit sad, Yahtzee does portray a mother fox and her babies as [[EverythingsBetterWithPlushies little fox plushies]]. The ways the fox plushies are doing are pretty cute and yet hilarious at the same time.

* Even though his review of ''VideoGame/EndlingExtinctionIsForever'' is a bit sad, Yahtzee does portray a mother fox and her babies as little fox plushies. The ways the fox plushies are doing are pretty cute and yet hilarious at the same time.

* There's something heartwarming about Yahtzee deciding to give a spot on his usual yearly Top 5 ''Best'' to [[VideoGame/{{Hades}} two]] [[VideoGame/BPMBulletsPerMinute games]] rather than one, with the only other time a game getting a shared spot with another was 2011, where he named ''[[VideoGame/ModernWarfare Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/Battlefield3 Battlefield 3]]'' the worst games of 2011. It's undercut by the two games being Frankenstein-stitched together, begging for a MercyKill.

* In his ''Bob's Game'' retrospective, Yahtzee (predictably) [[ReasonYouSuckSpeech drags the titular developer HARD]] for being [[SmallNameBigEgo a delusional would-be auteur]] "remembered" more for his CreatorBreakdown over Creator/{{Nintendo}} ignoring his applications for a DS Dev Kit than for his would-be magnum opus. Yet afterward, Yahtzee delivers a surprisingly sensitive [[AnAesop Aesop]] about how Bob's FatalFlaw was his putting too much of himself into a project, and [[SincerityMode sincerely]] advising all would-be creatives that even a poor product successfully released is better than the any number of unrealized masterpieces.

--> '''Yahtzee:''' "People ask me if I worry about the future of the interactive arts in this era of triple-A being a constant stream of soulless exploitative knock-offs, but I'm not worried! [[HistoryRepeats Because we've been here before.]] At the end of the 90s, games like ''Quake III'' and ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'' tried to convince us that we didn't really want artistic single-player PC games when we could just pay to run on hamster wheels all day, and look what the 2000s brought us. VideoGame/DeusEx! VideoGame/ThiefII! VideoGame/BioShock! VideoGame/{{Portal}}! It's always a phase. In the long run, the only eternal guarantor of success is a quality product well-made, [[SexSells ideally with tits on the front]]. The money to be made from knocking off what's popular and exploiting the stupid always dries up eventually, if only because the stupids die out from daring each other to headbutt the ceiling fan."

* [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/8768-Roleplaying-Homosexual-in-Dragon-Age-2 His entire piece on romancing Anders]] in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' in Extra Punctuation, especially the part where he states that he doesn't want to hear any of his readers' versions of the story, since he doesn't want to ruin the experience.

* [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/9334-Non-Violent-Game-Idea-Puppies-in-Hell His concept for a non violent game]]. It's about a van driver that dies and goes to hell, armed only with [[spoiler: a basket of puppies]], having to [[spoiler: give [[CooldownHug hugs]]]] to TheLegionsOfHell.

** From the same review (and [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/9768-What-Not-to-Hate-About-E3.2 an earlier installment]] of ''Extra Punctuation''): Many a ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' fan was pleasantly surprised to learn that, despite ''Minecraft'' not making his Top 5 of 2011 list[[note]]on the basis that he was hesitant to consider it a game as opposed to a very fun creativity toy[[/note]][[note]]but he did say that he would retroactively rename his fourth best game of 2011 as ''Minecraft'' if ''VideoGame/{{Infamous}} 3'' was ever made[[/note]] and Yahtzee's well-known aversion to replaying games[[note]]see the Top 5 of 2010 episode, in which even among his top recommendations, only his #1 and #2 picks were good enough for him to want to keep playing them after having reviewed them[[/note]], he has been playing ''Minecraft'''s hardcore mode in his spare time for awhile now.

* At the end of his ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' review, he thanks everyone who took part in a [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/games/stonking_great/ contest]] where Escapist fans could make their own Yahtzee themed games.

* The [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/columns/extra-punctuation/14860-Undertale-for-Best-Written-Game-2015#&gid=gallery_4930&pid=1 Extra Punctuation]] on ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' wherein Yahtzee admits that he is extremely impressed by the game's writing, especially admiring how heartfelt the story and its message about the value of showing kindness in the face of hostility is, noting that "anything that can touch my stony heart deserves a good hard analysis."

* The opening of his ''[[VideoGame/DevilMayCry Devil May Cry 4]]'' review, where he says he doesn't think all anime is bad, despite how much he bashes the subculture in his reviews. He continues to savage the game for the rest of the review (as he says, it follows certain trends he dislikes), but the bit at the beginning puts things into context.

* The ending of his review of ''VideoGame/Fallout76'', where he gives a surprisingly optimistic perspective on the future of the industry and how even the worst aspects of it are just passing trends. For a hardened cynic like Yahtzee who has a running joke about how the games industry never learns anything, it's a really uplifting message.

* Back in 2018, in Yahtzee's ''VideoGame/HuntDownTheFreeman'' review, he sounded genuinely distressed at the state Valve was in if his long betrayed rant was anything to go by.[[note]]Valve didn't make [=HDtF=], but they approved of it being sold on Steam.[[/note]] Fast forward two years later and he names ''VideoGame/HalfLifeAlyx'' his fourth best of 2020, almost as if he's forgiven Valve for their blunder.

* His idea of improving ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPartII'': cut the unnecessary parts of the game, and use that money to make a game about a butt-sniffing cartoon dog whose CharacterDevelopment is not needing to sniff butts anymore. One gets the idea that his own dog Pepper was part of the inspiration for that concept.

* His video on ''A Link Between Worlds'' is less a review of the game and more an intervention for Nintendo, noting that while he has given them tons of shit in the past, he wants them to succeed as they're the only hardware maker that still makes video game consoles and not inferior [=PC=]s.

* His ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'' is this for many a Nintendo fan: for all of his bashing on Nintendo, Yathzee throws away the review he was gonna do and instead has a long chat with Creator/{{Nintendo}} about their recent failures and praises them for making a gaming console made for ''gaming'' and not online stuff.

*** And while he still preferred Persona 5, he did eventually warm up to ''VideoGame/Persona4'' as well.

* There's something heartwarming about Yahtzee deciding to give a spot on his usual yearly Top 5 ''Best'' to [[VideoGame/{{Hades}} two]] [[VideoGame/BPMBulletsPerMinute games]] rather than one, with the only other time a game getting a shared spot with another was 2011, where he named ''[[VideoGame/ModernWarfare Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/Battlefield3 Battlefield 3]]'' the worst games of 2011.

---> Absolutely sublime from start to finish and I will jam forks into my eyes if I ever use those words to describe anything ever again!

* In his review of ''[[VideoGame/{{Shantae}} Shantae and the Seven Sirens]]'', while Yahtzee finds the game mostly middling, he explains in his research that he didn't know that ''Shantae'' was a [[LongRunner long-running series]] and was surprised to discover it had [[Creator/WayForwardTechnologies the same development studio]] all this time. Curious about the context, he decided to play the previous instalment, ''Half-Genie Hero'', and he ends up assessing that "It's not bad at all!" The best part is that he's not even being [[DamnedByFaintPraise backhanded]] about it; he sounds [[SincerityMode genuinely surprised yet pleased by how good it is]], and comes to the conclusion that [=WayForward=] got complacent with ''Seven Sirens'', but are otherwise more talented than he originally took them for.

* In his review of ''[[VideoGame/{{Shantae}} Shantae and the Seven Sirens]]'', while Yahtzee finds the game mostly middling, explains in his research that he didn't know that ''Shantae'' was a [[LongRunner long-running series]], all produced by [[Creator/WayForwardTechnologies the same development studio]]. Curious about the context, he decided to play the previous instalment, ''Half-Genie Hero'', and he ends up assessing that "It's not bad at all!" The best part is that he's not even being [[DamnedByFaintPraise backhanded]] about it; he sounds [[SincerityMode genuinely surprised yet pleased by how good it is]], and comes to the conclusion that [=WayForward=] got complacent with ''Seven Sirens'', but are otherwise more talented than he originally took them for.

* In his review of ''[[VideoGame/{{Shantae}} Shantae and the Seven Sirens]]'', while Yahtzee finds the game mostly middling, explains in his research that he didn't know that ''Shantae'' was a [[LongRunner long-running series]], all produced by [[Creator/WayForwardTechnologies the same development studio]]. Curious about the context, he decided to play the previous instalment, ''Half-Genie Hero'', and he ends up assessing that "It's not bad at all!" The best part is that he's not even being [[DamnedByFaintPraise backhanded]] about it; he sounds [[SincerityMode genuinely surprised yet pleased by how good it is]], and comes to the conclusion that [=WayForward=] got complacent, but are otherwise more talented than he originally took them for.

* In his review of ''[[VideoGame/{{Shantae}} Shantae and the Seven Sirens]]'', while Yahtzee finds the game mostly middling, explains in his research that he didn't know that ''Shantae'' was a [[LongRunner long-running series]], all produced by [[Creator/WayForwardTechnologies the same development studio]]. Curious about the context, spurned him into playing ''Half-Genie Hero'', and he ends up assessing that "It's not bad at all!" The best part is that he's not even being [[DamnedByFaintPraise backhanded]] about it; he sounds [[SincerityMode genuinely and pleasantly surprised]] by how good it is, and comes to the conclusion that [=WayForward=] got complacent, but are otherwise more talented than he originally took them for.