This game does an exceptional job of tearing your heart out. It begins on a sad note with the youngest brother visiting the grave of their mother, who drowned during a storm. From there, it gets worse.
- The wounded owl gryphon the brothers rescued from the giant derelict tower. He's been locked up there for who knows how long since the giants were wiped out in a great battle, and has obvious wounds from being poked and prodded for examination. After letting the brothers ride him to get closer to their goal, he collapses and dies from the strain. He's on screen for all of maybe three minutes and has a profound effect on the brothers and likely the player. It gets better, though.
- In addition to his abrupt death, he drops a single feather... Which the older brother recognizes as similar to one he used for his floater when fishing with his beloved father.
- All of the climax. Older Brother has been badly wounded by the Spider Girl, and Younger Brother is just a short climb from the Water of Life. He tries to get it to his brother, but is too late. After a gut wrenching scene where he hugs the spirit of his now deceased brother, he has to bury him. Worse for the player, you are in control during the burial; it's not a cutscene like most games would do it. Then Younger Brother is brought back home by another gryphon, only to be stopped by a river and his aqua phobia. He gains the strength to push forward from a brief visit from his mother's spirit, and in a grand feat of Gameplay and Story Integration, uses help from his absent brother's spirit (for the player, using the absent brother's interaction button) to conquer his fear of water and complete a few other tasks that were only possible when they were together. He finally gets the Water of Life to his father and saves his life. The final shot is of him and his father standing at the mother's and now the brother's graves, while the father breaks down crying.
- Even though she tried to kill the brothers, finishing the spider lady off is no picnic, as half-way into the fight, she stops attacking and begins moaning in agony and struggling to get away. There is no option to be merciful, which would have saved the older brother's life.
- One of the optional challenges in the game involves preventing a man, whose family perished in a house fire, from committing suicide. The player can stick around to try and make him feel better.
- When the older brother gets stabbed by the spider-woman the scene changes back to their father at the healer's, crying out for the older brother, and tries to go to them before he has to lie down again.
- Older Brother attacking Younger Brother in the dream sequence is sudden and brutal, but the worst part is that the younger brother either thinks that Older Brother blames him for the death of their mother, or worse, thinks that the eldest should blame him for the death of their mother. Either way, that's a heavy burden for a young kid.
