Tear Jerker / Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

• In Mission 14, Marche teams up with Ritz and Shara to take out some counterfeiters, glad that Ritz doesn't want to turn him in for the money. During the battle, though, Ritz remains adamant that she wants to stay, saying she's confused as to why Marche doesn't, and refusing to explain her own reasons. When the battle concludes, Ritz decides not to turn Marche in unless she gets in trouble for helping him, but as Marche starts to leave, she says she's considering helping Mewt, due to sympathizing more with his perspective than Marche's. With no one left from his world who's supporting him, all Marche can do is hang his head and walk off the stage like a kicked puppy. Even Shara, Ritz's right-hand woman, seemed a little disturbed at how she acted towards him.
• Ritz's story about her hair. It's bad enough that people make fun of her hair, but it's even worse that Ritz's own sadness is causing pain to her mother as well. It goes a long way toward why Ritz sees Ivalice as a fresh start, where she can build a new life without being held back.
  • The worst part is that she doesn't even fully understand what the problem is until Shara basically beats her over the head with it: her mother wasn't upset because Ritz wanted to dye her hair, but because Ritz was so ashamed of something that made her special. Once Ritz stopped treating it as something embarrassing and shameful, her mother stopped being upset about it. Shara herself seems to be genuinely hurt by Ritz's attitude, pointedly asking her if she thinks Shara's hair is ugly as well.
    Shara: "Is white hair really so bad...?"
    Ritz: "Of course it is!"
    Shara: (genuinely hurt) "But my hair's white. Did you think worse of me as well for it?"
• After Exodus is defeated, Cid's forced to confront the truth about himself and remember his previous life.
  Cid: "Mewt didn't want to believe it... To think, his own father... crying in the gutters. That's why he made me judgemaster here in this world. (pause) Or... maybe it was I myself who did that."
• Just before the fight with Mateus, whom Marche believes to be the last enemy he must defeat before returning home, the image of Mewt (who's implied to voice Marche's internal doubts) harshly lays out the truth to Marche- Marche's life is unlikely to change for the better once he goes home.
  Mewt: What's so great about going back? Why go home at all?
  Marche: Mewt...
  Mewt: Will your dad come back, Marche?
  Marche: Hey!
  Mewt: All your parents do is fight! Dad's always at work and Mom's always looking after Doned. You were always alone—at home, at school... We're a lot alike, Marche. I know how it is...
  Marche: ....
• One dispatch mission, "To Father." It's unclear what happened here, but this family has obviously seen happier days.
  "Could you bring my father to me? I promise I won't speak harshly to him. I just want him to visit Mother's grave. Thank you."
• One repeat mission is about breaking a man out of the Ambervale prison. He doesn't want to escape, and returns to jail afterwards to be broken out again next year. He just wants to be there for his daughter's birthday.
• Marche and Doned's argument hurts pretty bad as well from both sides, but especially Marche's side. From Doned's perspective, he can finally walk and run and isn't sick all the time, and his brother is trying to take that away from him. From Marche's side, it's arguably worse: their move to St. Ivalice was motivated by Doned's health concerns, Doned's illness stressed their parents' marriage so much they divorced and Marche's dad practically abandoned them immediately after, Marche's mother now has to take care of a sick child on her own and barely pays any attention to Marche (it's implied this pattern existed before the divorce as well), and since Marche is almost a teenager, he has to bite his tongue and bear it. On top of all of this, Doned either doesn't realize this or doesn't care, and Marche realizes that his little brother values a fantasy world over the family who've sacrificed everything for him. Doned does have a My God, What Have I Done? moment, but getting there is painful.
  Marche: "I never said I WANTED anything! I gave all the "I wants" and the "I don't wants" to you! You were always saying "I want this" and "I want that", and I always had to put up with everything! Yes, you were always sick, and I wasn't, but I was jealous that Mom gave you all the attention... especially after we moved away from Dad into the countryside."
• Mewt's father, Cid, is said to be having troubles at work and crying in the gutters, which isn't too far fetched for a father who had to become a single parent after his wife died. The Japanese version makes it worse by making Cid an alcoholic instead.
• The idea of Marche being the key figure for the "don't avoid reality" theme gets harsh criticism in-game. Not only is Marche struggling with his own desire to stay, which he DOES point out a time or two despite his pushing onward, he essentially has to bluntly put to his friends and little brother that they're really no happier with their supposed wishes fulfilled than they were given that Doned is now at odds with his brother, Ritz has become self-centered and cold, and Mewt utterly FREAKS when he doesn't have control and both increases the intensity of the laws and is protected by a nearly invincible manifestation of his own darkness to maintain his grasp on the world. Marche obviously doesn't want to hurt his friends, and even openly declares his personal doubts to Babus during the fourth totema battle, but he bears the responsibility cause he wants to go home and everyone to find their happiness there.