Tear Jerker / Myst

• It's sad if you've read the journals from the original game, and the novel "The Book of Atrus" which depict Sirrus and Achenar as very innocent seeming children. Compare those to what they turned into and ultimately ended up happening to them.
• Atrus' situation in the very first game. Having to essentially kill both your sons because they grew up to be so evil? It's a wonder he recovers as well as he does.
• As you travel to the different worlds, and gain a better understanding of how the books and the ages function, the full implications of the burned books in the library begin to sink in. Each book was an entire world, either despoiled, destroyed, or wiped clean of all civilization by Sirrus and Achenar. These were living, breathing, beautiful places reduced to ashes by the greed of just two men. The surviving ages, while still fascinating and breath-taking, are still devoid of their former inhabitants, meaning no world survived unscathed. You can bring justice to those who committed the atrocity, and prevent any further destruction, but nothing will bring back what was destroyed.
• The ending and entire second half of Book of Ti'ana.
• The intro and time-period concept of Myst V, hoo boy... Where do we start?
  • This game takes place 200 years after the events of Myst, the novels, and the rest of the series before Uru. Everything feels so out of place, empty, forgotten, broken, and outdated; especially the Myst Book found at the beginning of the game, the cover of which is now stained and worn from 200 years of use, as well as being locked shut.
  • This game also took place after Uru's financial failure, highlighted and integrated in-universe as the D'ni Restoration Council losing the funding to restore the cavern. This also included the Council's major pitfall, the supposed death of character Phil Henderson, a Research Engineer, that plagued the DRC's first attempts in December 2003. Dr. Watson, the head of the DRC, details in his journal at the end of "To D'ni", the first expansion pack, his complete emotional and logical shattering in whether or not it was worth it to continue on with the restoration project, and his subsequent sabbatical and undertaking of his own Journey. (The quest to retrieve the Tablet, a similar, but special version of the Journey quest that you, your own identity in-game in Uru, undertake.)
  • Atrus has completely given up, and is also implied to have passed away. As he says in the intro, he's lost his home, his books, grandmother, father, sons, and especially his beloved wife, Catherine. It is also implied, given the time period, that Atrus' friend and benefactor, The Stranger, has also long-since passed away. And now, he has possibly lost his daughter, Yeesha, to the seduction of restoring D'ni. Although she does somewhat accomplish this through you, the player, giving the Tablet, that grants its user the powers of The Art of Writing, to the Bahro. Tomahna is implied to be in ruins. However, Atrus is shown to be just fine in the good ending of the game, if quite a bit aged and worse-for-wear, living out his final days in Releeshahn.
  • In both bad endings, Myst Island is shown to be completely in ruins and bereft of its refined quality: metal structures have rusted over, stone and wooden structures have been stained and/or rotted away by exposure to the elements, machinery and mechanical doors have completely seized up or been removed, all ability to generate electrical power is gone, the trees are dead husks, and the grass has overgrown with weeds. Even worse? If you do get these bad endings, in story terms, you are a permanent resident. You are stuck here forever and can never return home to Earth.
• In Channelwood, Stoneship, and Mechanical, Everybody's Dead, Dave.