The 5th Day bad ending for Deep Story ends with Seven saying goodbye to you forever and unregistering you from the messenger.
Both of Yoosung's Bad Endings (Bad Relationship Ending 2 and Bad Story Ending 3) on the 10th Day of his route are upsetting. The poor boy just wants to help you and become stronger after maturing, but in both endings, they result poorly. In his Bad Relationship Ending 2, since he wasn't able to get the encouragement he needed from you, he tears up and starts doubting himself, even pleading to Rika on what to do. In his Bad Story Ending 3, he sacrifices himself to save you, but ends up becoming Unknown's prisoner, where he takes your place as bait and becomes tortured daily.
In Yoosung's route, there's a chat room where he accuses V of lying about the circumstances of Rika's death and says she wouldn't have killed herself because she wasn't mentally ill. V responds that she was, which none of the other RFA members previously knew. V immediately backtracks, frantically apologizes, and flees the chat. For anyone who has experienced or witnessed anything like the Domestic Abuse he's suffered at Rika's hands, his obvious fear is painfully familiar and absolutely heartbreaking.
The scene in which the image on this page appears. On day 8 of Yoosung's route, V comes to his home to try to explain himself and make amends. Yoosung yells at V, saying he hates him and that it's all his fault that Rika killed herself. V agrees, hugs Yoosung, and apologizes endlessly throughout the scene. And then Yoosung realizes what the cane and sunglasses mean.
Flashbacks on Zen's route show his parents were emotionally abusive to the point of basically destroying his self-esteem, constantly calling him ugly. His apparent narcissism over his looks appears to be a cover for severe doubt about his abilities as an actor. His past also explains his hatred of Jumin: Jumin reminds Zen of Zen's beloved older brother, who encouraged and supported him when he was young, only to grow up like their parents and become a cold-hearted businessman.
Zen falls into a second depressive funk when Echo Girl turns the media against him, which threatens to end his career. At this point in the story, picking the wrong responses will lead to his Bad Story Ending 2, where his career is destroyed thanks to a hasty, ill-planned interview where he has a meltdown from being unable to prove his innocence. Seeing him tell you to wait for him while he builds is career is upsetting knowing that it had been his dream to become an actor. Since the responses you pick to get this ending pretty much pressures him to quit acting, this ending shows that he's still not over it.
In Jaehee's route, V tells Jumin that he will be leading RFA in the future because V has terminal liver cancer. Jumin is shocked and yells at V to admit he's lying.
It gets even worse with the context of Secret Ending 1, when you realize that V probably expects Rika or someone else at Mint Eye to kill him, and is setting up an "alibi" for his impending disappearance so Jumin doesn't look for him or investigate. Jumin's angry denial of The Reveal may be entirely correct.
Jaehee's past: her father and mother died separately when she was young. She was taken in by her aunt and uncle... only for her Jerkass aunt to mistreat her to the point of abuse. These events were what led to Jaehee becoming so reluctant to rely on others and giving up on her dreams.
Jaehee's first two Bad Story Endings pretty much relies on Video Game Cruelty Potential, as to get both endings, you pretty much betray her. You put your best interests first instead of hers, meaning you take advantage of her job so that in the first Bad Story Ending, you'll hook up with Zen and make her sick from her job instead of letting her live her fangirl dreams, or, in the second Bad Story Ending, you'll convince her to work so hard to the point she's forced to quit her job and RFA from being hospitalized. Seeing her in a physically broken state, and knowing you were direct cause of it, is upsetting.
In Seven's Route, when V pretty much just says that everyone should blame him for everything before announcing that he will leave and never come back, everyone is shocked and discusses it eagerly. Jumin comes online, reads the thing for a minute or two and leaves instantly again.
What's worse is that Jumin basically told everyone not to jump to any conclusions until they got all their facts straight (his words were more or less 'be objective until we know everything')—and no one listened to him.
Seven telling V he deserves the eye injuries Rika inflicted on him, and that he should go blind so no one else gets fooled by his sincere-looking eyes. It's especially jarring for the sheer fact that Seven doesn't even know the context of the injury and he still makes that kind of accusation. For anyone who has suffered from Domestic Abuse or witnessed it, having someone you care about throw your abuse back in your face because they don't know the entire situation is absolutely heartbreaking.
It's even worse because he also accuses V of causing Rika's instability, and V agrees with him. The scene ends with V saying, "Yes... This is all my fault for loving her." Based on what we know from flashbacks and context from Jumin, V has always been sensitive and too empathetic for his own good. Rika has been abusing and gaslighting him for at least five years. V thinks he caused her breakdown and that he deserves all of the pain she's dished out since then. It's devastating to watch.
Seven's route has a Mood Whiplash starting the 7th Day, when he realizes Unknown is Saeran. His real personality begins to show, and he starts lashing out at the player at his inability to save him. It gets worse when you get his Bad Story Ending 2 as a result of cheering him up by talking to him like the previous days instead of taking his emotional problems seriously. In said ending, he decides to give up on saving Saeran and decides to run away from the country with you, pretending to be happy again. Since he's still in a rough state as he speeds up the car, viewers of this ending are worried that he may end up crashing… possibly intentionally.
Seven's backstory is a major Tear Jerker once you discover that he and his brother, Saeran, had been abused all of their lives, and when Seven is forced to leave him to find a way out of their living situation, everything falls apart when he finds out Saeran has been brainwashed while under V and Rika's care. If you manage to get to the 10th Day, you'll be horrified if you get the Bad Relationship Ending 2 or Bad Story Ending 3 after confronting Saeran and even showing him the floppy disk. The fact that his After Ending is a complete Hope Spot is also upsetting. You're led to believe that Saeran is eventually saved, only to see that it had been All Just a Dream.
Speaking of Seven's Bad Relationship Ending 2, Saeran shoots and possibly kills Seven. Seconds before, Seven tries to comfort you, aware that something bad is going to happen. It doubles as Fridge Horrorsince he tells you to look away, and there is a possibility that you are killed along with him too.
Seven gets into a fight with Yoosung near the end of his route because he tells everyone he's quitting RFA and that they should forget him, especially since he's been faking his personality up until that point. It's heartbreaking to see how angry and betrayed Yoosung feels.
The first Secret Ending is a major Player Punch. You're treated to extensive Flashbacks where V first meets Rika, all the way until her Start of Darkness, and even then, he continues to love her unconditionally in hopes that she will be healed. The waterworks start occurring after the last mini-episode after V is killed by Saeran. First, there's an Ironic Echo to Rika's words in the game branch on the 4th Day of the Casual Story... and V following up on that. Then, Rika has a Villainous Breakdown once she realizes V is dying before her eyes. Cue Credits Roll, and which hits your heart all the more once you realize the song, "Like the Sun in the Sky", is basically V's message to Rika. V's voice actor cried during recording, and his perfect delivery of the lines makes them even more heartwrenching.
This line in particular, after V has gone almost entirely blind but keeps following Rika because he thinks he deserves the abuse she's put him through:
V: I'm not afraid of the dark, I'm not... anything.
The final scene of the first Secret Ending is V's funeral. Plenty of the characters' reactions are heartbreaking, but Seven's arguably stands out, especially considering how furious he was at V in later parts of his route and almost the entire Secret Ending.
Seven: Don't be lonely there, don't try to save anyone there... just live a selfish life, V.
In the second Secret Ending, Jumin refers to his "stupid friend who left this world first" while discussing V with Jaehee. Jumin is the only character who never loses faith in V, and moments having to do with his old friend show the stoic Director more genuinely emotional than he ever gets outside of his own route.
It's also implied that one reason why Rika would get arrested and judged for V's death is because Jumin is personally not able to forgive it since he lets everyone of Mint Eye go free, especially Saeran who had killed V. It is quite odd that he is so persistent about charging this one person so vehemently to the point of apparently thinking of chasing her even in Alaska.
The second Secret Ending is told in Saeran's point of view, and it reveals all of the struggles he had gone through. When Seven had disappeared, he had been crying out of loneliness, and in present day, he's still unable to forgive him. Seven still tries to his hardest to get through to him even when Saeran tries to strangle him.
In his route, Jumin is clearly heartbroken when Elizabeth 3rd runs away after he locked her in a cage. He later says he's realised she was "just a cat" and couldn't understand his problems, but it's clear he misses her.
Also in Jumin's route, after his father announces his engagement to Glam Choi, he then basically pimps out Jumin to Sarah, while Jumin sits in stunned silence for a few minutes while the couple chats, before having something of an emotional shutdown and leaves the restaurant.
Starting on the night of the 8th Day of Jumin's route, he refuses to let you go home even after Elizabeth 3rd has been found. You have the option to tell him that he's messed up. His response? "I know." This is all interposed over an image of him tucking you in bed, smiling very sadly. It shows that he's aware of how messed up he is, but he can't do anything about it.
V's normal ending, full stop. Both Saeran and Rika are Driven to Suicide. Even people who couldn't forgive the actions of these two characters found this end heartbreaking. Though you do end up with V in the end, it ultimately feels like a rather hollow victory.
Even V's good ending implies that Saeran dies destroying Mint Eye's compound. Rika survives and attempts to dose all of the cancelled RFA party's disappointed guests with her salvation elixir, and Yoosung stops her, but he's clearly heartbroken at having to confront Rika and acknowledge how malicious and dangerous she really is.
A significant portion of V's route, which takes Earn Your Happy Ending to whole new levels. He tries to save you on Day 5; the rescue attempt fails, V is injured in his escape, and he clearly hates himself for leaving you in danger. After Rika brings you to the garden, V finds you again and begs Rika to take him instead, but he gets captured by her disciples and thrown in the underground cell from Secret 01, where Ray forcibly overdoses him on the elixir and then freaks out and strangles him for calling him Saeran. By the time you get there, V is completely helpless and Seven has to carry him out. One of the side effects of withdrawal from the elixir is depression, so V tries to convince you to hate him and let him sacrifice himself to stop Rika. You can help him through this, but right after a scene where you hug him and he starts to open up to you about trauma surrounding his family, Rika shows up and stabs him. A frantic trip to the hospital and emergency surgery does manage to save him, thankfully, but even then he's far from fully recovered (mentally or physically) before the two-year Time Skip at the end. So yeah. V may be able to survive his route, but it still puts him through the wringer even more thoroughly than Seven's did.
Another one from V's route: we finally find out what happened to his mother. She was a talented violinist who lost her hearing shortly after Jihyun was born. Her resulting depression was so severe that she was incapable of caring for her child, and her husband took Jihyun and left her. After reconnecting with her estranged son later in his life, he remained distant and sometimes even hostile toward her when she tried to encourage him to pursue his artistic talents. She then died while rescuing him from a house fire when he was in his teens. It's clear from conversations late in his route that V has never forgiven himself for his behavior toward her.
From V's route, Yoosung's tearfully drunk call after he accuses V of being the reason why Rika killed herself. Honestly, the entire chat leading up to the call is very emotional, with you and Zen trying hard to stop Yoosung from blurting out things he'll regret later to no avail. It's obvious that Ray sending Yoosung the damaged photo of V and Rika has gotten Yoosung both wound up and utterly terrified. His call is even cut short by Zen, who actually had to take Yoosung's phone away from him earlier just so Yoosung wouldn't say anything more to V.
Yoosung's state in V's route is heartbreaking in general. Since it's been only six months after Rika's death, he's still devastated and extremely depressed, but it becomes much worse after he learns the truth about her and Mint Eye. At first he's in denial, tries to advocate for Rika and desperately wants to talk to her, but when it becomes apparent that she's really not well and really did a lot of terrible things, his mental state goes down rapidly fast - to the point of where he's crying nonstop on the 10th Day.
Despite all of the terrible things she's done, it's still very hard to watch Rika's multiple breakdowns throughout V's route. Her Freak Out over realizing that V never actually loved her is particularly sad, considering her Dark and Troubled Past and motivations. Her mental instability only gets worse as the route goes on, to the point that it soon becomes apparent that she's totally out of touch with reality, believing that her "salvation" is her way of genuinely helping people. During one of her rare moments of lucidity, she actually expresses regret at what her "bad side" has done, and thanks you for being there for V, saying that she wants you all to be happy. But then she loses control of herself and spirals into depression again, and by the end of the route she's desperately telling you she'll do anything, whether that's being locked up in a room alone or giving up on being loved, so long as you don't leave her alone. It doesn't help that there's no way to really comfort her, as the route ends with either her suicide or institutionalization. And, while she is considered the main antagonist of the story, it's also tragic to consider that at this point in time, she's the only one out of all the major characters for whom a happy ending is impossible.
Pretty much everything about Saeran/Ray in V's route. From the very first day he's very affectionate with you, often saying how happy he is that you're with him and how much he likes you, complimenting you and doing various things to please you (including picking flowers for you and cooking you breakfast). However, in order to proceed in the game you sometimes have to reject him, which usually results in him becoming very distressed, promising to try harder and asking you not to leave. That alone was already sad enough for many players, but it only gets worse after you're taken from him by Rika and, later, leave Mint Eye. From that point onward Ray starts telling you, both on the phone and in the chatrooms, how much he misses you and how he wishes for you to come back, all while suffering from the multiple personality disorder, memories of his childhood and horrible headaches (one phone call has him literally screaming in pain and begging you to tell him he'll be all right). And there's nothing you can do to save him - your attempts to persuade him that he doesn't have to stay in Mint Eye drastically fail because of his fear of the outside world and Undying Loyalty to Rika, and in the end he dies while destroying Magenta by her order (but only after calling you to say that the days with you were the happiest in his life and confess that you were his first and last love). Even worse, while Rika had actually ordered him to evacuate along with the other cult members, at that point he doesn't see any hope for the future, and intentionally stays in the buildingto die by himself. Most fans were absolutely heartbroken.
The first portion of Ray's route has him doubt and blame on himself for possibly disappointing the protagonist due to letting V meet you. It's utterly heartbreaking to see him being insecure throughout the route.
V's situation during Ray's route. Despite immense danger to himself, he keeps infiltrating Magenta in order to keep an eye on you. He also quite possibly saves your life by bringing you food while Saeran has you locked up. Throughout the route, we see him blaming solely himself for Saeran's condition, despite the fact that V did everything he could to protect him. We also find out why V didn't know about Saeran being brainwashed for so long: he was trying to keep Saeyoung safe at the agency, and Rika was supposed to take care of Saeran. During his meeting with the Prime Minister, V's self esteem is so low that he says he doesn't deserve to be called an artist (despite his famous and critically adored photography). As in his own route, he eventually realizes that the way he tried to love Rika was toxic for her, but he doesn't understand that she is responsible for her own horrible actions, or believe that he deserves happiness. No matter what you do, he goes back to her at the end, and her response makes it all too clear that she goes back to abusing him. No one at the RFA hears from him again. His route is the only one to give him any chance at healing.
On day 9 should you be on the way to Ray's good ending, you will be visited by Saeran at the night, who talks to you and self-reflecting his actions in the past two days, coming to a horrific realization at what he's done. His actions only hurting the MC in the long run and thinks that he doesn't deserve to be happy after all that. Saeran's voice tone throughout this scene makes it heartbreaking.
Seven's situation in Ray's route. His father is very close to finding him and Saeran and he may have a clue that the hacker he's fighting against is Saeran, as his final message to you before Saeran blocks you off the messenger till the end of day 9, is asking you to tell him if the hacker actually looks like him. The problem is that you can't reply to this message, even if you wanted to. Then just as Saeran is finally healing himself at the end of Day 9, he gets abducted by his father along with Vanderwood. Worse, he is heavily implied to be dead in the normal ending of Saeran's route and even though there's a hope that he survived and is still alive in Saeran's good ending, it'll take time for the twins to actually reunite and be a family again.
