Tear Jerker / Radiant Historia

• The second chapter in the Alternate History is full of these. Kiel's fatal sacrifice, Rosch's hospitalisation, Raynie and Marco staying behind to ensure Stocke's escape...
• Raynie's ending. If "At Journey's End" was completed, she's convinced that Stocke isn't dead and that she's going to wait for him because he promised her they would be together after everything was over. If you didn't get the best ending, her waiting will be in vain.
• Marco's ending sidequest. Never mind the fact that the only reason why they're working with Stocke is thanks to Heiss re-engineering history that led to the death of their entire mercenary group, but then Marco finds Mimel, the only other survivor of the group (and heavily hinted to be Marco's love interest), who turns out to be an enemy spy and you're forced to choose between turning her in or letting her go. If you turn her in, she ends up dying in prison and Marco completely flips, ending up with a bad end where he kills the rest of your team in a rage at Stocke in what looks like the game's final dungeon after his misery and anger seem to have finally boiled over. If you let her go, Mimiel promptly dies due to the Sand Plague after switching her allegiance, and Marco is devastated anyway. This is also the prerequesite for Marco's ending, but even by then, it's clear that he hasn't gotten over Mimel. He's pretty much the only usable or significant character that gets an ending who has it worst off.
  • Perfect Chronology features a Possibility Timeline called 'Marco the Bouncer' where Stocke helps Marco chase off a rowdy Gutral harassing Mimel (whom is a bar owner in Cygnus). The right choice after getting the Gutral drunk and having Marco fight him off himself has Mimel offer to have Marco stay with her as a permanent bouncer and Marco accepting the offer after he finishes one more mission. Before he leaves the timeline, Stocke remarks how things ended up better Marco than they did in the original timeline. Later, he confesses to Nemesia how he wishes what happened in the Possibility was what happened in the original timeline.
• The sidequest involving Liese the Satyros and her human boyfriend. She decides that it just can't work out, and then he follows her to Abyssia Forest and gets killed by a beast. A letter found on his corpse is filled with the wedding vows of the Satyros, written in their language by his hand, proving his willingness to fit into her culture. She then realizes that she had made the biggest mistake of her life, that nothing she could ever do would make it right and runs off into the wilderness. At least you can help Stocke fix this, after you dry your tears of course.
• Stocke, in order to save Eruca, being forced to kill his best friend Rosch, who uses his last words to condemn Stocke for betraying him and their nation.
  • This one is also notable for sending Stocke into one of his biggest Not So Stoic moments in the entire game.
• Both endings, though the final scene of the true ending makes it far less bittersweet than the normal ending. Either way, it involves Stocke willingly going to his death to save the world, while his friends are all breaking down and begging him not to leave. Rosch volunteers to take his place, Aht and Raynie both say they'll wait for him to come back (even though they have no reason to think it's possible), Eruca is still desperately trying to find a way to avoid killing her beloved big brother, and Gafka actually addresses him by his name. You just know everyone in that room was in tears.
• Though it can also qualify as Heartwarming, Heiss' sacrifice in the Golden Ending. He finally finds something in the world worth sacrificing himself for, and gives his life so that Stocke can live his.
  Heiss: He is the only hope left in the world...If I can't protect that hope, then what other use is my life?
• The final Possibility History available is where the continent was devoured by sand, and after seeing the memories and laments of the inhabitants of the continents Stocke finds Heiss, who has lost his memory. To restore his memory to get the Artifact, Stocke needs to go back in time to unlock a drawer in Heiss' office to retrieve a certain item: a painting done of Ernst and Heinrich (their original identities) long ago.
• Going back to the Eternal Prosperity node after completing it the first time adds another Living Memory not seen the first time. This Living Memory (a court lady) talks about how adorable it was watching Rhodan's tutoring sessions with Nemesia and thinking they were so cute together. She ends with hoping they can both live happily ever after before disappearing, which leaves Stocke in saddened silence.
  • It also gives another perspective of Nemesia's Verbal Tic. The court lady mentions Rhodan's habit of grading Nemesia on the spot whenever he presented a problem to her eventually lead to Nemesia grading things around her as well. Nemesia continues to use the Verbal Tic possibly as a way to remember him even after all the tragedy that happened.
• Nemesia's normally a calm character... but with a little gentle prodding from Raynie and Stocke, after recognizing her increasing discomfort with the Empire's history as they put the Red Chronicle back together, her facade briefly slips: she confesses that she needed Stocke's help not to save the world, but to put her lover Rhodan out of his misery after her parents subjected him to experiments that turned him into a Mana-draining, world-killing abomination. All while sounding like she's about to burst into tears.