Tear Jerker / The Evil Within 2

• This time around, we get a good exposition at Sebastian's backstory, and to say the man hasn't led a happy life ever since the events of the first game is quite the Understatement. Not only is he wracked by guilt and sorrow over the supposed loss of his daughter and the disappearance of his wife, he's also deeply traumatized by his experiences in Ruvik's mind, and everyone believes he's gone nuts (thanks to Mobius' Gaslighting of him), causing him to lose his job at the KCPD. By the time the game starts, the badass we knew from the first game has become a drunken wretch, way past the Despair Event Horizon, and it's hard not to feel sorry for him.
• Both of Sebastian's encounters with the real Myra:
  • First, he meets her in a facsimile of their old home from a happier time, where Seb begins to break down and cry from his guilt over being unable to save Lily.
  • Second, and even more tragically, is when all three are reunited as a family for an all-too brief moment, and Myra reveals that her plan involved staying behind to get a shot at wiping out Mobius for good. It's a hard goodbye for both of them, and Sebastian doesn't even have time to grieve because he has to get Lily out of the STEM as fast as he can before the whole thing collapses.
• The deaths of the Mobius rescue team, most of whom knew going in that retrieving the Core also meant they were there to save an innocent little girl:
  • Baker is already dead by the time Sebastian finds him, having been captured by Stefano and executed to form another exhibit in his gruesome "gallery", forced to relive the moment of his death over and over.
  • Harrison is gravely injured trying to restabilize STEM and clings to life in the empty lobby of Union City Hall, surrounded by his dead comrades and waiting for backup that he can't be sure is coming, only giving up the ghost when Sebastian finds him and agrees to complete his final task. If you check his dossier afterward, Sebastian respectfully notes that without his sacrifice, Union might have fallen completely under Stefano's control.
  • O'Neal's own fear and feelings of helplessness are exploited by Theodore, who turns him into a Harbinger and sets him loose on Hoffman and Sebastian, forcing him to put O'Neal down in self-defense. He returns to normal with just enough time to apologize and express his regrets before dying.
  • Torres is shot by a delirious Sebastian, but nevertheless drags him to safety and fights off a horde of The Lost, sustaining lethal injuries in the process, and passing away after getting them back to a safehouse.
    • This one is even MORE heartwrenching after her death when Hoffman reveals Torres was the one who set the fire at the Castellanos house and personally kidnapped Lily, but has been suffering incredible guilt ever since. Despite her stoic attitude, she's been aiding Sebastian in hopes of making up for what she helped put him through. Sebastian's attitude towards her after learning this fact says it all...
    Sebastian: I can't hate her - she sacrificed herself for The Plan. She made her amends...
    • Hoffman also states that Torres didn't have a choice. She's been suffering all this time for something she didn't personally choose to do, and given what Mobius does to those who disobey them...
  • Hoffman leads Sebastian to Theodore's stronghold, but is grabbed by a monster and dragged into the hellish flames surrounding the tower. Despite dying in horrible agony, her last words to Sabastian are not to call out for help or urge him to retrieve the Core, but to go on and save Lily, his child.
  • Even Sykes, the team's Nice Guy and the only one with any shot of getting out alive at all, faces a 75% chance of being sent into a deeper part of STEM, with no possibility of getting back out, even if the STEM wasn't soon to be destroyed and his implanted chip wasn't about to get fried by Myra.
    • And to drive the harsh nature of this Ambiguous Ending even further, you don't even learn of the chances of success and what could happen for failure until AFTER Sykes has already vanished...
• It goes for much of the game and eventually drops off near the end, but Sebastian's bitterness towards Kidman counts. For a vast majority of the game, he is almost relentlessly cold towards her, the "Go to hell" attitude towards her being blatantly obvious, and her occasional sigh and seeming hurt in her voice as she repeatedly takes it is kinda gut-wrenching. While Sebastian obviously has his reasons based on the events of the first game from his point of view, once it becomes clear she's doing her best to save everyone and stop Mobius for good, you can't help but feel for her putting up with his rage and distrust despite her good intentions. Anyone who's ever lost trust and tried to make up for it only to be repeatedly denied forgiveness can understand this one all too well.