Warning: Spoilers Off applies to Tearjerker pages.
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Lloyd Route
Chapter 1
- For all of Lloyd's determination to finally have Crossbell regain its independence, he still is easily taken down by Supreme Leader Rufus, after the entire SSS (plus Rixia), was manhandled. The sight of this pretty much crushed the hopes of every citizen viewing it.
- It's then followed up with all of Crossbell's citizens influenced by the curse to rally under Supreme Leader Rufus' vision of the United Nation of Crossbell.
Chapter 2
- It turns out that during all that chaos going on at the end of the chapter, Elie actually loses track of KeA. Also, they already lost her twice.
Chapter 3
- At St. Ursula Hospital, Crossbell citizens start lamenting at the fact that they're actually better off being under the leadership of Supreme Leader Rufus. Enough that Lloyd and Tio nearly lose their resolve to free Crossbell.
Chapter 4
- Lloyd almost getting killed by Supreme Leader Rufus and Mireille becoming comatose really hit Randy hard, to the point of him becoming desperate to make the upcoming operation a success, even if he has to stain his hands in blood once again.
Rean Route
Chapter 1
- Kurt getting flung over Eisengard's cliff when Matteus with Rean screaming Kurt's name. Sure it was in the name of training and wanting to see what Class VII is capable of but in Rean's eyes, he saw his student's dad fling his son off a mountain.
- The news of Supreme Leader Rufus' successful takeover has clearly left Juna shaken, but she still puts up a brave front so that her friends won't worry about her. But Rean can see right through it, and when speaking to her alone, encourages her to let it out. Cue Juna breaking into tears about how Crossbell has been taken away from them again, so soon after they got it back.
Chapter 3
- Rogue detachments of the Imperial Army nearly getting their war against Calvard where they manage to set up a Railway Cannon aimed at the Nord Settlement. And with Grace, Schmidt, and Gaius' family still at the area, everyone is powerless to stop the cannon from firing with Gaius rushing in with his Merkabah. While Rean ends up saving the settlement, this is then followed up by a giant mech showing up out of nowhere and tries to devastate the place, after downing both Merkabah No. 8 and the Courageous II.
- At the end of the chapter, Rean manages to save the settlement but when everyone opens the hatch to Rean's Tyrfing S, they discover that his hair and eyes are different. But what makes it even more heartbreaking is that Rean feels immense relief at seeing his friends "in a different way", something that he can't even explain why. His left yellow eye crying a Single Tear isn't helping things.
Chapter 4
- Soon after fighting Mischneider, he hands the key to the Castle of Mirrors to Juna and then flies up to the sky and explodes. The thing that sells the scene is how much emotional energy there was in Mischneider's speech followed by Juna calling out his name as the screen cuts to black after Mischneider explodes. She was still pulling herself together as the team enters the final dungeon for the chapter.
C Route
Chapter 2
- In a sobering reminder of just how catastrophic the Great War could have been had it lasted any longer than the barely two days it did, the Ost District has apparently had a considerable influx of people moving in because their incomes were requisitioned for, or breadwinners killed in, Operation Jormungandr.
Chapter 3
- Rufus, after losing everything, wonders what he's going to do now that he lost Osborne, the one person he wanted to surpass the most.
- Renne's comment about how the time where her parents would call her "Renny" is long gone shows how the poor girl's past can still find ways to haunt.
Other
Daydreams
- However short the moment was, the Swin/Nadia/Rixia Daydream shows that Nadia's assassin training still has an effect on her mind.note In contrast to how lax and whimsical she was before, she's notable melancholy after this.
- For all the funny bits littered in between, Thors' Open House can feel depressing whenever he imagines his "cursed self" mocking him for thinking, even for a moment, that he deserves to be happy. It really drives home how he just can't forgive himself for shooting Emperor Eugent, even when nobody, not even the emperor himself, holds it against him.
- Rean's dream where Osborne highlights his thoughts from when he recruited the Ironbloods, blowing up the Courageous II, and damning his son just so he could hope and gamble that the curse could be killed. He also believed that Rean wouldn't be able to survive but was happy that he did. Rean wakes up in tears and the last shot of the entire side story is the Osborne family at the happiest time
◊ of their lives before everything crashes.
Last Chapter
- Simulacrum Rufus actually breaking Rufus down and making him nearly accept his offer of becoming the real Supreme Leader. If it wasn't for Lapis, Swin, and Nadia, Rufus claims he would have accepted the offer.
- Class VII shedding tears at the Normal Ending Rean without knowing why.
- Normal Ending Rean experiencing a Fate Worse than Death where that Rean and Ishmelga fought each other too many times as they tried to pull off a Fusion Dance and failing at it. Ishmelga Rean even claims that it was a "rivalry staged to never have a victor". Crow and Millium in that timeline also couldn't stay with Rean till the end.
- And when True Ending Rean meets Normal Ending Rean alone, the latter says with a sad smile on his face how jealous he is of his other self, because the Rean in our timeline learned to love himself enough to not sacrifice his life and go forward with his loved ones. It's then you notice this other Rean is the Rean we've been together with since the first Cold Steel, simulated version or not. This is what happened to him in the timeline when the Divine Beast didn't help him with Ishmelga and suffered for months, completely alone. Listening to Ai no Uta, the ending theme of Cold Steel IV, won't be the same after this scene.
- Rufus' Zero-Approval Gambit. Lapis screaming his name after she sees the Retributive Tower exploding is heartbreaking. Thankfully, this was only a vision from Elysium which allows Lloyd, Lapis, Swin, Nadia, Jusis, and Zeit to save Rufus.
- It's especially heartbreaking if we remember that Lapis didn't meet the Rufus that committed all his past crimes, but the one that changed enough to be kind to her and give her words of encouragement. And now the kind person she met is trying to put an end to his own life.
- You gotta feel bad for Jusis and all the stress he went through in the span of a year. One of his important scenes in Cold Steel I was to warn Rean about his bad habit of doing everything alone and putting his life at risk. Then he sees Rean repeatedly doing this, and then he has Millium dying in front of him years later, even though she was revived. And now his older brother is doing the same. Guy needs a break.
- The Normal Ending Rean's last moments where he finally comes back to his normal self before he disappears. If players chose a Love Interest for Rean back at the beginning of his first chapter, then Jusis apologizes to the Normal Ending Rean for not bringing his special someone with him in his last moments. And then we have Rean asking for Lloyd and the others to take of things, and to take care of his other self in the current timeline. They fistbump, and Normal Ending Rean disappears with a smile on his face.
- The postscript of the chapter where Rean and Crow pours through the logs of their Tyrfing searching for signs of Valimar and Ordine returning to them, and not finding anything, suggesting that they too have vanished when Elysium was deleted......at least until after Rean disembarked the mech and we cut to the terminal, giving Rean a reply.
