Tear Jerker / The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel

Warning: Spoilers Off applies to Tearjerker pages.

Trails of Cold Steel

• When Machias starts describing the photograph of him and his deceased cousin in his house, you know things aren't going to end well. When said description turns out to be a Start of Darkness trigger of a sort... yeah, have some tissues.
• A retrospective example: Crow's reaction when he sees that his ARCUS is resonating with all the others due to The Power of Friendship, even though this particular that friendship is based on a colossal lie. On a second viewing, you can see him struggle with this.
• When Patrick and his cronies lose a battle with the boys of Class VII (minus Jusis and Crow), Patrick goes off on an extended rant against Class VII, targeting Rean in particular despite the latter's sportsmanlike attitude; calling him a nobody without a drop of noble blood. While the rest of the party is confident enough to take the rant with appropriate dismissal or at least disgust, Rean looks devastated, and his already fragile confidence takes a major hit. Later in the game, the player learns that Rean's deepest insecurities come from a lack of friendships and a general sense of not belonging that has plagued him his entire life, and Patrick unintentionally caused those insecurities to resurface.
• 1's ending, particularly the dance scene-dependent special dialogue right before the credits roll.

Trails of Cold Steel II

• The first shot of the entire game (the first version of the Evolving Title Screen) is of Rean unconscious in the snow with the incredibly somber main menu theme playing in the background. Coming off the cliffhanger ending of the last game, it immediately sets the tone for just how hopeless the situation seems at start.
• The prologue of Cold Steel 2 has one near the end: a group of jaegers sent by Duke Albarea attack Ymir while Rean, Elise, and Toval are out fighting a Magic Knight. Several buildings are on fire and several frightened townsfolk are running in fear. Baron Teo Schwarzer tries to fight them off, only to hesitate when one of them holds a child as a hostage. The screen then Fades to Black just as a jaeger behind him opens fire. When Rean and the others get back they find him laying in a pool of his own blood and Lucia unconscious. They both survive but can you really blame Rean for going berserk over the sight?
• In the intermission of Cold Steel II, you finally get to hear the details behind Crow's Dark and Troubled Past. He was the grandson of the mayor of the Jurai Special Economic Zone when it was originally called Jurai City. It was a city that thrived off of maritime trade with other major cities until the North Ambrian Disaster occurred. The city began to decline until the Erebonian government offered to trade via a newly-built railway. As a result of the new inflow of Imperial Capital, Jurai City prospered until an explosion cut off the railway. Crow's grandfather, who had opposed the railway, was accused of causing the explosion, and this culminated in the Chancellor offering to make Jurai an economic zone, the city council jumping at the idea, and Crow's grandfather resigning his position as mayor. Half a year later, he died (it is strongly implied that he lost the will to live after being forced to step down). Crow, angered at the Chancellor for his actions, left Jurai at the age of 13 to search for a way to exact revenge, which eventually led him to meeting Duke Cayenne and creating the Imperial Liberation Front. He calls it a typical, run-of-the-mill sob story but the expression on Rean's face after the story is over says otherwise.
• Despite Vulcan being a formidable opponent through at least half of the first game, it's hard to remain stoic when he pulls off a Suicide by Cop after fighting Rean at the Schwarz-Drache Barrier in Part 2 of Act 2 of the second game. This is particularly hard if you take his backstory revealed to you in the first game to heart.
• The town of Celdic, once a bustling town with the Grand Market being its great attraction, is reduced to nothing but ashes. The entire party, especially Jusis, cannot believe the atrocity that had happened to the town. And as a gut puncher, the market manager Otto, who has been helpful to Class VII, dies protecting the town. Everything about the scene is tragic, as all the townspeople's reactions are disturbingly realistic. Some lament how and why this happened, other are still screaming at the Soldats to stop long after they've left, and you get to see many grieving at the bedsides of their loved ones in the church's makeshift hospital, one of said comatose victims being a child. Becky and Hugo had family here, and she in particular takes Otto's death hard.
• The last cutscene of the Finale in Cold Steel II, in which despite the party's best efforts to keep him alive, Crow ends up succumbing to his wounds and is Killed Off for Real, but not before reconciling with each of his former classmates and giving each of them words of encouragement. His classmates, Sara, and Vita all mourn his death. However, the real kicker comes right after that when it is revealed that Chancellor Osbourne was alive the entire time but in hiding, effectively rendering all of Crow's (and by extension the Imperial Liberation Front's) efforts fruitless. Rean, in a fit of rage and loss of composure, runs up and grabs him by the shirt.
  Rean: Why?! Why are YOU still alive?! Crow shot you! You're supposed to be dead! But in the end, he couldn't avenge his grandfather, he didn't get revenge on you...! Was everything he did... Was his whole life for NOTHING?!
  • The huge punch in the gut however is that for almost all of the game, one of Class VII's objectives aside from taking back the academy was to also bring Crow back to their side. The scene in Class VII's dormitory regardless of who Rean has it with has him and his chosen person reminiscing about Crow and how Class VII feels incomplete without him and Rean promises to Towa, Angie, and George to bring him back so he can properly graduate with them. It only makes the loss hit even harder.
  • And then there's the ending that plays after the cutscene. The song that plays in the background tells of a person who is about to part ways with a dear friend and how the moments they shared will be forever etched into their memories in case they never see each other again. A fitting song following the parting of Crow and his friends in Class VII.
  • And then there's the biggest wham for Rean. Finding out that the man who Crow and the rest of the Imperial Liberation Front wanted dead is none other than his biological father. No wonder he becomes so conflicted during the epilogue.
• The epilogue of Cold Steel II has several moments.
  • The mandatory event with Towa has Rean during the Epilogue, where in a rare showcase of emotion, Rean breaks down in front of her and apologizes that he couldn't keep his promise to bring Crow back for graduation. Towa comforts him but her portrait clearly shows she's trying her best to hold back tears as well.
  • Jusis has it almost as badly as Rean by the end of the game. His father razed Celdic to the ground and is still being incarcerated for it and Rufus, who he previously looked up to, turned out to be deceiving him all along, and hasn't made contact with him at all ever since his appointment as Governor General of Crossbell. He tells Rean that most of his family turned out to be strangers to him. After all that he's left to run the Alberea household, and the whole Kreuzen Province, by himself.
  • Class VII reveals themselves to have started learning curriculum ahead of the other classes because come the next school year, all of them will be going their separate ways. Alisa will be leaving to help the Reinford group, Elliot and Machias will transfer to a Heimdallr music and a political academy, respectively, Laura will be joining her father for some special training, Jusis will be heading to Bareahard to fill in for his father and brother, Gaius will travel back to the Nord Highlands, Emma will embark on a journey in search of Vita and uncovering the mysteries behind the Divine Knights, Fie will go in search of her old friends from Zephyr, and Millium will return to the Intelligence Division. Rean meanwhile will stay at Thors with Valimar. This ultimately culminates in the last free day of the year, where, after defeating Loa Luciferia, all of Class VII (starting with Millium) starts to cry, letting out all of their sorrows of saying goodbye to one another. And just to add one final twist in the heartstrings, unbeknownst to the group, a spirit heavily implied to be Crow watches them from afar.
    • After this scene, if you happened to have any Phantasmal Mirrors equipped, each of the characters represented in those mirrors will say some words. All of them are heartwarming in their own right, but then you get to Crow's, which only just compounds further the fact that he's really gone.
  Crow: Man... Guess it's old Crow to the rescue, huh? I hope this means you can finally start moving forward. Well, see ya. Keep up the good work. It's not curtains for you just yet.
  • Whereas the dormitory event with a character of your choosing on the night before the Finale was a Heartwarming Moment, the special scenes with that same character in the Epilogue veer towards this. Regardless of which of Rean's classmates you choose, he or she will feel guilty of leaving him behind and consider staying an extra year only for Rean to assure him or her that going their separate ways is the best thing to do at the moment. This is at least a month after the above event where Rean and his partner swore to change the world together (and in some female's cases, confessed their love for one another). It just goes to show that war changes the lives of everyone, for better or worse.
  • The final scene of the second game has all the students thanking Sara for her instruction, which causes her to tear up. Then, as Season of Departure begins to play, the students all silently wave goodbye to Rean and make their way into the train station. Rean stays for long enough to hear their train leave, then turns and starts walking back towards the academy, a smile on his face.
• There's a subtle one during the Divertissment Chapter of Cold Steel II where both Lloyd and Rean introduce one another. After Lloyd introduces himself and asks for Rean's name, Rean was about to introduce himself as a member of Class VII with a smile before he changes it into a frown and introduces himself as a provisional officer for the Empire. It's clear Rean is not liking his new job.
• A minor one that involves the character artwork from the start menu of all things, compare the character portraits from the first game◊ to the second game◊. Upon closer inspection, Rean is the only one to have his facial expression change between games, going from a confident smile in Cold Steel I to a more serious frown in Cold Steel II to a melancholic look◊ in a teaser for Cold Steel III. It's minor, but it gives a more visual representation of how the events in each game are affecting him. He went from being a teen embarking on a new adventure to being thrust into a civil war that endangered the lives of his new friends to having to participate in an actual war serving under his newfound father whom one of his late friends tried to kill all within the span of a little under two years.
  • He does, however, have a happier looking portrait for Cold Steel III which seems to be his actual character portrait judging by the similar art-style to other portraits. He's not as confident-looking as he was in the first game, but he doesn't seem to be as melancholic as the teaser image for the third game initially suggested.
  • Come the 4th game, Rean's smile is all but gone◊. The events of the past 3 games have caught up to him in full force.

Trails of Cold Steel III

• In Chapter 1 of Cold Steel III, you get to visit the ruins of Hamel, and the feels are just as poignant here as they were in Trails in the Sky. From Agate recounting the events that occurred years ago to the faithful recreation of the town's layout in 3-D to the somber remix of the original Hamel theme, it's nostalgic and tear-jerking all packed into one. The fact that Hamel ended up being a lot of peoples dark and troubled pasts that sets in motion the entire series can be this.
• In Chapter 2, we finally get to hear Sharon's full backstory. She was a Child Soldier, similar to Joshua from the Sky games, but unlike him she didn't even have a name until the Reinfords took her in. And she never told Alisa about any of this.
• Memetic Mutation aside, seeing Juna cry her heart out and blame Rean for the SSS, Crossbell's hope, reduced to nothing but fugitives and locked at Michelam Wonderland with only Randy and Tio being out and even then Randy's supervised by Thors II ends up becoming this. Enough that by the next day, Juna doesn't even want to get out of the bed. What clinches it is that after everyone closes their eyes at how powerless they are to even help her out, Rufus just calmly walks away like he's not even involved.
• Chapter 3 goes into Claire and Sara's backstories.
  • Claire's parents and little brother died in a car accident, and it turned out her uncle was responsible, to cover up his abuses of the family business. Osbourne encouraged her to hone her Awesomeness by Analysis skills, and eventually she found enough evidence to get him convicted... and sentenced to death, something she still feels torn over.
  • We already knew Sara was part of the Northern Jaegers, but here we learn she was fighting in real battles at 13 years old and her father-figure (and first love) died in her arms fighting a proxy-war for the nobles. Sara screamed until she passed out when this happened. Afterwards, she returned home to find everyone celebrating their victory in the war, oblivious to what it cost. That's when she left to become a Bracer.
  • To draw the knife deeper, the climax of the chapter is about the remnnants of the Northen Jaegers deciding to do one Last Stand in Juno Naval Fortress and we see Sara conflicted about it, but it reachs its peak near the end of the chapter where Jaegers defeated by the party try to kill themselves only to be interrupted by Rean and Sara. She calls them on it, her voice breaking at the same time.
  Sara: You...You... We haven't been risking our lives for pride all this time, have we?! It was to save our homeland from poverty! To fill empty stomachs! To make children smile when we had next to nothing! That's why we chose to live our days drenched in blood and smoke! But now you've lost your way. Why have you thrown that resolve aside? If you're willing to abandon everything you stood for, then the colonel...Daddy won't be able to rest in peace...
• In Cold Steel III, Rean's past is slowly revealed in the game and from Olaf Craig's perspective, him, Osborne, and Vandyck were at least close to one another till the Hamel Incident happened where it is later revealed that apparently Osborne learned and tried to dissuade the perpetrators of the incident from doing it but was powerless to stop them and in retaliation his home was attacked, which killed his wife and nearly killed Rean.
• As if they didn't have enough, Cold Steel III manages to throw yet another punch to the gut for Class VII at the climax of the game: Millium dies, with her death forging a new sword for Valimar. Shortly after, Rean fully loses control of his powers and starts a Roaring Rampage of Revenge so big that after the final boss has been defeated, he still keeps hacking at it!
  • Even worse is that Altina was the one who should have died, as she spends the whole game convinced of her inferiority to Millium because of her emotionless nature and the fact that she wasn't part of the original team the way she was. She eventually makes her peace with the fact that she can die protecting Rean and Juna, only for Millium to jump in at the last second because she feels her "younger sister" deserves to live more and see more.
  "I'm glad I managed to protect you." - Millium
• Azure Siegfried's whole existence doesn't pull any punches either. Watching Rean's continuous efforts to ascertain if this really is Crow and to drag him out from behind the mask culminate in Siegfried gleefully throwing it in his face that he is Crow but doesn't care by using the old interest Running Gag against him is truly painful. Crow's death changed Rean like nothing else and knowing that someone he mourned and missed so much is alive but brainwashed into helping the person he hated above all else has a big effect on him throughout the game, even without getting into the numerous occasions that show he never got over Crow's death in the first place
• The Downer Ending of Cold Steel III may as well be one big contest to see which character has the most miserable life at the end of the day. Here are our top contenders:
  • Alisa: She finds out that her father has been alive all this time, but it turns out that he's been leading the Black Workshop and working with Osborne after his supposed death (which, by the way, was caused by Sharon) years ago. And to put some more salt in the wound, he acknowledges that working in the Reinford Company and marrying Irina was simply all part of his plan and that he never cared for his family. In short, all of the drama that surrounded the Reinfords, including Irina becoming a workaholic, Gwyn being forced to leave the company, and Alisa resenting her mother, was all caused by the selfish ambitions of one man. And said man is the one who kills Laura's father and Alfin's brother by detonating the Courageous. Oh, and if you chose her as Rean's Love Interest, he's also partly responsible for her boyfriend going through the Trauma Conga Line to end all Trauma Conga Lines.
  • Alfin: First off, her father, Emperor Eugent III, is shot and is now in critical condition on the night of her and Elise's debut in society. Second, her half brother, Prince Olivert, gets blown up while on board the Courageous. Finally, her twin brother Cedric is revealed to have pulled a massive Face–Heel Turn and has now allied himself with Osborne and obtained his own Divine Knight along the way. If Alisa's family was divided, then Alfin's family is downright crumbling to pieces. Poor girl could do nothing but faint after seeing the Courageous explode.
  • Jusis: He finds out that his brother, Rufus, is not Duke Albarea's son; rather, he was the result from an affair of Duke Albarea's wife. The Duke found out and as as a result decided to bring in Jusis, his own child from an affair. However, to keep other nobles from getting suspicious of Rufus's lineage, Duke Albarea intentionally mistreated Jusis while focus on raising Rufus. This disgusted Rufus enough for him to side with Chancellor Osborne and the Ironbloods. Furthermore, Millium, the female member of Class VII who had the most Ship Tease with Jusis, dies at the end of the game.
  • Laura: Though slightly milder than the other entries listed, she watches her father, who was already permanently injured after the fight with McBurn in the previous game, get blown up while he's on board the Courageous. Considering how much she loves her father, that has got to be a huge hit to the heart.
  • Towa: Remember that band of friendship she forged with George, Angelica, and Crow? On top of Crow dying at the end of Cold Steel II, George ends up being Evil All Along in Cold Steel III, revealing himself to be a gnome working for the Black Workshop, and shoots Angelica, leaving her fate unknown (though George said he killed her). The good news is that Crow is officially Back from the Dead as the Azure Siegfried and has managed to regain his memories of his former life, but as things stands currently? It's Break the Cutie in full force, and Towa is left completely and utterly alone. Seeing her break down as George reveals the truth to her was simply the clincher. And as icing on the cake, George then tries to kill her.
  • And finally, the biggest loser in all of this, Rean. To list all of the things that went wrong in his life, on the night of his sister's and the princess' debut in society, he finds out about his Dark and Troubled Past and the source of much of his anguish; that one of his students shot the emperor; is forced to fight against Claire and Millium, two of his closest allies, because of their loyalty to Osborne; witnesses Sharon return to her post as a full time Enforcer of Ouroboros after two games' worth of her swearing her loyalty to Rean and his friends; is betrayed by one of his most trusted friends and is forced to watch the Courageous get blown up with three more of his close allies still on board and he can't even mourn for their deaths because he's still in danger from the beast especially with his Zemurian tachi destroyed easily and Valimar is being eaten in the process; and is almost forced to watch Altina - one of his own students - sacrifice herself only for Millium to do so instead. All this after learning of Angelica's death and George's Betrayal. And if you thought that things would get better after the final boss, you'd be wrong. Rean loses control of his Superpowered Evil Side and defeating the final boss results in himself and the entire continent to be engulfed in darkness. Osborne then declares that he's going to bring out his own Divine Knight, and the last thing we see of our hero is him getting lifted by the neck by the Chancellor as Valimar is shown restrained in the ending CG. The worst part is that the game ends in a way that tells that his future is not going to be bright anytime soon. And then the Cold Steel IV microsite goes live with an image of Rean imprisoned and shackled using magical means while he's stuck in Ogre form. Also, did we mention that the synopsis for the fourth game says his own self is fading away? Definitely his Darkest Hour, if anything.
• It's heartbreaking to see Class VII, both new and old, try to snap Rean out of his rage but fail to do so. Not even Crow was able to do so. The fact that Osborne can do so easily makes it a lot harder to take in as it reveals that Rean is pretty much Osborne's slave and there's almost nothing Rean can do while Rean has Osborne's heart.

Trails of Cold Steel IV

"Even if I am to be pierced by a thousand arrows, I'll definitely be your shield"

• The first teaser for Cold Steel: The Last Saga is out and already we see Rean all chained up◊ while he's in ogre form.
  • The Kiseki Wiki was updated with the synopsis for the fourth game, and there we have this: "As the ogre power of the Ashen Chevalier, Rean Schwarzer, becomes uncontrollable, even his self fades away."
• Sara's bonding event, when she needs to go on an all out fight against Rean because Rean uses his ogre power to influence the curse that possessed the other jaegers in the area to go to him. Thankfully, he manages to snap out of it after one battle.
• A Dengeki stream has come out and it shows that Rean is captured by Osborne and the rest of the gang and Emma has to bail everyone out. Celine tries to go to Rean to get him out as well but she ends up getting caught in the teleportation circle Osborne created. Finally, Musse reveals her allegiances and apologizes to Juna, Kurt, and Altina while claiming that she'll take care of Ash and escapes on her own using one of Grianos' feathers Vita gave to her.
• Famitsu published several more screenshots from ''The Last Saga'', with one of them showing Alfin by a marker that says "Site of Lenheim's Former Residence." Note that the name Lenheim is part of Olivert's alias and taken from his mother's maiden name. Whether this suggests that Olivert did perish onboard the Courageous is still up in the air, but from the look on Alfin's face as she pays her respects to the place where her older brother was born, she could very well be grieving.
• Another Dengeki stream came out and this time it's from Schera's point of view. It turns out that she also witnessed the destruction of the Courageous and now all that she has left of Olivert is the artifact he had since the Sky series and his last words telling her to contact their friends should anything happen to him. Even Jona from the Crossbell games, who is known for acting like a bratty child at times, promptly apologizes when he realizes he made an insensitive comment that leaves Schera holding back tears.
• When Juna, Kurt, and Altina break out of the Shared Dream about the Thors campuses merging, memories of what happened in the Gral almost immediately come flooding back. Altina remembers Millium dying right before her eyes and almost immediately breaks down crying and screaming in grief. Juna tries to comfort her, but is traumatized and struggling not to burst into tears herself, remembering how Rean and Valimar went berserk and they couldn't bring him to his senses.
• In Cold Steel IV, one of the visions Class VII sees is Osborne's Start of Darkness as he sees his house burning, his wife dead, and his son in his arms who was impaled in his heart. To see Osborne actually crying his heart out is actually heart wrenching and players can finally see why he decided to go to the dark side.
  • Later on, the party ends up seeing the hidden past that includes the final meeting with Dreichels and Lianne, Rutger's revival, George's hidden side, Franz becoming Black Alberich and Osborne's entire livelihood crashing down on him in one night. It then cuts back to the present day where Rean nearly gives in to the curse the party had to snap him out of at the Black Workshop in his rage at seeing that everything is Ishmelga's fault.
  • There's also Roselia's reaction as to why Dreichels and Lianne never said anything to her for two and a half centuries. She really felt like she was betrayed by her two friends for not telling her that there's a really big issue going on in the empire.
• Lianne's death. On top of it being a very dishonorable death thanks to Rufus back stabbing Lianne in her moment of weakness while the party are trying to convince her to live and join them with Rean giving Algreion back the power that Valimar is absorbing, she ends up dying at Crossbell, the city where she was first introduced in the series, far away from her home. She also has a few words to part with the Stahlritter, Laura, Roselia, and finally to Rean, musing how it would have been like if she raised Rean herself. As for her final moments, she ends up purifying Valimar and Millium's corruption, allowing Valimar to finally talk again and Millium to manifest in spirit. Her fellow members of Ouroboros also visit her in her final moments with Renne musing that Lianne never did go to her tea parties.
• Alisa's first bonding event in Cold Steel IV. In it, she confesses her love to Rean. Admitting to having loved him for a long time ever since they first met. However, due to recent events regarding her family and including the pain that Rean has suffered along the way which her father is partly responsible for, Alisa begins to develop a level of insecurity regarding their relationship and decides to take her confession back so that she could just be a normal comrade to Rean and support him that way.
  • Things only becomes worse should a player import a save file from Cold Steel III where Alisa is Rean's chosen love interest. It essentially results in Alisa wanting to break up with Rean. Regardless, it's pretty clear that Alisa doesn't like doing so since she looks like she's about to cry. As seen with the pained look on his face, Rean himself is also clearly taken aback by the whole ordeal and obviously wants to say something to comfort her, but he reluctantly agrees instead so as to not trouble Alisa anymore.
  • Thankfully, the events of the above can be subverted should the player continue to pursue Alisa and pick her for the final bonding event. Resulting in her apologizing to Rean about having to put up with her selfishness and deciding that she wants to be with him regardless.
• Rean's and Osborne's final clash really. At this point, it's clear that they don't want to do this and if their lives weren't screwed by Ishmelga, they probably would have been a happy family. The sad music playing in the background isn't helping things as well.
• The normal ending for Cold Steel IV. Rean completes the Great One and he, Crow, and Millium go up to the sky to disperse it completely from the face of Zemuria. They all explode and die at the end with credits rolling. And the ending song titled:"Just love you" played in the background with Millium, Crow and Rean fade in light is such a strong ending. That smile of Rean at the end and his words towards Class VII "Thank you, everyone. I had fun." can't help player to tear up. Yeah, for the first time in the franchise, The Hero Dies is in full effect and players are railroaded for that ending. Fortunately, there is a Golden Ending to mitigate this but it doesn't change the fact that Falcom was willing to actually kill off their main protagonist.
  • The reason why Rean, Crow, and Millium had to sacrifice themselves? Ishmelga has the complete version of the Great One and is attempting to pull off a Grand Theft Me on Rean, who can barely hold it back. He muses that Dreichels and Osborne were very impressive to hold this back for so long though Ishmelga wasn't at full power compared to what Rean's trying to hold back. With no other choice, he has to self-destruct himself and Valimar by escaping the atmosphere to space. Crow and Millium join him because their lives are also tied to the Great One and decided to keep Rean company in his last moments. Rean and Valimar really look in pain as Ishmelga is slowly corrupting them.
  • The one thing that sells this scene is when they pan to show the cast crying, Machias is actually screaming in angst as opposed to the rest of Class VII. If you've been holding back well so far, the sight Machias breaking down into hysteria is sure to cause you to lose it.
  • The other characters, too. Pay attention to the scene: as soon as they are gone, feathers fall from the sky (similar to angel feathers). Towa gets one of them and the player can see her screaming. Not to mention all the horrified faces of the cast that didn't go with them for the last dungeon. It's especially heartbreaking when, the day before the final battle, those three were always musing about what could happen to them, because they were sure they were going to die, but promised everyone to stay well and return safely after everything. If it wasn't for the Golden Ending coming afterwards, the whole scene would break the hearts of many fans. So it’s safe to say that the hearts of fans who do not play using walkthroughs to avoid spoilers, or were using spoiler-free walkthroughs to avoid being spoiled, were broken before the game unlocks the option to get the golden ending.
  • Remember how the relationship between Rean and Ash was awkward, with the latter never calling him "Instructor Rean" but only by his surname, or being thankful for Rean's help but still being embarrassed of saying his thanks in more direct ways outside of bonding events? Yeah, Ash is one of the people with biggest reaction when he noticed Rean was going to die. It's really something else, to watch the "rude" member of new Class VII yelling at Rean so he would stop joking and not do that.
  • Mind you Osborne's whole gambit in the ending was that he believed that Rean was able to expel Ishmelga from himself and destroy it permanently and presumably living in the process. With Rean dying in this ending, as while Ishmelga is gone, he still loses his son to the entity who ruined his life.
• Another form of tearjerker is the fact that both Rean and Alisa got to have a decent conversations with their fathers (Biological in Rean's case) for the first time in years only when they're finally free of Ishemelga's influence and dying.
  • In Rean's case it was the only time in 14 years he was finally able to talk to Osborne without any tension or suspicion and actually act like family for once. They even able to call each other "my child" (Osborne) and "father" (Rean) before Osborne leaves for good. With Rean having no memories of the good times with Osborne and his biological mother Kasia, this will be all the good memories he would have of Osborne as the good man he once was. Alisa on the other hand, after losing her father once as a little girl, has to watch him disappear from her life again only shortly after finally getting him back. She even begs him to stay with her and that they could find a way to save him only for Franz to say otherwise.
  • Many fans cried when Valimar and the rest of the Divine Knights disappeared at the end of the game as they've used the Great One's power and have to disappear from the world for good to prevent their powers being abused by humans. Especially when he calls Rean his "partner".
• The theme used in the first ending. The lyrics say "Even if I am to be pierced by a thousand arrows, I'll definitely be your shield" (千の矢に貫かれたとしても 君の盾になるよ 必ず). Then you remember the context of the ending, with Rean, Crow and Millium doing exactly that - being everyone's shield at the cost of their lives. It gets worse when the player remembers that both Crow and Millium are doing it for a second time.
• Towa's second bonding event. She discovers the place where the airship that had her parents crashed, and she asks Rean to go there and offer flowers to the place. While there, she confesses that her uncle was called to fight in the frontlines in the war and that she is not sure if he will come back alive. If this wasn't tragic enough, she says to Rean how frustrated she is that every person that is dear to her will go away. Angelica was saved, but George at that point didn't come back yet and she thought he never would (and she was right in a way, since he tried to kill himself once the battle against him was over but Angelica managed to stop him). Then she says that Crow has his time limit, and Rean himself was cursed as the "sacrifice" for the Twlight and doesn't know if he will come back. Rean can't say anything to calm her down, so everything he can do is hug her and say that he is still there, that he is not dead yet. The event ends with both of them throwing the flowers in a cliff. For a romantic event, that one sure was depressing, especially if we remember how alone Towa was by the end of Cold Steel III.
• Laura's romantic event. All questionable actions aside, it was confirmed there that Rean is searching for a place to die. Emma's romantic event had the same lines, as she yelled at him how frustrated she was with the whole situation and how she couldn't accept that Rean gave up on living. Rean for his part denies this, saying he doesn't want to die but rather as one responsible for helping unleash the Great Twilight, he wants to at least make up for it and find a way to put his life to good use which may or may not lead to his death. Either way it's sad to see Rean be led to such a conclusion.
  • Musse's romantic bonding event had the girl holding a pistol to end her life in case Mille Mirage goes wrong. She is only 16 and already has the weight of the entire world on her shoulders.
  • Crow's second bonding event is not better. In the first one, he said he would stay with them until he was inevitably dead again. The second one has Crow giving back precious objects to the family members of the dead ILF members, as a way for him to "go away" without regrets. This culminates in Stark's sidequest in the last chapter, when he yells at Crow for always giving optimistic views to everyone except for himself and can't accept that he gave up on life either.
• Jusis' first bonding event starts with him and Rean coming back to Bareahard. A kid hug Jusis, happy to see him back, but the latter remembers Millium and can be seen with a very melancholic face. Not to mention the beginning of the game, when you can see Jusis sitting alone on a bench while holding Millium's hat, as if it was a memento of her.
• As awesome and epic as the heroes eventual victory was, it's still somewhat a downer that for all they tried to resolve things peacefully and without bloodshed throughout all 4 games, Ishmelga's near total control of everything made that impossible and they had to let it have it's massive conflict and let things play out first. Olivert had hoped from the start he could resolve things in Erebonia peacefully and with everyone coming out ok and he failed on that front leading to two massive wars and most major players in both factions either dead or disgraced.