Considering the subject matter, this is pretty much inevitable.
- The Main Theme
music is a beautifully somber piano piece that reflects the tragedy of the war. - In just the opening, Karl is deported from France and drafted into the German army, while Emile is drafted into the French army, and are both unwillingly put into opposing sides of the war.
- Treating so many wounded and dying people as Anna, making you realize that the suffering will never end until the war itself ends.
- One such segment has you treat a soldier that has apparently woken up...in a ditch below a wooden bridge filled with corpses. Said ditch also has a collectable of a Prussian soldier's letter to his daughter. The only saving grace there is that only the Germans were the Central Powers' belligerents involved in the battles for Ypres.
- When you find out Freddie's backstory, his wife was killed in a German bombing raid on their wedding day.
- While navigating a mine, Emile rescues a trapped German soldier, who returns the favor by distracting his own men to allow Emile to escape. A little while later, Emile is ordered to help demolish the tunnels, inadvertently killing the same German soldier he had just saved.
- Emile believing Karl to be dead, falls into grief and wonders how he should explain this to Marie and Victor.
- The nameless German medic, Walt's original owner, who disregards his own safety by making sure Karl and the dog reach safety first, and is killed by an artillery shell.
- Karl's Heroic Sacrifice by giving his gas mask to Marie when she's caught in a gas attack. Karl nearly dies, but gets better thanks to timely intervention from Anna.
- Karl has been separated from his son for three years.
- Once Emile leaves to go to war, he never sees his daughter, Marie, and his grandson, Victor, ever again. Emile and Karl last see each other when Emile is a prisoner of war.
- In Valiant Hearts: Dogs of War, Cassie's (Walt's sister's) death, made even worse by the fact that Walt sees it and rushes to her side, only for Cassie to die with Walt standing helplessly beside her.
- At the crash of Baron Von Dorf's airship, Anna finds Karl, and Emile and Freddie are on the way. Everything seems to be going somewhat good, then Anna and Karl are sent to a POW camp, Emile and Freddie to return to the front, and all four never get to be together again.
- Everything Emile goes through in his final battle, seeing his buddies die one by one, seeing so many of his countrymen dying pointlessly, seeing the inhuman machine of war crushing the human spirit, until he finally makes it stop by killing his officer.
- And finally, Emile's execution and his final letter to his daughter. Made even worse by two things. First, you'd expect Emile, or any other character, to die during a battle against the Germans, or caught in the crossfire; instead, Emile is killed by his own countrymen. Secondly, during that scene, while more limited, you've still got control. And they're the final movements the player makes in the game.
- Freddie standing glumly by, in respect for Emile. Other soldiers (who may be the ones saved from death when Emile killed the officer) follow suit by saluting him.
- The salutes just adds a whole new tragic aspect to the situation: Nobody treats the man with disrespect, at the worst being a solemn stoicism that comes with having to carry out an execution—its as if everyone present knows this is wrong, and knows they are sending to his death a man who just wanted the absolute madness of the war to stop, but there is nothing that can be done—the sentence for murder has been decreed, and it must be served.
- The final letter indicates that the news of Karl's survival never reached him and Emile died believing that he failed Karl.
- That letter as a whole. What makes it even more tragic is that it's based on an actual letter that a soldier wrote during the war, which is what helped inspire the game.Dearest Marie, as the war ends for me, I have no regrets, I've seen too much horror. I hope fate has been more merciful to you. Our time on Earth is brief, and mine has been filled with so much joy, that I can only be thankful for how much I've been blessed. Most specially for the wonder you brought into my life. This letter is my last. I've been found guilty by a military court for the death of an officer. It was not my intention to kill him. War makes men mad. Though I failed Karl, I know my sacrifice has not been in vain. I fought for my country and my liberty, my honor is assured. Since it is the will of God to separate us on Earth, I hope we'll meet again in heaven. Keep me in your prayers. Your loving Papa, always.
- That letter as a whole. What makes it even more tragic is that it's based on an actual letter that a soldier wrote during the war, which is what helped inspire the game.
- Arguably another sadness factor is that you never actually see Emile die. You just hear the crack of the rifles, then the thump of his body hitting the ground.
- Audio director Yoan Fanise created a clip of various YouTube Let's Players' reactions leading up to Emile's execution. Even for those without a face cam, Cryaotic's vocal reaction sums it up as well.Cry: That's not fair! That's not fucking fair! That's bullshit! Fuck!.....Fuck!
- Jack's reaction is also pretty apt, and more or less vocalises what many of the players were thinking:Jack: That SUCKED! *Sobs*
- Listen to Emile's voice when he says "war makes men mad" and "I hope we'll meet again in heaven". Apparently even his voice actor was not immune to breaking up a little.
- A Gamespot review defines the game perfectly as a portrayal of ordinary people (our characters) plunged into such devastation and suffering they have no control over.
- Perhaps what is most horrific is that this is merely the FIRST great war. One can only hope that, at some point, Karl and his family move far away (perhaps America) to some distant place were they just live as ordinary people with no fear of war. That's no guarantee, of course, for the countless lives that have been claimed by both wars, and others before and to come. As the mid-credits scene puts it: war is an inhuman machine with an insatiable appetite.
- The Happy Ending Override that Freddie and Anna suffer in Coming Home. Having fallen in love over the course of the war, Freddie brings Anna to America in order to start a new life together far from the battlefield. While they're looking at furniture for their new home, they are assaulted by two racists who end up fatally stabbing Freddie. He bleeds out in the street while Anna desperately tries and fails to resuscitate him. To make it even worse, his younger brother James finds out about this through a letter from Anna that she delivered simultaneously with the last letter that Freddie wrote, telling James about how he had renewed hope for the future.
