Tear Jerker / Xenoblade Chronicles X

• Serial Thriller, Murderess' final affinity mission, reveals some surprisingly heartbreaking details about her past. Her parents were murdered in front of her when she was a little girl, and she's spent her life since then filled with hatred for the bastard who was responsible. When she realizes he made it onto the White Whale and is behind the recent BLADE murders, she's dead-set on killing him in revenge. Rook has the option to ask if she thinks her parents would be proud of her for that, and she sounds close to tears when she answers. The mission concludes with her finally choosing not to have her long-sought vengeance, and her and Irina finally gaining respect for one another.
• Poor Lao, Irina and pretty much anyone whose love ones didn't get to board the arks because they weren't chosen, weren't considered useful enough to be allowed on board(this can be especially infuriating in the light of other side quests and affinity missions, and you see some of the literal wastes of space that did get on), or simply weren't able to get on a ark on time. Irina is implied to be somewhat of a death seeker while Lao went as far as betraying his friends to the Ganglion because he was angry that the leaders only let certain people on board because they had the wealth, the influence, or be useful in humanity's survival (and this is on top of Lao and the game barely concealing a suspicion of race and other factors playing into the selection) while everyone else is left behind to die on Earth which included his wife and daughter. In the case of Phog and Frye, their father willingly stayed behind, because he didn't think it would be fair for "an old man like him" to take someone else's spot. Frye took it so hard he and his brother had a major falling-out. Even Chausson wasn't spared from the pain as while he could had let his son board one of the arks but as that would be considered corrupt nepotism, he had to leave his son behind on Earth.
• In a case of Alas, Poor Villain, when players destroy the Zu Pharg, being piloted by Ryyz and Dagahn, Ryyz is throwing a fit while the ship explodes and burns around them, but Dagahn's main concern is for Ryyz and tries to protect her with his body. It's rather heartwarming, even though they both burn up anyway.
• With the revelation with what happened in the ending with the Lifehold Core supercomputer that holds humanity's consciousnesses was trashed when they arrived on Mira, any hope of anybody who died during the story being revived is dashed. If the Lifehold Core was still functional and located o ntime, there was some hope that they could had revived these people in different Mimesomes or if they need to, in their real bodies once they reach the Lifehold Core, but since the supercomputer is gone with their consciousnesses, they are gone forever and while Lao is shown coming back who knows if he was only a exception or some greater power revived him. Worst while the rest of humanity survive on in their Mimesomes thanks to Mira despite the supercomputer holding their conscious destroyed, humanity is pretty much extinct as this point as it is unknown if they can reproduce or they even considered human in their robot bodies. While there is hope that other arks survive the destruction of Earth, people simply don't know and at this point it is a bittersweet ending.
  • Humanity wouldn't be extinct, they just wouldn't be able to reproduce pre-existing humans. The data for creating new ones, as demonstrated when Elma creates a cat when you first arrive, is more or less mostly intact. If anything its become more of an "Adam and Eve" story as any new humans wouldn't carry the baggage of the old.
  • It's also possible that the damage could potentially be repaired and at least some of the lost data recovered, it would just be an exhausting process.
  • Actually it's hard to truly say what the destroyed computer means. While it is possible that they can never be brought back, it should also be noted that Mimeosomes can't hold a human consciousness. It has to be controlled remotely. Their situation seemingly goes against all logic. It's possible that their memories are being stored elsewhere, but overall it's impossible to say what's going on because we rally just don't know.
• Regardless of any choices you make throughout the game, some innocent people can't be saved. Examples include much of the Bianho Water Plant staff, Adelbert and Grette, Powell's murder victims, Malyteth, who's driven to poisoning herself through cult brainwashing, various Orphe who were at the wrong place at the wrong time, and Gi Zang's Prone friend.
• When Lao stabs Luxaar after coming to terms that the Ganglion are at fault for what happened to Humanity, he states he has 9.98 billion reasons to want him dead. Until that point we didn't know what Humanity's population was when Earth was caught in the fight between the Ganglion and the Ghosts, that means nearly 10 billion people died that day.
  • Worse is each Ark that was shot down had 20 million inside... and we don't know how many arks were launched overall, much less how many actually got away.
• "Uncontrollable", the Tyrant Boss Theme. Lyrical Dissonance results in rousing battle theme with somber lyrics about a broken relationship and the uncertainty of mending it.
• A more straight musical example of this is the gut-wrenching "D91M (Requiem)". It's mostly a quiet track of synthetic noises and slow violin, giving it an ethereal and extremely saddening tone, fitting for the Player Punches it's used for. The most powerful part of the track sets in at 2 minutes, however, when it explodes as much as a violin piece can. Truly heartbreaking. Almost as emotional, however, is Requiem's Boss Remix, "aBOreSSs", which adds guitar and, most impressively, makes AOL dial-up tones sound not just non-ear-piercing, but downright saddening. Rather fitting for Lao's first boss fight.
• One quest has the player character helping out three aspiring Wrothian warriors. They're hoping to kill the indigen that killed their mentor, and ask for information about it. If the player can't answer their questions, they will end up dying.
• Mia's final heart-to-heart, talking about how empty her old house felt after her parents died.