Tear Jerker / Yakuza 3

• Mine's flashback upon looking at a picture of himself as a child. Young Mine tells his father that he played baseball with his friends. But it then turns out that the other children shunned him because he could not afford any baseball equipment, and proceed to mock him for being poor. Mine lied to his dad in order to make him feel happy. It then cuts to Mine at his father's deathbed, his last words telling Mine to be successful and have a better life.
• The destruction of Sunshine/Morning Glory Orphanage. While players are extremely divided on how the orphanage takes up a chunk of the game, it's nonetheless saddening to see the kids lose their home.
• Rikiya's death following his Heroic Sacrifice. While sad enough already, the biggest tearjerker comes from Kiryu himself. Expecting the usual stoic mourning or Skyward Scream? Nope. Instead, Kiryu is openly, unapologetically sobbing his goddamn eyes out, screaming at Rikiya to hold on. An out of character moment not seen since Kazama's death in the first game and it is absolutely harrowing to watch.
  Kiryu: Rikiya...? Please! Rikiya! Come on! You can't die on me, Rikiya! I... I won't let you! You hear me?! RIKIYA! JUST GET UP, RIKIYA!! [sobs as Joji comforts him, then in a completely broken voice] ...Rikiyaaaaaa!!!
• One of the karaoke songs "Shooting Star" is a beautiful ballad that definitely gives listeners the feels and the only one that has a sad vibe.
• Mine's Motive Rant to Kiryu atop the hospital roof. You can't help but feel bad for him despite him being the Big Bad. Had he grown up with genuine friends and people who cared for him after losing his father, it's very likely he could have turned out a different man.
  • Then there's also his love/loyalty for Daigo. Mine said that Daigo was the first person aside his father who treated him like a genuine human being. The reason why he wanted to kill Daigo? To put him out of his misery because he couldn't bear to see Daigo in such a state.
• Following the final boss battle, Mine receives a call from his assistant, Katase, whom he initially assumes is genuinely worried about him... only to realize that she just called him to ask about a business deal. Having just started to have an epiphany about his life, his reaction says it all.
  Mine: Money... Always money. That's all I have left.
  • And finally, there's Mine's Redemption Equals Death. Just as Andre Richardson is about to shoot Kiryu and Daigo, Mine charges at Richardson and drags him to the edge of the tower. Before throwing himself and Richardson off to their deaths, Mine laments that he wasn't worthy of being with Daigo, and how he had not met Kiryu sooner.
    • Daigo's reaction adds to the moment as well. He was genuinely crushed, and painfully asks Kiryu if Mine had betrayed the Tojo Clan. It's clear that regardless of what Mine thinks, Daigo still saw him as a true friend.
  • Infinite Wealth adds another kicker to this since it reveals that Richardson ultimately survived (albeit undergoing a Heel–Face Turn afterwards), meaning that Mine ultimately died for nothing.
• During the intro chapters of the game, Kiryu meets Nakahara and his adopted daughter Saki, a girl who's been stricken mute after the trauma of seeing her biological father hang himself and who can only communicate through her sketch book. When it appears that she's willingly returning to be with her biological mother (who'd previously abandoned her), the old Patriarch sinks into a drunken depression. After Kiryu beats Tamashiro for the first time and reunites Saki and Nakahara, he tells the older man to look at just what Saki had sketched last: a drawing of Nakahara, happy and surrounded by flowers with a message: "Thank you for keeping me safe." All Nakahara can do is weep after Kiryu and Saki confirm that she sees Nakahara as her real father. A moving moment in a game who's core message about familial bonds without the need for blood relations (in a country that still has great importance on such).

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