Konamiturned away from triple-A game development in 2015, but the company’s name has shown up more recently in headlines thanks to recentSilent Hillannouncements. Whether these new games will truly be a series renaissance remains to be seen, but it is undeniable that Konami isresponsible for some gamers' fondest childhood memories.
They also are responsible for making them cry a bit, as the list below shows. Not all of these endings are dark, but some of them are sad for more complicated reasons. As the list reaches the saddest endings, though, players really see the emotional toll the particular game’s story had on the characters.
7Zone Of The Enders
An A.I. Reveals Its Plans To Self-Destruct
This mech gamefeatures an unlikely hero taking control of Jehuti, a mech that is partly controlled by an A. called A.D.A. By the end of the short narrative, it is revealed that Jehuti’s next mission is to make it to Mars where it will engage in a self-destruct sequence that will also destroy A.D.A.
The game’s credits roll right after the protagonist hears this and he is distraught beyond belief. A.D.A. might only be an A.I., but the protagonist has grown to see her as a trusted companion and feels like she is responsible for saving his life.
6Contra: Shattered Soldier
The Protagonist Is Forced To Kill His Former Partner
The dystopian future whereContratakes place is more fleshed out in this legendary PS2 title. The hero, Billy, is revived from a cryo stasis by the three mysterious leaders of the world to fight a new organization called Blood Falcon after he is framed for an incident that destroys much of the planet.
This new army threatening the world is controlled by a mysterious villain who turns out to be Billy’s old partner Lance. The two fight it out near the end of the game and Billy wins. The two make amends before Lance’s death and Billy takes on the game’s true villains, the very organization that put him in cryostasis and controls the world.
Gabriel spends the majority of Castlevania:Lords of Shadowtrying to recreate the God Mask so he can revive his deceased wife, Marie. Unfortunately, by the end of the game, this all turns out to be a trick concocted by none other than Satan himself, using Zobek as a conduit.
Marie could not be revived, though she does have a tearful interaction with Gabriel from the afterlife. To top it all off, Gabriel becomes Dracula, the antagonist ofthe entire series. He slumbers for a thousand years into the modern day, leading to the sequel,Lords of Shadows 2.
The opening act ofMetal Gear Solid 3sees Naked Snake betrayed by his mentor, The Boss. The rest of the game is spent tracking her down and stopping the chain of events she put into motion. What starts as a simple mission to kill a traitor and stop a nuclear catastrophe becomes much more complicated and infused with ideologies and philosophy.
The game’s ending reveals that the boss was not actually a traitor, but her role in the plot was part of a larger mission to clear the US’s name in Colonel Volgin’s plan, including having Snake kill her.
To make the moment of her death even more gut-wrenching, players are actually forced to pull the trigger themselves using the fire button on their controller.
Not only isSymphony of the Nightone of the most beloved games in the seriesand on the PS1 console, but it also features one of the series' sadder endings. The game starts off with an air of mystery as it appears that Richter Belmont, the protagonist ofRondo of Blood,has become a villain.
The protagonist, Alucard, works to stop his plan and find out the truth behind Richter’s apparent betrayal. The whole thing was a plot to revive Dracula, who does come back and is eventually defeated by Alucard. As Dracula dies, he begs his dead love, Lisa, for forgiveness. It’s particularly sad because Lisa wanted Dracula to leave humanity alone, but he could not keep his promise.
What starts out as a typical survival horror game turns into one of the most memorable psychological dramas in gaming. James Sunderland goes to the titular town after receiving a message from his late wife that she is waiting for him there. During the game, James meets several other people who are consumed by some form of trauma and guilt.
By the end, James' own guilt is revealed through a tape he finds that depicts him killing his sick wife with a pillow. Though the events of the game are up to interpretation, the events afterward can be seen as him accepting and coming to terms with the terrible thing he did.
Ground Zeroesstarts out in a desperate situation and only ends with everyone worse off. Snake attempts to rescue Chico and Paz. He completes his mission, but he returns to Mother Base in flames as the villain, Skull Face, and XOF launch a surprise attack against it while he is rescuing the two prisoners.
The game ends with a bomb planted inside Paz detonating inside the helicopter, killing almost everybody on board andleading to the events of the main game,The Phantom Pain.
Audio logs unlocked in the game reveal the true extent of the cruel treatment Skull Face put Chico and Paz through during their imprisonment.
