From Ally to Antagonist: Tragic Luc In Suikoden
- Amethyst
- 8 July, 2025
- Amethyst
- 10 June, 2025
Roller coasters go up and down just like life, but JRPG’s are special thing.
From Aerith’s death to Tidus’s farewell,
these moments were the most heartbreaking according to gamers around the world.
Final Fantasy VII – Aerith’s Passing
Let’s talk about the moment itself. Sephiroth falls from the sky, an impales Aerith in the midst of a prayer. No warning, no buildup. She’s just gone, dead.
It hurts, mostly because she’s the heart of the party. She’s got a good weight, she’s spiritual and most of all, she’s gentle. And you have spent hours investing into a levelling and into his skill sets. And in this one cruel instant, she’s done. She’s dead, and the Materia drops. Where the music swells and the world feels called her, this is where her story ends.
This was a big line drawn in the sand, JRPG’s hot high stakes, but Aerith’s death made it seem really real. It displays that stories in video games can take many risks and defy your expectations, but it can also break your heart, just like a novel or a film. This wasn’t just a game over. This was serious grief.
Final Fantasy X – Tidus’s Farewell
After defeating Sin, the final boss, Yuna runs towards Tidus. But he fades away before she can actually touch him. Why? He never existed in reality, it was just a dream of the Fayth.
Tidus actually started out as a bad boy. We grew with him. He became a lover, a friend and protector all at once. But his farewell wasn’t just a death. It’s a vanishing of his non-existent mind and soul. A quiet heartbreak, wrapped in the present of his love that saved the world of Spira, but cost him everything in the end.
Final Fantasy X doesn’t give you the most optimistic ending like a fairy tale would. It gives you a bittersweet feeling with layers of sacrifices and maturity. It challenges you with a question. What if love isn’t enough to rewrite destiny? And what if doing the right thing means disappearing from the one you love most?
Suikoden II – Matilda’s Arrows Take Out Nanami
During the events of Rockaxe Castle, Nanami is struck by an arrow. She’ll try to defend Riou from harm, and depending on your progress, she may or may not survive.
Nanami is not just any party member, she’s your big sister, the rock of all things, and the more composite keeps you in balance. Her optimism is one of the balances of power in the rising tension of the Dunan Unification War. Watching her fall right in front of the eyes, makes you clutch your stomach as she still trying to protect you. That is gut wrenching.
Suikoden II excels at making you feel the lack of power, and this scene is one of the ones that punches you with the cruelty of war. It’s a cost of loyalty, the fragility of life and the loss of family members. No matter if she lives or dies, the trauma still lingers. It is not one of the worst endings, but it’s a deeply human want to connect with and feel.
Chrono Trigger – Crono Sacrifices Himself
Have you ever seen a main protagonist sacrificed himself for the greater good? In Chrono Trigger, Crono does exactly that. As Lavos unleashes a killing blast, Crono pushes everyone else back and stands his ground. When the screen whites out, you know it’s lights out for Crono. Permanently.
Crono isn’t a main character. He is you, as you play him. This is where the strength of silent protagonism in a game is driven by a multitude of things. Freedom, friendship, choice, it’s all in there. Losing him is like losing your main anchor on a ship.
It’s not just rare for a JRPG to kill the protagonist during the game, but Corona Tracker just does it with the absolute boldness that it has. It puts trust in the player to grieve Crono and to work hard and fight for his return through the terms of time travel. But even in a world filled with time travel, loss has consequences, and you have to wrestle with that permanent idea.
Suikoden II – The Final Reunion
One of the classical elements of certain JRPG’s, and the charming nature of them is that they can have multiple endings. The Suikoden series does this phenomenally because you can recruit 108 Stars of Destiny or characters. In this installment, if you manage to recruit all 108 Stars of Destiny and made the right choices in Rockaxe Castle, you will see a hidden ending. Or rather the possible best ending. Jowy and Riou meet again at the Tenzan Pass, where their story started. You have the opportunity to either fight and take out Jowy once and for all, or you decide to defend yourself. Major spoiler alert, you get the best ending if you keep on defending and never attack him at all.
After everything that went on in this game, with their great storylines, from the betrayals, the bloodshed, the weight of leadership and the weight of friendship, this quiet moment is rather overwhelming. They definitely were not who they once were in their youth. But in the end, they are together as the friends they always were. And if you do get the best ending, Nanami turns out to be alive. With all of that great news, they decide to travel the world and leave this mess of the Dunan Unification war behind.
Players have felt the highs and lows of these games. It doesn’t erase the pain that was given in the heat of the story. From the betrayal and the loss of your some of your companions, to making new friends and having smiles in dialogue. That is the poetry of JRPG storytelling at its best. Your longtime emotional investment into the game gives you an optimistic reunion that is earned, not handed to you.
Let us shortly break this down, because these scenes aren’t tragic just for the sake of being tragic, but they work on another level.
The key elements are that these scenes are earned, they’re unexpected, and they’re full of impact on players.
These games are not just out there for you to go through and win at the end. They want you to grow on a mental, physical and spiritual level. Growth in RPG’s for US player does not always mean that it will be easy. Hurting is part of the process. And you can only become a better person by playing through these games.
In conclusion, that means that JRPG’s are at their best when they embrace emotion. When players trust in the game to connect, to cry, to laugh and carried his stories long after the credits are done and vice versa. The five moments listed in these short list doesn’t just make us sad, they made us care about the characters that we lost. And isn’t the most important about what great storytelling is supposed to do for us?
We want to hear from you who you lost in a JRPG.
Was it someone in this list or was it someone from a different game? Let us know why you cared!
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