Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-23790511-20150129221847/@comment-108.16.0.12-20150202050024

Jeez...this is a great question! There are so many stories I've been emotionally affected by, but there are those that rank high above the rest (although I did cut some out of this 'list'). When I say stories, though, I really mean characters. That's all stories are to me; events that happen to characters, and whether or not I like a story is usually dictated by the quality of the cast. Warning: This will be long; I'm a sap and I cry easily. Here goes!

Kingdom Hearts 2 is my favorite game ever for a lot of reasons, but the most important one is Riku. His tale of redemption marked the first time I became emotionally attached to a video game character, and the ending with him and Sora makes me cry every time I watch it.

Blazblue is a game with a somewhat decent story. A lot of the characters are horribly cliche; some are entertaining, most are terribly boring. However (I still find myself surprised by this), the main heroine, Noel Vermillion, is one of my favorite video game characters ever. A lot of people don't like her; they call her weak and cowardly and a Mary Sue and all those kinds of insulting terms. The thing is, I think she's so much more! She's a flawed character, but not in the typical sense. It's not what she does to others that makes her so flawed, but how she views herself.

Atelier Ayesha, while simple, had such a sweet story that I couldn't help but love it. In an industry where the stories are so far-reaching and dramatic, it was a nice change of pace just to witness the journey of a girl trying to find her missing sister. Sometimes, the simple stories are the best. Seeing how she develops her other relationships along the way was great as well. I especially loved Madame Wilbell voll Ersleid, the witch in training!

Spider-Man. A very large part of my childhood was taken up by Spider-Man, and the first time I ever cried due to emotional impact was during Spider-Man 2 when he threw away his costume. What makes his story so touching to me now, however, was that he had to learn his lessons the hard way. He had to grow into a hero, unlike a lot of other characters. His story isn't just triumphant, but also tragic, in a way. He'll always have the weight of his mistakes hanging over him, and the message his tale delivers is one of the most poignant of any story. It's incredibly real, more real than you'd expect from a comic book.

The show Psych is a very big part of my life. It's not a show that people would consider to be the crowining achievement of television or anything like that, but I personally think it's great. Seasons one through four are especially good, balancing comedy with seriousness very well. Also, I really, really, really love Shawn Spencer!

And finally, for the story that affected me the most...the story of Noel Kreiss. Some of you may know him for the largely reviled FFXIII saga, which I personally loved mostly because of him. I can't even think of the guy without crying! His story, without using spoilers, is one about hope. It's a story about the extremes of hope and how it can both drive a person to rise so high and yet fall so far. It's about a young man who refused to give up, and how that determination affected him. Beginning in FFXIII-2 and ending in FF:LR, it's the story that's emotionally affected me in ways I can't even begin to describe. To sum up what his story represents to me, I'll use his own words: "Hope is a double-edged sword. It's cruel to those who cling to impossible dreams."