melancholy

are there any games where this is a central or subliminal theme?

Silent Hill 2, although it only really becomes apparent at the end. I spent the whole game endlessly re-examining a seemingly useless knife I'd picked up, just to see if I'd missed something. Apparently that indicated suicidal tendences and inability to get over the death of my wife, so it gave me the the 'bad' ending.

I've really got to play that game already. But it is really that much better than the first Silent Hill? I hear a lot of praise about SH2, so I played the first game for a little while - the graphics were so dated and crude, with controls and fights that were so frustrating, I gave up. What the sequel really that much better?

Planescape: Torment, sort of, but I suppose "regret" might be more accurate than "melancholy" for that one...

Maybe too obvious, but Final Fantasy VII?

is this what Braid was aiming for? i stopped reading the text bits pretty quickly.
i saw the Sky Crawlers film the other day and that was quite melancholic, so the cut scenes in the game should be similar as they were made in parallel with the film.

I never played SH1 and from what I've read the story sounds kinda ridiculous. SH2 otoh is hugely effective - claustrophobic, creepy, terrifying monsters, a real sense of horror.

claustrophobic, creepy, terrifying monsters, a real sense of horror.

this is SH1 also, but yeah visuals on SH2 are much more appealing now.

I think it's fair to say many of the Zelda games get pretty deep into it-- focussed as they are on vanished or inaccessible worlds and times

Fallout 3, I think. It almost feels like a chore to have to turn it on, just because its destroyed world is so consistently bleak.

And then when you finally win, you don't really win anyway.

Horace goes skiing - no money no ski ;_;

haha

Shadow of the Colossus, o'course

i think there a bunch more indie games aiming at this

also katamari had moments of it, who was the journalist who did the really long review that focused on that

there's an element of this in all games, kinda

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28288