10 'Emotional' Video Game Endings That Fell Completely FLAT
6. Ghostwire: Tokyo
Attention, developers: simply saying "that character is related to the protagonist" is not a shortcut for making us care about them. You still need to give them a personality, so we actually feel something when they die.
Case in point - Mari from Ghostwire: Tokyo.
In Tango Gameworks' supernatural adventure, protagonist Akito is driven by his goal of saving his comatose sister from the clutches of the madman who kidnapped her. Unfortunately, that previous sentence sums up the entirety of Mari's character: Sister, Comatose, Kidnapped.
Three bullet points do not a compelling character make, and the end result is that the final scene creates a marked disconnect between player and protagonist. Akito thwarts the bad guy but fails to save his sister, resulting in him bawling his eyes out over her lifeless body. While undoubtedly sad for Akito, Mari's total lack of characterization means that for the player, he might as well be crying over the loss of his favourite Pokemon card.
Ghostwire never once treats Mari as a person, only as an object that needs saving, and as a result it's impossible to care about the poor girl's demise.