Sometimes it’s fun to sit down and play a cheerful game like something in the Mario or Kirby universe; other times, a player may seek out a darker game. Even among the many dramatic games out there, a small handful of stories reach a whole other level of depression. That doesn’t mean they are bad, but they require stamina to get through them, as they could start to tear away at your mental soul.
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The following will go across a wide variety of genres, from action-adventure games like The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask to turn-based RPGs like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. They are ranked based on how dour they really are (basically, the rankings are primarily based on their heaviness and not their quality).
Minor spoilers will be mentioned. We will limit them to events that happen early in the games, but it is impossible to completely avoid spoilers.
Quick Picks: Classic Heavy Stories Still Worth Experiencing In 2026
|
Game Title |
What Type Of Game Is It? |
Reasons To Replay It In 2026 |
|---|---|---|
|
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask |
An action-adventure game |
2026 is the 30th anniversary of Zelda, so why not play its darkest entry? |
|
Silent Hill 2 |
A survival horror game, with combat |
A great remake to play after finishing up Resident Evil Requiem. |
|
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles |
A tactical, grid-based RPG |
This remaster finally gives you a reason to check out this PS1 classic. |
Fit the 9 games into the grid.
10
Mother 3
Colorfully Deceitful
Mother 3 is a turn-based RPG from the GBA era that begins with two brothers, Lucas and Claus, losing their mother and then getting separated after an army invasion. The game goes through the roughest parts early, with the rest being a bit more wacky of an adventure filled with the quirkiest of characters, and the backgrounds are highly colorful to make players forget about the darkness. The game ends on a wild note that rivals EarthBound in terms of shocks that players will not see coming, and they will not soon forget it either.
Don’t be misled by the colorful pixel art; Mother 3 is psychologically taxing, something it accomplishes without relying on gore or intense violence. Chapter 1 has a visceral scene revolving around Bronson revealing terrible news to Flint, with the former using a nonchalant gamified tone. The latter’s reaction is, however, very human. Throughout the story, the central village is slowly corrupted by capitalism, turning lovable NPCs into greedy versions of themselves. Even the final battle is incredibly heavy.
9
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Tomorrow Comes
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 delivers a knock-out punch very early, because it builds things up positively before ripping the bandage off by killing an entire age group, followed by the titular Expedition 33 team, who were sent to stop an evil witch named The Paintress. Gustave is among the few survivors of the crew, but he soon finds more companions on the main shore as they gather their wits to continue their pilgrimage, reminding themselves that they are doing it for the ones who died before. The game is incredibly dramatic for a turn-based RPG from start to finish, but there is also some levity as characters back at camp will often make jokes to alleviate the tension.
Despite occasional hopeful moments, Clair Obscur‘s first half is defined by a sense of nihilism, as the characters feel like they are marching towards their inevitable deaths rather than salvation. The second half recontextualizes nearly everything that previously transpired, adding an existential heaviness that was initially absent.
8
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles
Game Of Thrones
Final Fantasy Tactics was already one of the most dramatic Final Fantasy games ever made, but thanks to the modern remaster, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, more players can experience it now, plus it adds full voice acting to express the gravitas of the plot.
Ultimately, the game is about royal families and factions all vying for power in a vacuum after a war, which involves a particularly rogue organization trying to gather crystals that will turn them into gods based on the zodiacs. The plot is filled with death, portrayal, agonizing torture, and more as players fight tactical battles across grid-based maps. The story is largely framed around Ramza and Delita, best friends who start from the same place but deal with a broken world in wildly different and opposing ways. Even though one is arguably presented as the “hero,” FFT avoids going down the cliché “good” vs. “evil” route, instead taking a far more cynical approach.
7
The Legend Of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Messed Up For Nintendo
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is one of the most audacious games in the Zelda series, following The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time as a direct sequel and going hard on the story. The game begins with Link falling into another world, Termina, and also becoming a nightmarish Deku Scrub.
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The visuals in the game are incredibly frightening, with mask transformations that are all born from tragedy and don’t feel inherently empowering, not to mention that the moon will seemingly crash into the town at any moment. The NPCs react realistically (by Zelda standards) to their impending death, making the event incredibly hard to watch. Overall, this action-adventure game is about coping with the inevitability of death in a time loop, while also exploring the psychological degradation of a world that is slowly but surely dying. Although not specifically stated by the story or Nintendo, Majora’s Mask‘s regions sort of follow the five stages of grief. Even the music reinforces the game’s dark and heavy tone, growing increasingly distorted as time slips away.
6
NieR: Automata
Robot Redemption
NieR: Automata is an action RPG that actually starts on a positive note despite the fact that humanity now rests in space while Earth lies in shambles after a robotic war. That’s where battle androids 2B and 9S come in, as they are sent to Earth to try and reclaim it, and they are hopeful in their mission. By the end, the two find that their mission’s outcome was impossible to deal with, but that’s not all. Through repeated campaigns, players will learn more about the war, the state of the world, and just what exactly is going on in space, leading to another shocking twist no one could have predicted.
Everything that lives is designed to end. We are perpetually trapped in a never-ending spiral of life and death.
Similar to Drakengard and the original NieR, NieR: Automata leans heavily into philosophical weight, even breaking the fourth wall to emotionally crush the player. The above quote is the game’s tagline, and the story fully commits to following through on that promise. Even the somewhat positive moments feel like lies, and there is very little joy to be had in defeating the “bad” machines that just mimic human behavior (without the hatred). The first two campaigns are sobering, but Route C goes even further, becoming straight-up gruesome and traumatic. The true ending is also the definition of “heavy.”
5
Disco Elysium
A Hard-Boiled Detective Story
Disco Elysium is a text-based RPG where conversations are the only source of gameplay, but stats and dice rolls do factor into dialogue choices, so it is more interactive than most. Set in a dystopian society and following a detective with amnesia who is investigating a murder, the game is essentially an homage to noir films of the 1940s.
Every character is corrupt or so beaten down that they cannot see hope ahead, which may be hard for a lot of players to get through, but the writing is brilliantly done for those who want to get into a noir headspace. Even the moments of levity are driven by dark gallows humor, serving as nothing more than a weak shield to try to repel the overwhelming despair. The protagonist detective is not even slightly presented as some kind of noble hero, and his psyche is defined by a lifetime of failure. Before long, Disco Elysium becomes less about solving a case and more about deciding whether Harry is someone worth saving.
4
Red Dead Redemption 2
Melancholy In The Old West
Red Dead Redemption 2 is an action-adventure game set in the Old West, and it focuses on Arthur Morgan, one of the bandits within the Van der Linde gang. No matter how players decide to play out the story, be it a cowboy willing to change or a bandit that wants to stick to their guns, Arthur will go through the wringer emotionally. From deciding who to follow to dealing with a late-game surprise, RDR2 is one of the darkest games Rockstar has ever made, along with the sense of melancholy that players will get from exploring the emptiness of the Western plains.
RDR2 doesn’t glamorize the outlaw life; in fact, it depicts the Van der Linde gang’s members as relics who are gradually being phased out by civilization. The Frontier is dying, and this journey is depicted in slow, agonizing detail. Arthur’s journey is defined by decline in more ways than one, serving as a reflection of the wild west in general, and his realization of his father figure’s manipulative nature is heartbreaking. Although the main story is heavy, the side quests are also similar, telling smaller and quieter stories of despair.
3
What Remains Of Edith Finch
Literally About Death
What Remains of Edith Finch is an adventure game that goes through vignettes in rapid succession as the titular Edith returns to her family’s home. Inside, she finds it empty, but as she discovers artifacts, she will play through the memories of other family members in fantastical situations. These memories are short, and all end with their deaths from a comic book aesthetic about running from a killer to someone not being able to control themselves on a swing.
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Blending beautiful visuals with grim reality, What Remains of Edith Finch is a grief simulator that forces players to participate in “whimsical” depictions of horrifying moments. Some deaths in particular are hard to emotionally deal with because of the character’s age, one of which might just be a parent’s worst nightmare brought to life.
2
Silent Hill 2
Back To Where It All Began
Silent Hill 2, be it the 2001 original or the 2024 remake, is one of the most solemn entries in the Silent Hill franchise, let alone survival horror games as a whole. The protagonist, James Sunderland, returns to Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his dead wife to come there. He finds the town abandoned, covered up by fog and boards, and it is filled with monsters. Even when James does find a living soul, they seemingly talk in riddles, as no one appears to be who they say they are. In the end, players will find out what happened to James and his wife, and no matter the ending, it will put everything in context, and it won’t be a good feeling.
Unlike most games, Silent Hill 2‘s monsters are extensions of James’ self-loathing and subconscious, forcing him to directly confront his demons. Pyramid Head is maybe the most iconic horror entity in gaming, and his purpose is not to kill but to force James to remember himself at his worst. The depiction of long-term illness is also very real, depicting how the caregiver can grow resentful.
1
The Last of Us Part 2
A Hard Pill To Swallow
The first game, as a survival horror game, was already grim, especially the ending, but The Last of Us Part 2 manages to outdo its predecessor in terms of making fans feel like they made a mistake in playing it. The amount of brutal beatings the characters will go through, and the emotional lows are so hard to stomach at times that it can even have players shut the game off completely, depending on the attachment they have with a certain character. As dark as it is, the game is brilliantly designed, and the story does not pull any punches.
The intensity of the kills contributes to the heaviness, but what really puts it over the edge is the sheer exhaustion of the journey. The violence compounds to the point of becoming emotionally draining, eliminating the satisfaction that is typically central to revenge stories. There is a hollow feel to everything, and The Last of Us Part 2‘s mid-game shift forces players to not only see things from another perspective but actually live through it. Even the random people killed throughout the journey are grounded in humanity, as they demonstrate history with their companions.
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