Any game worth playing takes many hours out of your life, and after investing all that time, you want to feel rewarded. The most satisfying reward is a happy ending for your character, but some brassy-balled developers have figured out ways to depress the player without disappointing them. Here are the ten most depressing endings to videogames.

10. Sonic Adventure 2

At the climax of the Dreamcast classic-via-nostalgia-but-not-when-you-actually-play-it-again Sonic Adventure 2, the dark hedgehog Shadow falls to earth from space, sacrificing himself to save the world. I feel obligated to include this on the list, as killing a main character does qualify as a sad ending, but I would never put it any higher than this – if you're at all like me, the less Sonic characters there are from after 1994, the better. I just remembered Big the Cat exists, and it nearly ruined my day.