What is a heartwarming story?

[LVUER]

We know what nakige is. An "official" term for crying game that designed/written to have deep emotional impact on readers... mostly sad emotion.

There's also some game that "unofficially" have different label/genre: a heartwarming. Yes, some games deliberately slap "heartwarming" story on their subtitle. My question is: what is exactly this heartwarming story? What makes it different from other similar kind of story that doesn't have heartwarming label on it?

Yu no Hana is one that declares it tells you a heartwarming fairy tale of winter story
Hinatabokko is another VN that promises you to deliver a heartwarming story

I've played several VN that doesn't promise any heartwarming story... but I must say their story is quite similar. And some of them also deliver some story that warms my heart.

[SvenTheViking]

As far as I can tell, it's an advertising buzzword. As you said, it's a label. I might be wrong, though.

[Auro-Cyanide]

Yeah, I don't think it's a technical term. It's just used by some people to help describe the emotional content of a story. It's like some games advertise as scary or adventerous or heart breaking. No-one is forced label exactly what they game is (plus it's rather subjective) so it's mostly for hype and advertising reasons.

[redeyesblackpanda]

It's used as a subjective description, but to my understanding, a story is heartwarming if it makes you go "awwww" and feel good after playing it. It's kind of a cute, feelgood story. Heartwarming things generally make depressed people feel good.

[Sapphi]

Well, any story can have heartwarming moments, but I'd say a heartwarming story is one where the main purpose is to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. They are often studies on friendship. I think it is related to the concept of nakige weirdly enough... because usually to invoke a happy feeling in your reader, it's necessary to acknowledge their sadness by making the story's characters suffer before giving them their happy ending.

Example: Puppies are heartwarming, but how to make a story out of the puppy?
1. 10-year old Jimmy befriends an adorable puppy. Pretty heartwarming, right? But wait... what if...
2. Jimmy, an abused 10-year old with no human friends, befriends an adorable puppy with a bum leg that someone tried to drown in the river. For extra heartwarming points, throw in a special place and time for them to bond (ex. The big hill after school). "We'll meet here every night, okay?! It's a promise!" Then follows their happy adventures.

Now that we've suitably warmed the hearts of the audience, we get to break their heart again: Jimmy gets taken away from his abusive parent and placed in a town far away. He never gets to say goodbye to his puppy friend. We watch him grow up trying to replace the puppy with various people who are not nearly as loyal.

The heartwarming conclusion: As a young man, Jim revisits his old town, wanders around reminiscing. He comes to the hill. It's late afternoon and the sun is all gold. He remembers how he used to play with his friend. Suddenly... he sees something in the distance... hobbling very slowly but steadily towards him... it's his puppy, now a dog, very old and thin, but still it remembers him. They play like they always did.

(And because it is a dog story, we could follow the "stories about dogs" principle and say something like "He flopped down as the last rays of sunlight fell over the grass, utterly exhausted, panting happily. He never got up again." Cue a shower of tears from anyone with a soul (okay, maybe just me) but will be happy, satisfied tears.)

By the way... It happens that this thread is very relevant to the super secret project I'm working on...

[Taleweaver]

This is a heartwarming story:


No, really. This faux trailer includes all elements of a heartwarming story.

Young kids. People helping each other out. Positive message about family. Internal conflict within a character solved by other character helpning him overcome it... or even two characters who are able to give each other what the other one is missing inside.

[sciencewarrior]

This question stayed in the back of my head for a few weeks, and I think I have a good answer now. A heartwarming story is a story with:

• Characters with whom the audience can empathize.
• A conflict that deeply affects these characters and, by extension, the audience that is emotionally connected to them.
• A conflict resolution that meshes with the audience's moral values.

Let me give you an example of a story that isn't heartwarming: Jack falls in love with a girl, but he is very rich, she is very poor, and his mom says she will disinherit him if he marries the girl. So he pays off a doctor to declare his mom insane, lock her up in a medical institution, and he and his wife live happy ever after.

Why isn't it heartwarming? We may empathize with Jack, and share his conflict, but the resolution, while perhaps realistic, isn't something with which we can agree. Sending your mom to the loony bin to keep her money isn't something you would do.

Now let's make it heartwarming: Jack tells mom to keep her money, he will marry the girl of his dreams. Life is hard at first, but they manage to pay the bills. Years later, Jack's mom loses her fortune and she has a heart attack. Jack takes her home, and the daughter-in-law she had never accepted takes care of her.

See? Here Jack and his girl make the Right Thing: they choose love over money, work hard, and are ready to forgive and take in his mother when she needs it. Done right, this simple story can make people cry rivers (done wrong, it will be corny, boring, and preachy, but we aren't going there).