Japanese visual novels, Syberia series and such should fit that bill.

I think I'm in a time warp! O_o I could have sworn that there have been no responses in this topic for a long long time, and so I was surprised to see that someone resurrected it!

... Only the last post was from May 12 -- today of all days -- but from 2014! Huh!

Well, consider the thread resurrected by ME!

A couple of games that fit the criteria (for me) since I last posted are The Swapper and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.

I asked about that issue yesterday. Forum's been acting up.

I didn't realise that was from last year until your post. It fit the date so well.

The real shame, of course, is that we allowed this topic to lay dormant for so long. ;)

(Though you may want to edit the OP in case the questionnaire is no longer relevant.)

Two games that really touched me lately:

Gone Home - Totally focused on exploration and storytelling, this game lets you explore your family's house after a year of absence, and discover what happened to your sister in this year. Very well written, very good voice acting, and tons of little details everywhere. It's not a game for people who expect puzzles, scares, or action, but I highly recommend it for players who enjoy exploring, and who like emotional stories. (The game looks like it could be a horror story, and it shares a few elements with those, but it's actually rather a well-written teen drama.)

Shadowrun: Dragonfall (Director's Cut). This may come as a surprise since harsh Cyberpunk settings don't necessarily mix with emotional stories. But this game has probably that best-written NPCs that I've seen since Planescape: Torment. Each of your team members has his own personality and his secrets. By choosing the right approach, you can slowly unravel their past and help them to heal their wounds, or address unfinished business. The writing of these sections is really excellent.

You make me want to play this game. Unfortunately I still have to restart Shadowrun Returns. Almost did it recently but ended up uninstalling to make room for The Last Express on my tablet.

There are too many emotions to define "emotional" games. Some make you not just angry, but so infuriated for bad optimization, stupid controls, idiotic game design decisions, so Trevor Philips looks very calm man in comparison. That's an emotion too, you know. /grin

But on serious side, why not? Entire game doesn't need to be emotional (and as To the moon shows, it's not even needed to be game), certain elements are enough. For example, any of player's team members fate and well-being from Star Wars Republic Commando feels much more important than those of any character in Dragon Age or Mass Effect (or Skyrim). And they are clones, mind you. CLONES, CARL!
Farida Malik's fate from Deus Ex: Human Revolution also worries me more than stopping duh Reapers, Arcturus Mengsk, or... whatever. I ignored pacifist achievement just to save her - GET YER DIRTY HANDS OFF MY FRIEND, YOU BLOODY FOKKERS!
Fallout 1 Dogmeant's life also was important, keeping him alive was one of most difficult challenges I had. But it was quite rewarding, when you succeeded. .
So yeah, I do like well-executed emotional moments, and I deeply dislike those far-fetched tear squeezers some developers abuse to prove that their game is "adult" and speaks on "grown up" themes. Pfeh.

Yes, I love them.

I almost pissed myself today when I came here today to do things I always used to do.

Important detail: The story elements that I referred to are only present in Dragonfall: Director's Cut. Prior to this standalone version, there was a DLC version of Dragonfall that ran in the "Shadowrun Returns" engine. This DLC version does (as far as I'm aware) not include those stories.

The storylines of "Dead Man's Switch" (the campaign in the first "Shadowrun Returns" game) and "Dragonfall" are not related, they deal with completely different locations, characters, and events. They both require a new character when you start them. So you can play them in either order (playing Dead Man's Switch after Dragonfall may feel very linear and a bit bland, though).

I have Dragonfall on Android and that's the Director's Cut version. I did enjoy what I played of Dead Man's Switch, so I want to play it again. I'll get to it one of these days. It doesn't really matter, all these games are a big happy backlog family to me. I'm enjoying KOTOR for now, and that would likely take me quite a few more months to finish. I plan to play FF4 after that.

Are not all games emotional?

You're definitely consistent. :)

But yeah, the terminology is probably not that well chosen, I don't like it myself. But I guess it's possible to distinguish between games that really focus on evoking emotions, versus games that merely cause them as a byproduct. People _can_ get very emotional over playing chess, but I think we can agree that that's not the focus of the game.

TO the moon, and a lot of snes games like lufia and chrono trigger , final fantasy 3 and paladin's quest

So it was not just a feeling of deja vu.....

I will do the survey after work. Don't look back from Terry Cavanagh (VVVVVV) is free, short and can be played here:
http://terrycavanaghgames.com/dontlookback/

The same goes for Company of myself:
http://www.addictinggames.com/strategy-games/company-of-myself-game.jsp

To the Moon was the most emotional game I ever played although it's more like a movie.
Dear Esther comes to mind too in this regard.