God of War structures its entire narrative around a father and son carrying the ashes of their wife and mother to her chosen resting place. Kratos's grief is never named directly — he cannot speak his dead wife's name for much of the game — but it shapes every interaction with Atreus, every combat encounter, every quiet moment in the boat. The game is an examination of how grief changes a person's relationship with the living, not just the dead.

The Finch family home is a physical record of accumulated loss: rooms sealed as memorials, stories told through objects rather than characters, an architectural metaphor for a family that could not move on. The game's anthology structure — each family member's story told in a different mechanical language — creates a portrait of grief across generations. It is one of the most formally inventive approaches to loss in any medium.

Spiritfarer is unique in being a game about grief that is gentle rather than devastating. Playing as the ferryman for souls transitioning out of life, the player develops relationships with a cast of characters who must eventually be let go. The game's themes — particularly around the love and difficulty of caring for aging parents and family members — are handled with specific emotional honesty that players who have cared for dying family members consistently identify as accurate.