It's hard not to think of Zelda games when considering great moments in gaming. The series, now over a quarter-century-old, is ripe with touching events and characters.

Spoilers ahead.

One such character is Flute Boy, from A Link to the Past. Flute Boy is a young man who, before Link, went to Death Mountain to search for the Golden Power. He is permanently transformed into a kind of monster by the power of the Dark World, and is thus unable to regain his flute (ocarina) and serenade the forest animals that would often come to visit him. His visage is portrayed in the Light World, but serves only as an apparition, a shadow, of his former self.

Flute Boy eventually tells Link where he buried his instrument, and, when Link returns to the Dark World with it, Flute Boy tells him he is no longer capable of playing the flute, and gives it to Link.

Having seen his flute again and found peace, Flute Boy tells Link that, essentially, he is dying, but he would like to hear his flute played one last time. Link, of course, gifts him that, and Flute Boy dies, becoming a tree.

Though Flute Boy is seen standing next to his father in the ending credits of the game, apparently saved by Link's heroics, his initial death in the Dark World is an incredibly sad and touching moment. Like so many other moments in the Zelda series, it reminds players what the innocent characters in their beloved land of Hyrule endure under the tyranny of Ganon.

Skip to 8:21 in the video for Flute Boy.