History Main / EverythingFades

In video game land, dead and inanimate things often have a habit of vanishing into thin air after a certain time -- they might evaporate, disintegrate, blink in and out of existence, crumble to dust which disappears, etc. You can turn a room into a grisly scene of carnage, and return five minutes later to find it as pristine as when you first entered, even down to smashed or shot-up parts of the environment having repaired themselves; or if you stand there long enough, you can actually watch the corpses fade away.

There are three key reasons for this. The main one is that keeping track of all the dead people, body parts and blood stains, dropped weapons, healing items, and bullet holes throughout every part of the environment the player has been in requires an increasing amount of memory -- at least unless the game heavily restricts the player's ability to backtrack -- with little to no practical effect on gameplay. Another is that these objects could become actual obstacles that impede the player's progress -- in free-roaming games, you could potentially find yourself blocked off by insurmountable piles of corpses, overturned furniture, gutted vehicles, and so on. And finally, MoralGuardians may object to allowing players to do [[VideogameCrueltyPotential cruel and]] [[ILoveTheDead unusual]] [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential things]] to a corpse for their personal entertainment.

Occasionally, the game meets you halfway by having the bodies disappear while leaving behind any useful weapons or items the character was carrying. But even those items sometimes may disappear after a short while, an unrealistic feature common in old {{Beat Em Up}}s to keep players moving briskly.

More common than it used to be since enemy characters in games are now almost exclusively complex 3D models with highly-textured surfaces and built-in RagdollPhysics. Earlier games such as ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' or ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'', where the enemies were low-resolution 2D sprites, had the ability to leave ''everything'' the player killed on the screen for their personal satisfaction without negatively affecting gameplay.

** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'', the corpse of a normal PMC soldier sticks around. However, if you kill one of the elite FROG soldiers, their bodies magically fizzle away in blue flames, without any clear explanation why.

** In ''VideoGame/Doom3'', the hell creatures fizzle away to nothing when killed; the zombified humans, logically enough, do not unless you hit them.
** Corpses also disappear in the GBA versions of the first two games.

* Subverted in ''Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': Ren slays a dragon threatening a village and simply leaves. This is a way of showing that he and the other two Heroes are still seeing the world as an RPGMechanicsVerse, where this trope would be in effect, and not a living breathing world where a SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome occurs. Since he never disposes of the body, it rots out in the open, spreading disease ([[DracoLich and also becoming undead]]) and forcing Naofumi to deal with it.

* Subverted in ''Literature/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'': Ren slays a dragon threatening a village and simply leaves. This is a way of showing that he and the other two Heroes are still seeing the world as an RPGMechanicsVerse, where this trope would be in effect, and not a living breathing world where a SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome occurs. Since he never disposes of the body, it rots out in the open, spreading disease (and also becoming undead) and forcing Naofumi to deal with it.

* Varies in the ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' series. For example in [[VideoGame/HalfLife1 the first game]], most enemies placed in the map directly would leave corpses unless blown up by explosives, but ones made by a MookMaker would fade. In ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' there were fifty-foot enemies called Striders, whose bodies stayed behind if you had a sufficiently powerful machine, but otherwise just disappear in a small cloud of sparkles at their CriticalExistenceFailure.

* In ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'', the corpses of slain foes would vanish within set times. These times were wildly different as enemy wyverns and dragons will take minutes to fade while pesky raptors would vanish in mere seconds. This could become aggravating for the player because taking the time to carve dead monsters would result in acquiring new items so fighting a group of raptors often resulted in a player missing half of his or her potential carves.
* In ''VideoGame/GodEater'', you need to perform a (fairly quick) Devour attack with your LivingWeapon before a [[EldritchAbomination Aragami]] corpse fades to get [[RandomlyDrops valuable]] [[ItemCrafting crafting materials]]. Not a problem if you're dealing with one Aragami, but others will gladly smack you around while you're charging that Devour attack. Allies can help keep the heat off, at least.

* Bodies in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series tend to disappear when you're not looking (even the giant corpses of Brutes), but in the latter two games, as long as a dead body is still on screen you can shoot it, kick it, or toss it around the room just for fun. [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential Severed husk torsos are quite entertaining.]]
** Some corpses, such as Banshees or anything you killed with fire attacks, dissolve on-camera.
* In Bioware's other big franchise, ''Franchise/DragonAge'', enemies generally dissolve onscreen, with some exceptions for bosses and other notable opponents (have fun running through that giant spider every time you go up Sundermount). In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'', lootable materials will remain behind after the corpses dissolve, represented by a pile of material (for human opponents), a ribcage (for creatures), or, in the case of dragons, a giant skull.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'', slain enemies just disappeared in the blink of an eye. From ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' onward, the enemies faded in a purple haze, although they went through death throes first in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII''. ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2 X-2]]'' were exceptions; it was explained that the monsters were restless souls that gathered together "pyreflies" (supernatural fireflies) and manifested as "fiends" - thus, killing one caused it to break apart into the component pyreflies, which flew away. (Mechanical enemies, meanwhile, just blew up or fell apart, but humanoid enemies still simply vanish without explanation.) ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' and its Compilation show bodies dissolving into TheLifestream, even in TheMovie. To what extent this happens to humans and other 'normal' animals is not really explained. ''Final Fantasy'' has used the fading death trope as a signifier of KilledOffForReal as, for humans this is always depicted as the character blinking out of existence (see [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyII Scott]] or [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV Galuf]].)
* Similar to ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', RPG ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' leaves bodies populating the floor until the character leaves the area in order for certain spells and abilities to be useable (raising the dead, searching corpses and, particularly effective, making bodies explode to the detriment of those nearby). There are searchable bodies of never-seen alive [=NPCs=] which stay there forever.

* Justified in ''VideoGame/VagrantStory''; the city of Lea Monde is filled with a mystical force called the Dark which causes those who die within the city to disappear in a puff of glowing purple dust. As a nice bit of attention to detail, the bodies of enemies killed outside of Lea Monde during the opening sequence do not vanish.
* Notably averted in the ''VideoGame/BaldursGate: Dark Alliance'' series, where you could revisit most locations that you had been to to find that the hordes of corpses and rubble were still there. This might explain why the games' save files took up so very, very much space...
* The ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' RPG series--and games based on the Infinity Engine in general--meanwhile, had dead bodies that eventually faded (assuming they weren't exploded into giblets from massive damage). Also, ''Baldurs Gate'' had a special feature in some areas that respawned enemies some time after their corpses disappeared out of the Player's Point of View.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' someone who was a PC dies in a cutscene, and their body fades out. Especially fun in V when the party tries to cast Revive and use Phoenix Down, but to no avail.
* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia'' when [[spoiler:Suzu's parents kill themselves to stop hurting innocents, pretty lights descend from the sky to their level, then carry their bodies up to the heavens]].
* ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'':
** [[TheHeartless Noise]] dissolve into their soul-code upon being erased and are broken down into soul-fragments subsequently. The player as well, by the way, you can even "see" Neku's and his partner's fate a split second before the Game Over-screen. Apparently, for a scattered soul everything looks like a broken TV. One of Neku's exclamations before dying is, in fact, "Huh... I'm fading?"
** Not just Players fade, but Reapers too. That probably has something to do with everyone being [[spoiler:''already dead'']].
** An In-universe example: [[spoiler:Beat in ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' starts to fade away, as punishment for doing bugger all as a Reaper, but holds himself together [[{{Determinator}} so that he can get]] [[BigBrotherInstinct his sister, Rhyme, back]]]].
* Sadly leads to {{Narm}} in ''[[VideoGame/WildArms1 Wild ARMs Alter Code F]]'' and ''VideoGame/WildArms5''--dead characters sometimes fade out among rings of light in ''highly detailed FMV cutscenes''.
* Some [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] enemies, especially in the [=RPG=]s, do this after a whole bunch of colored stars fly out of them at zero health. On the other hand, it's not particularly consistent, since about a third [[DisappearsIntoLight dissolve into light and then fade]], another few explode, some turn into clouds of smoke, Bowser gets his skin melted off in one game and bosses in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' have different "fades" for every boss. In the ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' series, the stars represent ExperiencePoints; if an enemy gives no experience they just flatten and disappear. In the older {{Platform Game}}s enemies would just vanish or fall off the bottom of the screen.
* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' enemies quickly fade leaving their items in a small bag. When creating a map in the NWN editor, one can set the corpses to stay on screen. Some of the corpses in the campaign itself stick around as well.
* Somewhat justified in ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' with the Heartless, Nobodies, and Unversed, given that Heartless have no bodies (with the darkness drifting away, and the heart returning to Kingdom Hearts), Nobodies are said to dissolve back into darkness, and Unversed are made up purely of negative emotions.

* Justified by the unstable nature of the monster's bodies in ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve2.'' Near the end of the game, the monsters are replaced by Golem Cyborgs, whose bodies do ''not'' vanish when killed, and are even still present when you return to an area, a rarity for a Playstation 1 game.
** Late in the game when a monster you've just killed ''doesn't'' fade you know what's coming...
* Zigzagged in ''VideoGame/DarkSouls''. Bosses, player characters, and particularly large enemies fade away in a shimmer of light when killed, and player characters leave a bloodstain containing their souls and humanity before respawning at the last bonfire they used. Most normal-sized enemies don't fade, however, and just flop onto the ground where they can be [[RagdollPhysics hilariously ragdolled around.]] Loot acquisition also varies depending on whether the corpse fades or not. If it does, the loot can be picked up off the ground (or in the case of bosses and non-respawning enemies, it's automatically put into the player's inventory,) but if it doesn't, it needs to be directly collected from the corpse (which can occasionally lead to situations where the corpse falls off a ledge into a BottomlessPit and takes its loot with it.)
* You cannot capture a wild ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' once it has fainted ([[NobodyCanDie not died, fainted]]) because it immediately ceases to exist. Maybe Pokeballs don't work on unconscious mons, but you'd think you could use a Revive on it and try again; nope, that [[OlympusMons elder god]] you just "knocked out" is gone forever.
* Defeated foes in ''VideoGame/MarvelAvengersAlliance'' either vanish into purple nothingness, or into a red silhouette if you manage to [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill overkill]] them into a fine red paste.

* ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'' handles this problem by waiting until you turn around to dispose of bodies. You can stare at a corpse for five minutes and it won't budge, but then if you look away the corpse will disappear instantly.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Turok}} 2'', not only the corpses fade, so do the children and prisoners you rescue from their locked cages. They say thank you and fade while still doing their idle animations.
* ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'':
** In ''VideoGame/Doom3'', the hell creatures fizzle away to nothing when killed; the zombified humans, logically enough, do not unless you hit them.
** Corpses also disappear in the GBA versions of the first two games.
** In ''VideoGame/Doom2016'' and ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'', however, all demons burn away into nothingness a few moments after being killed.
* Varies in the ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' series. For example in [[VideoGame/HalfLife1 the first game]], most enemies placed in the map directly would leave corpses unless blown up by explosives, but ones made by a MookMaker would fade. In ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' there were fifty-foot enemies called Striders, whose bodies stayed behind if you had a sufficiently powerful machine, but otherwise just disappear in a small cloud of sparkles at their CriticalExistenceFailure.
* ''VideoGame/NoOneLivesForever'', a '60s spy movie pastiche with a female lead, issues a special body-dissolving powder with the gear, requiring the player to actually get close to a victim's body to dispose of it. According to in-game exposition, Cate Archer's slight frame was considered inadequate for stuffing bodies in lockers. In the sequel she was suddenly strong enough to carry bodies around, though slowly. Ironically, though, bad guys in the sequel carried the body-dissolving powder ''themselves'' and would use it before searching for the culprit. The options menu (at least in the first game) lets you enable instant fade-away, so rather than having to use the corpse-remover, it just makes them fade away.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'', the chunks that fly off of exploded turrets disappear when you look away from them.
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Area 51|FPS}}'' FirstPersonShooter, this is [[HandWave handwaved]] as being an effect of the alien biotech used to create the monsters and clone soldiers you fight, and the first time it happens, a character '''does''' act like corpses vanishing is bizarre.

* Played with in ''VideoGame/{{Haze}}''. The soldiers/mercenaries from the Mantel corporation are under the influence of a super-drug called "Nectar". While on this chemical bodies appear to fade away and there is no blood or gore. Unfortunately, when off the chemical the game's engine is so poor that bodies ''still'' disappear after a while, this time for no reason at all, and the gore system is so anaemic it doesn't even produce impact marks on bodies, something ''[[VideoGame/GoldenEye1997 GoldenEye]]'' managed. An otherwise-unique game mechanic even forces the player's attention to this, as after they switch sides they can play dead when low on health to make themselves invisible to the Nectar-enhanced soldiers - and, appropriate given the engine issues above, half the time enemies who aren't supposed to see you anymore will continue shooting you anyway.

* Justified in ''VideoGame/QuakeIV''; when a Strogg is killed, the Nexus (the Strogg's sentient techno-organic communication system) teleports the dead body to a facility to be [[HumanResources broken down for future usage]].
** This was averted in ''VideoGame/QuakeII'', which ''IV'' directly follows. Corpses stay where they are. Apparently, in between one OneManArmy going and completely wrecking their homeworld, and the next one-man army showing up, they finally got those teleporters working. Bizarrely enough, gibs disappear, but bodies don't.
** Since it's based on the same technology as ''Doom 3'', it's safe to assume that the change was not caused by some new technology but by a more convenient development.

* In ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' corpses will remain until you respawn and die again. Your Eternal Reward, a special alternate Knife for the spy, plays with this. Upon a successful backstab, it cloaks the corpse, muffles the death scream, and changes you into the person you just killed, all within the span of a second. While it sounds like it should be easy to spot, it's actually very hard, especially since you'd be paying more attention to the other 10 or so people shooting at you than where that sneaky engineer or pyro disappeared to. The Dead Ringer causes you to "die" upon taking damage, dropping a fake corpse and instantly cloaking the real you so you can sneak up on the guy who thinks he killed you; attentive players may notice that you died too quickly or hear the loud decloak noise, but many will not. [[ParanoiaFuel And you can use both of these tools at the same time...]]

* Mostly averted in the ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'' series. bodies will stay around for in-game days to weeks, and guns will stay as well, however: if you leave the area and come back, strangely they will stick up, rather than lying on the ground.
* ''VideoGame/PerfectDark'' does this oddly. Corpses will generally only fade if you stop looking at them for a few seconds, but if you kill enough guards in the same area, you can watch them fade away. On the other hand, they stick around for a little while. This is important for stealth/infiltration missions, as guards naturally react to seeing a dead body.
* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' plays this trope both ways. Almost every enemy or boss in the game will appear to disintegrate after a very short amount of time, except the Rakk Hive. Upon defeating it, the body will remain until you leave the level. The body can even be climbed on, making it also the only solid corpse in the game.
* Enemies killed in ''VideoGame/TheConduit'' fade out with a nifty evaporation effect.
* Appears in ''[[VideoGame/GoldenEye1997 GoldenEye]]'' which makes sense given the [[WeHaveReserves sheer number of enemies]] in some levels.
* In ''VideoGame/Prey2006'', bodies remain there before you obtain the power of Deathwalking. After you get it, they dissolve into a white ectoplasmic residue while you absorb their souls. The implication is that a body cannot continue to exist if its soul is destroyed.
** Trivia: this was discussed by developers in a restaurant. After one of them made this suggestion, another exclaimed "Finally we know how to get rid of the bodies!", attracting worried looks from other patrons.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfCthulhuDarkCornersOfTheEarth'' has this on a ridiculous degree: anything you kill will start to very quickly fade instantly after their death animation runs its course, or ''even before that'' in the case of the Deep Ones.

* The ''Franchise/FarCry'' games hide this by only making corpses vanish past a certain distance. This can hamper attempts at stealth, where enemies in a checkpoint or on the road will react to the presence of a dead ally and go on the lookout, though ''VideoGame/FarCry3'' and ''[[VideoGame/FarCry4 4]]'' allow you to alleviate this issue somewhat with the Takedown Drag skill to pull a guy into an out-of-the-way alley or bush after stabbing them, or, in ''4'', being able to simply pick up dead bodies and carry them out of the way.

* ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' has the same mechanic of disappearing corpses almost instantly after a short death animation.

* The [[RealTimeStrategy RTS]] game ''[[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 Warhammer 40K]]: VideoGame/DawnOfWar'' leaves a percentage of the bodies killed on the screen indefinitely. This percentage can be modified from the in-game settings; depending on how powerful your PC is, you can go from all bodies fading to the entire battleground being littered with corpses by the end of the level.
** The ExpansionPack ''Dark Crusade'' introduces the Necrons, who have the ability to animate these corpses long after they're created. The Tau Empire also has Kroot units, which can feed on the corpses of organic enemies to gain an immense boost in health and damage.
** ''Soulstorm'' added the Dark Eldar, who can harvest corpses for soul energy to fuel several abilities.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' series turned this into a gameplay mechanic. As long as the corpse stays, it can be used for several spells.
** In ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'', the undead Scourge, which have the majority of them, even have Meat Wagons (their siege unit) that can carry corpses to prevent decay (their animation implies they use spares as ammunition) and create them with an upgrade. One of their buildings also generates corpses for the same purpose.
*** Heroes don't leave corpses behind, since they can be re-summoned at an Altar.
* The other Blizzard RTS game, ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'', has the same mechanic of disappearing corpses, almost instantly after a short death animation.
* Infantry units in ''VideoGame/StarWarsEmpireAtWar'' will eventually fade away after dying, though there is a mod that prevents that (same one with the "no unit cap"). Most vehicles on land and fighters in space with instantly explode upon dying, but larger ones will remain for awhile (space units will break apart, float "down", then explode. Capital ships last longer in that regard) then explode, though even then (specifically with the AT-AT) they may still instant-explode. Oh, and sometimes fighters will go spinning out of control first before exploding.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'', where destroyed enemy units and buildings will usually leave their charred remains behind. This isn't just realistic: You can actually harvest them for mass (the game's less abundant resource).
* Supcom inherits this from its predecessor ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation'', which even had multiplayer maps themed around a devastated urban area. These had no normal metal deposits, so the player was expected to reclaim the destroyed buildings, cars, powerpoles etc.

* Both used and averted in ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes'': dead infantry fade quickly but most vehicles leave a wreckage indefinitely which can be used as cover, scavenged or destroyed.
* Unlike in the other games in the series, defeated enemies in ''[[VideoGame/{{Pikmin}} Hey! Pikmin]]'' plainly disappear after their demise. All the games play this straight with the hapless Pikmins, though.

* In the video game version of ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' all enemies fade out of existence, including Count Olaf’s minions, which is a particularly odd case since they show up all fine and dandy a few scenes later.
* Played completely straight in the video game adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2''. An especially hilarious example occurs in the PC version where a knight's pants fall down when he's defeated and he runs away ''while fading into nothingness.''

* Partially averted in ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'', enemies do not respawn and the health they drop remains remains forever [[PuzzleReset until you die or leave the level]]. The later ''Banjo'' games [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks fixed this]].

* In the mental worlds in ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' this makes sense, since nothing there is actually real. The telekinetic bears and pyrokinetic cougars, on the other hand, do the exact same thing for no particular reason.
* The ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' games (at least, the main [=PS1=] ones) just showed enemies flying into the distance after being slapped by the titular character. Unless you jumped on them, in which case they disappeared in a cloud of smoke, occasionally being flattened first.
* NPC corpses (enemy or otherwise) in the ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxter'' series disappear in a flurry of light and sparks.
* Justified in the ''VideoGame/ArmedWithWings'' series. All living things in the game's universe are composed of a mystical substance called Blackmist, and dissolve back into it upon death. The characters even occasionally use the word "disappear" as a synonym to "die".

* Zig-zagged in the ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' series. Early games had the enemies as robots, which exploded when destroyed, but the explosion released a tiny animal, which would then jump around towards either the left or the right of the screen until it went off screen where it was gone forever. Yes, even if that meant jumping into lava, or a bottomless pit. Later games allowed you to collect these animals meaning the robot parts disappeared, but the animals stayed, but only the last eight found, any new ones would mean older ones disappear. Later still, the series got rid of the animal powered robots, meaning the robot parts would disappear, either into pieces, or knocked into the horizon if they were boosted into.

* Same thing in ''VideoGame/TheCreed''. Any corpse will only stay on the ground long enough for a few rats to come out of manholes and water drains, devour it in a split second and then scurry off, giving the idea that they are ''extremely'' voracious critters.
* ''VideoGame/NemesisTheWarlock'' for Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC was a notable exception in the 80's. Corpses of regular enemies would stay on screen. Combined with each level consisting of single screen and amount of enemies per level this eventually resulted in huge piles of corpses, which became one of the trademarks of the game. Due to player's ability to walk on cadavers and due to the need to use the bodies to build "bridges" in certain levels this was also an important element in gameplay.
* Not just corpses, but ''everything'' you CleanCut in ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'' fades rather quickly (sometimes before they even hit the ground) except for stuff that [[MadeOfExplodium explodes]]. It's just what the game ''has'' to do when you can create several hundred physics objects at a moment's notice.

* In ''VideoGame/CarriesOrderUp'', while customers don't actually die (we hope), bumping into them on Friendly Mode causes them to vanish in a puff of smoke, not unlike a stomped enemy in a Franchise/SuperMarioBros game. Surprisingly, this does nothing to deter business.

* In ''VideoGame/GoldenAxe'', defeated enemies would turn to stone on the ground - in the arcade version. The PC port has a lot less memory available, so it has them disappear instead.

* ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo: Sidetracked'' avoided an M rating by having opponents' images flattened and silhouetted in red, ''before'' being sliced in half. Then they just shatter and little gold coins spill all over the place. So, apparently their blood is made of money.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Growl}}'', dead enemies don't vanish immediately, but do if you stay on the same screen for a while. That's because for some reason the game treats them like dropped weapons, which disappear after a few seconds if not picked up.

* Characters from the [[VideoGame/ScottPilgrim Scott Pilgrim Game]] explode into Canadian coins when they're defeated, as do many people in both [[Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld the movie]] and [[ComicBook/ScottPilgrim the comic book]] it is based on.
* In ''VideoGame/TimeCommando'' dead enemies break up into fragments that fly up and offscreen.

* Mostly averted in ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'': The Colossi, upon defeat, would turn to stone and crash into the ground, and their corpses would remain there for the entire game. (You can actually go back to the stone corpses of the Colossi and activate a "Reminiscence Mode" where you can re-enact your fight with them, complete with old-grainy-film graphics.) However, any small creatures you kill (newts, birds) will fade into the ground.
* In the modern remake of ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'', enemies will break apart into puddles of blood that will clean themselves, burn up or sink underground once offscreen, except for certain bosses. Mostly averted in ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden 2'', where enemies or their LudicrousGibs will remain for some time after you're done with them.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/MachineHunter''. Alien soldiers killed will remain on the spot where they died.

* Monsters in ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'' dissolve into patches of flowers when you kill them, since they're mostly demons comprised of negative emotions and Ammy is exorcising them. The bosses get fully-fledged {{Technicolor Death}}s.
* ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' has all enemies explode into clouds of smoke. A few, like the Gaudis, fall to the ground and shake a bit before they explode. The player character also explodes upon dying.
* ''VideoGame/{{Messiah}}'': {{Justified|Trope}}. Every area has a small, hovering robotic device which cleans up after combat by flying up to every corpse and vaporising it.
* Completely averted in ''VideoGame/AvencastRiseOfTheMage''; despite wide-ranging backtracking and the many different enemy corpse types, every body remains exactly where it died.

** Notably averted in the Japanese game Fire Pro Wrestling Returns. Any weapons pulled out will stay where they drop throughout the whole match, and can be used ad infinitum. This is balanced out by a referee's five count leading up to a possible disqualification, though.
* If playing Stamina Mode in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'', your character will remain on the stage if you lose all your health. Other players can still knock you around, and even pick you up to block attacks.
** What's especially freaky in both ''Melee'' and ''Brawl'' is that whenever someone's stamina reaches 0 they let out the same huge scream used when they're [[ATwinkleInTheSky knocked into the background]] (usually a BigNo), and time slows down as they do so.

* ''VideoGame/PerfectWorld'' does this differently with different mobs. They always fade away (except for the [[AnEconomyIsYou things you would find useful]]), but they have different animations and noises before they do so. Mantises sigh and make a clanking sound as they collapse, pterosaurs fall down on their side [[FridgeLogic while somehow still defying gravity to the point that things they DROP stay in the air]], Tuskmoors do a little dance thing and just fall, Taurocs look like they are going to hit you with their club one last time, and torches... ugh. They scream "CURSE YOU!" in their last breath... to make matters worse, it does this evil laugh the whole time you're fighting it. If you're a ranged class and it's closing in on you, laughing in relish the whole time...

* Corpses in ''VideoGame/NexusClash'' disappear after 24 hours if not raised by a [[OurLichesAreDifferent Lich]] first. This is because the Nexus' goddess of death wants to [[DontFearTheReaper protect the dead]] from unlimited degradation and has a horde of servitor spirits that collect corpses and ferry them off to her home plane instead of leaving them to rot on the battlefield. If ''you'' are a Lich it's possible to bribe the servitors to deliver some corpses to you instead.

* Being based on [[VideoGame/{{Doom}} a game that didn't use this trope much]], ''VideoGame/{{DRL}}'' also tends to leave a lot of slain enemies laying around, while allowing [[LudicrousGibs explosive damage]] to destroy the bodies. In dealing with [[HealItWithFire Archviles]] or [[HarderThanHard Nightmare difficulty]], destroying the bodies quickly is a good idea. [[spoiler:One of the bonus levels, The Mortuary, uses this concept for maximum effect by having a massive arena utterly littered with dead bodies, the only enemies alive initially being a few Archviles.]]
* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' has this - enemies explode into [[LudicrousGibs blood and guts]] when killed; while this lasts so as long as you stay within the room, all traces of it will disappear as soon as you leave - even if you double back into the room a second later. This is ''especially'' notable in any rooms with lots of enemies (such as challenge rooms, big rooms, [[spoiler:the BossRush room, and some endgame boss fights like Mega Satan]]), where the room can be [[SceneryGorn coated in the remains of dozens of creatures]] once you're finished with it, but the second you leave it instantly becomes just as clean as when you first entered.

* Absent from many sneakers, including ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'' and ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' requiring the player to carry and hide bodies to avoid alerting other guards.

* In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI'': the corpses of slain guards do linger around, and can be used to distract other guards or cause pandemonium among civilians. However, if you leave the Animus and re-enter, the guards are still dead but their bodies have disappeared.
* Averted in the ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' series: bodies stay around for the entire hit. In ''VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney'', when they are discovered by security, the security member will bag the body and drag it to the security office, where 47 can find the macabre scene if he's been on a rampage.
** Also, knocking them unconscious isn't permanent, either; if you take long enough, the victim will wake up and let him/herself out of whatever hiding place you've stashed them.
*** Though in ''Blood Money'', people to stay unconscious when hidden in chests, floor refridgerators, etc.
* Unintentional example in ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'', where bodies of killed or unconscious enemies are ''supposed'' to remain and need to be hidden in dumpsters and the like, but have a tendency to start despawning offscreen if either a) the player moves far enough away from them, or b) the amount of bodies in a given area starts getting high enough. Not as common in [[VideoGame/Dishonored2 the sequel]], though.

* Mostly averted in ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance 2''. Soldiers killed outside will still be there later. After half a day or so, the body is visibly rotten, and crows peck at the corpse. Your mercs will make comments when seeing these corpses. (Everything from 'Oh my god, that is so revolting!' to 'Will you look at that! Hey, when do we eat?') As well, the crows fly away if you get close, or you can shoot at them for target practice (or if your merc is ''really'' good at sneaking, sneak up to them and punch them). After a few days, the corpse disappears, presumably rotting away to nothing. No sign of the skeletons, though. As well, soldiers killed inside a building just disappear rather than rotting.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'', where corpses stay on the battlefield for resurrection purposes. On the downside, the judge has to move corpses around from time to time to avoid them being abused as obstacles. The [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2 sequel]] however plays this straight, and resurrected teammates just come back to whatever square you use the appropriate item or spell on.

* Every dead unit in every ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' game ever fades away after being killed. In most games, assuming one has battle animations enabled, they'll even fade twice - once on the battle screen, then again immediately thereafter when you return to the map screen. The same even carries over to most cutscenes, and instances where the body of a deceased person remains to be interacted with are quite rare. The characters still talk as though the deceased individual(s)' bodies are there, though.

* In ''VideoGame/SimAnt'', ant corpses eventually disappear. If the spider gets killed, the body will stick around for a while before eventually turning into a few pieces of food.

* Averted in all ''VideoGame/MechWarrior'' games bar the ''2'' trilogy, where most units that are destroyed explode dramatically and scatter their pieces across the landscape before fading. Occasionally, a 'Mech will not be totally destroyed in ''2'' and remain intact and visible for the rest of the mission. In the other games, including the first game, ''3'' and its ExpansionPack, and the ''4'' trilogy, units that are destroyed will leave wreckage behind until the mission is over, which makes it easier to keep track of what you've fought so far.

* For all entries in the ''VideoGame/EndlessNightmare'' series, slain enemies simply disappears out of existence after falling over.

* In the first two ''VideoGame/AloneInTheDark'' games (and perhaps part three), monsters' corpses disappear into a cloud of colorful bubbles (or smoke) soon after killing.

* Lampshaded in ''VideoGame/StrongBadsCoolGameForAttractivePeople'' Episode 5, when the broken metal detector only fades after [[spoiler:the world collides with video games.]]

* ''VideoGame/MinecraftDungeons'': Every killed enemy fades away after a couple of seconds with some bosses taking slightly longer along with fading to black. The Corrupted Cauldron averts this as defeated enemies will be pulled towards it to be [[HealingBoss absorbed, letting it regain some of its health]].

* Justified in ''VideoGame/GiantsCitizenKabuto'' by having the paradise terrain infested with ravenous scavenger critters just under the surface. Upon a creature's demise, they would pop up, rapidly devour the newly dead thing and then worm back into the soil.
* ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' series does this too; look away from a dead locust for a few milliseconds and then look back; the body parts shrink until they vanish.
* Although ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' is practically built on body mutilation, most civilian corpses regenerate (or disappear, in the case of Necromorphs) after you re-enter the room. It has a practical use, however; if stomped bodies don't regenerate and stay dismembered, it means you'll have to deal with Infectors here.