History Main / EverythingFades

* Monsters you kill go in their death throes and fade away in a puff of smoke. Boss monsters have longer death animations with the body lingering for a second before finally fading away in a much bigger puff of smoke that also blurs the screen. Human enemies, however, simply fall over and fade away, and for the boss humans (of which there are many) you couldn't be sure whether they died or not until after the battle, where they're only alive if they're still in the cutscene. [[spoiler: After the GroundhogDayLoop they start popping up more, sometimes simply being unconscious after battle to standing up perfectly straight as if the battle was no big deal even though in the fight itself, they fall over, fade and more often than not give parting final words.]]
** Also notable when fighting the BonusBoss [[spoiler:Adventurer]] and [[spoiler:Comrade]]. If you kill either one, they fall over and fade away without a word, but the next turn, the other target calls in another one of the same enemy, who fades IN. It makes it appear as if there is an infinite amount of the bonus boss when, in fact, there's only one of each and it'd make more sense if they simply revived each other.

* The ''[[DarkForcesSaga Jedi Knight]]'' game series dealt with it in different ways. ''Jedi Knight'' and ''Mysteries of the Sith'' had bodies that wouldn't vanish for some time. Based on the ''Id Tech 3'' engine, ''Jedi Outcast'' and ''Jedi Academy'' had bodies that would vanish almost the instant you turned your back (mechanical enemies just exploded). It was kind of disappointing, when ''Jedi Knight'''s predecessor, ''Dark Forces'', being sprite-based, was able to let the stormtrooper bodies pile up like cordwood.

* You cannot capture a wild ''{{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.

Compare and contrast with DisappearsIntoLight, when this happens to characters not because of space constraints, but due to plot reasons. See also {{Self-Disposing Villain}}.

* In ''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.

!!Examples

* Mostly averted in ''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.

* ''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...

* Partially averted in ''Banjo-Kazooie'', 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]].

** Players have taken advantage of the 'Log out/timer stop' element to create what has (artfully) been called 'corpse graffiti'. Essentially, the player creates several 'throwaway' characters and sets their each of their names to one word of a pre-determined message, then logs them in individually and suicides to create and display the names in the proper order.

** In the first Spyro, explained right in the manual. Gnasty Gnorc's spell turnes the dragon treasure ''into the monsters''; "killing" them is really just dispels the enchantment. Why creatures in the other worlds work like this, well...

* Altough ''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.

* ''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.

* Altough ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' is practically built on body mutilation, most corpses of civilains regenerate after re-entering room (or disappear, in case of Necromorphs). It has practical use, however. If stomped bodies don't regenerate and stay dismembered, it means you'll have to deal with Infectors here.

* Bodies in the ''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.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TimeCommando'' dead enemies break up into fragments.

* In fighting games with weapons, such as ProWrestling and the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros.'' series, it isn't bodies that fade but weapons, usually after only 3 or 4 hits. This is largely for reasons of gameplay balance, and to make the actions on screen more interesting: while a real person wrestling on TV might hit someone three times with a chair and then toss it aside to keep things from getting tedious, someone playing on a console might be all to happy to eschew doing any moves in favor of hitting their opponent thirty times with the ring bell.

* Averted to the extreme in Bungie's ''VideoGame/{{Myth}}'' games: bloodstains, fire, and explosions permanently mar the ground, and every severed limb, every piece of destroyed scenery, and even ''fragments of broken arrows'' remain until the level ends. This is tactically relevant, especially in multiplayer, as you can see where battles have occurred before you got there.

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, left ''everything'' the player killed on the screen for their own personal satisfaction.