History Main / FinalDeath

-->-- '''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog''', explaining the dangers of dying in ''Disney/WreckItRalph''

* In ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' and ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'', vampires have two stages of death: Torpor, basically a lengthy but recuperative hibernation (up to centuries, in a few cases), and Final Death, which can only be caused by what the game terms "Aggravated Damage". This means the type of damage that a vampire cannot automatically heal: sunlight, fire, magic, another supernatural creature, decapitation, or completely destroying the body.

* ''VideoGame/{{Max Payne}}3'' has "New York Minute Hardcore" mode, which forces you to complete stages within a single minute, gaining time extensions for kills, but die once and you have to restart the whole game.

* Hardcore Mode in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'' makes it so dying erases your save.

* This is the point behind ''WebVideo/PBGHardcore'' games. If one of the players dies in the game, they are gone for the rest of the season.

* Unlike every other game in the series, the original ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' on the GameBoy has permadeath. It can get away with it because it has [[ExcusePlot the bare minimum of plot]], compared to the series' modern trend of [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover mixing tons of plots together]].

* In the two ''StreetLegal'' games, damaging or destroying a car's chassis usually puts it out of commission for good: the chassis cannot be repaired in Street Legal 1 without dropping it to the floor and damaging it again, and any part damaged to zero percent in Street Legal Racing Redline cannot be repaired. Autosave in SLRR guarantees that any mistakes are permanent, and if you're left with no cash and no usable cars, you must restart.

* ''Film/SpyKids 3'' does this with a virtual reality game, "Game Over", where if you lose all your lives, "You lose. No replays, no restarts." And judging by what happens when one person loses their lives, well...

* In the original ''VideoGame/StarFox'', if any of your wingmen get shot down, that's it; they're brown bread, toast, worm food, and thou must continue the game without them. In the sequels they just get a NonLethalKO and are temporarily grounded for repairs.

* ''VideoGame/ManiacMansion'' operates on this principle, but since the only ways to actually ''die'' (being spotted just gets you stuck in a [[CardboardPrison Cardboard Dungeon]]) are either [[GuideDangIt so convoluted as to be nearly impossible to accomplish by accident]] or [[TooDumbToLive require such a lapse of thought on the part of the player]], [[SubvertedTrope one might not even realize it until after a couple of plays through]].

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' series: Sometimes fallen RedShirtArmy characters can be healed with medkits, but if their name turns red, they are dead for real. Inverted with major characters, who are invincible except for PlotlineDeath.

* The same thing goes for ''PathOfExile''. Well, [[SubvertedTrope not exactly]]. Hardcore is just an extra modifier set for certain leagues, and if you die in a league with Hardcore on, your character is kicked out to Standard, so while you don't completely lose your character, you will have to start over with a fresh character if you want to try that league again.

** [=LPMUD=]s have always averted this, but a player who chooses to retire a character may remain a ghost, removing themselves from play but retaining communication.

* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' has "Hardcore Ironman" mode, where player-to-player trading is disabled, and you only get one life, though you can buy up to two additional lives for in-game money. Lose all your lives, and you can no longer use the account in question. However, a subversion of this trope also exists in the "jar of divine light" item only available to Hardcore Ironmen, which converts their account to a standard Ironman account upon losing their final life instead of their account being locked out of the game.
** This has later been averted (at least in Old School) by having a death just revert you to a standard Ironman whenever you die. No option to have your account be locked is present.

* In the original ''VideoGame/StarFox'', if any of your wingmen get shot down, that's it; they're brown bread, toast, worm food, and thou must continue the game without them. Averted in the sequels, where they just get a NonLethalKO and are temporarily grounded for repairs.

* Anyone, save Welkin, Alicia, Rosie and Largo (who are all main characters and therefore have PlotArmor) in ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' will die for good if you don't get a medic to help them within three turns of losing the most important HP (or if the enemy gets to them first). Even during skirmish missions and side-story battles, they can still be killed permanently if you're not careful. This is proven to be a ScrappyMechanic, and the next games in the series [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist doesn't have this dreadful consequence of downed in battle]].

* In ''Videogame/DarkestDungeon'', when a hero dies, that's it. All that's left to remember them by is a marker in the hamlet's cemetery. Fortunately, you're never in want of fresh recruits to throw into the meat-grinder. Unfortunately, you're going to need to keep some of them alive long enough to be able to face the Darkest Dungeon itself [[spoiler:and barring some extremely specific setup and some luck, two of the heroes you send to face the final boss ''will'' die. And you have to choose which ones.]]

* In ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', Yusuke and his friends are forced to play in an actualized version of a video game titled "Goblin City" against a CreepyChild named Amanuma and nicknamed "Game Master". Amanuma takes the role of the game's final boss the Goblin King, not realizing that the Goblin King is killed off after the player completes the game, whereas the player can revive as many times as he wants since the game has unlimited continues. As a result, Amanuma dies for real when Kurama completes the final stage, horrified as he ''does'' realize that he will undoubtly perish, and pretty much saying "IDontWantToDie"; as a result, when Kurama faces the nest enemy, [[BewareTheNiceOnes he is INCREDIBLY angry]] after being forced to kill the kid. [[spoiler: Koenma manages to revive him.]]

* In ''VideoGame/YoshisStory'', you have six Yoshis at the beginning of the game, and if one of them dies, it is gone for good and the rest must continue on without him. If all the Yoshis die, the game is over, and you will have to start again from the beginning.

* In ''[[VideoGame/YoshisStory Yoshi's Story]]'', you have six Yoshis at the beginning of the game, and if one of them dies, it is gone for good and the rest must continue on without him. If all the Yoshis die, the game is over, and you will have to start again from the beginning.

[[folder:General]]
* There were some old floppy-disk games where if your character died, the whole game would erase itself, ie game over forever, unless you shell out the dough for a new copy. Some online or downloadable games do this as well.
** ''Sub Mission'' does this to some extent, and is probably the only game that ever did. There's a practice mode available where you can practice the game with robot, but if you attempt a mission for real and fail, a hostage dies and is erased from the disk forever. Unsurprisingly, sales were virtually nil.
** Creator/HideoKojima considered using this method for ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', but thankfully discarded the idea.
** ''VideoGame/{{Wasteland}}'' did this, and the developers recommended you back-up your bought copy and only play the game using those back-ups.
** There's a game for Mac OS X (''[[SchmuckBait Lose/Lose]]'') that deletes a file in your Home folder every time you kill an enemy. When you lose a life, the game deletes itself. Not only is it a FinalDeath for your player (of course, you could redownload it, but that's missing the point), but also for your precious files as well. Goodbye, music library and precious childhood photos. Norton Antivirus classified it as a virus, understandably.
** {{VideoGame/One Chance}} is a modern Flash game that tries its best to do this. You can avoid it by tweaking your Flash configuration though.
* This gets inverted in the [=MegaZeux=] game ''[[http://vault.digitalmzx.net/show.php?id=1273 The Short-Lived Adventures of Hobo Dan]]'' - you can die as often as you want, but after you actually ''beat'' the game, it ''erases itself''.
[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/PunchOut'' for the Wii unlocks a mode called "Mac's Last Stand" after beating Title Defense mode that works similarly to the above ''Teleroboxer'' example. However, in this case it's endless (so it's not a matter of if you succumb but when) and you have three opportunities to fall, not just once. However, lose that third match and Little Mac retires, which ends Career mode permanently from then onwards (for that file). There are also unlockables associated with Mac's Last Stand[[note]]Win ten fights in this mode and you unlock Champions Mode, which turns Mac into a OneHitPointWonder in Exhibition mode, and randomly encountering [[GuestFighter Donkey Kong]] as an opponent in Mac's Last Stand will open him up as a choice for Exhibition fights[[/note]] so if you fail to accomplish the necessary requirements before your third loss, it becomes PermanentlyMissableContent.

* ''VideoGame/PunchOut'' for the Wii unlocks a mode called "Mac's Last Stand" after beating Title Defense mode that works similarly to the above ''Teleroboxer'' example. However, in this case it's endless and you have three opportunities to fall, not just once. However, lose that third match and Little Mac retires, which ends Career mode permanently from then onwards (for that file). There are also unlockables associated with Mac's Last Stand[[note]]Win ten fights in this mode and you unlock Champions Mode, which turns Mac into a OneHitPointWonder in Exhibition mode, and randomly encountering [[GuestFighter Donkey Kong]] as an opponent in Mac's Last Stand will open him up as a choice for Exhibition fights[[/note]] so if you fail to accomplish the necessary requirements before your third loss, it becomes PermanentlyMissableContent.

* ''VideoGame/PunchOut'' for the Wii unlocks a mode called "Mac's Last Stand" after beating Title Defense mode that works similarly to the above ''Teleroboxer'' example. However, in this case it's endless and you have three opportunities to fall, not just once. However, lose that third match and Little Mac retires, which ends Career mode permanently from then onwards (for that file). This also has an associated unlock with this mode (win ten fights over the course of Mac's Last Stand and you unlock Champions Mode, which turns Mac into a OneHitPointWonder in Exhibition mode) so if you fail to fell ten foes before your three losses, it becomes PermanentlyMissableContent.