History Main / WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou

** ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor2'' is overall very lenient on letting your partymembers die during battle, with most battles having a defeat condition of ''every'' partymember having died, leaving not one left to revive the others. There are two cases, though, where this trope is played straight. Should the player be on the path for the Liberator or Kingmaker ending, the second and third phase against the FinalBoss involves not letting TheHero or Al Saiduq die, respectively, because said boss realizes that the hero is TheHeart of the team that is motivating them to go this far and the latter [[spoiler:requires Al Saidug to be alive, so that he can take over the Heavenly Throne]], so his death would render the whole plan moot.

*** If you're on a Neutral route and decide to kill the FinalBoss in ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor2'', it decides that the protagonist is the factor that keeps everyone united, and vows to crush their spirit. This trope becomes a new rule that is slipped into the fight as soon as the second phase starts.

** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' has a few battles that require the protagonist to protect an [[EscortMission escort character or object]] from harm (eg: Queen Minnie); if their damage bar fills up, it's game over.

** ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' uses this. If there are computer players in the game, the game ends when all human players are dead, regardless if the AI characters are alive and despite the player respawning later in the level. VS mode makes this trope extremely annoying if there any survivor bots on the team. If all human-controlled survivors are killed, the round ends, despite any survivor bots being alive. Infected players who know of this exploit will focus their attacks only on the human controlled survivors. Thankfully, as with pretty much any Valve game, {{Game Mod}}s can fix this, in this case by overriding the condition and have the bots finish the level if you and your friends are dead, possibly respawning in a closet if the bots can make it that far...and surprisingly, when they are by themselves, [[ArtificialBrilliance they usually manage]].

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'', when using Trust magic, ''all'' NPCs summoned with it vanish when their summoner (the party leader) dies. If there is someone else present in the party, then the leader can be revived with Raise and they can resummon the Trusts (as being killed and revived boots the party leader out of combat), but if they are alone? It's back to the Home Point for them.

* ''VideoGame/ReKuroi'': If any party member gets KOed, not just the protagonist, the battle is lost, even if the enemy team is wiped out.
* Barring a few exceptions, in pretty much ''most'' ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' game, this trope applies. In most, it makes sense - the player is fighting by contracting demons, therefore when the player dies, their contracts end and they have no reason to continue doing whatever the protagonist wanted.
** Both ''VideoGame/Persona3'', and ''VideoGame/Persona4'' play this straight at first. Both then have a lot of fun justifying it ''later'' with major plot twists as the games approach conclusion. In 3, [[spoiler:the player is the container for the 'Appriser of Death', Nyx's herald. If he dies, Death is freed instantly, Nyx awakens, and since only the protagonist had the power to seal her again, she destroys the world.]] In 4, [[spoiler:the protagonist represents 'Hope' in Izanami's test of humanity. Just like the other two 'players', Emptiness and Despair, he will be removed from the test if he's defeated... which leaves Izanami and Ameno-Sagiri free to run through the AssimilationPlot that Emptiness has convinced them the world desires.]] That doesn't explain why the other characters can't just throw a revival bead like you can for them, though.
*** It's possible that the other characters ''do'' throw a revival bead at you, but if they did, the game would be UnwinnableByDesign with [[spoiler:Death already being released/"Hope" being removed from the test]]. And no one wants to go through that.
** ''VideoGame/Persona5'' follows this trend, as well as later justifying it: [[spoiler:Joker is "the Trickster", the champion of humanity's ability to rebel against fate and prevent ruin. Should he die, then a similar situation to ''Persona 4'' will result, as the Trickster has failed his rehabilitation and fallen to ruin. His soul is apparently imprisoned for eternity in the Velvet Room upon his death, meaning that a revival bead probably won't work on him.]] Interestingly enough, the main villain is trying to invoke this trope on the player. [[spoiler:Yaldabaoth will try to kill what remains of Joker's soul ''after'' Joker has been {{Ret Gone}}d, in order to ensure that he can't reignite the rebellious spirits of the Japanese people and stop Yaldabaoth's plans.]]

** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Radiant Dawn]]'' in particular takes this trope UpToEleven. Unlike previous entries (with the exception of ''Gaiden''), there's no traditional Lord class in the game, but instead there are several viewpoint characters such as Micaiah and Ike (the main character in ''Path of Radiance'' who, funnily enough, had the Lord as his promoted class). Much like the Lord, if you lose them in any chapter they're playable, you lose the game. However, since the objectives vary greatly and this game is [[SequelDifficultySpike much harder than most previous games,]] the game can end even by losing just ''one'' unit. Example? In the ''first'' few chapters, losing ''any'' ally means that you ''lose the game''. NintendoHard indeed!

* In ''VisualNovel/{{Sunrider}}'', if one of your mechs is defeated it can just retreat to the Sunrider for repairs, but if the Sunrider blows up your mechs have nowhere to run. The first game’s penultimate mission cranks this trope UpToEleven: if ''anyone'' in your team[[note]]except the optional mercenary units[[/note]] [[OneHitKill gets hit]] by the [[MileLongShip Legion]]’s WaveMotionGun, it’s game over.

* In the ''Franchise/ShiningSeries'', you lose the battle if the main character is defeated. However, there is no "Game Over" scenario, instead returning the party to the last save point, usually a church, where you can revive other fallen party members. The only downside is that you lose half of your gold when defeated.

* ''VideoGame/Transformice'':

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' also applies this rule to the main character, Marche, where the game will end if he dies in a Jagd. However, the game also ends if Marche gets tossed in jail during battle. Both games also feature battles where a key character must survive and ends the game if they have fallen.

** In ''VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth'' and ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'', on [[HarderThanHard Risky/Apocalypse]] difficulty, respectively, where the protagonist dying equals an immediate Game Over. In ''[=SMTIVA=]'', you can also buy a very expensive App that imposes this rule upon you.

* In pretty much ''every'' ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' game, this trope applies. In most, it makes sense - the player is fighting by contracting demons, therefore when the player dies, their contracts end and they have no reason to continue doing whatever the protagonist wanted.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' has two lead protagonists: [[TheHero Chrom]] and the [[PlayerCharacter Avatar]]. If either of them die, the other will bemoan their passing before the game ends.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' continues this tradition with Classic Mode, in addition to some missions that require the survival of specific units regardless of which mode you're playing on. The dangers are somewhat mitigated thanks to [[TimeMaster Divine Pulse]], which allows you to wind back the clock and bring back anyone who fell. If you are defeated with no Divine Pulse charges left, however, then it's Game Over.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'', if the party leader is KO'd, one of your allies will immediately attempt to revive them. Should that not be possible - either because the Party Gauge is empty or because of a TotalPartyKill - it's [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist an immediate trip back to the nearest landmark]]. Otherwise, reviving the leader works just like reviving your teammates.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel II'', when Rean and Princess Alfin are escaping from the Pantagruel, Princess Alfin has no weapon, but access to a good complement of healing and offensive arts as well as your full item inventory. Despite this, if Rean falls, it's an immediate Game Over.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/BattleTech''. Your PlayerCharacter can't actually die in combat, unlike NPC [=MechWarriors=]: even if their cockpit is destroyed (an instagib on any other pilot), they just get laid up in the hospital for months.

* As a {{Mons}} series where you fight alongside the monsters, ''VideoGame/{{Geneforge}}'' justifies this in much the same manner as ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTensei''. This does get a bit iffy in ''3'' and ''5'', though -- you have the option to recruit two human allies in the former game, and an intelligent servile ally in the latter, and unlike in ''2'' and ''4'', they're immune to the FinalDeath that plagues all other allies in the series. Your stalwart swordsman or knife-toting mage can fall in battle a hundred times without a game over, even though you lose the game if you fall even once.

* ''Anime/DragonBallZ: Chou Saiya Densetsu'' on the Super Famicom featured this in tandem with FinalDeath. Due to their importance to the story, the game is instantly over if Goku, Gohan, or Piccolo dies outside of a cutscene. Oddly enough, this doesn't apply to Krillin, Tien Shinhan, Yamcha or Chaiotzu, who can die at any point in the game without a GameOver occurring.

* ''VideoGame/StarFox64'': If one of your teammates' [[LifeMeter Health Meter]] empties, he flees and rejoins two missions later. [[spoiler:The exception is Slippy being shot down one mission before Sectox X, as he will rejoin mid-mission anyway]]. Should this happen to you, you die. And ContinuingIsPainful since you lose your powerups as well as a life.
** Same goes for ''VideoGame/StarFoxAssault'', but in [[VideoGame/StarFox1 the first game]] [[FinalDeath all your party members can be perma-killed]].

* Appears in one short quest in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' as Bannon, the man you must protect, is the leader of the rebel movement. Also made easier than some other cases as he has a unique ability that heals the entire party without using magic points.

* In the hypothetical animal fight question "[[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pick_two_they_will_defend_you.png "Pick two. They will defend you. The rest is coming to kill you.]]", this applies to the VIP (i.e. you, in the context of the question). ''WebVideo/TierZoo'' mentions that this makes the rifle-armed human ''much more'' potent [[RedemptionDemotion as an enemy than as an ally]], because as an ally he needs to shoot down all the opposing animals with very limited ammo, but as an enemy all he'd need to do is snipe the VIP once. As the SwarmOfRats was basically an instant win when chosen as an ally if not for this scenario, the other top choice would be the eagles, who could act as a distraction and claw the hunter's eyes out hopefully before he could shoot the VIP.

EscortMission is a sister trope where important {{NPC}}s dying will end the game. Compare LazyBackup, where the game ends when the entire active party is defeated, even if other party members are healthy. It’s also often a form of FakeDifficulty.