Due To The Dead / Video Games

Examples of Due to the Dead in Video Games.

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• Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War: In the mission "Journey Home", after Chopper, due to his plane being too heavily damaged and unable to eject, crashes into the November City Football Stadium, when the rest of the Wardog squadron drives off the Yuktobanian forces and reinforcements arrive, a flight of Osean fighters perform the Missing Wingman Formation over the stadium.
• Used as Character Development in Assassin's Creed II. When Ezio kills his first target after he completes his preliminary Assassin training (his first kill was before that training), he continues to abuse the body over and over, shouting that it's not enough that he died (not least because he died unwilling to apologize or even explain his crimes). His uncle and mentor calmly explains that death pays all debts and absolves all sins, even for those whose only purpose in life was evil. From then on, Ezio usually kills his target with a single strike of the Hidden Blade to their throat, followed by a parting line before gently saying, "Requiescat in pace" ("rest in peace"). At the end of the game, he doesn't kill Rodrigo Borgia (Alexander VI), knowing that doing so won't bring back the family he lost. Ezio's happy to leave him with the knowledge that he wasn't the Prophet and that his entire life's work was for naught.
  • In Brotherhood after Rodrigo is killed by his son Cesare, Ezio performs the rite once more with no malice, and for all of the Templar Agents (the single-player counterparts of the multiplayer characters). Only Juan Borgia and Octavian, Baron de Valois survive long enough to actually talk back to him though.
  • In Revelations (and the others, too), passersby will scold the player for looting dead bodies.
  • Connor continues the tradition for his targets in Assassin's Creed III (except for Charles Lee), though he uses the Mohawk language instead of Latin and leaves off anything resembling "Requiescat in pace," though the intent is mostly the same. His father and grandfather are not so respectful.
  • Played straight then inverted in II with the tombs of the previous Assassins. The brotherhood has created gorgeous resting places for some of their most famed members in the landmark cathedrals of Italy. Ezio goes through the trials to open these tombs and then shoves open the Assassin's sarcophagus to get at key stone inside and just leaves them that way, exposed to the elements and the enemy. As we later learn in Assassin's Creed Origins, however, the tombs are decoys so that their true bodies can rest. Ezio may not have closed it because there was nothing to close.
• Batman: Arkham City:
  • Batman can come across Crime Alley, the site of his parents' murder, and the player is given the option to pay their respects. If he does so, Batman kneels down and bows his head, as somber music plays in the background.
  • At the end of the game, when Joker succumbs to his Titan poisoning and dies, Batman carries his body all the way out of Arkham City, placing it on the hood of a GCPD police car before leaving in silence.
  • The same prompt occurs in Batman: Arkham Knight, where the player is once again given an option to pay their respects when faced with Talia al Ghul's equipment in the GCPD building.
• Brütal Legend: After the defeat of Doviculus, Eddie can visit the grave of Lars and pay his respects along with Lita. The two simply kneel before the grave in solemn silence.
• City of Heroes has the eponymous city literally riddled with monuments and statues to various heroes who died over the years in a heroic manner. There's at least one such massive statue in every single game zone, at least on the hero side.
• In Conquests of the Longbow, Robin makes sure that Friar Tuck gives all of the men he kills in the forest/highway a proper burial. Except one - the would-be rapist.
• Corruption of Laetitia: When interacting with a human corpse, Celeste has the option to give them a requiem and bring their soul peace, which lowers her corruption while hurting her due to her demonic nature. If she becomes a half-angel again, she'll do this automatically, but the damage is replaced by a healing effect.
• Dare to Dream: The third episode features the Forgotten Soldier, a skeleton found in a car wreck that only wishes to be given a proper burial. Doing so causes a necessary item to appear out of nowhere.
• In Destiny 2, the Forsaken storyline begins with the death of Cayde-6, Cayde having been killed by Uldren Sov. After this happens, the remaining two Vanguard members, Commander Zavala and Ikora Rey, hold a private funeral for him, the player's Guardian attending as well, who vows to avenge Cayde-6 by killing Uldren Sov.
  • After Uldren is executed, his body is laid to rest in the Dreaming City following Awoken tradition, his body set on a dais and covered in a sheet. Then, shortly thereafter he's found by the Ghost Glint and resurrected as the Guardian Crow.
  • In the "Season of Defiance" storyline, at the end of "Mission: Jailbreak", Amanda Holliday is killed saving human prisoners from the Shadow Legion. The major scene following is Amanda's funeral, attended by the player Guardian, Zavala, Crow, and Mara Sov. Zavala, usually The Stoic, breaks down in grief seeing his surrogate daughter dead. The heartbreaking factor is compounded upon due to the death of Lance Reddick, Zavala's voice actor, who passed away days before the expansion reached this point.
  • A Meta example of this occurred following the death of Lance Reddick, the voice actor for Commander Zavala. When Reddick died, many players in the community paid their respects to him by crowding around Zavala in the Tower in-game, using emojis to kneel or stand before him in a respectful fashion.
• In Darwinia, if you see a bunch of Darwinians get killed, chances are pretty good that you'll see a bunch of kites launched as the souls drift upwards off the playing field.
• Divinity: Original Sin II:
  • The Lizard Folk cremate their dead. One lingers as a ghost because his body was mistakenly buried in a human cemetary and happily Disappears into Light when it's burned in the ritual fire.
  • Elves can gain memories and skills from a dead person by consuming some of their flesh, so they eat their dead to honour them and pass on their knowledge to future generations.
• In Don't Starve: Reign of Giants, unlocking Webber as a playable character requires you to find his skull and bury it in an existing grave.
• Dragon Age
  • Humans, city elves, and presumably surface dwarves burn their dead. Spirits occasionally cross the Veil and possess corpses (or a maleficar can summon them to do the same). Cremation is thus the primary way to prevent this. Dalish elves, meanwhile, bury the body and plant a tree over the remains; Alistair calls this "life springing from death." The dwarves of Orzammar entomb their dead in special crypts, so that their spirits may return to the Stone and strengthen it, thereby strengthening their people.
  • An odd version of this appears in Dragon Age II. The Qunari don't have traditional funeral rites because they believe that once a person dies the body is just a piece of rotting flesh and nothing more — the soul has left the body and it isn't that person anymore. They treat the fallen's swords with much more respect since they believe that their swords are manifestations of their souls. In Act III after you foil the Qunari invasion a Qunari asks you to retrieve several lost Qunari blades so that he may return them to their homeland. Do this without asking for money in return and he thanks you by giving you your own personal Qunari weapon and tells you to treat it as your own soul.
    • A more heartrending version of this plays out in Dragon Age: Origins. If your Warden dies fighting the Archdemon, Sten will bow to your body. He respects you so much that he is willing to show it in a way that doesn't even make sense to him.
  • The subject of several quests in Dragon Age: Inquisition to show the state of the world.
    • In Redcliffe, an elderly elf explains that his late wife is buried in the woods, and while he normally brings flowers to her every year, there are so many templars, mages, and bandits there now that he can't make the trip lest he be killed himself. He's very grateful to an Inquisitor who agrees to bring the flowers in his stead.
    • The village of Crestwood was subject to a catastrophic flood ten years ago, where many of the villagers died. A Chantry sister, having heard that the Inquisitor plans to drain the water and go to the sunken ruins, asks them to find the bodies of the drowned villagers so they can be given a proper funeral.
    • In the DLC The Descent, it's mentioned that while dwarves are normally buried in the Stone so they can strengthen her, blighted dwarves can't be interred because they would weaken the Stone instead. They are burned to avoid contaminating the Stone.
    • The Avvar practice a form of spirit-worship. Rather than cremating their dead as Andrastians do, they dismember the bodies and feed them to birds, the messengers of the Lady of the Skies. Some souls are chosen to return in another life, and an offering made by their blood-kin is expected. This causes problems for one particular Avvar, Finn, who can't hunt the animals required to be offered for the soul of his father because of an old injury. His failure to complete the offering means he will no longer be acknowledged as his father's son once the offering is done. The Inquisitor is asked to hunt the animals required for the offering, and they can choose to hand it over directly, or to give it to Finn as a gift to the clan so he can make the offering. Doing the former gains you admiration from the clan for having killed the beasts and helped the dead man's soul reincarnate; doing the latter will make Finn very grateful, but does not grant the clan's approval, since the clan's priest is doubtful the spirits will accept an offering that wasn't hunted by the one making it.
• Dragon Quest Builders 2 has a sequence in Moonbrooke where the player builds graves for a trio of fallen soldiers after they're killed in battle. They also have the option of burying several others who die during the course of the chapter. If you go back there with Malroth during the postgame, he'll mention his desire to visit the graves and pay his respects.
• Dwarves in Dwarf Fortress get unhappy thoughts if their dead pets or comrades are left to rot. In more recent versions, dwarves that didn't receive a proper burial or memorial now come back as ghosts to haunt the living. As of DF2012, if a Necromancer dwarf ends up as this, they can still raise corpses, including their own.
• The Elder Scrolls
  • Arkay, one of the Aedra and a member of the Nine Divines, is known as the God of Life and Death. The Priests of Arkay oversee all funerary and burial rights, which include bestowing Arkay's Blessing and Law. These prevent the soul or body (respectively) of the deceased from being used in necromancy. However, when Mannimarco ascended to godhood as the God of Worms during the Warp in the West event, he became a celestial body that orbits Arkay. When he eclipses Arkay, this protection is blocked, allowing Grand Soul Gems to be converted to Black Soul Gems which are capable of trapping sapient souls.
  • Despite Arkay being one of the deities of their official religion, Imperial law was always a bit more flexible, considering the body and soul of a person to be possessions. This allowed them to be sold, traded, or willed away as any other property. Necromancy wasn't even illegal in the Septim Empire, as long as the dead being used was a willing volunteer.
  • When Giants feel they are nearing the end of their lives, they will travel to one of their burial grounds to die. If a Giant dies elsewhere, other Giants will carry the body to one of the burial grounds.
  • This is part of the reason given for the Mages Guild putting a ban on necromancy in Oblivion. Prior to that, necromancy was originally practiced within the Guild in accordance with the local laws and customs. Practitioners of necromancy are understandably upset by the move, and the resulting schism leads to eventual downfall of the Guild entirely.
  • During the late Merethic Era, the ancient Atmorans (Precursors of the modern Nords) went to war with Skyrim's native Falmer (Snow Elves) after the Falmer sacked and slaughtered the Atmoran colony of Saarthal in Skyrim, with the Atmorans going so far as to attempt to drive the Falmer to extinction. After nearly wiping them out on the mainland, the Atmorans pursued the remaining Falmer to the barren, frozen island of Solstheim. During the Falmer's Last Stand at the Battle of the Moesring, an individual known only as the Snow Prince single-handedly turned the tide of the battle, killing many prominent Atmoran heroes in the process. However, the daughter of one of the slain warriors threw her mother's sword in grief and impaled the Snow Prince, killing him. Unlike the remains of his fellow Falmer, which were burned as per Atmoran tradition, the Snow Prince was considered a Worthy Opponent and was buried with full honors befitting any great warrior, with guards even stationed at his tomb, which would one day become Jolgeirr Barrow.
  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: The Blades honour their fallen members by putting their swords on display in the Great Hall of Cloud Ruler Temple. You can retrieve up to three Blades' swords, winning their comrades' gratitude.
• The Evil Within: Sebastian can drop a match onto any corpse, which immolates the entire body into ash. This includes any dead civilians, effectively a funeral pyre that takes less than 10 seconds. The inaccuracy of the effects of fire on a corpse are justified with a combination of Lotus-Eater Machine and Your Mind Makes It Real.
• In Far Cry Primal, Caveman protagonist Takkar has a tendency to say "Walk free" as a blessing whenever someone he respects dies before him. First he says it to a steppe mammoth that he and his hunting party have killed, then he says it to his brother Dalso after Dalso dies from injuries sustained by being knocked off a cliff when the Bloodfang Tiger showed up, and then he says it to Warchief Ull and Dah of the Udam tribe, both of whom he sees as Worthy Opponents.
• Funerals and memorials are sometimes given grave importance in Final Fantasy.
  • In Final Fantasy, there's a grave in Elfland marked for either "Erdrick" in the original North American release, or "Link" in subsequent remakes.
  • At the end of Final Fantasy V, Krile visits the Elder Tree in memory of her grandfather, Galuf, who died there protecting everyone from Exdeath. The flowers then bloom all across the screen and the triumphant theme music roars as the party rides (or flies) across the world.
  • In Final Fantasy VI, General Leo, slain while trying to stop the omnicidal clown from murdering the Espers, is given a memorial grave in the town of Thamasa.
    • Likewise, Setzer's lost love and rival, Darryl, was laid to rest in a sprawling (but derelict) catacomb that also houses her airship, the Falcon.
    • ...but on the other hand, Cid's body is never properly tended to. If you take that route, it just stays there on the bed for the remainder of the game.
  • In Final Fantasy VII, Aerith is entombed at the lake just outside the Forgotten Capital, symbolic of her body returning to join the Planet's Lifestream. (Though there is a small bit of Fridge Logic regarding the depth of that lake.)
  • Visiting the blasted ruins of Trabia Garden in Final Fantasy VIII can be a Tear Jerker if you take the time to visit the makeshift graveyard, and speak to the NPCs whose friends perished in the attack.
  • In Final Fantasy IX, Black Mages are typically mindless automatons crafted from the supernatural Mist. Thus, the few that have achieved sentience have no concept of death, only that their friends have "stopped moving." One of them buries his friend in the ground in hopes that he'll wake up soon, and thinks of washing him at the river when he does. It even extends to villains (sort of). Queen Brahne is taken back and buried in Alexandria in Disk 2's finale. Meanwhile Zidane also stays behind to make sure Kuja doesn't die alone.
  • In Final Fantasy X, people killed in the midst of tragedy or negative emotions run the risk of becoming Fiends. Therefore, Summoners are entrusted with the task of the Sending — a sombre ritual dance casting their souls to the Farplane to find peaceful rest. One of the most striking scenes in the game involves Yuna performing a Sending dance for the innocent victims of Sin's rampage on the little town of Kilika.
  • At the end of the Heavensward MSQ in Final Fantasy XIV, a grave is made for Haurchefant Greystone at Providence Point in the Coerthas Western Highlands, adorned with his broken shield.
• The way you deal with dead bodies in Frostpunk have their advantages and disadvantages. Passing a law to bury the bodies in a cemetary (the "good" method) has a better effect on Hope and reduces Hope loss per death. On the other hand, passing a law to throw them in a snow pit (the "evil" method) makes your citizens more discontent, but opens up future bonuses to medical and food production facilities. In "The Last Autumn" scenario, shipping the bodies back home in a casket (better than "good") cost resources but is better for Motivation, while burying them on site is more adverse to it.
• Galaxy Angel II: In the second game of the trilogy, Mugen Kairou no Kagi, when Tact tells what the former Moon Angels have been doing in the past few months, he mentions that Vanilla has gone to her home planet to pay her respects to Sister Beryl's grave, praying for her protection in the upcoming battles.
• One of the trophies in Ghost of Tsushima, "Dirge For A Fallen Forge", requires the player to visit Taka's grave and play the flute song "Lament of the Storm" in the deceased's honor.
• An interesting case in God Hand: when Elvis (a massive demon) sees a pair of lesser demons mocking a corpse and casually tossing it into a grave, he flips out and punches them over the horizon with a shout of "You should show the bodies some respect!" He then kneels and prays for the deceased. After Elvis's own destruction, Shannon, another of the Four Devas, has a massive statue of him built in her territory.
• God of War:
  • Despite having been described in-universe as the most hated god on Mount Olympus, it's revealed in God of War III that the other Olympians nonetheless gave Ares a proper resting place, freezing his corpse in ice in the aptly-named Tomb of Ares.
  • As revealed in III, after Kratos killed Persephone in God of War: Chains of Olympus, Hades buried her in a decorated coffin, despite the fact that she hated her forced marriage to Hades so much that she was willing to destroy the entire world just to be free of it.
  • God of War: Ascension: After Mercy Killing Orkos at the latter's request, thus finally freeing him from his bond with Ares, Kratos takes the time to give him a proper funeral pyre in the ruins of his old home.
  • The entirety of God of War (PS4) sees Kratos and his son Atreus attempting to fulfill Faye's last request: to cremate her corpse and scatter her ashes from atop the highest peak in all the realms. There's two problems with that request, however: one, the highest peak in all the realms lies in Jötunheim, the realm of the giants, which has been cut off from the rest of the realms for centuries after the giants sealed all known entrances in order to keep Odin and the Aesir out; and two, their quest to reach Jötunheim sees the duo butting heads with Baldur, who's been sent by Odin to track them down for unknown reasons, cannot be killed and will not stop until he gets what he wants. Half of the game is Kratos and Atreus attempting to find a way to reach Jötunheim; the other half is trying to find a way to kill Baldur or at least getting the hell away from him.
  • The post-game of God of War Ragnarök includes, amongst other things, a Viking Funeral for Brok in Niðavellir.
• After being killed by monsters, Briggs is buried at sea in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.
• At the end of Halo 3, the game shows the Pelican wing that has been improvised into a memorial with the number "117" marked on it in tribute to the Master Chief (MIA). The UNSC doesn't allow Spartan soldiers to be listed as dead, only MIA. Usually, but not always, because they Never Found the Body.
• Hero King Quest: Peacemaker Prologue: The human nations consider the Dark Realm barbaric for eating the hearts of the dead and feeding their corpses to wildlife. Spiderweb states that she finds this practice no different from the human custom of burying corpses, since those corpses will be decomposed and eaten by underground wildlife anyways. The Dark Ones also consider it respectful to eat another's heart, since it's their way of having the deceased live through the eater.
• The G ending in The House of the Dead 4 has G paying his respects to James at the site where James sacrificed himself to destroy The World, followed by swearing to fight the Zombie Apocalypse back to the source (which he does in the previous game).
• In Jade Empire, you can save two little orphan ghosts who died during a town's flood by getting their orphanage master to bury their bones.
• In Jeanne d'Arc, the final scene post-credits is of Jeanne and Roger visiting Domremy's chapel to pray for Liane's soul.
• The Nobodies of Kingdom Hearts, pitiable creatures who vanish into nothingness upon death, erected monuments called "Proof of Existence" in the deepest sanctum of their fortress, simply so they could be remembered. The fact these monuments are shaped like gravestones and slabs, bearing their owner's description and weapon of choice, is no coincidence.
• Some Players in Left 4 Dead make sure to pay their respects to Bill with a 21-gun salute. Usually only in scavenger rounds. Otherwise the infected would keep interrupting.
• The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: After Mikau dies, Link erects a makeshift grave for him in Great Bay's beach and briefly pays his respects before continuing with his quest.
• Life Is Strange shows Chloe's funeral in the Sacrifice Chloe ending. Most of the main cast attends.
• Mass Effect:
  • Mass Effect: One of the first sidequests you can get involves the body of a soldier who died on Eden Prime. The soldier's husband wants her body to be released for a proper burial, while the Alliance military wants to hold onto it for study so they can find ways to counteract geth weapons and save more soldiers. The Paragon choice involves siding with the husband.
  • Commander Shepard gets some sort of memorial (depending on his/her background) after his/her temporary death, which you get to hear news reports about. You also get to explore the crash site of the original Normandy and place a memorial there, as well as gathering all the dog tags of the fallen crew.
  • Mass Effect 3:
    • A memorial wall is placed in front of the elevator on the crew deck, so that you can't avoid looking at it when you step out of the elevator. It lists the names of each lost crewmember from the Normandy, and as the game goes on, the list gets longer.
    • Citadel also features a funeral side mission where Shepard, some crew members of the Normandy SR-2, Commander Bailey, and the Salarian Councilor pay their respects to Kolyat's father Thane (one of Shepard's companions in the second game who died defending the Salarian councilor from a Cerberus attack on the Citadel.
  • Mass Effect: Andromeda: After the climax, Nakmor Drack tries making a toast "to the vanquished". Ryder's teammates don't subscribe to this, and try to interject with their own ideas, until Drack testily states it's his toast, and it's to the vanquished.
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain: At the conclusion of the mission "Shining Lights, Even In Death", Venom Snake orders the ashes of the soldiers he had to Mercy Kill following a mutated vocal cord parasite outbreak be pressed into diamonds, so that the Diamond Dogs could take their fallen allies into battle. Afterwards, a glint of light from one of these diamonds can be seen on Venom Snake's uniform.
• Might and Magic X: Legacy: Pirate King Crag Hack makes a Heroic Sacrifice to weaken the Big Bad so the player can slay him. At the epilogue of the main game, his funeral, where Governor Jon Morgan - his estranged son - gives the eulogy, is brief but sad:
  Morgan: For some he was a pirate. A barbarian. A criminal. He was all of these things, but yet, he was so much more. To me, there's really only one word that fully captures who he was. Crag Hack was a hero. And a father.
• Most people in NieR: Automata have a patchy understanding of death at best, since they're all robots of one stripe or another who can have their consciousness transferred to a new body (either by core transplant or network download) should their current body be destroyed. The only ones who can die permanently are resistance androids, and since they haven't had contact with humanity in thousands of years, their imitation of funeral rites is based on poorly-understood cultural remnants - something they admit openly, but they feel they have to do something to honor their fallen friends. It comes to a heartbreaking point when 9S plants a flag made of the deceased 2B's blindfold in a field of Lunar Tear flowers, admitting out loud that he doesn't know why. The memorial is visible on the title screen from then on.
• In No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, Travis refuses to let Sylvia and company "clean up" the body of the third-ranked assassin, a cosmonaut who had returned to Earth for the first time in decades. Travis insists that he be left where he is, to be with the Earth he had so missed, finally with her once more in death.
• Octopath Traveler:
  • In Olberic Chapter 3 after defeating the Lizardman Chief Olberic's Travel Banter with Ophelia has her give a prayer for the creatures they just killed. As she explains it, "Yes. To the townspeople, they are fearsome monsters that threaten their lives… But they are living creatures for all that, and I would that they rest in peace."
  • The sidequest "A Corpse with No Name" has a River Dweller from Saintsbridge find the body of a man with no identification on him save a distinctive mole on his hand. The Dweller wishes to bury the man but will not without some name to place upon the grave. The player can journey to Victors Hollow, find the Restless Woman, who is wondering where her husband is, and bring her back to the Dweller by Guide or Allure. She will take her husband to bury him. Alternatively, the player can go to Farshore, the nearby mini-dungeon and find a graverobber who has the man's diary. Obtaining it by stealing or purchasing and taking it back to the Dweller will allow him to bury the body near where it was found on the river's side.
• The funeral of Shinjiro Aragaki in Persona 3. Although the school's headmaster and a few schoolmates couldn't care less for the person (and get called out on it by the heroes,) Akihiko's visit to the memorial is one of the most poignant scenes in the franchise.
  • And for the rest of the game, on landing the killing blow in a battle, Akihiko will sometimes shout, "You see that, Shinji?"
• In Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen on Five Island, there is a memorial for a dead Onix nicknamed Tectonix. The Player can set down a lemonade next to the one that is already there. This earns gratitude from the Trainer next to you, and he gives you TM42 Facade as a thanks.
• In Red Dead Redemption II, in spite of the circumstances he finds himself in, Arthur Morgan takes a moment to cradle his fallen (fully bonded) horse and thanks it. Also on the receiving end of this, when he and Susan Grimshaw are found dead by Charles Smith and laid to rest, Arthur on a quiet hilltop, in a grave that perfectly faces the evening sun, which is "exactly where he would have wanted to be." Even more so is that his grave is adorned with a bunch of flowers if he was played honorably through to the end.
  • In fact, Charles has mourned and buried most of the members who died in the game. He buries Kieran Duffy and even admits to Arthur that he was starting to like him too, takes a few seconds to mourn Lenny Summers when he's gunned down and buries him alongside Hosea Matthews, and, as mentioned before, he's the one who buried Arthur and Susan on top of beautiful sceneries by the end of Chapter 6. By the Epilogue, he buries Mr. Wayne, a gun he hired, after he's killed by the Skinners. If anything, he's essentially the gang's gravedigger.
  • The same can happen to bounties whom you've dealt with in the Epilogue. Regardless of what happens to Otis Skinner and Elias Green (they are either brought in dead or brought in alive and eventually hanged), if you arrive at the Blackwater cemetery for an event afterward, you'll find that they are both laid to rest alongside each other, with the pastor stating that even Elias "deserves some kindness" in a eulogy.
• In a somewhat odd reversal of this trope, Skies of Arcadia has the Big Bad Galcian killing off Worthy Opponent Gregorio after the latter performs a Heel–Face Turn to let the heroes escape. Galcian orders the corpse preserved and shipped back to Valua — their homeland, which he just defected from — for a proper burial, stating to the soldier responsible that the corpse is more valuable than the man's own life.
  • However, it's likely that this proper burial never happens given Galcian's actions soon after killing Gregorio; summoning the Rains of Destruction on Valua, an event that kills most of Valua's population.
  • Later, a more straight 'hero respects the villain' usage happens when Vyse gives what's left of Ramirez a traditional burial at sky.
• Spirit of the North: There is a side quest where the player character, a fox, can track down misplaced staves and return them to their long-dead owners. Upon doing so, the souls of the deceased manifest to express gratitude to the fox.
• In Valkyria Chronicles:
  • In the first battle, Alicia orders her men to bury the bodies of the Imperial soldiers they killed in the skirmish.
  • Welkin and Alicia's kind treatment of a dying Imperial scout (trying in vain to patch up his wounds, Alicia pretending to be his mother in his last moments to calm him down, giving him a decent burial) which earns them the gratitude of the man's squadmates when they show up the following morning and piece together what happened.
  • Rosie, who spent the entire game showing Fantastic Racism to Darcsens, sings a dirge at Isara's funeral.
• When a named character (even the player character, if the player screws up) dies in the Wing Commander series, more often than not there's a funeral cutscene, with a 21 gun salute as the character's coffin drifts off into space.
• Wishbone and the Amazing Odyssey: After learning from Tiresias that his crewman Elpenor had died on Aeaea as their ship was leaving, Wishbone has to acquire a coin from Agamemnon and then use it when carrying out Elpenor's funeral rites after returning to Aeaea.
• Xenoblade Chronicles franchise:
  • Xenoblade Chronicles X: Several missions that can be performed for the Tree Clan involve their version of a funeral: placing the deceased's body in a field and watching it get devoured by wild beasts. It sounds barbaric at first, but the solemnity with which the Tree Clan treat the custom and their explanations of how it ties into their belief system make it clear that it honors the dead and is of tremendous importance to them.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3: The people of Keves and Agnus have a tradition of playing a flute over the bodies of the deceased. Those who perform this role are known as "off-seers" and it is believed to bring peace to the dead. The protagonists Noah (Kevesi) and Mio (Agnian) are off-seers, and the player will frequently be performing the rite on bodies in the field. Notably, Noah is initially given funny looks for performing his off-seer duties for the fallen of both sides, rather than just his Kevesi colleagues.

Evil

• Played for Laughs with Duke Nukem, who even shits down a dead alien's neck.
• In The Elder Scrolls series, as mentioned above, the Aedric Divine Arkay protects the bodies and souls of the deceased. However, with Mannimarco's ascension as the God of Worms, his plane can "eclipse" Arkay's, during which Arkay's Blessing (the protection of souls) can be worked around by allowing for the creation of Black Soul Gems (which can be used to capture sapient "black" souls). Arkay's Law remains unmovable, however. Mannimarco's Order of the Black Worm, a reclusive Magical Society mostly devoted to practicing The Dark Arts, constantly seek out other ways around Arkay's laws.
• In Gaia Online's short-lived airship-journey game Frontier Skies, one possible random event involved finding the body of someone recently killed by vampires. If you chose to bury the body, you'd lose time and points on your score, but if you tried to loot it you'd lose health, so the best thing to do was heartlessly abandon it.
• In Gems of War, the crew who died when Atlanta's ship was wrecked have been raised as undead, which she considers a desecration.
• Some Left 4 Dead players amount using Bill's gun off his dead body to this.
• Some of Harbinger's lines in Mass Effect 2 involve leaving the dead where they fall, in addition to yelling about how We Have Reserves.
  • He will also command his mooks to try to preserve Shepard's body. It is doubtful that he simply wants to give Shepard a proper burial.
  • After Shepard's premature death in Mass Effect 2, Cerberus (one of the villains from the first game) goes through quite a bit of effort to prevent the Shadow Broker from selling Shepard's corpse to the Collectors, to the point where they form an alliance with Liara T'Soni, one of Shepard's companions (and an alien, when Cerberus is staunchly xenophobic). Of course, they only want the body so that they can bring Shepard back to life to stop the Reapers.
  • Background material suggests that the batarians believe the soul exits the body through the eyes; therefore, mutilating the eyes of a dead batarian is thought to leave them Barred from the Afterlife. (This also makes them very worried about dying in vacuum, which leads to the eyes freezing and rupturing.)
  • One of the first conversations in the first game is about this, with the Paragon option being "Jenkins deserves a proper burial" and the Renegade being "leave him", although no matter what response you give, you're a bit too busy with the Geth trying to shoot you to give Jenkins a proper funeral at this stage.
• Not necessarily evil, per se, but one of the songs in Red Dead Redemption is called "Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie". The second verse starts, "But we buried him there, on the lone prairie".
• In RimWorld, you can designate certain spots to be used as graves, or build a crematorium to dispose of bodies without taking up space (though the latter option is rather resource-intensive). Leaving human corpses unburied produces negative thoughts among your survivors, especially if they're of former fellow survivors. As of the Ideology DLC, you can also leave corpses in cages to demoralize your prisoners.
• In Saints Row 2, Shogo Akuji crashes Aisha's funeral after his underling beheaded her to exact revenge against the Saints. Johnny Gat is absolutely pissed over it and pays him back by emptying a nearby coffin, throwing Shogo inside, and ignoring his pleas for a Mercy Kill as he buries him alive.
• B.J. Blazkowicz, the protagonist of Wolfenstein 3-D, does this with the body of Adolf Hitler in the finale of Episode 3, "Die Fuhrer Die," kicking his head off his remains and spitting on them.

Good + Evil

• Afterimage: Mages have a duty of refining the prism bones of corpses to prevent such corpses from turning into re-animated husks called Wanderers. The bones are then placed at a cemetery to honor the dead. One of the first quests likewise tasks Renee to place a prism bone at the cemetery of the Resting Grounds. The Arc Words "May our paths cross soon once again" is also often said as a farewell to the dead. Inversely, necromancy also exists within the setting, and those that forcibly turn the dead bodies into controllable Wanderers are labeled as "exotic fanatics".
• Dark Souls: This shows the difference in honor between Ornstein and Smough, when they absorb their dead partner's body. If Smough dies first, Ornstein will observe a moment of silence for his fallen comrade (the fact that he's in the middle of battle precludes any further funeral services). If Ornstein dies first, however, Smough will unceremoniously crush the body with his giant hammer. And Smough wonders why nobody in Anor Londo likes him...
• "Return to Ostagar", a DLC mission for Dragon Age: Origins, has the protagonist find the body of King Cailan, which the darkspawn have stripped, crucified, and apparently used for target practice. The player may then decide whether to give the corpse a proper funeral pyre, cut it down, or simply leave it hanging there. Characters like Alistair, Wynne, Leliana, Oghren and Sten^note whose own culture doesn't do anything special with their dead but presumably recognizes that it's generally done in Ferelden as a sign of respect will support proper treatment of the dead. Characters like Morrigan, Zevran and Loghain will find it a waste of effort, and support cutting it down and giving it to the wolves or leaving it there.
• Total War: Warhammer, Total War: Warhammer II and Total War: Warhammer III: Whenever a general or agent dies, the notification window shows an animated image of how they were buried. Empire and Bretonnian factions show the character draped in a shroud, for Vampire Counts it's a ghostly funeral procession, a funeral pyre for Orc and Chaos factions, and being disposed of like yesterday's trash for Beastman and Skaven factions.

Other

• Not for Broadcast: In Day 371, if Jeremy Donaldson died at the end of Day 296 (either by suicide or by security), you have the option to "decorate" his grave with either an Advance wreath or a Disrupt graffiti in either of the bottom two screens.
• Furcadia has some grave markers in game maps for developers and notable players who have passed away in Real Life.

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