As a Death Trope, all spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.
While the Ace Attorney series never shows a character dying on screen, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice has Dhurke dying in an awesome, yet mundane way. He is shot by the killer three times and he just stands there while giving both a Death Glare and a Badass Boast to them before dying moments later, causing said killer to figuratively shit their pants and flee the scene. And it doesn't end with his death either; his last words tell his fellow hostage to channel his spirit as soon as he dies, so he can take care of just a few more things... which include making sure the revolution he was heading gets the last push it needed to succeed.
In Age of Mythology, Chiron knocks over a giant boulder to ensure the escape of the others and dies fighting a mob of fire giants.
Assassin's Creed: Revelations: Yusuf, the head of the Istanbul branch of the Brotherhood, is killed off-screen at the game's climax, but when Ezio finds the scene there are several Janissaries lying there dead as well. And Janissaries are tough enough to give Ezio trouble.
In Asura's Wrath, this is pretty much how the last two episodes are! Episode 21 has Yasha getting into one last battle with Asura which has a hidden purpose: to awaken the Mantra Reactor he placed inside of him, showing he ripped out his own core to help power it. Episode 22 is this in spades with Asura flying to the ends of the galaxy to fight Chakravartin to rescue his daughter Mithra, as well as keep him from destroying Gaea. Even when Mithra tells Asura that he will die if he kills Chakravartin, Asura just cares that Mithra will still live as he finishes off Chakravartin once and for all. In that moment as he disintegrates, he finally feels his rage is gone and can finally join his wife in death.
In Baldur's Gate, Keldorn's epilogue has him finally retiring from the Order of Torm and settling down with his family, only for a horde of giants to invade Athkatla. He then proceeds fight off the entire horde single handedly, despite numerous fatal wounds, and doesn't die until the last giant has been defeated. His actions were so heroic (and badass) that Torm himself came to personally guide Keldorn's soul to the afterlife. Wow. Not only that, but his 'afterlife' is to be the right hand man of the God of Justice!
If he isn't romanced and successfully passes his trials, Anomen will go on to have a great heroic career that ends with him going down in a blaze of glory while singlehandedly stopping an Evil Sorcerer.
Assuming the player doesn't use a secret weapon to avert the cut-scene, Chapter 4 of Bendy and the Ink Machine has the Projectionist actually being able to fight Bendy before Bendy rips his head off.
Bioshock: Andrew Ryan from the first gamereveals that you've been a Manchurian Agent all along, and Atlas's Catchphrase, "would you kindly", is actually your Trigger Phrase. He demonstrates just how little control you truly have over the situation by making you run, stop, turn on command. Then he hands you his golf club and orders you to kill him. Without regaining control, you obey.
In the Brütal LegendCreation Myth, the First Ones lured Ormagöden into a trap to drown him in mud. Rather than let himself burn out, Ormagöden released his full power and exploded, reshaping the world with parts of his being. His fiery power became the sun, his dying Metal Scream became noise, his metal body veined the earth with metal ore, and his blood became oceans that drowned the First Ones.
In Cyberpunk 2077, Edgerunners who end up going out in a blaze of glory are immortalized in the Afterlife via a drink named after them. Examples include Johnny Silverhand (killed by Adam Smasher while nuking the Arasaka Tower) and David Martinez (killed by Adam Smasher in a fit of Cyberpsychosis while trying to rescue the woman he loved). Later on, it's possible for V to honor Jackie Welles by having the bartender make a drink in his honor.
Danganronpa: The Killing Game is meant to have its victims die horrible and meaningless deaths, but Monokuma doesn't always get his way.
The first game has Sakura Ogami, the game's only suicide. Faced with the knowledge that her very presence, after being revealed as The Mole, was causing tension that sooner or later would lead to someone dying, she takes initiative and kills herself, simultaneously removing the conflict that Monokuma wanted to use to cause a murder andfulfilling her end of the deal with Monokuma that she had to kill someone, reminding the other students (via her suicide note) that Monokuma was their true enemy and they didn't need to play his game, and breaking open the Headmaster's office for good measure. Sakura's death utterly undermines the killing game, to the point where the Mastermind needs to cheat to create the fifth trial as nobody is willing to kill any more.
The second game has Impostor Byakuya, who immediately takes charge to prevent any murders and ultimately sacrifices himself to save the first intended victim, derailing the first killer's plan by being too well-prepared.
Chiaki Nanami in the second game's fifth trial. There was absolutely no way to conclusively pin them as the Blackened due to Nagito's spectacular Gambit Roulette, but they figured it out themselves and outright confessed, dooming themselves to a Cruel and Unusual Death to spare their classmates.
Kaede Akamatsu from V3 is an odd example in that the moment only bore fruit long after the character's death, but ultimately, the trap that she thought had failed did smoke out the Mastermind, though only in the sixth chapter when the characters re-visit the first murder with new evidence. Once they're able to figure out that Tsumugi actually killed Rantaro and framed Kaede for it, that was the beginning of the end for Danganronpa.
Kaito Momota became the Blackened in an attempt to prevent Maki from doing so. And when they're finally found out and punished, they become the second person after Makoto Naegi way back in the first game to have their execution fail; in Kaito's case, his Incurable Cough of Death killed him after he got to space, but before the g-forces from re-entry could kill him horribly. Instead, he dies smiling and at peace, having both saved his love interest and fulfilled his dream of going to space before he died.
Dark Souls, of course, subverts this in the most depressing way imaginable. Throughout your journey, you meet the jolly knight Siegmeyer of Catarina. Every time you meet him, he is stuck and can't progress. So you help him out, because he's such a jolly, likable guy, so how can you not? Except that being one-upped by you constantly causes him to start losing faith in his own abilities as an adventurer. Since Undead need to hold onto a sense of purpose or else they'll go Hollow and become a mindless zombie, this means Siegmeyer's days are numbered. So, in your final encounter with him, he attempts to both repay you for your help and restore his own honor by way of a Heroic Sacrifice, dying a glorious death in battle while you flee to safety. But of course, you don't want your friend to die, so you stay and fight to ensure his survival, but this ends up being the last straw that causes him to fully go Hollow.
His successor Siegward in Dark Souls III has a significantly more awesome end, fighting his old friend Yhorm the Giant by your side (as a flesh-and-blood person, not a summoned phantom) and sharing One Last Drink of Siegbräu with you before dying as soon as you get far enough away from him. It's not explicitly clear whether he died from injuries sustained during the boss fight or whether he killed himself after having fulfilled his purpose, but when you consider that Siegbräu restores HP...
THE ENTIRE CAST of Digital Devil Saga 2. Heat's death begins it all as he chooses to go by Heroic Suicide against Serph. Argilla and Roland stay behind to lure the Nigh-InvulnerableEldritch Abomination Meganada to an exploding reactor core and give the others the chance to reach the Airport. Gale confronts Jenna Angel at the Airport, giving the other three the time to reach a plane capable of reaching the last functioning HAARP facility and escape Karma City. Cielo dies taking down a squadron of Karma Society fighters to allow Sera and Serph to reach the facility. Serph and Sera give their lives to activate the facility one last time to speak with God/Brahman to halt the already ongoing Apocalypse.
The (named) Grey Wardens in the Dragon Age series seem to have this trope as one of membership perks: those who aren't lucky enough to die killing the Archdemon or go out in a blaze of glory before getting too old leave for the Deep Roads to kill as many Darkspawn as they can and die fighting. This trailer says it all. Specific examples include:
Warden-Commander Duncan from Dragon Age: Origins is killed why climbing up an ogre's chest with sword and knife to deal the killing blow.
Riordan falls to his death after jumping onto the Archdemon in midair and wounding its wing so the remaining Wardens can fight it on the ground.
Unless you take a very specific endgame choice, either the Warden, Alistair, or Loghain will die after delivering the final blow to the Archdemon.
Any of your Grey Warden recruits who die in the Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening finale will do so in blaze of glory, particularly Anders, who is killed by an arrow after slaying hundreds of darkspawn, and Sigrun, who rallies the remaining defenders to a heroic Last Stand.
Warden-Commander Clarel from Dragon Age: Inquisition dies while soloing the Elder One's corrupted High Dragon.
Later in Inquisition, Hawke and either Alistair, Loghain, or Stroud accompany the Inquisitor into the Fade. When the absolutely gigantic Nightmare demon blocks the party's path back into the waking world, the Inquisitor must leave either Hawke or their Grey Warden ally behind to distract the Nightmare from the others' escape. The last we see of whoever stays behind is them charging at the demon.
Dragon Ball Online has an implied one offscreen. Knowing they would soon die of natural causes, and wanting to settle their rivalry once and for all, Goku and Vegeta left Earth to have one final showdown. Several years later, a supernova was detected that was assumed to be from the two Saiyans' fight. Yes, that's right: Goku and Vegeta's final battle was so awesome that it was the equivalent of an exploding star.
Even with all the Black Comedy as well as Nightmare Fuel, this is the endgame for Zero in Drakengard 3. The flower that's in her eye is a Grotesquerie, as in the same Eldritch Abomination babies from Branch D of Drakengard 1! She not only kills her sisters, but recruited Michael/Mikhail to be the one that finishes her in the end after it's all done. The final boss in Branch D has Mikhail doing that, even if it gives him great pain that he has to kill his best friend to do so.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has Emperor Titus Mede II at the end of the Dark Brotherhood questline. While in-game he's considered a rather controversial figure, when you finally confront him, Titus faces his assassin with remarkable grace, refusing to show fear (at worst simply being annoyed if you act like a psychopath). He calmly accepts his fate, with his final request simply being to consider killing the one who ordered the hit on him in the first place.
Even in the very start of the game, we have that one Stormcloak soldier who tells the priestess delivering the prisoners' last rites to shut up and marches to the chopping block of his own volition without even being called.
Priestess: As we commend your souls to Aetherius, blessings of the Eight Divines— Stormcloak: For the love of Talos*The Ninth Divine, a Nord who was believed to have become a god, the worship of which the Thalmor have forbidden, shut up and let's get this over with. Priestess:[annoyed] ...Very well.
His actual last words are also amazing.
Stormcloak: My ancestors are smiling at me, Imperials. Can you say the same?
Also, if you side with the Empire during the Civil War questline, Ulfric Stormcloak gets one. He accepts his defeat and has one final request: Have the Dragonborn kill him because it would be cooler that way.
Tullius: Well, Ulfric, you can't escape from me this time. Any last words before I send you to... to wherever you people go when you die? Rikke: Sovngarde, sir. Tullius: Right. Well? Ulfric: Let the Dragonborn do it. It'll make for a better song.
One encounter involves an aging Orc warrior in the wilderness, surrounded by sabre cat corpses. He's looking for one of these as he apparently doesn't want to die feeble and frail in his bed but can't kill himself because in his own words "it would displease Malacath". It's up to you to give him the death against a worthy foe he seeks. Even better if your identity as the Dragonborn has been revealed and you have completed Malacath's quest by the time you find him: he gets to die in battle against a legendary dragonslayer and his own god's acknowledged champion, and he still puts up a challenging fight. Malacath would no doubt be very pleased.
Fallout 3 has whoever you let trigger Project Purity, at least without the add-ons. In the vanilla game, either you or Lyons can do it, and you can be assured that whoever walks in that room isn't ever getting out, dying from immense amounts of radioactivity in order to create a supply of clean water for the Capital Wasteland. Basically, you die so that everyone else doesn't. Broken Steel does change that though if you choose to do it.
The pre-Broken Steel awesomeness was somewhat hampered by the fact that it was partly (it wouldn't necessarily be an issue depending on who you had with you) achieved by having those of your companions who would not run a risk of dying refusing to do it for no good reason.
The Lone Wanderer's father, James, ends up performing a similar Heroic Sacrifice earlier during the Enclave's takeover the Project Purity, flooding the chamber with radiation in an attempt to take down Colonel Autumn and give their child and the other scientists a chance to escape. Unfortunately, Autumn ends up surviving, due to being Crazy-Prepared with some advanced Rad-X.
In Fate/EXTRA, either Rani VIII's Berserker or Rin's Lancer, depending on player actions: whichever one the player chooses will sacrifice their life in order to save their Master's, Lancer firing off one last one-liner and Berserker giving what the Player Character describes as a fatherly smile to Rani before they sacrifice themselves.
Archer gets one in the Fate route, being able to kill Berserker several times even though he was still exhausted from fighting Saber. He kills Berserker over and over again even without his Reality Marble.
Berserker himself gets one in the Unlimited Blade Works route, taking on Gilgamesh to defend Ilya, before being restrained by chains specifically fashioned to hold back godly beings and killed. When Gilgamesh then goes for Ilya, Berserker comes back once more and breaks the chains just so that his Master wouldn't die alone before finally dying himself. Ilya herself described it as her favorite scene in the omake.
Lancer's death in Unlimited Blade Works definitely counts. After he saves Tohsaka from being raped by Shinji, Kotomine suddenly appears and orders Lancer to kill Tohsaka. Lancer refuses, causing Kotomine to force Lancer to kill himself via Command Spell. However, before Kotomine is able to kill Tohsaka, a very much living Lancer stabs an unsuspecting Kotomine, killing him in the process. Shinji, thinking of both Kotomine and Lancer as dead, attempts to force himself on Tohsaha again, but Lancer reveals that he still hasn't died yet and scares Shinji off. Then he sets the room on fire and tells Tohsaka to go, which actually saves everyone from being killed by Gilgamesh (who leaves, since he doesn't want to get "dirtied by the ashes") a little later on.
Shirou gets two in Heaven's Feel. In the Sparks Liner High Bad End, he takes on and wins against Saber Alter by utilizing multiple copies of Kansho and Byakuya to perform a chain of simultaneous and ultimately unavoidable attacks, he then dies having earned Saber's respect and acknowledgment and having been able to give her one last goodbye. In the Normal End, Shirou survives the fight against Saber Alter (as Rider was there to help), and goes on to face Kotomine alone. Shirou's mind and body is steadily being corrupted by his 'own' power given from Archer, turning him physically and mentally into a sword (the player can hear the metal in his body grinding against its self with every step. He can feel it.) He and Kotomine fight fist to fist, both running on borrowed time. Kotomine finally expires before Shirou, who, having saved Sakura and done everything he set out to, just stops... but not before tracing Excalibur and destroying the Great Grail. Made even more impressive by the fact that Shirou actually died shortly after his fight against Kotomine but kept on going through sheer force of will even as his mind collapses and he starts forgetting who he is, he is still forcing himself forward.
Final Fantasy II has, like, three. First is Josef sacrificing himself to stop a boobytrapped boulder from crushing the party. Then there's Minwu giving his life to break the seal on the Ultima tome, and finally, Ricard attacks the Dark Emperor so the rest of the party can get away with their lives, sacrificing himself in the process. Concentrated Badass.
Final Fantasy IV: Tellah, driven by revenge, gives everything he has to take down Golbez in his final moments and casting the ultimate spell that fazes him. Said ultimate spell took him to him to his grave because, at his old age, he overtaxed himself or in-game speak... MP too low. (His max MP isn't even enough to cast the spell.) Golbez may not have died, but that spell hitting him left him so weak that he dropped his control over Kain AND made him beatable later in the game. Bravo, Tellah...
To give those who haven't played the game a better feel for it. Meteor (the last spell that Tellah casts) uses 99 MP. Tellah only has 90 MP. He casts it AFTER using Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga (all of which use 30 MP each) AND Bio (MP cost 20). MP too low indeed.
Necrophobe: Enough of this! Now die! *hits Gilgamesh with Flare for minimal damage* Gilgamesh: *snort* I believethat's MY line! *Self-destructs for 9999 damage*
In the Final Fantasy VII prequel Crisis Core, "Embrace your dreams... and whatever happens... protect your honor... AS SOLDIER!!" And at the end of the ensuing final stand, Zack, fatigued and battle-worn, falls to the remaining THREE troops of the ARMY that he just faced...
Final Fantasy XII Reddas at the Pharos. Face-to-face with the Sun-Cryst, the instrument by which the gods manipulate history and which (indirectly) led to the destruction of a country by his hands, which he believes to be his own Moral Event Horizon, he takes a crystal-cleaving god-blade and...
Reddas: I, Judge Magister, condemn thee to oblivion!
Final Fantasy XV: Noctis comes out of a ten year hibernation to find that the world has gone to hell with it being perpetual night and demons roaming the world. He and his friends make their way to Insomnia to fight Ardyn, though Ardyn stuns the other three since it's a one on one battle between kings. Noctis then sacrifices his life to not only destroy the Starscourge, but in the afterlife he destroys Ardyn once and for all in the process.
Eliwood's father Elbert in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. What's not awesome in severely wounding the same Big Bad who fatally injured you, drastically slowing his plans and being this close to get him done for, thus forcing the Big Bad to retreat while mumbling about how he almost kicked it?
The Avatar in Fire Emblem: Awakening. If the ending where they die is chosen, the Avatar will team up with their comrades to defeat Grima, but the Avatar sacrifices themself to prevent the fiend from resurrecting. And ultimately, they return to life and rejoin their comrades, but now fully free from Grima.
In Fire Emblem Fates, more exactly in the Conquest campaign, Prince Ryoma chooses an Heroic Suicidein the traditional manner rather than letting Garon force the Avatar to kill him and probably risk killing a reluctant Avatar if he or she resists.
Rodrik or Asher Forrester's final battle. Because of their sacrifice the other brother gets to survive and lead their house in the war to come. They manage to take down a significant amount of Whitehill soldiers on their own (some without a sword) and survive multiple stab wounds in their chest, only scumming to their wounds after a crossbow bolt to the neck.
Rodrik is an even greater example, considering he was still crippled a day ago and lives slightly longer than Asher.
Rodrik:Let me save your life, and our house.
Mira Forrester is a potential example of this trope. If you refuse to marry Lord Morgryn, he sentences you to death. Despite her death, she dies with honor as she kept her family name and saves Tom's life.
Mira:Iron From Ice!'
Both of Lady Elissa Forrester's deaths, she dies either sacrificing herself to kill Lord Whitehill or saving her son.
Royland/Duncan's death, they can die defending their lord and they go down in a blaze of glory fighting. Royland even goes down laughing.
This is subverted if your choices lead to either of them surviving.
In Gears of War 3, Dominic Santiago heroically sacrifices himself to save the rest of Delta Squad by crashing a truck into a massive fuel tank. This scene was particularly shocking and heartbreaking because not only was Dom a very likable character, but he was also the one character that nobody expected to die.
The ending of God of War III sees Athena demanding the power of Hope back from Kratos so she can use it to remake the world. In a last act of defiance, Kratos impales himself with the Blade of Olympus, releasing the power of Hope to all of mankind.
Jorge manually detonates a slipspace 'bomb' while aboard a captured Covenant Corvette, and the ensuing space-time rift destroys a massive Covenant Supercarrier, costing the Covenant a rare and powerful vessel and the (likely estimate) 100,000+ personnel aboard it. Then anotherCovenant fleet arrives.
Carter disposes of a Scarab blocking Six & Emile's path by ramming the badly damaged Pelican he's piloting into the walker. "You're on your own Noble. Carter out."
Emile gets impaled through the chest from behind by an Elite Zealot. Not missing a beat, he draws his huge-ass knife, spins around in the Elite's grip, and stabs the Elite in the neck with it, taking the Zealot down in his final act. "I'm ready! How about you?!"
Six fights off an impossibly large never-ending swarm of Covenant soldiers, reportedly taking down entire battalions of Covenant, eventually being taken down by an elite team of Elites, and managing to kill about half of them (and requiring the other half to literally pin Six to the ground before they can administer a killing blow) before succumbing.
Mission: Fall of Reach. Objective: Survive. Briefing: Spartans. Never. Die.
Kat gets shot by a sniper. Through and through, dead on arrival.
Six's predecessor grabbed a bomb from the wounded Kat, jumps into a Covenant battlecruiser with his jetpack and throws it into the troops assembling there seconds before detonation. Thus the "footsteps we rather not see filled."
Sagacious Zu in Jade Empire, taking down Death's Hand. And then the remains of his soul breaking Master Li's hold on your mind to allow your victory.
Killzone 2: after being shot in the chest at point blank three times and left for dead, Colonel Templar crawls to the command console and deactivates the New Sun's altitude control system, and laughs weakly to himself as the giant warship plummets into Tharsis Refinery, disabling Pyrrhus' advanced defence grid.
Towards the end of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], Sora learns the Awful Truth about Organization XIII, Roxas, and how he's not suppose to wield a Keyblade. And also, his heart is being consumed by darkness and is only minutes away from collapsing. He reassures to both Xemnas and Xigbar that he's still willing to fight for those who were chosen, and fights and defeats Xemnas, dying after the battle. Like with Axel, he's revived.
The King of Fighters: What turned Ash Crimson from The Scrappy to the contrary for a good part of the fandom is how, at the end of the Tales of Ash saga, his supposed Evil Plan was revealed to be a huge facade that covered his true Batman Gambit, which he deployed to protect his Only Friend Elisabeth... and finished with him willingly erasing himself from existence alongside his ancestor Saiki to do so. The fact that Ash also got to Face Deathwith Dignity sealed the deal.
Bill's death in Left 4 Dead. In the campaign The Sacrifice, the survivors are trying to get a boat to get out to sea and hopefully to an island somewhere the infection hasn't reached yet. In order to do so, they have to operate several generators in order to hoist the noisy drawbridge. In the process of doing so, one of the generators powers down, leaving the drawbridge shut, and the survivors exposed. Louis begins to volunteer to be the one to go back to turn it back on, as he had a busted leg (canonically at least, gameplay wise it doesn't matter who), but before he does Bill goes back a guns a blazing. He manages to get the generator fixed, but is trapped in the generator room by no fewer than THREE Tanks. Because you need that many tanks to take out someone like Bill.
In the online comic, we are treated to a dying Bill slumped against the generator in a pool of his own blood as the three Tanks enter the room. His response? Light another cigarette, and announce "Hold yer horses...I'll be with ya in a minute."
Usually Ganondorf in every Zelda game he's been in has a profound effect. Most notable are his death scenes in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, where Link impales his forehead with the Master Sword, he says his final line, then turns to stone. And The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, where Link stabs him through the torso where the Sage's Sword had impaled him, Ganondorf stands back up, then dies on his feet after finding out Zant died, Master Sword stuck straight through him.
Also Mikau from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, who is mortally wounded and lying on the beach. He asks Link if he will hear his last message. After Link agrees to this, Mikau jumps up and rocks out while singing his last song, then falls back down and dies.
Stern and Levi of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny. As the already immense power of the Nigh-Invulnerable Unbreakable Darkness continues to increase, Stern realizes that the only way to stop the Eldritch Abomination is to devise a way to stop her growth. She then volunteers herself for the Suicide Mission despite knowing that the Unbreakable Darkness could destroy her system to the point where even her regeneration program couldn't save her, and binds her Lord Dearche and fellow minion Levi to make sure that they don't try to take her place. However, her binds prove to not be strong enough to stop Levi from brute forcing her way out, and Levi convinces her to let her join the suicide mission since there'd be a better chance against the Unbreakable Darkness with the two of them. As expected, the two go down fighting the Unbreakable Darkness, but not before they manage to seal the Unbreakable Darkness' Healing Factor and hand over the last of their powers to Lord Dearche with their dying breath, paving a path to victory for the rest of their allies. They do get better in the end though.
Whoever gets sacrificed on Virmire in Mass Effect gets this. Anybody who dies on the suicide mission, including Shepard himself in the non-canon bad ending in Mass Effect 2 gets this as well, unless they died on the Normandy.
Commander Shepard's death at the start of Mass Effect 2 counts as well, their last act is to save Joker, even though Shepard is fairly sure they're about to die. Don't worry, Shepard gets better.
All through Mass Effect 3 you receive messages about minor characters from the past pulling these off, going down fighting to the end, saving others. Particularly people rescued through Paragon choices.
In Mass Effect 3, Thane Krios takes on Cerberus assassin Kai Leng and takes a sword through the gut while preventing Leng from killing the salarian councilor. The fight is badass enough to qualify on its own — but Thane pulls it off in spite of the fact that he has a terminal illness that interferes with his ability to breathe, and was given three months to live nine months ago.
Thane also asks Shepard to tell the assassin that he should be ashamed at having been prevented from killing his target by a terminally ill opponent.
Also Mordin Solus, who calmly sings to his Karmic Death or crawls, bleeding, toward it after Shepard betrays him. All to save a race that wanted him dead.
Also Lieutenant Tarquin Victus, who rips the detonation charge out of a massive bomb and is either crushed or killed when the charge explodes.
Also, Rila, one of Samara's daughters. Fighting off Indoctrination and a horde of Banshees (Husks of Ardat-Yakshi Asari), she survives being impaled through the chest by one long enough to set off the huge bomb that's right behind her, obliterating the Banshees.
Also, Legion, who willingly sacrifices himself to give the Geth true sentience.
And lastly, Shepard themself. Having barely survived a direct attack from a Reaper, Shepard continues fighting their way to the Crucible, ultimately confronting the intelligence controlling the Reapers and putting an end to the cycle once and for all before dying. Played the most straight in the Synthesis Ending, where Shepard performs a Heroic Sacrifice to bring about The Singularity and unite the galaxy in a new form of life. Potentially subverted however in the Destroy Ending, as with certain conditions fulfilled, Shepard is shown to survive the explosion on the Citadel. The Control Ending likewise has Shepard's essence survive as the new controlling intelligence of the Reapers, benevolent or otherwise.
All of Zero's various Heroic Sacrifices throughout the Mega Man X and Zero series qualifies, particularly the last one. Going out in a literal blaze of glory, taking a villain of the highest order with him, leaving behind a legacy of humans and Reploids working together for a more peaceful world. Said peace wouldn't have even come into fruition if the humans didn't see firsthand Zero's selfless acts throughout the series (up to and including the aforementioned Heroic Sacrifice). It's Zero, for crying out loud. They have to make his death one of the highlights of his life/lives.
In Metal Gear Solid, in the middle of the battle against Metal Gear Rex (piloted by Liquid Snake), the cybernetic ninja Gray Fox leaps into the action and attempts to destroy Rex's radome. At one point he is pinned down by Rex with an arm sliced off, and Liquid taunts Gray Fox by remarking that "in the middle east, we don't hunt foxes, we hunt jackals". Despite his predicament, he still has the strength to lift his one remaining arm and shoot at Rex's radome while proclaiming "A cornered fox is more dangerous than a jackal!" This destroys the radome, and before being crushed to death, he turns to Snake and delivers one final message to his former friend/foe:
Gray Fox: Snake, we're not tools of the government, or anyone else! Fighting was the only thing, the ONLY thing I was good at. But, at least I always fought for what I believed in. Snake, farewell...
Subverted in Modern Warfare 2. Soap is stabbed in the chest, which puts him out of action while the Big Bad beats up Captain Price. Then Soap yanks the knife out of his own chest and chucks it into the Big Bad 's eye. The subversion is that he's still alive when he's loaded into the chopper at the end of the game.
Though, at first, it seems that way. After Soap sends Shepherd to hell using an Eye Scream technique, his arms just drop as his vision steadily fades away. And just at the last second, when it seems Soap's gonna lose consciousness, Price comes to and it able to start patching Soap up.
Played straight in Modern Warfare 3 when Yuri, though already impaled on a steel beam earlier, charges in guns-blazing to stall Makarov long enough for Price to recover and kill him.
Mother 3: The exhausted Barrier Trio struck one final Barrier Pose! It was spectacular.
And this is just the end of it. When the Barrier Trio loses all of their health, they charge up an attack. Next turn, they use PK Starstorm, the strongest attack an enemy can use, for the first time in the game. They try to do it again, but they're too weak. Then, they flash the last pose spectacularly and finally die.
Shandra Jerro's impressive death two thirds of the way through Neverwinter Nights 2. Seeing the whiny farmgirl teleporting around freeing her grandfather's collection of bound demons before being taken down was quite satisfying.
Not for Broadcast: In Day 296: The Heatwave, if you don't cut to the ads after playing the Disrupt tape, Jeremy Donaldson, still holding a pistol in his hand, feels a bit depressed that he doesn't want to work for the news under Advance anymore; he pulls the pistol up a few inches close to his head, apologizing to the newscast for letting them down, then says these last words before putting the pistol an inch closer to his head, shuts his eyes in a brave sense of calm, and pulls the trigger.
Jeremy:[calmly] My name's Jeremy Donaldson. If you can... somehow... [looks at the camera] and I envy you if you can... [puts the pistol even closer to his head]Have apeaceful night.
Takeharu Kirijo of Persona 3 gets one in the PSP remake. After Ikutsuki shoots him, leaving him fatally wounded, Takeharu pulls out a gun of his own and fires back at Ikutsuki. (In the other versions of the game, Koromaru attacks Shuji, which is awesome in its own right, but it's not a DMOA.)
Shinjiro — already suffering one gunshot wound — steps in front of a bullet aimed for Ken, shakes off everyone as they crowd around him, and then stumbles forward, saying, "This is how it should be."
The Protagonist him/herself, transforming his/her own life into the Great Seal that will seal Nyx, the universal embodiment of Death itself, away once more. And managing to hold on for the next two months to Graduation Day on the sheer strength of a promise made to his/her friends.
Planescape: Torment has this regardless of which way the player ends the game. The Nameless One is determined to either destroy or reclaim his mortality, even though the former means instant death and the latter means death fairly shortly, as centuries of life suddenly catch up to him. He also knows that death means an eternity in Hell. So does he back down and remain immortal? No, he either destroys his very mortality in a battle of Physical Gods or he overwhelms the being of superhuman intelligence and wisdom with logic and force of will and pulls it back into himself.
This also applies to the Nameless One's companions who travel with him to the Fortress of Regrets. Upon arrival, they are separated and flung across the massive fortress, where each one is approached by The Transcendant One and offered the choice to abandon their companion and go home or die. Each of them chooses to fight, and though they accomplish nothing, they put up a struggle.
Dak'kon. The others are each faced with The Transcendant One alone, but Dak'kon is surrounded by at least half a dozen massive undead horrors, and he still calmly elects to fight the bastard and all of his goons.
Fall-From-Grace likely takes the cake. Not only does she calmly verbally spar with him, completely unafraid, she also is the only one of your companions to actually hurt the Transcendant One before she bites it. And this is from your healer.
Nodrom challenges the Transcentdant One knowing full well that his chances of winning are slim. Not bad for an apparently soulless construct.
Red Dead Redemption: John Marston knows that there are thirty-five men outside his barn with guns. He also knows that he has to die to save his family. His pistol holds fifteen rounds — sixteen men (if the player is quick enough that is), counting John, die.
And in Red Dead Redemption 2, Arthur Morgan's last stand against the treacherous rat Micah Bell. It's made clear that if Arthur wasn't dying of late-stage tuberculosis and badly injured, Micah would have folded quicker than Superman on laundry day. And if Arthur has high Honour, he succumbs to his tuberculosis while watching the sunrise one last time, dying a redeemed man.
An off-screen one happens in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, when you come across the aftermath of a battle in the Incineration Disposal Plant. The T-103 tyrant you ran into in the previous game was already troubling to fight on your own, but you'll find the corpses of three of them with the bodies of an entire Delta Force team that killed them all with a combination of desperation and the power of More Dakka.
Return Of The Obra Dinn: Winston Smith is badly injured by a crab rider, but grabs a hand mortar and, with a scream of "Is that all?!", blows it to Hell before succumbing from his wounds. The game actually refers to him as "a brave but unfortunate soul", the only time it uses those words, before he's identified.
Every Colossi's death in Shadow of the Colossus, and arguably Dormin's, if you consider Them truly vanquished.
Also, technically Wander's death, since even though he is put down in a quick and one-sided fight, he doesn't give up and keeps struggling forward until he physically can't go on anymore. (That said, he is either Back from the Dead or Reincarnated by the end of the game.)
Shadow the Hedgehog at the end of Sonic Adventure 2. After preventing a Space Colony from crashing into the Earth with the assistance of Super Sonic, Super Shadow ended up draining his power too quickly, fell to Earth, and supposedly burned to death in the atmosphere, wondering if he had fulfilled the promise he made to his dead best friend: To give the people of Earth a chance to be happy.
However, this didn't stop him from coming back to life in the next game, having been resurrected by popularity.
Also, arguably the Overmind itself, which was tainted with an overriding directive to destroy the Protoss, and, after creating a replacement and keeping her safely occupied, made its own death (which would free the Zerg from the pesky directive) possible by manifesting in physical form on Aiur before its "enemies" were completely defeated. It could've worked better, but also a lot worse.
In the Bad Future shown in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, the entire Protoss race goes down in a spectacular Last Stand against Amon's Hybrids and their mind-controlled Zerg. They manage to make casualties in the thousands before they are all killed.
In Legacy of the Void, Zeratul dies in a duel with an Amon-possessedArtanis, but manages during the fight to severe Artanis' nerve cords, freeing him from the possession in the process.
K'Valk in Star Trek Online really goes out in a blaze of glory. Seeking to redeem himself for a failed mutiny in trying to stop B'Vat's mad scheme to continue the Federation/Klingon War, he hops into a shuttlecraft and sends it into the mouth of the Doomsday Machine, singing a Klingon War Song the entire way.
In the Jedi Knight storyline on Voss, the player encounters a character named Tala-Reh, who helps them with their adventures on the planet. At the end of the last story mission on that planet, Tala-Reh sacrifices herself — on orders of the mystic Valen-Da and knowing full well that it would kill her — to defeat Sel-Makor, the being that had corrupted much of Voss and engineered a war to increase its own power. If the Knight chooses the Light Side option and doesn't join Sel-Makor, the last thing you see of Tala-Reh is her marching into the tentacled orifice of Sel-Makor.
Later, on the Imperial Side of the Makeb storyline, during the Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion of, we get Lord Cytharat and Katha Niar, the two leaders of the Imperial Strike Team the player character joins. Lord Cytharat dies dropping an actual volcano on himself and the droids threatening to overrun his position, while Katha is captured by the enemy, she is tortured to the point of near death before giving up any information. She then manages to half-drag herself to the room where the player has just defeated the boss and suggests ripping the planet apart to eliminate the remaining enemies.
Lord Cytharat: My men are dead. I am alone against many... but I know my duty. Lowering the heat shield.
Player: Try to get to safety. We’ll rendezvous on the upper levels.
Lord Cytharat: No, we will not. But I thank you.
Even later still, we have Darth Marr in Chapter 2 of the Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion who, after being captured by the Sith Emperor, who has taken on a new identity as Valkorion to rule over Zakuul, refuses to submit, instead using the force to throw one guard off the unnecessarily high platform, taking his force pike and proceeding to skewer 3 enemies on it, throwing another guard over the edge before finally being Force Lightning-ed by Valkorion and collapsing.
Darth Marr: It is you who fear death, 'Valkorion'. I do not. I will not kneel.
Even if he is the Big Bad of the game (and a true bastard to boot) Luca Blight's demise in Suikoden II in which he battles practically your entire army almost single-handedly while covered with arrows and finally dueling the main character after all of this. Then he rubs it in your face with a Badass Boast.
Second Royal Consort Rizwan, the head of the Janam Arcane Academy. When The Order uses their plan to wipe out Janam using a world fusion, Rizwan uses the Chronicle to attempt to stop it. She manages to save the southern port town of Salsabil, as well as Prince Shams, who was visiting there at the time. She also manages to keep the city of El-Qaral intact.
Later, Dirk manages to do the same thing by using two Chronicles at once, one of which had already been expended in such a fashion, and should have been normally impossible.
Asch's death in Tales of the Abyss gets its own little video. Unarmed at first, he manages to fight off dozens of soldiers but then ends up stabbed in the back. The sword goes through him, another three swords get stabbed through his body. He kills the last remaining soldiers, remains standing and pulls one of the swords out before his strength leaves him and he falls to the ground.
This is what happens in the true ending to Tales of Xillia 2 as Ludger sacrifices himself so not only do the fractured worlds stop appearing, but also so Elle, who is his daughter in another one of those worlds, can live without becoming a divergence catalyst.
Undertale has four, if the player goes the Genocide route. First there is Papyrus who defiantly says that they truly believe the player can be good if they try, then the player meets Undyne who dies, comes back thrice as strong and dies because her body gives out (not because of the player) while showing a big grin as she announces that thanks to her, the other monsters will have escaped. Then the player meets Mettaton, who shows an impressive form, but is extremely weak. He is this nonetheless, because he fought DESPITE knowing he will instantly die. And if the player didn't exhaust the kill counter, he declares it a win for himself since the player can't be as bloodthirsty as they seemed. And then there is Sans, who gives the player the most brutal beat down ever and when he gets fatally hit, he simply shrugs it off and walks off-screen so that the player can't even gloat in his face as he dies.
Selvaria blowing herself up along with a whole freaking city and most of Gallia's main army in Valkyria Chronicles is a villainous example.
His rescue of Ben is pretty amazing as well. Ben's indirectly responsible for both the suicide of Kenny's wife and the death of Kenny's son from a zombie bite. For much of Episodes 4 and 5, Ben is the target of Kenny's wrath. But when Ben falls from a balcony and finds himself impaled by some of the mangled metal, what does Kenny do? He rushed to help the kid, locking the gate behind him so that Lee can't rush in.. Walkers are closing in from both sides of the alleyway he and Ben are in. Kenny fights them off with pistol whips and punches saving his last bullet for Ben to prevent the kid from being bitten and reanimated. His resolve is amazing. He doesn't even give Lee a chance to dissuade him from his actions.
'Kenny: This is NOT up for discussion!
Episode 5 is one big one for Lee. After being bitten at the end of Episode 4, he spends the last hours of his life going on a Roaring Rampage of Rescue to save Clementine, managing to get her out of Savannah and leaving her with some final advice on how to survive without him. Extra points if you decide to go ahead with the option to have his arm amputated, making him a Handicapped Badass.
Grom Hellscream in Warcraft III has one of the most epic deaths of any major character in the game. To save his clan from their demonic bloodlust and free them from Mannoroth's control, he and Thrall track down the demon. Grom's axe splits the demon's armour and chest in half, killing him in a burst of flame.
Grom: "Thrall... the blood haze has lifted... the demon's fire has burnt out in my veins. I... have... freed...myself..." Thrall: "No, old friend...you've freed us all."
Thus proving that Grom Hellscream was such an ultimate badass that the following statement was coined: "The only thing badass enough to kill Grom Hellscream was, in fact, killed by Grom Hellscream."
Wild ARMs 4 has Gawn go down destroying a missile barrage while keeping himself aloft in the air with a pair of handguns, and after he runs out of ammo he takes down the last one by punching it. He follows this up by somehow giving a last speech before the detention destroys him. The laws of physics may weep at that scene, but it's still a way to go out.
First, Vesemir in the Battle of Kaer Morhen. General Imlerith of the Wild Hunt is holding him in a Neck Lift and Eredin is trying to force Ciri to surrender to spare his life, so what does Vesemir do? Stab Imlerith to the side with his knife, earning a quick Neck Snap and robbing Eredin of his bargaining chip.
The second is Crach an Craite in the final battle at Skellige. A normal man, alone and mortally wounded, all his men dead around him, he stands unintimidated against the King of the Wild Hunt, himself.
Eredin: Any last words? Crach: Shut your trap...and fight!
Kalkstein the Alchemist suffers an off-screen example, according to Elihal. Knowing that King Radovid's witch hunters were going to have him burned at the stake, he filled the pockets of his robes with alchemical substances, which caused the pyre to transform into dancing magical beasts. The beasts then rose into the air and transformed into letters spelling out anti-Radovid obscenities.
The back-story part of the manual for Wolfenstein 3-D says that you will either have a great story (about escaping Nazi prison) for your grandkids, or go out in a blaze of glory.
One off-screen moment of this can be seen at the start of the game, when the Nazis are overrunning the hospital and killing all within. You can find slumped up against the wall, the dead body of a nurse with a shotgun at her side. A few feet away opposite her lies a dead Nazi stormtrooper, sans head.
The timeline-determinate Kreisau Circle members have one each among them in the endgame. In the Fergus timeline, Teklaresigns herself to her fate and takes out several Nazis (in addition to a few before B.J. finds her) before the Nazis get her. Meanwhile, in the Wyatt timeline, J makes a defiant last statement by cranking his amp up and blaring out Star-Spangled Banner for all of Berlin to hear.
World of Warcraft has two in Warlords of Draenor in the finales of Frostfire Ridge and Shadowmoon Valley.
The Draenei leader, Velen, releases an enormous burst of Holy magic, purifying the Naaru Ka'ra from its void state, and the light that didn't purify the Naaru washed over the valley and empowers the draenei fighting the Iron Horde.
Ga'nar of the Frostwolves, who was stated to be one of their greatest warriors, proves he is indeed, when he charges into an enemy army, armed only with a pair of axes, and holds them off by himself long enough for Drek'thar to collapse the pass on top of them and himself. As the rocks fall, Ga'nar screams "Lok'tar!" (Victory)
In the Broken Shores scenario which serves as a prologue to the Legion expansion, the battle with the Burning Legion turns against the Alliance and the Horde, forcing both to retreat. The airship being used by the Alliance forces is grabbed by a fel reaver preventing their escape. Varian, hanging over the side on a rope ladder while Genn Greymane tries to get him aboard, instead passes Genn a letter he had written, asks it be given to his son, then leaps from the ship and plunges into the reaver. He effectively cracks its head in two strikes, secures the Alliance gunship's escape, then fights demons until he's overwhelmed. Finally, when Gul'dan tries to gloat that Varian's sacrifice was senseless, Varian gets in one final word before Gul'dan kills him with demonic fire.
Gul'dan: You will be remembered, as the king who sacrificed his life for nothing. Varian: For the Alliance!
In Shadowlands, while he was already dead after being killed by Thrall, Garrosh Hellscream gets one at the end of the Soulrender Dormazain encounter in the Sanctum of Domination: he declares that despite the venthyr's attempts to absolve him of his sins in life, he feels no remorse for everything he did in the name of the Horde and would gladly do it all over again. He then picks up Dormazain's sword and leaps at him while yelling "For the Horde!", ending in them both Deader than Dead and naught but a pile of ash behind.
In Xenoblade Chronicles 1, Egil puts his differences aside with Shulk and goes down fighting against Zanza, both of them controlling the Mechonis and Bionis.
Egil: I'LL SHOW YOU THE MEANING OF WRATH!
Before that, Gadolt saves Shulk and company from the transforming Mechonis by deflecting a laser beam using his Jade Face mech. He dies with one parting word, "Believe!".
In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Jin dies by using the last of his artificially shortened lifespan to kill his nemesis Amalthus, who would have collapsed the World Tree otherwise.
In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Ethel and Cammuravi, two lifelong rival commanders from opposite sides of the Forever War, are given implants so the Consuls can control their actions and set loose upon the party. But as the fight goes on, their conviction to fight one another overcomes the Consuls' influence, and Cammuravi eventually stabs his own eye out, destroying the implant and prompting Ethel to do the same. They fight one last battle and die at the same time, fulfilling their last wishes. The party later comments that while their priorities were misplaced, they did something heroic with the short time left to them.
says it all. Specific examples include: