Living Is More than Surviving as expressed in Video Games.
- Chrono Trigger sees Ayla deliver a What the Hell, Hero? Patrick Stewart Speech where the point is this trope. Depending on the translation, this trope may be literal.Elder, yous not alive. Just not dead. (Japanese fan translation by KWhazit)
Old man breathe, but dead [on] inside. (Official English translation)note - One of Cthulhu Saves the World's many pamphlet shelves contains "Zombie Thrival Guide", which will, supposedly (you can't read it, it's only advertised), tell you how to thrive during a Zombie Apocalypse instead of merely surviving it.
- This is at the very heart of Panam Palmer's conflict with Saul Bright during Panam's questline in Cyberpunk 2077. Saul makes decisions that keep the Aldecaldos alive, but at the cost of slowly, but surely handing over power to the Wraiths and corps like Biotechnica. Panam wants to take these enemies apart so that the clan can thrive, rather than just survive.
- Wynn says as much in Dragon Age: Origins. As old as she may be, she'd rather be out fighting the Blight, making as good a use of her limited time as possible. Laying down under some sheets and waiting for death is beneath her.
- In Endless Legend, the leader of the Broken Lords - an empire of knights that was forced to bind their souls to Animated Armor to survive Auriga's collapsing climate - proclaims that 'survival' is not the same as 'life' in their introduction video. The Broken Lords soon found out that in their new bodies, they had to drain energy from living creatures to replenish themselves, an act that was a complete betrayal of their knightly vows. Part of their faction quest involves finding a way to cure themselves of their affliction.
- Fallout 3: This is one of the things President Eden states as he announces Project Purity. After describing how nearly all water is contaminated and people have to use makeshift purifiers to clean tiny amounts of water at a time...President Eden: But that's not really living, is it? You're simply existing, America, postponing death for a day or two. Well, I'm gonna tell you, right here, right now, those days are at an end!
- In Fate/Grand Order, this is the societal flaw which caused the Russian Lostbelt to become a pruned timeline. After having been transformed to survive the new ice age, the Yaga have lost all reason for living beyond simple survival, and that makes them a failure as a continuation of mankind. This makes it all the more poignant when Salieri performs "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" as the Lostbelt fades into oblivion; the Yaga, who had lost the ability to create new culture, are more entranced by a children song than the shattered sky above their heads.
- One of the crafter side stories for Shadowbringers in Final Fantasy XIV involve Thiuna, a young woman whose figurative brother, Owell, is constantly putting her down for wasting time and resources on restoring items with sentimental values instead of making things that can help people better their lives and not worry about dying from the cold and starvation. Because the world is under threat from primordial light, Owell is in the mindset of "work to live another day". Thiuna reminds him that people need joy in their lives, something they can look forward to instead of just living to survive.
- In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, Marz and Nomi are bored with just trying to survive on Vertumna and believe that there should be entertainment facilities, so that colonists who aspire to have creative jobs can make their life worth living on the hostile alien planet.
- Discussed in The Last of Us. Joel remarks to Ellie at one point that you can't just survive in the hope that things will eventually get better; you need a reason to keep fighting and living.Joel: I struggled for a long time with survivin', and no matter what, you keep finding something to fight for.
- In Mass Effect 3, this is essentially the basis of Paragon Shepard's life lessons to EDI, as she tries to learn what it means to be alive. They also have a similar discussion with Javik toward the end of the game.
- In Mirror's Edge this trope is one of the most important issues in the game. It exposes the opposing viewpoints between Celeste and Faith. The two have a heart-to-heart about their dystopian society. Celeste complains that she is tired of surviving instead of living; runners deliver messages to stick it to the man, but they must dodge bullets and navigate dangerous routes every step of the way. The antithesis of runners are the people living in the city. They ignore or are oblivious to the oppressive society they live in, and are comfortable with their lack of control and privacy.
- Persona
- This notion is a central theme of Persona 3. The main characters get faced with imminent death and are offered the choice to forget the knowledge of their impending doom and live the time that remains blissfully ignorant. Reaching the true ending necessitates refusing that choice and confronting death head-on, invoking this trope. The PSP rerelease's intro cutscene even features a quote echoing that very sentiment.Living is not breathing, but doing.
- In Persona 4, exploring Yosuke's social link explores his feeling on coming to Junes as well as his feelings for Saki, despite her disdain for him and his family for Junes' presence in Yasoinaba, which was ruining local businesses. Initially, he was pretty upset at having to move to a small town and in the six months before the protagonist arrived, he did not make many friends (really only Chie at most.) As time passes in the story (and through more interactions with Yosuke on his social link), Yosuke has come to enjoy being Inaba, namely because he has found a group of friends and wants to improve and grow as a person. He had gone from resenting being in the small town to becoming actively involved in taking care of the people. This is reflected in that by the end of the game, the townsfolk have gone from resenting the presence of Junes to working alongside them and even expanding the opportunities brought by them.
- Persona 5 has this idea as the core lyrics of several of the key songs of the game, befitting it's story of a group of teenagers being faced with the injustice of the society they live in, and deciding to try and make a difference so that no one has to go though the ordeal they went through, and pointing out that nothing will change as long as everyone keeps simply going on about their lives as is.Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There: If you hold on, life won't change!
Life Will Change: Can't hold on or life won't change!
- This notion is a central theme of Persona 3. The main characters get faced with imminent death and are offered the choice to forget the knowledge of their impending doom and live the time that remains blissfully ignorant. Reaching the true ending necessitates refusing that choice and confronting death head-on, invoking this trope. The PSP rerelease's intro cutscene even features a quote echoing that very sentiment.
- Red Dead Redemption 2 comes up repeatedly as one of Dutch's philosophies that he teaches the rest of his gang. Subverted, however, as the various bad decisions he makes forces the gang into one survival situation after the next, and the ambiguity over whether the pressure causes Dutch to become a narcissistic madman or simply prevents him from hiding that he's always been one throws this philosophy into question. It is clear, however, that certain members of the gang believe it wholeheartedly at the start of the game.
- Starcraft I: James Raynor joins the Protoss in the final battle against the Overmind because the Zerg took everything from him and "I'll be damned if I just sit on my hands and wait for the end".
- The Walking Dead: Season Four: Clementine can potentially have a conversation with Violet about this. Both them went through a period where they distanced themselves from other people for the sake of survival and avoiding the pain of further loss (Clementine when she thought AJ was dead, and Violet when her girlfriend was lost). But this only made them miserable, with Violet even questioning "why" they fought so hard to stay alive.
