Video games where playable character dies

For example, three words Red Dead Redemption. John is replaced by his son, Jack, after he dies.

Chrono Trigger. You can bring him back, but it's optional.

Does Persona 2: Innocent Sin count? You have 6 (one later leaves for another member) party members, and at the end of the game, Maya Amano, one of them, dies.

Lufia 2. Both the main character and his wife die. Not spoilered because...really...if you've played ten minutes of the first game you know. In fact you get to play him before he dies! If you've watched the introduction video of the third you know. 4 tells you it. 5 is just a remake of 2 so you get to see the death again. 2 is...well...the story of this dude. Who dies.

Maxim's death isn't a secret in any form...But he dies. Along with his wife.

In 1 and 3 other members of the cast die. This other member is something more of a shock though since it's not openly broadcasted in every entry of the series. Lufia from 1 and Seena from 3 both bite the big one and they're also the Sinistral of Death Erim who you've been hunting for in addition to Gades, Amon, and Daos. Lufia does come back to life though...I forget if Seena does. Though seeing as she actually went out of her way to find you for the sole purpose of having you kill her...

Death is quite the thing in that series. 1 sees the death of another character from 2/5 as well but he's never on your team in 1.

Also Fire Emblem 4. The entire cast dies in the beginning of the game. The whole cast. You play as their kids through the rest of the game.

edited 1st Jul '11 6:42:13 PM by Aondeug

The Mass Effect main games and Fallout 3 have this as an optional ending. Bioshock 2 kills off your character (in a sense) in all endings. Seems to be an increasingly common trend in games these days. True Art Is Angsty?

Does the death have to be during the game, or can it be at the start or end?

Does it count if it's only in the ending? The original example gave me the impression that we were talking about Decoy Protagonists.

Yume Nikki. Also she kills herself by jumping off her apartment's balcony.

Aerith dies.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Persona 3 yet.

In The Darkness you die twice.

Other people... Galuf from FF 5, Nei from Phantasy Star 2, and Alys of Phantasy Star 4.

Phantasy Star 3 kills off your characters many times due to you playing through multiple generations in the game. They typically die of old age. Some might not. I can't remember. The only two who never die are the androids Miau and Wren. There's also a few different parties you can end up with because of this. However it really doesn't matter since everyone has the personality of your average shoe box and the endings are meh at best. Then again it was 1991 so PS3 was really just very ambitious I suppose.

edited 1st Jul '11 6:47:14 PM by Aondeug

Shepard does at the start of Mass Effect 2.

He gets better.

I can't believe we got this far without mentioning Modern Warfare. Multiple playable characters die in each game.

Doe anyone know inFamous 2 where Cole dies in the good (and canon) ending? Well, I wish Prototype 2 would have this.

OH FUCK

WHY DID I READ THAT

I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE RELATED TO PROTOTYPE ONE

FUCK

I DONT READ SPOILERS SO I DONT KNOW WHAT THE HELL ANYONE IS TALKING ABOUT :(

Eternal Darkness, I didn't spoil anything did I?

Beat me to it. It's shorter to list the playable characters that DON'T die. And one that you really, really wish could.

Persona 3 counts?

Ghost Trick has the playable character dead before the game even starts!

Really?

22 posts in and NO ONE has mentioned FUCKING PLANESCAPE!?

Sonic The Hedgehog 2006: The Last Story has Sonic die via impalement by Mephiles. Following The End of the World, however, he was revived by the Chaos Emeralds, just in time to battle the now-godlike Mephiles.

Obscure and Obscure 2 have player characters die. In the former, the player characters will only die due to the player's fault. You can only get a game over in a total party kill. However, in the latter, once Jun dies, it all goes downhill, as only two characters from the original game survive, with six of the player characters dying.

Tactics Ogre. Every single recruitable character can die.