History FateWorseThanDeath / VideoGames

-->'''[=GLaDOS=]''': You know the biggest lesson I learned from what you did? I discovered I have a sort of black box quicksave feature. In the event of a catastrophic failure, the last two minutes of my life are preserved forever for analysis. I was able -- well, forced really -- ''to relive you killing me again and again''. '''''Forever.'''''

-->'''[=GLaDOS=]''': Don't disappoint me... or I'll make you ''wish'' you could die.

--> '''Neenah:''' You shoot someone in the face, they're dead. You fuck with their car, they're nothing.

-->"I will not slay you. From now and forever, no matter how much you entreat me, how pitifully you lament, you shall not die!"
-->"I grant you the rights accorded to an enemy of the gods: You will live from now and forever, in an endless cycle of rebirth, condemned in each life to be hated, feared, scorned, punished and obliterated!"

** A scribbled note in ''[=StarCraft=] Field Manual: Infantry Edition'' has this to say about an Infestor:

* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'': [[TheVirus Zerg infestation]] usually alters your mind into conformity with the collective will of the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Swarm]] and its [[HiveMind Overmind]]. However, ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'' shows that this is not always the case. Some infestees end up ''fully aware'' of their miserable condition, and only have enough control over their bodies to ''beg'' other people to kill them. [[spoiler: Sarah Kerrigan is only one that, while still infested, still has control over herself, and eventually the '''entire Zerg Swarm'''.]] [[spoiler: Until she passed the title and control of them over to Zagara willingly after becoming a Xel'naga.]]

** All three protagonists of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' get their own tailor-made Fate Worse Than Death. Ventus arguably gets the most merciful one, [[spoiler:falling in a coma and being hidden in a secret room of Castle Oblivion]]. Terra is [[spoiler:[[GrandTheftMe possessed by Xehanort]], with what remains of his will being turned into a Guardian that has its mouth stitched shut]]. And Aqua [[spoiler:is trapped in the Dark World, where she is forced to constantly battle Heartless and eventually succumbs to the darkness]]. None of them are rescued until ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', which takes place more than a decade later. Not for nothing does the ending drive ''MickeyMouse'' into a HeroicBSOD for his failure to save them.

* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'': [[TheVirus Zerg infestation]] usually alters your mind into conformity with the collective will of the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Swarm]] and its [[HiveMind Overmind]]. However, ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'' shows that this is not always the case. Some infestees end up ''fully aware'' of their miserable condition, and only have enough control over their bodies to ''beg'' other people to kill them. [[spoiler: Sarah Kerrigan is only one that, while still "zergified", still has her own control over herself, and eventually the '''entire Zerg swarm'''.]] [[spoiler: Until she passed the title and control of them over to Zagara willingly after becoming a Xel'naga.]]

** In the reboot, ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2022'', Los Panteros take great pride in their cars, and spend most of their time working on it. As such, destroying their ride is treated as a worse punishment than simply killing them. In the mission "Neenah's Car", Sergio tries to do this to Neenah, and you "torture" a Pantero by editing his car through the customization menu.

* ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV'': [[AllHereInTheManual The official artbook]] gives us the backstory of the [[InmortalityBreaker Dragonslayer sword]]: It's the result of the first attempt of TheEmpire to summon an [[PhysicalGod Endless]] and they botched it to the point all they got was a ''screaming, undying severed head''. [[MadScientist Lord Yuna]], however, saw a perfect opportunity to expand his knowledge of the Endless and decided to dissect it. Once he got all the information he wanted from it, he smashed it to pieces and forged the sword with the remains. The worst part? ''It's still alive''. Driven insane from agony and hate, the weapon still wants to have its full body back and tries to do so by sucking the soul of any gods it injures.

** Socorro asked for the prisoners to be freed from their suffering, even if it means taking it upon herself. The Miracle assented, but thanks to Cvstodia's MartyrdomCulture, it translates what would've been a kindly wish into a endless torture that she could never escape from, thus becoming the Lady of the Perpetual Agony.

** riven by dreams of the Miracle, the person who was once Ten Piedad took his rest in the arms of the statue seen in the boss area. The Miracle appeared to him one more time, more vividly than before, and when he woke up, his body had transformed into a monster, constantly filled with rage and pain, and he no longer had control over it. In a twisted sort of way, for a boss whose name in Spanish means "Have Mercy", [[JustForPun killing him is an act of mercy]].

* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', [[spoiler:the Joker doesn't seem to mind being dead, and he not only considers death more lively than being alive in the first place but also writes off his body, which had been reduced to ash, as something he'd long outgrown. What he ''does'' mind, however, is being completely forgotten, even by his colleagues in Batman's Rogues Gallery and the Batman himself.]]

** It's implied in Chapter 4 that the [[spoiler: ink people passively standing around or crying in corners]] are [[spoiler: former employees of the company]], transformed by the machine and forced to remain in the studio forever.
** Also in Chapter 4, there's [[spoiler: Bertrum Piedmont]] inside Bendy Land. [[spoiler: He's been fused with a ride that's rooted to the spot and has gone insane. And then, Henry destroys his ''only'' point in mobility during the boss fight by chopping off the ride's mechanical arms.]] There's no indication this killed him.

* ''VideoGame/CorpseParty'' is a variation as everyone ''is'' dead and it is more a case of "How to make death ''way'' more agonizing?". The solution to that question is to make one forever feel the pain of their death, if they died in that school. And not only do a lot of people die in the games, some die in absolutely horrible ways. And to rub salt into the wound, once you die in the school, you will disappear from the real world, meaning nobody will even know you ever existed.
** [[TheDragon The Dragons]] of the BigBad are a [[DrivenToSuicide zombie-like man]] and young mutilated [[WouldHurtAChild children]] [[spoiler: that had been killed by the BigBad, too]]. To elaborate, the children [[spoiler: got kidnapped. The boy ends up getting his tongue cut out, chocking to death on his own blood. The first girl got her head cut off from the jaw upwards and then the tongue removed. The second girl got her eye thoroughly destroyed, then also her tongue cut. All with a rusty, ''unsharpened'' scissor. While ''alive'']]. And the man? [[spoiler: Just a mentally-challenged man that the BigBad forced to kidnap the children and then made him watch in horror as she killed the children slowly. When he later got accused of having been the murderer, he simply hangs himself]]. The agony of their pain and the corruption of the school finally made them go mad, resulting in them helping the BigBad unconditionally. And the best part? [[spoiler: BigBad Sachiko can be freed and get peace. Everyone else in the school? Nope. And Yuki, one of the mutilated children? She becomes the ''next Sachiko'' almost the second Sachiko leaves]].
** In a case of LaserGuidedKarma, AxeCrazy [[spoiler: Kizami]] gets this. He gets knocked unconscious, dragged off and is then [[spoiler: turned into a anatomy model]].
** [[spoiler: Mayu]] gets smashed against a wall with such speed, that her body pretty much explodes upon impact. And she gets to feel ''that'' for all eternity.
** One of the ghosts of the victim diaries. He managed to survive long in school, but as a result started starving, resulting in him [[ImAHumanitarian eating his friends]]. If Yoshiki reads all of them, [[spoiler: he will end up doing the same to Ayumi, only eating her ''alive'']].
** BigBad [[spoiler: Sachiko]] can count as well. As horrible as that person is after death, what happened to her is horrible and corrupted her thoroughly to torture and kill other innocents [[spoiler: so get stuck in the school and keep her mother company]]. Depending on the game, either [[spoiler: her mother got almost raped by the principal and then died in an accident when she fled, only for Sachiko to have been a witness and thus being strangled and buried in the basement to avoid being found out by the principal]] or [[spoiler: got raped by a teacher and when she tried to run by escaping through the window, she fell to her death]]. And to make matters worse, the reason why she became the BigBad and stuck in the school according to one of the games? [[spoiler: Because her mother developed the "Sachiko Ever After" charm in an attempt to revive her dead husband, instead binding her daughter to the school forever]].
* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' has a ''lot'' of this. Most of the enemies are tragic monsters. There is horrible BodyHorror, being imprisoned while effectively immortal, becoming a [[EmptyShell hollow]] and [[spoiler: Linking the Flame leaves you burning alive, forever until someone puts you out of your misery.]]

** The Guardian is a horrific lump on flesh fused to a wall, usually protecting an important area from intruders. What makes their fate so disturbing is that unlike ''other'' types of Necromorphs, these are created from living hosts that are still conscious and unable to control their mutated bodies. Their intestines have been modified for use as CombatTentacles, and the victim screams in constant agony until Issac kills them for good.
** The third game introduces the Feeders, humans that consumed infected flesh when faced with starvation. Like the Guardians, they are still alive but have been driven insane by a HorrorHunger and mutated beyond recognition.
* While suggested in the second game, the third game of the ''VideoGame/DeepSleepTrilogy'' makes it clear that the game's creatures were once ordinary people who were captured in a DarkWorld via a GrandTheftMe; damning them to be trapped in the deep sleep for what is implied to be eternity with their only chance of escape being to capture a traveler and wake up in their body, continuing the cycle. [[spoiler:The protagonist falls victim to it, and has to decide whether to stay trapped forever, or capture some unlucky person]].

* Comes up in ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'', if you're attempting a PacifistRun. Need a couple of slavers "gone"? Have them disfigured and sent to be worked to death in their own mines. Need a member of the aristocracy taken out of the picture? [[spoiler: Knock her unconscious and give her to a creepy admirer, who assures you she won't die but will "never be heard from again."]] Need the corrupt leader of a religious order removed? Brand him as a heretic, condemning him to spend the rest of his life as an outcast [[spoiler:eventually falling victim to the Rat plague and becoming a Weeper.]] Time to take out their leader, the guy who had the Empress murdered and framed you for it? Broadcast his confession over the PA. [[note]]That last isn't nearly as bad as the others, but having his name and legacy in tatters while he gets to anticipate his upcoming execution is certainly worse than if you'd just killed him outright.[[/note]]
** And things only get worse in the ''Knife of Dunwall'' and ''Brigmore Witches'' DLC. Need to get rid of a sadistic slaughterhouse boss after he tells you what you want? [[spoiler:Nail him inside a crate headed out to the coldest regions of the world.]] Need a corrupt barrister removed? [[spoiler:Swap his immunity documents with a search-and-seizure letter for his own house and dump some unidentified smelly contents into the air system, making the house smell like a plague nest.]] Need to stop a witch from [[spoiler:possessing the future Empress? Swap the painting in her ritual with another so that she instead gets trapped in the Void.]]
** ''VideoGame/Dishonored2'' is generally more merciful with its non-lethal solutions, but some are still frightening. Need to keep a wicked inventor from building an army of mechanical soldiers? [[spoiler:Lobotomize him with his own electroshock chair.]] Need to depose the corrupt Duke who led the coup to overthrow you? [[spoiler:Convince his body double to replace him and have him declared a madman to be confined in an asylum.]] Ironically, A Crack in the Slab [[spoiler:is about ''saving'' Aramis Stilton from such a fate. He was involved in a ritual that drove him mad, and you can travel back in time and knock him out so he doesn't attend. Or, y'know, just kill him.]]

** The Darkspawn Blood Taint. Essentially, drinking darkspawn blood (sometimes even coming into contact with it) will usually kill you very ''very'' painfully, if you are ''lucky''. Otherwise, you will slowly turn into one of them. And that is still better than the treatment they have for the ''women'': [[spoiler:they are implied to be raped (''everywhere'') before being forced into devouring their own [[IAmAHumanitarian kin]] and slowly turned into immobile betentacled Broodmothers, the purpose of which is to give birth to more Darkspawn]].

** Mages are prone to demonic possession. The exact effects vary but it generally seems to be pretty bad. As a way to "protect" vulnerable mages from possession, Templars sometimes perform a process that severs their connection to magic -- and also destroys their ability to feel emotion or dream. These "Tranquil" mages don't seem to mind, at least not after the fact... [[spoiler: There was one case of a tranquil mage being temporarily cured by direct exposure to a Fade spirit. He begged his friend to kill him rather than be allowed to become tranquil again.]]
* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' a Mage Inquisitor has the option to punish [[SmugSnake Livius Erimond]] for working with the BigBad by making him Tranquil. All other options including execution don't faze him at all, but if sentenced to Tranquility he will begin to panic at the idea of "losing himself". A few mages protest the Inquisitor's judgement and claim it overly cruel, but it's not really encountered outside the war table.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'', the AntiHero defeats the CreepyChild BigBad. [[ICannotSelfTerminate She begs him to kill her]], but he decides that instead [[spoiler:he's going to drag her around the world, forcing her to see the devastation she has caused. He's going to make her take responsibility for everything, a child's nightmare]]. This turns out to have been an effective punishment; she's a playable character in the second game, and she has repressed all the memories of her being the BigBad and the punishment the protagonist of the first game inflicted on her. This becomes obvious when the AntiHero of the first game shows up as an AntiVillain in the second, and the mere sight of him makes her [[FreakOut go crazy.]] [[JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind She gets better]].

** They are effectively immortal but that immortality comes with an overbearing sense of pain and isolation.

** [[spoiler:Harold]]. When you find him, he's been [[spoiler:turned into a tree and cannot grow or die]]. He, naturally, [[MercyKill begs you to kill him]].

** The option is given of doing this to [[spoiler:Mr House, if you release him from his life-support unit]]. Even though exposing him to the outside world ensures his eventual death, his longevity treatments will keep him alive for, he estimates, about a year.

** [[spoiler: [[ColdSniper Craig Boone]]]] views what would have happened to his wife [[spoiler: and their unborn child]] at the hand of the legion as this. [[NoWomansLand He may not be that far off]]. So he [[spoiler:[[MercyKill took the shot]].]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'': [[spoiler: Sephiroth's birth mother, Lucrecia Crescent, willingly put herself in one of these as penance for having [[AbusiveParents contributed to the experiments that made Sephiroth the way he is]]. Since she was unable to die due to having Jenova cells in her body, after Sephiroth's birth she created a CrystalPrison for herself in a hidden cave and locked herself there there, mentally beating 'self up for what she had done. She's still there in ''Dirge of Cerberus''.]]
** [[spoiler: Professor Hojo suffers this fate as well in ''Dirge of Cerberus'', he uploads himself into the worldwide network and possesses Weiss to become Omega’s vessel, but unfortunately for him, Weiss and Nero merge into one as they enter Omega and Hojo as a result is erased from existence.]]

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', a [[BlessedWithSuck l'Cie]] who fails to complete their [[MissionFromGod Focus]] is doomed to become a Cie'th; a crystalline monster that wanders the world in sorrow, until it eventually fossilizes into a Cie'th Stone [[AndIMustScream while still alive, awake, and suffering sorrow and regret, forever]]. The fate for those who complete their Focus isn't much better..becoming an immortal servant of the fal'Cie. And spending most of the time [[TakenForGranite as a crystal statue,]] except when they want you for something. The fal'Cie are [[JerkassGods jerks.]]
* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys''
** VideoGame/UltimateCustomNight: You are in control of the [[UnknownCharacter protagonist]] who is eternally imprisoned in Freddy's Fazbear Pizzeria full of homicidal robots to pay for your crimes [[spoiler: for being a child killer]]. You never die, you always come back to relive the horror of robots attempting to murder you over, over, and over again.

** What Aegaeon the Hundred-Handed faced in ''VideoGame/GodOfWarAscension'': after breaking his oath to Zeus, the Furies hunted him and punished him by turning hollowing out his body and turning it into a living prison, all while he was still conscious all the time. As if that wasn't bad enough, at the start of the game, his body gets possessed by {{puppeteer parasite}}s spawned by Megaera to kill Kratos and his arms are [[LovecraftianSuperpower twisted into horrific monstruosities]]. His face also gets infected by the way of his [[EyeScream eye]] and his mouth turns into spiked horror with crab arms trying to devour Kratos. He gets [[MercyKill released from this state]] following Megaera's death.

** [[spoiler:In Gorilla Grodd's arcade ending, [[TheStarscream the ape]] not only killed Brainiac (and stole his technology), but also turns Batman and his allies by [[UnwillingRoboticization into mindless robotic slaves]]. The worst part of this ending? It's pretty similar to Superman's ending in the fact that both of them use Brainiac's resources to conquer and expand their authoritarian rule, besides turning their enemies into robots]].

** All three protagonists of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' get their own tailor-made Fate Worse Than Death. Ventus arguably gets the most merciful one, [[spoiler:falling in a coma and being hidden in a secret room of Castle Oblivion.]] Terra is [[spoiler:[[GrandTheftMe possessed by Xehanort]], with what remains of his will being turned into a Guardian that has its mouth stitched shut.]] And Aqua [[spoiler:is trapped in the Dark World, where she is forced to constantly battle Heartless and eventually succumbs to the darkness.]] None of them are rescued until ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', which takes place more than a decade later. Not for nothing does the ending drive ''MickeyMouse'' into a HeroicBSOD for his failure to save them.
* Saiki and Ash Crimson at the end of ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters XIII'', as the two are erased from existence due to a time paradox.
-->'''Saiki''': Do you realize what you have just done? You have condemned us both to a fate worse than death!

** Raziel doesn't have one of these. He has ''three''. At the start of ''Soul Reaver'' on seeing his new misshapen body he claims "Death would be a release from this travesty" and "I would choose oblivion over this existence". At the end of ''Soul Reaver 2'' he learns his fate is to have [[spoiler:his soul imprisoned in a sword where he would be reduced to a mindless hunger devouring the souls of those the sword is used on, trapped for thousands of years]]. Finally at the end of ''Defiance'' he is left trapped in a room with no way for him to escape, and the only thing to look at is a mural showing not only is he [[spoiler:not TheChosenOne, but that he killed the real Chosen One shortly before getting trapped]]. Said [[spoiler:Chosen One]] turns out to be NotQuiteDead, and (accidentally) allows Raziel to escape the room -- at which point Raziel finally ends up [[spoiler:imprisoned in the sword]].

** Janos Audron, the last living Ancient, when [[spoiler:the Hylden [[BodySurf hijack his body]] and imprison him for 400 years to feed their machinery]]. At the end of ''Blood Omen 2'' he [[spoiler:ends up trapped in the demon dimension with the Hylden.]]

* ''VideoGame/LostKingdoms'' has the Runestones. In the first gave, they weren't alluded to much, but when the second game came around, you find out that [[spoiler:a Runestone is a soul that one of the three gods ''sucked out of a living person'' and turned into one]].

** [[AbusivePrecursors The Reapers]] possess the ability to subtly brainwash sentient beings, slowly altering their thoughts so that they eventually override their will entirely, creating willing slaves that follow their orders without hesitation. The downside is that too much use of this ability turns them into mindless husks, incapable of doing anything without an order from their controller. Shepard encounters ''many'' people at varying stages of this "indoctrination", and has the option of performing a MercyKill. It can be even worse to people with strong mind and psychic talents; [[spoiler:Matriarch Benezia]] sealed a part of her consciousness away out of sense of duty to use her free will in some critical moment, and was effectively trapped in her body in the meantime, unable to prevent herself from committing heinous acts under [[spoiler:Sovereign]]'s control.
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' this is revealed to be the fate of not only [[spoiler:the entire Prothean species]], but indeed [[spoiler:''all'' of the species the Reapers have harvested, converting them into new Reapers.]]

* Dr. Weil, from the ''Videogame/MegaManZero'' series was given this before the series even started (approximately 100 years prior, give or take). As a result of his war crimes and instigating the Elf Wars, everyone in Neo Arcadia decided to get revenge on Weil or inflict justice (depending on how you view it) by killing his body, turning his memories and psyche into program data, and placing it in a carbon-mechanical cyborg body that prevents him from dying ever, and then he is exiled from Neo Arcadia into the wastelands of the world that he was responsible for ruining.
* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'', [[spoiler:when Huey is found guilty twice of betrayal over the course of the story, Venom Snake opts against killing him despite ''everyone'' in the Diamond Dogs wanting him shot. Instead he has Huey exiled on a tiny life raft too small to support his prized mechanical legs, forcing him to drop them overboard to stay afloat. He spent the rest of his life as a disgraced fraud until he committed suicide years later via drowning himself.]]

* ''Franchise/MortalKombat''

*** The opening of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'' depicts [[spoiler:how Shinnok was beheaded by Dark Raiden.]]
** Also in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'', [[RobotGirl Frost]] -- now a CyberNinja herself -- can use this as a Fatality, wherein she freezes and shatters her opponent's torso, hands their brain and spine to a drone, and [[UnwillingRoboticization drops it into the body of a Lin Kuei robot]]. Granted, while some of the kombatants such as Shao Kahn and Kano are unpleasant to begin with, but to see them turned into machines against their will is jarring. This is possibly the only Fatality in the game that inflicts this trope rather than just killing the victim. In-story, she continues Sektor's evil work, [[spoiler:murdering and forcibly conscripting her former Lin Kuei comrades into robots as a way to [[APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil spite her former mentor Sub-Zero]] for "under-appreciating" her potential and allying with the Shirai Ryu.]]
* ''VideoGame/MOTHER3'' provides an incredibly literal example: [[spoiler:[[BigBad Porky Minch]]]] hides inside the Absolutely Safe Capsule when things start falling apart for him. [[spoiler:Dr. Andonuts]] tells the heroes that it's "absolutely safe" in an incredible literal way: [[spoiler:Porky can't be harmed at all in it, nor can it be destroyed, and he's permanently locked inside with no escape at all. Porky can't die of old age either, as his time travel abuse made him immortal. Therefore Porky, a frail and decrepit old man (if with a child's mind) is condemned to living forever locked inside the tiny Absolutely Safe Capsule.]] Incredibly, the ending implies that [[SubvertedTrope he's actually totally fine with this]].

* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' add-on, ''Mask of the Betrayer'' introduces a fate [[SerialEscalation doubly worse]] than death. First and most fundamental based on [[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms its source material]], The Wall of The Faithless is reserved for those who do not worship any god, or if no god comes to claim their soul when they die. Your soul is placed in the wall, to be absorbed over time and eventually become part of the wall. The titular Betrayer was placed in the wall as punishment for going against his patron god... [[spoiler:but just as he's about to be completely consumed, said god pulled him out of the wall, by which point his soul has largely been reduced into a ravening void. He became the living incarnation of the wall's hunger, the Spirit-Eater, compelled to devour soul to fill the void, doomed to never be sated, to die of hunger, and pass on the curse to other.]]

** There is also Gabriel Reyes. His SuperSoldier conditioning as well as some experimentation from Moira allowed him to survive an explosion that killed almost everyone else. This however left him as a wraith who regenerates after dying, leaving him in a state of constant agony. It's implied that it isn't perfect, as it Ana is horrified by how his face looks without his mask. He laments that having any kind of normal life is behind him now. Is it any wonder why he became [[ObviouslyEvil Reaper]]?

** The Forsaken, which could be considered the TokenEvilTeammate for the Horde, consider stripping an undead of their free will to be this and thus, [[EvenEvilHasStandards an unforgiveable crime in their society]]. After all, most of them were slaves to the Lich King.

* The red flowers from ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' are a PsychoSerum that fill any Mimiga that eats them with such intense rage that not only their sanity, but their personality is lost. It is heavily implied that the effects are permanent, and that there is no known cure. Only one Mimiga, Igor, has somehow managed to retain a small part of his sanity after eating raw red flowers. [[spoiler:Adorable, innocent little [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth Toroko]] is forcibly fed red flowers by [[TheDragon Misery]] and Balrog, forcing the PlayerCharacter to give her a MercyKill.]]

** [[spoiler: Hojo suffers this fate as well in Dirge of Cerberus.

* ''VideoGame/Injustice2'': [[spoiler:In the "Absolute Power" ending, [[FallenHero Superman]] not only kills Brainiac and gains control of his ship, but also turns Batman [[ReforgedIntoAMinion into a brainwashed]] [[UnwillingRoboticization cybernetic minion]] and threatens Supergirl with a similar fate if she refuses to become TheDragon to his new Regime. And his arcade ending implies he did the same thing to Batman's allies and members of the Society so he could restore and expand his tyrannical dictatorship in other universes.]]
** [[spoiler:In Gorilla Grodd's arcade ending, [[TheStarscream the ape]] not only killed Brainiac (and stole his technology), but also turns Batman and his allies by [[UnwillingRoboticization into mindless robotic slaves]]. The worst part of this ending? It's pretty similar toSuperman's ending in the fact that both of them use Brainiac's resources to conquer and expand their authoritarian rule, besides turning their enemies into robots]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}:

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'': Amélie Lacroix was tortured, programmed to murder her husband, brainwashed, had her personality obliterated, and her body's physiology altered so it experienced no emotion apart from the joy of killing. The renamed Widowmaker is essentially a completely different person inhabiting her body and mind, and serves as nothing but a tool of murder for Talon. Even if Overwatch ever managed to revive Amélie, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone she would have to deal with the]] [[HeelRealization guilt of murdering her husband, helping to break up the original Overwatch, and murdering countless others]]. Not to mention the fact that all the pain she caused to the world wouldn't magically go away should she become a good person again, as the world would still be in fear of her. It's also been implied that deep down, [[AndIMustScream the old Amélie is still there on some level]], and is at least partially aware of what she has done.

** All three protagonists of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' get their own tailor-made Fate Worse Than Death in the DownerEnding. Ventus arguably gets the most merciful one, [[spoiler:falling in a coma and being hidden in a secret room of Castle Oblivion.]] Terra is [[spoiler:[[GrandTheftMe possessed by Xehanort]], with what remains of his will being turned into a Guardian that has its mouth stitched shut.]] And Aqua [[spoiler:is trapped in the Dark World, where she is forced to constantly battle Heartless.]] None of them are rescued until ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', which takes place more than a decade later. Not for nothing does the ending drive ''MickeyMouse'' into a HeroicBSOD for his failure to save them.

** All three protagonists of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' get their own tailor-made Fate Worse Than Death in the DownerEnding. Not for nothing does the ending drive ''MickeyMouse'' into a HeroicBSOD for his failure to save them.

* ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'': The main antagonist of H'aanit's story, [[EldritchAbomination Redeye]], is confirmed in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon to [[spoiler:[[WasOnceAMan have once been Graham Crossford]], a good man and apothecary who saved Alfyn's life when he was a child. After the death of his wife, Graham was approached by [[BigBad Lyblac]], who manipulated him into believing he could return his wife to the world of the living by accompanying her to the Gate of Finis. It was a lie, and Lyblac's true intention was to turn him into a vessel for her father, the local GodOfEvil [[GreaterScopeVillain Galdera]]. [[ThePowerOfLove By thinking of his deceased wife and living son, Graham was able to resist Lyblac's dark ritual enough to deal a deep wound to her and interrupt the ritual]] before escaping, but lost his human mind soon after, turning into the abomination Redeye and mindlessly wandering Orsterra, although there were fleeting moments where lucidity returned. After H'aanit defeats Redeye and unknowingly puts Graham's soul to rest, the player can return to the Grimsand Ruins to examine a fallen pillar near where the battle took place, where Redeye/Graham has written down his regrets and begs somebody to kill him.]]

* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' add-on, ''Mask of the Betrayer'' introduces a fate [[SerialEscalation doubly worse]] than death. First and most fundamental based on [[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms its source material]], The Wall of The Faithless is reserved for those who do not worship any god, or if no god comes to claim their soul when they die. Your soul is placed in the wall, to be absorbed over time and eventually become part of the wall. The titular Betrayer was placed in the wall as punishment for going against his patron god... [[spoiler:but just as he's about to be completely consumed, said god pulled him out of the wall, by which point his soul has largely been reduced into a ravening void. He became the living incarnation of the wall's hunger, the Spirit-Eater, compelled to devour soul to fill the void, doomed to never be sated, to die of hunger, and pass on the curse to other. ]]

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'', [[spoiler:when Huey is found guilty twice of betrayal over the course of the story, Venom Snake opts against killing him despite ''everyone'' in the Diamond Dogs wanting him shot. Instead he has Huey exiled on a tiny life raft too small to support his prized mechanical legs, forcing him to drop them overboard to stay afloat. He spent the rest of his life as a disgraced fraud until he committed suicide years later via drowning himself.]]

** It's implied in chapter 4 that the [[spoiler: ink people passively standing around or crying in corners]] are [[spoiler: former employees of the company]], transformed by the machine and forced to remain in the studio forever.

* ''VideoGame/GhostTrick'': So you have a [[spoiler:ghost who has [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived his usefulness]], and you really, ''really'' don't want him coming after you after the fact. What do you do? Why, leave him in a flooding submarine at the bottom of the sea, completely alone, launch the room containing his body as far away as possible in a random direction, allow said room to collapse due to the water pressure, mangling the body beyond repair and all but ensuring TimeTravel doesn't come into play, blow up the submarine with a torpedo, and make sure no possible path of escape remains. And since he's already dead...]]
* ''Videogame/TeamFortress2'': The disembodied head of the BLU Spy in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36lSzUMBJnc "Meet the Medic"]] [[SupplementalMaterial/TeamFortress2 video]], somehow permanently Übercharged and now spends [[BlessedWithSuck his invulnerable days]] mostly [[VisualPun having a smoke break and chillin']] in RED Medic's fridge. Spy seems rather calm about it though, especially compared to [[LosingYourHead his initial reaction]].
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', a [[BlessedWithSuck l'Cie]] who fails to complete their [[MissionFromGod Focus]] is doomed to become a Cie'th; a crystalline monster that wanders the world in sorrow, until it eventually fossilizes into a Cie'th Stone [[AndIMustScream while still alive, awake, and suffering sorrow and regret, forever]]. The fate for those who complete their Focus isn't much better..becoming an immortal servant of the fal'Cie. And spending most of the time [[TakenForGranite as a crystal statue,]] except when they want you for something. The fal'Cie are [[JerkassGods jerks.]]
* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'': [[TheVirus Zerg infestation]] usually alters your mind into conformity with the collective will of the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Swarm]] and its [[HiveMind Overmind]]. However, ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'' shows that this is not always the case. Some infestees end up ''fully aware'' of their miserable condition, and only have enough control over their bodies to ''beg'' other people to kill them. [[spoiler: Sarah Kerrigan is only one that, while still "zergified", still has her own control over herself, and eventually the '''entire Zerg swarm'''.]] [[spoiler: Until she passed the title and control of them over to Zagara willingly after becoming a Xel'naga.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Sorcerer}}'':
** Dallying in the prologue area will result in a NonStandardGameOver where the game's villain condemns the protagonist to an eternity in the Chamber of Living Death, wherein victims are perpetually (and painfully) eaten alive by plagues of parasites.
** Dallying too long in the final room without acting will get the protagonist sent to the Hall of Eternal Pain, where they will spend eternity as a powerless disembodied mentality, being tormented telepathically.
** In the ''next''-to-last room, there are three doors. Two of them lead to the Chamber of Living Death and the Hall of Eternal Pain. Try to find which one is the third one. Try ''hard''.
** Failure to obtain (or, for that matter, use) the correct spell before the final confrontation results in a demon possessing the protagonist and using this new body to enslave the entire world. (In the demon's own words, "Now begins an epoch of evil transcending even your worst nightmares; a reign of terror that will last a thousand thousand years!") The kicker? He keeps the protagonist's mind [[AndIMustScream alive and aware]], so the protagonist is ForcedToWatch helplessly as his controlled body sacrifices babies, forces slaves to build massive idols - with his face - and generally creates a literal Hell on Earth.
* Creator/{{Infocom}} was at it again in ''VideoGame/TheLurkingHorror''. Don't kill the final monster fast enough and one of its formerly human slaves grabs you and throws you into it, which by this point you know is how it makes humans into former humans. [[NonstandardGameOver Instead of the standard]] "You have died" message, you see the far more chilling "You have changed", followed by "Sometimes, during your future existence, you remember your old life. At these times, you wish you had died instead."

* ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'': Marriage, to the valkyries. Most of them would sooner die than give up their warrior lifestyle to tend house and bear children. The fact that most of their prospective husbands are sexist assholes may have something to do with it.
* ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'':
** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'':
*** Played for laughs when the boys "accidentally" spend too long in the hot spring, until after it switches from boys-only to girls-only. When Mitsuru and the rest of the girls enter, Akihiko freaks out and with good reason: if Mitsuru detects the boys in the ensuing minigame, she "executes" them; a fate [[NoodleIncident not seen]] but referred to as "hell on earth".
*** A more serious example in the [[FridgeHorror underlying implications]] of [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt The Fall]]: with the coming of [[spoiler:Nyx, the [[EveryoneHatesHades incarnation of Death itself]]]], every single living thing will be consumed from the inside out by its own desire for destruction. Thus everything, everywhere, will lose all sense of self and become a mindless, soulless shell that can only moan and whimper, completely unaware of its own death. Should the protagonists choose to challenge this fate, [[spoiler:the Appraiser/Nyx Avatar]] warns them that they will suffer more than they could possibly imagine, ''then'' die. It'll be even worse for Aigis, who's a robot, and thus most likely won't be affected by the Fall. Instead, she'll get to watch her friends turn into shambling shells of their former selves, and then spent the rest of her life in a lifeless wasteland until her body mercifully breaks down.
** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'' drops this trope by name. When Ann is explaining why she spared Shadow Kamoshida, she explains that [[CruelMercy she'd rather he spend the rest of his life repenting for his sins and living with the guilt rather than simply die]].
*** In a much darker note, at the endgame, when [[spoiler:The Holy Grail fuses Mementos into the real world, it also manipulates the public into thinking the Phantom Thieves don't exist. The end result is they get erased, and not in a peaceful way either; You can see them, starting from Futaba/Oracle to Ren/Joker, writhing in pain and making incredibly agonizing screams and expressions until they all collapse into the ground and fade out. And apparently, the Grail/Yaldabaoth has imprisoned them in the Velvet Room and it's impersonating as the BigGood Igor, and the Velvet Room is also revealed to be subverted by him. He then offers you to join him; If you do, [[DownerEnding you become a slave of the Grail]] and everyone in Tokyo will be enslaved by it as well. To top it all off, none of your Phantom Thief comrades ever appeared after you joined Yaldabaoth, indicating that they are all still imprisoned and are doomed to rot in the subverted Velvet Room for eternity alongside the real Igor. Oh and it's never explained what happens to Lavenza or the other Velvet siblings afterwards, but you can guess they are doomed in no time.]]
*** In ''[[UpdatedRerelease Royal]]'', [[spoiler: [[WellIntentionedExtremist Dr. Maruki]] inherits the power of Yaldabaoth and uses it to turn reality into a utopia where everyone's wishes are fulfilled. [[TokenEvilTeammate Akechi]] is brought back to life but he resents Maruki's actions on the grounds that he [[FreedomFromChoice robs people of their agency]] and [[VictoryIsBoring leaves them with nothing to strive for]], in some cases even [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood changing people's personalities]] to make them more amiable, and word-for-word calls it a fate worse than death. In the BittersweetEnding where you accept Maruki's reality, the Phantom Thieves and the rest of humanity have everything they ever wanted at the cost of mankind's ambition, and Akechi's personality is rewritten exactly as he feared. But the NonStandardGameOver where you don't give Maruki an answer in time is a much more straightforward example; he comes to the conclusion that Joker never confronted him because the stress of having to make a decision was too much for him, and "fixes" it by essentially removing his will to live and causing him to spend all his time sleeping.]]
** In ''VideoGame/PersonaQ2NewCinemaLabyrinth'', it was revealed by [[spoiler:Enlil]] near the end of the game that the Cinema that acts as the hub is [[spoiler:just one of the LotusEaterMachine Cinemas and the one housing Hikari; she has an ''entire'' street filled with these Cinemas and each of them were housing people whom like Hikari before her rehabilitation, are people that she "protected" from their real-life hardships, and they don't even look like they wanted to live in the first place;]] It turns out that the movies in the Cinemas are actually [[spoiler:pure negativity with all of the positivity cut off appearing as a documentary film, fueling their already horrible depression to outright dangerous levels.]] Since the movie labyrinths [[spoiler:in Hikari's cinema are merely transformed by Doe to allow her to rehabilitate, this is actually what Hikari is watching in her confines ''all the time''. There's no wonder that she was an EmptyShell at the start of the game, and it is [[FridgeHorror heavily implied to be much worse than that.]]]] While thankfully EverybodyLives, [[spoiler:if Doe didn't appear to drag in Persona users with the movies, Hikari (Or other people trapped) wouldn't even be able to sustain their mental health and will most likely be DrivenToSuicide.]]
* In ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'', when you explain to the Mercykiller Vhailor how your immortality works, he moves to punish you [[spoiler:as each time you die and regenerate, someone else dies in your place]]... but you can get him to back off by explaining the ''downside''. Vhailor, thought of even by other Mercykillers as a fanatic who'll scrag someone without evidence, decides that you are suffering punishment enough.

* In the backstory of ''VideoGame/{{Utawarerumono}}'', Witsarnemitea [[spoiler:reduced the scientists who studied him to immortal slimes]] not unlike the ''I Have No Mouth'' example above.
* ''VideoGame/LostKingdoms'' has the Runestones. In the first gave, they weren't alluded to much, but when the second game came around, you find out that [[spoiler:a Runestone is a soul that one of the three gods ''sucked out of a living person'' and turned into one]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'':
** One of the Scourge's {{Evil Plan}}s is to spread the plagued grains in Stratholme, so people who ate from that will turn into zombies, and their souls will be taken by Mal'Ganis and transferred to the Lich King. Arthas, having learned this, makes a drastic decision to purge the entire city, thinking that such fates are something worse than death. Poor chap didn't know (at the time) that it's not the Stratholme citizens' souls the Lich King is after. It's ''his'' soul.
** Arthas again (after the Lich King got his soul this time), gets in on this during the invasion of Quel'thalas. The leader of the High Elven resistance is the ranger-general Sylvanas Windrunner. After battling through her defences for hours, he finally traps her and mortally wounds her through the chest with Frostmourne. With a pained murmur she asks Arthas for a clean death. [[NightmareFuel A clean death, she does not get.]] Instead he mutilates her body and tortures her to death, and then defiles her spirit by raising it her as a powerful banshee bound to his will. And then he [[ForcedToWatch turned her on her own people]]. [[spoiler:As a final, unintended insult, this also glitches Sylvanas' soul and forces her into The Maw after death, driving her completely insane and facilitating her resurrection as the Banshee Queen, who makes everything the Lich King did seem ''noble'' in comparison.]]
** Most of what the Scourge does is this. For instance, one of their bosses in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' is Thaddius, a Literature/{{Frankenstein}}-lookalike who's described as: "..built from the flesh of women and children, it is said that their souls are fused together - eternally bound within that foul prison of flesh." Add that some of his [[VoiceOfTheLegion voice]] sounds like a child. When your raid finally defeats him, his last action is to thank you.
* ''VideoGame/HalfLife'':
** [[PersonalSpaceInvader Headcrabs]] are small (about the size of a domesticated cat), aggressive aliens that attach themselves to a viable host and [[PuppeteerParasite commandeer its nervous system]], creating what are cheerfully named Headcrab Zombies. Said host is ''still alive'' and ''[[AndIMustScream still aware]]'' even as its body rots, it ''tears off all of its skin'' (Fast Zombies) and/or is injected with so much neurotoxin it bloats to about twice its width (Poison Zombies). It's become an infamous fact that when you reverse a Headcrab Zombie's cry, you can hear the human screaming for mercy.
** ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' has the less commonly seen Stalkers - humans surgically altered by the Combine and forced into slavery. They more or less look like emaciated humans with [[BodyHorror most of their internal organs, muscle, and fat removed, and their limbs replaced with metal stumps]]. Alyx, quite reasonably, hopes they don't remember who they used to be.
* Reaching the end of the [[BonusLevelOfHell Fourth Kalpa]] in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'' reveals that [[spoiler:Jyoji Hijiri]] has been condemned to an eternity of life, death and rebirth without hope of reincarnation. He will be forced to witness the Conception and the creation of the new world over and over again until the end of time, but will never be allowed to influence its outcome himself. He received this punishment from {{God}} for committing "the ultimate sin" in a previous life; because of this, many suspect that he is a reincarnation of [[spoiler:Aleph from ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiII'', who committed ''deicide'' at the end of the game by killing [[{{God}} YHVH (God)]]. That's right, {{God}}]].
* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'', [[spoiler:YHVH]] threatens eternal damnation to hell upon [[PlayerCharacter Nanashi]] for rebelling against him and reducing him to his hideous OneWingedAngel form, declaring that "the weight of your blasphemy is too great for death!"
* ''VideoGame/PlunderedHearts'', another Creator/{{Infocom}} title, uses this to get around having to state upfront that people want to rape or have raped the main character. This makes more sense when you realize that the game is [[InteractiveFiction an interactive version]] of a cheesy RomanceNovel.
* In ''VideoGame/ZorkGrandInquisitor'', [[AllCrimesAreEqual all crimes]] under the rule of Inquisitor Yannick are punishable by being "totemized", having your body painfully transfigured into an immobile totem for all eternity. {{Justified|Trope}} in that this is part of Yannick's plot to eliminate magic from the land of Zork: if a person is totemized instead of killed, their body's natural supplies of magical energy aren't released and the overall level of magic in the world drops slightly.
* ''Franchise/BaldursGate'' (and the [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons source world]]) has the "Imprisonment" Spell, in which the victim is instantly trapped deep within the earth, and magically kept alive forever, unable to escape until someone casts "Freedom" at where the Imprisonment is held. In ''Shadows of Amn'', the main character is threatened with this by [[KnightTemplar a particularly hard-lined Harper]], and could optionally fight against a high-powered wizard that was driven ''insane'' by the experience.
* ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'':
** Both Tal Rasha and the player-character from the first game make the unwise decision to insert a soulstone with a demon into their bodies. The results for both of them are not pretty.
** In ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'', [[spoiler:Adria, in the cruelest betrayal of the series, does this to her own daughter Leah, using the Black Soulstone to turn her into the vessel for Diablo to be reborn as the Prime Evil]].
* The ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'' series, with the exception of the first game, feature a cybernetic alien race called the Strogg, who build their ranks by capturing their enemies and putting them through a horrific process, referred to by the human soldiers in [[VideoGame/QuakeIV the fourth game]] as "Stroggification". This process not only involves having several body parts sliced off and crudely replaced with cybernetic parts (without '''any''' anesthetic whatsoever), but also involves having a chip implanted into the brain of the unfortunate victim, which is then activated by a machine, so that the victim can be controlled by the Nexus, a giant brain that has control over all other Strogg soldiers (it is unknown if there are any original, pureblood Strogg who possess free will). Watch it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJwyjWpP4XA here]]! Worst of all, is that the victims still retain their humanity for a short while after the chip activation but they are unable to control their actions. [[spoiler:This is seen in the fourth game, when Scott Voss is transformed into a huge, hulking cyborg, and yells at Matthew Kane to run away and that "I can't control it!", shortly before going berserk and attacking Kane.]] Sometimes, the process fails, resulting in the victims becoming shambling, zombie-like creatures (the "Failed transfers" and "Slimy transfers") who are then transported to a dumping ground.
* Since nearly every major character in ''VideoGame/GrimFandango'' is [[DeadToBeginWith already dead]] by virtue of the setting, these are the only things that are real threats. Examples include being made into a dam by demon beavers, and being "sprouted" -- having plants grow from your body until you become a patch of flowery meadow.
** WordOfGod mentions that dead souls who fall into one of these fates gets reincarnated. It's still considered a punishment worse than death, because you're forced to live and die again before getting another attempt at reaching the Ninth Underworld and "true" eternal rest.

* From ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'', Naoya [[spoiler:AKA Cain, as in the biblical CainAndAbel, has been cursed to remember every single memory from all of his previous reincarnations, including the first one where he murdered his brother, resulting in him living non-stop for thousands of years constantly tormented by far too much information for one brain, never being allowed to forget his greatest sin]]. What makes it so sad is that he could get out of this; [[spoiler:God didn't 'curse' him, this was a genuine attempt to give him time to reflect on his sin and repent. All he has to do to be forgiven is to admit he was wrong and sincerely apologize for the fratricide]]... but by this point, he's ''far'' too bitter to even consider that.
* [[spoiler:Lezard]] from ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile2Silmeria'' threatens your party with this if you die against him (the only way you can actually get a Game Over in the game):
-->"I will not slay you. From now and forever, no matter how much you entreat me, how pitifully you lament, you shall not die!"
-->"I grant you the rights accorded to an enemy of the gods: You will live from now and forever, in an endless cycle of rebirth, condemned in each life to be hated, feared, scorned, punished and obliterated!"
-->"Live always with the screech of insects buzzing within your skull, ants gnawing at your eyeballs forever and ever!"
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
** Dying whilst under the effects of a soul trap spell will condemn the being's soul to spend eternity in the [[SpiritWorld Soul Cairn]], a desolate plane of Oblivion crafted by the Ideal Masters, a group of immortal beings who were once powerful mortal sorcerers. The Ideal Masters [[YourSoulIsMine traffic in souls]], especially "Black" sapient souls, and have a HorrorHunger for more. The Soul Cairn itself is a dark and gloomy place, with frequent lightning strikes, frightening rock formations, and the Ideal Masters themselves taking the form of giant crystalline soul gems feeding on souls who wander too close. Souls of sentient beings in the Cairn will remark on how they have spent countless years wandering the Soul Cairn, wishing for a proper death that will never be theirs. The Ideal Masters themselves consider this place a ''blessing'', believing that it grants "eternal peace" away from Mundus' ViciousCycle of death and rebirth.
** This is likewise the case for mortal souls claimed by the [[JerkassGods more malevolent]] [[OurGodsAreDifferent Daedric Princes]] upon death. While many of these souls are voluntary servants, there are instances of souls being taken by the Princes against their will. For example, anyone killed by [[LegendaryWeapon Mehrunes Razor]] may have their soul sent to [[DestroyerDeity Mehrunes]] [[OmnicidalManiac Dagon]]'s [[FireAndBrimstoneHell Deadlands realm]]. Likewise, the souls of [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] and [[OurWerecreaturesAreDifferent lycanthropes]] are believed to be claimed by [[GodOfEvil Molag Bal]] and [[EgomaniacHunter Hircine]], respectively, even if the mortal in question may not have chosen to become one of these creatures. Being trapped in Molag Bal's realm, Coldharbour, for any reason whatsoever, counts as this. The ground is sludge, the sky is on fire, and the [[EvilIsDeathlyCold air is freezing]]. It resembles a ruined and desecrated copy of Nirn that is filled with suffering and [[BloodyBowelsOfHell "spattered" with blood and excrement]]. It contains charnel houses full of the dead and slave pens beyond count. The [[EvilSmellsBad smell]] of the place alone is enough to break most mortals. It is specifically designed to break and torment mortals as efficiently and cruelly as possible. Being a follower or faithful servant of his will not save you in any way, and in fact, may make it worse. He is also known to dole out fates like this as punishments to servants who disobey or [[YouHaveFailedMe fail him]].
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]''
*** This is what the [[CorruptChurch Tribunal Temple]] considers Vampirism. It's why they consider a swift MercyKill as the only "cure" for the disease, regardless of what the vampires themselves might believe.
*** The non-Sixth House victims of the Corprus disease. In essence, it combines the effects of leprosy, cancer, and dementia. The two "positive" effects of the disease are that you [[TheAgeless stop aging]] and become [[IdealIllnessImmunity immune to all other diseases]]. Combine these, and your only hope for relief once the disease has advanced is to be killed mercifully.
** From ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'': [[BigBad Mankar Camoran's]] followers are subjected to one of these if killed: His followers are made immortal and condemned to slavery for eternity, working under [[OurDemonsAreDifferent lesser Daedra]]. The new inductees in Paradise are dipped into lava.
** In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline'', Mannimarco, the former [[TheDragon Dragon]], ends up being captured and tortured by [[BigBad Molag Bal]] after Mannimarco attempts to [[TheStarscream Starscream]] Bal. The tortures are so vile that Mannimarco, a [[{{Pride}} prideful]] and [[SmugSnake arrogant]] [[OurLichesAreDifferent Lich]][=/=]{{Necromancer}} who is one of the most [[TheDreaded dreaded]] beings in all of Tamriel, literally screams in immense fear and begs for mercy.

* ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'':
** Somewhat based on the relevant mythology, ''VideoGame/GodOfWarII'' features Prometheus in his liver-consuming fate. Instead of being freed by Hercules, however, he is freed by being dropped into the Fires of Olympus by Kratos. Kratos is then awarded with Rage of the Titans.
** What Aegaeon the Hundred-Handed faced in ''VideoGame/GodOfWarAscension'': after breaking his oath to Zeus, the Furies hunted him and punished him by turning hollowing out his body and turning it into a living prison, all while he was still conscious all the time. As if that wasn't bad enough, at the start of the game, his body gets possessed by {{puppeteer parasite}}s spawned by Megaera to kill Kratos and his arms are [[LovecraftianSuperpower twisted into horrific monstruosities]]. His face also gets infected by the way of his [[EyeScream eye]] and his mouth turns into spiked horror with crab arms trying to devour Kratos. He gets [[MercyKill released from this state]] following Megaera's death.
** In ''VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4'', Mimir is found bound in a tree that Odin enchanted so that no weapon can free his body from the wood. He instructs Kratos to cut off his head [[LoopholeAbuse since they don't need his whole body]] and have the Witch of the Woods reanimate it so that he can aid them on their journey. When Kratos reminds him of the possibility that the Witch's spell may fail, Mimir somberly explains that Odin has been [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing him every day]] for over 100 years. As far as he's concerned, death is an acceptable alternative.
* ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}'':
** The [[EldritchAbomination Spirit Beast]] locks a group of ghosts into its own plane of existence, where it slowly feeds on their souls. Erik Bonde, one of the unfortunate fellows to have this fate, said that for the first twenty days, they couldn't do anything but scream. At the beginning of the second quest it is revealed it's trying to enter the REAL world, which means that EVERYONE would share this fate.
** What happened to the hero Arrav after his HeroicSacrifice to save the city of Varrock from Zemouregal hundreds of years ago. Zemoreugal brought him back to life as a special kind of zombie that still had his consciousness trapped inside his body but having no control at all over his actions except for talking when Zemouregal wasn't focusing on him. During the quest The Curse of Arrav you go on a mission to recover his heart so that you can save him from this fate without killing him and you finally free him during the final battle of the quest Ritual of the Mahjarrat allowing him to turn on and attack Zemouregal, but after the quest his body turns to dust when you talk to him due to his body no longer being preserved.
** The souls that were eaten by the queen black dragon. When you battle her she uses them as unwilling weapons against you, they can talk to you but can't control their actions. Similarly, getting turned into a wright and enslaved by Sliske is probably this too. Finally, during the quest Missing Presumed Death, when Death gets kidnapped and imprisoned by Sliske, dead souls all over the world became unable to properly separate from their bodies, leaving them in an agonizing state of half death.
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'':
** The Darkspawn Blood Taint. Essentially, drinking darkspawn blood (sometimes even coming into contact with it) will usually kill you very ''very'' painfully, if you are ''lucky''. Otherwise, you will slowly turn into one of them. And that is still better than the treatment they have for the ''women'': [[spoiler:they are implied to be raped (''everywhere'') before being forced into devouring their own [[IAmAHumanitarian kin]] and slowly turned into immobile betentacled Broodmothers, the purpose of which is to give birth to more Darkspawn]].
** In ''Awakening'', some of the "Awakened" Darkspawn consider their "freedom" to be this. Bereft of the Call of the Old Gods, they find the silence unbearable. All of the Mother's actions are driven by her desire for revenge against the Architect who cut her off from the music. In the FinalBattle, she actually looks forward to dying in battle, hoping to hear the Song again in death.
** Mages are prone to demonic possession. The exact effects vary but it generally seems to be pretty bad. As a way to "protect" vulnerable mages from possession, Templars sometimes perform a process that severs their connection to magic - and also destroys their ability to feel emotion or dream. These "Tranquil" mages don't seem to mind, at least not after the fact... [[spoiler: There was one case of a tranquil mage being temporarily cured by direct exposure to a Fade spirit. He begged his friend to kill him rather than be allowed to become tranquil again.]]
* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' a Mage Inquisitor has the option to punish [[SmugSnake Livius Erimond]] for working with the BigBad by making him Tranquil. All other options including execution don't faze him at all, but if sentenced to Tranquility he will begin to panic at the idea of "losing himself". A few mages protest the Inquisitor's judgement and claim it overly cruel, but it's not really encountered outside the war table.
* How ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' got the ''Explorer'' games to have an E rating, the world will never know. In the BadFuture, time never passes, meaning that if you die, you will be stuck in that dying state forever. To make matters worse, shortly after arriving there, [[spoiler:you and your partner are to be executed by Sableye, by means of their razor-sharp claws. Imagine an eternity of being cut to shreds...]]
** In ''VideoGame/PokemonSuperMysteryDungeon,'' [[spoiler:you and most of the main cast are turned to stone, sending your souls to a hellish dimension called the Voidlands, with seemingly no way out]]. To make matters worse, this eventually happens to [[spoiler:almost EVERYONE on the entire planet]].
* In ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'', [[spoiler:Ghetsis]] gets hit right in the face with this at the end, [[spoiler: going so insane that he's reduced to a catatonic vegetable]]. Couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke.
* In ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'', [[spoiler:Lysandre]] falls victim to this right at the climax. [[spoiler:Or at least in X. He fires off the Ultimate Weapon, with the intent of using Xerneas's power to make the player character and their friends immortal. Only then, the Flare base proceeds to collapse, with ''him still inside it''. Since Lysandre was right there when it went off, it's likely he's now immortal himself and stuck under the crater for all of eternity.]]
* In ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' [[spoiler:it's revealed that three Type:Null were put into Cryogenic Suspension ''for all eternity'' because they didn't work out the way the Aether Foundation wanted them to - effectively be man-made Arceus. Even worse, we find out that Lusamine has numerous other Pokemon, such as a Slowpoke, a Starmie and a Pikachu frozen all in the name of "protection".]]
** While some dialogue in the post-game implies that [[spoiler:the Aether employees have decided to thaw out all the Pokémon that Lusamine froze (and Gladion even gives the player one of the other Type:Null, seemingly confirming this), it still makes the initial reveal no less horrifying. One can only wonder how long they've all been like that, as well as [[AndIMustScream how conscious]] they were.]]
* [[spoiler:Grissom]] in ''VideoGame/VagrantStory''. Having been killed by Ashley, his soul seeks out a new vessel, and winds up bound to his old corpse.
* ''VideoGame/MOTHER3'' provides an incredibly literal example: [[spoiler:[[BigBad Porky Minch]]]] hides inside the Absolutely Safe Capsule when things start falling apart for him. [[spoiler:Dr. Andonuts]] tells the heroes that it's "absolutely safe" in an incredible literal way: [[spoiler:Porky can't be harmed at all in it, nor can it be destroyed, and he's permanently locked inside with no escape at all. Porky can't die of old age either, as his time travel abuse made him immortal. Therefore Porky, a frail and decrepit old man (if with a child's mind) is condemned to living forever locked inside the tiny Absolutely Safe Capsule.]] Incredibly, the ending implies that [[SubvertedTrope he's actually totally fine with this]].
* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'', when you finally find the man who betrayed Niko years ago he has a heavy drug addiction and is ridden with guilt, and begs you to kill him. Here you are given the option of killing him or letting him live with the guilt. [[spoiler:Niko finds more satisfaction in letting him live.]]
* ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'':
** Raziel doesn't have one of these. He has ''three''. At the start of ''Soul Reaver'' on seeing his new misshapen body he claims "Death would be a release from this travesty" and "I would choose oblivion over this existence". At the end of ''Soul Reaver 2'' he learns his fate is to have [[spoiler:his soul imprisoned in a sword where he would be reduced to a mindless hunger devouring the souls of those the sword is used on, trapped for thousands of years]]. Finally at the end of ''Defiance'' he is left trapped in a room with no way for him to escape, and the only thing to look at is a mural showing not only is he [[spoiler:not TheChosenOne, but that he killed the real Chosen One shortly before getting trapped]]. Said [[spoiler:Chosen One]] turns out to be NotQuiteDead, and (accidentally) allows Raziel to escape the room - at which point Raziel finally ends up [[spoiler:imprisoned in the sword]].
** The Hylden race collectively suffers one of these as their war with the Ancients ends with [[spoiler:their banishment in the demon dimension, which keeps them immortal, but deforms their bodies and drives them insane]]. The Ancients themselves suffer similarly when the Hylden [[spoiler:retaliate by cursing them with vampirism, which ends up severing their connection to their god]]. Most chose to kill themselves rather than live on like that.
** Janos Audron, the last living Ancient, when [[spoiler:the Hylden [[BodySurf hijack his body]] and imprison him for 400 years to feed their machinery]]. At the end of ''Blood Omen 2'' he [[spoiler:ends up trapped in the demon dimension with the Hylden.]]
* What happens to Galen, your character, in the DarkSide ending of ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed''. He's nearly crushed to death by a spaceship, reconstructed by the Emperor (Galen is conscious the whole time) to barely be human anymore and then he's forced to live out the rest of his life as the Emperor's pawn. So the [[PlotParallel mirror-image of Darth Vader]].

* This trope is almost mundane in the ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series, as although it only occurs ''after'' death the victims tend not to ''stay'' dead, the [[GeniusLoci eponymous town]] consuming and imprisoning them. This definitely happened to [[spoiler:Lisa, Kaufman, Walter and his victims, and Alex in one of the endings]], and probably happened to [[spoiler:Dahlia, James in one of the endings, and Claudia]].
* This is what happens to [[spoiler:Kirie and Mafuyu]] in ''VideoGame/FatalFrame1'''s canon ending. They're going to be spending the ''rest of eternity'' at the Hell Gate deep underground, with [[spoiler:Kirie]] making sure that the gate stays closed, and [[spoiler:Mafuyu]] staying with her so that she won't have to suffer all alone.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'':
** Raogrimm [[spoiler:a.k.a the Shadowlord]] is forced to watch over Dynamis until hatred no longer exists.
** [[spoiler:Lilisette]] has no other choice but to leave her world behind, and replace her EvilCounterpart in her own world in order to close Atomos's maws and allow the two futures to survive. [[spoiler:And her actions during the Crystal War are RetGone, which means that only you remember her.]]

** Also in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'', [[RobotGirl Frost]] — now a CyberNinja herself — can use this as a Fatality, wherein she freezes and shatters her opponent's torso, hands their brain and spine to a drone, and [[UnwillingRoboticization drops it into the body of a Lin Kuei robot]]. Granted, while some of the kombatants such as Shao Kahn and Kano are unpleasant to begin with, but to see them turned into machines against their will is jarring. This is possibly the only Fatality in the game that inflicts this trope rather than just killing the victim. In-story, she continues Sektor's evil work, [[spoiler:murdering and forcibly conscripting her former Lin Kuei comrades into robots as a way to [[APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil spite her former mentor Sub-Zero]] for "under-appreciating" her potential and allying with the Shirai Ryu.]]
%%* ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}}'': Chimera. The first game even has a level titled "Fates Worse than Death."
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyroDawnOfTheDragon'': [[BigBad Malefor]] turns the Apes into skeletons that are forever cursed to remain in the shadows, hungry for the energy of others but never able to be full. This fate is so terrible that Spyro and Cynder are visibly horrified by it.

-->'''[=GLaDOS=]''': You know the biggest lesson I learned from what you did? I discovered I have a sort of black box quicksave feature. In the event of a catastrophic failure, the last two minutes of my life are preserved forever for analysis. I was able - well, forced really - ''to relive you killing me again and again''. '''''Forever.'''''

* In ''VideoGame/JakIIRenegade'', [[EvilOverlord Baron Praxis]] can occasionally be heard addressing [[PhlebotinumRebel Jak]] over speakers normally reserved for spewing propaganda. The Baron promises a quick and painless death if Jak turns himself in, because the [[TheCorruption Dark Eco]] inside him will eventually do much, much worse. And if he ''doesn't'' turn himself in and Praxis finds him instead, he promises Jak he'll wish he died in prison.
* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' has a ''lot'' of this. Most of the enemies are tragic monsters. There is horrible BodyHorror, being imprisoned while effectively immortal, becoming a [[EmptyShell hollow]] and [[spoiler: Linking the Flame leaves you burning alive, forever until someone puts you out of your misery.]]
* In ''[[VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic Might and Magic: Heroes VI]]'', TheNecrocracy of Heresh punishes its worst criminals by transforming them into [[OurGhoulsAreDifferent ghouls]]. Because most citizens of Heresh are devout worshippers of Asha who are fully aware of the reincarnation cycle that governs the world, the threat of being permanently removed from that cycle by becoming a non-sentient undead is a horrifying prospect.
** Worse, they field whole ''armies'' of ghouls as one of their basic troop types, implying that it [[AllCrimesAreEqual doesn't take much]] to be condemned as one of Heresh's "worst criminals".
* Comes up in ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'', if you're attempting a PacifistRun. Need a couple of slavers "gone"? Have them disfigured and sent to be worked to death in their own mines. Need a member of the aristocracy taken out of the picture? [[spoiler: Knock her unconscious and give her to a creepy admirer, who assures you she won't die but will "never be heard from again."]] Need the corrupt leader of a religious order removed? Brand him as a heretic, condemning him to spend the rest of his life as an outcast [[spoiler:eventually falling victim to the Rat plague and becoming a Weeper.]] Time to take out their leader, the guy who had the Empress murdered and framed you for it? Broadcast his confession over the PA. [[note]]That last isn't nearly as bad as the others, but having his name and legacy in tatters while he gets to anticipate his upcoming execution is certainly worse than if you'd just killed him outright.[[/note]]
** And things only get worse in the ''Knife of Dunwall'' and ''Brigmore Witches'' DLC. Need to get rid of a sadistic slaughterhouse boss after he tells you what you want? [[spoiler:Nail him inside a crate headed out to the coldest regions of the world.]] Need a corrupt barrister removed? [[spoiler:Swap his immunity documents with a search-and-seizure letter for his own house and dump some unidentified smelly contents into the air system, making the house smell like a plague nest.]] Need to stop a witch from [[spoiler:possessing the future Empress? Swap the painting in her ritual with another so that she instead gets trapped in the Void.]]
** ''VideoGame/Dishonored2'' is generally more merciful with its non-lethal solutions, but some are still frightening. Need to keep a wicked inventor from building an army of mechanical soldiers? [[spoiler:Lobotomize him with his own electroshock chair.]] Need to depose the corrupt Duke who led the coup to overthrow you? [[spoiler:Convince his body double to replace him and have him declared a madman to be confined in an asylum.]] Ironically, A Crack in the Slab [[spoiler:is about ''saving'' Aramis Stilton from such a fate. He was involved in a ritual that drove him mad, and you can travel back in time and knock him out so he doesn't attend. Or, y'know, just kill him.]]
* Saiki and Ash Crimson at the end of ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters XIII'', as the two are erased from existence due to a time paradox.
-->'''Saiki''': Do you realize what you have just done? You have condemned us both to a fate worse than death!
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'':
** The Lich King is either being forced to spend eternity keeping the undead in check [[spoiler:like what happened to Bolvar Fordragon]] or finally dying and moving on to a fate like this. Arthas Menethil dies as the Lich King and ends up in a Purgatory-like area where he is reduced to a sobbing, crying, tormented child. Sylvanas almost pities him for the monstrous fate he was doomed to. Sylvanas' primary motivation after Arthas' demise is to avoid the same fate.
** Sindragosa. She knows what she's doing as a {{Dracolich}} and as she is finally dying, she admits that she is relieved to be free of the Lich King at long last.
** The trio of Rook Stonetoe, He Softfoot, and Sun Whisperwind in the first quarter of the Siege of Orgrimmar raid. They were destroyed by the blast of energy unleashed from the Vale of Eternal Blossoms being scarred and their souls are bound to the tainted land, dooming them to eternally suffer for their inability to prevent such a tragedy. Lorewalker Cho describes their predicament as this verbatim upon seeing them.
** [[spoiler:Garrosh Hellscream]], instead of being killed off by Varian or Thrall, is instead taken back to Pandaria by Taran Zhu to be tried for his war crimes. For Orcs, death on the battlefield is glorious, [[spoiler:but for Garrosh, there is no glory for where he's going.]]
** The Forsaken, which could be considered the TokenEvilTeammate for the Horde, consider stripping an undead of their free will to be this and thus, [[EvenEvilHasStandards an unforgiveable crime in their society]]. After all, most of them were slaves to the Lich King.

* Invoked by Saavedro in ''VideoGame/MystIIIExile''. In one of his rants to Atrus, he mentions how Sirrus and Achenar destroyed his civilization and separated him from his family, concluding that "It would have been better if I had died."

* While suggested in the second game, the third game of the ''VideoGame/DeepSleepTrilogy'' makes it clear that the game's creatures were once ordinary people who were captured in a DarkWorld via a GrandTheftMe; damning them to be trapped in the deep sleep for what is implied to be eternity with their only chance of escape being to capture a traveler and wake up in their body, continuing the cycle. [[spoiler:The protagonist falls victim to it, and has to decide whether to stay trapped forever, or capture some unlucky person]].
* ''VideoGame/DeadByDaylight'': The game's manual describes that the Entity, the godlike creature that the killers sacrifice the survivors to, has trapped the group in a GroundhogDayLoop. If a person manages to escape, they'll find themselves back at the campfire. If a person is killed, part of their soul will be eaten before they'll find themselves back at the campfire. This all happens over and over again; the humans being a mere CosmicPlaything at the Entity's mercy.
* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'': Amélie Lacroix was tortured, programmed to murder her husband, brainwashed, had her personality obliterated, and her body's physiology altered so it experienced no emotion apart from the joy of killing. The renamed Widowmaker is essentially a completely different person inhabiting her body and mind, and serves as nothing but a tool of murder for Talon. Even if Overwatch ever managed to revive Amélie, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone she would have to deal with the]] [[HeelRealization guilt of murdering her husband, helping to break up the original Overwatch, and murdering countless others]]. Not to mention the fact that all the pain she caused to the world wouldn't magically go away should she become a good person again, as the world would still be in fear of her. It's also been implied that deep down, [[AndIMustScream the old Amélie is still there on some level]], and is at least partially aware of what she has done.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'': [[spoiler: Sephiroth's birth mother, Lucrecia Crescent, willingly put herself in one of these as penance for having [[AbusiveParents contributed to the experiments that made Sephiroth the way he is]]. Since she was unable to die due to having Jenova cells in her body, after Sephiroth's birth she created a CrystalPrison for herself in a hidden cave and locked herself there there, mentally beating 'self up for what she had done. She's still there in ''Dirge of Cerberus''.]]
* ''VideoGame/LastScenario'' has two. [[spoiler:Tiamat was sealed away, semi-conscious, in biorite for over ''300 years''. She eventually reawakens and she's pissed, especially at Barasur who led to her being in this position.]] The other is [[spoiler:Tazar]], who for his failures as a military leader is locked up and forcibly experimented on, becoming a mindless mutant that the party must kill.
* ''VideoGame/Injustice2'': [[spoiler:In the "Absolute Power" ending, [[FallenHero Superman]] not only kills Brainiac and gains control of his ship, but also turns Batman [[ReforgedIntoAMinion into a brainwashed]] [[UnwillingRoboticization cybernetic minion]] and threatens Supergirl with a similar fate if she refuses to become TheDragon to his new Regime. And his arcade ending implies he did the same thing to Batman's allies and members of the Society so he could restore and expand his tyrannical dictatorship in other universes.]]
** [[spoiler:In Gorilla Grodd's arcade ending, [[TheStarscream the ape]] not only killed Brainiac (and stole his technology), but also turns Batman and his allies by [[UnwillingRoboticization into mindless robotic slaves]]. The worst part of this ending? It's pretty similar toSuperman's ending in the fact that both of them use Brainiac's resources to conquer and expand their authoritarian rule, besides turning their enemies into robots]].
* ''VideoGame/CorpseParty'' is a variation as everyone ''is'' dead and it is more a case of "How to make death ''way'' more agonizing?". The solution to that question is to make one forever feel the pain of their death, if they died in that school. And not only do a lot of people die in the games, some die in absolutely horrible ways. And to rub salt into the wound, once you die in the school, you will disappear from the real world, meaning nobody will even know you ever existed.
** [[TheDragon The Dragons]] of the BigBad are a [[DrivenToSuicide zombie-like man]] and young mutilated [[WouldHurtAChild children]] [[spoiler: that had been killed by the BigBad, too]]. To elaborate, the children [[spoiler: got kidnapped. The boy ends up getting his tongue cut out, chocking to death on his own blood. The first girl got her head cut off from the jaw upwards and then the tongue removed. The second girl got her eye thoroughly destroyed, then also her tongue cut. All with a rusty, ''unsharpened'' scissor. While ''alive'']]. And the man? [[spoiler: Just a mentally-challenged man that the BigBad forced to kidnap the children and then made him watch in horror as she killed the children slowly. When he later got accused of having been the murderer, he simply hangs himself]]. The agony of their pain and the corruption of the school finally made them go mad, resulting in them helping the BigBad unconditionally. And the best part? [[spoiler: BigBad Sachiko can be freed and get peace. Everyone else in the school? Nope. And Yuki, one of the mutilated children? She becomes the ''next Sachiko'' almost the second Sachiko leaves]].
** In a case of LaserGuidedKarma, AxeCrazy [[spoiler: Kizami]] gets this. He gets knocked unconscious, dragged off and is then [[spoiler: turned into a anatomy model]].
** [[spoiler: Mayu]] gets smashed against a wall with such speed, that her body pretty much explodes upon impact. And she gets to feel ''that'' for all eternity.
** One of the ghosts of the victim diaries. He managed to survive long in school, but as a result started starving, resulting in him [[ImAHumanitarian eating his friends]]. If Yoshiki reads all of them, [[spoiler: he will end up doing the same to Ayumi, only eating her ''alive'']].
** BigBad [[spoiler: Sachiko]] can count as well. As horrible as that person is after death, what happened to her is horrible and corrupted her thoroughly to torture and kill other innocents [[spoiler: so get stuck in the school and keep her mother company]]. Depending on the game, either [[spoiler: her mother got almost raped by the principal and then died in an accident when she fled, only for Sachiko to have been a witness and thus being strangled and buried in the basement to avoid being found out by the principal]] or [[spoiler: got raped by a teacher and when she tried to run by escaping through the window, she fell to her death]]. And to make matters worse, the reason why she became the BigBad and stuck in the school according to one of the games? [[spoiler: Because her mother developed the "Sachiko Ever After" charm in an attempt to revive her dead husband, instead binding her daughter to the school forever]].

* ''VideoGame/RandalsMonday'': [[spoiler:The business bum appears in the apocalypse chapter, unable to satisfy his thirst or even move properly, with all his skin missing.]]
* The ''Franchise/DeadSpace'' features ''many'' horrific fates, but two particular varieties of Necromorphs stand out.
** The Guardian is a horrific lump on flesh fused to a wall, usually protecting an important area from intruders. What makes their fate so disturbing is that unlike ''other'' types of Necromorphs, these are created from living hosts that are still conscious and unable to control their mutated bodies. Their intestines have been modified for use as CombatTentacles, and the victim screams in constant agony until Issac kills them for good.
** The third game introduces the Feeders, humans that consumed infected flesh when faced with starvation. Like the Guardians, they are still alive but have been driven insane by a HorrorHunger and mutated beyond recognition.
* ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt: Hearts of Stone'' has [[HumanoidAbomination Gaunter O'Dimm]], who inflicts this on people with terrifying regularity.
** The fate of Professor Shakeslock. Shakeslock delved too deep into forbidden lore in search of the true identity of Gaunter O'Dimm, and so attracted his attention. Shakeslock was rendered blind and trapped in a twenty foot-wide chalk circle in his study which protected him from Gaunter O'Dimm's evil. However Gaunter still found ways to torment the professor, like giving him horrible nightmares every night. One night however he presented the professor with a vision of a beautiful and brilliant daughter, something the professor had always wanted - even if she wasn't real, he delighted in her company and going to sleep to see her was the only pleasure he found in his cursed and miserable life. [[YankTheDogsChain Then one day he met her in the dream again, and she was covered in boils filled with blood and pus; the professor was made to watch his beloved daughter waste away in his arms]]. Gaunter O'Dimm can take everything from you, and ''still'' find ways to take ''more''.
** In ''Blood and Wine'', Geralt has to deal with a Wight supposedly haunting an old estate in Toussaint. On investigating the Wight, it is discovered that the Wight was once a young baroness who loved to hold parties. One night Gaunter O'Dimm came to her door under the guise of a poor beggar and asked for food; in violation of Toussaint SacredHospitality tradition, she refused to give him anything and even told him that she would rather give the leftovers to her dogs than give him anything. Gaunter O'Dimm then cursed her, saying ''"None shall sit and dine with you at your table, no spoon you have shall sate you, never again shall you wish to spy your reflection in the mirror"'' before breaking his spoon and leaving. [[HorrorHunger He meant it.]]
* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' add-on, ''Mask of the Betrayer'' introduces a fate [[SerialEscalation doubly worse]] than death. First and most fundamental based on [[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms its source material]], The Wall of The Faithless is reserved for those who do not worship any god, or if no god comes to claim their soul when they die. Your soul is placed in the wall, to be absorbed over time and eventually become part of the wall. The titular Betrayer was placed in the wall as punishment for going against his patron god... [[spoiler:but just as he's about to be completely consumed, said god pulled him out of the wall, by which point his soul has largely been reduced into a ravening void. He became the living incarnation of the wall's hunger, the Spirit-Eater, compelled to devour soul to fill the void, doomed to never be sated, to die of hunger, and pass on the curse to other. ]]
* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys''
** VideoGame/UltimateCustomNight: You are in control of the [[UnknownCharacter protagonist]] who is eternally imprisoned in Freddy's Fazbear Pizzeria full of homicidal robots to pay for your crimes [[spoiler: for being a child killer]]. You never die, you always come back to relive the horror of robots attempting to murder you over, over, and over again.
* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', [[spoiler:the Joker doesn't seem to mind being dead, and he not only considers death more lively than being alive in the first place but also writes off his body, which had been reduced to ash, as something he'd long outgrown. What he ''does'' mind, however, is being completely forgotten, even by his colleagues in Batman's Rogues Gallery and the Batman himself.]]
* Since the ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'' is a CosmicHorrorStory, it's not a surprise that most characters suffer unpleasant fates. The murder victims are, by and large, comparatively lucky.
** Cabadath, [[FromNobodyToNightmare a druid in ancient Britain]], attempted to open a portal to [[EldritchAbomination Chzo]] in order to use its power against the invading Romans. His power was not remotely enough to control Chzo, who instead sucked him into its own dimension, painfully and deliberately warping his body and mind in order to make him its [[TheDragon principal agent]], the Tall Man, while [[SealedEvilInACan sealing away his soul]] in order to render him immortal.
** [[spoiler:One of the Trilby clones]] is [[AndIMustScream trapped inside Chzo itself, immobilised and subjected to constant pain for Chzo's enjoyment]]. By the time the Caretaker finds him, his only desire is to die, [[MercyKill which the Caretaker grants]]. Made worse for the player since the game leaves it unclear whether [[spoiler:he is merely a clone, or the former protagonist Trilby himself]].
** At the end of the fourth and final game, [[spoiler:Theo]] is taken into Chzo and mentally and physically warped in the same way as the Tall Man in order to replace the latter as the New Prince (Chzo having grown tired of the Tall Man's [[DragonWithAnAgenda machinations to overthrow it]]). The New Prince's dialogue implies that he is in constant pain, and his appearance hints at the BodyHorror he has undergone, [[spoiler:[[AnArmAndALeg missing one foot]], being covered in bandages, and wearing a welder's mask with the visor ''turned horizontally'']].
* ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfWar'': It's a ''skill'' in the ability tree; Worse Than Death increases the probability that your MindRape of a Captain drives them insane, leaving them babbling about the last coherent thought in their head, and also adds an additional tiny chance that they go feral, where they devolve into enraged bestial screaming. Even the regularly AlwaysChaoticEvil Uruks call you out for inflicting this level of cruelty on their brothers.

** At the end of the fourth and final game, [[spoiler:Theo]] is taken into Chzo and mentally and physically warped in the same way as the Tall Man in order to replace the latter as the New Prince (Chzo having grown tired of the Tall Man's [[DragonWithAnAgenda machinations to overthrow it]]). The New Prince's dialogue implies that he is in constant pain, and his appearance hints at the BodyHorror he has undergone, [[spoiler:being covered in bandages and wearing a welder's mask with the visor ''turned horizontally'']].