History Main / DeadCharacterWalking

* In ''VideoGame/MarioKart DS'' battle mode, a dead (read: out of the contest) driver can still drive around the battlefield, laying boxes, albeit invisible and intangible. The earlier ''Mario Kart 64'' likewise allowed players that were eliminated to continue driving about as a bomb on wheels, at which point they could try to ram into one of the remaining players to try and eliminate them as well. And ''Mario Kart 8'' has intangible characters actually allowed to use items the old-fashioned way - which can lead to such fun as

* In [[DeadlyGame battle royale games]], like ''VideoGame/PlayerUnknownsBattlegrounds'' and ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'': ''Battle Royale'', this can happen to you if you lose all of your health while playing on a team. If other teammates are still able to stand on their own feet and your health reaches zero, you're not necessarily dead...yet. Instead, you will enter a near-death state called "downed-but-not-out" (DBNO), in which you will slump to the ground and only be able to crawl slowly. Your allies then have a chance to come over and [[CombatResuscitation revive]] you, but only if you have enough tenacity to cling to life until they can do so. Tenacity will slowly decrease as you stay down, and will rapidly decrease if enemies [[FinishHim attack you]]. If your tenacity reaches zero before any of your allies can successfully revive you, or if all of your allies also get downed, only then are you [[GameOver gone]] [[FinalDeath for good]].

* Certain versions of ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}} 7: Perfect Cherry Blossom'' have a glitch where Merlin Prismriver fails to transition into the Prismriver sisters' final spellcard properly, and thus will continue attacking you even after the sisters have been defeated, potentially killing your character. So much for sisterly solidarity. This bug has been [[MemeticMutation mercilessly ridiculed]] by {{doujin}} artists.

* In [[DeadlyGame battle royale games]], like ''VideoGame/PlayerUnknownsBattlegrounds'' and ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'': ''Battle Royale'', this can happen to you if you lose all of your health while playing on a team. If other teammates are still able to stand on their own feet and your health reaches zero, you're not necessarily dead...yet. Instead, you will enter a near-death state called "downed-but-not-out" (DBNO), in which you will slump to the ground and only be able to crawl slowly. Your allies then have a chance to come over and [[CombatResuscitation revive]] you, but only if you have enough "resilience" to hold out before they can do so. Resilience will slowly decrease as you stay down, and will rapidly decrease if enemies [[FinishHim attack you]]. If your resilience reaches zero before any of your allies can successfully revive you, or if all of your allies also get downed, only then are you [[GameOver gone]] [[FinalDeath for good]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Driver}} 3'': Odd things happen during replays, where events play out incorrectly, sometimes leaving Tanner dead for half of it.

* A rare plot-related example occurs in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' where Galuf goes full [[TheDeterminator Determinator]] and PapaWolf, takes on [[BigBad Exdeath]] one-on-one, ''[[BeyondTheImpossible keeps battling even after his HP is reduced to zero]]'', and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome actually defeats Exdeath]]. [[spoiler: He dies immediately after that, though.]]

* The original VideoGame/{{Tenchu}} has a player-accessible DebugMode that can cause all sorts of amusing glitches when abused: much like the ''VideoGame/MegaMan'' example above, if you jump into a BottomlessPit and then use the debug menu to teleport back to the beginning of the level after you drop to 0 HP, you'll be essentially invincible and all enemy attacks go through you. However, this also gives you the same SuperDrowningSkills the enemies suffer from, but thanks to the debug menu, you can teleport yourself out of the water as well and revive yourself on command: depending on how long you let your character drown before you revive then, their lower torso [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe might disappear entirely]] or they might turn completely invisible with only their weapon floating in the air.

* In [[DeadlyGame battle royale games]], like ''VideoGame/PlayerUnknownsBattlegrounds'' and ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'': ''Battle Royale'', this can happen to you if you lose all of your health while playing on a team. If other teammates are still able to stand on their own feet and your health reaches zero, you're not necessarily dead...yet. Instead, you will enter a near-death state called "downed-but-not-out" (DBNO), in which you will slump to the ground and only be able to crawl slowly. Your allies then have a chance to come over and revive you, but only if you have enough "resilience" to hold out before they can do so. Resilience will slowly decrease as you stay down, and will decrease rapidly if enemies attack you. If your resilience reaches zero before any of your allies can successfully revive you, or if all of your allies also get downed, only then are you [[GameOver gone for good]].

* The original ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'' on the Nintendo 64 does this with the BonusBoss Baron Samedi, whom the player fights in the Egyptian El-Saghira temple level upon obtaining the Golden Gun. Even as you manage to take down this bad boy not long after meeting him, he still keeps coming after you and you have to beat him two more times. After the third time he's down, a cutscene will show James Bond escaping the temple, with the defeated Samedi [[TheEndOrIsIt still alive, following closely behind and letting loose some maniacal laughter]] while allowing James to get away. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the fact that Samedi is an undead villain fueled by voodoo magic, but there's a way to put down this stinker for good: [[spoiler: If you've set up your controls such that fire is mapped to a second controller, you can use the "[[ScriptBreaking shoot during cutscenes]]" trick to deliver a final blow during the last cutscene of Samedi's laughter]]

* A rare plot-related example occurs in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' where Galuf successfully fights off Exdeath at 0 HP. [[spoiler: He dies immediately after that, though.]]

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'', there is a glitch where if you execute it correctly, the opponent, 99% of the time, will become immortal. That is, they have only ''one Hit Point left'' no matter what you do. The other 1% of the time, they will die instantly.

* In ''VideoGame/MarioKart DS'' battle mode, a dead (read: out of the contest) driver can still drive around the battlefield, laying boxes, albeit invisible and intangible. The earlier ''Mario Kart 64'' likewise allowed players that were eliminated to continue driving about as a bomb on wheels, at which point they could try to ram into one of the remaining players to try and eliminate them as well.

* Amulets & Armor has a great bug dealing with the "death cam", the red-tinted view of the world you see when you die. Your character is actually still alive, the game just disables the keyboard. However, A&A has mouse navigation too, which it doesn't disable, letting you explore (and even beat) levels while dead.

** In ''Brawl'', by a certain glitch in stamina mode, both Wario and Bowser can become "zombies" where they can still be controlled and beat other players at 0 HP. Bowser could still win, but Wario cannot win at all after using this glitch.
** Master Hand, in ''Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS'', can continue fighting at 0 HP if you attack him for exactly the amount of damage as he has HP remaining. Any sort of damage after that, however, will defeat him.

* ''VideoGame/FarCry3'' had a glitch where certain molotov throwing {Mooks} get stuck in their ready idle stance (hopping from one foot to the other, waving their arms) instead of dying. They can't be interacted with, and can't be shot or stabbed or blown up.

** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' has a bizarre glitch where the player can ''[[LosingYourHead lose their head]]'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFBvunP4bps and survive]]. Perception is reduced to 0, and head customization and headwear are no longer available, but at least enemies can't target what you don't have. The same can happen with NPCs.

** Some respawning [=NPCs=] can also coexist with their corpse or, more frequently the pile of ash or plasma that was their past self. When you try to loot the glitched corpse or ash pile, the living version will respond to you as if you just tried to talk to them. The most prominent place this occurs is the guards outside Camp [=McCarren=], who are already likely to die multiple times thanks to the Fiends that spawn near them. These [=NPCs=], and all other that trigger this glitch, are counted as unique, and thus have saved facial structures and load outs, but use the same code as generic re spawning [=NPCs=]. This results in creating another instance of that NPC when they respawn, without necessarily removing the old instance (their corpse) in the process. In the game's eyes, the corpse and the person are the same thing.

** Some respawning [=NPCs=] can also coexist with their corpse or, more frequently the pile of ash or plasma that was there past self. When you try to loot the glitched corpse or ash pile, the living version will respond to you as if you just tried to talk to them. The most prominent place this occurs is the guards outside Camp [=McCarren=], who are already likely to die multiple times thanks to the Fiends that spawn near them. These [=NPCs=], and all other that trigger this glitch, are counted as unique, and thus have saved facial structures and load outs, but use the same code as generic re spawning [=NPCs=]. This results in creating another instance of that NPC when they respawn, without necessarily removing the old instance (their corpse) in the process. In the game's eyes, the corpse and the person are the same thing.

* In ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl'', by a certain glitch in stamina mode, both Wario and Bowser can become "zombies" where they can still be controlled and beat other players at 0 HP. Bowser could still win, but Wario cannot win at all after using this glitch.

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' mobs have a glitch where if you kill them, and exit quickly and on return they will be alive and moving around in whatever position in their dying animation they were in when you exited.

** There's also a non-cheating method involving having your death blow knock you into a cannon. You can launch out of the cannon and won't die unless you touch the ground. If you're wearing the Wing Cap, you can even fly around as a zombie!
*** An extension of the same glitch allows you to fly around ''without'' using the cannon as well: Hurt yourself to the point where fall damage can kill you, then equip the Wing Cap. A correctly timed three-jump combo will make you fly, so if you jump once, then twice off a cliff and trigger the last jump just as you land, you will take lethal damage but still begin flying. Unfortunately the impact "flattens" Mario and thus you can't jump more than a few feet up. Touching the ground at all causes Mario to die, which will happen eventually when the Wing Cap timer runs out. Interestingly enough, once you are "dead" coins and hearts will no longer heal you, so you absolutely cannot save yourself.

[[AC:Game mechanism]]

* In ''VideoGame/MarioKart DS'' battle mode, a dead (read: out of the contest) driver can still drive around the battlefield, laying boxes, albeit invisible and intangible.
** The earlier ''Mario Kart 64'' likewise allowed players that were eliminated to continue driving about as a bomb on wheels, at which point they could try to ram into one of the remaining players to try and eliminate them as well.
** Likewise in most of the newer ''VideoGame/{{Bomberman}}'' games, there's usually an option to allow defeated players to harass the living ones by riding around the edge of the stage in a hovering vehicle and throwing bombs at them. In some of the games, managing to directly kill one of the players this way could also revive you and let you resume playing normally, hopefully not getting killed in turn by the same player who you just offed.

* Literally in ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}''; since the characters walk [[AllInaRow one after another]], they are still able to walk around, but their sprite looks excessively tired.
** In its predecessor, ''VideoGame/EarthBound'', dead characters were actually ghosts following the leader of your party.

[[AC:Glitches]]
* The original QWTF ''Team Fortress'' had a bug where a spy could feign death, and then start moving around as an apparent sliding corpse on the ground.
** And in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', if your character's corpse is still there after you respawn, which tends to happen on instant respawn servers, it can produce weird effects. If your character [[HollerButton talks]], so does their corpse. ''C'mere, cupcake...''
** Inverted by anything that produces a "Statue" from the corpse after a kill in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' (The Saxxy, Golden Wrench, Golden Frying Pan, or Spycicle), where the statue will not only talk, but also sometimes be subjected to ragdoll physics. A patch sort of solved the problem, but they are still subjected to very, very minor physics when they collapse over.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' has a couple of bugs that allow you to walk around with an all-dead (or all-zombie) party. Of course, it's Game Over if you enter a fight, but hey.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' has a similar glitch with Cloud's flashback sequence. Sephiroth's AI is supposed to revive Cloud should he fall in battle but sometimes Sephiroth will just whale on enemies instead, leaving Cloud down. This becomes extremely funny when Sephiroth separates from Cloud's party, leaving Cloud to walk around town by himself while his HP is at 0. Unlike the above example, there's no more random encounters once Sephiroth leaves due to plot reasons, so there's no risk of a Game Over.
*** ''Final Fantasy VII'' actually has a system in place in early-game that heals and revives the party after plot points and boss fights. If one does a game where Cloud is at 0 hp when you reach Cosmo canyon, this is the first time in regular gameplay when you are not healed after a boss. This leads to a party of Cloud alone dead in the menu when checked when his party splits up at Cosmo Canyon when first visited when the buggy breaks down. If Cloud was just dead by chance, this can be particularly frustrating if you walk outside to sample the enemies nearby or gain a quick level.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'': By a glitch, you could walk [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wa5ytBcsOE Zombie Link in a dim world]]. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jQHKMe6fiY&feature=watch_response A different method]] allows Zombie Link to walk around in regular lighting, but nothing can be done anyway, everything is frozen, and many features are disabled.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' has a similar Zombie Link glitch where the player must rapidly press the A and B buttons alternately as soon as Link loses all his health, but before the death animation plays. This glitch is called "zombie hovering": Link will repeatedly start the jump slash animation, slowly rising into the air in the direction he's facing. The glitch allows one to travel anywhere within a room, but if Link touches the floor, he will immediately die.

[[AC:Cheat code]]

This is often considered a {{Good Bad Bug|s}}. Not to be confused with DeadStarWalking, or with those placed high on the SortingAlgorithmOfMortality.

This is often considered a GoodBadBug. Not to be confused with DeadStarWalking, or with those placed high on the SortingAlgorithmOfMortality.

** The game does forget where you died if you use a boat or a zeppelin to switch continents, allowing you to respawn at the new continent. Usually this is used to gain access to the Blood Elf or Draenei starting zones' tameable wildlife before the character is strong enough to get there normally.

** In it's predecessor, ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound}}'', dead characters where actually ghosts following the leader of your party.

* In ''TheSimpsonsHitAndRun'', there is a variation that lets you drive a wrecked car. Not surprisingly, It’s [[JokeCharacter VERY slow]]. It doesn't work with all vehicles, and you can bring the car back to fully normal by touching a repair wrench.

** Inverted by anything that produces a "Statue" from the corpse after a kill in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' (The Saxxy, Golden Wrench, or Spycicle), where the statue will not only talk, but also sometimes be subjected to ragdoll physics. A patch sort of solved the problem, but they are still subjected to very, very minor physics when they collapse over.

* The 1997 adventure game adaptation of ''VideoGame/BladeRunner'' has a glitch of this nature involving a character who can possibly be a Replicant. Ending paths that have the player joining up with Clovis and his band of Replicants are supposed to have all the surviving (randomized) Replicants meet up on the moonbus he and his group arrived on. The glitch comes in when one possible Replicant character, Dektora, is allowed to leave at an earlier point in the game, but then shot in the back before she actually gets out the door. She still shows up at the ending, but as a corpse. Nevertheless, except for not talking she'll still be able to do everything she's supposed to do at that point in the game - such as, for instance, coming back to life to shoot you dead if you attempt to pull your gun on Clovis.