History Main / HeroMustSurvive

* ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresI'' and ''[[VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII II]]'' has objectives where heroes has to survive the entire scenario. As they are just slightly stronger than a regular unit, they're very impractical to use. One of the most annoying example is Joan of Arc, as she has to survive in '''five''' out of the six scenarios in her campaign. In skirmish games, the Regicide mission gives each player a totally useless (but [[FragileSpeedster quite nippy]]) king unit whose death loses you the game, and a castle for him to hole up in.

* Lords tend to be treated this way in the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' games. Other characters that the story requires to stay alive can be brought to 0 HP without causing a Game Over; rather than dying, they will be "critically injured" but will still be unable to fight again.

* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'', with the main heroes of the campaigns from Heroes II onwards. For Heroes IV his is despite the fact that heroes are never completely killed and can be resurrected by taking them to a town or sanctuary. You are only defeated if the hero is not alive after the battle, so you can use spells to resurrect him/her before the battle ends, or if the hero dies during a siege but your side still wins, he/she will be resurrected by the local temple.

** In the final mission of ''VideoGame/{{XCOM2}}'', [[spoiler:[[FacelessProtagonist The]] [[NonEntityGeneral Commander]]'s [[BodySurf Avatar]] must survive until the end of the mission, because it is, well, [[PlayerCharacter you]]. It also plays an important role in defeating the [[BigBad Elders]], and [[NoOneGetsLeftBehind getting everyone out]] to safety]].

* The ''Franchise/ShiningSeries'' of games are possibly {{Ur Example}}s, having this as an inherent and central game mechanic. Each game has a hero character that acts as the leader of the force. If the hero dies, you're sent back to the last save point with half your gold.

* The ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' series have missions that generally tell the players their Commando must survive to the end. Averted entirely in the case of Yuri's Revenge and some missions in Red Alert 3 for Tanya (said missions give the player the luxury of re-training Tanya at no cost).

** ''Red Alert 2''`s expansion pack ''Yuri's Revenge'' uses GameplayAndStorySegregation to try to discourage the TooAwesomeToUse factor. It accomplishes this by treating Tanya being killed in-game as her being wounded and airlifted to safety--so she can no longer be used by the player for the rest of the mission but her 'death' does not cause the mission to be failed.

** Continued in some missions of ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'', particularly with Raynor (who has the special mission objective "Raynor must not die. [[DeadpanSnarker It would be bad for his reputation]]."). The massive Odin walker must survive its introductory mission as well, but is expendable in the second (and last) of its missions.

* In both ''[[VideoGame/PuyoPuyo Daimadou Senryaku Monogatari]]'' games, as well as ''Arle no Bouken'', the player is eliminated once Arle goes down regardless of who else is still available to fight. Justified in that Arle is the one summoning and commanding the other monsters. Thankfully, this also applies to the enemy team.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/llhu_screenshot.jpg]]

* In a VisualNovel example, during the Kawakami War segment of ''VisualNovel/MajiDeWatashiNiKoiShinasai'', the war instantly ends if [[TheProtagonist Yamato]] or [[PrivilegedRival Hideo]] is defeated in combat. While Hideo's a pretty good fighter, [[ActionSurvivor Yamato]] tries to spend as little time on the front lines as possible.

* The ''FanFic/TriptychContinuum'' features a non-video game example of this trope. Luna and Celestia are the only beings on the planet (except for the imprisoned Discord) who can interface with SUN and MOON, meaning that if they both die, the world dies with them. It is for this reason that they so rarely risk getting directly involved with the crises facing Equestria.

* Another ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}}'' computer game, ''Rites of War'', has a couple of missions where you lose if a certain key hero unit dies. In the very last mission, only the Avatar of Khaine can kill the Hive Tyrant, who must be killed to win. Bear in mind, other units can ''wound'' the Hive Tyrant, but only the Avatar can finish it off. Obviously, then, you lose if the Avatar is killed. Of course, the Avatar is by far the strongest unit in your army, and quite possibly the strongest unit in the game, so that helps.

** In the final mission of Videogame/{{XCOM2}}, [[spoiler:[[FacelessProtagonist The]] [[NonEntityGeneral Commander]]'s [[BodySurf Avatar]] must survive until the end of the mission, because it is, well, [[PlayerCharacter you]]. It also plays an important role in defeating the [[BigBad Elders]], and [[NoOneGetsLeftBehind getting everyone out]] to safety]].

* A non-video game aversion: ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' core rulebooks make a point of averting this so that you can purposely build up your characters through conversions, and justify why you can lose a plot-important character like Marneus Calgar and not suddenly cause a booboo in the meta story: whatever just shot him only incapacitated him in this battle, it didn't actually kill him. If they didn't have this, it'd be hard to justify special characters in normal, non-campaign games.

* ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresI'' and ''[[VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII II]]'' use this in the campaigns, and the hero is usually just slightly stronger than a regular unit so they're very impractical to use. Joan of Arc is a particularly Scrappy example of this. In skirmish games, the Regicide mission gives each player a totally useless (but [[FragileSpeedster quite nippy]]) king unit whose death loses you the game, and a castle for him to hole up in.

* ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'' licensed game ''War in Middle Earth'' (not to be confused with the much more recent ''VideoGame/TheBattleForMiddleEarth'') gives you one objective: Bring the Ring to Mount Doom. Beyond that, every single named character is expendable. Once very viable strategy is to stash Frodo and the Ring somewhere out of harm's way while the you focus on the war against Sauron's forces. Then after you manage to occupy Mordor, have Frodo get killed, wait for a Nazgul to grab the Ring and speed off to Mordor where it will then fall to you forces.

* Because you tend to just send in four units at a time without including any of the central characters in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'', the series standard is done away with in-game. However, the story mode narrative still treats this trope as if it were being played straight when Alfonse and Sharena's father harshly lectures Alphonse on being reckless.

* ''VideoGame/TheBattleForMiddleEarth'' used this in a few of its levels, though others you could just summon your heroes back at your base if you had enough money.

* ''VideoGame/TheDarkLegions'' does this over the course of its second campaign. 90% of the time, it's a heavy cavalry unit that goes by the name of Theodoric (complete with golden armor), the rest is either a specified Knight or a King, or sometimes all of these.

* Applies to the Commander in ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation'' campaign, as this unit is supposed to represent you (though it does raise the question of how were you able to control your army in the first Core mission, when it was deactivated). It doesn't necessarily apply to skirmish games, but many players keep it in their base, and upon its death it destroys almost everything in a three-fourth of a screen radius around it, often triggering a chain reaction of explosions and leaving unfortunate player at a disadvantage that is impossible to overcome.
* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' does this with warships, making it more justified than other examples as losing them means losing the guys in charge, all your backup units and sometimes, ''the way home''. They also do it to characters when they have to do something plot-relevant in a cutscene, though after said scene you can let them get blown up fine.
** The first ''[[VideoGame/SuperRobotWars1 Super Robot Wars]]'' asks you to select a hero upon starting the game. Losing this unit results in a Game Over.
** ''Anime/GodMars'' is an extreme example of this - once God Mars appears in the game, he ''cannot die'' or you get a NonStandardGameOver. That's because there's a bomb placed in the Earth and if Takeru goes, [[DeadMansSwitch the bomb goes off]] and it's over for everyone.
* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'':
** In Skirmish games you can set "Assassinate" as a victory condition: if a team's hero unit is killed, that team is destroyed.
** The ''Dark Crusade'' expansion has this condition in two campaign battles: the primary objective to eliminate the Tau is to kill the ruling Ethereal, Aun'el Shi'Ores, while the primary objective to eliminate the Necrons requires your hero unit to personally deliver an explosive to the objective and return to your base; losing your hero costs you the battle.
* Another ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer40000}}'' computer game, ''Rites of War'', has a couple of missions where you lose if a certain key hero unit dies. In the very last mission, only the Avatar of Khaine can kill the Hive Tyrant, who must be killed to win. Bear in mind, other units can ''wound'' the Hive Tyrant, but only the Avatar can finish it off. Obviously, then, you lose if the Avatar is killed. Of course, the Avatar is by far the strongest unit in your army, and quite possibly the strongest unit in the game, so that helps.
* In ''VideoGame/BladeStormTheHundredYearsWar'', you control a mercenary captain who can control a squad of other units. While you can [[RedShirtArmy send them off to die]], if your character gets knocked out, the mission ends immediately, and you only get paid what you earned in battle (usually a pitiful amount), and are returned to the tavern.
* In ''VideoGame/FedaTheEmblemOfJustice'', the game ends if [[TheLeader Brian]] or [[{{Deuteragonist}} Ain]] die off.
* Several versions of ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' have Regicide modes, giving you a fairly useless King unit where if it dies, you lose. The most notable use of the Regicide mode is probably the "[[UsefulNotes/SengokuJidai Sengoku]]: Sword of the Shogun" scenario from ''Civilization III''[='=]s ''Conquests'' expansion, in which each House has a "Daimyo" unit representing the leader of the clan (e.g. if you're playing as the Oda, the "Daimyo" is called UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga); unlike the "regular" King of Regicide mode, the "Sengoku" unit is a fairly strong unit, although using it on the battlefield can be a bit risky and many players prefer to just leave him as a defensive unit in the capital.
* Just before the final mission of ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'', one of your psychic soldiers volunteers to enter the Gollop Chamber, turning into the most powerful human psychic in history. You must then take him/her onto the final mission and one of the objectives in it is that the Volunteer must survive, because [[spoiler:in the ending cutscene, he/she performs a HeroicSacrifice to prevent the alien Temple Ship from destroying the planet]].
* In ''VideoGame/PlanetAlcatraz'', if one of your team mates goes down to 0 HP, you can keep fighting and he will be revived when all hostiles are dead. However, if it happens to Boar, the main character, you have to reload a save.
* ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChroniclesII'' has several missions where a special Escort APC has to make it to a designated point on the map. While the game refers to these as Escort Missions, the player has full control over the APC. A number of other missions also have the death of specific characters as a failure condition.
* The ''FanFic/TriptychContinuum'' features a non-video game example of this trope. Luna and Celestia are the only beings on the planet (except for the imprisoned Discord) who can interface with SUN and MOON, meaning that if they both die, the world dies with them. It is for this reason that they so rarely risk getting directly involved with the crises facing Equestria.
* ''VideoGame/TreasurePlanetBattleAtProcyon'': In the campaign, if Jim Hawkins' ship is sunk, the mission fails. Does not apply to skirmishes however, as if the command ship is sunk, the second ship in the fleet will become the new command ship.
* ''VideoGame/AncientEmpires'': The death of the King results in loss for a side. Kings are the only unit that can't be bought and they are needed for a side to buy new units, so this makes some sense. Averted in the sequel, mentioned below.

** ''Anime/GodMars'' is an extreme example of this - once God Mars appears in the game, he ''cannot die'' or you get a NonStandardGameOver. That's because there's a bomb placed in the Earth and if Takeru goes, [[DeadManSwitch the bomb goes off]] and it's over for everyone.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} II: beyond the Dark Portal'' introduced hero units on both sides and they had to be kept alive throughout the campaigns, with the exception of the final Human and Orc missions since (just like C&C Red Alert above) there would be no more subsequent missions for the heroes to appear in so they decided it's okay if your heroes die on the last mission. Of course, Blizzard probably didn't anticipate making further Warcraft games at the time, so characters like Grom Hellscream and Deathwing could die in your playthrough but then make an appearance later on.

* Lords tend to be treated this way in the ''FireEmblem'' games. Other characters that the story requires to stay alive can be brought to 0 HP without causing a Game Over; rather than dying, they will be "critically injured" but will still be unable to fight again.