History WhoWantsToLiveForever / VideoGames

** Kaguya herself (the same Kaguya as from the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, by the way. Mokou's grudge stems from Kaguya humiliating Mokou's father with an ImpossibleTask) was exiled from Lunar society for drinking the Hourai elixir, as were Chang'e (a princess from a Chinese tale, currently kept imprisoned in the Lunar Capital) and Eirin (for inventing the elixir). Why? Well, the Lunarians are big on preventing anything impure from reaching the moon, and something that reminds them of death (or its absence) falls under that category. The mere fact that humans from the impure Earth once landed there was a major blow to them, which is why one of their enemies is WearingAFlagOnHerHead.

* [[spoiler:Ayano]] from ''LuminousArc2'' considered immortality to be a cursed. Although she initially becomes one with the help of [[spoiler:the BigBad, Mage Queen Elicia]], it doesn't take long for her to realised that life itself became pointless without death.

* In the ''{{Suikoden}}'' series, one of the side effects of possessing a True Rune is being preserved at the age at which you acquired the rune. Some people revel in their immortality, while others, (like Ted) view it as a curse. The mysterious Flame Champion, bearer of the True Fire Rune, decides to seal it away for 50 years so he can marry and grow old with his sweetheart, Sana. (The fact that the Rune had gotten out of control and blown up a large portion of the countryside might have had some part to play in that decision as well). [[spoiler:This didn't work out so well for the Flame Champion, as he died while still young a few years later. Whether this was a result of sealing the Rune or natural causes is unspecified.]]

** Given that the True Runes are supposed to be aware and possess the nasty tendency of not only snaking on your OWN soul if you happen to get killed at some later point but many having unfortunate side effects as well. Like [[VideoGame/SuikodenI Soul Eater]] taking the souls of friends who die near you, [[VideoGame/SuikodenV Sun]] driving you insane, [[VideoGame/SuikodenIV Punishment]] eating your soul[[note]]a particularly nasty one, since while it doze stop the host's aging like other True Runes, they don't get a chance to enjoy that since most bearers have their souls eaten within a few years at most[[/note]], [[VideoGame/SuikodenII Blue Moon]] turning you into a vampire (though the current bearer is [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire a fairly nice one]]), and so on. It's no wonder that some people come to view it as a curse.

** The cast contains plenty of immortals, but Fujiwara no Mokou is the only one who got hit with this trope. She impulsively drank the Hourai Elixir over a thousand years ago and was ostracized by society until she decided to live as a hermit. Then she completely snapped and mindlessly attacked anything that found her. ''Then'' she spent three hundred years in an apathetic depression. But Mokou shook it off when she made her way to Gensokyo, where she rediscovered her archenemy and fellow immortal Kaguya Horaisan. Now she and Kaguya pass the time by pointlessly murdering each other, which is probably a step up from the majority of her existence.

* Also part of the Sonic universe are small, child-like creatures called Chao, who either live forever by [[BornAgainImmortality reincarnating over and over again]] or by [[CompleteImmortality becoming a Chaos Chao]]. Subverted, though, because Chao are mentally like infants forever, [[IgnoranceIsBliss suggesting that they don't mind living forever.]]

* This is a constant, omnipresent motif in LucasArts' adventure game ''VideoGame/TheDig'': Stranded on a deserted alien planet, a group of astronauts discover crystals that can bring back the dead, and use it to resuscitate their fallen comrade, who turns insane and addicted to the crystals in the process. Meanwhile, they discover that the former residents of the desert planet [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence found other means to make themselves immortal]], but never found a way to undo this.

* In ''{{Arcanum}}'' this is stated as a reason that mature elves do not live amongst human society, "In maturity, elves tend to settle down and keep to their own; it may be that burying several generations of short-lived friends and spouses causes them to lose the taste for human company." -Arcanum manual.

* In ''{{Drakengard}}'', [[TheKidWithTheRemoteControl Seere's pact with Golem]] makes him lose his "time," meaning that he will never age. This wouldn't normally be a downside, except that Seere is six years old.
* ''LostOdyssey'' may be the most well fleshed out video game example of this trope in recent memory. Main character Kaim Argonar (and supporting immortals Ming, Seth, and his wife Sarah), realize fully and consciously that living forever sucks, and the game is wholly capable through the many unlockable Dreams of a Thousand Years (essentially short stories with some aural assistance) of convincing the player that it sucks too. Kaim has lived for a thousand years, and he's watched hundreds of loved ones die, including his own children, and killed thousands of enemy soldiers in battle. Worse yet for him and the other three "good" immortals, the main villain is the only other immortal on the planet and a power-hungry maniac hell bent on using his eternal life to control the planet. Worse ''still'' for the 4 "good" immortals, he's pretty savvy as to how their immortality works: they cannot be killed. Period. Kaim survives a meteor impact at the beginning of the game, and the others have all survived one catastrophe or another. So the villain does something even worse: to each of them, he uses their most beloved friends and family, and his considerable power and, through a combination of mind control and [[ChessMaster supreme manipulative ability]], inflicts psychological pain [[FateWorseThanDeath worse than death]], after which he seals their memories, rendering them (in their own words) "walking corpses" who have no purpose in life and can only wander, fight, work, whatever, burdened by the knowledge that they'll never get to go to the afterlife and the emotional pain of the losses he inflicted on them. After all of this the game's ending subverts the theme, as Kaim and two of the other good immortals settle contentedly into their immortal lives, reasoning that eternity isn't so bad after all. It helps that [[spoiler:two of them are married to one another, and the third, although her husband is mortal, is a queen with a whole country to keep herself busy with throughout the centuries to come. All this was enabled by the HeroicSacrifice of the fourth immortal who pulled the aforementioned BigBad back into their home dimension where they ''aren't'' immortal- their immortality in the main world is due to differences in physical laws]].

** In ''Awakening'', Tiki and Nowi agree that outliving your friends sucks, to say the least. Tiki even outrights states, referring to [[FireEmblemAkaneia her friends from 2000 years ago]]:

* ''FinalFantasyTacticsA2'' has the Gifted, which apart from special powers also seem to live forever (and are immune to deadly illnesses, apparently). Lennart, the first Gifted you meet when Adelle starts to accept that, pretty much became an outcast because of the whole "seeing your friends die" deal. Adelle had a similar experience when her whole village was wiped out by a plague that didn't affect her.

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'''s cast contains plenty of immortals, but Fujiwara no Mokou is the only one who got hit with this trope. She impulsively drank the Hourai Elixir over a thousand years ago and was ostracized by society until she decided to live as a hermit. Then she completely snapped and mindlessly attacked anything that found her. ''Then'' she spent three hundred years in an apathetic depression. But Mokou shook it off when she made her way to Gensokyo, where she rediscovered her archenemy and fellow immortal Kaguya Horaisan. Now she and Kaguya pass the time by pointlessly murdering each other, which is probably a step up from the majority of her existence.

* In ''SoulCalibur III'', one of the fighters and the main mover of the plot is Zasalamel, who discovered the secret to eternal {{Reincarnation}} but at this point is tired of life. He pulls a vaguely defined {{plan}} to use the combined power of Soul Edge and Soul Calibur in an attempt to end his endless cycle of lives. This is because he found out in one of his lives that getting Soul Edge ''wasn't enough''. He was just corrupted and enslaved by the sword before being killed normally. His reincarnation is also coupled with a soul-rending agony that he is put through every time he comes back; which seems pretty often to a man of such advanced age. This is inverted in ''Soul Calibur IV'', when while being resurrected, Zasalamel glimpses a vision of modern civilization, and decides that he wants to live to see all of humanity's accomplishments for himself. He then starts seeking a way to become truly immortal, rather than just reincarnating all the time (because the aforementioned soul-rending agony still sucks even when LivingForeverIsAwesome). The cutscene of him being a rich big shot in modern New York City shows that he eventually succeeds.

** The entire plot is also caused by a large and convoluted attempt to [[spoiler:destroy the world, leaving Porky the only thing left alive in it, giving him the closest thing to death he can possibly achieve]], but in the end he is [[spoiler:trapped inside an inescapable capsule forever]], which achieves essentially the same effect.

* ''YggdraUnion'' has poor [[spoiler:Nessiah]], a very sad example of this trope, who never wanted to live forever--his immortality is his punishment for [[spoiler:not wanting to fight in Asgard's wars, despite the fact that his powers would have made a drastic difference in them]]. [[StayingAlive Even if he dies, he is painfully resurrected shortly afterward]], and at the outset of the game, he's been trying to free himself from the nearly-unbreakable chains which control his immortality for over a thousand years. [[spoiler:He never manages it]].
* ''SonicTheHedgehog'' proves to be a firm proponent of this theory at the end of ''SonicAndTheBlackKnight''. It may or may not have more to do with the fact that [[spoiler:the woman who brought him into the story wanted to twist it into a Hell on earth to do so]] than ideology, but still.
** The eponymous AntiHero of ''ShadowTheHedgehog'' is revealed to be immortal, which is why he's [[spoiler: a 50 year old in a 15 year old body]]. Now then, ever wonder why Shadow is so gloomy BESIDES because of the death of his only friend? Think about it: He may not like them, but Sonic and his friends have grown on him in a relatively friendly relationship. Rouge and E-123 Omega are both his friends. Here's the problem: [[FridgeHorror None of them are immortal, like he is. Although it will never be shown in game, they will all eventually age and die, leaving Shadow all by himself with possibly Omega being the only exception, and even then, machines can rust...]]

* While technically ageless rather than immortal, [[spoiler:Kratos Aurion]] from ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' [[DeathSeeker doesn't seem too happy]] about the situation. To be fair, that's partially due to [[spoiler:[[ShellShockedSenior guilt over everything he and Cruxis have]] ''[[ShellShockedSenior done]]'' [[ShellShockedSenior with eternal youth]], as well as grief over losing his family.]] The other ageless characters don't seem nearly as bothered by it. Interestingly, ''Tales of Symphonia'' also lacks the elf immunity clause, with Genis sadly reflecting in a skit how he's going to outlive all his friends.

* In ''SoulCalibur III'', one of the fighters and the main mover of the plot is Zasalamel, who discovered the secret to eternal {{Reincarnation}} but at this point is tired of life. He pulls a vaguely defined {{plan}} to use the combined power of Soul Edge and Soul Calibur in an attempt to end his endless cycle of lives. This is because he found out in one of his lives that getting Soul Edge ''wasn't enough''. He was just corrupted and enslaved by the sword before being killed normally. His reincarnation is also coupled with a soul-rending agony that he is put through every time he comes back; which seems pretty often to a man of such advanced age. This is inverted in ''Soul Calibur IV'', when while being resurrected, Zasalamel glimpses the future and the zenith of human civilization, and is now determined to see that day in person.

* Before you begin learning the truth, the initial prize of the tournament in ChaosRings is Immortality. This is wrong in several ways: 1: You had to kill 5 other loving couples in order to get it. 2. NOBODY save one person wanted it, and were fighting for their lives, not for the prize. 3. In a rather surprising MindScrew, [[spoiler: even if you win the tournament, you will be given immortality, only to be sent back in time with your partner 10,000 years to the past to raise a human race that will be destined to fight a Time destroying being called the Qualia.]] And of course, 4: it was artificial Immortality that couldn't survive against fatal wounding.

* In the {{Neverwinter Nights}} mod ''Shadowlords 5'' one of the tests given by the villain, whose obsession was life at any cost, was to preserve or destroy the machine ensuring that everyone residing in a certain idyllic little hamlet had eternal life - whether they wanted it or not.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'', GLaDOS makes a comment about how after Chell dies, she will consider working on reanimation, implying that she will force Chell to be her test subject forever.

** An alternate version of Cave Johnson underwent a similar version of the procedure that created GLaDOS, making him not only immortal but super-intelligent. He quickly becomes bored with living, especially because his conscious now working at CPU-speed means diversions such as reading a book now takes him mere ''seconds'' and so does re-writing said book to try and stay occupied. He's also upset that he can no longer [[SenseLossSadness scratch his nose]], and ultimately turns ''homicidal'' out of frustration.

* In ''LegacyOfKain'', vampires were given a three-fold curse of bloodlust, sterility, and immortality by their enemies, the Hylden. Because they are no longer part of the natural cycle of birth, death and rebirth, the [[EldritchAbomination Elder God]] has come to regard them as unnatural and seeks their extinction. some of the more religious vampires are known to have committed suicide in an attempt to regain his favor.

* In ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'', the protagonist is Sol Badguy, who was turned into a powerful, immortal Gear against his will. He has sought revenge for centuries against the BigBad who did it to him.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' and its sequel ''TheOldRepublic'' both feature a Rakatan prisoner who spend millennia in a mind prison. His original body had long decayed, everyone he ever knew had died, his civilization collapsed and his species almost became extinct. He still desperately wishes to get out by occupying another body, since it will finally allow him to die.