Basic Trope: If The Hero goes down, it's an instant Game Over.
- Straight: Hiro falls in battle. Companions Morgana, Kelvin, and Mana are still standing, but the game still instantly ends.
- Exaggerated:
- Hiro has 12 Auto-Revive status buffs when he received a single One-Hit Kill. Mana could easily revive him, and the party has plenty of healing items to get him back on his feet, but the battle is still lost. Game Over.
- The game is over if Hiro receives even the slightest Scratch Damage.
- Downplayed:
- Hiro falls in battle, and a countdown appears over his head. If he is not revived in that time, the battle is lost and the game is over.
- Hiro falls in battle, and his companions immediately pick him up and hightail it off the field.
- Hiro falls in battle, and his companions have their damage output halved.
- If Hiro takes the typical Non-Lethal K.O., the game continues. However, there's ways for player characters to suffer Permadeath. If this happens to Hiro, it's game over.
- Justified:
- The game is from Hiro's Point of View; if he dies, his point of view ends.
- Or Hiro is Blessed with Suck and revival magic simply doesn't work on him.
- Everyone else was created by Hiro using his overabundance of soul. If he dies, they simply fade away.
- Everyone is subject to Permadeath, including Hiro, so there's no way to revive him if he dies, and no way the story can go on without him.
- All the party members are mercenaries: if Hiro dies, there's no one around to pay them, and thus no reason for them to continue to fight.
- Alternatively, all the party members are Hiro's bodyguards and they have sworn an oath to protect him. If Hiro dies, they failed in their duty, and they just give up out of shame.
- Hiro is much more powerful than the other party members and if he dies, they won't last long without him.
- Hiro is a Hope Bringer; his death will lead to his followers crossing the Despair Event Horizon.
- Hiro is a Barrier Maiden, he goes kaput? The world goes kaput.
- Inverted:
- Instant-Win Condition
- Hiro needs a party to stay alive. If they all die, he dies. If he dies, he'll get back up in a few rounds.
- Doing a perfect run without any Game Over will lead to an extended Downer Ending.
- If Hiro doesn't die past a certain point you get a Nonstandard Game Over.
- Permadeath is in effect, but Hiro has Resurrective Immortality and is the only party member who can die without consequence.
- Subverted: Hiro falls, you get a game over screen... but the other party members complain loudly enough that the Interactive Narrator says "Fine! Fight without him!"
- Double Subverted: ...Once the fight ends, however, it's still Non-Standard Game Over.
- Parodied:
- Every time Hiro trips over his own feet or touches anything that might even ''hurt'' him... it's game over.
- Every member of Hiro's party (except for the man himself) is a serious case of Brilliant, but Lazy, with their leader being the only reason they do anything productive on the first place! Kill him, and everyone goes back to playing videogames and goofing around.
- Zig Zagged: Sometimes, when Hiro falls, the battle goes on; sometimes the battle falls, and it's all about random chance.
- Sometimes Hiro falls and the battle continues and he is alive again afterwards like nothing happened. Other times it leads to an earlier alternate ending. In some paths Hiro must die to continue along them.
- Averted: Hiro can be revived during battle with no ill effects.
- Enforced: It's a form of Fake Difficulty.
- Lampshaded: "Oh no, you're not going to die, are you? We'll have to start all over again!"
- Upon Hiro dying, the other three all look down at his corpse and let out a Big "NO!" in unison.
- Invoked: Hiro kills himself on purpose because he wants to save his teammates and as soon as he dies, the battle will end, keeping them safe.
- Exploited: Hiro skips straight to the villain fight and kills him. The villain's henchmen give up immediately.
- Defied:
- Hiro stays far away from any enemy because he knows the battle will end if he is killed.
- Hiro trains his allies so they can carry on in case he is incapacitated.
- Discussed: "Oh no, Hiro is falling! NOOO! The battle is over!"
- Conversed: "I have plenty of reasons to go on, and yet the game ends whenever that stupid weak character Hiro falls!"
- Deconstructed: Hiro's companions go to any length, any length, to prevent his death, to the point where he can't do anything because he's being overprotected by his fearful teammates.
- Reconstructed: Because his companions are so overprotective, Hiro tries very hard to escape them and kill enemies. He finally manages to do so, but he dies himself... Game over.
- Played For Laughs: If Hiro falls in battle, Morgana berates the player by screaming at his body about what an idiot he was to go down like that.
- Played For Drama: Because Hiro has fallen, his allies immediately stop fighting and the enemies are able to slaughter every single one of them. If only Hiro had stayed alive, the good forces would have won in the final battle against the Big Bad.
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