The Super Robot Wars franchise is the king of this trope. While many characters are usually brought back to life as hidden characters, there are a few who actually live due to this trope, especially if they were fan favorites. Some of the most frequent offenders are Amuro Ray and Char Aznable in Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, Alto Saotome and Sheryl Nome in The Wings of Farewell, and Nia Teppelin note .
- General cases:
- There is one guy who just can't make up his mind on if he wants to live or die in these games: Gai Daigouji, who, in seven games the Nadesico series has shown up in (Advance, Reverse, Judgement, Impact, MX, W, BX), two he lives all the way through, three he's an optional character and two he STAYS dead!
- The Evangelion cast has a much much happier and better existence in SRW, and most of the sympathetic characters live. Ritsuko always dies in any game that finishes the End of Evangelion plot. Only in L was she spared because L only used the plot of the first two Rebuild movies. Kaji also usually doesn't make it, although he, too, survived L for the same reason, and unlike Ritsuko he made it through MX. Gendo always dies, but he arguably deserves it. Misato, and at least one of the Reis always make it, and the Bridge Bunnies always survive, although they're never seen again after getting Tanged in Alpha 3. Third Impact is always averted, and in a way that doesn't end with Shinji and Asuka alone in a world of Tang.
- If Four Murasame, Elpeo Ple, Ple Two, or Tod Guiness show up on the enemy side, odds are that they can be spared from their canon deaths and recruited into the player's army. They are among the oldest and most recurring SRW unlockables. The Ple duo in particular is occasionally given to the player by default.
- Super Robot Wars: Original Generation:
- In Super Robot Wars Original Generation 2, Lee Linjun dies aboard his ship, the Shirogane, when he stupidly tries to use it to take down the Kurogane. In the Enhanced Remake, Super Robot Wars Original Generations, the Shirogane is merely crippled in the same scene, not destroyed, which allows him to escape, at least until the sequel, 2nd Super Robot Wars OG. There, he rams his new ship, the Air Christmas, into Euzeth's Adamatron and self-destructs. The Anime of the Game, Super Robot Wars Original Generation: The Inspector, spares him all together by keeping him from having his Face–Heel Turn.
- Super Robot Wars: Original Generation Gaiden features a lot of these and an eventually subverted inversion. When they chose to adapt the OVA into game form in the bonus section of Original Generations, the segment ended in Lamia, who survived the OVA, getting shot down dead by Wilhelm von Juergen and thrown off to space, left for the dead, making her seemingly an inversion of the trope. The actual game later revealed that she actually survived, picked up by Duminuss then Brainwashed and Crazy to play the Master Asia part of Reversal. She gets better... and later, the game plays it straight for some of the Compact 3 cast, including Fernando Albark, Alion Lucada, and Maysis Mark, when you compare to the original where every original except Folka died. And the game also pulls a surprise one in form of Reversal's Despinis, one of the Quirky Miniboss Squad that you fight in Reversal, resulting her pulling a Heel–Face Turn for good.
- And then 2nd Original Generations inverts this: In Super Robot Wars Destiny, Perfectio is impossible to kill and only defeated when Treize Khushrenada pulled a Heroic Sacrifice to seal him off forever. They went along with this plot point, and picked Ventus, who was promoted from Secret Character into an automatic-join (and no longer exclusive with fellow secret character Glacies), to take Treize's place in the Heroic Sacrifice of sealing and defeating Perfectio. Also previously in Destiny, Rim gets to keep her two personalities throughout the game. In OG, one of them, the Nice Girl one, Chris... VANISHED, lost forever, and leaving Rim with just one personality, and she is not happy about it.
- Shin Super Robot Wars: Heinel, Master Asia, Amuro, Char, and Julia Asuka get to live due to various reasons.
- After Domon's last fight with him, Master Asia (who is an alien in the game) needs to return to his homeworld and enlist aid. Domon, moved nearly to tears, praises Master Asia's dedication to peace and freedom, and the two exchange manly martial words before Master Asia's departure.
- When beaten in the final battle against Neo Zeon, Char will furiously say that Amuro wouldn't have even had a chance if he hadn't leaked info to the Federation about the Psychoframe, noting further that Amuro wouldn't have even been worth killing in the RE-GZ (the mobile suit Amuro piloted before the Nu Gundam). Amuro figures that Char is doomed to look down on others for all eternity. Nanai will then go over and fish Char out, saying that he's indispensable to Neo Zeon AND to her, and ignoring his pleas to stay out of it.
- Once Zuhl and the Skullrook is eliminated in an Earth Route scenario, Heinel decides to go on a little journey, on which Katherine insists on accompanying him. Kazuya figures that the two of them will be happy together.
- Super Robot Wars W spares Flay Allster, whose lifepod was intercepted by the protagonists instead of the Earth Alliance, completely averting the events that led to her death in the original series. Same for Tsukumo Shiratori, who instead just fakes his death and bides his time before making his move on Kusakabe. It is also possible to save Miyuki Aiba/Tekkaman Rapier by fulfilling certain requirements. Averted for Shirogane, who is still killed by Honerva, albeit instead taking a fatal shot for Princess Fala and piloting along with his teammates one last time before sucumbing to his wounds.
- Depending on the player's actions, in Super Robot Wars L Michael Blanc can wind up surviving his death in the Frontier anime (he does end up surviving in the movie continuity).
- Super Robot Wars Z series:
- Euphemia li Britannia, Shirley Fennete and Rolo Lamperouge in Saisei-hen, provided the player picks the right route. Also, Anew and Lorelei are Secret Characters. Averted due to Jigoku-hen defaulting to the Zero Requiem route.
- Nia is spared this go-round in Jigoku-hen.
- Wang Liu Mei survives what should have killed the character in the show for Saisei-hen if the normal route is taken, only to be abandoned on the exploding Damocles by Emperor Lelouch.
- Lordgenome averts Heroic Sacrifice against the Final Boss in Jigoku-hen and returns to being a bio-computer aboard the Cathedral Terra.
- Graham Aker's death can be avoided during scenario 50 of Tengoku-hen if the requirements are met. Otherwise, he sacrifices himself to clear a path for Setsuna like in the original movie.
- When Ledo fights Striker during the Gargantia finale, Chamber K6821 ejects Ledo to safety, hoping to destroy Striker in a suicidal attack, but Alto picks up Ledo and puts him back into Chamber to continue the fight with another, sparing Chamber's fate from the series.
- Super Robot Wars UX gets a bit meta about it. If you manage to unlock every single Secret Character (17 of them, which actually requires at least a New Game Plus playthrough to pull off), most of which died in their original shows, you'll get an extra scene before the final battle where they discuss how their survival feels like a miracle and a testament to humanity's ability to Screw Destiny.
- Super Robot Wars V:
- Black Might Gaine, the beloved Ensemble Dark Horse from the series gets to survive and become a playable unit once players can successfully trigger and complete the secret scenario.
- Averted with the plot of Zambot 3. Though Celestial Being stopped it early, Kappei's grandparents and his dad are still dead. His older brother Ichitaka, however, remains alive to pursue engineering and publicize a utility for Bealian technology, thus justifying the use of the Ion Cannon without the King Beal.
- Hathaway Noa reads about the exploits of his New Correct Century counterpart and vows to avoid ever becoming Mufti Nabiyu Erin.
- Chan Agi survived Char's Rebellion thanks to the Axis Shock happening just as Hathaway was about to shoot her. She eventually reconciles with Hathaway and helps upgrade his Xi Gundam.
- Thanks to the ELS being Demoted to Extra (see above), Graham Aker survives by default. The same goes for everyone killed by the ELS in the movie, since the ELS aren't in the same universe as the Gundam 00 world.
- Both Daguza and Marida survive by default, marking the first Unicorn appearance where Marida isn't a secret character.
- Though she never appeared on screen, Tessa mentions that Nami has been taken into protective custody by Mithril after ARX-8's debut.
- Super Robot Wars X:
- Both Nia and Lordgenome (as a head) live on after the finale of TTGL thanks to Nadia's Blue Water. Averted with Kittan who still dies just like his canon.
- Black Might Gaine lives. Only this time, he doesn't do any Stupid Sacrifices and takes out his brainwash through pure will of justice.
- Jill survives by default this time with no secrets needed. Meanwhile, Irma and Tanya, pilots of the Eirene and Victora, also survive. However, their machines are destroyed during their escape from Embryo and thus unplayable.
- Provided the players fulfill the requirements, Todd, Glemy, Kia, Mashmyre, and Bizon live.
- Super Robot Wars T:
- Black Might Gaine survives off-screen, since Might Gaine is given a Post-Script Season, and after being saved, he was sent to train with the El Dora Five team. If the requirement is fulfilled, the El Dora team deemed him ready to return, otherwise he stays. But it's still confirmed that he survived.
- Eagle Vision survives the events since Debonair didn't execute the sudden attack that killed him before, nor is he rendered into a coma due to not being chosen as the Pillar in the manga. In the same time, while the events is based on the anime, Presea also survived the events, since Ascot, along with Caldina, was dispatched by Zagato earlier and then made to pull a Heel–Face Turn in the same time, so Ascot didn't have the time to summon the monster that would've originally killed Presea, so there is no Backup Twin involved this time. Unfortunately averted with Princess Emeraude and Zagato, their tragedy still has to be played straight.
- Played With when it comes to Spike Spiegel. During the ending of the default game, it's mentioned that he confronted Vicious and the Red Dragons alone, and it just ended there with no clear conclusion, staying true to the original anime where the ending was really ambiguous. If the Expansion Pack is installed, the story takes place after the events of T, and Spike pops back out, turns out he survived that.
- Super Robot Wars 30
- The backstory has the Axis Shock happen, Amuro and Char both disappear, and even mentions Full Frontal who in canon could not exist without Char dying due to having a part of Char's soul, but both of them just.. turn up alive with no explanation on how they survived. Both of them are even both surprised the other one is still alive.
- Mobile Suit Victory Gundam has an interesting example with Katejina, who even if you complete the prerequisites you explicitly do get to decide if she survives. Even more so, Uso's mom is spared her gruesome fate as she's saved by Van.
- This game is one of the few that Musashi Tomoe doesn't die in the cockpit of a Getter Robo, since the Getter Robo Armageddon storyline is mostly removed and given to the Getter Robo Devolution cast.
- Kagero's death can be prevented by completing two perquisites in the stage you fight him. A while afterwards, he will join you in the secret stage Return of the Mirage.
- Super Robot Wars DD
- The game takes great pleasure in sparing Houko Kuwashima characters, averting her tendency of being a Chronically Killed Actor. At the end of the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED storyline, Natarle Badriguel ends up getting rescued by Gai Shishioh, Kotetsu Jeeg and Devilman, with Gai delivering a "Reason You Suck" Speech to Muruta Azrael before Devilman kills him. As well, Flay Allster is saved from Rau Le Cruset's spiteful DRAGOON shot by Setsuna F. Seiei going Trans-Am to block the shot. Flay apologizes for her crappy actions and seemingly stays out of the fight while Natarle returns to the Archangel as Murrue Ramius' Number Two once more.
