This is topic Death and video games in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


To visit this topic, use this URL:
http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/main/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=057842

---

Posted by 0Megabyte (Member # 8624) on :
 
So, are there any video games that have made you sad when a character died?

I ask this because I was just playing Dwarf Fortress, and had the first disaster of this particular fortress. It was pretty bad, as things go.

The four miners were down underground, carving out a large cistern, to give the fortress an internal source of water.

On the day it happened, the miners Olon, Doren and Risen were on shift. Mosus, the fourth miner, was having lunch at the time. With the miners there was Obok, a farmer and the town brewer (a very important job) was visiting his friend Doren and inspecting what they all believed would become the new cistern.

Regardless, when it happened, it happened fast. Several levels of stone collapsed around and on top of them all.

Olon was the first. While his stomach and lower body were badly bruised, and his right leg was smashed below the knee, he damaged his neck and spine, and quickly died.

What makes this worse was his family. In this new fortress there are few families. However, he and his wife Ral (a gem cutter) had finally had their first baby, a son named Mafol, a few months earlier. Mafol is their only son. While Ral strangely wasn't much affected, the baby seemed to miss his father. It's heartbreaking to think that he'll grow up without a father due to a mining accident.

Doren, the second miner, was crushed by rubble. From what it seems, he suffered far worse than pretty much any of the others, though. Nearly every bone in his body was smashed.

Obok the farmer's ribs were smashed, tearing into his heart. It cut through a major artery. However, even so, he managed to stand. It was only a few seconds later that he fell back down, and quickly bled to death.

Risen didn't die. He got off lucky. His left arm and leg were broken. There were overlapping fractures on both, and they were pretty much smashed apart. However, dwarven medicine isn't very well advanced. The equipment needed for his injuries weren't even in the fortress when it happened. And while the fortress hurried to procure what the doctors said he needed, his injuries grew infected. He may be the least lucky of the four.

Really, I'm saddened by the needless loss of life. I can't go back to a previous save or anything, this game doesn't allow it. Their deaths and injuries are permanent. The friends of the deceased are depressed, and all I can do now is prepare graves worthy of the men who built and fed the fortress. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten. This game can be fun.
 

---

Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
 
Losing if fun

I name all of my Dwarves, so when one eventually will die Ill feel the loss even more so.

Hope they have good healthcare and won't be rejected for having pre-existing conditions.
 

---

Posted by ricree101 (Member # 7749) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by 0Megabyte:
The friends of the deceased are depressed, and all I can do now is prepare graves worthy of the men who built and fed the fortress.

---

That, and give the survivors a good dining hall.


 

---

Posted by AchillesHeel (Member # 11736) on :
 
Aeris, nothing more needs to be said.

Tali died on my first play of the suicide mission in ME2, the justicar is more than 600 years old and she still didnt make a good team leader and poor Tali payed the price. Immediatly booted up a reserve save and hit up gamefaq, as sparingly as I could to get a perfect end.
 

---

Posted by Raymond Arnold (Member # 11712) on :
 
I was sad when Grom died in WarCraft 3, but not particularly so.
 

---

Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
 
Strangely, I don't find the deaths of fictional characters moving, and I can often be surprised when others are really hit by it. Occasionally, I'm annoyed, and go into brief meta-analysis of it ('oh, that actor must have really wanted to bail on this project') but I'm mostly emotionally mute to it.

In video games particularly, since there's rarely any deaths of real import.
 

---

Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
 
Also, games are awash with really just badly written cinematic hogwash too. The Final Confrontation in starcraft II, for being the climactic plot moment of one of the most high-anticipated, high-budget titles in a while, reads out like it was written as middle school fanfic.
 

---

Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
 
Noble Team

Oh and DMITRI PETROV! GODAMNIT INFINITY WARD!!!
 

---

Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
 
Miranda's death in my play of ME2 frustrated me, but didn't really make me sad. "Geez, get in the face of the torture victim just after she's revisited the scene of her torture? Does Cerberus offer any courses in tact, you twit?!" That I could convince an alien court to side with Tali without a shred of evidence but not get Miranda to snap out of her snit pretty much sealed her fate, and my degree of caring about it.

I was a little saddened by Eli Vance's death in Half-Life 2 ep 2, though.
 

---

Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :
 
Aeris in FFVII was the first video game character that truly died on me. It took me by complete surprise and I was shocked at how sad and stunned it made me. There were no deep and lasting scars, it is just a video game, but it did blow me away and I hated Sephiroth.

It made Sephiroth the ultimate bad guy , and then the game ended up being super easy to win and Sephiroth became the biggest let down for any end boss.

Edit:

quote:

---

Aeris, nothing more needs to be said.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by PSI Teleport:
Aeris' death didn't affect me in the slightest. (I've always been a Cloud/Tifa shipper, anyway.)

---

Finally someone that thinks the same way I do. With all of the problems Cloud had, the last thing he needed was an immature teenage girl to take care of him. Tifa was a much better choice.

The only video game death that really hit me hard was in Valkyria Chronicles on the PS3. That game is a masterpiece from beginning to end. It is an alternate history of WWII. One character is with you the entire game, and after one mission, a sniper shoots her out of nowhere and she dies. Just like that. It came out of nowhere and was totally unexpected.

One of her squadmates was a former singer and sang a song when they were laying her to rest. The squadmate had hated her for most of the game and had recently accepted her and began to be her friend.

If you have a PS3 and haven't played this, you need to! I think you can pick it up for about $20 now.
 

---

Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
 
Various parts of Grim Fandango.
 

---

Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
 
Every single one of the sixteen colossi in Shadow of the Colossus.
 

---

Posted by 0Megabyte (Member # 8624) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by twinky:
Every single one of the sixteen colossi in Shadow of the Colossus.

---

And yet you still killed them.

It says something interesting, doesn't it?
 

---

Posted by Herblay (Member # 11834) on :
 
Every time that I killed one of the Greek gods in God of War III, I practically cried. Hades, yes, I shed a few tears. Hercules (demi-god, I know), of course. When I snapped Hera's neck, oh heck yes, I was balling like an infant.

Helios . . . not so much. He had a bad attitude. I won't say that I murdered him HAPPILY, but . . . .
 

---

Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
 
Bawling. I hope.
 

---

Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by 0Megabyte:

quote:

---

Originally posted by twinky:
Every single one of the sixteen colossi in Shadow of the Colossus.

---

And yet you still killed them.

It says something interesting, doesn't it?

---

It's like the Weighted Companion Cube in Portal, which I euthanized very reluctantly and only after looking around quite a bit for alternatives, only to be told that I had euthanized my WCC faster than any other test subject. You have to do it to advance the story.

The most beautiful thing about SotC is how understated the story is. You know you're doing a bad thing simply because of how beautiful the colossi are and how sad you are when they die by your hand. And yet you press on. Killing the colossi will bring her back, but at what cost? The game is a truly moving meditation on sacrifice, selfishness, and desire.
 

---

Posted by Raymond Arnold (Member # 11712) on :
 
Motrax in the Exile series. Doubt anyone here is familiar with that. Something like 10-20 years pass between each game. In the first game, he's a proud, friendly dragon that gives you aid. In the second game, he's terribly injured after an attack and is kept under locked guard, unable to see most of his friends "for his protection," which really means so that the wizards can interrogate him for magical secrets.

In the third game he's already dead, but you meet his friend, Marian, who in the first game was a young girl and now is an old woman.
 

---

Posted by Herblay (Member # 11834) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by TomDavidson:
Bawling. I hope.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Herblay:
I was balling like an infant.

---

lol. that's quite a thing to ascribe to infants
 

---

Posted by Geoffrey Card (Member # 1062) on :
 
Blayne, I'm pretty sure Treyarch killed Dmitri Petrov

I was really sad about my horse in Shadow of the Colossus. And really happy at the very end.
 

---

Posted by Rawrain (Member # 12414) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by C3PO the Dragon Slayer:
I was somewhat upset by the Great Deku Tree's death at the beginning of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but it was mostly because I had worked so hard in that dungeon just to save him and all I had to show for it was a stupid rock.

---