The most tragic main character death in a game (Spoilers)

[Kyr Knightbane]

Second place goes to The Chosen Undead from Dark Souls. You can't help but grow close to your character after all those hours of trial and error. And then he sacrifices himself to a fire.

Lies. Read below:

Spoiler

Your chosen undead doesn't have to die to rekindle the bonfires. In fact, some would argue that is the bad ending. There is another choice you can make.

I think my vote has to be....Bill from Left 4 Dead

Spoiler

I played through the DLC and found Zoey, and Louis and Francis... then stopped. Wait a minute. Where the hell is BILL?! I ran around for a bit before finding his corpse and just stopped for a minute. It wasn't supposed to happen like that. Why?! WHY?!!!!!!

 

[Leighcakes]

Not sure if it's tragic as it could've easily been prevented - but Alistair from Dragon Age: Origins. Sacrificed himself to save my character. Never blubbed so much in my life over a video game. >_> Alistair was probably one of the most lovable characters in an RPG I've come across yet, hence why I was a bit miffed that he had to go.

 

[Glongpre]

Tidus from FFX.

Erm, the nameless one for sure, although that isn't really tragic...

Arthas basically dies when he becomes the Lich King, the fall is pretty tragic.

Squall gets impaled and never gets to be with Rinoa....

Andrew Ryan.

Aeris, yes I would say she is a main character.

 

[direkiller]

Well, since I answer Fallout 3 for just about every single thread on this website, I'll say that again.
'But it was not until the end of this long road that the Lone Wanderer learned the true meaning of that greatest of virtues ? sacrifice. Stepping into the irradiated control chamber of Project Purity, the child followed the example of the father sacrificing life itself for the greater good of mankind'
The death actually stood for something, reinforcing the main theme of the game- Sacrifice. It wasn't just a sudden 'let's kill the protagonist to make it seem sad!'
John Marston's was interesting though. You think the story has finished and it all ends happily, until he jumps in the way of all the bullets instead of running or having another gunfight. He was killing himself to save us from more shootings.

It would have been better if it was not such a pointless death. O deadly radiation, yo Charon, Fawkes or RL-3 can you walk down the hall and press 4 buttons for me.
No one had to die, but they made you die because "destiny".

 

[Panzer_God]

The most tragic death of a main character?

X-COM: Enemy Unknown.

Yes, I know he didn't have a personality. I know his name, face, voice and abilities were decided on a whim by yours truly, and I know he was immediately replaceable if the need arose, but Colonel Felix "Sledge" Moreno was the best character ever. He survived from the first mission all the way until the very end, saving millions of lives, including taking on a squadron of enemies 5v1 after an enemy grenade took out his teammates. He and his pet Sniper "Omega" were the best of friends, with the two having a constant competition over who could kill the most aliens, but then they would get back to the base and just shoot the breeze until they got deployed again.

Then in the last level, Omega got caught by the mind control ray and turned on his team. He killed the medic before anyone even noticed he'd turned and in order to save his team, Sledge had to put him down. He had to blast his best friend into smithereens, killing him to save the world in an eerie call-back to the First Contact, where Sledge had to murder a fellow soldier who had been turned and almost killed them all. Then, his greatest sin fresh on his mind, he saved the remnants of his broken squadron and flew the exploding alien ship away from the Earth, saving the entire human race one last time, his death clearing his consciousness as he reunited with Omega.

The Kiltman. Fabio Fuego. Hans Seitwarz. Santa Claus. God damn seeing them die was painful.

[small]Along with most of my other XCOM soldiers...[/small]

You see, the special thing about these XCOM guys is that all of their deaths can be prevented, so you feel like you fucked up rather than just watching their inevitable demise within a pre-laid out story, that's why it hits you the hardest...

That person died because of YOU.

What this guy said.

Well, since I answer Fallout 3 for just about every single thread on this website, I'll say that again.
'But it was not until the end of this long road that the Lone Wanderer learned the true meaning of that greatest of virtues ? sacrifice. Stepping into the irradiated control chamber of Project Purity, the child followed the example of the father sacrificing life itself for the greater good of mankind'
The death actually stood for something, reinforcing the main theme of the game- Sacrifice. It wasn't just a sudden 'let's kill the protagonist to make it seem sad!'
John Marston's was interesting though. You think the story has finished and it all ends happily, until he jumps in the way of all the bullets instead of running or having another gunfight. He was killing himself to save us from more shootings.

It would have been better if it was not such a pointless death. O deadly radiation, yo Charon, Fawkes or RL-3 can you walk down the hall and press 4 buttons for me.
No one had to die, but they made you die because "destiny".

I made Fawkes do it, I didn't die.

 

[Jolly Co-operator]

Cole Macgrath from inFAMOUS 2. It's made even more tragic because of the sequel, which renders his sacrifice pointless.

 

[kenu12345]

I am shocked that no one has said this one but

Spoiler: Infamous

Cole Macgrath. Twas a sad sacrifice. Heck even more tragic was the flip side ending where Cole had to kill his best friend.

 

[Kellen Touey]

Probably going to have to go with Vivi from Final Fantasy 9. His death actually had some meaning other than being sad. The game was about death, and Vivi's arc was about accepting his own. It didn't hurt that he was an adorable 10-year-old wizard boy. Zidane's death in that game is pretty good as well, he always tries to help people and he dies trying to save the villain. Good, classical tragedy, but he's unsatisfyingly brought back to life at the end so there can be a happy ending.

I also had an experience in FTL where I made it to the last boss, and was completely underequiped. The last crew member alive was the captain, trying to repair the oxygen generator, before the entire ship blew up. It was the farthest I ever got in the game, and I had kinda gotten attached to the crew.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

All good choices but they don't compare to Lufia 2.

Maxim and Selene die, leaving behind their newborn, and Artea (an elf) is blinded permanently. Guy returns from Doom Island pretty unscathed...but the guilt causes him to commit suicide. The last part may be a lie.


At the end of Shadowhearts 2 Yuri dies, but his body goes on. At least in one ending.

 

[Shocksplicer]

Come on people, no mention of Jenny from TheDarkness? Shame on you!

 

[Vausch]

I'd go with pretty much any of the main character deaths in The Walking Dead.

I'd have to say the hardest deaths to me were Duck, Ben, and Lee. Mark gets special mention because even though he was only there for one episode, I quite liked him.

 

[SajuukKhar]

As someone mentioned before, the death of the main character from Fallout 3. The ending cutscene is what sold it.

The Death of Eli Vance was also pretty sad, what makes it worse is that Valve left us sitting on that cliffhanger for years.

 

[ghostrider409895]

I kind of had to really rush through this one since there might be a few games on here i want to check out a bit later. Still I have a few game main characters I think are very tragic.

Spoiler: Red Dead Redemption

Over the course of the game myself and other players really grew to like John Marston. He was a criminal, but you can appreciate him trying to live a better life, and that he is trying to just get back to living peacefully with his family. All he wanted was to give up his past, but in the end Edgar Ross and civilization wouldn't let him. When you have the line up of soldiers outside, John just steps out there and accepts his fate, going out with one last shoot out. It is just something to see, and defiantly a very sad and memorable death in a videogame.

Spoiler: Infamous 2

After beating the game as a hero it was tragic, but really heroic in that Cole gave his life for everyone. It is a major end, and while Cole may still be known as the Demon of Empire City, New Marais knows what Cole did, and Cole goes out as someone who will be remembered for his sacrifice. It becomes very touching when his best friend Zeke voices the end saying goodbye to his buddy. However, this nowhere near compares to the end when replaying as a villain. Only a few levels earlier were Cole and Zeke watching a funny movie and enjoying being together as friends, but if you complete the final ending as a villain you experience the most tragic ending I have ever seen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo_M7bsqFeU There is a video link if you want to see it again, but that ending is possibly one of the saddest main character deaths.

 

[Lennie Briscoe]

Do more emergent deaths count? Because I was gonna point out the time both Mordin and Garrus died on my suicide mission in Mass Effect 2 (hey, it was my first playthrough, give me a break).

Yeah, I did my fair share of looking down the bottle after that one...

 

[StormShaun]

Well when I think about it ...

Red Dead Redemption.
Infamous 2, good ending.
And Fallout 3 ... good-est ending?

I won't add spoilers or that, but I'll just say that these made me almost cry.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Well, since I answer Fallout 3 for just about every single thread on this website, I'll say that again.
'But it was not until the end of this long road that the Lone Wanderer learned the true meaning of that greatest of virtues ? sacrifice. Stepping into the irradiated control chamber of Project Purity, the child followed the example of the father sacrificing life itself for the greater good of mankind'
The death actually stood for something, reinforcing the main theme of the game- Sacrifice. It wasn't just a sudden 'let's kill the protagonist to make it seem sad!'
John Marston's was interesting though. You think the story has finished and it all ends happily, until he jumps in the way of all the bullets instead of running or having another gunfight. He was killing himself to save us from more shootings.

Spoiler

That was completed negated by the presence of Fawkes, a ghoul companion, and/or a robot companion.
"Why can't you go in there?"
"It is your...uh...destiny."
"Asshole."
And, as a final act of vengeance against the railroading powers that be, the Lone Wanderer let the core go critical and blow up, fucking everyone over. He died, but he died a free man beholden to no writer.

Yep, Fallout 3 remains the worst story I have ever suffered through in a game.
OP:

Spoiler

Persona 3. Emo, blue-haired Jesus died for your sins.

 

[Fractral]

Persona 3:

Spoiler

It's perhaps not so tragic, just sad and depressing. He's on the roof of the school building, his head in Aigis's lap (a robot weapon who found herself a soul and came to love him) as she tells him that she loves him, and never wants to leave him. At this point the party, who has just remembered everything that happened, comes up to join them on the roof, but before they arrive, the MC has one final conversation choice- 'close your eyes'. The screen fades and the credits roll. Then the last scene shows Aigis turning to face her friends, her face joyful, but you know that it's temporary, because the MC has just died in her lap.
What makes it worse even is that he died for nothing, really. His death prevented Nyx from destroying the world, but the only reason she wanted to destroy the world was because she thought that it would help humanity; that they truly wanted to die, because humanities collective will to die created the beast Erebus, which Nyx is attracted to. Even then, Erebus is defeated- the party kills one in the answer but they keep on being resurrected. Elizabeth, who also loves the MC, takes it upon herself to kill them as they come, but still lacks a way to save his soul from being trapped.

Still, fairly happy as Megami Tensei games go.

What do you mean he died for nothing? If not for his seal Nyx would've brought The Fall that very day. So, for now, Erebus is actually powerless, the only way for him to break the Seal is to get Aigis or Yu or someone else who has The Wild Card.
But I agree that Protagonist's death was really powerful, mainly because initially I didn't even realize that he died! I was like "Ahh... what a nice ending". And couple days later realization just hit me. That was the strongest moment of Fridge Brilliance I experienced

Spoiler

It wasn't for nothing, no. What I mean is that he wasn't saving humanity from some external evil threat, he was saving humanity from its own desire to die, something that he really shouldn't have had to do.

 

[Whateveralot]

I think Mass Effect 2's intro was great, tragic and had just about everything you wanted.


Also, Deus EX: Human Revolution springs to mind.

 

[JayElleBee]

I'd go with pretty much any of the main character deaths in The Walking Dead.

I'd have to say the hardest deaths to me were Duck, Ben, and Lee. Mark gets special mention because even though he was only there for one episode, I quite liked him.

Oh god, Ben. I think, after Lee, Ben's death is the one that hit me the hardest. He's just a kid really, but everyone keeps expecting him to act like an adult. And he really does want to, but he's just not cut out for it yet. I kept him with me throughout the game, stood up for him every chance I got, and right before he died, if you talk to him while in the bedroom he says, "I just want to help."

I blubbed so hard.

 

[Mobax]

I don't know why people are saying the Fallout 3 ending was good. It was contrived and poorly done.

"Go sacrifice yourself because it's your destiny, even though you have party members that are not only immune to radiation, but HEALED by it."

Having to go through a flooded facility and drowning would have been much better; you've been working all this time to provide a source of water that will save millions of lives from the effects of radiation, so what's a better ending? Being killed by the same radiation you've been dealing with for the whole game, or being killed by the purified water itself?

Yup, I hated that, I get there with Fawkes and the game replies, nope sorry. Thankfully Broken Steel fixed that issue.