10 Gaming Characters Who Never Deserved To Die

1. Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core - Zack Fair

Zack... oh boy, Zack....

I told myself I'd only use one Final Fantasy game for this article, since there's more than a few unfair deaths and cases of untimely demise in the series... however, Final Fantasy VII gave me two eligible candidates.

The previously mentioned Aerith is Zack's girlfriend, who doesn't survive too long after he does (at least they have each other in the Lifestream?), but Zack's death was set in stone long before hers was - Zack dies as a major plot point in the original Final Fantasy VII.

In Crisis Core, the prequel released for the PSP, we see Zack's career at the corrupt Shin-Ra Electric Power company, the ruling organization so evil it would put the Bush administration to shame. The game details Zack's rise through the ranks, the forced execution of his mentor, his fateful meeting with Cloud Strife, his so-cute-it's-unbearable relationship with Aerith, and an expanded explanation on the cause of Sephiroth's insanity (whom I believe is an unfair victim here - however, I digress).

From the beginning of the game, which puts you in Zack's shoes as an energetic, charismatic 16 year-old who wants nothing more than to be a hero, to the tragic ending of the game, which sees nearly every major character either dead or insane, the ending of the game was going to (predictably) result in Zack's demise, but the fact that you were expecting it doesn't make it any easier to bear. However, despite Square Enix's maddening tendency to have many of the characters in Final Fantasy VII (or the other FF games for that matter) meet tragic ends, there were two rewarding factor's in Zack's last stand. One: there is a definite afterlife in the canon of Final Fantasy VII, so there's comfort in knowing he's in a better place (in which he's joined by Aerith later, at which point both Zack and Aerith make an odd habit of popping up to communicate with those who are still in the realm of the living - like Cloud), and two: Zack, unlike Ghost and Sergeant Major Johnson, did NOT go out like a bitch.

See this photo? Only THREE of those infantrymen survive Zack's wrath.

At least Square Enix did SOMETHING right.