10 Video Game Fates Worse Than Death (Commenter's Edition)
7. Sealed In Crystals & Drowned In Sorrow - Final Fantasy XIII
Though the Final Fantasy franchise has a loose grasp on the finality of death, Final Fantasy XIII nevertheless touts perhaps the series' most unsettling alternative to a dirt nap to date.
In the game, the l'Cie are people branded by divine entities and given an important task - better known as a "Focus" - to carry out.
But those l'Cie who fail to complete their Focus will eventually transform into a Cie'th, a crystalline, mindless monster who walks the Earth awash in sorrow in a state of "living death," until they lose all their energy and become a seemingly inert Cie'th Stone.
Yet it doesn't even end there - the l'Cie are still conscious even while turned into a Cie'th Stone, and will periodically cry out in anguish, begging that other l'Cie not suffer the same fate.
The alternative isn't great either, admittedly: l'Cie who complete their Focus will receive eternal life, only to be put to sleep in a crystal form until they're called upon to complete another Focus.
Basically, it sucks big time either way.