10 Video Games Where Everyone Can Die

5. Fire Emblem: Awakening

Until Dawn
Nintendo

Frankly, I could've put any of the Fire Emblem games here, I could even have put them in every slot on this list, seeing as how permadeath has always been both the series' defining gimmick and the millstone around its neck. But Awakening serves as a good representation of the series, so it gets the spotlight.

Fire Emblem is a tactics-based RPG where your "party" can consist of dozens upon dozens of different characters. To make things interesting, then, the series implemented a system that would attract a dedicated hardcore fanbase and scare off literally everyone else: unforgiving permadeath. If a character dies, that's the end of it. No matter how important they are, if you screw up, the story continues without them.

Awakening and games after it gained fame by giving players the option to turn permadeath off, but just looking at the ridiculous number of characters on standby in the easy mode serves as a constant reminder that the game had planned for you to have lost a lot of people by then.

Contributor
Contributor

John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?