A really good point...

[TyrantWayne9999]

Very rarely has this really cropped up in a lot of video games I've played. The only game that I've played were death has any kind of consequence was in Fire Emblem were if you let any of your non-primary characters die they are gone for good. There's also Soul Sacrifice but it really more pertained to your allies and whether you choose to save or sacrifice them (whichever you felt was more beneficial, you can save them giving a small portion of your health and bring with them back in relatively good shape or you can sacrifice them to cause massive damage if not outright destroy your enemies. Though ultimately while this does have minute effects on the story in large there is a disconnect here due to the fact that you can return to a previous chapter and have them good as new and rectify any mistakes pertaining to said characters).

What am I really getting at here? Well what if we played a game where death truly has a penultimate consequence on the narrative and can't be fixed through resetting the game or save states or any kind of programmed magic?

Well since this is a website largely dedicated to Devil May Cry, I'll use it to try to make my point.

Imagine if in DMC4 Nero died facing a group of scarecrows or maybe died fighting Berial or any of the other bosses. What kind of effect would render on the world in which this character is set in? Nero being the main character (or rather one of 2 main characters?) of the story....ya I'm kinda rambling at this point.

Any thoughts?

 

[ROCKMAN X]

This is such a good topic! the only game i remember which implemented the death&checkpoint system seamlessly in a video game is the original assassins creed.

In AC1 it was made clear from the start that you were reliving your ancestor's memories in a simulation and you had to keep "synchronized" with your ancestor's memories,if you got hurt or fell off a building, you lost synchronization simple,its too bad the later assassins creed games completely throw this brilliant concept in the dustbin by introducing armor,health items and other cliched gaming stuff which goes against the synchronization logic.

in AC 2 and later games if you died of less health you really died,it had nothing to do with the loss of synchronization whatsoever.

Assassins creed 1 and Bioshock 1 are the only two games i know which has an in-game justficiation for constant checkpoints& a regenerating health system.

 

[seraphmaycry]

Eh, unless you're crafting a narrative heavy game, death only has to mean failure, coding the outbranching gameplay and story standpoints would require much from the designers that could be used elsewhere. Of course, as technology and tools improve, this will become easier, and so will everything else also. Considering how desperate some companies are unless a big budget or a complete change of thd player baseshows itself, then it's extremely unviable.

As for dmc, there are two possibilities, since Nero didn't do anything to anything oyher then the savior.

Either Dante gets capture d and used by the savior or
He finds a way to kill the savior, this is more likely because there are two possibilities for this to happen
Either the savior can be killed from the outside
Or sinceno time is wasted with nero, Dante everyone at tbe the ceremony, rushes to savior, killing anything on the way and then either the priest doesn't revive or he destroys the savior, thats if nero died before the story if he died between the two fights Dante canmake it in time
If he dies in the savior, well dante MIGHTe be able to kill it Anyway.

Meaning
2 ways to lose

2 ways to win, one being affected by timing so really 3.

60 percent victory chance, on average Dante wins, plus protagonists seem to be luck masters.

 

[TyrantWayne9999]

had this thread gotten more responses, I guess this topic ultimately would end up branching into games with multiple endings, the likes of recent Final Fantasies (X, X-2, and from what I understand Lightning Returns), The Disgaea Series, The Shin Megami Tensei series, BlazBlue (Fighting game with multiple possible endings, BLASPHEMY I SAY...lolz jk), and many others that would take too long to list.

Where am I really going with this? I'll will answer my own question with more questions (hmm).

-What if a sequel to the first Disgaea was made with the Bad Ending being canon? Laharl as a prinny in the next I must admit would be hilarious.

-What if Dante never gets out of the Netherworld after the end of DMC2 and eventually just dies there? Could you make a continuation of the DMC series if that was how the next DMC ended?

-Will there be a game where death for Link is permanent as opposed to being reincarnated?

Olrick Olrick Olrick...go to the horn. Olrick Olrick Olrick...GO TO THE HORN!!!

 

[Chancey289]

If Nero died it wouldn't matter because he was so pointless to begin with.

 

[TyrantWayne9999]

If Nero died it wouldn't matter because he was so pointless to begin with.

That wasn't even the point of the thread. the point is what if there was a game that actually had a noticeable consequence in it's narrative if the player character died and allowed the player to see it unfold instead of having the player assume what would happen. this concept could apply to any game not just DMC or DmC...do ya even get what I'm saying

 

[The Final Offer]

If Nero died it wouldn't matter because he was so pointless to begin with.

Pointless? The point of Nero in the DMC universe is to announce that Vergil left behind a seed for Dante to understand that once again, he has family. He's not alone.

For the topic's sake, there are games out there that show you what happens if you fail. On top of that, the game gives you the objective of saving whatever it is and why you should. It basically spells out why your character is important.

Incorporating that idea into DmC or DMC would be a waste of time unless you're not playing as Dante. What would happen is if Dante dies, everyone who's less powerful than him dies as well. In gaming, they give you the most powerful character. Everyone else is just there to back you up and take on the crappy missions you wouldn't want to. If your character dies then the morale of the team would suffer tremendously.

What happens to the world has been done, what happens after you die has been done, and what happens if you flee has been done. DmC and DMC are hack and slash games, nothing here but fast paced gaming. We don't really want a 5 minute cutscene rubbing in the fact that we died from an cheap off screen attack. We wanna get back in as soon as possible.