5
V from Cyberpunk 2077 is #1 for me.
I haven't played enough games where the protagonist dies to fill out the rest.
I didn't put V in because other than the worst ending (Devil) and second worst ending (Temperance), V's death wasn't definative.
The Sun means blue eyes may save him. The Stars means Panam may find something or someone, and the NUSA ending saved him outright, but at such a high cost he'd been better off dead.
You should wrap your text in spoiler tags. Even knowing that someone important could die in game x is already a huge spoiler.
I would say you’re missing out not having Nei from Phantasy Star 2 on your list. She was Aerith before Aerith was a shocking.
I've never played Phantasy Star. 😕
Honestly, the graphics are a tad dated by today’s standards, but if you played that generation of games, it’s certainly worth it.
Yup. This. To the point where, playing FFVII the first time I was like "Oh, shit, better not give Aerith anything important..."
RDR2
So true. I still remember, that I was like "yeah, let's go for a last mission today and go to sleep."
It, in fact, was a final mission and I was playing as high honor Athur Morgan...
So emotionally this was the most unexpected and best death of the protagonist ever!
Several of my top ten are from Dragon’s Lair.
Way back in the day, Tomb Raider, there was this pit, with a break away floor, and water beneath it.
Fell, hit the platform breaking her neck, then the platform dropped her in the water, twitching and drowning. It was horrifying!
That's due to janky controls, not storyline. Lol
It was hilarious, and less of a control issue and more of a "2 death scenarios executing at the same time."
If this is going to be accepted then Lara being turned to gold is peak.
this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2025
5 points (66.7% liked)
Gaming
24598 readers
4 users here now
Sub for any gaming related content!
Rules:
- 1: No spam or advertising. This basically means no linking to your own content on blogs, YouTube, Twitch, etc.
- 2: No bigotry or gatekeeping. This should be obvious, but neither of those things will be tolerated. This goes for linked content too; if the site has some heavy "anti-woke" energy, you probably shouldn't be posting it here.
- 3: No untagged game spoilers. If the game was recently released or not released at all yet, use the Spoiler tag (the little ⚠️ button) in the body text, and avoid typing spoilers in the title. It should also be avoided to openly talk about major story spoilers, even in old games.
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS