Just as the sun sets in the evening, so too will it rise in the morning.
As you reach new chapters in your life, you will face new challenges and opportunities.
And if someone leaves unattended biscuits in the office, I am going to eat them.
It’s just destiny, that inescapable whirlpool of fate that we are powerless to resist.
It’s in the way that we deal with these inevitabilities that our true freedom lies, and this can be true in life as well as in video games.
Occasionally, a player character will have a specific doom hanging over them for all or most of the game.
The majority of the time, the player will be given the opportunity to guide the protagonist to escape this fate, perhaps just by finishing the story, or perhaps by going the extra mile and achieving the game’s golden ending.
Rarely, though, a protagonist’s terrible fate is sealed, no matter how the player struggles.
Outside of mods and hacks, there’s literally nothing you can do, and that’s what we’re looking at today.
So, expect things to get a bit dark, and also expect major spoilers from this point on.
Heed this warning, as having the game you’re currently enjoying spoiled is a cruel fate indeed.
I’m Ashton from TripleJump, and here are 10 Video Game Protagonists Who Are Doomed No Matter What You Do.
10.
V – Cyberpunk 2077 In CD Projekt Red’s 2020 action role-playing game, Cyberpunk 2077, players take on the role of V, a cybernetically enhanced mercenary, in the dystopian metropolis of Night City.
Night City can be a dangerous place, and V has it pretty tough from the beginning, but a series of events early in the game lead to this player-created character becoming a ticking time bomb.
After a heist goes wrong following a spot of inter-familial, corporate assassination, V is forced to insert a biochip, known as “the Relic”, into the cyberware in their head.
Later, V is betrayed and shot in the face, and while they wake up in a landfill a little later, their fate is already sealed.
Basically, the Relic contained the personality of rock star and terrorist, Johnny Silverhand, and V can look forward to either the biochip destroying their brain, or allowing Johnny to take over their body and be stuck in virtual space forever.
Either way, there’s no way to avoid V’s fate, as even the expertise of pro ripperdoc, Viktor Vector can’t get Keanu Reeves’ euphonic, silvery tones out of their head.
I suppose there are worse ways to go.
9.
Raziel – Legacy of Kain Series Raziel, the protagonist in 1999’s Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and 2001’s Soul Reaver 2, is a complicated chap.
Originally a vampire-hunting warrior, he was resurrected and made the lieutenant of the vampire, Kain.
Over time, Raziel’s power came to rival Kain’s, which resulted in his execution.
However, you seemingly can’t keep a good vampire hunter down, and he was revived once again.
He winds up working for a mysterious Elder God, and embarks on a quest for revenge armed with a sword known as Soul Reaver, which has a tortured soul trapped inside it.
Are you following all this? Good, because we’re about to go all time travelly on you.
After going back in time, Raziel makes the disturbing discovery that the soul contained within the blade is his own, driven mad by millennia of imprisonment.
He tries for a time to avoid this fate, but, during the events of Legacy of Kain: Defiance, he eventually comes to accept it like the dignified, soul-devouring champ that he is.
Still, poor Raziel, he was only trying to do the right thing and ended up being trapped in a spectral blade for all eternity.
Arthur Morgan – Red Dead Redemption 2 In Rockstar’s 2018 epic Western, Red Dead Redemption II, players take on the role of Arthur Morgan, a high-ranking gang member and renowned gunslinger.
Over the course of the game, Arthur goes out on various missions for the good of the group, and one such mission takes him to the property of a sickly fellow by the name of Thomas Downes.
Mr.
Downes owes money to Arthur’s associates and is, much to the detriment of everyone involved, not very forthcoming with it.
When Arthur decides to try a bit of intimidation, he gets very close to the sickly man, and Mr.
Downes splutters in his face.
Now, many players might not have noticed this seemingly insignificant moment, but from this point on, Arthur’s fate is sealed.
You see, Thomas Downes had tuberculosis, and through his up-close-and-personal intimidation techniques, Arthur managed to contract it.
This serious, bacterial infection is very treatable today thanks to antibiotics, but unfortunately for Arthur, Red Dead Redemption II is set in 1899 and penicillin wasn’t discovered until 1928.
It doesn’t take a history, medicine, or maths whizz to work out what the issue here is.
Alas, no matter what the player tries, Arthur’s days are numbered, and he ultimately succumbs to tuberculosis just like real-life gunslinger, Doc Holliday.
At least he’s in revered company.
7.
Hale – Resistance Series Insomniac Games’ FPS franchise made its debut in 2006 on the PS3, and presented an alternate history in which Europe is attacked by a mysterious, alien force known as the Chimera.
These insectoid monsters like to infect humans with a virus that causes artificial evolution into aggressive, monstrous creatures, bolstering their ranks.
When the invasion reaches the UK, US Army Ranger, Nathan Hale, is sent over with a squad of fellow rangers to assist their European allies, starting the events of Resistance: Fall of Man.
Things go very badly, very quickly, as Hale’s squad is ambushed and infected by the Chimera.
Hale is the only survivor, thanks to some kind of innate resistance to full infection.
Using his new, chimeric powers, Hale teams up with the local resistance fighters and helps to clear the UK of the alien threat.
All good, right? Well, only if you never played the sequel.
In Resistance 2, the Chimera make their way to the United States, and Hale is once again called into action.
Over the course of the game, the player is helpless as Hale’s condition worsens and ultimately becomes irreversible.
By the end, he has completely succumbed, and a comrade is forced to execute him.
If only he could have resisted the effects for longer.
Too soon? 6.
The Nameless One – Planescape: Torment Planescape: Torment is a cult RPG that was released in 1999, and is set in the Planescape tabletop RPG setting, which includes a dizzying array of realms linked by inter-dimensional portals.
In these planes, anything is possible, including an amnesiac immortal with an extremely shady past.
That’s where Planescape: Torment comes in.
Known only as The Nameless One, our hulking, zombie-looking protagonist is blissfully unaware as to what’s going on when the player takes control.
Well, as blissful as one can be upon waking up on a mortuary slab with a floating skull looking over you, anyway.
Still, a bit of digging will reveal the true horror of the Nameless One’s circumstances.
He sought out immortality after sinning so terribly that he was doomed to fight in an eternal clash of fiends known as “the Blood War” when he died.
Alas, even immortality couldn’t save him, as whatever choices the player makes, poor old TNO will still end up stomping off to play his part in the Blood War, axe in hand.
He can feel better about it, though, depending on your choices.
And, no, you never find out what he originally did to incur such a fate.
Something a bit worse than eating those office biscuits, though, I’m sure.
5.
The Chosen Undead – Dark Souls Dark Souls is not a cheery game, and the fates suffered by the player-created protagonist before, during, and after its events really don’t sound very nice at all.
Starting the game trapped in a hellish prison, the entity known as “the Chosen Undead” must battle numerous horrific enemies throughout many grim locations, and endure being slain in battle over and over again.
It might seem like death would be a way out, but the Chosen Undead is denied even this, as in the Dark Souls universe, undead will eventually go “hollow”.
Going hollow is basically an undead creature losing their mind and free will, and falling into a state of madness.
Other side-effects include crumpled skin and emitting a horrific stench, and as such, an appropriate alternate name for a hollow would be a “wrinkly stinky”, but it doesn’t really fit with the vibe of the game.
As the Chosen Undead uncovers the mysteries of the world of Dark Souls, he or shall will come to realise that there are two other fates open to them.
Sacrificing themselves to the First Flame and keeping things as they are, or ushering in an Age of Dark, which is arguably worse.
Still, both are probably better than going wrinkly sti- I mean, hollow.
4.
Frédéric François Chopin – Eternal Sonata 2007 title, Eternal Sonata, presents the odd combination of a fantasy RPG with a character who was doomed by real-world history.
A musically-themed adventure set in a magical world, one of the main protagonists of the game is renowned Polish pianist and composer, Frédéric François Chopin, and the events of the game take place in his deathbed dreams.
In this dream world, Chopin will join forces with various cutesy characters and become involved with a nefarious political plot, ultimately helping a group of local youths face off against tyrannical rulers.
Does all of this change anything for Chopin, though? Well, if you check your history books, you’ll see that he still died, so… no.
Eventually deciding that everything he was experiencing was a dream, he battles the party and returns to the real world, where he passes away.
The ending does show the other party members meeting again, however, so it’s all a bit ambiguous.
Also, Chopin is shown playing a piano in a field of flowers during the credits, so maybe he’s in heaven, I don’t know.
All I do know is that, just like Arthur Morgan of Red Dead Redemption II, it was tuberculosis that got Chopin.
Bet you didn’t think that those two games would have anything in common, did you? 3.
Zack – Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Zack, from 2007 PSP title, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7, suffers from a condition that I like to call “prequelitis”.
Unfortunately, there is no cure for prequelitis, which afflicts characters in prequels who have been shown to have already been killed off in the previous game.
In Final Fantasy 7, released ten years before this handheld prequel, Zack is shown to have been mercilessly gunned down by Shinra soldiers in a flashback and, unless Square were intending on doing some time-bending, multiverse nonsense, the Crisis Core protagonist was doomed from the get go.
All players hoping to save this popular side character can really hope for is a bit more of an insight into his heroic demise, and a graphically-superior rendition of events.
In Crisis Core, fans were treated to a beautifully rendered CG ending, in which Zack goes down fighting, and bequeaths the buster sword to Cloud with his dying breath.
He then gets welcomed into the lifestream by his late mentor, Angeal, in a highly emotional scene that is as tragic as it is beautiful.
It just makes it all too real! Can it be all angular and pixely again please? 2.
Nariko – Heavenly Sword In Heavenly Sword, Ninja Theory’s 2007 hack-‘n’-slash for the PS3, things look pretty bleak for Nariko right at the beginning of the game.
Locked in battle against overwhelming enemy forces, Nariko fights desperately while her narration reveals that any mortal who picks up the titular heavenly sword will die.
Soon enough, she is stopped in her tracks by the sword’s power, burning runes appear on her skin, and she appears to meet her end.
The game then begins in earnest five days before the events just witnessed, and you might be thinking there’s a chance to save Nariko from her fate.
Well, I’ve got news for you, viewers.
This particular redhead is dead no matter what you try.
You can make things a little better this time around, though.
Instead of dying mid-battle, Nariko will make a pact with the sword, to grant her the power to defeat the invading army and save her clan.
She comes back to life with goddess-like powers and a fashionable, ethereal glow, and does an absolute number on the bad guys.
Once her mission is completed, the sword still claims Nariko, but at least she died happy this time around.
The moral of the story? Don’t touch swords with mysterious powers.
1.
Noble 6 – Halo Reach Not only does Noble 6, the SPARTAN protagonist of 2010 Bungie FPS Halo Reach suffer from the aforementioned prequelitis, the entire planet of Reach does, too.
Upon playing Halo Reach, a game set prior to the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, most fans will be fully aware of a couple of Halo lore titbits.
Firstly, the planet Reach was “glassed”, which means it was pummelled by orbital plasma bombardments until there was nothing left.
Secondly, Master Chief was generally thought to be the last active SPARTAN super soldier.
Considering you’re playing as a SPARTAN soldier trying to defend the planet Reach, you can probably see where things are going.
Throughout the cinematic and chaotic campaign of Halo Reach, Noble 6 and his SPARTAN comrades will engage in numerous heroic escapades as the humans desperately try to evacuate the planet amidst a massive Covenant invasion.
Noble 6 is the last to fall, as he hangs back to allow the evacuation of the Pillar of Autumn, the ship containing Master Chief and Cortana.
His mission complete, he then attempts to hold off the overwhelming number of Covenant forces.
However, no matter how good the player is, Noble 6 simply cannot survive.
He sure can take a lot of alien scum down with him, though! That’ll teach ’em not to go around glassing planets.
10 Video Game Protagonists Who Are Doomed No Matter What You Do
Sometimes, things are just inevitable.
Just as the sun sets in the evening, so too will it rise in the morning.
As you reach new chapters in your life, you will face new challenges and opportunities.
And if someone leaves unattended biscuits in the office, I am going to eat them.
It’s just destiny, that inescapable whirlpool of fate that we are powerless to resist.
It’s in the way that we deal with these inevitabilities that our true freedom lies, and this can be true in life as well as in video games.
Occasionally, a player character will have a specific doom hanging over them for all or most of the game.
The majority of the time, the player will be given the opportunity to guide the protagonist to escape this fate, perhaps just by finishing the story, or perhaps by going the extra mile and achieving the game’s golden ending.
Rarely, though, a protagonist’s terrible fate is sealed, no matter how the player struggles.
Outside of mods and hacks, there’s literally nothing you can do, and that’s what we’re looking at today.
So, expect things to get a bit dark, and also expect major spoilers from this point on.
Heed this warning, as having the game you’re currently enjoying spoiled is a cruel fate indeed.
I’m Ashton from TripleJump, and here are 10 Video Game Protagonists Who Are Doomed No Matter What You Do.
10.
V – Cyberpunk 2077 In CD Projekt Red’s 2020 action role-playing game, Cyberpunk 2077, players take on the role of V, a cybernetically enhanced mercenary, in the dystopian metropolis of Night City.
Night City can be a dangerous place, and V has it pretty tough from the beginning, but a series of events early in the game lead to this player-created character becoming a ticking time bomb.
After a heist goes wrong following a spot of inter-familial, corporate assassination, V is forced to insert a biochip, known as “the Relic”, into the cyberware in their head.
Later, V is betrayed and shot in the face, and while they wake up in a landfill a little later, their fate is already sealed.
Basically, the Relic contained the personality of rock star and terrorist, Johnny Silverhand, and V can look forward to either the biochip destroying their brain, or allowing Johnny to take over their body and be stuck in virtual space forever.
Either way, there’s no way to avoid V’s fate, as even the expertise of pro ripperdoc, Viktor Vector can’t get Keanu Reeves’ euphonic, silvery tones out of their head.
I suppose there are worse ways to go.
9.
Raziel – Legacy of Kain Series Raziel, the protagonist in 1999’s Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and 2001’s Soul Reaver 2, is a complicated chap.
Originally a vampire-hunting warrior, he was resurrected and made the lieutenant of the vampire, Kain.
Over time, Raziel’s power came to rival Kain’s, which resulted in his execution.
However, you seemingly can’t keep a good vampire hunter down, and he was revived once again.
He winds up working for a mysterious Elder God, and embarks on a quest for revenge armed with a sword known as Soul Reaver, which has a tortured soul trapped inside it.
Are you following all this? Good, because we’re about to go all time travelly on you.
After going back in time, Raziel makes the disturbing discovery that the soul contained within the blade is his own, driven mad by millennia of imprisonment.
He tries for a time to avoid this fate, but, during the events of Legacy of Kain: Defiance, he eventually comes to accept it like the dignified, soul-devouring champ that he is.
Still, poor Raziel, he was only trying to do the right thing and ended up being trapped in a spectral blade for all eternity.
I mean, it’s a pretty cool blade, but still! 8.
Arthur Morgan – Red Dead Redemption 2 In Rockstar’s 2018 epic Western, Red Dead Redemption II, players take on the role of Arthur Morgan, a high-ranking gang member and renowned gunslinger.
Over the course of the game, Arthur goes out on various missions for the good of the group, and one such mission takes him to the property of a sickly fellow by the name of Thomas Downes.
Mr.
Downes owes money to Arthur’s associates and is, much to the detriment of everyone involved, not very forthcoming with it.
When Arthur decides to try a bit of intimidation, he gets very close to the sickly man, and Mr.
Downes splutters in his face.
Now, many players might not have noticed this seemingly insignificant moment, but from this point on, Arthur’s fate is sealed.
You see, Thomas Downes had tuberculosis, and through his up-close-and-personal intimidation techniques, Arthur managed to contract it.
This serious, bacterial infection is very treatable today thanks to antibiotics, but unfortunately for Arthur, Red Dead Redemption II is set in 1899 and penicillin wasn’t discovered until 1928.
It doesn’t take a history, medicine, or maths whizz to work out what the issue here is.
Alas, no matter what the player tries, Arthur’s days are numbered, and he ultimately succumbs to tuberculosis just like real-life gunslinger, Doc Holliday.
At least he’s in revered company.
7.
Hale – Resistance Series Insomniac Games’ FPS franchise made its debut in 2006 on the PS3, and presented an alternate history in which Europe is attacked by a mysterious, alien force known as the Chimera.
These insectoid monsters like to infect humans with a virus that causes artificial evolution into aggressive, monstrous creatures, bolstering their ranks.
When the invasion reaches the UK, US Army Ranger, Nathan Hale, is sent over with a squad of fellow rangers to assist their European allies, starting the events of Resistance: Fall of Man.
Things go very badly, very quickly, as Hale’s squad is ambushed and infected by the Chimera.
Hale is the only survivor, thanks to some kind of innate resistance to full infection.
Using his new, chimeric powers, Hale teams up with the local resistance fighters and helps to clear the UK of the alien threat.
All good, right? Well, only if you never played the sequel.
In Resistance 2, the Chimera make their way to the United States, and Hale is once again called into action.
Over the course of the game, the player is helpless as Hale’s condition worsens and ultimately becomes irreversible.
By the end, he has completely succumbed, and a comrade is forced to execute him.
If only he could have resisted the effects for longer.
Too soon? 6.
The Nameless One – Planescape: Torment Planescape: Torment is a cult RPG that was released in 1999, and is set in the Planescape tabletop RPG setting, which includes a dizzying array of realms linked by inter-dimensional portals.
In these planes, anything is possible, including an amnesiac immortal with an extremely shady past.
That’s where Planescape: Torment comes in.
Known only as The Nameless One, our hulking, zombie-looking protagonist is blissfully unaware as to what’s going on when the player takes control.
Well, as blissful as one can be upon waking up on a mortuary slab with a floating skull looking over you, anyway.
Still, a bit of digging will reveal the true horror of the Nameless One’s circumstances.
He sought out immortality after sinning so terribly that he was doomed to fight in an eternal clash of fiends known as “the Blood War” when he died.
Alas, even immortality couldn’t save him, as whatever choices the player makes, poor old TNO will still end up stomping off to play his part in the Blood War, axe in hand.
He can feel better about it, though, depending on your choices.
And, no, you never find out what he originally did to incur such a fate.
Something a bit worse than eating those office biscuits, though, I’m sure.
5.
The Chosen Undead – Dark Souls Dark Souls is not a cheery game, and the fates suffered by the player-created protagonist before, during, and after its events really don’t sound very nice at all.
Starting the game trapped in a hellish prison, the entity known as “the Chosen Undead” must battle numerous horrific enemies throughout many grim locations, and endure being slain in battle over and over again.
It might seem like death would be a way out, but the Chosen Undead is denied even this, as in the Dark Souls universe, undead will eventually go “hollow”.
Going hollow is basically an undead creature losing their mind and free will, and falling into a state of madness.
Other side-effects include crumpled skin and emitting a horrific stench, and as such, an appropriate alternate name for a hollow would be a “wrinkly stinky”, but it doesn’t really fit with the vibe of the game.
As the Chosen Undead uncovers the mysteries of the world of Dark Souls, he or shall will come to realise that there are two other fates open to them.
Sacrificing themselves to the First Flame and keeping things as they are, or ushering in an Age of Dark, which is arguably worse.
Still, both are probably better than going wrinkly sti- I mean, hollow.
4.
Frédéric François Chopin – Eternal Sonata 2007 title, Eternal Sonata, presents the odd combination of a fantasy RPG with a character who was doomed by real-world history.
A musically-themed adventure set in a magical world, one of the main protagonists of the game is renowned Polish pianist and composer, Frédéric François Chopin, and the events of the game take place in his deathbed dreams.
In this dream world, Chopin will join forces with various cutesy characters and become involved with a nefarious political plot, ultimately helping a group of local youths face off against tyrannical rulers.
Does all of this change anything for Chopin, though? Well, if you check your history books, you’ll see that he still died, so… no.
Eventually deciding that everything he was experiencing was a dream, he battles the party and returns to the real world, where he passes away.
The ending does show the other party members meeting again, however, so it’s all a bit ambiguous.
Also, Chopin is shown playing a piano in a field of flowers during the credits, so maybe he’s in heaven, I don’t know.
All I do know is that, just like Arthur Morgan of Red Dead Redemption II, it was tuberculosis that got Chopin.
Bet you didn’t think that those two games would have anything in common, did you? 3.
Zack – Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Zack, from 2007 PSP title, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7, suffers from a condition that I like to call “prequelitis”.
Unfortunately, there is no cure for prequelitis, which afflicts characters in prequels who have been shown to have already been killed off in the previous game.
In Final Fantasy 7, released ten years before this handheld prequel, Zack is shown to have been mercilessly gunned down by Shinra soldiers in a flashback and, unless Square were intending on doing some time-bending, multiverse nonsense, the Crisis Core protagonist was doomed from the get go.
All players hoping to save this popular side character can really hope for is a bit more of an insight into his heroic demise, and a graphically-superior rendition of events.
In Crisis Core, fans were treated to a beautifully rendered CG ending, in which Zack goes down fighting, and bequeaths the buster sword to Cloud with his dying breath.
He then gets welcomed into the lifestream by his late mentor, Angeal, in a highly emotional scene that is as tragic as it is beautiful.
It just makes it all too real! Can it be all angular and pixely again please? 2.
Nariko – Heavenly Sword In Heavenly Sword, Ninja Theory’s 2007 hack-‘n’-slash for the PS3, things look pretty bleak for Nariko right at the beginning of the game.
Locked in battle against overwhelming enemy forces, Nariko fights desperately while her narration reveals that any mortal who picks up the titular heavenly sword will die.
Soon enough, she is stopped in her tracks by the sword’s power, burning runes appear on her skin, and she appears to meet her end.
The game then begins in earnest five days before the events just witnessed, and you might be thinking there’s a chance to save Nariko from her fate.
Well, I’ve got news for you, viewers.
This particular redhead is dead no matter what you try.
You can make things a little better this time around, though.
Instead of dying mid-battle, Nariko will make a pact with the sword, to grant her the power to defeat the invading army and save her clan.
She comes back to life with goddess-like powers and a fashionable, ethereal glow, and does an absolute number on the bad guys.
Once her mission is completed, the sword still claims Nariko, but at least she died happy this time around.
The moral of the story? Don’t touch swords with mysterious powers.
1.
Noble 6 – Halo Reach Not only does Noble 6, the SPARTAN protagonist of 2010 Bungie FPS Halo Reach suffer from the aforementioned prequelitis, the entire planet of Reach does, too.
Upon playing Halo Reach, a game set prior to the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, most fans will be fully aware of a couple of Halo lore titbits.
Firstly, the planet Reach was “glassed”, which means it was pummelled by orbital plasma bombardments until there was nothing left.
Secondly, Master Chief was generally thought to be the last active SPARTAN super soldier.
Considering you’re playing as a SPARTAN soldier trying to defend the planet Reach, you can probably see where things are going.
Throughout the cinematic and chaotic campaign of Halo Reach, Noble 6 and his SPARTAN comrades will engage in numerous heroic escapades as the humans desperately try to evacuate the planet amidst a massive Covenant invasion.
Noble 6 is the last to fall, as he hangs back to allow the evacuation of the Pillar of Autumn, the ship containing Master Chief and Cortana.
His mission complete, he then attempts to hold off the overwhelming number of Covenant forces.
However, no matter how good the player is, Noble 6 simply cannot survive.
He sure can take a lot of alien scum down with him, though! That’ll teach ’em not to go around glassing planets.
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