History FateWorseThanDeath / VideoGames

** In ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'', [[DramaticUnmask being unmasked in public]] is the ultimate humiliation for [[MaskedLuchador Killbane]], and he'd rather die than have his face exposed.

* This is the fate of a character in ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' whom one will only ever know about if they modify the game's files (or, after a later update, get lucky): that being [[spoiler:previous Royal Scientist Dr. W. D. Gaster. After falling into one of his own creations, he was shattered across time and space (and the game's files), resulting in [[RetGone all records of him being erased from existence]]. Anyone who knew him well suffered his fate as well, while everyone else forgot about him and attributed his creations (which remained) to others. Gaster is still able to see the universe he left behind, though, and unlike your typical ItsAWonderfulPlot, it functions perfectly fine even without him]]. Even worse, [[spoiler:what is implied to be the machine he initially fell in has been [[WordOfGod stated by Toby Fox]] to be unfixable, meaning that Gaster is likely staying shattered for good.[[note]]Then again, the update that randomly allows players to see Gaster's followers without needing to fiddle with the files may suggest Gaster is attempting to put himself back in the game, though who knows how successful he'll be if that's the case.[[/note]]]]
** Also [[spoiler: Asriel, who is turned into a soulless flower unable to feel compassion, and in the pacifist ending, after getting to be himself again for a while, refuses to go back to the surface because he will turn back into Flowey.]]

** Arthas again (after the Lich King got his soul this time), gets in on this during the invasion of Quel'thalas. The leader of the High Elven resistance is the ranger-general Sylvanas Windrunner. After battling through her defences for hours, he finally traps her and mortally wounds her through the chest with Frostmourne. With a pained murmur she asks Arthas for a clean death. [[NightmareFuel A clean death, she does not get.]] Instead he mutilates her body and tortures her to death, and then defiles her spirit by raising it her as a powerful banshee bound to his will. And then he [[ForcedToWatch turned her on her own people]]. [[spoiler:As a final, unintended insult, this also glitches Sylvanas' soul and forces her into The Maw after death, driving her completely insane and facilitating her resurrection as the Banshee Queen, who makes everything the Lich King did seem ''noble'' in comparison.]]

** In the reboot, ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2022'', Los Panteros take great pride in their cars, and spend most of their time working on it. As such, they value their car more than their life, and destroying their ride is treated as a worse punishment than simply killing them. In the mission "Neenah's Car", Sergio tries to do this to Neenah as punishment for her desertion, and you "torture" a Pantero by editing his car through the customization menu.

*** The good end to the "Tranquility Lane" quest has you [[spoiler:condemning Braun to be trapped in his vault with no possible way to leave or interact with the outside world]]. Rather fitting.

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series in general, Ghouls got it especially rough. Just to cite a few aspects in which their life sucks:
** They are permanently decomposing, but the healing they obtain from radiation keeps them alive, just barely.
** The constant pain makes it a challenge to do anything at all, and may send them feral at any given time.
** They are banished from most of whatever remains of society.
** They are effectively immortal, but that immortality comes with an overbearing sense of pain and isolation.
** They're completely sterile, and it's likely most of them had their genitals fall off at some point anyhow.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'':
** The good end to the "Tranquility Lane" quest has you [[spoiler:condemning Braun to be trapped in his vault with no possible way to leave or interact with the outside world]]. Rather fitting.
** [[spoiler:Harold.]] When you find him, he's been [[spoiler:turned into a tree and cannot grow or die]]. He, naturally, [[MercyKill begs you to kill him]].
** On a more humorous note, Liberty Prime believes that "death is a preferable alternative to communism".
* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'':
** The option is given of doing this to [[spoiler:Mr. House, if you release him from his life-support unit]]. Even though exposing him to the outside world ensures his eventual death, his longevity treatments will keep him alive for, he estimates, about a year.
** The Marked Men from the ''Lonesome Road'' DLC, who were created by the nuclear explosions that destroyed the Divide. Sandstorms have torn the skin from their bodies, and the radiation from the nukes has mutated them into ghouls, making them immortal. Ulysses tells you that if there's no way to save them (there probably isn't), then it's [[MercyKill "mercy, not murder"]] to kill them.
** [[spoiler:[[ColdSniper Craig Boone]]]] views what would have happened to his wife [[spoiler:and their unborn child]] at the hand of the Legion as this. [[NoWomansLand He may not be that far off.]] So he [[spoiler:[[MercyKill took the shot]]]].
** Joshua "Burned Man" Graham, former Legate to Caesar, [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat was set on fire and thrown into the Grand Canyon]], but unfortunately survived, is in constant pain exacerbated by the daily changing of his bandages, and {{immune to drugs}}.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/Hitman3'', you can subject [[spoiler:[[BigBad Arthur Edwards]]]] in this by [[spoiler:injecting him with a serum that erases his memories and with it everything he has gained in his ambition to become the leader of Providence]]. It's notable that while he was [[FaceDeathWithDignity content in the face of death]], he [[VillainousBreakdown immediately panics]] if 47 approaches him with [[spoiler:the serum]].

* This is what happens to [[spoiler:Kirie and Mafuyu]] in ''VideoGame/FatalFrame1'''s canon ending. They're going to be spending the ''rest of eternity'' at the Hell Gate deep underground, with [[spoiler:Kirie]] making sure that the gate stays closed, and [[spoiler:Mafuyu]] staying with her so that she won't have to suffer all alone.

* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'':
** VideoGame/UltimateCustomNight: You are in control of the [[UnknownCharacter protagonist]] who is eternally imprisoned in Freddy's Fazbear Pizzeria full of homicidal robots to pay for your crimes [[spoiler:for being a child killer]]. You never die, you never escape, you always come back to relive the horror of robots attempting to murder you over, and over, and over again.

** Driven by dreams of the Miracle, the person who was once Ten Piedad took his rest in the arms of the statue seen in the boss area. The Miracle appeared to him one more time, more vividly than before, and when he woke up, his body had transformed into a monster, constantly filled with rage and pain, and he no longer had control over it. In a twisted sort of way, for a boss whose name in Spanish means "Have Mercy", [[JustForPun killing him is an act of mercy]].

** Being [[BrainwashedAndCrazy tempered]] by a Primal is usually cconsidered this by the civilized races, as theere is no known way to reverse it. Tempered individuals captured by the city states are usually put to death to keep them from empowering their primal masters through prayers, and because it's considered a MercyKill.

** Being [[BrainwashedAndCrazy tempered]] by a Primal is usually cconsidered this by the civilized races, as theere is no known ay to reverse it. Tempered individuals captured by the city states are usually put to death to keep them from empowering their primal masters through prayers, and because it's considered a MercyKill.
** The paralell world of the First is plagued with Sin-eaters, beings corrupted by primoridal light. Some Sin-eaters are able to 'touch' other living beings, corrupting them into more Sin-eaters, sometimes quickly, other times [[ZombieInfectee more slowly]] but inevitably. The transformation is also [[PainfulTransformation agonizingly painful.]] Victims of slow corruption are brought to an inn where volunteers care for them until they are close to succuming completely, then euthanized via poison mixed in with a favourite food so that they can die peacefully.

* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'':

* The red flowers from ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' are a PsychoSerum that fill any Mimiga that eats them with such intense rage that not only their sanity, but their entire personality is lost. It is heavily implied that the effects are permanent, and that there is no known cure. Only one Mimiga, Igor, has somehow managed to retain a small part of his sanity after eating raw red flowers. [[spoiler:Adorable, innocent little [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth Toroko]] is forcibly fed red flowers by [[TheDragon Misery]] and Balrog, forcing the PlayerCharacter to give her a MercyKill.]]