Death Cry Echo

"Snake? Snake?! SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!"

— Metal Gear Solid

When a character is defeated/killed in battle, they usually give out a final cry or something to indicate that they're a goner. Sometimes, a character's death cry is repeated like an echo, each growing softer than the last. This is done to intensify the death of a character (or it may simply overdramatize it).

Essentially (but not exclusively) a Video Game Trope. The final cry being much longer and/or louder than any previous ones the character let out while taking damage can be especially helpful for the player when the enemy character has no onscreen Life Meter.

Some examples that are only nominally "death cries" can be found in a few other places.

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Examples:

Action Adventure

• One chilling example is when you die in the Metroid Prime Trilogy. Samus cries out and the echo^note actually more like a reverb happens as the screen turns to static.
  • Both Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion share the same sound effect - a slightly echoed scream - and the same graphic effect of Samus' suit falling off and Samus dying.
  • Other M keeps up the tradition, Samus crying out as she collapses, followed by Adam's voice "Samus, what's going on?! Respond! Respo.."[static]
• In the Zelda games, Link is usually silent, but later games do have him grunt or cry out in certain circumstances. In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, he shouts in fear if he falls into a hole, which essentially amounts to "Waaaaauuuuugh!" But in the Goron Mines, if he falls into the boiling lava pits, his death scream is positively chilling.
  • If you die in quicksand in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword then Link lets out a horrible choking sound while his arms flail in the air.
• Another hilarious example of this trope occurs within Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast with ALL of the characters, who have hilariously ridiculous death screams, especially in the multiplayer. The main character, Kyle Katarn's scream is notable for it's resemblance to a drunkard being strangled while falling over a cliff... Perhaps the most notable death screams in this (or any game for that matter) would go to Star Wars hero and Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and his hilarious long drawn out falling death scream (His scream is so long and drawn out that he can often still be heard screaming even after re-spawning). The voice actors for the entire game seem to have had a ball with the death cries.

Action Game

• In Bangai-O, the kid heroes and the vast majority of the boss characters do this when they are defeated. Those that don't play a sound effect or a brief musical tune instead.
• Fizzie in Sunset Overdrive: "YOU SUUUUUUUUUCK!"
• The Playstation game Excalibur 2555 A.D has the scorpion's death sound, which became a minor meme in Joueur du Grenier videos after he ran across it.

Beat 'em Up

• In Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley, Captain Smiley will sometimes cry out "Gotta go back to the checkpoint..." or "You're a loser..." when he gets killed, with an echo added after the last word for dramatic effect.

Fighting Game

• Lots of fighting games use this trope, such as Power Stone and Super Street Fighter II.
  • World Heroes 2 Jet had a unique twist: some moves (especially throws) were considered as multiple hit. While the death cry would be played just once on the last hit, if that's the first 'hit' of such a throw, you can be treated to up to three additional death cries.
• In Super Smash Bros., characters have two separate death cries. One is a short, abrupt one that is given when the character is knocked off the edge of the screen or into a pit. The second is a long, echoey cry that comes when they're sent flying into the background by being sent off the top. (There is also a grunt that comes if they hit the screen.)
• Soul Series:
  • The Apprentice's death cry when knocked out in Soul Calibur 4 is absolutely ridiculous. It probably lasts longer than anything he says throughout the span of the game. And yet it's oddly satisfying to hear.
  • Dampierre from the PSP game is the first character in the series to say something when he dies rather than scream, yelling "YOU COWAAAAAARD!" when you ring him out.
• B. Orchid from Killer Instinct 1 and 2 probably had the most orgasmic injury/death cries ever heard.
• M.U.G.E.N:
  • The game gives the option of toggling on or off Death Cry Echoes for each and every character.
  • Kung Fu Man, the Original Character, has this.
• Juri from the updated Street Fighter IV declares "I will have my revenge!"
• Lampshaded in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Whenever Deadpool gets KO'd, he yells "YOU PRESSED THE WRONG BUTTOOOOON!"
• In Tekken Tag Tournament, the finishing blow is shown from several different angles, the death cry playing for each one.
  • The Bloody Roar games did this, too.
• Most of the characters in The King of Fighters say things instead of just scream. Most notable with Iori and Chris, and other characters like Robert yell "shit!" (in Japanese) or mutter some other type of complaint.
  "I SHARU RITAAAAN!!" (I SHALL RETUUURN!!)
• Most characters in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle have this, usually quoting some line from the manga. The best is Kira, who screams "NANNNNNIIIIII?!" as loud and long as he can, to the extent it plays under the victory quote.

Hack and Slash

• The Mooks in No More Heroes, when they explode. No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle and No More Heroes III crank this up several notches, by having everything go into Slow Motion when the deathblow is struck on a boss. The latter also has Travis Touchdown subjected to this when he runs out of health, with several appropriate lines.
  Travis: Sylvia... I'm sorry...

MMORPG

• In Final Fantasy XIV, the third boss of the Puppets’ Bunker NieR: Automata crossover raid lets out a bloodcurdling scream as she dies.

Platform Game

• Most Mega Man X games, and all of the Robot Masters in Mega Man 8 and Mega Man 11. Mega Man himself usually has one or two whenever you lose a life.
• Super Mario Bros. 2's updated release has two from Birdo "Not Fair!" and "I'll remember this!"
• Impossible Mission has this when the player character falls into a Bottomless Pit.
• The infamous Marx Soul scream from Kirby Super Star Ultra will go down in history as one of the most memorable and most ear-piercing death screams in video game history.
• In Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Big Bad Shriek emits a final echoing shriek as she falls to her death upon defeat.
• In Hollow Knight, Infected Myla has this when you kill her.

Puzzle Game

• Whatever character you play as in Intelligent Qube will fall into the unending darkness and scream, the scream growing quieter and more distant whenever they're on the edge of the platform and it collapses.

Real-Time Strategy

• Dawn of War 2: Tyranid Synapse Creatures (psychic leaders) release a chilling, screen-shaking cry when they die. It also damages their allies, so...
• Delivered by the NAGGAROK after its destruction in Homeworld:Cataclysm, lasting a terrifying thirty seconds. Hand Waved as actually being the voices of all Beast entities dying as the NAGGAROK fails. This also happens in the rest of the game if they get hit with the Beast beam, signifying the crew being turned into Meat Moss and assimilated into the Beast hive mind.
• Command & Conquer: Generals: Aurora pilots yell "AAAAaaah!" when dying. But when several die in quick succession (not too difficult, as they become vulnerable right after releasing their payload), it creates a darkly hilarious Reactive Continuous Scream effect: "AAAAaaaaAAAAaaaaaAAAaaaaah!"

Role-Playing Game

• Final Fantasy Tactics has different death cries for male, female, monster and zodiac units, modulated mostly by speed and pitch. All of them have some reverberation on them.
• In Persona 4, if the main character is knocked unconscious, Teddie will scream "Senseeeeei!" and Rise will scream "No! Senpaaaaai!"
• Fainting Pokémon give altered, dying-type versions of their cry.
• In Dark Souls, Artorias of the Abyss lets out an emotionally charged wail of agony when he dies. This can be a Tearjerker for players who play for the story and lore of the game rather than the Player versus Player aspects.

Shoot 'em Up

• Inbachi Hina does this in her ultimate defeat at the end of DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou.
  Inbachi Hina: But you're... not...! AAAAAAAAAAAARRRGH!!!
• G.I. Joe has these for the Joes and most of the game's villains.
• Usually occurs when you kill a boss in the Time Crisis series.

Shooters

• Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter has two for each multi-player soldier when they get killed (there are a total of 5 different "faces" the character can choose from). If killed by a silencer or a grenade, their death cry is extremely louder than normal.

Simulation Game

• The Wing Commander games would have both friendly and enemy pilots scream over the radio at you if they were destroyed. Apparently when their ship is breaking up, they only have the presence of mind to hit the communicator and yell "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!", rather than the eject button.
  • In WC:Prophecy, some destroyed pilots would wait patiently for scripted comm dialogue to finish, potentially several minutes, before crying out and exploding when the comms were clear.
  • Before they coded in the actual dialogue in Wing Commander 2's speech pack, they had placeholder sound files, such as "forming on your wing" or "attacking" in a complete deadpan. Much hilarity ensued the first time the player lost a wingman, who calmly stated, "I'm dead."

Stealth-Based Game

• All Metal Gear Solid ^note but not the MSX Metal Gears, for obvious hardware-limitations reasons games so far use this trope when the hero is killed. It's also used for Liquid Snake's two Disney Villain Not-Quite-Deaths (as well as his actual death from Fox-Die) in the first game, and when Emma is killed by the enemy in the second game.
  • After the death, a quote similar to the one on top of the page is issued by one of your team members - but it doesn't really apply. It's less of an echo and more someone else repeating the character's name.
  • When Snake arrived as a guest in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, this trope was oddly inverted. Snake will still do the Death Cry Echo when knocked into the stratosphere, but Snake being knocked off the sides of the stage is the only time Snake's death cry does not echo.
  • It should be noted that during his taunt (which engages a codec call), the person he's talking to will cry his name if killed during the call. Yes, including Slippy.

Survival Horror

• Nearly every Resident Evil game has the main character scream after getting murdered by whoever killed them. Though sometimes it's an exhausted groan that replaces the screams in some games. And in Resident Evil 5 and 6, being co-op games they have your partner, who will instead scream their partner's name in horror at them dying.
• While the player character doesn't scream in Five Nights at Freddy's, the animatronics do that for you when they catch you. Though the player themself might also scream at the sudden Jump Scare.

Turn-Based Strategy

• Every character's defeat voiceover is given this effect in Yggdra Union.

Non-Video Game Examples

• Most fighter jet and spaceship pilots when being blown up (Star Wars and Independence Day are easy examples).
  • Palpatine after getting shafted.
• In William Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, a group of manual laborers is putting on a play (based on the same story as Romeo and Juliet is based on). When the male lead in this play-within-a-play, portrayed by a particularly asinine actor, kills himself, he says "Now die, die, die, die, die."
• End Of The Spear did this as well, when the initial group of missionaries got killed.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann subverted this in episode 8: it actually takes Kamina a few minutes to expire after screaming (though his teammates and the viewer immediately assume the worst), giving him the opportunity to get up and pull off one last Moment of Awesome.
  Kamina: Ugh, can't I even rest in peace?
• In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, DIO's last words before being split in half and blown up is a long, drawn out, cry of 'KONO DIO GAAAAAAAAA!!'
• This happens in the climactic scene in Trading Places. "Turn those machines back on!"
• Common in Toku programs. Sometimes a monster exploding just isn't dramatic enough and this trope comes into play.
• In Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer, the Dark Princess' ship is blown away with her echoing cry of, "No! Not the rainbow, rainbow, rainbow..."
• A chilling non-fiction variant can be heard in a BBC documentary called The Cruel Sea (not to be confused with the Nicholas Montserrat novel or its film adaptation), which reconstructs the loss of the Penlee lifeboat. The lifeboat^note what the US Coast Guard would call a SAR cutter in this case, not the kind you Abandon Ship with was transmitting to a nearby Coast Guard station when contact was suddenly lost, and the radio operator can be heard calmly repeating their callsign and asking them to please respond for several minutes, not knowing -perhaps suspecting but not wanting to believe- that she had been wrecked with the loss of all hands.
• Les Misérables: The scream-sung last note of "Javert's Suicide" seems to hang in the air after Javert drowns. And it will haunt your dreams.
• In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, in the episode The Crystal Empire Part 2, King Sombra's death cry is heard for a few seconds after he is shattered to pieces by the Crystal Heart.
• Done to practically Once an Episode levels in Charmed. When someone, usually a demon, is killed in a way that also destroys their body (fireball, Piper's explosion power, vanquishing spell/potion, etc) their final scream will typically echo for a moment after, becoming quieter with each repetition.
• In Gravity Falls, Bill Cipher's dying scream echos for a few moments after Stanley finishes him off.
• Vampires in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel let out a distinctive fading screech as they disintegrate.
• Raid Insecticide Campaign: Played for Laughs. The most iconic part of the ads is the pests screaming "RRRAAAAAAAIIIDDD!!!" before dying. As it's several vermin doing it, it has an echo effect.

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"...AAAAAaaaaaake!"

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