Games are fun, but the stakes are never very high. If you lose, just load up your last saved game and you’re good to go. However, what if there was no second chances? What if a single lapse in concentration mean your character died, and stayed that way? Welcome to the world of hardcore, permadeath characters.
Hardcore Characters Raise the Stakes, but Also the Reward
The more time you put into a “hardcore” character (one that dies permanently) the more value you’ll attach to that character, so the fear of losing all the time you sank into the game makes it feel like less of a game, and more of a risk investment.
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Of course, if you manage to finish the game, reach the highest level, or attain some other form of milestone while playing with the safety net completely removed, it all feels more rewarding. Not to mention there’s plenty of street cred that goes along with beating a game in hardcore mode.
Nothing Compares to the Tension of Permadeath Gameplay
A hardcore character will certainly make you engage with your game 100%. There’s no casual scrolling of Instagram or watching a Netflix show on the side. If you’ve put 100 hours of progress into one of these fragile game characters, you’ll develop the reflexes of a ninja as you try to anticipate every threat and enemy. Hardcore characters force you to really engage with the game’s mechanics, and to plan ahead rather than being a Leeroy Jenkins.
But the Lows Can Be Brutal
When I’ve been brave enough to attempt a hardcore character, and it dies, well it sucks. It’s especially bad if it was because I was stupid or negligent, and it’s maybe almost as bad when it feels like it was unfair, or because the game glitches, or the network lagged. Either way, losing your hardcore character creates a real sense of loss.
Maybe it sounds a little hyperbolic, but this style of play can leave you with genuine negative mood and emotions, and even some mild mourning because of it. I don’t know about you, but I usually have to walk away from that game for a while before trying it again.
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My Favorite Permadeath Games
Personally, rolling a hardcore, permadeath character in a game is something that I’ve only done occasionally. I prefer to take my games at a more casual pace, but occasionally this strange madness overcomes me, and I feel the urge to do something that feels inadvisable.
For me, the best hardcore character mode game in history is Diablo II. I have been playing this ARPG for well over 20 years, and I’ve attempted hardcore mode maybe a dozen times in that span. I have never managed to complete the game with a hardcore character, but I still feel compelled to try now and then.
Also, in hardcore mode, Diablo II becomes a true roguelike, where you lose all your progress if you die and the world is mostly procedurally-generated.
A lighter type of permadeath can be found in the Fire Emblem games. Here it’s not you the player that has a character pass away for good. Instead, in these strategy RPG games, your soldiers die permanently in battle.
In later games, you have the choice to play in “classic” or the more modern mode, but for my money everyone should play using the classic permadeath mode, because it transforms these games into something special, where each soldier isn’t just a sacrificial pawn, and you have to (gasp) actually strategize.
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The best games with permadeath do tend to be roguelikes however, and I really enjoy titles like FTL and Don’t Starve, where death takes you back to the “new game” screen. It’s a little scary, but that’s what makes it fun.
