Castle Paradox

[Iblis]

I can't find anything in that post that makes sense. Where did he say that the heroes ideas were changing? The hero is the one being betrayed, not the betrayer himself (unless DemocraticAnarchist made a typo).

[Velduanga]

Wow. Well, truly, I don't see why you need to have made a survey out of this. Shakespeare had made plenty of 'hero dies at the end' stories and theyre all accounted as masterpieces. Make sure you want to invoke 'Sucks that he had to die' instead of 'What the hell was that?!'.It's permitted, in fact its rather different than most RPG stories. If you thats what you want to happen go right ahead. But as the others warn make sure the death is logical to the rest of the story.
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If you hit a plane with the soccer, could you afford to fix it? - Shaolin Soccer

"If it's worth shooting, it's worth shooting twice"-Tom Clancy

[TMC]

I'll say, go for it! It's an interesting ending that I don't hink I've seen used...
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"It is so great it is insanely great."

[Rolling Stone]

Making sure that every detail of your story relates to theme is ridiculous and it's a good way to tear a story down before it's written. Stories are about people and the things they do, and theme may or may not come out of that, but it will come naturally and is hard to force. And when you do manage to force it, you come up with bad propaganda and a bunch of wasted paper.

Road Warrior is devoid of theme, and it's one of the most exciting and inspiring films ever made. It gives a real hero, and it never ponders for a second over what a hero is. Quite possibly the most perfect film ever made.

Mein Kampf on the other hand, that had a theme and a message.
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BANDIT REVOLVER, DOWNLOAD IT OR ELSE.

http://www.castleparadox.com/forum/gamelist-display.php?game=620

[Time Traveler]

That would be different. Of course, it's all situational. For example, if you where doing a Tactic-OHR Rpg but with Othello as the hero, he has to die (which he did in trying to reclaim Constantinople). Or, the character doesn't "die." Just make it like a lost of control and enslavement or something in that manner (like in the end of 1984). It's all up to you.
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"Blast a highly populated area into ashes, blame it on Fighter, and run like hell?" -Black Mage, 8-bit theater
"I knew you were lying about that! I don't even know any spells, Mage. How could I nuke that town?" -Fighter, 8-bit Theater

[Setu_Firestorm]

[Pepsi Ranger]

The biggest problem with killing off your main character (especially through suicide) is that it makes the author seem lazy. Here's why:

It doesn't matter what troubles befall the hero. There should ALWAYS be a way out. It may take some time to figure out what that way out is, but a crafty writer/game designer can find a way through it, therefore the hero will find a way through it. If the hero is betrayed, then he needs to fight the betrayal, not submit to it. Otherwise he's no longer a hero, but a victim. Victims are the people that the hero rescues, not becomes. The only time it's acceptable for the hero to die is when he or she becomes a martyr--as in dying for a cause he believes in.

Betrayal unfortunately doesn't fit into that category.

Shakespeare got away with it because he wrote tragedies. The rule of the tragedy is that the hero has to die. That's why it's a tragedy. But the formula for the tragedy includes self-destruction and eminent downfall, not just "okay, time to kill off the main character." Generally the main character (hero) has to struggle with an intense hatred, much deception, stubbornness, or a curse. Rarely will the hero be content with his circumstances, unless he's ignorant of his doom (Dr. Faustus comes to mind in this case).

I don't know what you plan on doing for the story itself, but unless you have plans to bring your main character down the path of some form of self-destruction (and I would recommend knowing something about psychology for that), it won't work very well, and the hero will die unjustly.

So if you plan on going through with this ending, make sure you're well learned of the classic tragedies and know why they work, otherwise find a way to bring your hero out of his torment through creative problem-solving.

The latter by the way is what today's culture enjoys the most, and what I too look for when I read or play a game.

So yeah, I wouldn't be too pleased if the hero died. That's why I stopped playing Final Fantasy 7. And believe it or not I enjoyed it up to that point.
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Progress Report:

The Adventures of Powerstick Man: Extended Edition

Currently Updating: General sweep of the game world and dialogue boxes. Adding extended maps.

Tightfloss Maiden

Currently Updating: Chapter 2

[ChocoSOLDIER]

...What? As far as I know Cloud doesn't die in FFVII, unless it's after he kills Sephiroth. Keep gaming. He'll come back later.

[Blazes Battles Inc.]

*Aeris*
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Preserve OHR history! Do it for the children!

[Camdog]

You know, just because classical tragedies are the established rule doesn't mean a classical tragedy is the only kind of story that can have an ending involving the main character dying. By the same token, having a situation that a hero can't escape can be lazy writing, but that isn't neccessarily true. Imposing arbitrary rules (no matter how ancient they are) does nothing but limit your storytelling. The fact of the matter is, if the story is well done, people will like it. Do whatever you like to the main character as long as you do it well.

Also, FFVII rocked! One of my all time favorite RPGs.

[Flamer]

agreed, go camdog!

do whatever you like with you're story, as long as it's memorable, it'll be a good story.

questions you want people to think when they finish a game are:
what will happen next? why could they do this at the time? how on earth did they manage to get away with that? which one would've died if they did this?

not really... but you get the picture. a good story will make you feel you want to play a sequeal... (in my case strangely enough is a h-game, because the story was that damn good compared to the scenes involved, in fact it didn't have that many scenes in it)
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If we were a pack of dogs, IM would be a grand Hound, CN would be a very ficious little pitball, and Giz...well, it doesn't matter breed he is, he'd still be a bitch
(no offense to anyone that was mentioned)

[planethunter]

sure twists and turns make the game interesting,
but just killing off the main character just for the sake
of originality is just plain ignorance.

If you ask me, i think the player should have more of
a choice. If the player fails to make a crucial choice
then there should be an ending to suit it. As oppossed
to the run-of-the-mill: when you fail the game is over.

killing the character at the end not only denotes that all
the player has worked for is gone (unless, see my other post^)
but also implies the prospect of sequels is limited.
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~PH

[Setu_Firestorm]

Ugh ...ugh....Snnaaaaaake!

Fox ...........Die ..............uhhhhhh.......
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