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5 mobile games that brutally kill off main characters

This one's for you, [REDACTED]

5 mobile games that brutally kill off main characters

If you're an avid The Walking Dead fan - or even if you're not - you're probably aware that the opening episode of the latest series dropped a major bomb, and one of the core characters met a particularly grisly end.

Of course, many have said that the sheer grisliness of that end has somewhat detracted from the impact it should have had, but it still got us to thinking about games. Most things do.

So, which mobile games have punched us in the guts with the shocking death of a major character? Here are five that spring to mind, but there are doubtless many more. Let us know in the comments below.

Do we need to offer a spoiler alert? Yeah, we probably do.

**SPOILER ALERT** The Walking Dead

Let's start in the most obvious location. One of the core tenets of The Walking Dead, in whatever iteration, is that no-one's safe. Except Rick. He might be a bit dim, but he sure does have luck on his side.

Still, that didn't stop mouths from dropping open and hearts from breaking when protagonist Lee Everett got himself bitten, forcing young Clem to *sniff* pull the trigger. Or not, depending on which choice you made. But still, SNIFF!

Banner Saga

Banner Saga is pretty much the Game of Thrones of the game world. Or it would be if there wasn't a Game of Thrones game, with its own set of major-character-deaths. But we're getting sidetracked.

What I'm trying to say is that Banner Saga presents an unusually mature, grim strain of fantasy that doesn't shy away from bumping off key characters. Nowhere is this more evident then at the end of the story, where either the noble hunter Rook or his daughter Alette is killed in a final heroic act. It's the Viking burial that gets me...

Final Fantasy VII

This is arguably the biggest example out there of a major character dying in a video game. Square Enix's massive PS1 (and more recently mobile) RPG redefined the genre, and managed to get a whole generation of gamers all choked up.

Aeris started the epic story as a simple flower girl in a teeming metropolis, then went on to establish herself as the last of an ancient and powerful race, via a budding romance with the story's hero. Which made her death just past the half way point (this is a long game) a little... hard... to... take. Sorry. There's something in my eye.

Infinity Blade

In terms of the sheer number of major character deaths, you can't really top the Infinity Blade series. It's got tons of them.

In fact, the whole story is built on the idea that the heroic protagonist will die at the hands of the God King, only to be replaced in subsequent playthroughs by a slightly more powerful descendant. True, it's not as moving as the other examples as a result, but you have to admire the chutzpah of the concept.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP

Who knows what the hell Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery is about. All we know is that the closing credits feature our hero's body floating downstream to a suitably ethereal soundtrack, before being placed on a burning funeral pyre.

Okay, so it's arguably less impactful given that the game itself reaches a conclusion at this point too, but still. It's pretty beautiful.

Chrono Trigger

Final Fantasy VII gets a lot of attention for the way it killed off Aeris, but the truth is that Square Enix was playing games with our hearts well before that.

Chrono Trigger originally hit shops two years earlier (it made its way to mobile in 2011), and actually had the temerity to kill of main character Crono. Of course, the game's core conceit is time travel, so the rest of the team gets the opportunity to go back and alter events. Still, it was pretty powerful and unexpected stuff at the time.
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.