RMMV Main Character Death?

[AkiraMatsuda2K]

So i recently had an idea to make the main character die really early in my game, to tie in with the theme that the MC is a failure, and if the villain really wanted to, he could kill him. I was thinking how many events would need to happen to pull it off, as I wouldn't just want the MC to just, y'know, die. Then it dawned on me; what about the secondary characters?

At this point, there's a full party, and I know they wouldn't just sit there and let the Villain win. But besides the typical "We have to fight in the MC's honor" trope, there's really no story development, besides 'beat the bad guy and win the game'.

Anyone have any ideas? Because I'm currently drawing blanks.

 

[Jennavieve]

Since it's near the beginning of the game and your characters are inexperienced and just saw their companion die, maybe they just don't have much confidence and flee from the battle? You can have them flake out one by one as they get low on health. Then when they face him again after gaining more experience it will give them more determination to stand their ground and defeat him.

Not sure if that's the kind of direction you want to go in but that's the solution that comes to mind for me.

 

[dollyt]

Perhaps a secondary character sacrifices his/her life to save the 'failure'? Just jumping in front of him, for instance, and getting hit. Such an event could be a driving force for the MC's determination throughout the rest of the game.

 

[Dopan]

you could let the MC give its life in order to let the other Chars get the possiblety to flee..
That way they is also an extra logic why they want to revenge the MC who saved their lifes..

edit
i wrote this at the same time like dollyt and both ideas are similar and are probably based on that part from Jennavieve:

and flee from the battle?

 

[Featherbrain]

Depends what you're going for with this. The tried and tested second act of such a story would have the other characters going on a quest to find the Chrono Trigger dragon balls plot mcguffin to bring the MC back to life, with a theme that the characters together can achieve what the MC alone couldn't, or something like that.

 

[Andar]

This idea has been used successfuly by a few games, but it also has problems that might make it difficult to pull off for you.

Basically, you'll need a long game and an exact plan on what to do for this.

If you kill off the MC too early, then the player will just assume that a placeholder was killed off as background motivation for the true MC. The player need to have played with the character some time to really get the feel of "MC killed".
And once that happened, you'll need a good story to make the player want to continue instead of aborting - especially if you don't go into the cliche "let's resurrect anyone because no player actor will ever die."

 

[Volourn]

The logic doesn't work. If the MC dies 'early\ in the game are they actually the main character? Main characters are 'main characters' because the story is focused on them. A MC can die late though. Or you could just a game that doesn't have a single focused 'MC'.

 

[stevenblanc]

So the only way I can see this working where you can kill off the main character early and still have them be the main character is perhaps in a memento type game where the story reveals itself in reverse. Or perhaps if you kill the main character in the beginning and then do the standard movie trope of "5 days earlier" or "earlier that day"

There is some value in the sense of foreboding knowing that your main character is going to die with almost certainty that there is nothing you can do about it. There still needs to be some sort of redemption act to make playing through that worth it.

There is resurrection/reconstruction (scifi), revenge, justification (perhaps reveal that while the motivations of the main character were noble, ultimately the result of their actions was to breed suffering).

 

[estriole]

how about after MC die... s/he still exist as a ghost or memory fragment... s/he stay with the party... then although s/he is unplayable (cannot go to battle etc)... but you can still build up the story focusing on MC... just please don't resurrect the dead MC... some great games already do that... and if you do that too then lots of people will say you copy that game plot... so instead... maybe make the MC later rest in peace after knowing the party s/he left become great person that carry his/her will...

MC is MC because the story need to focus heavily on him/her... if you kill MC too early then no more story about MC... then s/he is not MC but placeholder character...

hope this help.

 

[TheGameBrewery]

Ned Stark?

 

[Featherbrain]

Ned Stark was definitely not the main character of A Song of Ice and Fire, though. It was a clever sleight of hand to make him look that way and get the audience attached to him as such, but the Stark children are basically the protagonists, and the rest of the story arc holds this up: they are the ones the story follows, the ones who face and overcome its central conflict(s) and experience the most character development. This is actually kind of illustrative of what others have said, that the main character/protagonist is the one the story focuses on, and if they die early on (and don't return or directly influence the narrative after that) they almost definitionally can't be the main character.

 

[Volourn]

Ned was the MC of the first book which he died near the end. Same for the tv series. MC of the first season who died late. He certainly isn't the MC of the entire series. MC can die at/near the end. Not at the beginning. It is literally impossible - barring things of flasbacks/and 'this happened 5 years ago'. ie. Bookends. But, MC are MC because they are the focus of the book/movie/game. If Cloud died near the beginning of FF7 he would not be the MC.

 

[Kuro DCupu]

....
Sounds like the start of the plot from this particular manga, "Yuusha ga Shinda!" (The Hero is dead!)
You may look it yourself, I won't talk much bout it.

It started off just like what you expect.
But what they do when the hero is dead is they keep it a secret.
Then the real main protagonist has to take the hero's identity and roleplaying as him.
The whole story is a plot for the real MC to become the real hero.

 

[stevenblanc]

Ohhh how about you do a riff on altered carbon and do a game where the main character constantly dies but they can take the soul or spirit or memory and implant it in another body. So instead of it being a resurrection trope its more of a way in which you can develop the story of the MC but allows for changing mechanics throughout the game as each of the bodies plays differently while keeping the party stationary.

Now I want to start a new game! haahaha.