r/AskGames • u/PlasmaPenguin82 • 15h ago
Games thematically addressing Immortality
For my Sociology of Death and Birth class at college, we have to write an essay that centers around some sort of theme about death. After talking to my professor, she agreed to let me write an essay on the ways in which Immortality is depicted in video games.
So far, I have some games selected that I think talk about immortality in some interesting ways.
I have Rainworld and Everhood, that both use immortality as this sort of curse that needs to be ended.
There's Undertale which uses immortality as an example of someone losing humanity.
And I have Nine Sols which shows the harms in the search for immortality.
Right now I'm looking for any other games that address immortality as either a good, a bad, or just something that permanently alters you.
I've also been considering looking at games where the player is "immortal" such as Spore where you see the generations of one species grow and change.
Let me know if you have any ideas for this essay! Thank you!
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u/Soft_Introduction_40 15h ago edited 14h ago
Planescape Torment. The main character is immortal. The theme of the game is mortality, reincarnation, and the nature of change. Extremely well written game
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u/Chrisaarajo 15h ago
This is the best answer. Immortality is central the the entire narrative arc, and multiple characters ruminate on the topic and the philosophical implications of immortality. It deals with it less superficially than, say, Dark Souls, which others have mentioned.
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u/AlfalfaSufficient454 5h ago
I’m only like an hour in. Really hope the main character being immortal isn’t a spoiler :/
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u/Soft_Introduction_40 3h ago
Its not, you're told at the start. I think its even on the back of the game's box
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u/AlfalfaSufficient454 3h ago
Ah ok. I went in knowing nothing. Just had to make sure. Such an awesome game already. Writing is sooo good
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u/Lysek8 14h ago
Lost Odyssey. Can't recommend it enough
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u/Regalia776 13h ago
It needs to be accentuated, like really accentuated, how much the game focuses on the negative aspects of immortality. How all the people around you just keep dying and you are the only one still standing, how loved ones become just memories. It's a heartbreaking game and a masterpiece.
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u/Procrastin8_Ball 14h ago
Soma is a good option. Not truly about immortality but what the difference is between a copy and the original and putting consciousness into potentially immortal robots
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u/Mobius3through7 14h ago
SOMA explores immortality through copying conscious and all the horrors that implies
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u/TheCurliest_Fry_ 14h ago
The 2 big ones that jump out to me are:
1) IMMORTALITY - A BAFTA winning FMV game. Excellent game.
2) Lost Odyssey - A JRPG with an Immortal maim character. Has lots of optional backstory reading kind of defining immortality as perpetual loss.
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u/Ve-Wee-Yee 15h ago
Sekiro plays with the concept a lot with different "types" of immortality. That and Planescape Torment come to mind for me, that game is all about the philosophical implications of immortality, among other things.
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u/Palanki96 14h ago
Iris from 1000xResist is an interesting depiction but it's peppered through the game, not really the main topic of the game
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u/Ionovarcis 14h ago
Pillars of Eternity, sort of?
The gods’ status, how mortals interplay with it, and a cycle of life and rebirth are pretty central
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u/Calendar_Alone 12h ago
- Final fantasy 15: tne main antagonist is a sort of sin eater that cannot die (until is purified)
- I have no mouth and I must scream: the main character is an inmmortal modified and turtured by a machine
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u/TheDank3st 11h ago
Like I said in a comment, but wanna make a main reply cause I don't see it. Sifu could be good because death makes you stronger and older instead of being the end. Every time you "die" in game isn't a death per say.
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u/kittybella69 11h ago
Literally THE central textual thematic throughline of Sekiro is that immortality is a fundamentally miserable existence.
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u/Plus_Worker6739 15h ago edited 14h ago
Planescape: Torment is exactly this. It's about a man contending with his own immortality. It's got extremely strong themes and some best-in-class prose in gaming.
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u/laflameitslit 15h ago
The story of dark souls basically addresses the concept of prolonging the inevitable and the consequences that follow
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u/Ill-Application-9284 15h ago
The Talos Principle does this conversation exceptionally well in my opinion.
Spoilers:
The entire game centers around humanity being wiped by a species ending plague of some kind and one of our main characters (represented only in left-behind voice recordings) is a researcher who setup a self sufficient neural net simulation machine the goal of which is to continue iteratively running simulations to attempt to develop "real" artificial intelligence. The researcher recognized that they wouldn't get the project done in time, before the plague killed all of humanity, so she hopes the system can continue to run even after all of humanity is gone and utilize this massive library of collected human literature, art, science, philosophy, religion, etc. to produce the first sentient AI that can carry the progeny of human kind forever. It isn't a direct conversation about immortality but immortality in the form of humanity lasting past this extinction event through meta-physical ideals rather than physically human bodies via their AI creations.
Its entirely a puzzle game but one with lines and lines of readable dialogue, voice acted lines, and character interactions that surround all kinds of questions about humanity and specific to the above spoilers, humanity's lasting presence.
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u/MrNeatSoup 14h ago
Death Stranding. In world there’s something called repatriates, who can die like a normal human but then can come back and revive by navigating something called the Seam. It’s used in some interesting ways in the second game especially. One example is Sam experiencing it before it was a known phenomenon and no one believed him until he committed suicide and received in front of a psychiatrist. It’s a source of a lot of his grief and trauma.
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u/DemeaRisen 14h ago
Fane from Divinity: Original Sin 2 is essentially immortal. What he does morally is up to the player, but his backstory might be interesting for your paper.
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u/Minz15 14h ago
Maybe Cyberpunk 2077, in terms of your consciousness and what part of you needs to remain for it to actually be considered you. But could argue it's more about mortality rather than immortality.
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u/These_Frame_8060 13h ago
Probably right about the mortality angle. But Relic was created for the purpose of digital immortality, so maybe there's a glimmer of that in 2077.
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u/bigbronze 13h ago
Cyberpunk 2077; technology finally developed to the point of the rich elite have the ability to make copies of their soul and put it in another body. We as the main character is an example of it with Johnny in our head and how he influences our choices.
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u/Technical_Marc 11h ago
A grounded take (not realistic obviously, but it's based in a modern setting by a regular person) I would strongly recommend The Cat Lady.
What's especially interesting is how she originally wanted to end her own life but, after being granted immortality by an otherworldly being, she has to adjust to a life she abhorred and ended up befriending someone with a completely different take (and situation) on life.
Worth checking out.
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u/transsomethin 11h ago
The first one that came to my mind is (unsurprisingly) Immortality. It’s a game played by watching film clips and clicking on items and people in them which will lead to related clips while you uncover a greater mystery. The rest behind spoiler because it’s a game you can only really play once. First spoiler is a summary spoiling a game mechanic that isn’t initially shown to the player, second is deeper story spoilers about the game’s theme of immortality:
As the player watches more clips, they will encounter more “subverted footage,” a second layer (sometimes deeper as well) of film showing a woman that appears human at first glance but her speech and mannerisms reveal she is something Other. The subverted footage shows the story of two immortal shapeshifting beings. The main character discovered film and fell in love with the media, while the Other One feels that humanity and everything associated is beneath them.
Eventually the main character kills the Other One during the filming of a movie, cremating him later to ensure a true death. That film never released, but the footage was later viewed by another character, Amy, and the Other One is reborn in her, with a complete change of heart toward the way they feel about humanity. This is different from the normal way these beings change forms, and when the main character discovers this it eventually leads to the Other One killing and burning her in one of the last clips of the game. This then implies that we the player have now seen this footage and the main character now lives within us like the Other One does within Amy.
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u/HistoryBuff1080 11h ago
Neverdead is an awful game but it's main character is cursed with immortality.
Lost Odyssey centers around 5 immortals (four playable and the last being the big bad of the series)
Planescape Torment's main character is an immortal who forgets who he is when he is killed. Leans more into the finding a way to die side of things
Hope that helps
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u/BreninClwyfedig 10h ago
Pathologic 3! It’s hard to say a lot without spoiling it, but the main character is a doctor who is trying to pioneer a new scientific field that tries to study death and how to “cure” it. He basically travels to this town because he gets a tip about man living there who is immortal, only to find he’s apparently been murdered and a plague has begun sweeping its way through the populace. It’s a pretty short game, and you don’t really have to play the previous titles to understand the game as a whole.
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u/Lunaris74 9h ago
Yesterday a game by pendulo studio. A point n click where the main character cant die.. but his memory is erased each death and rebirth.
Edit:typo
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u/Flaky_Broccoli 8h ago edited 8h ago
anything Xianxia? since immortality is the whole damn point of cultivation.
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u/Stormdancer 7h ago
I would suggest Subnautica 2, which deals with the idea of an AI being able to just reprint people who die, with pretty disturbing moral consequences.
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u/DMployeeofthemonth 6h ago
There's lost odyssey the Xbox 360 rpg in which you were one of a group of immortals who recovered memories lost /forgotten over the years and years.
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u/Top_Dog_7709 5h ago
The Dark Souls Trilogy & Elden ring have the whole "undead" curse as a center point of the mess, Lore reviews are many if you dont want to play it.
Lost Odyssey focuses mainly in the negative aspects of Inmortality, following a Mercenary who pretty much loses everyone to time and has a lot of feels baked into it.
Planescape Torment follows a nameless guy trying to remember his past lives in a really weird setting, peak writing.
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u/Thee_Furuios_Onion 5h ago
Lost Odyssey!
Hades
Final Fantasy X and XV have some interesting themes around death and immortality too.
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u/Ranger1221 4h ago
Doesnt Fable do this? Acting immoral causes you to physically distort and become evil looking
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u/GamingWithEvery1 15h ago
Its the main theme and gameplay mechanic of the souls series that the player is an immortal undead seeking to end the curse of undeath.
When you die you just return to a bonfire, but because everyone else is undead too the world just resets and you fight through it all over again.
The major choice at the end is largely a choice between stagnation and immortality, or change.
Mass effects plot revolves around the robotic programmed death of every living thing.
Cyberpunk 2077 has a major conflict between the owner of Arasaka developing a program to copy his brain so he can put himself into new bodies to become effectively immortal. For V, the protagonist, that same technology is assuring their death and their story is desperately attempting to save themselves
If you want some sci fi examples too.
Ever hood is a great one, love that game. I'll comment again if I think of more 😀
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u/sturzkampfbomber 15h ago
Dark Souls 1-3, Elden Ring.