Death Scenes for Party Member Deaths

[Kirka]

I was thinking about the way the game handles companion and party member deaths. If characters die in battle the deaths are very unceremonious and sudden, often simply popping up a quest failure announcement. While I love that the game can be brutal and the characters are ultimately dead at this point (as they should be), this still feels very unsatisfying. This simply seems like I failed in playing the game, because the characters often have a quest line to complete. Therefore, I often end up reloading the game and redoing the battle, ultimately never letting any of my party members die.

 

Now, the second game is out, and some of the deaths in the first game can cause consequences and reactions in the second game. Character death is a story element, although a minor one, but now that the second game starts to reflect on those story elements, I am starting to feel I should have left some of those characters die when they originally died in the first game.

 

The problem is this: I never felt there was a story reason to let the characters die, when the deaths occurred. The deaths were not impactful enough. The game doesn't offer any closure to the journey the companion had with the player character.

 

I suggest that after the battle ends where a character dies, there would be a non-cinematic scene (the book scenes, or whatever they are called), to tie up the journey the companion had. Pillars 2 already uses these scenes seamlessly, and they are very flavorful, The death scene doesn't need to be long, and it shouldn't resolve the storyline of the character, but they should give a closure to the characters journey: "This character wasn't supposed to die here and now yet, but they did. Say farewell to them, even if they can't hear you anymore."

 

For example, the death scenes could describe the wounds the character had obtained in their final battle, and it could even reflect the actual area where the death happened. Some other party members could say something about the dead character, according to their disposition to them. The player character could choose the way to bury the character, or if the player really despised them, spit on their corpse. For companions, the death scene could allude to their personality and storyline in some way, but for sidekicks and henchmen the death scenes could be more generic.

 

And if even after the death scene the player feels unsatisfied, they can reload.

 

I know this requires more work from the writers of the game, but I feel like it would be an elegant and a simple solution for character deaths that can feel unsatisfying. At least for me, this would make character deaths more engaging. What do you guys think? Is this a good idea, or am I simply a sadist who wants a reason for my peeps to die? Is there something I am not seeing, rendering this death scene idea non-viable or useless?