It always adds a bit of drama.... When a playable character dies, and most of all when you've grown a bit attached to them. This list shows a few of them. Now I will only lists deaths that are truly named in the story line. I mean at the end of FF7 such a huge jump in time is made, that we can safely assume that except for Red XIII (who has a longer lifespan than humans) everybody is dead, but since those deaths are not mentioned, I won't list them.

Of course, if you haven't played the stories this article will contain spoilers.

Mareg - Grandia II

Mareg joins with Ryudo in his quest to defeat Valmar, also because it will lead them into a confrontation with Melfice, whom he is hunting down due to the damage the latter caused to his hometown. In the end on Valmar's moon things go horribly wrong and Mareg sacrifices himself for the group. Now as Millennia is assumed to be dead as well, but will pop up alive and well later, there could be a bit of false hope that Mareg could do the same. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen. He truly is dead.

Teepo - Breath of Fire III

Teepo is only playable during the first portion of the game. As your group does anger a criminal gang, the criminal duo Balio and Sunder come to kill the three of you. You (Ryu) are the only one found back, and your two companions, Rei and Teepo are believed to be dead. Rei pops up later in the game and even rejoins the party. Teepo turns up at the end of the game, completely brainwashed by Myria since he is like Ryu a dragon and Myria fears dragons. The brainwashing even goes so far that Teepo eventually tries to kill you forcing you to kill him, giving the story a very tragic twist that shocks all playable characters of the game.

Garr - Breath of Fire III

Garr (Garland in the Japanese version of the game), does stay with you until the final boss is down, but after that, he will die. Garr is a Guardian. A human being whose powers were amplified in order to exterminate the dragons in the name of "God" (Myria). Normally guardians return their power to God and turn to stone. This is called the "stone sleep", however as this transformation cannot be undone, we can just deem it dying. Garr didn't enter the stone sleep as he didn't believe his mission was over, and since you (Ryu) were the last dragon, he appeared to be right. However meeting you gave him doubts and in the end he doesn't believe in his own mission and helps you to defeat his God. Still, since he now believes his mission to be over, he will enter the stone sleep after you defeated the goddess, so we can deem him dead.

Galuf Halm Baldesion - Final Fantasy V

Galuf enters the party as "an old man with amnesia". Eventually you'll lean he's the king of a realm that was separated from the world. Eventually Galuf is killed by Exdeath and his granddaughter, Krile, how even copies most of his statistics and all kind of level workouts you did on Galuf (making that his death does not make the effort you put into him goes to waste).

Lavitz Slambert - Legend of Dragoon

I hated this game, so I'm not completely well-versed in the story line. Lavitz is a knight in the service of King Albert. His king is kidnapped. Lavitz will use his Dragoon spirit to transform into a Dragoon to save his king, however the kidnapper has a sword that kills all kinds of dragons, including Dragoons, instantly. Lavitz dies as a result. King Albert takes his place in the group, and copies Lavitz's stats and level ups and abilities, so your hard work in Lavitz doesn't go to waste.

Shadow - Final Fantasy VI

Shadow is an odd one in this list as you can finish the game with him alive. In the last dungeon before the "World of Chaos" portion begins a timer runs. If you don't make it out in time the entire group will die, game over. Shadow is elsewhere in the dungeon may rejoin you just before the counter runs out. If you wait for him, he'll make it. If you don't wait for him, he'll get killed.

Crono - Chrono Trigger

Crono is just as controversial as Shadow, as you can finish the game with him alive, but you can also finish the game with him dead. Even more notable is that Crono is the game's main protagonist. Crono tries to face Lavos, a big monster who'll cause an apocalypse on his own and gets completely destroyed in the process. However, since Chrono Trigger is all about time travel and manipulating time, you can do an optional quest to make a dummy looking like Crono and manipulate time that way that the real Crono gets just at the last moment switched with this dummy, and thus the dummy being destroyed in stead of Crono.

Auron - Final Fantasy X

Auron was a bit of one I am conflicted about to add. Why? Because he already got himself killed before the story even starts, and has been in your party as an undead being (or unsent as the story calls it) during the entire duration of the game. Auron tried to avenge Braska and Jecht as they died for a lie Yunalesca kept up, however Yunalesca killed him. Still determined to keep his promised to Jecht and Braska he lingers on as an unsent. After the final boss has been slain, he allows Yuna to send him to the Farplane where he can finally rest in peace at last. This is why I still added him to this list.

Raquel Applegate - Wild Arms 4

Raquel might be the only Wild Arms playable character whose death is actively mentioned and even a main issue in the plot line before she even died. Raquel is the only known survivor of a disaster which destroyed her hometown Verklarung. Although the word "survivor" is a strong word in her case, as she got herself a wound that will never heal and cause her to die young. She tries to learn as much of the world as long as she's still fit enough to do so. Eventually she'll fall in love with Arnaud and even marry him giving birth to a daughter. However she died soon afterward. Raquel's death is only mentioned in some quick epilogue you get once the game is finished, but since her upcoming death was vital to the plot, and also even mentioned (vaguely) I still decided to add her to this list.

Maxim & Selan - Lufia II

Maxim is the main protagonist of Lufia II. Selan joins the party later, and Maxim immediately has a bond with her, and both Maxim and Selan were born with a talent to fight, and nobody ever taught them. This bond will eventually become love, and halfway the game they even marry and give birth to a boy named Jeros. At the end of the game, after defeating the final boss, a kind of explosion happens killing Selan on the spot. Maxim gets separated from his other allies (Guy and Artea) and has one more mission to perform to save the world, however as he cannot leave the fortress he's in anymore, this mission also claims his life. Given the fact that Lufia II is an RPG for the SNES, and also clearly aimed for a young audience, this was a kind of a strange (and tragic) twist, as the couple we grew to love meets its doom, and not only that, they leave a son behind who instantly became an orphan.

Now a fun fact about Lufia is that Lufia II takes place PRIOR to Lufia I, and that the final fights of Lufia II are the same fights with which Lufia I begins. Since I never got far in Lufia I (I did finish Lufa II... Multiple times actually) I do not know in full how the plot revolves around it, only that Guy (who is very briefly a playable character due to the game's start) does show up in Lufia I where he dies of old age.

Aerith Gainsborrow - Final Fantasy VII

And last, but not least, the most famous death in the history of RPG. Aerith Gainsborrow's death (I refuse to call her "Aeris"). Aerith, a half-human, half-Cetra, stole the hearts of many RPG fans only to rip them apart greatly when she got herself killed by Jenova (disguised as Sephiroth). As Jenova tried to use the Black Materia to destroy the world, knowing that Holy, the spell brought forth by the White Materia, Aerith became a treat. On your first meeting with her she mentions a materia that is absolutely good for nothing. Cloud mentions that she just hadn't found out yet how to use it, and it turns out he was right. That "useless materia" was the reason Aerith had to die. It was in fact the White Materia. She went to the city of the ancients to call Holy only to get herself killed as Jenova wanted to prevent Holy to activate. On the FMV where you see Aerith getting stabbed you can see a white orb falling out of her hair falling into the water. That was the white materia and as you can see... it already glows meaning that Aerith had already completed the very thing Jenova wanted to prevent, meaning the killing was performed on a moment it was no more use to do so, which can be considered even more heartbreaking. However at the end of the game it's Aerith's spirit who manages to save the world, and so it's bitter irony that Aerith could fulfill the purpose Jenova wanted to prevent by killing her by getting killed. I remember all RPG fans I knew talking about this kill and how so many people were outraged by it. Some people were even crying because of that. And a friend of mine told me how his sister was very angry since Aerith was the character she worked out most, only to lose her, without any replacement, halfway the game. None of the other deaths on this list (and even deaths I may not have listed yet) had such a great impact on the RPG community as hers. FF7 is a very flawed game at best, and one of the most overrated games in history of gaming in general, however I cannot deny, that the game creators made a very tactical move in killing Aerith, as it was their plan to shock the RPG world by killing off a character. They revealed it was even planned before they had the story up and when Cloud, Barret and Aerith where the only planned characters. Cloud as main hero wouldn't do. Barret was not the kind of person the world would mourn for, so Aerith had to do. It was all thought out to pierce the hearts of the players, and when we take into account how the world responded to her death, we know one thing... Mission accomplished.