What would you say hurts more: the player seeing the MC die or seeing someone else die from their POV?
Of course I am aware that there are multiple possibilities that can increase or decrease the chance to feel empathy to begin with.
A standard Game Over screen will probably only result in an emotional breakdown, if the player had tried to beat the enemy for two hours already, only for it to have been useless. Otherwise it's just a "Well, shit, gotta try again" reaction with a shrug. But if the MC dies in some heroic sacrifice at the end to save the world, everyone will get an tear of accomplishment in their eye.
Same with NPCs...one would think. But usually if they die, they are just a case of "Stuffed into the Fridge" aka "Introduced to be nice and important to the MC, then killed off so that MC can go on bloody revenge without looking sociopathic.
Of course, some Fridge-people still have impact. People love to mention Aerith from FF7, to the point where even people that never played the game know about the whole thing.
But I want to honestly ask:
What is more emotional for a player in your opinion?
To have the MC, their avatar who they may have identified with, die?
Or to have an NPC die? And if the latter, what circumstances do you see as necessary to give that impact?
I personally do REALLY think that the MC can NEVER have the impact that a good written NPC can create upon death. I have watched movies and played games where the hero dies, either tragic or with some beautiful "We'll never forget 'em *sniff*" feeling a la Matrix.
Sure, they were emotional, but those characters often make it a point about how the world revolves around them and how without them, the world would have been wasted anyway, so once it is save, they can die. It's fine, no reason to freak out about it.
A few exceptions exist, such as the protagonists in the
Bioshock
series for me, who all die a either horrific or very empathic death. Or the tragic ending of the game The Walking Dead, Season 1
.A well-written NPC death is something different. Since they are usually not the hero, their death has more tragedy in my eyes. Depending on the circumstances, it can feel just so much more painful, in both positive and negative death situations. Look at "To The Moon": you play as two scientists, but there are three NPCs dying (though you know in advance due to the premise of the story) and you feel TERRIBLE for each of them. There is the
Lavitz
in "Legend of Dragoon" who's death comes sudden, unexpected and will make you feel just so much sadness for their death and hatred for the killer. Suga in "Forest of the Drizzling Rain" can die based on bad decisions and the fact that he has been with you the entire game, protecting and sheltering you makes his death feel extremely painful.Think of
the dog
from Fable 2, who helped you all the time, just to get cruelly stabbed.It is difficult, but especially when the death is not something that the player expects hours ahead, it has so much more impact. You know the MC may die when their journey is almost over (unless you trick the player by starting with a false protagonist such as Fatal Frame 1), but the NPC can die anywhere from early on to the last two minutes of the credits. They can die unexpected, be it as a self-made sacifice, in an accident, from sickness, injury or whatever.
Heck, there are games that have no actual MC, where everyone is as much MC as NPC and all can die (Until Dawn) and where you may well end up throwing your controller in frustration of having allowed that character to die when it hadn't been necessary.
I believe, for as difficult it is to make a NPCs death actually matter in the story and not just as a "Well, Herc is a nice and funny guy, how to make him actually dangerous? Ah, let's throw a pillar on Meg, that shall do!". BUT if it is done, then I'd say it always outmatches the MC's death. In some cases, the MC AND the player suffer from that characters death even. Which is often even the premise of the entire Silent Hill series, all revolving around the player and MC trying to save someone (whether that person is already dead or not depends on the game, but yeah).