QA: Mortality in a game

Recently, I was introduced to the flash game; “You only live once”. I had my shot at playing it, got three screens in and died. What will a player go away with, that they wouldn’t normally get with a regular platformer? There’s a lot a game like this can teach people, so long as they’re willing to look at it with an open mind.


Completely forgetting the title of the game, I clicked continue, only to be presented with footage of life after the character’s death. After getting the bad ending, I toddled over to YouTube and found the good ending, only to find that it really wasn’t that great an ending in comparison to the ending I’m now stuck in.

So, here it goes, here’s my take on mortality in this game and what mindset I walked away with. You really do only get one chance at life and if you’re going to throw it away half-heartedly, then yeah, you’re going to get the bad ending. You can complain all you want about fairness and not getting another turn, but that’s life. I believe a game like this has what it takes to put a player in this mindset, so long as they’re ready to understand what the game’s trying to put across.


What are your thoughts on this style of game? Or on mortality in video games in general?

Links:
Raitendo's "You Only Live Once"

Note: You can play again by clearing your browser cache.