Have you ever regretted killing a NPC?

[Black Arrow Officer]

I feel bad about killing anyone who's named in Skyrim. Just because the city feels slightly more... empty. Even the bastard Nazeem and that demon-child Frodnar have their place in the world of Skyrim. Of course, any Guard, Soldier, Bandit, or random NPC of any sort is fair game. I usually get my sneaking skill up by murdering the guards patrolling the Whiterun countryside. It's fun to murder them and dump their bodies in the river knowing that they'll respawn soon enough. Then again, the NPCs that TRULY deserve to die like the Thieve's guild (why can't I wipe them out like the Dark Brotherhood? Thieves are scumbags), Maven Black Briar, and the enemy generals are apparently highlanders. And why can't I just piss over to the enemy stronghold and kill Ulfric or Tullius during the civil war questline? In New Vegas, I infiltrated the Legion camp and assassinated Caesar in the process of doing the NCR questline. I think New Vegas is one of the only games where you can truly kill everyone. The only invincible NPC's that I know of are Yes Man and... that's about it. That's one of the things that really makes my butt sore in Skyrim.

I also felt bad about killing Dante Moro in AC2. The dude was betrayed and left mentally crippled, had his wife stolen from him, and was made into a personal slave by Marco Barbarigo. Dante was just a man-child who was dragged into the conspiracy against his own will, and he even betrays the Templars on his deathbed. I know that Ezio doesn't really know Dante's full story, but I still wish there was an option to spare Dante and hand him over to Bartolometo to join the good side. And the letter from his wife... I almost teared up for the first time in gaming.

 

[NeutralDrow]

That's why I stopped doing the Dark Brotherhood questline in Skyrim. Once I realized what they were trying to do, and realized that I'd killed people for the sole purpose of them being annoying (and not to me, I killed them because they annoyed other people), I just stopped. I took Shadowmere with me, rode off into the sunrise, and told the assassins to all piss off from a safe distance away. I wouldn't have needed to be a safe distance, except that they all become fucking immortal once you start the questline. I understand you can kill some of them later, but that would entail going through with their plan.

Also, when I was doing the Death Knight creation quest in World of Warcraft, I felt pretty bad about killing the NPCs overall. Then one of them begged me to spare her, so I stopped attacking.

Then I was reminded, to my horror, just how many DoT powers I was using. >_>

 

[Bloodstain]

Loads and loads, obviously. The most recent one I remember...hmm...

Killing The Caller in Skyrim. I really liked her, and it turns out there was a way to end the quest without killing her.

 

[Professor Idle]

If I ever accidentally attacked a scientist or guard in Half Life, I felt bad and save scummed.

 

[Kimarous]

Of course. Some games actively TRY to make you feel bad about your actions. Case in point:


EDIT: I apologize for the annotations; they work better on the full-sized video.

 

[Tranquility]

I accidentally killed the giant queen lady in Dark Souls.

I remember I had just gotten something, then decided to try it after talking to her. Then she screamed and melted, and the lights went out everywhere.

 

[cerebus23]

so many invincible people in skyrim it gets REALLY annoying when they talking crap to your level 60 dragonborn decked out in gear and you cannot gut them where they stand because they are part of some quest where you have to work with this pussbag? lest shut theses npcs up rather than taunt the players, then you got a npc that will retreat call surrender then attack you 30 seconds later after you walked away, then you put him down again and the guards get involved and so on.

yea there are long stretches that and other bugs just make me grrrrrr in that game and just do not play it because of that stuff.

i killed children in fallout 2 but the thieving little idiots stole that armed c4 out of my bag while i was talking to them so it wasnt exactly my fault.


i felt bad about ganking legion in me3, i picked the wrong dialogue and skipped the one side mission totally boning my first playthru.

i would have blown up that creepy cave of kids in fallout 3 just too many mouthy brats there, grrrr bethesda games.

so no i not felt too bad about anything i have done, i often get more mad about when games force me to play nice while often those npcs treat you like dirt all or part of the time like some hahaha dev joke.

 

[Thoughtful_Salt]

I accidentally killed Lydia a lot in Skyrim, I felt kind of bad every time and reloaded a save.

 

[Joos]

The utter betrayal of Mission Vaio, where you force persuade her best friend Zaalbar to murder her for protesting against Darth Revan's evil ways. I felt soiled.

Spoiler

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Only if I later realised it meant I missed something worth doing, like cool quests that they were going to give or some sweet loot they'd give me later.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

You can skip all this and go to the question at the bottom if you want.

I never really started the story of GTA 4. The multiplayer was always so distracting, and by the time the DLC came out I had forgotten all about Niko Bellic. Since it's the summer game drought, I said "screw it" and decided to go through the story. I came to the part where I had to choose to either kill Playboy X or Dwayne. I parked my car between Playboy's and Dwayne's houses and sat there. I liked the missions I did for Playboy, and he seemed like he had everything under control. On the other hand, Dwayne had just come out of prison, and I liked his personality and not being called "Money" every five minutes. But if I had to do another strip club mission, Dwayne would be the one to go. I decided to kill Dwayne, just to put the poor bastard out of his misery. I was prepared to go when I lightly bumped into a cop car. Lights flashed, sirens sounded, and by the time I got away from the cops I was a block away from Playboy X's. I began thinking. Playboy is kinda a douche anyways. He lives in a fancy big ass apartment and makes Dwayne live in the projects. Plus, when he told me to kill people, he did it like a pussy. I decided he would die.

I killed Playboy X, and as soon as I did, I regretted it. I felt bad about it. I liked Playboy. He seemed like a good enough guy, and he talked about building playgrounds and saving people's lives. I felt shitty about the whole situation, and I wish I could go back and kill Dwayne. That's really the first time I've ever regretted killing a NPC.

My question is;
Have you ever regretted killing a NPC? If so, who, what game, and why?

It's been ages since I played GTA IV, but I remember feeling like a prick for killing Dwane. I wished I'd killed the other guy.

I accidentally killed an NPC for a quest in Oblivion, but I cant remember feeling really bad about killing someone.

 

[Feylynn]

*snip*
Seriously, how are you supposed to play a murdering vampire assassin-mage when the majority of the people can't be murdered?

PC version and mod out all essential flags.

But note that NPC behavior can be very very strange in Bethesda games and though you believe in player driven consequences the game may have different ideas.
I'll cite an Oblivion example.
There is an exMage guild NPC that gains -Rep towards you multiplied by your rank of Mage guild.
What this means is that if you finish the quest and become Archmage, then pass him on the street without having previously improved his disposition towards you he will be "kill on sight".

In my game he attacked me first as I was entering a store, I hadn't noticed because I was a low stage Vampire taking sunlight damage, the guards attacked him, the guards don't know how to aim and arrows hit NPCs, NPCs retaliated, guards retaliated, faction flags and rep levels were thrown all over the place and by the end of it all the entire town had been murdered before I even knew it had started.

Essential flags are there to stop that from breaking your save irreparably. The lowest form of AI BS would be dragon/bandit attacks wiping out the main quest as you come on screen of finishing it.

OT: I've regretted killing a lot of NPCs, I can't even dredge up specific examples in the sea of Bethesda/Bioware/other games.

 

[skywolfblue]

All the time.

Killed someone I didn't have to in Skyrim -> Reload.

In fact, the most time consuming part of playing the Halo games for me was reloading every time an NPC died. Most of the time regardless of whether or not it was even my fault. I wanted to save them all. That's just one example.

Been there, done that. It is HARD to keep those guys alive, they always want to jump onto thrown grenades or purposely suicide by running out in front of your warthog at the last second.

 

[Mirroga]

Do these NPCs you speak of be part of the main cast? If it did, then I will always remember one.

Infamous 2 Spoiler <- This should already give it away

Spoiler

Killing Zeke in Infamous' Evil/Bad Ending

 

[Char-Nobyl]

Yep. Agronak gro-Balog, the Arena's Grand Champion in 'Oblivion.' He was always at least polite while the other gladiators (besides the unnamed Blue Team gladiator) were all assholes up until the point that I was poised for success.

The problem, however, was twofold: I had actually accepted a quest from Agronak to find evidence of his heritage. His nickname was 'The Gray Prince' because of his alleged aristocratic bloodline, but he had no proof of it. So I ventured to a dark, forsaken tower and discovered...his father. A vampire. Agronak's mother had actually sealed the father in his own keep when she discovered his secret, and he'd gone mad from lack of blood in the meantime.

So I returned to Agronak with the news and proof and...he was heartbroken. Like, really. The friendly, talkative gladiator was gone, replaced by a black hole of utter misery. Then when I got out into the Arena for the title fight, he drew his sword, then stood still and told me to get it over with quickly.

Bear in mind, the Arena fights are all to the death, so he was essentially committing suicide by gladiator. True to his word, he didn't take a single swing, and I was still inexplicably heralded by the announcer as having rightfully claimed the title of Grand Champion.

Then I got back into the gladiators' preparation area. The quartermaster and overseer were, of course, ecstatic that I'd won, even if they had been massive pricks for the better part of my stay there. But then I spoke with the unnamed gladiator I mentioned at the start of this post. He'd been easily the most friendly person there. He was eager to share information if I asked for it, and he always wished me luck on my way into matches and congratulated me on my way out.

He stared at me with shock on his face and said (paraphrased), "You...you killed Agronak? He was one of my oldest friends. Well, Grand Champion, I hope it was worth it." The transition from shock to utter scorn was stunning to me at the time, and I felt like the worst person on Earth for what I'd done. It was the exact opposite of how the story was supposed to go: I'd murdered one of the few people who'd treated me well from the start and alienated the other, and all for the approval of assholes.

...and it didn't help that when I fell asleep on one of the Arena bedrolls, a representative of the Dark Brotherhood showed up to congratulate me on my murdering prowess.

 

[Jak23]

Almost every single NPC ever! Seriously, I get way to emotional over digital characters...
So I'm just going to say the most recent one: That poor crazy homeless guy in Ivarstead. I REALLY wanted those Dark Brotherhood trophies, but after that I just couldn't finish them...

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

Nope I get a joy of glee when I can go on a kill spree with NPC's. I only feel bad when I kill one that I needed for a quest (but when he is useless I kill him).

 

[TheCommanders]

Not usually, but I definitely would have been remorseful if I had killed Mordin. Seriously, did anyone actually shoot him? You heartless bastards...

 

[ShoryukenDude]

Yep. I have trouble doing anything amoral in games, so murder is pretty high up on my 'dont do this' list.

But I didn't regret killing Playboy. I thought he was an ass.

 

[SomebodyNowhere]

I felt pretty bad about Mordin and Wrex in Mass Effect 3. I liked them in the other games, but since I was trying to stick to a renegade mentality they had to go.