There's nothing worse than dying multiple times in a game, whether it's to a grueling boss, a tricky platforming section, or simply a wave of enemies that just seem to be a little too fast or strong for their own good, it's a sure-fire way to make any player, no matter how much prior experience they've had with difficult games, annoyed and frustrated.
Most developers know this feeling well and will make sure to never patronize or provoke the player after they meet their demise several times. In fact, for some games such as Dark Souls or Elden Ring, death is even a core mechanic of the game that is seen as necessary in order to grow stronger, but on the other hand, there are some games that will take the opposite approach and laugh at the player while they are down.
While this could be seen as a form of motivation in itself, it's definitely a surreal experience when a game recognizes that the player is doing badly, and decides to humiliate them for it and believe it or not, there are actually plenty of games that take this approach.
8 Ninja Gaiden Black
Similar to most of the other games in this beloved hack-and-slash series, Ninja Gaiden Black is an incredibly challenging game that will punish the player severally if they mess up their inputs and underestimate their opponents, but there is actually a secret way to make the game much easier, and that is by activating Ninja Dog Mode.
If players manage to die three times in the very first chapter of the game, they will be asked "Do you choose to abandon the way of the ninja?", and if they answer yes to the prompt, then all the enemies will be much weaker, and Ryu will deal a ton more damage than he did before, making for a difficulty change that perfectly suits those players who can't handle the challenge presented in the real game.
7 Devil May Cry 3
Automatic Mode can be unlocked in most of the Devil May Cry games, but in the third entry in the series, the game goes out of its way to treat the player like someone who clearly had no idea what sort of experience they were getting into. If Dante is slain by demons three times in a row on a mission, the Easy Mode will then be unlocked, but added to this, the game will also pop up a tutorial for the Easy Automatic mode which essentially dumbs down to the game as much as possible.
Rather than executing precise inputs and changing styles on the fly to pull off crazy combos, players simply need to mash a single button while Dante handles the rest himself. Considering how difficult Devil May Cry 3 can be, especially near the beginning, dying three times is easy to do, so the game wastes no time trying to embarrass the player by offering the Automatic Mode as soon as it gets the chance.
6 Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
Near the very beginning of Hellblade when Senua makes contact with the darkness of Hela, the game will warn players that each time they die across their journey, the dark rot which has now appeared on her arm will continue traveling up her body and if it manages to reach her head, it's game over.
While this certainly had players on the edge of their seats while surviving the nightmare as Senua, the truth is, there really is no permadeath system in Hellblade, with the whole mechanic being a ruse that is supposed to fit into the game's themes of how easily the human psyche can play tricks on us. While this was a very smart move to keep the player anxious from start to finish, it also made many people feel very foolish after dying so many times and worrying about the consequences.
5 Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
Acquiring the Chicken Hat in Metal Gear Solid 5 is very easy, but there's no denying that it's a piece of clothing that instantly makes the otherwise stoic and badass Big Boss look more like a clown who has accidentally found himself in the middle of a battlefield.
Upon dying three times in a row, the game will politely ask the player if they would like to wear the Chicken Hat which actually hides Boss from enemy vision three times until the trick stops working. While it's certainly tempting to use this clearly overpowered item, especially on those trickier sneaking missions that are littered with guards, it will restrict the final grade of the mission to an A rating or lower, so it can be best to avoid it not only because of this but also because it looks absolutely ridiculous on top of the Boss's head.
4 ZombiU
ZombiU was somewhat of an obscure Wii U launch title that many people wrote off as being yet another open-world zombie game, but it actually had a few very surprising features and mechanics that helped separate it from its comparisons, especially in its death system.
If the player dies from burning, from an explosion, or by taking fall damage, then they can easily seek out their lifeless corpse and retrieve their weapons and items upon respawning, but if they had died from a zombie bite, the body will instead now be wandering among the undead hordes which makes it incredibly hard to track down. As the game throws more ferocious enemies at the player, each death will make it even more difficult to retrieve the loot which can end up leaving the survivor with absolutely nothing.
3 Nightshade
The classic NES titleNightshade has an extremely unique death mechanic that is so punishing that it hasn't really been seen in any game since, which is probably for the best considering it can literally block the player from progressing any further in the game.
Rather than reloading at a checkpoint when he dies, Nightshade will instead be transported to a deathtrap room where he must solve a puzzle to escape back into Metro City, but while each of the first four rooms has some sort of riddle that can be figured out, by the time Nightshade has died a fifth time, he will be placed in a room without a solution, meaning the player will need to restart the entire game as punishment for making a few small mistakes.
2 Middle Earth: Shadow Of War
The Nemesis system is what drives a lot of the gameplay in Shadow of War, with the whole mechanic revolving around the players' interactions with the menacing Orcs that patrol Middle Earth. After the player defeats an Orc, they have a chance of returning for vengeance with the scars left on their body from their last encounter, but these encounters actually have a huge impact on the Orc hierarchy too.
If players keep dying to a particular Orc who they just can't seem to overcome, that Orc will advance up the social ladder, becoming praised by his peers and earning Sauron's respect. Alongside watching the Orc rise through the ranks at the player's expense, they will also humiliate Talion to his face upon seeing him again, sometimes even begging him to kill them in an attempt to mock the ranger and his abilities.
1 Sifu
Sifu doesn't exactly hold the player's hand before throwing them into some intense close combat encounters, and while dying once or twice in this brutally challenging beat-em-up isn't too much of a problem, dying over and over again can become very embarrassing and can make the game so much harder going forward.
The reason for this is that the unnamed protagonist will age each time he dies which not only changes his physical appearance but also restricts him from unlocking certain abilities which can only be acquired at younger ages. Players will begin the game at age 20, so staying as close to this number as possible is the primary aim in this fantastic beat 'em up, but if the player does keep dying, they can be sure the game will remind them of it.