Horror movies have nailed this concept. Most horror films start with a group of survivors put in horrible situations, and one by one they die until only one person is left alive, usually a female. Not all survival scenarios end up this way, and that’s true of horror games too.
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Other setups can involve the concept of a lone survivor, as it doesn’t have to literally mean one character is left to survive in an empty world. They may be the last presumed one of their kind, like in Hollow Knight, or the world could be broken down like in Loop Hero. Whatever the case may be, these games have interesting survival situations across a wide range of genres.
Dead Space requires having the ending spoiled, but everything else is spoiler-free.
Fit the 9 games into the grid.
Ball X Pit
Pinball Heroes
Ball X Pit opens with the funnily named Ballbylon, a play on the fall of historical Babylon, as it sinks into the ground. Players will start as survivors who can go down into the depths to fight monsters, collect materials, and blueprints to rebuild the city one house at a time. The city-builder aspects are minimal, but worthwhile since they give characters that unlock more passive bonuses.
There is no quest-based or dialogue dynamic between the unlocked characters or citizens, but that’s all for the better because the ball-based roguelike gameplay is fantastic, like a more RPG-infused game of pinball. The lack of a real story also adds to the isolating vibe that players are just trying to survive in a broken world.
Dark Cloud
Toan And I
The original Dark Cloud was Level-5’s first game, and it opened with a cult reviving a dark genie who wipes out nearly an entire town, including buildings and people. The hero, Toan, who looks a lot like Link from the Zelda series, is the one warrior left who can rebuild things.
There is a dungeon nearby where the genie encased materials and NPCs in spheres. By fighting monsters and collecting these spheres, players could use them to rebuild the town, which worked well as an early PS2 game. Players also unlocked new heroes besides Toan, like Goro, who has a big hammer, over time, and it was an overall great first effort from Level-5 as an action RPG with building mechanics.
Dead Space
The First Scream King
Dead Space is a different example of a survivor game, as it is a literal survival horror game set in space. The protagonist, Isaac Clarke, is an engineer who accompanied a small crew to investigate a space colony, the USG Ishimura, after things went dark some time ago. Aboard, they find the crew has either been torn to shreds or turned into undead aliens called Necromorphs.
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One by one, the crew gets violently dismembered or killed in several ways, with Isaac being the lone survivor in the end, essentially making him the scream queen of the nightmare. Armed with all manner of weapons, this original and the remake are still amazing examples of what the horror genre is capable of in games.
Dragon Quest Builders
A Dark Alternate Ending
Dragon Quest Builders is an alternate reality game that takes the bad ending from the very first game and imagines the events, aka the end of the world. With the world destroyed, players awaken as a mythical hero known as a builder who has the power to repair everything. In each chapter, players will be presented with a town or area they must fix, with some NPC survivors as well, asking for certain perks.
Players will level up in each area, but after moving between chapters, things reset again. It’s an odd leveling system for a Dragon Quest game, but the building mechanics are very intuitive, as it is very similar to Minecraft, just with much better graphics and a more engaging story and quest system.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins
Wander No More
Dynasty Warriors: Origins is a semi-reboot of the franchise, focusing on an original character instead of one of the many figures from Chinese history. The character is known as The Wanderer, and their tribe was wiped out long ago. With no home to call their own, this silent protagonist chooses to ally with nearby nations that are all trying to conquer China for themselves.
Players can make choices on who they support, which will change the story and also lead to new information as to what happens to their home. Like all Dynasty Warriors games, players can expect a lot of action as they slay literal hundreds of enemies in each map with a wide range of weapons and skills.
Hollow Knight: Silksong
The Weaver’s Call
Hollow Knight and Hollow Knight: Silksong are both examples of stories that follow lone survivors from their homeland, but Hollow Knight: Silksong has the benefit of Hornet, who can talk unlike The Knight from the first game. Hornet is a rare species of bug known as a Weaver, and in this new kingdom she is brought into, against her will, Hornet will uncover more about her Weaver culture and origins.
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While hard, these games are also deeply rewarding for respecting your skill and your resilience and properly testing your might.
The religious cult that surrounds this kingdom is fascinating, with Team Cherry proving themselves to be weavers as well in terms of how they manage to world-build. Beyond the story, this 2D Metroidvania looks great as a hand-drawn game, and it plays well too, with impeccable response time between platforming and combat. No one could have asked for a better sequel.
The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
Arise Sir Link
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has one of the darkest openings to a Zelda game, as Link awakens in a futuristic tomb only to find Hyrule has been ravaged. He was put to sleep a hundred years ago to one day arise and become the hero to destroy Calamity Ganon once and for all. Most people Link knew when he was a soldier are now dead or are incredibly old and too feeble to fight.
Hyrule still has pockets of civilization left waiting for the hero to return, and through exploration, players can power up Link to get where he needs to be. As an open-world game, there’s none finer than The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as it gives players true freedom in a gorgeous post-apocalypse.
Loop Hero
And Around We Go
Loop Hero is another roguelike where the world gets destroyed with only one hero left to sort things out. In each run, the map will reset, and players can decide their route by placing various things around, like rocks and trees, which will attract different enemy types.
Combat is turn-based, but it’s all automatic. A typical loop can last anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes, or even longer, depending on the luck of the draw. Because the gameplay is so simple and easy to understand, Loop Hero can be one of the hardest roguelikes to put down.
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