I’ve beat Fallout NV as a true pacifist - no companions, no death caused by me.
It is funny, because it really doesn’t seem to fit the themes of the game to be a pacifist. You end up doing things that would (IMHO) be more fucked up ethically. It’s also hard for me to leave Vulpes alive - killing him is an every play through thing.
I’ve tried playing Morrowind and Oblivion as a pacifist. Morrowind you can get pretty far, but the Sixth House Base quest requires the death of an NPC. Oblivion… lol. You can sorta try if you don’t count dragging along companions from uncompleted quests, but that doesn’t fit the spirit of the challenge.
I wish more video games allowed you to play pacifist. I play most video games with the least violence possible, but even really well written stories like Planescape: Torment need you to solve some problems with violence.
I’ve really appreciated games like Undertale and Dishonored too.
Disco Elysium can totally be pacifist
I think Disco Elysium might be the game you’re looking for!
Live a Live’s Twilight of Edo Japan chapter gives a special completion reward if you complete it with zero kills, or a full 100 kills. It’s designed in such a way that figuring out how to do the pacifist run is a puzzle you are unlikely to solve on your first playthrough.
This mechanic was actually one of the inspirations for Undertale!
As far as I know this mechanic wasn’t in the original SNES game, only in the remake.
It is in the original. For the most part, 2022 is very faithful to the original and doesn’t feature any big structural changes (apart from one new thing that’s a big spoiler), mostly just balance and quality of life improvements.
Like I said, Toby Fox openly cited this segment as an inspiration for Undertale (2015), and that came before the 2022 remake.
I mean… Kinda Baldurs Gate 3, especially if you are a high charisma class. You can also be monk. They key is dont use attack spells, and knock everyone out instead of killing them on thr mandatory fights. SO MANY of the fights in that game can be avoided or skipped with dialogue. You can, for example, bluff your way entirely into the enemy bases, use their shops, and completely decide to stay out of conflicts. Again, like you said in NV, sometimes the ‘pacifist’ routr makes you feel like shit. Like, you can skip having to side with either Minthara or the tieflings in act 1 simply by leaving for act 2. A lot of people die in the background though.
Only mandatory fights I think are at the end of act 2, and the final boss fight. Everything else can be avoided or conversationally skipped. In the final fight, depending on allies you got throughout the game you can technically have them fight everyone. Or you can just stealth past everything with greater invisibility or as monk or rogues that can sprint really fast.
All Dishonored games feel amazing when you manage to get in and out completely unseen and unheard. And there’s always a none lethal option to get rid of your target. Although I’d argue most of the times the non-lethal option is the more cruel one…
Iirc, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided can be completed as a pacifist - and you get an achievement for that.
There are lots of games where combat is not even an option, like Life is Strange, Before your eyes (do play this one with a camera and a box of tissues nearby), or Firewatch. But games where you’re expected to fight but can find ways around it the first example that comes to mind is Metal Gear Solid 3, you can beat that game without killing anyone, there’s even an achievement for that and one of the bosses will be particularly easy if you go this route.
I think the Of Loathing games can be pacifist
Well, Fallout 1 definitely allows it, and I don’t believe necessitates unethical behavior in order to achieve. It’s just a challenging and rewarding questline that I wish more games would emulate.
Some of my friends and I in a D&D campaign managed to talk our way out of so many encounters, and heist our way through so many quests, that we started calling ourselves Ocean’s Five. It was some of the most fun I’ve had in that game, improving our way through heists and getting away with it.
I think your best bet would be looking into the CRPG subgenre, though I can’t name any specific examples of games with pacifist routes.
Not an RPG, but in the Thief series the hardest difficulty usually means that you aren’t allowed to kill anyone. Many people even try to play the games as a ghost. Meaning the only sign of their presence after leaving is the stuff they stole. Every door has to be closed and locked again. Keys stolen from guards have to be returned (in lieu of a game mechanic for this you have to lay it on the ground behind them).
People do challenge runs of the Gothic games as pacifists. So it isn’t part of the games but doable with some shenanigans.
Nobody would wish harm upon an innocent cardboard box
I was coming in here to say this: every MGS since they added the stamina bar I have beat non violently, including all the bosses. Even in the MGS 1 remake Twin Snakes for GameCube, no kills.
In MGS 5 they have a whole set of non lethal shotguns, sniper rifles, and assault rifles. I think it’s super fun, and makes you come up with creative ways to knock out armored enemies.
Twin Snakes was an MGS1 remake - MGS2 was never on the GC but Substance was it’s first console release on Xbox to my knowledge.
Ah my bad, I’ll correct it.
They still all die in the cutscenes though to be fair. In MGS3 especially you tranq the bosses and then they explode right after.
The Deus Ex series often have pacificist playthroughs (3rd one definitely does, you can play a pacificist playthrough of the OG game with a few exceptions).
The Age of Decadence has a mostly skill check and conversation playthrough. I forget if it’s fully pacifict though.
Disco Elysium? More or less entirely conversation-driven RPG about an alcoholic cop who drunk himself to submission so hard he forgot who he is, hence developing him back with skillpoints. Off the top of my head there’s like one combat situation which you can talk around if you’re so inclined.
Otherwise, it’s been said many times that “Planetscape: Torment” is similar … ish. Not the setting, but mechanics, apparently you can entirely go through the game without combat - but that’s not to say there’s not going to be bodies - or so I’ve been told, haven’t played the game to completion, only dabbled the beginnings.
So, these suggestions are with grain of salt, obvs. But afaik both are pretty high up on the rpg shelf.
Planescape Torment yes can be pacifist-ed, except for killing a zombie at the very beginning of the game.
Then again, killing/death is a bit strange in this game, so…
can you even kill something that’s already dead?
But tbh, only played some of the beginning (edit: and remember even less). Should actually play it through.
Grain of salt? Disco Elysium is the perfect example and Torment would have been a better game without combat. I‘d like to add Citizen Sleeper. I‘m a bit tired of RPG where combat often is the only or favoured option.
