Guess Who's Back?

Cortana is an AI construct who supports Master Chief in various combat missions. She’s one of the most important figures in the Human-Covenant war, and she holds vital data pertaining to the Halo Array. Whether she’s providing valuable intel or hacking into enemy systems, she’s Master Chief’s most reliable confidant. In Halo 4, it’s clear that Cortana is becoming corrupted. Her behavior becomes increasingly erratic, and she starts exhibiting graphical and vocal glitches. By this point, Cortana had operated well past her designed seven-year lifespan, so it was just a matter of time before she would start showing signs of rampancy. During Halo 4‘s final mission, Cortana splits off rampant fragments of herself and inserts them into the enemy’s computer systems in an effort to overwhelm their shields. She then uses all of her remaining energy to teleport Master Chief away from a nuclear detonation. The game draws to a close with Master Chief mourning the loss of Cortana, but her death was only temporary. When Master Chief receives a cryptic distress call from Cortana in Halo 5, he puts his career and reputation on the line in order to track her down. Unfortunately, only the rampant fragments of Cortana had survived, and all of her empathetic qualities were obliterated when she sacrificed herself to save Master Chief. The sardonic Cortana that we all knew and loved was still dead, and all that remained was a megalomaniacal cunt. Worst resurrection ever, but an iconic one nonetheless.

Seemingly every party member in Final Fantasy IV is given a dramatic death scene. Tellah actually stays dead after he sacrifices himself, but everyone else is given a second shot at life. Rydia is thrown from a ship and swallowed by a sea monster, Yang gives his life to save the dwarven army from cannon fire, and Palom and Porom turn themselves into statues in order to prevent walls from caving in an crushing their friends. All of them are presumed dead, but they were merely inconvenienced. (In Yang’s case, you stumble upon his unconscious body in a random cave and simply hit him with a frying pan to wake him up from his coma!) Cid had the most over-the-top death scene in the game. He jumped off an airship and detonated explosives in order to seal the Underworld. Everyone in the game thought that Cid was dead, and with good reason. If the fall didn’t kill him, the blast certainly should have. Against all odds, he appears later in the game in perfect health. It’s explained that the dwarves somehow nursed him back to health, but it’s amazing that his body was even in tact. The blast was powerful enough to flatten a mountain, but Cid didn’t have a scratch on him. If anything, he was actually healthier than he was before. Cid didn’t technically die, but the audience was led to believe that he had. As such, his reemergence was tantamount to a resurrection as far as the plot was concerned.

At the beginning of the first Mass Effect, players got to choose Commander Shepard’s gender, appearance, military background, combat abilities, and first name. His (or her) personality was largely informed by the choices that players made throughout the course of the game, and its fair to say that most fans were heavily invested in the character by the time the credits rolled. One of the most exciting things about the sequel is that it allowed players to import their character from the first game in lieu of creating a new character from scratch. BioWare clearly understood how important it was for players to be able to continue the journey they had started, and that’s why it was so surprising when they killed off Shepard in the opening act of Mass Effect 2. After his ship was attacked by unknown forces, Shepard’s spacesuit was breached and he died of asphyxiation. Fortunately, his body was recovered by an enigmatic paramilitary group that was determined to revive Shepard via the aptly-named Lazarus Project. After two years of research, Shepard was finally brought back to life. He was partially synthetic and his skeleton had been reinforced, but he retained his humanity through the whole ordeal. The Lazarus Project was a clever way for the developers to re-engineer Shepard’s appearance and abilities for the sequel without making players feel like their choices in the first game were inconsequential. In that sense, it might be the most thoughtful resurrection on this entire list.

Liquid Snake and his twin brother Solid Snake were clones of a legendary soldier named Big Boss. Liquid Snake was led to believe that he inherited the weaker genes, and he felt that his birthright had been stolen. After Liquid Snake took over a secret nuclear weapons facility, he finally had the opportunity to test his combat skills against his brother. Solid Snake ultimately won the fight and Liquid was clearly dead at the end of the first Metal Gear Solid game. After his body was recovered, his right arm was transplanted onto Revolver Ocelot in the sequel. This is where things get fucky. Liquid Snake was somehow able infect Ocelot and take control of his body. Liquid would manifest sporadically at first, but his persona eventually fused with Ocelot completely. For all intents and purposes, he had returned from the dead. It’s later revealed that Ocelot was simply channeling Liquid’s personality via the use of hypnosis, drugs, and nanomachines. Liquid Snake was still dead, but Ocelot legitimately believed that he had returned. The audience was also led to believe that Liquid’s personality had been resurrected, and the series pushed this narrative for seven years before revealing the truth in Metal Gear Solid 4.

Fiora is the quintessential girl next door. She’s remarkably down to Earth despite being a total babe, and she’s the type of gal who wants to help everyone. She’s especially protective of her friends and her childhood sweetheart, Shulk. When her colony is invaded by mechanical monsters during the opening act of Xenoblade Chronicles, Fiora finds a crashed mobile artillery unit and takes it upon herself to pilot it. In an effort to save her friends, she unloads several rounds of ammunition at the enemy and charges the raid leader head-on. Unfortunately, her assault does very little damage. Fiora managed to create a temporary distraction, but she was stabbed for her efforts and apparently killed. Fiora’s death is the inciting force that kicks off Shulk’s adventure. It also serves as a constant source of angst and informs every relationship he has. It’s later revealed that Fiora somehow survived the attack and was given the body of a machine to replace her damaged organic one. Fiora initially had no recollection of her past life, but she eventually regains her memories along with her organic body! It was a happy ending for everyone… unless you count Shulk’s new love interest who was put on the sidelines as soon as Fiora returned. It was a happy ending for almost everyone!

During Crono’s adventures through time, he befriends a talking frog from medieval times, a robot from the future, and a bossy cave woman from the prehistoric era. When he encounters an apocalyptic alien parasite with immense destructive powers, Crono sacrifices his life to save his friends. Crono is a silent protagonist, so he doesn’t have an especially strong personality. His demise still carried a lot of emotional weight, however, and it galvanized how close everyone had become throughout the course of the adventure. The other party members were so distraught over their fallen friend that they hatched an elaborate plan to save him. The plan involved finding a doll that was made in Crono’s likeness, traveling back in time, and then swapping Crono’s real body with the doll before the fatal blow took place. The plan sounds needlessly complicated, but it all worked out in the end. (If it’s stupid but it works, then it isn’t stupid.) The only reason Crono’s resurrection isn’t ranked higher on this list is because it was kind of predictable. You didn’t really think a game about time travel would let the protagonist die, did you?

Ganon’s death at the end of the first Zelda game seemed pretty conclusive. The vicious beast had literally been reduced to a pile of ashes, after all. The sequel took a surprisingly morbid turn, however. Apparently, Ganon could be brought back to life if Link’s blood was sprinkled on his ashes. Gross! Link is pursued by Ganon’s followers throughout his adventure, and the Game Over screen shows a silhouette of the resurrected villain. It later turns out that the whole “blood on ashes” gimmick was just one of many ways that Ganon could be resurrected. Hyrule is filled with witches and wizards who are all-too-eager to revive the Dark King anytime he’s vanquished, and the Triforce of Power grants Ganon near immortality. He’s able to separate his soul from his body and use others as puppets, so it’s hard to keep him down for the count. In various appearances, Ganon is stabbed through the head, buried in the ocean, and sealed away in the Sacred Realm. He has been killed in three different timelines, but he keeps coming back form more. At this point, there’s no reason to believe that any of his apparent deaths will have any sort of finality to them.

LeChuck was an ambitious pirate captain who lost his life in an ill-advised attempt to impress a woman. Shortly thereafter, he returned as a ghost-pirate and proceeded to terrorize the Caribbean. He’s already dead when we meet him in The Secret of Monkey Island, and his spirit form is also killed when Guybrush Threepwood uses an anti-ghost potion at the end of the game. Guybrush makes the mistake of keeping his beard as a trophy, however, and this is ultimately used to resurrect the dread pirate in Monkey Island 2. In this outing, LeChuck is a zombie-pirate rather than a ghost-pirate. LeChuck somehow manages to get through the entire game without dying (again), but his zombie form is eventually taken out by a cannonball explosion in The Curse of Monkey Island. On cue, he’s inadvertently reincarnated as a pyrokinetic demon-pirate and returns to Monkey Island to rebuild his forces. LeChuck stops dying after this point, but he does regain his human form for a while. He even disguises himself as a politician, which is exponentially worse than his ghost, zombie, or demon forms. I wanted to avoid filling this list with run-of-the-mill zombies, but LeChuck deserves a spot on this countdown because he’s resurrected in so many different ways.

Veronica is a powerful mage who was raised from birth to aid the Luminary in his battle against the forces of darkness. Many people in the world were led to believe that the Luminary was actually the “Darkspawn,” but Veronica remained committed to her beliefs. Veronica does everything she can to protect the Luminary, and she develops intense bonds of friendship during her journey. Although she’s brash and confrontational, she’s extremely loyal and surprisingly selfless. At the end of the game’s first act, she sacrifices herself in order to save her friends and the world at large. Her death is not in vain, however, and her friends manage to defeat the Dark One. After the credits role, her friends gather together to honor her memory. She’s given a fitting send-off, but the heroes aren’t content with how things ended. Against the advice of his friends, the Luminary takes it upon himself to travel through time and stop Veronica from dying in the first place! The game was over, and there was no reason to believe that we’d ever see her again. The entire third act of the game only exists because the heroes wanted to bring Veronica back.

In the first Castlevania, a vampire hunter named Simon Belmont ventured into Count Dracula’s haunted castle and defeated the Prince of Darkness. When the sequel arrived a couple of years later, Simon realized that he still had work to do. As it turned out, Dracula placed a curse on Simon following his defeat. In order to break the curse, Simon had to gather the remains of Dracula and bring them to the ruins of Castlevania. He then had to resurrect the Count and kick his ass all over again! This list has many examples of heroes bringing back their friends, but it’s rare for a character to intentionally resurrect their enemy. Dracula’s apparent immortality is now a recurring theme in the Castlevania series. No matter how often he’s defeated, he shows up every hundred years with an army of minions and a new iteration of his castle. Dracula’s reputation proceeds him, but we don’t see many first-hand accounts of his treachery. The dude basically sits in his tower and waits for the hero to come and kill him in every game. As a result, the whole resurrection thing is one of the only things that defines him as a character.