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.
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I think the Of Loathing games can be pacifist
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.
Disco Elysium can totally be pacifist
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…
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.
It’s been a while and I’ve never tried a 100% pacifist run, but I think that it’s theoretically possible in Planescape: Torment (Steam, GoG).
I know for a fact that the vast majority of encounters can be skipped with dialogue, and in fact, it’s heavily incentivized because the combat system is not very good.
combat system is not very good.
Fuck the final fortress with the shades….
I’m pretty sure you have to kill a zombie in the first level to escape. And I don’t think you can avoid fighting (and killing) Ravel and the Deva. The Deva I think you can maybe spare after defeating, as long as you don’t bring a certain party member with you…
Related, while I’m sure it’s not fully pacifist, Torment: Tides of Numenera greatly emphasises dialogue and text descriptions.
Most games require killing the end boss to finish the game, how exactly would you play around that? Or do you mean don’t kill anyone who doesn’t try to kill you?
Ideally, games where you kill nobody at all. Even avoiding killing creatures for a “true pacifist” run.
I’m just going to spoil a bunch of things, because why markdown?
There’s quite a few games where you have alternatives when it comes to main bosses - in the original Fallout ::: you can talk the Master into suicide by proving that the supermutants are infertile :::
in Planescape Torment there are multiple ways of ::: convincing your mortality to merge back with you :::,
New Vegas lets you talk down
:::Legate Lanius, at least on the NCR route:::
Jade Empire will give you a bad ending
:::where you surrender to the Glorious Strategist in exchanged for being fêted as a hero:::
even Fallout 3 will let you
:::talk Colonel Autumn into surrender for like no reason at all:::.
I’d really like that to expand into video games having killing “mooks”/generic enemies be more of an action with consequences. Undertale does a good job of that -
:::if you kill any monsters, even if you spare all bosses, the ending still mentions that there are some hard feelings towards you.:::
Spec Ops has no “pacifist option” but also makes you realize that
:::you were slaughtering American soldiers and innocent civilians because you were going insane:::.
The default problem solving strategy in most games seems to be violence, and that breaks my immersion. The last time I was in a physical confrontation with anyone was fighting my sister in high school - I’ve certainly never killed anyone.
I believe you can persuade boss of Arcanum (amazing game) to commit suicide.
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.
I believe it’s possible in Cyberpunk 2077. Blunt weapons are non-fatal, other weapons can be modified to be non-fatal, stealth is usually an option, and you can even remotely disable enemies if your hacking skill is high enough.
There are sections you can’t do alone, so you might need to be proactive about neutralising enemies before your companion does.
I see you subscribe to the Wolfwood school of pacifism: “I didn’t kill anyone!”
Hey, in a setting like Night City, beating people unconscious to spare their life practically makes you a saint.
If you really want to ease your conscience, I don’t think they ever explain how non-lethal weapon mods work. You can head-cannon that your assault rifle is loaded with nanites that safely shut down enemy cyberware if you want.
Dishonored can be completed 100% pacifist, IIRC
I came to say this The game actually discouraged violence. The more people you killed the more police rat swarms you have to deal with.
I think Disco Elysium might be the game you’re looking for!
In Nethack, you can fully complete the game as a pacifist, although it’s VERY hard and the game is already hard to get into to begin with. In that case, you are only allowed to indirectly kill enemies by having your pet(s) kill them or by using spells which make enemies attack themselves. Or simply by avoiding enemies completely. Playing as a healer or wizard is the easiest option, but still very hard. The game rewards this and other conducts (= supported “challenges”) by mentioning it in the very end after you’ve ascended.
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.
Iirc, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided can be completed as a pacifist - and you get an achievement for that.
