In some RPGs, it is easier to heal a dead character than to heal a living character. Examples:

In some Final Fantasy games, there's no spell to fully heal a living character, but there is a spell to fully heal a dead character.

Some interesting examples in the FF series: In FF5, the Phoenix summon revives a character with full HP and MP, but only if that character is dead. You can use the Fusion spell (kills caster to restore HP/MP to the target) so that you can then use Phoenix to restore that character's MP. (One nice quirk; if somebody casts Fusion on herself, she will end up dead, but with full MP.) In FF7, Phoenix fully restores all dead characters, as does Life 2 + All, but Full Cure + All does not work.

Lennus 2: If you fully master the Water spirit, Revive will restore 9999 HP, but only if the target has fainted. This is particularly nice since you don't need any medicine; you only need 80 HP to cast the spell (well, technically 81 because the game won't let you spend your last HP). The Martyr spell (if not leveled too much) and the Sexy Dress can be used to kill the caster while healing the rest of the party.

Phantasy Star 3: Rever, which only works on dead characters, will fully heal if successful and ignores poison. There is an item that casts Rever for free (actually two, Force Vest/Claw). There is no way to cure poison for free, but if you let the character die, you can use the Force Vest to heal the character despite the poison. (This game also features a sacrifice heal, Nasak (cast at high power with the Royal Vest).)

Dragon Quest 6/7: There is a skill, Kerplunk Dance (in modern translations), that can fully heal all dead characters if successful. The problem is that it kills the caster even if it failed, but it at least costs no MP, and in DQ6 it even affects characters in the wagon. (I saw a DQ6 video where the player was fighting 3 of the post-game superboss at once and that particular skill was key to survival.)

Another RPG where death isn't such a bad thing:

Etrian Odyssey 3: A different situation, but when an ally dies, everybody's Limit meter rises slightly. Also, there are passives that trigger on death; the Monk gets one that restores her MP whenever an ally dies. I note that the Ninja has a skill that creates a disposable ally that attracts enemy attacks, making it easy to trigger "on ally death" effects like these.

Etrian Odyssey 2 has an item that fully heals all dead characters.

I'm playing Runestone Keeper at the moment and certain things (Gold and Runes) carry over between play throughs and can be used to buy universal upgrades.

This is how all roguelikes should work as far as I'm concerned. Dying a hundred times isn't a big deal when each death brings you closer to victory. If you keep a steady stream of unlockables coming than death never feels like such a bad thing.

Another interesting example: Ninja Gaiden (NES; why do companies have to reuse the same name for dissimilar games?) pacifist speedrun.

In this case, you need to damage boost to get past enemies, but you can't easily heal. However, when you die, you come back to life at full health.

However, if you run out of lives, you have to start the level over. So, when you reach a new level and are low on lives, you may need to game over and continue to get a fresh set of 3 lives.

Also, in many arcade games, if you credit feed you can use death to recover your health as much as you have the money for (or forever, if set to free play or if emulation is used); many players consider that to not be the intended way of playing the games, however, and try for 1CC (which disallows using more than one credit).

One way heroics plus, i have it on steam and although i did not play it enough, i think it is exactly what you are looking for :)

Going with the obvious one, Dark Souls.

When that game *clicked* with me, oh dear what a great experience. Dying a million times, stop, came back and beat that area or that boss in one shot. So satisfying.

Also, Devil Daggers, every time after dying a trillion times, I stop and come back after a few days or weeks, then I manage to have a great time and even beat my record by a few seconds.

Oh and Hotline Miami and/or Super Meat Boy. When that soundtrack puts you in a trance and after a few tries you just FINALLY nail the jumps or patterns and finish the level, just like that.

This thread was not nearly as depressing as I thought it would be from the title.

We're only 23 posts in.

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/masonry/001/082/352/5ba.png

Now would be a perfect time to say again, Gog, Super Meat Boy plz.

When I just saw the title in the list of topics, I thought this thread would be about real life. Which I'm not very fond of.

I, on the other hand, dislike this mechanic of rewarding death. I've played Rogue legacy and Risk of Rain and both of these are guilty with this. It reduces game to grind and rewards dying in sake of dying. Can you finish the game in run 1? No. You must die multiple times to be more powerful. Rogue legacy is at least more honest with its castle upgrades. Risk of Rain hides this mechanic in better items you can find through play-trough.

Death should be punishment, but fair one. You will learn your lesson to not make same mistake again. Then you will get better as a player.

Watching a Zelda: Ocarina of Time speedrun, and the player has died on purpose in order to skip a cutscene that would have otherwise frozen the game.

With glitchier speedruns, you see this sort of thing every now and then.

In On the Shoulders of Ancestors you have to die to become a stepping stone to higher platforms and by that make it possible for your successors to complete the level.

Starward Rogue, where each run allows you to upgrade your mech, so that you eventually get further and further into the game as you get stronger. The fact that you have different mechs to choose from and that the maps are procedurally generated removes the sensation of 'grinding' for me.

I also second Battlevoid:Harbinger, I'm 20+ hours into the game and still don't feel tired of doing a new run.
It's nice to get rewarded in punishing games like these so that you still can make some degree of progress.