Good RPGs (or RPG adjacent games) without save/load mechanics but something else baked in

[Stormcrowfleet]

As per title.

Examples:

• Dark Souls: You don't permanently die as you are cursed with undeath. Used as a mechanic and a lore tie-in.
• Mount & Blade: You don't die, you run away or you get captured and dragged along until you get liberated (or managed to run away).
• Wizardry (king of): Your party members stay dead and you can find their body back.

 

[Skinwalker]

Planescape: Torment!

 

[Eisen]

MM6-8 still has save & load mechanics, but when you die, you lose 100% of your money(except in banks) and get booted to the starter town

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

Planescape: Torment!

How could I forget. Good one.

 

[Butter]

The first 2 M&M games are basically the same as Wizardry in this regard.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Outward (2019) doesn't kill a defeated player-character, but instead a variety of outcomes can occur, such as being robbed, being imprisoned, or being rescued.

 

[CryptRat]

Evowok Breeder is a Pokemon-like, so especially your character does not directly die during regular fights. However you can't reload and he can die during exploration and events but you get to unlock a few extra lives as you play. They're plenty of quests you can fail, events with very different consequences you have to deal with and plot fights you can definitely lose so it's an important mechanic. It's also a very long game (I spent more than 200 hours on my playthrough) and you're not flooded with extra lives so you might want to choose the options which are the less likely to get you lose a life, which in my case often consisted in not getting involved in things, even when they do not seem like the ones with the best rewards.

 

[janior]

Everquest

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Outward (2019) doesn't kill a defeated player-character, but instead a variety of outcomes can occur, such as being robbed, being imprisoned, or being rescued.

Kenshi does this as well (for the most part).

E.Y.E. has a strange system where it mixes character saving with progression checkpoints, dying respawns you with possible maluses depending on how you died, but it's weird and janky and is best interacted with by just using an external savegame manager.

 

[roguefrog]

System Shock auto revives you if you found and turned on the decks med bay revitalization chamber, otherwise it's a game over/re-load. Basically it makes exploring a new deck possibly fatal until you've found the med bay. Note there are no med bays in the groves.

In Ultima Online you because a ghost at the spot you died looking over your corpse in the spirit world...you need to find a healer to get revived, all the while your corpse is on the ground with all it's non-blessed items...decomposing.

 

[Zanthia]

No reloading in West of Loathing. Losing fights makes you angry, which is a buff, but if you get too angry in a day you pass out, advance a day and lose all your buffs.

 

[Iucounu]

Survival crafting games often seem to respawn a new character at the nearest base you've built. But all the inventory is left where the previous one died, so you may have to go back there with less good gear and try to get your good things back from whatever that caused you to die in the first place.