When someone dies in a cutscene, because the story gods have demanded it. It doesn't always fit with how the game handles combat death and wounds, be they Non-Lethal KO or Only Mostly Dead and it doesn't matter how many extra lives the player has left. Characters who have taken fireballs (and worse) to the face at pointblank range will be felled with a single gunshot or stab wound, even if they're level 99. Don't even try your resurrection magic, it would be wrong. A few games actually see magic users or clerics attempting to heal fallen characters, but failing, somehow implying that the dying character is injured in a way beyond conventional methods of healing to help. It's technically a Hand Wave, but they tried... Another reason this could be is that the spells do not have the power to