Permadeath, Hardcore, Iron Man

[Brother Michael]

For long term RPGs, limited saves or checkpoints can prompt most of the same caution that permadeath would. It doesn’t require linear level design either, as Fallout 4’s survival mode “save on sleep” worked surprisingly well. I recall KCD had something comparable with savior’s schnapps, but I forget the details of that.

[Xenich]

Personally, I like traditional RNG systems combined with extremely difficult encounters where clever and careful selection in combat increases the odds of victory, but chance can throw a wrench in your play. This form of design doesn't work well with long permadeath games because victory isn't entirely in the players hand. Saves are pretty much required to avoid demoralizing frustration.

If the game is purely about static pattern play (ie arcade), I guess it depends, I remember beating many 80's arcades where the entire point was memorizing the levels patterns until you could play the entire game by memory.