Death

Death is a key gameplay mechanic in Little King's Story. Once Corobo or a citizen reaches 1 Life, they will grow gray hair and become old to signify that they are close to death, and once they run out of Life, they will die.

Corobo

Corobo has a maximum of three Life points, which cannot be augmented through any means. Once they are depleted, this triggers a Life Over, essentially a classic Game Over. The Life Over screen depicts Corobo's funeral. Corobo can be seen dead in an open casket between two gravestone-esque structures in a dark, stone floor room, surrounded by his loved ones and subjects. Howser, Verde, Liam and the citizens will all be dressed in black, and Pancho, Mr. M, Kampbell, Skinny Ray, Princesses are also present.

Pressing A ends the Life Over screen and returns to the opening cutscene to the game. From here, the player can load up their file from their last save with Verde on the Throne.

Citizen

When a citizen loses their Life points and dies, they are rarely gone permanently. They will almost always wash ashore on Over-There Beach at 8am the next day. They will lie on the ground shaking and speaking of how traumatic an experience it was to die, then after a few hours they will get up, wander off and live out their daily life. It is said that beyond the sea is the Kingdom of the Dead, so the dead may find themselves washed up on the shores of the beach encased in a pot, giving them an extra chance at life. Piles of broken pot shards can be found scattered on Over-there Beach, as well as breakable pots that contain Spoils. If a citizen dies before the Kingdom of Alpoko has conquered Over-There Beach, then the citizens will make their way back to the kingdom's borders on their own before 8am, which is announced on the Alpoko Morning News.

Dying causes citizens to lose their Guard Badges, as well as any weapons or armor that they carry which will return to the Treasure Room, leaving them empty handed when they return. Additionally, if wearing any, citizens will lose their flower hats from the Floral Florist upon washing ashore. Only 30 citizens can wash ashore per day. If the number of deaths in a single day exceeds this amount, the remaining citizens will wash ashore the next day instead. The number of citizens that wash ashore on a given day will be announced in the Alpoko Morning News.

However, there is an infrequent chance that a citizen does not wash ashore and perishes for good. In this case, their death will be announced during the Alpoko Morning News, a funeral will be held for them by Kampbell at 6pm in the graveyard behind the Soup Church. The funeral will be attended by their partners and children if they have any, along with friends that they made through being part of the Royal Guard. With the exception of children, these attendees will be dressed in black for the entire day, although they will quickly change into their work attire if they are hired for the Royal Guard. During the funeral, Mr. M also attends, and plays the same music as the Life Over screen while Kampbell is leading the ceremony. If a child has already lost one parent and is attending the funeral for their other, then they will simply go alone.

Despite this, as a safety net to avoid permanent population decreases, on the day after a permanent death, a new Carefree Adult will wash ashore on the beach, keeping the population number stable. If an immigrant dies, another of their kind will move into the kingdom the next day to replace them, which is noted on the Morning News.

While the population therefore cannot permanently decrease, if the player unlocks access to buy an item or accept a quest that has become unlocked through a population threshold, but then has their population temporarily drop below that threshold due to citizens dying, then those items and quests will return to not being available until the threshold is met again (either through permanent population increases via the Kingdom Plan or waiting until citizens wash ashore), where they will become available once again.

While no two living citizens can have the same name, it is possible for new citizens that join the Kingdom of Alpoko to share their names with permanently deceased citizens.

Music

The music that plays during both a Life Over or during a citizen's funeral is a music box rendition of Giazotto's Adagio in G Minor.