Do the inhabitants on the island die in the normal ending?

We know for a fact that Quote and the researchers (minus one) make it out of the island alive, but what about the people that were left on the island? The island falls down to the surface...and then what? Do they die? Or were there actually no casualties whatsoever? Most likely the latter since quite a number of inhabitants are still shown to be alive, but I'm still not sure. If nobody died, then surely nobody should've been worried if the Core was destroyed, right?

 

they all die, eventually

 

I think the fact that Break Down (the musical equivalent to telling the player "you fucked up") playing while the island falls to the surface, panning over multiple areas of the game, and the island eventually exploding when hitting the ground, is a fair enough way of concluding what happened. Generally, when a large structure explodes with a large amount of living things on it, the beings on said structure dies. Just because the cast can be seen alive during the credits doesn't mean they are in fact alive, as they're the credits to the game, not a cut scene. Even if the island stopped falling out of nowhere, or landed on the surface perfectly fine, someone would have died during the descent anyway. I would't be surprised if John bashed his head on some rocks and bled out while trying to crawl through a hole or something

 

Just because the cast can be seen alive during the credits doesn't mean they are in fact alive, as they're the credits to the game, not a cut scene.

I'm referring to the scenes during the credits.

 

That's what I was talking about. Even if I was referring to something else, that doesn't invalidate what I said

 

I think the fact that Meltdown (the musical equivalent to telling the player "you fucked up") playing while the island falls to the surface

Break Down, actually. Meltdown (2) is the name of the Sand Zone music.

Generally, when a large structure explodes with a large amount of living things on it, the beings on said structure dies.

There's not an overwhelming amount of evidence to suggest that the island exploded, though. We see the island fall, the screen goes black, and then we hear a crashing sound, which is presumably the sound of the island colliding with the earth, but we don't know for sure that there was an explosion.

Just because the cast can be seen alive during the credits doesn't mean they are in fact alive, as they're the credits to the game, not a cut scene.

You're making an extra set of assumptions by proposing that those scenes shown there are hypothetical or symbolic scenarios of what ideally could have happened, rather than what actually happened. End credit scenes like that typically show what happened canonically after the events of the game or movie; we have no reason to believe those were metaphors.

Even if the island stopped falling out of nowhere, or landed on the surface perfectly fine, someone would have died during the descent anyway. I would't be surprised if John bashed his head on some rocks and bled out while trying to crawl through a hole or something

This is most likely correct, but that doesn't prove that those characters shown alive in the end credits scenes are dead, and if anything, the end credits scenes show that the fall was very survivable in certain areas of the island.

 

The Gaudis in the Labyrinth definitely fit the bill on potential injuries from the fall. Then again, it is unknown how high above the Surface the island really is, since no matter how long you take in the Sacred Grounds, the island will continue indefinitely falling until you defeat Ballos, and regardless of the time, the island always seems to stop at the right spot. So who knows how far high the island really is?

 

since no matter how long you take in the Sacred Grounds, the island will continue indefinitely falling until you defeat Ballos, and regardless of the time, the island always seems to stop at the right spot.

Couldn't that just be considered game mechanics?

 

Considering that humans can still breathe on the Island and that it is not frozen over, it cannot be at a very high altitude, but that's another topic.
My bet is that, excluding the Mimiga that escaped by helicopter, everyone else should be presumed dead.

 

Even if the island collided with the Earth perfectly fine and no one died during the fall, the geological effects of the island falling and then colliding with the ground would still cause casualties. Also, my though process with the ending credits not being canon was that if we are to assume that everyone died on the island, it would be pretty boring/depressing (for some players, at least) just showing still frames of destroyed bits of the island, or nothing at all, so even if the island did explode or everyone died in a different way, the game would still show the credit scenes, even if they conflict with already established information (which in one of them, they do anyway, because if I remember correctly, all of Jenka's dogs are male [obviously the masculinity of your name doesn't confirm your sex, but it's the only indicator the game gives], and Jenka is seen with new puppies). My idea that the island exploded was me accidentally combing my memory of the best ending with the normal ending, sorry.

 

if I remember correctly, all of Jenka's dogs are male

No, the dog that was sleeping next to the warehouse is female.

 

i think a lot of the inhabitants died on the island but some of them still survive (the ones you see in the credits cutscenes)

 

I expect that everyone in the throne room got to the helicopter.