Worse Than Death

SPOILER ALERT: There are FAR CRY 3 and GHOST OF TSUSHIMA spoilers ahead!

Okay so the consensus online seems to be that the "good" ending is to save your friends and reject Citra. I'm assuming this is because if you go with Citra you get the very Shakespearean wrap up of everyone dying including Jason. Everyone that is except Citra who now is supposedly carrying Jason's child though usually it takes more than a couple rounds to impregnate your partner, but let's go with that supposition for the sake of playing these two choices out.

On the surface saving your friends seems like the right thing. As humans we are hardwired to protect our lives and the lives of our loved ones. But let's take a look at who Jason saved:

Liza - a shallow wannabe actress who is trying to mold Jason into who she wants him to be.

Oliver - a dilitant stoner who seems so unaffected by what's happened he reeks of sociopathy.

Daisy - who took all of five seconds to get over the loss of her boyfriend Grant and who is really more Liza's friend than Jason's.

Keith - poor Keith seems kinda sweet but he's been raped and tortured so much by the time Jason rescues him there's no way he's ever going to be whole again.

And then there's Riley. To be honest, Riley is the only character worth saving at this point. He's the only reason I chose "save friends" instead of going with Citra. He's the only one who seems to harbor genuine concern for Jason and the only one who's got a shot a rebounding. And yes, that includes Jason. 

Jason has gone way too far off the deep end. But let's say he does somehow find a way to lead a normal life after all this murder and mayhem. Nothing will ever compare with the power and excitement he wielded as Snow White. He will spend the rest of his life reliving that glory and trying to recreate that feeling. In the "normal world" he will fail miserably and most likely die of liver cirrhosis or a drug overdose, an embittered man, a ghost of his glorious warrior self.

We hear that there are worse things than death all the time but I don't think we often stop to consider how true this platitude is. It's just like the consensus for the GHOST OF TSUSHIMA. Most gamers, at least American ones suckled at the teet of Hollywood's fetish for happily-ever-afters assume sparing your uncle is the "good ending". However, if you have even a superficial understanding of Japanese culture and particularly that of the Samurai, you know it is far kinder to slay your uncle than allow him to live with the shame and dishonor if losing a duel to The Ghost. I mean he'd most likely commit seppuku anyway. Might as well save him the trouble.

But that is the fun of games like FAR CRY 3 and THE GHOST OF TSUSHIMA. They allow us to shed our run of the mill morality, our fear of dying and to step outside what we can and should do so we can entertain outrageous and appalling choices. It's good for us to shake up. Sometimes it's good not to be ourselves.