Ghost of Tsushima Offers One Important Choice

[@mattc7420]

Sly Cooper and The Ghost of Tsushima

[@_v_4793]

Fantastic thought provoking video! I agree that the choice could have been handled better but you also show various pros and cons to both outcomes well to illustrate how complex the concept of player choice is. I'd like to bring up the idea that simply being aware that a choice, either in advance or while making the descision, can Influance how a player interacts with the system. To bring up Bioshock and Dishonored, knowing that the ending will be different can cause a player to ONLY behave in a way as to acheive the ending that is desired. This problem is exasabated by the idea of having a "good" or "bad" endings, the human reaction to catagorise plus in built need to reduce harm to others result in endings being catagorised as "good" and "bad" that are much more complex. The result? Players tipically choose in Dishonoured to be low chaos at the start and will choose to only pick the low chaos options for the entire playthrough. This is specifically intresting as the introduction of choice can result in, paradoxically, LESS choice in terms of both gameplay and narrative as you are forced to restrict yourself to achieve your goal. Anyway, great video, why on earth do you have so few subs, you deserve way more!

[@TheBlooMoose]

Definitely agree that knowing what’s required for each ending can weirdly end up limiting your freedom in-game - I always try to play a game like dishonoured, first time around, without knowing the ending requirements, for exactly that reason! And I usually end up getting the worst ending as a result!

[@_v_4793]

@@TheBlooMoose haha, I agree the same happens to me if I also approach similar games in similar ways. It makes sense from a game design perspective to make the "better" endings harder to work towards than other endings seen as less satisfying overall. It is a big question "how do you make an ending important/special without making the other endings lesser?", one I believe has no real easy answer, after all the quintessential question on government, I believe, is "how can one be more powerful/important yet remain equal?". It sucks to put time into a single playthrough of a game, believing to have done the best for the characters you care about, only to be told there is some obscure actions that you could have taken 50 hours ago to more closely have the resolution you desire. The internet is a fantastic way of gaining knowledge but I personally feel it is often used as a crutch to say for example: "look up a guide on X ending". To wrap it around to Ghost of Tsushima; in the choice to make the choice itself based on a single decision made at the end of the game, it could be said that in making the choice less tied to past events it gives the player the freedom to weave a more personal narrative. In so making the ending as simple as a binary choice, the player receives more flexibility to BE the Ghost of Tsushima they wish to be and to have more influence in the story and its ending than they might have otherwise felt that they might have been able to. Seriously great vids my guy. I've never seen a channel with a low sub number put so much effort and care and thought into important topics in the world of modern game design and play. If there was I channel I ever thought deserved more attention, it'd be you.

[@Frankthegb]

to each their own