Act III of Ghost of Tsushima has you finally confronting the Khan, and after a duel that I found to be incredibly unbalanced (especially when compared to every other boss fight in the game, this one was especially cheap and spammy), you have a small battle with the Kahn and a large group of Mongols. You behead the Kahn and drive the Mongols from your home. I honestly thought the game would end here with a quick Epilogue.

I am so glad it didn't.

After spending the entirety of the game questioning what honor means in war and the traditional Samurai code, you fully embrace becoming the Ghost and conclude that it is more important to save your home with no honor than lose it with honor. I wish the game would have touched on the politics of Feudal Japan a little more here, but the game wasn't necessarily about that - It was about one man's journey to protect his people at any cost.

So when your Uncle, Lord Shimura comes to the Sakai Estate to meet you following the Kahn's defeat, I expected there to be a heartfelt resolution, forgiveness and an understanding that breaking the Samurai code meant you were no longer a Samurai, but saving your people meant you were still a hero of the people.

Instead, your uncle tells you that you have taught people to disobey their leaders, you have dishonored your family, your clan will be disbanded and erased from history and the Shogun has declared you a traitor - And he is here to take your head and deliver it to the Shogun. Lord Shimura ends up being the final boss of Ghost of Tsushima, and in a full-circle moment that reflects your very first training duel with your uncle at the beginning of the game, you have one last duel with your lone surviving family member.

You canonically defeat Lord Shimura and he asks you to give him an honorable death and behead him. You are given a choice - Give your uncle an honorable death and behead him or spare him and fully turn your back on the Samurai code for good.

I personally think that sparing Shimura's life should be the canon ending - Jin has abandoned honor and the Samurai code, becoming something else entirely and all of his choices in the game would leave me to believe this is the choice he would make in this situation.

But I do understand giving Shimura an honorable death here. One final act of honor before completely turning your back on the Samurai code. And making Shimura face the Shogun having failed to stop you would mean a certain death and humiliation, possible exile in the very least for Shimura.

Both choices are emotionally heavy and philosophical, and where Clair Obscure utterly failed in it's two ending choices, Ghost of Tsushima completely succeeded. I have thought about this game a lot since I finished it, and I keep going over it in my head. Phenomenal game.

After finding the Fireflies, you find out that Ellie is immune to the Cordyceps virus and a vaccine can be extracted from her brain tissue, but she will die from the operation. A Choice she decides to make, sacrificing herself to save humanity. Joel, having lost his daughter at the start of the game, has bonded with Ellie and come to see her as a daughter and refuses to lose another daughter. He slaughters the Fireflies and murders the doctors, "saving" Ellie and possibly dooming humanity in the process.

The final scene between Joel and Ellie is just incredible. It is so nuanced, but so profound. Ellie confronts Joel about the events that happened while she was unconscious, asking him if it was true that the doctors didn't find a cure for the Cordyceps virus in her immunity. Joel looks her straight in the face and lies. No, they didn't. And she says "Okay."

This final scene was an exercise in restraint. There's very little said and although Ellie says "Okay" - She knows Joel is lying. After the finale in Salt Lake City, which was very intense, you have a seemingly calm and peaceful scene with very little happening. The moral implications or selfishness, love and power-dynamics between an adult and a child are on full display. The helplessness of this scene reflects the helplessness of the human condition, and there is a reason this game is held in such high regard still.

What can I really say about the ending to this game? Not that it's already been said - I don't think this game can be talked about enough, nor the ending analyzed enough - But what can I actually say about it? The long-winded expositions, the plot-twists, the horror of the ideas this ending conveyed being predictive of the world we live in today... I'm not sure this ending can ever be topped, in all honesty.

The final few hours of this game end up being a massive head-fuck. You've been in a simulation, the US Government is run by a rogue AI and the entire course of events has been a test to control human behavior and influence thought patterns. I couldn't possibly begin to explain this ending, nor could I do it justice if I tried but it is a true masterclass in storytelling and predictive of the current world ethos in an alarming way. If you never have played Sons of Liberty, you should do yourself a favor and play it as soon as possible. And if you don't feel the need, watch the entire ending on youtube and check out a few plot analysis videos. This game is insane and again... I really don't know if this ending can ever be topped.