With the conclusion of ending and final battle of Ghost of Tsushima gave Jin one last choice between honoring tradition and embracing rebellion. The conclusion of Infamous 2 remains superior, however, thanks to its endings offering dynamically different futures for the game’s world.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Ghost of Tsushima and Infamous 2.]
In Ghost of Tsushima’s story, Jin is forced to adopt what his uncle, Lord Shimura, considers dishonorable tactics to resist a Mongol invasion. His ghost persona equally inspires the peasants and strikes fear into the invaders, letting him do what samurai cannot. As the Ghost Jin can freely engage in guerilla warfare, using stealth, subterfuge, and poison, rather than meeting his foes in straightforward combat. At several points it becomes evident that Shimura’s traditionalist tactics will cost the lives of many soldiers, where the methods of the Ghost can ensure a victory with few allied casualties. Although the weapons and culture depicted in Ghost of Tsushima are not historically accurate to the game’s time period, the story and characterization are strong enough that most players didn't mind. After defeating the leader of the invasion force, Jin’s final battle is against his uncle, who believes Jin has betrayed the ideals of the samurai. The honorable ending requires Jin to slay Lord Sakai, while the dishonorable choice is to spare him.
The Infamous games are tonally worlds away from Ghost of Tsushima, as a modern-day superhero genre series. The first two games followed the electricity-powered Conduit Cole MacGrath who obtained his powers thanks to a device called the Ray Sphere. The original game centered on a nemesis named Kessler who was a future version of Cole from an alternate timeline. Kessler warned Cole to prepare for the coming of the Beast. Infamous 2 begins with Cole battling The Beast, making it a direct sequel that concluded the storyline laid out in the first Infamous. The Infamous games developed a solid fanbase, and some viewers were disappointed Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was not Infamous, in their responses to a PlayStation Showcase last year. The story of Infamous 2, and its ending in particular, can be credited for much of the franchise’s enduring popularity.
Ghost Of Tsushima's Ending Was Heavily Foreshadowed, Unlike Infamous 2's
In addition to the New Orleans-inspired locale of New Marais, Infamous 2 also added new wrinkles to the story. The Beast approaches the city of New Marais and Cole must find a way to stop it before it arrives, but a plague poses a potentially greater threat, infecting millions of non-Conduit humans. Like the original, Infamous 2 retained a “Karma” system that allowed the player to put Cole on the path of heroism or infamy. Throughout the bulk of the story the good choices align Cole with NSA agent Lucy Kuo, who becomes an ice-element Conduit. The game’s evil choices pair Cole with Nix, an anarchic fire Conduit. There is certainly artistry in Ghost of Tsushima’s inevitability, and Daisuke Tsuji’s performance as Jin was masterfully done, but the final confrontation between Jin and his uncle was heavily foreshadowed and surprised few players. Infamous 2, conversely, provided an eleventh-hour role reversal that few could have predicted.
The final chapters of Infamous 2 offer a rapid-fire series of twists, first identifying The Beast as John White, a character who appeared to die in the first game. The Beast’s true motives are revealed, as White is attempting to awaken as many Conduits as possible, since only Conduits are resistant to the plague. Cole obtains a modified Ray Sphere that has the potential to kill The Beast and possibly eliminate the plague as well. This frames the surprising choice of the Infamous 2 ending. The normally by-the-book Kuo suddenly fears for her own life, as destroying The Beast will also kill all Conduits, including herself and Cole. Kuo advocates that they The Beast in his effort to at least save some portion of humanity by activating Conduits. This could have setup an open world game like My Hero Academia, where people with superpowers are the norm and non-powered humans are the minority.
Players who made good karma choices for Cole are instead aligned with Nix at the endgame decision point, since Nix still wants to kill The Beast, even if it costs her life to do so. Nix is acting out of revenge, not altruism, in the same way that Kuo sides with The Beast out of self-preservation more than utilitarian good. Beyond the surprise of the switch-up itself, where Kuo aligns with infamy and Nix with heroism, the nature of the choice was more complex than a simple Mass Effect style Paragon or Renegade decision. The Beast’s method of saving a few by making plague-resistance Conduits provides certainty, and it is unclear whether the Ray Sphere will actually eliminate the plague along with The Beast.
Sucker Punch Had To Choose Between Infamous 2 Endings For Second Son's Continuity
The developer carefully avoided breaking Ghost of Tsushima continuity with Director’s Cut content. Years earlier, Sucker Punch had to determine which ending would build the continuity of the third Infamous game, Second Son. Sucker Punch has stated in interviews that their original intention was for the bad Karma path to be the canon ending to Infamous 2. Based on reviewing data that showed the majority of players chose the good Karma ending, siding with Nix against Kuo and The Beast, Sucker Punch opted to build off of the ending where Cole heroically sacrificed himself (along with the rest of the Conduits) to save humanity from the plague. Conduits have returned in Second Son, and the DLC missions called Cole’s Legacy provide more details on how that came to be.
With Ghost of Tsushima, the studio stepped away from the humor and superpowers of the Infamous series for a much more grounded historical fiction game. The ending sequence that pits Jin against his own uncle, forcing him to weigh an honorable killing against sparing the life of an ally turned enemy, was certainly powerful storytelling. Despite Ghost of Tsushima’s bittersweet, poetic conclusion, Infamous 2 remains Sucker Punch’s best ending to date, since it offered surprises, twists, betrayals, and a truly dynamic change to the setting’s status quo.
