The ending of Far Cry 4 sucks a lot as you get one pretty cool, emotional ending - and one where you are left hanging with NOTHING. This choice stinks quite a bit, especially as the "cool" option makes no sense whatsoever.
Pagan has shown to be a brutal murderer and you came all the way murdering your path up to kill him for the atrocities he and his men comitted. But if you trust him, you get a pretty awesome ending.
If you do the *sensible thing* and you do not trust him but use the opportunity to end him - you are left with nothing. No closure, no information, nothing. The path up again after the credits is blocked as well, so you *cannot even collect all freaking collectibles*, let alone do not learn about your story (which is what the story of the game is freaking about).
Why it was decided to leave it hanging this way is fully beyond me, especially as UBI could have easily left the path open to Laksmana, so you can learn yourself what went on. But noo, you're left hanging.
This must be the worst ending I have played in years and I do not overstate this. In short:
A) The ending that is emotional and an actual ending is seen when you do the dumbest thing possible,
B) The ending that leaves you with nothing is the sensible one.
C) Even if you disagree with what I think is sensible and what not, you're still left in 50% with a ending that is none.
D) Here it comes: You cannot even replay the other ending as you are tied to a single, freaking savegame.
Ubisoft - you forked this one up, Bigtime.
And it goes on: After the credits you get to see how Amita (if you picked her) turns Kyrat into Hellhole 2.0, you can shoot her... but then... nothing. It is like someone deliberatily tried to make the "shoot Pagan" ending to be as "not satisfieing" as possible...
I outright hate what UBIsoft did here. I played a good game with a somewhat decent story. But at the end I got deeply disappointed.
Correction: I say this is with distance the worst ending I ever played in a big computer game. The worst.
I am guessing the reason why there is only a one save only design is to prevent people from starting a second save while being in the middle of the first one. This would prevent people from spoiling themselves if they heard about the alternate ending, and they happened to be curious to start a new game to see for themselves. I do agree, they should at least allow us another save or two once we complete the game. Far Cry 3 gave us 3 saves and auto saves, so Far Cry 4 should at least have that option.
Spoiler: Show
While it is fairly obvious Pagan has done horrible things and is full of himself, the whole "villain must die" cliche has been around for centuries in fiction and is so prevalent you can read quite a few books, watch many TV shows/movies, or play a number of video games knowing before even getting to the ending that the main antagonist is going to take a dirt nap. In other words, I think it is overplayed to the point most people expect villains to die in stories and if it doesn't happen they experience a cognitive dissonance. At the very least, if you do let Pagan live you do end up deposing him which for Kyrat is a start at the very least (you do have the option of killing him as he leaves in his helicopter though this doesn't affect the story or game play).
KrAzY1337's explanation is pretty good, and anyone that knows about the alternate ending you can get at the beginning of the game reinforces this: from the get go Pagan expected to meet up with Ajay and spread his mother's ashes, the Golden Path getting Ajay to join up with them is basically a big deviation on this plan and in a way is one giant side quest.
I shot Pagan too. I agree - it's the logical thing to do. I'm also really annoyed that you can't take your mother's ashes to Lakhshmana if you do this. Heck, the place is right out back. They should have at least let us do this.
Every ending should at least let you take the ashes to Lakhshmana.
What I think they should have done is have Pagan leave a note for you in case you do shoot him, letting you know what he had in mind. That way he'd be a kind of anti-hero. The "true" ending should also be available as a "re-do" so that players can see how messed up Pagan became after the death of his daughter (something that's only made clear if you don't shoot him) - that would at least explain his motivations. Unfortunately, if you shoot him, you miss out on all of this explanation and on the depth of character the writers brought to this game.
In the end, I'm left feeling pretty empty after this game - mainly because I can see how great a game it is, but since I don't want to replay the whole game I can't experience the full story.
Originally Posted by uplaystinksalot Go to original post
Hi there!
As for the Ghale Journal, not too sure if someone has already written that down here but you can still get it if you choose to kill Pagan at the end.
Just simply go back to that place, where the ending was, go through those red doors and you can pick it up, but unfortunately cant scatter dat ashes...
Hope this helps.
It's worth noting that you can get back up to the palace after you finished the storyline. Just take some explosives along with you to blow up the gate towards the palace. However, if you chose to kill Pagan you still can't put your mothers ashes down next to your sisters, even though you can get to her shrine.
The best way to end it in my eyes is kill Sabal, fight to take the palace, let Pagan live to lay your mother to rest, kill Pagan as he takes off in his helicopter, find Amita and kill her. If you sided with Sabal obviously the order in which they get killed would be switched.
And don't forget to loot Pagan's body, he has about 900k worth of money and items.
I have to agree, which is why I feel the kill him option should have come with a boss fight or at least some kind of battle. It doesn't make sense that a guy so paranoid as to have a double made would not have armed guards at his house at all times. I expected to have to battle through some snipers, hunters, heavies, traps, and then maybe get caught and have your weapons confiscated and have to escape and chase Min as he takes off in the heli. Maybe even have it so you have options whether to chase him with a Buzzer, or land vehicle, or even grapple up to the heli if you get close enough. As is though it's just underwhelming for a game that has so many epic moments.
I did the let him fly and shoot him down then return to the downed chopper for the 900ish in loot and cash on min the first time through. I will probably do the same this second time vs doing something different being the way that they are. It was a mellow ending. I HATE the 1 save feature!! Skyrim has I think 100 save files max and this game has 1??? Headscratcher... We don't want or need 100 but give us 5,,,, ok 2 then.