2. No Matter Your Decision, Jin's Transformation Is Complete
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Both paths lead to the same place. Jin is an outlaw, and he's lost his family. Of the two options presented, personally, I think the ending where Jin kills Shimura is much more impactful. Is it the right decision? Well, there's evidence to support both choices as being the "right" one. An argument could even be made that Jin letting Shimura go is a better way of conveying his adoption of the Ghost legend, as he's divesting from tradition and finding a different path.
Ultimately it boils down to what you think is the lesser of two evils. Do you abide by tradition and give Jin's adoptive father a peaceful end, or do you break with it completely with the caveat he'll be forced to hunt you for the rest of his days?
It's tricky, but while there are differences in each game's epilogue - namely the outfits Jin adopts and the type of weather the island defaults to - it's still the same result.
One would suspect that the night time, inclement weather that accompanies the "Shimura dies" ending is Sucker Punch's way of hinting that it wasn't necessarily the right path to take, but ultimately Jin still arrives at the same destination: an outlaw without his uncle, but with a different family and the people of Tsushima by his side.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
