Fallout 3 had one of the most infamous of these. The base game ended with "Kill yourself by radiation exposure," "kill your friend by radiation exposure," or "wait too long to decide and then everyone dies." It's only after you get the post-game DLC that the option "take the totally reasonable choice of letting one of your radiation-immune companions save everyone and NOT die of radiation exposure," became available. Though it also turned "kill yourself" to "take a long nap by radiation exposure," so it's a somewhat moot point.
and then the game has the gall to mock you for taking the "totally reasonable choice of letting one of your radiation-immune companions save everyone and NOT die of radiation exposure"
@@DavidCruickshank Fallout 3 has kind of the same issue as Mass Effect 3, in that players got very upset that they weren't allowed to do the obvious thing to solve the problem (let a radiation-proof companion press the button, tell the Reapers to GTFO your galaxy) and so the developers added a "fix" that let you do the thing but still gave you a big middle finger for doing it.
Some people said this was a feature put in at fans request. But at the same time it was corporate greed considering that you had to buy a dlc to get post game play.
In Dragon Age Origins there's one to save Conner a possessed child. The 2 options you're presented are kill the child or sacrifice his mother in a blood magic ritual to enter the fade and get the demon out of his body. Or if you ask if there's another way to enter the fade twice someone will mention you could just go to the mages tower and ask them for help. That way they both live and apparently it was fine to leave the possessed child alone for however long it took to get to the tower and back.
I think(?) if you opt to be a mage yourself you get it as an option without having to ask anyone. Also, mana clash best spell. So good they didn't put it in any subsequent games.
@Eeraschyyr Actually, the only thing being a mage gets you is the ability to actually be the one to go into the Fade. You still the the mages/Jowan to _do_ the ritual.
The thing I liked most about that quest was that it allowed you to play as either Jowan or The Mage Boss. Limits your options once you're in The Fade, mind.
Admittedly an unintentional one, but FO:NV DLC Dead Money deserves mention. It ends by giving you the agonizing choice of either leaving behind the Sierra Madre's treasure trove of gold bars (since the combined weight is too heavy for you to make it out of the casino's vault in time before it self destructs) or only take maybe a single bar and leave the rest...unless you're savvy enough with how the game's engine works and take the time to study the layout of the vault to realize there's a workaround that'll let you walk out with the entire treasure, essentially giving you an almost unlimited source of caps for the rest of your playthrough.
just to check, do you mean the "cheat" way with the stack thing, or is there another one I don't know about? I personally surprised my flatmate (we were streaming it) by looking at the stack, taking one bar "as a momento", then happily strolling away. He was going to tell me about the stack-glitch-cheat thing after we had finished that day and he'd watched me micromanage our inventory to get as many as I could. He did not expect me to basically go "hehe, we made it, neat. Oh right, prove we made it... one should be fine" :P
You can also use the teleportation gadget from Old World Blues to get all the gold AND save everyone - without exploiting the engine, cheating or otherwise metagaming.
In Assassin's Creed: Odyssey there's a side quest called "Dagger to the Heart" where a gang is holding 2 people hostage, and asks you which shld be spared. You can pick either of them, or say that you refuse to choose. Unfortunately, refusing to pick just gets them both killed. However, if you had instead snuck up on the area from behind without getting close enough to trigger the cutscene, you can kill all the gang members with a bow and save them both (there's a special cutscene if you manage this, so the developers were prepared for it!)
Huh, I just recently did that quest. Ironically, I accidentally picked the option to kill one of the hostages when I had intended to refuse to kill either one. I decided to let the action stand anyway rather than go back to the last save. Funny to learn that that was a (somewhat) better outcome for the hostages. 😏
@@FredCDobbs-rd5wi Yeah, I think that's the best option when going in blind. I found out what refusing did the hard way the first time around, but didn't want to leave all those kids parentless, so save scummed n looked it up. They can still be killed in the fight if you sneak up, so you have to be quick to defend them/try n lead the enemies away, n if you get too close at any point before every enemy is dead, you can trigger the cutscene that will make you have to choose. The developers probably intended that route for a second playthrough
First time I played, I got the best option accidentally. Sneaked to the top of the amphitheater, saw that they were surrounded by just enough thugs for the multi-shot ability, and you can guess the rest.
In the _Odyssey_ DLC _Legend of the First Blade,_ there's a moment where an angry crowd closes in on you, and a timed dialogue choice gives you your only chance to quell the mob's rage before you have to fight. But if you don't pick an option, then there's no fighting. It turns out they're actors.
In Act 3 of Baldur's Gate 3, Wyll's patron Mizora lets him know that Gortash is going to kill his father after being crowned Archduke, and gives him a choice: sacrifice his father to break his pact, or stay in his pact to save his father. Since this decision occurs in a camp event, it seems like one of those decisions that has major implications for the rest of Wyll's arc... Except you can just tell Mizora to break the pact, and then go to where Wyll's father is being held (the Iron Throne), throw some healing potions at him so that he doesn't die to a bunch of kamikaze crabs, and save both Wyll's dad and Wyll from his pact.
I did this on my first playthrough (though not my first attempt). Bring a cleric to the iron throne (only need 1 level if you do a multi) and cast sanctuary on him. Casting Longstrider on him is good too.
Though if you then detect thoughts on Mizora, she's now determined to kill Wyll's dad even more directly once the Absolute crisis is resolved and there's no way ingame to head that off. So the Duke and Wyll are going to specifically need to look over their shoulders indefinitely. Still the best outcome, but damn.
In Dark Souls 1 at some point you have to kill your best friend Solaire because he becomes possessed but if you join the Daughter of Chaos covenant you can enter the area where you fight him earlier than normal allowing you to kill the enemy that possesses him before he arrives in the area to avoid him going hollow and having to kill him
I like the Nomad ending of Cyberpunk2077 myself. Riding off away from Night City, with a newfound family, looking for a way to save your life. It's idealistic, but there's chance, and if I fail, I'm surrounded by people that care. Not that there aren't people that don't care in Night City
That was my ending I chose on my playthrough. After I finished Phantom Liberty, I went back and played the other endings I had access to (can't remember if I did the solo with Johnny or not), and the Nomad ending definitely felt the most satisfying, especially with Judy joining V.
the game frames it as the only morally correct choice, with a small exception to the Johnny ending (which still goes out of its way to call Johnny a piece of shit even if V is the one who chose to stay behind) every other ending spends the time showing V as some kind of terrible person for picking it (ESPECIALLY the suicide ending, and the way that ending is handled alone is enough to make me reconsider buying anything CDPR writes ever again) of course you like it, you're supposed to that said, its also the ending with panam and judy, which therefore makes it objectively superior even IF the other endings werent varying degrees of "fuck you for picking this option, you prick"
@@BlackstoneMASKCame here to say this. Also it’s the only choice that kind of gives V some character growth, realizing there’s more to life than being top of the merc pile.
@@BlackstoneMASK It was the first ending I got, and only ending I got cus I've only beaten it once. And it was what I got as I went in blind. So whether I'm supposed to like it or not, idc, I still like it and enjoy it and happy to have gotten it.
Can't believe you didn't include "Destroy The Dark Brotherhood" from Skyrim! That fourth option in the abandoned shack was the moment I truly fell in love with open world games!
i wouldnt say its the best option reward wise though as you miss out on all the contract rewards, and even lore wise a few members escape meaning the dark brotherhood survives anyways
And is basically the only time in the entire game where you can actually do something like this because every other mildly important character to any quest is invincible until a specific point or forever.
The persona series is famous for locking the true final dungeon/boss behind such options, but Persona 4 golden takes the cake. Not only do you miss out on the true end game if you make the wrong decisions and missing the real serial killer (which are already vague as is) but if you don't max out your social link with Marie before a certain plot point, you can potentially miss out on the entirety of the winter season complete with more chances to hang out with your friends , max out more social links, And a very unique dungeon which ties the whole story together and gives you context for the true final boss.
In Tactics Ogre, there's one part in Chapter Four where you need to negotiate with the nice religious group currently occupying Brigantys Castle, but they'll mistake you for invaders and try to kill you, regardless of whether you approach the Castle from the South or the West. However, if you approach from the South, deploy only your main protagonist, and completely disarm him before the battle starts, they'll believe you when you say you're not there to kill them and nobody has to end up dying over a misunderstanding.
For those who wonder how the hell the player was supposed to know to do this: the main character says he will do exactly this in the preceding cutscene. So the player IS told to do this through the main character's dialogue beforehand. But that cutscene occurs before the travel map which has the player move several POI spaces to the destination with a high likelihood of a random battle occurring, which will take 20 minutes to resolve, so most forget by the time they reach the castle.
There is another one of these in New Vegas. When you’re helping the doctor in Jacobstown work on a cure for Nightkin brain damage, your initial options are to either let him keep testing a Stealth Boy Mk II on Lily, the lovable grandmotherly Nightkin who can become your companion, to study its effects despite the likelihood of it totally rotting her brain, or tell him to stop his research, saving Lily but denying all Nightkin a cure. Or if your Science skill is high enough, you can give him an idea for an alternate, guilt-free substitute for a Nightkin brain to study, letting him complete his research and saving Lily.
Mass effect is a series that on the one hand should be annoying for constant third options but on the other hand for an overly-invested bleeding heart like me it’s perfect, and the only time you CAN’T save everyone (Ashley vs Kaiden) haunts me every single time I play. Where’s THAT secret third option, huh, BioWare??
@@luissera1296honestly I think just investing the time into forming bonds with everybody will get you the “good ending” for their stories. So, sounds less like luck and more you making a lot of good choices along the way!
@@chellyfishingI had watched one blind playthrough where a single minor bad decision screwed the player over. Namely, he took two of the big line-holders into the final boss fight, lowering the defense score just enough for someone to die... and RNG chose Tali.
@@Myomer104 It's not total RNG who dies if the defence score is low enough. It's one of the "squishies" with the lowest personal defence. It's usually Mordin if he is there, but if he isn't then the game will normally default to Tali. I actually like the idea of you having to have strategized who to leave behind to Defend The Party and having their success be based on their actual defensive capabilities. It makes the decision feel more impactful and not just "take your favourite character with you". Especially when other choices in that mission heavily emphasize choosing who is the most suited to doing a particular task.
I mean... there was also a Fourth option in Fallout: New Vegas. Deliver the Platinum Chip, Do House's bidding, and let him take over the Mojave by kicking out the NCR and Legion.
I was wondering about that too. I’ve been content with siding with the NCR. House has allowed the people of Freeside and the Mojave to suffer including you if you have less than 2000 caps, the Legion is just.. no. And while the Yes Man ending seems cool, it’s not. Everything remains chaotic. Yeah the NCR has its problems but it still seems like the best option to me. They’re the only faction *trying* to do good even if they’re falling short in some areas. They’re the only ones operating refugee camps for the poorest of people. But that’s what makes FONV so good.
@@mikoto7693 Eh, I went legion as a female character. Those clowns have been enslaving females up to that point, and now a woman has more authority than anyone else? The incoming shakeup will change them completely.
One other weird hidden option in Fallout New Vegas is that you can murder Vulpes Inculta the first time you meet him. The game actually replaces him with a guy named Alerio, who you can also kill on the spot. Alerio also has a replacement, and you can kill him, too. It's hilariously cathartic. And, obviously, you can just massacre Cottonwood Cove when you get there.
Omg my partner and I saw it in an empty theatre and that is the only way I can honestly recommend watching it lmao it’s SO SO BAD but not even good-bad.
Fun fact: If you pick "Kill Michael" or "Kill Trevor" but then call Lester afterwards, it actually changes your choice to Deathwish. In addition, the events of GTA Online, which is supposed to take place after GTA V chronologically pretty much confirm that killing Trevor is not canon (he's alive) and heavily imply that Killing Michael is not canonical either. Although I'd say calling Deathwish a "hidden" third option is sort of like calling toad a hidden character in Super Mario Bros. 2...
@sevendeadlysquids404 GTA online takes place before GTA 5. Your player character is referenced a couple of times in and usable in the heist at one point. I might have missed an update though 🤔. Fun fact. Deathwish was supposed to kill Franklin for the (true) ending. But no one wanted to play Lamar as an end result.
@@Guagex Your online character is never in a single player heist. Plus, that timeline makes no sense: Franklin owns a record company and keeps on talking about how he’s older now. Lester has a GF But you are right about Lamar replacing Franklin being intended. The reason I’ve always heard is they just ran out of time to implement it or don’t record enough voice lines.
@@Guagex GTA Online started out taking place before the main story, but the Gunrunning update moved everything forward and everything from that point onward was set after the main story.
Yeah, maybe I'm just being pedantic, but I don't think it qualifies as a "hidden" option when it's literally on the same screen as the other two options.
I wouldn't call it an agonizing choice, but I've always been pleased with finding the rogue option in one of the quests in Shivering Isles. There's a bit where there's a dremora blocking a bridge on the way to a quest item. He tells you that to get him to move you either do the fighter thing and defeat him in battle or do the mage thing and go off and do a little quest for him. The rogue option is to tell him you'll go do the mage thing and then drop into stealth and backstab him when he turns around to go back to his station.
Every New Vegas video points out that Benny is voiced by Chandler, but nobody mentions that Mr. House is Odo from DS9, that Doc Mitchell is voiced by Skyrim's General Tullius, or that Yes Man is Flik from A Bug's Life.
Yeah, that game had a star-studded cast. Arcade Gannon is voiced by Chuck and Shazam star Zachary Levi, Raul the ghoul is voiced by Danny Trejo, Veronica is voiced by Felicia Day, and of course the narrator is Hellboy himself Ron Perlman.
Never actually played FONV, but the moment I heard that voice it started saying 'Crane, Poole and Schmidt' in my head. Loved him in Stargate too. What a delightful bad guy.
The fun part about The Missing Link's choice in Deus Ex: HR is trying to get that third option while also trying to go for the _Factory Zero_ achievement, which implies doing it without the use of augmentations or weapons of any kind. The issue with this is that the entrance to the gas distribution chamber is located behind a heavy box that you need an augmentation to lift and on a second level you might need a jump augmentation to reach. You also need to crack open the glass to disperse the gas without any offensive capabilities. All of this under a timer. It's perfectly doable, of course, provided you take advantage of your environment (I've gotten the achievement 4 times in different platforms), but it won't be easy.
Yep. You're practically _required_ to set up your run before the timer even starts. Step 1: stack boxes and place fire extinguisher ahead of time. Step 2: play game up to gas event. Step 3: platform up the boxes and hurl the fire extinguisher at the gas machine. Step 4: main villain calls you a pansy for avoiding a hard decision. Step 5: get Apex Predator achievement. 😈
I'm shocked we aren't talking about the Starter trio in Pokemon Go; your choice of Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle or if you are willing to walk like 30 feet away from them, Pikachu! You can be the guy who started the game with a Pikachu, making the decision much easier.
In the outer worlds, I remember being absolutely blown away when it turned out that you could shut down the botany lab, but then shoot the cannery overseer, meaning the leader of the deserters in the botany lab takes over and everyone's lives are better. From that moment on, I would not make any sort of major decision without seeing if there was some sort of third option. SO worth it.
Actually, you can talk to both of them and without violence achieve the same thing. I forgot how I did it but if you get Adelaide to reveal her method of growing crops to you, Shut Down the Botanical Labs, and then talk it out with the Mayor. The Mayor will relinquish his position to Adelaide without any need for his death.
@@ela-811 Then it's implied that he wanders into the wilderness and dies anyway. Oops. He's a company man, and Spacer's Choice was not going to be kind to him for relinquishing THEIR company town to non-company people
In Baldur's Gate 3, you usually have to choose between either Halsin or Minthara, depending on whether you side with the Grove or the goblins. But you can actually recruit both of them with some patience and foresight. You simply have to (*takes deep breath*) agree to kill the goblin leaders, fight Minthara first, avoid killing any goblins before Minthara, knock Minthara out instead of killing her, kill the rest of the nearby goblins while avoid any splash damage that can kill the knocked out Minthara, then kill the remaining goblin leaders, wait until you finish act 1, wait until you're far enough in act 2 to get into Moonrise Towers, avoid long resting after getting to Moonrise Towers, enter the main hall to see Minthara being sentenced to death, meet her in the prison afterwards, and break her out of Moonrise Towers without the many guards noticing and killing you all.
You don't have to avoid killing goblins or their leaders before her. I took her on last used nonlethal attacks to knock her out and still saved her from moonrise
@@tamaria616 Ah, I could swear I needed her to still be "Temporarily Hostile" when knocked out for it to work, but maybe that was an earlier version of the game or something.
@@sapphiria39 yeah the devs have updated a lot of the stuff related to this method of recruiting minty because of how much people wanted her in their parties without going full evil. so it's basically just knock her out, make sure she doesn't die, and then finish the rest of act 1 and then find her in moonrise in act 2
16:35 What's in Indy's satchel? A frube, a comb with a nail through it, a St. Brigit's cross with a ghost Snoopy, Alf's head, toilet roll that got wet and dried out weird, a single Incredible Hulk candy stick, a spider's step ladder and a nitrous oxide canister.
It's not an ending, but there's a part in Grim Dawn where you have an apparent choice between two things but can take a third option to get a better overall outcome. At one point you're heading off to deal with a bandit gang run by a guy called Darius Cronley. Along the way, you find a place called New Harbour where one of the few inhabitants will explain about how they're being ruled/extorted by members of Cronley's gang, who force them to gather scrap to make weapons and stuff under threat of killing them. The apparent options at this point are to donate some of your own scrap so the locals don't have to do it, pay off the gang member in charge of the group there so they leave, or just kill him. If you donate some scrap yourself, the woman who gave you the quest is grateful and I think you get some kind of minor reward, but morally speaking it doesn't feel great because you're helping out the bandits by giving them what they want and they're still there to harrass the people. Similarly, if you bribe him with your own cash to go away, that's still giving up some of your own resources to a bad guy. Boo. If you kill him it feels good but if you go back later you find the place in flames and everyone dead except two young children who have been taken prisoner. They can be freed once you defeat Cronley (he has them locked up in cages in his lair), but of course now they have no parents/families and I seem to remember that they hate you forever because of it. Alternatively, you can just pass by New Harbour without speaking to anyone, then go back once you've dealt with Cronley. You'll be told that the gang members fled once they heard their boss was dead, so now the people are free to just get on with their lives, everyone survives, and they're all happy with you without you needing to have given anything to any of the bad guys :).
The Bard’s Tale, the secret ending between the choice of “slay the demon pretending to be a princess” and “slay the wizard keeping said demon princess imprisoned”, the third secret option to tell both parties to piss off and end the game drinking.
cons: you don't get a cool final boss, as you only get one if you choose to kill the demon or fall for the lies pros: its the msot in character ending for the bard and feels eprfectly in tone with the game
@@sarafontanini7051 fall for the lies? IIRC the princess is pretty open about what she is when you get to the ending choice, either way tho, Giant Demon Girlfriend. choice is obvious
If you want to get technical, Nier Replicant. You have the choice to save Kaine in exchange for erasing yourself from reality. But if you start a new game after erasing yourself up to fighting the giant lizard you suddenly get started on a new post erasure route as Kaine that ultimately ends with restoring your deleted Nier.
Dont forget Far Cry 4 where you can just wait like 40 mins for Pagan Min to come back get given Kyrat and not have to side with Ms child labor drug state, or Mr zealous tolatarian theocracy. I mean sure you miss out on... the whole game, and Pagan keeps the helicopter, but its honestly the best ending.
A twist so nice they did it twice! You also get the least bleak ending in Far Cry 5 by refusing to press the input at the beginning of the game, when tasked with handcuffing the serial-killer cult leader
@@Ark_Strike he tells you he'll be five minutes, it takes 15. They've also used that ending in another video (but that doesnt mean they wont do it again!)
In Pathologic Classic, the main end game choice is between sacrificing the town to a plague or destroying the reality shattering tower causing the plague. This isn't as straight forward as it seems, as the towers uniqueness as it's own living thing and potential ability to usher in a utopia for everyone is stressed. When playing as Daniil or Artemy, the third player character will say she has her own cure, requiring the blood of the main NPCs you've been working to save. But if you're not playing as Clara, it is presented as unlikely to actually work. However, once you unlock the Challenging route after beating the game once, it's made pretty clear that her cure is real. And you even get a stand in for the developers going "yeah we didn't plan for this to happen, she just forced her way into the story"
I'm thinking she meant burning to death, which is what it looks like is happening after the explosion. So basically, crushed by impact, locked in a small space, drowning, and burning alive. All at once. Not really anyone's preferred way to go out.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate initially presents you with the option to choose whether to fight Galeem or Dharkon as the final boss, but doing so will lead to a bad ending no matter what as whichever god you don’t fight is now free to completely destroy the multiverse with either light or darkness with nobody around who’s powerful enough to stop him. What you need to do to get the true ending is realize that Master Hand and Crazy Hand are still missing, then refuse to approach Galeem or Dharkon until you find the hidden area that the hand brothers are being kept, THEN defeat them to free them from the gods’ control. Once you do, the brothers will open a hidden path consisting of a long platforming level where Galeem and Dharkon will alternate trying to kill you, though you’re cycled through the ENTIRE ROSTER as you die so you can keep going. Reach the top of the level, and you get to fight BOTH gods at the same time with whoever in the roster is left, where you then have to carefully deal damage evenly between them so that they die at the exact same time, which is made easier by the fact that Galeem and Dharkon hate each other so much that they spend half the fight attacking each other instead of you. It’s a long and complicated process, but it’s worth it, as doing all of that finally nets you the true ending where the multiverse is saved.
I still can't believe one of the coolest boss fights sequences I've ever experienced came from a game series where Solid Snake and a generic Pirahna Plant from Mario Bros can beat each other up for fun
If I understand it right, most Shin Megami Tensei games have a moment where you're forced into either the Chaos or Law routes. It's only by balancing your dialogue choices that you get access to the Neutral route.
Generally true, though oddly I found the "Chaos" route to be the most reasonable in SMT V. Partially because that's the only side that hasn't tried to kill you up to the point of deciding.
SMT games usually try to have each of their L/N/C endings be still morally dubious (but not always succeeding), or with N being the least egregious but harder to obtain. For example, Strange Journey has humanity reclaim Earth (implying that humanity continues to kill the planet) but you have to maintain a Neutral alignment and kill more bosses than the L/C paths. Also, they're usually not secret (at least in the base game).
@@TheBlackSeraph Not secret, but hard to get. I recall SMT IV had your alignment as a secret stat. You had to manually keep track of your dialogue options throughout the whole game if you wanted a certain ending. I think Strange Journey let you pull yourself back to neutral, as long as you weren't too far gone. You're confronted and questioned by someone near the diverging point, and you can go back at that point.
Triangle Strategy's entire final act appears, at first, to revolve around choosing between 1 of 3 solutions to the game's main problem, setting you on a path towards that ending and angering one of your party (depending on your choice) into leaving for the rest of the game. But there is, actually, a 4th ending, the "Golden Route", which you can take as long as you've fulfilled its secret prerequisites, and is a much better option than the morally-grey original ones the game presents you with.
i'm surprised i totally forgot about this one, its great, especially as the golden route leads to the a unique boss fight exclusive to that route also I'd argue the route you side with the cruel theocracy isn't that morally grey given the game makes it pretty clear they're pretty fucking evil
If you decide you hate Trevor in the first half of the game, its understandable, Trevor is a monster then but by the first half you get to know Trevor better and you know he has issues but he is one thing always and that's loyal which in stark contrast to everybody else you meet in the game who WILL turn on you for a penny then killing Trevor doesn't sound so good.
@@Ark_Strike Nah, Trevor just whines and cries the entire time to the point of being intolerable. I'm sad there isn't an option to force him to OD or something to avoid having to play his part of the story.
In the Outer Worlds at the end of the Monarch questline, your character has to choose between Monarch Stellar Industries, the Iconoclasts or you can negotiate a ceasefire between the two factions depending on the choices you have made.
I feel like all 3.5 options in New Vegas are pretty well revealed immediately. Do what House says, do what Ceaser says, do what the NCR says, or do whatever you want and have Yes Man say you're the GOAT (which is just doing what House says, but for yourself and more peaceful options).
Yes they're not hidden at all. But only recently did I realise there's actually another yes man ending where you destroy the securitron army and New Vegas descends into anarchy
@@aarong-s4954 There actually a bunch (CL where Ceasar is dead and the Legate becomes leader, NCR where you make peace with the BOS, what you choose to do with Kimball if you choose Yes Man...) those 3.5 are just the main ones.
But what about Mass Effect 3 dlc Omega, where (if you're an Engineer) you can save the civilians like Vetra wanted AND bring down the shield like Aria wanted. While the whole trilogy has tons of moments like this, I run Engineer, I choose this one and I'm sticking to not having to fire a gun.
If this kind of thing is appealing, then it’s literally the entire premise of OneShot! At the end of the game, you’re given a very meaningful choice: return the lightbulb Niko’s been carrying this whole time to it’s rightful place, thus giving the world its sun back and giving the dying world a second chance (long story, play the game you’ll see), or break the lightbulb, instantly ending the world but allowing Niko to find their way back home to their world. It’s a very difficult choice, made worse by the fact that you can’t just undo it afterwards… Or maybe you can. Ever since the Solstice update, you could bypass the ‘OneShot’ restriction and start the game anew, and this time, make different choices that not only allows you to save the dying world, but also give Niko the ability to return to their home, giving every character in the game their true best ending!
How about Etrian Odyssey III and it's third ending? Normally you have to choose between Armoroad or the Drowned City and end up killing one of the rulers, which is a tragic shame because the two sovereigns are actually brother and sister, but the brother lost their memories of this fact thanks to mechanization that extended his life, and the sister got corrupted by Lovecraftian horror blood in an effort to extend her life long enough to reunite with him as well. However if you promise not to reveal the existence of the Drowned City, then immediately backstab them and tell Armoroad anyway, get two special items via cutscene in the cities once you reach a specific dungeon floor, get a key in the room you fought the stratum 4 boss in, and bring the two previous items to a creepy alien child you met earlier in the 3rd stratum before starting the final quest, then the child will make the princess human again. As a result, the brother will regain their memories once you reach what was supposed to be the final boss room, you get prompted to explore a locked door from the previous stratum, and at the end of the extra path you will fight the now adult alien child who becomes an eldritch horror. Killing him here and there ensures both the brother and sister survive, live peacefully with each other, and even give the alien itself closure for the human feelings he developed for the sister.
In Star Wars: The Old Republic, the Imperial Agent had a great third option choice within their storyline. Against Darth Jadus, the two obvious options were to refuse to give him the codes and so risk him killing more people than desired and increase the chance of him escaping or giving him the codes so you can get into his inner circle then betray him and less people die. But then you can simply talk him down by finding counters for everything he could do and convince him to surrender himself without blowing anyone up.
I'd never heard of Harvestella before this video, but what I didn't have to do was look it up afterward to see that it's clear as day a Squeenix game. They really do have a style and just stick to it.
I am SO glad you put Harvestella on here... I saw the title of the video and immediately thought "I'd better get ready to tell them to do Harvestella in the commenter's edition"... And apparently I didn't need to! Nice!
Nishina in Starfield. It’s not clear unless you are the kind of person that loots everything that you can save both Rafael and everyone else in the base as well. And get all the loot. But you can.
Starfield on the whole isn't Bethesda's magnum opus but there are parts of it that're genuinely cool & rewarding to discover and I just with they'd encourage more of that in their studio
@@username1660 I really enjoy playing it. Skyrim in space. Loved the Nishina mission as it’s a really interesting concept. I’m just doing another run right now to prep for the DLC.
@@Strigulino Personally my favorite was the living history town on one of Saturn's moons. As far as I remember, the main quest never takes you there, it's just this super cool bit of world building that's entirely up to the player to happen upon.
Plus you can dress up in an alien suit and chase tourists away. Eventually you get to keep the suit and can just wander round looking like a giant Tardigrade.
The Sakura Wars series often does this in many regular conversations. It uses visual novel-style cutscenes and your answers are often on a timer. But sometimes intentionally letting the timer run out is the best answer or, in what I thought was extra cool, running the timer down but not letting it expire completely will make a new option appear. This gets parodied by Red in a DLC for the original Neptunia game
In Fire Emblem: Fates, you can choose to ally yourself with your birth family or your adoptive family. Whoever you side with will fight a war against the other. *Or* you can purchase the secret 3rd route DLC in which you unite both families and defeat the hidden enemy secretly pulling the strings.
@@stardustpie1992I'm not sure if they consider it a true ending so much as a "what if" ending. That route doesn't make a whole lot of sense and is notably shorter than the other two.
Reminds me of how Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn only opens up an alternate option to killing a particular character during your second playthrough of the game
Henry stickman. In fleeing the complex if you take the presumed dead route the last decision you can make has a few options at first. What you’re supposed to do is not choose anything.
In Baldur's Gate 3 there's a choice between signing a character's soul away to a devil to get the whereabouts of his kidnapped father, or leaving him to die. However you can actually choose to break Wyll's pact and then go to where his father is being kept and saving him anyway.
In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, there's a really infamous secret choice that only opens up after you finish your first playthrough. Throughout Part 1 of the game, the protagonist Micaiah and the Dawn Brigade, a group of freedom fighters, are attempting to free their home country of Daein from the oppressive occupying army of Begnion. During this journey, they encounter the secret true heir to the throne of Daein, Prince Pelleas. They pledge to help him take the throne because he's a kind and gentle young man and not a bloodthirsty maniac like his dad, AKA the final boss of the previous game, The Mad King Ashnard. By the end of Part 1, you help him take the throne and everyone's happy and Daein is free. Then stuff happens in Part 2 elsewhere on the continent with a different army, and Part 3 kicks off with Pelleas basically sending Micaiah and the gang off to war all of a sudden on behalf of Begnion for unknown reasons. Later on you find out that sweet, naïve Pelleas had been tricked by the Begnion Senate into signing a bogus "peace treaty" between the nations which was actually a blood pact, which magically causes the citizens of a ruler's nations to drop dead one by one unless the demands of the pactholder are met. While you go about slaughtering in the name of corrupt officials who held your nation in a vice grip for 3 long years, Pelleas researches a means of breaking this pact. This gets to a point of desperation where he decides that if he dies, surely the pact must be able to be broken as a result. So you get a difficult choice as Micaiah where you can either choose to honor his wishes (by killing him) or refuse to be the one to end his life (leading to an ally doing it for you). HOWEVER, if you're on NG+, you get to deny his request outright, at which point Pelleas realizes he can just kill the senator who had him sign the pact to enact the same result. Pelleas will then be able to take to the field and join your army in search of answers (and earth shattering lore drops from having him fight specific bosses leading up to a secret post-game scene when all conditions are met). Not only does this provide a happier ending for an otherwise tragic character, but he's also the ONLY playable Dark Mage in the entire enormous cast of characters in Radiant Dawn. He's not particularly strong, but his niche speaks for itself, and those boss conversations are made easier to obtain if you frequently field him and train him up.
Triangle Strategy tricks you with the name and concept, you're always picking the least worst of three options but for the true ending you nust do a series of counter intuitive decisions only logical through guides to unlock the 4th option that'll give you the true ending. And the true final boss that's BONKERS to say the least
I dont know if this counts... but in starfield there is a mission where you go to a research facility in the main storyline that was experimenting on one of the artifacts that is integral to the story... and an accident was made causing the entire lab to be locked off and when you arrive you get pulled between two seperate versions of the lab... one where everyone but one is alive... and another where everyone is dead but that one person is alive.... you get a choice where you can stop the experiment on the artifact in either version to save the ones there.... but in doing so you make the other version of the lab essentially gone.... but the third option is to complete the actual experiment in said lab... merging both versions of the lab and saving everyone.... it was something i didnt even know of until my fifth run of the storyline when i just explored the areas before i did the objective the game tells you to do.... so i believe it is considered a secret ending to that mission....
I don't know if I'd say the third option is neccesarily the 'best' option. Though it's the one I prefer. But in Nier Automata, there's a point where an NPC has had their whole world collapse and asks you to either kill them or wipe their memory because he can't live with the pain of what happened. Your options as presented are to do one of those two. But you can also choose to just walk away, and leave him to deal with it, and he angrily says 'how could you.' Which is a change of pace because usually if anything trying to run off away from the main story during important events usually gets you one of the game's optional game overs instead.
The original Resident Evil 3 was chocca full of these! Roughly ten times over the course of the game, gameplay would enter a Live Selection phase and you would have to choose one of two things, which were usually different ways of fleeing the Nemesis as he menacingly paced towards you in slow motion. If you waited too long however, the game would choose a third option for you, which was admittedly usually to fight the Nemesis. Hey, the title didn't say the third option had to be better, just secret...
Fighting Nemesis actually WAS the good option because Resident Evil 3 had the mechanic of dropping gun parts each time you killed Nemesis, so whilst you were going to be running extremely low on ammunition and actively made it harder on yourself, you got rewarded for putting down Nemesis each time with different gun parts.
When I was first playing it I genuinely thought that the main ending the game was leading up to was something like: "for a nation to thrive it needs a military, a police force, a secret service and an academia to keep each other in check" ...but no. I guess I was giving Bethesda writers too much credit 🙃
How is Mass Effect 3 not on this list? All the endings are bad unless you get the secret good ending by raising your war assets high enough. Then, and only then, do you get the one ending where Shepherd lives to see another day (assuming someone finds them among the sea of corpses they’re laying in)
well, the list seems to be less about 100%'ing games to get the best ending and more about a hidden path / option you can unlock by exploring. which yes, does sound a lot like 100%'ing but I need you to just believe me they're different XD
@@scp2539 if the ending is only unlocked by 100% a game I would argue that is a secret ending haha especially since the game never explicitly tells you thsts the only way to get it
In Fallout 3 there's The Replicated Man sidequest which has you hunting down an android aka the first instance of a synth appearing in the Fallout series. As you're looking for the identity of the synth you'll meet Dr. Zimmer who says the android belongs to him and he wants it back promising a reward if you find out where and who it is. You are ALSO approached by a member of the yet to be named railroad who wants you to fool Dr Zimmer into thinking the android is dead OR you can go off on your own to discover the androids identity and restore it's memories. Helping the railroad member will reward you with a pittance of caps. Restoring the droids memories will cause them to hand over a unique weapon and helping Dr zimmer gives you a very nice perk which is the best reward of the 3. There's absolutely nothing stopping you from restoring the androids memories for the gun, telling Dr. Zimmer where he is for the perk and then immediately killing Dr. Zimmer before he can go and factory reset the droid and take him home.
New Vegas was one of those times the trophies made me realize I'd missed something. I'd played through 3 times, siding with Caesar, the NCR, and House and had never gone to Benny's suite. It wasn't til I was checking my completion and went "Wait, who the eff is Yes Man?" before I found this ending. So, hurray for my trophy hunting OCD?
yeah... there are a lot of weird side details in new vegas like you have 4 major outcomes in the main line game alone with an extra one added in with dead money and that's before realizing how Yes Man can lean into literally any variation of all outcomes based on player intervention. I forget if lonesome road and Big MT had their own alternative endings that affected the Mojave... but the fact that there are more than 3 ways to recruit the Khans is already a glaring sign that there's options out there. (one of which is being made the leader of the Khans)
I know I’m late to this party, but the Blessings of Nature quest in Skyrim has a better peaceful option if the Breton in the temple of Kynareth overhears you going to the Eldergleam sanctuary. Get him to the sanctuary safely and the peaceful option becomes available: take a sapling back to Whiterun. Then you don’t have to murderhobo your way through Kynareth worshipers just to finish the quest.
What about the one in NieR: Automata, where, in one of A2's runs, after the friends of the friendly machine life form Pascal all kill themselves, you get to decide to either, delete his memory or kill him. But you can actually just walk out the door, leaving him alone with the knowledge that he is essentially responsible for it. I know, not exactly the most uplifting one but it IS a not-so-obvious choice.
Not sure if it counts as secret options, but in Farcry 2 you can often complete a mission for one side or the other or accept a mission for one side and subvert that mission for your companion for the other side. It's three outcomes for each mission and even an achievement to do it to every mission in the game.
In Detroit: Become Human, if you get Kara, Alice, and Luther to the border, several of the characters offer to sacrifice themselves so the others can get through. However, if you chose to protest peacefully as the other androids, you can actually get through security without sacrificing anyone!
The choice at the end of Singularity: shoot the bad guy, but doom yourself because of time travel, or shoot the good guy and let the bad guy win? It's not made obvious but shooting BOTH is possible and gives you a third ending.
@@DavidCowie2022 It was pretty much Square-Enix trying to make a Rune Factory game. There's a demo for it on the Switch eShop. Not sure about other platforms.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines has a scene where Therese and Jeanette are wrestling with a gun, threatening to kill each other, and you have to pick which one should live. But there is a way to ensure they both survive.
Context: Therese and Jeanette are the same person. She is a Malkavian, who are uniformly mentally unstable, and those names belong to her dissociative identities, which despise one another. The player has the (very ineffectual) option to be very confused watching her argue with herself in the mirror or the (canonical) option to convince the personalities that they complement one another and work great as a team. They continue to let the outside world think they are physically-separate sisters who still hate each other to "confound their enemies" as the vampire world is full of intrigue and constant danger.
Not to mention, it's the only one that feels right. I mean, Michael and Trevor spend the entire game bickering and Franklin is the one that's always trying to make them come to their senses - there's no believable way he'd be picking one or the other.
@@wouldiwasshookspeared4087 It's a GTA game, of course I'm picking the option called "deathwish"! It doesn't sound like something I should avoid, it sounds exactly what I want from a GTA mission!
It isn’t an ending, but a quest in Elden Ring comes to mind. If you go through Rya’s quest, she comes across some horrifying information about herself and asks you to kill her. You can. Or you can get a potion from her mother that will make her forget the horrible thing she learned. Better than murder but still sad. But there’s a third thing you can do…. Nothing! I thought she’d either off herself or just stay there until you made a decision if you walked away. But nope, she picks herself up and moves on with life, leaving you a letter thanking you for sparing her life and explaining that she’s going on a journey to make her mother proud. It’s very sweet. And you still get her stuff
Yes, that SECRET third option in GTA V, that shows up as a HIDDEN C. Deathwish on your phone, that 99% of the people I know picked their first playthrough of the game. Nothing could be more concealed than this invisible option.
There's a choice in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, where you have to decide between killing a major character yourself or letting someone else do the job. In NG+, however, the game grants you an additional third option to save the character, which leads to an alternative ending to the game
They should have used a different picture, but in the past week that was the big meme, that LLMs can't actually analyze words. Strawberry was a common example.
The line "Once I'm a god, I'm sending you straight to Hell" is still ingrained on my brain because it was THE COOLEST line I'd ever heard spoken out loud as a kid when I first heard it. The fact that it was the "path to good ending" definitely left an impression too.
Skyrim: escape the mine. At the end of the Forswarn Conspiracy mission, you're falsely accused of murder and tossed into the mine to work off your sentence. Your immediate options are to either team up with the foreswarn prisoners and help them fight their way out. Or kill the leader of the imprisoned foreswarn and escape on your own (getting a pardon and reward from the leader of the Silverblood family) I like to choose option C (since I was playing as a Nord and know the Foreswarn hate Nords) I kill the foreswarn prisoners and escape, but then use my newly returned gear to execute Mr. Silverblood for betraying me and having me locked in prison. It's the messier option, but also a great opportunity to make use of any werewolf/vampire powers I've previously acquired.
I'm not sure the YesMan ending from NV qualifies for this list, not only because it's actually the _fourth_ option, after siding with NCR, Caesar, or Mr. House, but also because it's not really all that secret, seeing as how it's actually the failsafe ending you default to if you screw up your relationship with the other factions beyond repair.
I'm glad you mentioned Harvestella as I feel this game needs more love. It became one of my favorites when I first played it, loving the characters and the twists the story brings (not to mentions the food you can cook looks so mouth-watering good!) I wish a sequel would happen as it's obvious the story isn't quite done but I don't think it will...
Cyberpunk 2077 had even *another* secret ending: The one where V finally managed to shoot themselves because there is no cure for them even *if* they win the Arasaka fight.
Another Dragon Age Origins one: When dealing with the werewolves and the Dalish, if you have a high persuasion and you've taken the time to talk to people, you can convince the Keeper to give up his vengeance curse and release the spirit of the forest and the wolves. Everybody wins and you get the Dalish support during the final boss rush without having to wipe out either side.
Can't believe no one mentioned Pokemon. A really tough decision between Charmander and Squirtle. Charizard or Blastoise, pokemon red or pokemon blue. However they're completely unaware of the best, super ultra secret hidden option, Bulbasaur.
@@SirStanleytheStumblertrue. Instead it had leech seed, which is like posion, except I also get the health taken off them by the effect. Objectively a better tm.
@@paultapping9510 Right but it didn't get a single damaging move for the poison type until gen 3. Even then it was a late game TM. The poison type was a liability for it in gens 1-2. Only benefit was toxic not missing.
In Devil Survivor 2, before final day, you are given choice to choose between couple options. Each option could spell death to certain characters or at least lose them unfortunately. However there is the best option as Daichi mentioned before the options are given to players to save all characters. This best option isn't easy cause you need to have high friendship level with them all.
In Pathfinder: Kingmaker, there's an option that crops up during the Lamashtu storyline. Your city comes under attack at the same time your captain of the guard left to raid a den. If you go to help Kesten, then Jhod dies in the city. But if you defend your city, Kesten will die in the raid. The secret third option is only available to Lawful characters, where when you talk to Kesten, you can tell him to go back to the city in your stead, saving both. (or you can use a mod to give you access to all alignment dialogue options)
Starfield's "Entangled" mission. The game wants you to choose between saving one man, or every other person on the station. It wants that binary choice so badly that the the questlog doesn't register the "Third Option" until you are one button press away from completing it.
Have you already covered singularity and the fact that at the end of the game, you can actually shoot both people trying to convince you to join their side
i cant wait for the video "third options that were supposed to be the good ending but instead ruined everything" playing a lot of Baldur's gate 3 and Warhammer 40,000 Rogue trader, quite a few options that feel like the good third option end up being the "everyone dies" option
Ellen: how many other games have underground heliports?
Me on my 30th Skyrim playthrough: worth checking out
Check behind the waterfall?
Honestly, would not be surprised if there was a mod for that 😂
There's underground dragon parking, does that count?
Aaaaand back to Blackreach we go
There's gotta be a Dwemer ornithopter in one of these ruins!
Fallout 3 had one of the most infamous of these. The base game ended with "Kill yourself by radiation exposure," "kill your friend by radiation exposure," or "wait too long to decide and then everyone dies." It's only after you get the post-game DLC that the option "take the totally reasonable choice of letting one of your radiation-immune companions save everyone and NOT die of radiation exposure," became available. Though it also turned "kill yourself" to "take a long nap by radiation exposure," so it's a somewhat moot point.
and then the game has the gall to mock you for taking the "totally reasonable choice of letting one of your radiation-immune companions save everyone and NOT die of radiation exposure"
@@DavidCruickshank Fallout 3 has kind of the same issue as Mass Effect 3, in that players got very upset that they weren't allowed to do the obvious thing to solve the problem (let a radiation-proof companion press the button, tell the Reapers to GTFO your galaxy) and so the developers added a "fix" that let you do the thing but still gave you a big middle finger for doing it.
Some people said this was a feature put in at fans request. But at the same time it was corporate greed considering that you had to buy a dlc to get post game play.
And that's why F3 is the worst Fallout game
Too bad the developer behind it all was apparently really proud of his "Heroic sacrifice" ending and mocks you for choosing the obviously safe choice.
In Dragon Age Origins there's one to save Conner a possessed child. The 2 options you're presented are kill the child or sacrifice his mother in a blood magic ritual to enter the fade and get the demon out of his body.
Or if you ask if there's another way to enter the fade twice someone will mention you could just go to the mages tower and ask them for help. That way they both live and apparently it was fine to leave the possessed child alone for however long it took to get to the tower and back.
I remember that one. Somehow I ended up doing the good version entirely by mistake.
Oh yeah, I did that by mistake as well lol. Though then proceeded to get stuck in the fade and eventually give up xD
I think(?) if you opt to be a mage yourself you get it as an option without having to ask anyone.
Also, mana clash best spell. So good they didn't put it in any subsequent games.
@Eeraschyyr Actually, the only thing being a mage gets you is the ability to actually be the one to go into the Fade. You still the the mages/Jowan to _do_ the ritual.
The thing I liked most about that quest was that it allowed you to play as either Jowan or The Mage Boss. Limits your options once you're in The Fade, mind.
Admittedly an unintentional one, but FO:NV DLC Dead Money deserves mention. It ends by giving you the agonizing choice of either leaving behind the Sierra Madre's treasure trove of gold bars (since the combined weight is too heavy for you to make it out of the casino's vault in time before it self destructs) or only take maybe a single bar and leave the rest...unless you're savvy enough with how the game's engine works and take the time to study the layout of the vault to realize there's a workaround that'll let you walk out with the entire treasure, essentially giving you an almost unlimited source of caps for the rest of your playthrough.
I feel like that's more a second option, unless you count the first two as "take only a little gold" and "die".
I mean many games have third options that boil down to cheat/exploit the engine..
just to check, do you mean the "cheat" way with the stack thing, or is there another one I don't know about?
I personally surprised my flatmate (we were streaming it) by looking at the stack, taking one bar "as a momento", then happily strolling away. He was going to tell me about the stack-glitch-cheat thing after we had finished that day and he'd watched me micromanage our inventory to get as many as I could. He did not expect me to basically go "hehe, we made it, neat. Oh right, prove we made it... one should be fine" :P
You can also loot them all, then sneak out without being seen. Not easy, but it is possible, even if being overweight slows you down a ton.
You can also use the teleportation gadget from Old World Blues to get all the gold AND save everyone - without exploiting the engine, cheating or otherwise metagaming.
In Assassin's Creed: Odyssey there's a side quest called "Dagger to the Heart" where a gang is holding 2 people hostage, and asks you which shld be spared. You can pick either of them, or say that you refuse to choose. Unfortunately, refusing to pick just gets them both killed. However, if you had instead snuck up on the area from behind without getting close enough to trigger the cutscene, you can kill all the gang members with a bow and save them both (there's a special cutscene if you manage this, so the developers were prepared for it!)
Huh, I just recently did that quest. Ironically, I accidentally picked the option to kill one of the hostages when I had intended to refuse to kill either one. I decided to let the action stand anyway rather than go back to the last save. Funny to learn that that was a (somewhat) better outcome for the hostages. 😏
@@FredCDobbs-rd5wi Yeah, I think that's the best option when going in blind. I found out what refusing did the hard way the first time around, but didn't want to leave all those kids parentless, so save scummed n looked it up. They can still be killed in the fight if you sneak up, so you have to be quick to defend them/try n lead the enemies away, n if you get too close at any point before every enemy is dead, you can trigger the cutscene that will make you have to choose. The developers probably intended that route for a second playthrough
First time I played, I got the best option accidentally. Sneaked to the top of the amphitheater, saw that they were surrounded by just enough thugs for the multi-shot ability, and you can guess the rest.
In the _Odyssey_ DLC _Legend of the First Blade,_ there's a moment where an angry crowd closes in on you, and a timed dialogue choice gives you your only chance to quell the mob's rage before you have to fight. But if you don't pick an option, then there's no fighting. It turns out they're actors.
Love ACO the last good thing ubisoft ever made!
In Act 3 of Baldur's Gate 3, Wyll's patron Mizora lets him know that Gortash is going to kill his father after being crowned Archduke, and gives him a choice: sacrifice his father to break his pact, or stay in his pact to save his father. Since this decision occurs in a camp event, it seems like one of those decisions that has major implications for the rest of Wyll's arc...
Except you can just tell Mizora to break the pact, and then go to where Wyll's father is being held (the Iron Throne), throw some healing potions at him so that he doesn't die to a bunch of kamikaze crabs, and save both Wyll's dad and Wyll from his pact.
I did this on my first playthrough (though not my first attempt). Bring a cleric to the iron throne (only need 1 level if you do a multi) and cast sanctuary on him. Casting Longstrider on him is good too.
I managed to escape on my final turn with every single person safe. That mindflayer's teleport ability came in clutch.
Though if you then detect thoughts on Mizora, she's now determined to kill Wyll's dad even more directly once the Absolute crisis is resolved and there's no way ingame to head that off. So the Duke and Wyll are going to specifically need to look over their shoulders indefinitely. Still the best outcome, but damn.
Oh, I didn't bother healing Duke Ravengard. I just sent Shadowheart the divine roomba in there.
I saved him. Because I basically mind flayered Gale at that point and just teleported him to the exit. 😅
In Dark Souls 1 at some point you have to kill your best friend Solaire because he becomes possessed but if you join the Daughter of Chaos covenant you can enter the area where you fight him earlier than normal allowing you to kill the enemy that possesses him before he arrives in the area to avoid him going hollow and having to kill him
Part of why I always join that covenant. That and I get to help the nice spider lady. Win-win.
You can also spam poison cloud through the door he’s behind before it opens/you advance too far. That’ll kill the bug
@@dungeonpastor8295 yea but that's more of a glitch and not a function as it was not intended
@@dungeonpastor8295 also I'm gonna guess you watch The Backlogs?
But by doing that, you’ve damned him to an eternity of being unable to achieve what he wanted. Not very fitting to this video.
I like the Nomad ending of Cyberpunk2077 myself. Riding off away from Night City, with a newfound family, looking for a way to save your life. It's idealistic, but there's chance, and if I fail, I'm surrounded by people that care. Not that there aren't people that don't care in Night City
Yeah. A couple of people do die, but the Aldacados as a whole are better off in the long term thanks to the loot from the raid as well.
That was my ending I chose on my playthrough. After I finished Phantom Liberty, I went back and played the other endings I had access to (can't remember if I did the solo with Johnny or not), and the Nomad ending definitely felt the most satisfying, especially with Judy joining V.
the game frames it as the only morally correct choice, with a small exception to the Johnny ending (which still goes out of its way to call Johnny a piece of shit even if V is the one who chose to stay behind)
every other ending spends the time showing V as some kind of terrible person for picking it (ESPECIALLY the suicide ending, and the way that ending is handled alone is enough to make me reconsider buying anything CDPR writes ever again)
of course you like it, you're supposed to
that said, its also the ending with panam and judy, which therefore makes it objectively superior even IF the other endings werent varying degrees of "fuck you for picking this option, you prick"
@@BlackstoneMASKCame here to say this. Also it’s the only choice that kind of gives V some character growth, realizing there’s more to life than being top of the merc pile.
@@BlackstoneMASK It was the first ending I got, and only ending I got cus I've only beaten it once. And it was what I got as I went in blind. So whether I'm supposed to like it or not, idc, I still like it and enjoy it and happy to have gotten it.
Can't believe you didn't include "Destroy The Dark Brotherhood" from Skyrim!
That fourth option in the abandoned shack was the moment I truly fell in love with open world games!
Those who live by the sword, shall perish by the sword.
Or at least fire breath.
i wouldnt say its the best option reward wise though as you miss out on all the contract rewards, and even lore wise a few members escape meaning the dark brotherhood survives anyways
@@brandonwithnell612
I mean yes, but the Emperor lives another day (further frustrating the efforts of the Thalmor)
@@brandonwithnell612 Don't forget you also miss out on a bunch of unique clothes and weapons.
And is basically the only time in the entire game where you can actually do something like this because every other mildly important character to any quest is invincible until a specific point or forever.
The persona series is famous for locking the true final dungeon/boss behind such options, but Persona 4 golden takes the cake. Not only do you miss out on the true end game if you make the wrong decisions and missing the real serial killer (which are already vague as is) but if you don't max out your social link with Marie before a certain plot point, you can potentially miss out on the entirety of the winter season complete with more chances to hang out with your friends , max out more social links, And a very unique dungeon which ties the whole story together and gives you context for the true final boss.
In Tactics Ogre, there's one part in Chapter Four where you need to negotiate with the nice religious group currently occupying Brigantys Castle, but they'll mistake you for invaders and try to kill you, regardless of whether you approach the Castle from the South or the West. However, if you approach from the South, deploy only your main protagonist, and completely disarm him before the battle starts, they'll believe you when you say you're not there to kill them and nobody has to end up dying over a misunderstanding.
For those who wonder how the hell the player was supposed to know to do this: the main character says he will do exactly this in the preceding cutscene. So the player IS told to do this through the main character's dialogue beforehand. But that cutscene occurs before the travel map which has the player move several POI spaces to the destination with a high likelihood of a random battle occurring, which will take 20 minutes to resolve, so most forget by the time they reach the castle.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe not to mention most players of a strategy rpg is gonna think that would actually matter given how these types of games tend to go
@@MidlifeCrisisJoelol OP thought he was cooking
There is another one of these in New Vegas. When you’re helping the doctor in Jacobstown work on a cure for Nightkin brain damage, your initial options are to either let him keep testing a Stealth Boy Mk II on Lily, the lovable grandmotherly Nightkin who can become your companion, to study its effects despite the likelihood of it totally rotting her brain, or tell him to stop his research, saving Lily but denying all Nightkin a cure. Or if your Science skill is high enough, you can give him an idea for an alternate, guilt-free substitute for a Nightkin brain to study, letting him complete his research and saving Lily.
Mass Effect 3-saving both the Quarians and the Geth. So kuch prepwork over 2 games but SO worth it
I managed to get it the first time I played through the trilogy I think I just got really lucky
Mass effect is a series that on the one hand should be annoying for constant third options but on the other hand for an overly-invested bleeding heart like me it’s perfect, and the only time you CAN’T save everyone (Ashley vs Kaiden) haunts me every single time I play. Where’s THAT secret third option, huh, BioWare??
@@luissera1296honestly I think just investing the time into forming bonds with everybody will get you the “good ending” for their stories. So, sounds less like luck and more you making a lot of good choices along the way!
@@chellyfishingI had watched one blind playthrough where a single minor bad decision screwed the player over. Namely, he took two of the big line-holders into the final boss fight, lowering the defense score just enough for someone to die... and RNG chose Tali.
@@Myomer104 It's not total RNG who dies if the defence score is low enough. It's one of the "squishies" with the lowest personal defence. It's usually Mordin if he is there, but if he isn't then the game will normally default to Tali.
I actually like the idea of you having to have strategized who to leave behind to Defend The Party and having their success be based on their actual defensive capabilities. It makes the decision feel more impactful and not just "take your favourite character with you". Especially when other choices in that mission heavily emphasize choosing who is the most suited to doing a particular task.
I mean... there was also a Fourth option in Fallout: New Vegas. Deliver the Platinum Chip, Do House's bidding, and let him take over the Mojave by kicking out the NCR and Legion.
But that ending you're just supporting a totalitarian libertarian tech mogul rather than replacing him.
I was wondering about that too. I’ve been content with siding with the NCR. House has allowed the people of Freeside and the Mojave to suffer including you if you have less than 2000 caps, the Legion is just.. no. And while the Yes Man ending seems cool, it’s not. Everything remains chaotic.
Yeah the NCR has its problems but it still seems like the best option to me. They’re the only faction *trying* to do good even if they’re falling short in some areas. They’re the only ones operating refugee camps for the poorest of people.
But that’s what makes FONV so good.
@mikoto7693 had 40k caps by time I met house what was the point of doing anything 4 him
@@mikoto7693 Eh, I went legion as a female character. Those clowns have been enslaving females up to that point, and now a woman has more authority than anyone else? The incoming shakeup will change them completely.
The House always wins
One other weird hidden option in Fallout New Vegas is that you can murder Vulpes Inculta the first time you meet him. The game actually replaces him with a guy named Alerio, who you can also kill on the spot. Alerio also has a replacement, and you can kill him, too. It's hilariously cathartic.
And, obviously, you can just massacre Cottonwood Cove when you get there.
Ah, a sneaky Boarderlands burn barely a minute into the video. the movie must have been beyond awful.
I didn’t catch it. What are you referring to?
Ellen at 1:11.
Omg my partner and I saw it in an empty theatre and that is the only way I can honestly recommend watching it lmao it’s SO SO BAD but not even good-bad.
Well, to be fair, most game movies are bad
It was, it truly was.😂
Fun fact: If you pick "Kill Michael" or "Kill Trevor" but then call Lester afterwards, it actually changes your choice to Deathwish. In addition, the events of GTA Online, which is supposed to take place after GTA V chronologically pretty much confirm that killing Trevor is not canon (he's alive) and heavily imply that Killing Michael is not canonical either.
Although I'd say calling Deathwish a "hidden" third option is sort of like calling toad a hidden character in Super Mario Bros. 2...
@sevendeadlysquids404 GTA online takes place before GTA 5. Your player character is referenced a couple of times in and usable in the heist at one point. I might have missed an update though 🤔.
Fun fact. Deathwish was supposed to kill Franklin for the (true) ending. But no one wanted to play Lamar as an end result.
@@Guagex Your online character is never in a single player heist. Plus, that timeline makes no sense:
Franklin owns a record company and keeps on talking about how he’s older now.
Lester has a GF
But you are right about Lamar replacing Franklin being intended. The reason I’ve always heard is they just ran out of time to implement it or don’t record enough voice lines.
@@Guagex GTA Online started out taking place before the main story, but the Gunrunning update moved everything forward and everything from that point onward was set after the main story.
Yeah, not exactly a secret or hidden when it's literally a given choice.
Yeah, maybe I'm just being pedantic, but I don't think it qualifies as a "hidden" option when it's literally on the same screen as the other two options.
I wouldn't call it an agonizing choice, but I've always been pleased with finding the rogue option in one of the quests in Shivering Isles.
There's a bit where there's a dremora blocking a bridge on the way to a quest item. He tells you that to get him to move you either do the fighter thing and defeat him in battle or do the mage thing and go off and do a little quest for him.
The rogue option is to tell him you'll go do the mage thing and then drop into stealth and backstab him when he turns around to go back to his station.
Every New Vegas video points out that Benny is voiced by Chandler, but nobody mentions that Mr. House is Odo from DS9, that Doc Mitchell is voiced by Skyrim's General Tullius, or that Yes Man is Flik from A Bug's Life.
Yeah, that game had a star-studded cast. Arcade Gannon is voiced by Chuck and Shazam star Zachary Levi, Raul the ghoul is voiced by Danny Trejo, Veronica is voiced by Felicia Day, and of course the narrator is Hellboy himself Ron Perlman.
@@JoeJaJoeJoe I knew I was forgetting a few, but I didn't know Arcade was Zachary Levi. That's cool
Never actually played FONV, but the moment I heard that voice it started saying 'Crane, Poole and Schmidt' in my head. Loved him in Stargate too. What a delightful bad guy.
The fun part about The Missing Link's choice in Deus Ex: HR is trying to get that third option while also trying to go for the _Factory Zero_ achievement, which implies doing it without the use of augmentations or weapons of any kind. The issue with this is that the entrance to the gas distribution chamber is located behind a heavy box that you need an augmentation to lift and on a second level you might need a jump augmentation to reach. You also need to crack open the glass to disperse the gas without any offensive capabilities. All of this under a timer. It's perfectly doable, of course, provided you take advantage of your environment (I've gotten the achievement 4 times in different platforms), but it won't be easy.
Yep. You're practically _required_ to set up your run before the timer even starts.
Step 1: stack boxes and place fire extinguisher ahead of time.
Step 2: play game up to gas event.
Step 3: platform up the boxes and hurl the fire extinguisher at the gas machine.
Step 4: main villain calls you a pansy for avoiding a hard decision.
Step 5: get Apex Predator achievement. 😈
I'm shocked we aren't talking about the Starter trio in Pokemon Go; your choice of Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle or if you are willing to walk like 30 feet away from them, Pikachu! You can be the guy who started the game with a Pikachu, making the decision much easier.
damn wish i'd known that when it first came out
...Pikachu is worse than the trio though
Excuse me? But also Pikachu is far more common than the other three in the game so better to pick one of the three
In the outer worlds, I remember being absolutely blown away when it turned out that you could shut down the botany lab, but then shoot the cannery overseer, meaning the leader of the deserters in the botany lab takes over and everyone's lives are better. From that moment on, I would not make any sort of major decision without seeing if there was some sort of third option. SO worth it.
Actually, you can talk to both of them and without violence achieve the same thing.
I forgot how I did it but if you get Adelaide to reveal her method of growing crops to you, Shut Down the Botanical Labs, and then talk it out with the Mayor. The Mayor will relinquish his position to Adelaide without any need for his death.
@@ela-811 Then it's implied that he wanders into the wilderness and dies anyway. Oops. He's a company man, and Spacer's Choice was not going to be kind to him for relinquishing THEIR company town to non-company people
In Baldur's Gate 3, you usually have to choose between either Halsin or Minthara, depending on whether you side with the Grove or the goblins. But you can actually recruit both of them with some patience and foresight. You simply have to (*takes deep breath*) agree to kill the goblin leaders, fight Minthara first, avoid killing any goblins before Minthara, knock Minthara out instead of killing her, kill the rest of the nearby goblins while avoid any splash damage that can kill the knocked out Minthara, then kill the remaining goblin leaders, wait until you finish act 1, wait until you're far enough in act 2 to get into Moonrise Towers, avoid long resting after getting to Moonrise Towers, enter the main hall to see Minthara being sentenced to death, meet her in the prison afterwards, and break her out of Moonrise Towers without the many guards noticing and killing you all.
You don't have to avoid killing goblins or their leaders before her. I took her on last used nonlethal attacks to knock her out and still saved her from moonrise
@@tamaria616 Ah, I could swear I needed her to still be "Temporarily Hostile" when knocked out for it to work, but maybe that was an earlier version of the game or something.
@@sapphiria39 i think that was a glitch. But then they patched in changes to make it easier to recruit her and not have to glitch her
And make sure you don’t loot her clothing while she’s knocked out or she will be naked when you run into her at Moonrise Towers.
@@sapphiria39 yeah the devs have updated a lot of the stuff related to this method of recruiting minty because of how much people wanted her in their parties without going full evil. so it's basically just knock her out, make sure she doesn't die, and then finish the rest of act 1 and then find her in moonrise in act 2
16:35 What's in Indy's satchel? A frube, a comb with a nail through it, a St. Brigit's cross with a ghost Snoopy, Alf's head, toilet roll that got wet and dried out weird, a single Incredible Hulk candy stick, a spider's step ladder and a nitrous oxide canister.
There should also be a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle
@@Banquet42A rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle? What possible use could that have?
😘
But, sadly, no fine leather jackets…
or like with Broken Sword where everything gets put in George's trouser pockets
@@eembers It helps to be prepared for anything. Absolutely anything, no matter how remote the chance of it happening.
It's not an ending, but there's a part in Grim Dawn where you have an apparent choice between two things but can take a third option to get a better overall outcome. At one point you're heading off to deal with a bandit gang run by a guy called Darius Cronley. Along the way, you find a place called New Harbour where one of the few inhabitants will explain about how they're being ruled/extorted by members of Cronley's gang, who force them to gather scrap to make weapons and stuff under threat of killing them. The apparent options at this point are to donate some of your own scrap so the locals don't have to do it, pay off the gang member in charge of the group there so they leave, or just kill him.
If you donate some scrap yourself, the woman who gave you the quest is grateful and I think you get some kind of minor reward, but morally speaking it doesn't feel great because you're helping out the bandits by giving them what they want and they're still there to harrass the people. Similarly, if you bribe him with your own cash to go away, that's still giving up some of your own resources to a bad guy. Boo. If you kill him it feels good but if you go back later you find the place in flames and everyone dead except two young children who have been taken prisoner. They can be freed once you defeat Cronley (he has them locked up in cages in his lair), but of course now they have no parents/families and I seem to remember that they hate you forever because of it.
Alternatively, you can just pass by New Harbour without speaking to anyone, then go back once you've dealt with Cronley. You'll be told that the gang members fled once they heard their boss was dead, so now the people are free to just get on with their lives, everyone survives, and they're all happy with you without you needing to have given anything to any of the bad guys :).
In all fairness, Keanu Reeves is such a cool person that he has that "I am not angry, just disappointed" thing down pat.
The Bard’s Tale, the secret ending between the choice of “slay the demon pretending to be a princess” and “slay the wizard keeping said demon princess imprisoned”, the third secret option to tell both parties to piss off and end the game drinking.
Of course The Bard's Tale has that for a third option.
not really a secret ending, but then neither were most of these
and Bard Tale with Cary Elwes needs more love
cons: you don't get a cool final boss, as you only get one if you choose to kill the demon or fall for the lies
pros: its the msot in character ending for the bard and feels eprfectly in tone with the game
@@sarafontanini7051 fall for the lies? IIRC the princess is pretty open about what she is when you get to the ending choice,
either way tho, Giant Demon Girlfriend. choice is obvious
If you want to get technical, Nier Replicant. You have the choice to save Kaine in exchange for erasing yourself from reality. But if you start a new game after erasing yourself up to fighting the giant lizard you suddenly get started on a new post erasure route as Kaine that ultimately ends with restoring your deleted Nier.
That sounds really cool
Exept that dosen't count as a third option
@@jotarokujo4727 You could argue that starting up a new game is the third option, but in reality that's closer to two and a half
Nier has a lot of cool ideas, but the whole anime story is a turn off
1:11 OOHHHH sick burn on the borderland movie
Dont forget Far Cry 4 where you can just wait like 40 mins for Pagan Min to come back get given Kyrat and not have to side with Ms child labor drug state, or Mr zealous tolatarian theocracy. I mean sure you miss out on... the whole game, and Pagan keeps the helicopter, but its honestly the best ending.
Its actually closer to 5 minutes
A twist so nice they did it twice! You also get the least bleak ending in Far Cry 5 by refusing to press the input at the beginning of the game, when tasked with handcuffing the serial-killer cult leader
@@OrdigTroll That's actually pretty funny.
@@OrdigTrollYou get the option again at the end where the cult leader will ask you to leave.
@@Ark_Strike he tells you he'll be five minutes, it takes 15. They've also used that ending in another video (but that doesnt mean they wont do it again!)
In Pathologic Classic, the main end game choice is between sacrificing the town to a plague or destroying the reality shattering tower causing the plague. This isn't as straight forward as it seems, as the towers uniqueness as it's own living thing and potential ability to usher in a utopia for everyone is stressed. When playing as Daniil or Artemy, the third player character will say she has her own cure, requiring the blood of the main NPCs you've been working to save. But if you're not playing as Clara, it is presented as unlikely to actually work. However, once you unlock the Challenging route after beating the game once, it's made pretty clear that her cure is real. And you even get a stand in for the developers going "yeah we didn't plan for this to happen, she just forced her way into the story"
22:06 exploding is WORSE than drowning? No way! At least it's instantaneous.
I'm thinking she meant burning to death, which is what it looks like is happening after the explosion.
So basically, crushed by impact, locked in a small space, drowning, and burning alive. All at once. Not really anyone's preferred way to go out.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate initially presents you with the option to choose whether to fight Galeem or Dharkon as the final boss, but doing so will lead to a bad ending no matter what as whichever god you don’t fight is now free to completely destroy the multiverse with either light or darkness with nobody around who’s powerful enough to stop him. What you need to do to get the true ending is realize that Master Hand and Crazy Hand are still missing, then refuse to approach Galeem or Dharkon until you find the hidden area that the hand brothers are being kept, THEN defeat them to free them from the gods’ control. Once you do, the brothers will open a hidden path consisting of a long platforming level where Galeem and Dharkon will alternate trying to kill you, though you’re cycled through the ENTIRE ROSTER as you die so you can keep going. Reach the top of the level, and you get to fight BOTH gods at the same time with whoever in the roster is left, where you then have to carefully deal damage evenly between them so that they die at the exact same time, which is made easier by the fact that Galeem and Dharkon hate each other so much that they spend half the fight attacking each other instead of you. It’s a long and complicated process, but it’s worth it, as doing all of that finally nets you the true ending where the multiverse is saved.
I still can't believe one of the coolest boss fights sequences I've ever experienced came from a game series where Solid Snake and a generic Pirahna Plant from Mario Bros can beat each other up for fun
If I understand it right, most Shin Megami Tensei games have a moment where you're forced into either the Chaos or Law routes. It's only by balancing your dialogue choices that you get access to the Neutral route.
Generally true, though oddly I found the "Chaos" route to be the most reasonable in SMT V. Partially because that's the only side that hasn't tried to kill you up to the point of deciding.
SMT games usually try to have each of their L/N/C endings be still morally dubious (but not always succeeding), or with N being the least egregious but harder to obtain. For example, Strange Journey has humanity reclaim Earth (implying that humanity continues to kill the planet) but you have to maintain a Neutral alignment and kill more bosses than the L/C paths. Also, they're usually not secret (at least in the base game).
@@TheBlackSeraph Not secret, but hard to get. I recall SMT IV had your alignment as a secret stat. You had to manually keep track of your dialogue options throughout the whole game if you wanted a certain ending.
I think Strange Journey let you pull yourself back to neutral, as long as you weren't too far gone. You're confronted and questioned by someone near the diverging point, and you can go back at that point.
SMT1 actually has the Neutral route be the canon ending... except well in SMT2 we find out it didn't work very well xP
Triangle Strategy's entire final act appears, at first, to revolve around choosing between 1 of 3 solutions to the game's main problem, setting you on a path towards that ending and angering one of your party (depending on your choice) into leaving for the rest of the game.
But there is, actually, a 4th ending, the "Golden Route", which you can take as long as you've fulfilled its secret prerequisites, and is a much better option than the morally-grey original ones the game presents you with.
i'm surprised i totally forgot about this one, its great, especially as the golden route leads to the a unique boss fight exclusive to that route
also I'd argue the route you side with the cruel theocracy isn't that morally grey given the game makes it pretty clear they're pretty fucking evil
Michael’s voice actor likes to argue that “Kill Trevor” is actually the best and obvious choice.
@@Leith_Crowther Especially if you were a fan of the Lost and Damned's protagonist, I would assume.
If you decide you hate Trevor in the first half of the game, its understandable, Trevor is a monster then but by the first half you get to know Trevor better and you know he has issues but he is one thing always and that's loyal which in stark contrast to everybody else you meet in the game who WILL turn on you for a penny then killing Trevor doesn't sound so good.
@@Ark_StrikePlus, they’re all monsters. 🤷♂️
@@Ark_Strike Nah, Trevor just whines and cries the entire time to the point of being intolerable. I'm sad there isn't an option to force him to OD or something to avoid having to play his part of the story.
🎉g
In the Outer Worlds at the end of the Monarch questline, your character has to choose between Monarch Stellar Industries, the Iconoclasts or you can negotiate a ceasefire between the two factions depending on the choices you have made.
Obsidian generally loves multiple solutions to complex issues
I feel like all 3.5 options in New Vegas are pretty well revealed immediately. Do what House says, do what Ceaser says, do what the NCR says, or do whatever you want and have Yes Man say you're the GOAT (which is just doing what House says, but for yourself and more peaceful options).
Yes they're not hidden at all. But only recently did I realise there's actually another yes man ending where you destroy the securitron army and New Vegas descends into anarchy
@@aarong-s4954 There actually a bunch (CL where Ceasar is dead and the Legate becomes leader, NCR where you make peace with the BOS, what you choose to do with Kimball if you choose Yes Man...) those 3.5 are just the main ones.
But what about Mass Effect 3 dlc Omega, where (if you're an Engineer) you can save the civilians like Vetra wanted AND bring down the shield like Aria wanted. While the whole trilogy has tons of moments like this, I run Engineer, I choose this one and I'm sticking to not having to fire a gun.
Correction: the first mass effect has moments when your class matters
You can do this anyway? You just have to resist pressing the flashy button three times. And her name is Nyreen.
@@dermade83 yeah but doing it the engineer way makes aria less pissed at you
@@keyblademasterclark Eh. Who cares? Just Aria.
If this kind of thing is appealing, then it’s literally the entire premise of OneShot!
At the end of the game, you’re given a very meaningful choice: return the lightbulb Niko’s been carrying this whole time to it’s rightful place, thus giving the world its sun back and giving the dying world a second chance (long story, play the game you’ll see), or break the lightbulb, instantly ending the world but allowing Niko to find their way back home to their world. It’s a very difficult choice, made worse by the fact that you can’t just undo it afterwards…
Or maybe you can.
Ever since the Solstice update, you could bypass the ‘OneShot’ restriction and start the game anew, and this time, make different choices that not only allows you to save the dying world, but also give Niko the ability to return to their home, giving every character in the game their true best ending!
How about Etrian Odyssey III and it's third ending? Normally you have to choose between Armoroad or the Drowned City and end up killing one of the rulers, which is a tragic shame because the two sovereigns are actually brother and sister, but the brother lost their memories of this fact thanks to mechanization that extended his life, and the sister got corrupted by Lovecraftian horror blood in an effort to extend her life long enough to reunite with him as well. However if you promise not to reveal the existence of the Drowned City, then immediately backstab them and tell Armoroad anyway, get two special items via cutscene in the cities once you reach a specific dungeon floor, get a key in the room you fought the stratum 4 boss in, and bring the two previous items to a creepy alien child you met earlier in the 3rd stratum before starting the final quest, then the child will make the princess human again. As a result, the brother will regain their memories once you reach what was supposed to be the final boss room, you get prompted to explore a locked door from the previous stratum, and at the end of the extra path you will fight the now adult alien child who becomes an eldritch horror. Killing him here and there ensures both the brother and sister survive, live peacefully with each other, and even give the alien itself closure for the human feelings he developed for the sister.
In Star Wars: The Old Republic, the Imperial Agent had a great third option choice within their storyline. Against Darth Jadus, the two obvious options were to refuse to give him the codes and so risk him killing more people than desired and increase the chance of him escaping or giving him the codes so you can get into his inner circle then betray him and less people die. But then you can simply talk him down by finding counters for everything he could do and convince him to surrender himself without blowing anyone up.
I'd never heard of Harvestella before this video, but what I didn't have to do was look it up afterward to see that it's clear as day a Squeenix game. They really do have a style and just stick to it.
3:51 But stRawbeRRy does only have three r’s….
@@fakjbf3129 it’s a reference to a question that confused AIs.
@@Strigulino Except the example picture shows the AI getting the right answer
@@fakjbf3129 I’m not saying all AIs get it wrong. Just some of them misunderstand the question.
@@Strigulino It kinda undercuts the joke about AIs getting something wrong to then not show them getting it wrong
@@fakjbf3129 editorial choice no doubt.
In Skyrim you can to spare the three captives. Instead you can kill Astrid and destroy the dark brotherhood.
Well, aside from Cicero, the Night Mother, and Babette.
But then you don’t get the pretty pony with the eyes like burning coals!
There's another option: just never kill Grelod.
I am SO glad you put Harvestella on here... I saw the title of the video and immediately thought "I'd better get ready to tell them to do Harvestella in the commenter's edition"... And apparently I didn't need to! Nice!
Mass Effect 3 - side with Tali and the Quarians or Legion and the Geth. Or both. Both is good.
I loved the fate of Atlantis. Every so often I just quote it to myself out is nowhere. The voice acting was pretty darn good for such an old game!
Yes! You put on Dino Crisis!!! I love that hidden option. Regina forever!😂
Nishina in Starfield. It’s not clear unless you are the kind of person that loots everything that you can save both Rafael and everyone else in the base as well. And get all the loot. But you can.
Starfield on the whole isn't Bethesda's magnum opus but there are parts of it that're genuinely cool & rewarding to discover and I just with they'd encourage more of that in their studio
@@username1660 I really enjoy playing it. Skyrim in space. Loved the Nishina mission as it’s a really interesting concept. I’m just doing another run right now to prep for the DLC.
@@Strigulino Personally my favorite was the living history town on one of Saturn's moons. As far as I remember, the main quest never takes you there, it's just this super cool bit of world building that's entirely up to the player to happen upon.
@@username1660 New Homestead on Titan. I went there because that’s where Heller said he was from. I loved looking around the NASA museum too.
Plus you can dress up in an alien suit and chase tourists away. Eventually you get to keep the suit and can just wander round looking like a giant Tardigrade.
Ellen: "What the Hell is wrong with you, CD Projekt Red?"
Me: Lots... How long you got?
The Sakura Wars series often does this in many regular conversations. It uses visual novel-style cutscenes and your answers are often on a timer. But sometimes intentionally letting the timer run out is the best answer or, in what I thought was extra cool, running the timer down but not letting it expire completely will make a new option appear.
This gets parodied by Red in a DLC for the original Neptunia game
In Fire Emblem: Fates, you can choose to ally yourself with your birth family or your adoptive family. Whoever you side with will fight a war against the other.
*Or* you can purchase the secret 3rd route DLC in which you unite both families and defeat the hidden enemy secretly pulling the strings.
Why in the world did Nintendo think that making the true ending only available through paid DLC was a good idea?
@@stardustpie1992I'm not sure if they consider it a true ending so much as a "what if" ending. That route doesn't make a whole lot of sense and is notably shorter than the other two.
Reminds me of how Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn only opens up an alternate option to killing a particular character during your second playthrough of the game
Henry stickman. In fleeing the complex if you take the presumed dead route the last decision you can make has a few options at first. What you’re supposed to do is not choose anything.
I can't believe you forgot: In Pokemon red and Blue, you can choose between Squirtle and Charmander, but there's a secret other option... Bulbasaur!
In Baldur's Gate 3 there's a choice between signing a character's soul away to a devil to get the whereabouts of his kidnapped father, or leaving him to die. However you can actually choose to break Wyll's pact and then go to where his father is being kept and saving him anyway.
In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, there's a really infamous secret choice that only opens up after you finish your first playthrough. Throughout Part 1 of the game, the protagonist Micaiah and the Dawn Brigade, a group of freedom fighters, are attempting to free their home country of Daein from the oppressive occupying army of Begnion. During this journey, they encounter the secret true heir to the throne of Daein, Prince Pelleas. They pledge to help him take the throne because he's a kind and gentle young man and not a bloodthirsty maniac like his dad, AKA the final boss of the previous game, The Mad King Ashnard. By the end of Part 1, you help him take the throne and everyone's happy and Daein is free.
Then stuff happens in Part 2 elsewhere on the continent with a different army, and Part 3 kicks off with Pelleas basically sending Micaiah and the gang off to war all of a sudden on behalf of Begnion for unknown reasons. Later on you find out that sweet, naïve Pelleas had been tricked by the Begnion Senate into signing a bogus "peace treaty" between the nations which was actually a blood pact, which magically causes the citizens of a ruler's nations to drop dead one by one unless the demands of the pactholder are met. While you go about slaughtering in the name of corrupt officials who held your nation in a vice grip for 3 long years, Pelleas researches a means of breaking this pact. This gets to a point of desperation where he decides that if he dies, surely the pact must be able to be broken as a result. So you get a difficult choice as Micaiah where you can either choose to honor his wishes (by killing him) or refuse to be the one to end his life (leading to an ally doing it for you).
HOWEVER, if you're on NG+, you get to deny his request outright, at which point Pelleas realizes he can just kill the senator who had him sign the pact to enact the same result. Pelleas will then be able to take to the field and join your army in search of answers (and earth shattering lore drops from having him fight specific bosses leading up to a secret post-game scene when all conditions are met). Not only does this provide a happier ending for an otherwise tragic character, but he's also the ONLY playable Dark Mage in the entire enormous cast of characters in Radiant Dawn. He's not particularly strong, but his niche speaks for itself, and those boss conversations are made easier to obtain if you frequently field him and train him up.
Triangle Strategy tricks you with the name and concept, you're always picking the least worst of three options but for the true ending you nust do a series of counter intuitive decisions only logical through guides to unlock the 4th option that'll give you the true ending. And the true final boss that's BONKERS to say the least
The secret ending to CP2077 is the best ending. It does make killing Smasher a massive PITA though.
I dont know if this counts... but in starfield there is a mission where you go to a research facility in the main storyline that was experimenting on one of the artifacts that is integral to the story... and an accident was made causing the entire lab to be locked off and when you arrive you get pulled between two seperate versions of the lab... one where everyone but one is alive... and another where everyone is dead but that one person is alive.... you get a choice where you can stop the experiment on the artifact in either version to save the ones there.... but in doing so you make the other version of the lab essentially gone.... but the third option is to complete the actual experiment in said lab... merging both versions of the lab and saving everyone.... it was something i didnt even know of until my fifth run of the storyline when i just explored the areas before i did the objective the game tells you to do.... so i believe it is considered a secret ending to that mission....
Came here to post this one as well. The mission is called 'Entangled'. One of the best quest/ missions in the game.
I don't know if I'd say the third option is neccesarily the 'best' option. Though it's the one I prefer. But in Nier Automata, there's a point where an NPC has had their whole world collapse and asks you to either kill them or wipe their memory because he can't live with the pain of what happened. Your options as presented are to do one of those two. But you can also choose to just walk away, and leave him to deal with it, and he angrily says 'how could you.'
Which is a change of pace because usually if anything trying to run off away from the main story during important events usually gets you one of the game's optional game overs instead.
Yes, I please include this one in the 'commenters edition'.
The original Resident Evil 3 was chocca full of these! Roughly ten times over the course of the game, gameplay would enter a Live Selection phase and you would have to choose one of two things, which were usually different ways of fleeing the Nemesis as he menacingly paced towards you in slow motion. If you waited too long however, the game would choose a third option for you, which was admittedly usually to fight the Nemesis.
Hey, the title didn't say the third option had to be better, just secret...
Honestly fighting Nemesis is actually a good choice because of the drops. Not everytime though, some are instant death.
Fighting Nemesis actually WAS the good option because Resident Evil 3 had the mechanic of dropping gun parts each time you killed Nemesis, so whilst you were going to be running extremely low on ammunition and actively made it harder on yourself, you got rewarded for putting down Nemesis each time with different gun parts.
The most glaring omission in Fallout 4 is the absence of an "All of these factions are lame" option as we have in Fallout:New Vegas.
Couldn't agree more lol.
When I was first playing it I genuinely thought that the main ending the game was leading up to was something like: "for a nation to thrive it needs a military, a police force, a secret service and an academia to keep each other in check" ...but no. I guess I was giving Bethesda writers too much credit 🙃
How is Mass Effect 3 not on this list?
All the endings are bad unless you get the secret good ending by raising your war assets high enough. Then, and only then, do you get the one ending where Shepherd lives to see another day (assuming someone finds them among the sea of corpses they’re laying in)
well, the list seems to be less about 100%'ing games to get the best ending and more about a hidden path / option you can unlock by exploring. which yes, does sound a lot like 100%'ing but I need you to just believe me they're different XD
@@scp2539 if the ending is only unlocked by 100% a game I would argue that is a secret ending haha especially since the game never explicitly tells you thsts the only way to get it
In Fallout 3 there's The Replicated Man sidequest which has you hunting down an android aka the first instance of a synth appearing in the Fallout series. As you're looking for the identity of the synth you'll meet Dr. Zimmer who says the android belongs to him and he wants it back promising a reward if you find out where and who it is. You are ALSO approached by a member of the yet to be named railroad who wants you to fool Dr Zimmer into thinking the android is dead OR you can go off on your own to discover the androids identity and restore it's memories. Helping the railroad member will reward you with a pittance of caps. Restoring the droids memories will cause them to hand over a unique weapon and helping Dr zimmer gives you a very nice perk which is the best reward of the 3. There's absolutely nothing stopping you from restoring the androids memories for the gun, telling Dr. Zimmer where he is for the perk and then immediately killing Dr. Zimmer before he can go and factory reset the droid and take him home.
New Vegas was one of those times the trophies made me realize I'd missed something. I'd played through 3 times, siding with Caesar, the NCR, and House and had never gone to Benny's suite. It wasn't til I was checking my completion and went "Wait, who the eff is Yes Man?" before I found this ending. So, hurray for my trophy hunting OCD?
yeah... there are a lot of weird side details in new vegas like you have 4 major outcomes in the main line game alone with an extra one added in with dead money and that's before realizing how Yes Man can lean into literally any variation of all outcomes based on player intervention.
I forget if lonesome road and Big MT had their own alternative endings that affected the Mojave... but the fact that there are more than 3 ways to recruit the Khans is already a glaring sign that there's options out there. (one of which is being made the leader of the Khans)
I know I’m late to this party, but the Blessings of Nature quest in Skyrim has a better peaceful option if the Breton in the temple of Kynareth overhears you going to the Eldergleam sanctuary. Get him to the sanctuary safely and the peaceful option becomes available: take a sapling back to Whiterun. Then you don’t have to murderhobo your way through Kynareth worshipers just to finish the quest.
What about the one in NieR: Automata, where, in one of A2's runs, after the friends of the friendly machine life form Pascal all kill themselves, you get to decide to either, delete his memory or kill him.
But you can actually just walk out the door, leaving him alone with the knowledge that he is essentially responsible for it.
I know, not exactly the most uplifting one but it IS a not-so-obvious choice.
"More Torn than Natalie Imbruglia" was the best line of all time. Thank you for that.
You have two options; Like or Subscribe.
What do you do?
Fear not friend! There is a secret third option:
Like AND Subscribe!
Or you can do neither one at all!!!! rofl
@@NehnBellanarisThat's the bad ending
@@VandalXXI Only if you like what they post. If not ..................
(Fortunately for them, I subbed years ago.)
Nice to see "Fate of Atlantis" see some love. That was a great game, back in the day.
Just dropping into the comments to remind everybody how perfectly Dave Foley voiced Yes Man.
That is all.
Not sure if it counts as secret options, but in Farcry 2 you can often complete a mission for one side or the other or accept a mission for one side and subvert that mission for your companion for the other side. It's three outcomes for each mission and even an achievement to do it to every mission in the game.
In Detroit: Become Human, if you get Kara, Alice, and Luther to the border, several of the characters offer to sacrifice themselves so the others can get through. However, if you chose to protest peacefully as the other androids, you can actually get through security without sacrificing anyone!
The choice at the end of Singularity: shoot the bad guy, but doom yourself because of time travel, or shoot the good guy and let the bad guy win? It's not made obvious but shooting BOTH is possible and gives you a third ending.
Never thought I'd see harvestella in the wild
I had never heard of Harvestella before watching this video. I like it when Oxbox include lesser-known games.
@@DavidCowie2022 It was pretty much Square-Enix trying to make a Rune Factory game. There's a demo for it on the Switch eShop. Not sure about other platforms.
@@DavidCowie2022 I have it, it's ok but definitely not worth full price
@@jardex2275 It's on Switch and Steam.
No clue why it never got released on other consoles...
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines has a scene where Therese and Jeanette are wrestling with a gun, threatening to kill each other, and you have to pick which one should live. But there is a way to ensure they both survive.
Context: Therese and Jeanette are the same person. She is a Malkavian, who are uniformly mentally unstable, and those names belong to her dissociative identities, which despise one another. The player has the (very ineffectual) option to be very confused watching her argue with herself in the mirror or the (canonical) option to convince the personalities that they complement one another and work great as a team. They continue to let the outside world think they are physically-separate sisters who still hate each other to "confound their enemies" as the vampire world is full of intrigue and constant danger.
The GTAV Deathwish ending was the most fun one as well.
Not to mention, it's the only one that feels right. I mean, Michael and Trevor spend the entire game bickering and Franklin is the one that's always trying to make them come to their senses - there's no believable way he'd be picking one or the other.
It's the only one I ever play lol
I wouldn't even call it a secret ending, either.
Yep, they said that in the video
@@wouldiwasshookspeared4087 It's a GTA game, of course I'm picking the option called "deathwish"! It doesn't sound like something I should avoid, it sounds exactly what I want from a GTA mission!
It isn’t an ending, but a quest in Elden Ring comes to mind.
If you go through Rya’s quest, she comes across some horrifying information about herself and asks you to kill her. You can. Or you can get a potion from her mother that will make her forget the horrible thing she learned. Better than murder but still sad. But there’s a third thing you can do…. Nothing! I thought she’d either off herself or just stay there until you made a decision if you walked away. But nope, she picks herself up and moves on with life, leaving you a letter thanking you for sparing her life and explaining that she’s going on a journey to make her mother proud. It’s very sweet. And you still get her stuff
Yes, that SECRET third option in GTA V, that shows up as a HIDDEN C. Deathwish on your phone, that 99% of the people I know picked their first playthrough of the game. Nothing could be more concealed than this invisible option.
There's a choice in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, where you have to decide between killing a major character yourself or letting someone else do the job. In NG+, however, the game grants you an additional third option to save the character, which leads to an alternative ending to the game
3:53 are there NOT 3 'r's in "strawberry" ?? i don't get it ...
Came to say this, I was confused, too. Is it an inside joke, or something??
Yes there are 3 r's in strawberry, but he clearly said strawbrarry.
They should have used a different picture, but in the past week that was the big meme, that LLMs can't actually analyze words. Strawberry was a common example.
The line "Once I'm a god, I'm sending you straight to Hell" is still ingrained on my brain because it was THE COOLEST line I'd ever heard spoken out loud as a kid when I first heard it. The fact that it was the "path to good ending" definitely left an impression too.
Skyrim: escape the mine.
At the end of the Forswarn Conspiracy mission, you're falsely accused of murder and tossed into the mine to work off your sentence.
Your immediate options are to either team up with the foreswarn prisoners and help them fight their way out.
Or kill the leader of the imprisoned foreswarn and escape on your own (getting a pardon and reward from the leader of the Silverblood family)
I like to choose option C (since I was playing as a Nord and know the Foreswarn hate Nords) I kill the foreswarn prisoners and escape, but then use my newly returned gear to execute Mr. Silverblood for betraying me and having me locked in prison.
It's the messier option, but also a great opportunity to make use of any werewolf/vampire powers I've previously acquired.
I'm not sure the YesMan ending from NV qualifies for this list, not only because it's actually the _fourth_ option, after siding with NCR, Caesar, or Mr. House, but also because it's not really all that secret, seeing as how it's actually the failsafe ending you default to if you screw up your relationship with the other factions beyond repair.
Isn't this just the entire premise of Fire Emblem Fates?
I'm glad you mentioned Harvestella as I feel this game needs more love. It became one of my favorites when I first played it, loving the characters and the twists the story brings (not to mentions the food you can cook looks so mouth-watering good!)
I wish a sequel would happen as it's obvious the story isn't quite done but I don't think it will...
Cyberpunk 2077 had even *another* secret ending: The one where V finally managed to shoot themselves because there is no cure for them even *if* they win the Arasaka fight.
Another Dragon Age Origins one: When dealing with the werewolves and the Dalish, if you have a high persuasion and you've taken the time to talk to people, you can convince the Keeper to give up his vengeance curse and release the spirit of the forest and the wolves. Everybody wins and you get the Dalish support during the final boss rush without having to wipe out either side.
Can't believe no one mentioned Pokemon. A really tough decision between Charmander and Squirtle. Charizard or Blastoise, pokemon red or pokemon blue. However they're completely unaware of the best, super ultra secret hidden option, Bulbasaur.
Nah Blastoise was a way easier solo in Gen 1. Venusaur didn't even have a damaging poison move only Toxic.
@@SirStanleytheStumblertrue. Instead it had leech seed, which is like posion, except I also get the health taken off them by the effect. Objectively a better tm.
If you got yellow, you would get all three during the game.
@@paultapping9510 Right but it didn't get a single damaging move for the poison type until gen 3. Even then it was a late game TM. The poison type was a liability for it in gens 1-2. Only benefit was toxic not missing.
@@Banquet42 That was the true hidden option, start with Pikachu and get all three
In Devil Survivor 2, before final day, you are given choice to choose between couple options. Each option could spell death to certain characters or at least lose them unfortunately. However there is the best option as Daichi mentioned before the options are given to players to save all characters. This best option isn't easy cause you need to have high friendship level with them all.
Farcry 4 and 5 where the best endings are to literally sit there at the intro for 5 minutes until it triggers a cutscene.
That's not really a third option to a difficult decision
In Pathfinder: Kingmaker, there's an option that crops up during the Lamashtu storyline. Your city comes under attack at the same time your captain of the guard left to raid a den. If you go to help Kesten, then Jhod dies in the city. But if you defend your city, Kesten will die in the raid. The secret third option is only available to Lawful characters, where when you talk to Kesten, you can tell him to go back to the city in your stead, saving both. (or you can use a mod to give you access to all alignment dialogue options)
3:59 What the hell was that!?
More torn than Natalie Imbruglia? Damn that's an obscure reference from nearly 30 years ago. Thumbs up.
Starfield's "Entangled" mission. The game wants you to choose between saving one man, or every other person on the station. It wants that binary choice so badly that the the questlog doesn't register the "Third Option" until you are one button press away from completing it.
Thanks!
Have you already covered singularity and the fact that at the end of the game, you can actually shoot both people trying to convince you to join their side
i cant wait for the video "third options that were supposed to be the good ending but instead ruined everything" playing a lot of Baldur's gate 3 and Warhammer 40,000 Rogue trader, quite a few options that feel like the good third option end up being the "everyone dies" option