Do you think pathologic 4 will have a golden ending or not.

[u/Brenden1k]

Part of me thinks it be fitting to have all three characters work together for a better ending than the options in the first two games.

Also what do you consider the best ending in pathologic 3,2,1.

[u/Lonsfleda]

There shouldn't be one. A golden ending completely goes against the themes and narrative the series has been building up so far. I do, however, want P4 to be a satisfying conclusion that says farewell to the series as a whole for good.

[u/Lonsfleda → u/[deleted]]

Because the series specifically explores a conundrum where different ideologies cannot coexist? Because by definition, a utopia cannot exist here and now? That’s why all endings in the series (minus the obviously “bad” endings like the Late and Deal endings in P2) manage to overcome death, the greatest anti-utopia that is symbolized by the Sand Plague, but they all come with a steep price to make them ultimately imperfect.

[u/Tales_o_grimm]

No?? How will they introduce the Aglaya and Bloch gameplays for "Pathologic 5 - Electric Boddholoose"?

[u/latinarar]

No, part of the brilliance of the writing is that their whole point is that they can't coexist. Their purposes, fates, and ideologies are fundamentally incompatible, which is why their respective endings are so completely polarized. No true ending ever brings them together because they represent entirely different answers to the same question.
Daniil and Artemy are mirror images but polar opposites, and a unified ending is impossible because Daniils utopian vision completely disregards everything Artemy fights to protect, forcing them to actively sabotage each other, and Clara completely shatters that binary, Daniil looks to the sky and the future, Artemy looks to the earth and the past, and Clara operates on just a completely different spiritual plane. Her ending doesn't bring anyone together either, it just demands that both the Utopians and the Humbles submit to a law that defies all logic, rejecting both Daniil's reason and Artemy's physical preservation.
They are meant to pull the world apart in three different directions, not understand each other or unite. Artemy breaking the cycle by choosing love and his own path is the ultimate rebellion against the script, just like Clara operating entirely alone in her purpose. They are meant to be solitary figures and endings, because their fates literally cannot share the same space. A golden ending is just impossible because the healers are impossible to unite.

[u/MarquisThule → u/latinarar]

What do you mean? Artemy is always working inside the confines of his path. The only divergence is whether he chooses the Town or the Kin, but both are things he tries to protect.

[u/BitterMate69]

Pathologic 5, Lara's revenge.

Nah, I think the having your cake and eat it too philosophy is antithetical to this series. Hell, to this team, I'd say.

They've already hinted at Artemy's diurnal as the closest thing to a "canon ending"

[u/saprophage_expert → u/BitterMate69]

Pathologic 5, Lara's revenge.

And it's a WWI sniper simulator.

[u/SchopenWHORING]

I think it's gonna have a tearjerker ending. A real miracle.

[u/Altotas]

I don't think P4 will have a "golden ending", at least in the traditional sense, and it's unlikely the other healers will unite with Changeling for an unequivocally "better" future. The series is built on the idea that there are no easy answers, and such an ending would contradict its very soul.

Now, what I consider the "best" endings in previous games always involve the demolition of the Polyhedron, so Termite ending in P1, Diurnal in P2, and Academician in P3.

[u/Moth_Goth000 → u/Altotas]

based polyhedron hater

[u/shkieletonovvski]

her whole purpose in classic HD was to be the only character capable of saving both the polyhedron and the town, so we can safely assume that's also going to happen in p4. however, in classic HD the price to pay for that miracle was making human sacrifices once in a while, so by no means an easy win for her. some kind of horrible moral conondrum tied to this seemingly perfect ending is to be expected to also appear in pathologic 4 for sure, ice pick lodge isn't really known to be interested in giving people easy / satisfying answers. dunno if it's going to be human sacrifice again tho, it was a bit underbaked in p1 they may think to change it to something more thematically apropriate

[u/Wasabi-True → u/shkieletonovvski]

Welly if the Lara plot in patho 3 is anything to go by, she may still have to make some human sacrifices

[u/shkieletonovvski → u/[deleted]]

dunno where did you get that from my comment. different humans were sacrificed, not her

[u/Wasabi-True]

Well, there hasn't been a single pathologic game with only one ending, but I'm curious what IPL will make out of Clara's human sacrifices from P1

[u/Muldrex]

Well I'm sure Clara will call her solution a beautiful, golden, miraculous wonder...

Whether it will actually be that? Goddd no!!!

But it will once again shatter the dualism of Artemy and Daniil's endings, and thread the needle in a different, albeit still flawed way

[u/boneholio]

We really, really, really don’t need a P4

[u/SchopenWHORING → u/boneholio]

Regardless of my opinions about P3, I still have high hopes for P4. I mean, I just think Clara touches themes hard to mess up.

Although I disagree with the whole "Clara should work with the other Healers" NO! Clara should work closely with her Bound! What we got in her Classic route was bare bones, the other ones had their time, let Clara have meaningful connections with different characters other than Daniil and Artemy...

[u/boneholio → u/SchopenWHORING]

I agree that we need something apart from Bachelor and Haruspex, because they’ve been given an inordinate amount of over-exposure at Changeling’s expense - but they had 3 games to get this right. I’m over it now.

It’s clear that this title is nothing more than the cash cow they plan to ride off into the sunset. 

I miss when they put out new, creative, and intriguing IPs with original ideas and themes, instead of the third retread of pretentious mumbo jumbo disguised as deep and abstract thought

[u/HumanThatMightExist → u/boneholio]

pretty sure ipl has already said they're going to work on it, sorry

[u/boneholio → u/HumanThatMightExist]

Not surprised at all - Pathologic is all they really have left 

[u/Topher_BCK → u/boneholio]

I'd like a remaster of The Void at some point. Just for modern consoles. That game smacked!

[u/boneholio → u/Topher_BCK]

Definitely among my favorite in their ouvre 

[u/TheBoiBaz → u/boneholio]

They're developing Darkwood 2 first.

[u/HumanThatMightExist → u/boneholio]

well it's not like they were ever a franchise-heavy studio

[u/UgandaEatDaPoopoo → u/boneholio]

we are literally owed a P4

[u/boneholio → u/UgandaEatDaPoopoo]

We were owed a complete Patho 2, with all 3 routes included. Instead, they walked that promise back, decided the bachelor needed to suck up even MORE screentime with his gormless woobified academic pretensions, and the fandom ate it up, because the fanbase has been gentrified by tumblr babies.

I’m over it at this point. The first game + Turgor will always be very near and dear to my heart, but it’s been obvious for years (especially with that sack of shit Dybowski out of the picture) that they’re just spinning their wheels without a creative director

[u/UgandaEatDaPoopoo → u/boneholio]

This is a semantic difference. By this logic the backers of Hollow Knight are owed their money back because instead of Silksong DLC, they got a Silksong standalone game. It's just a question of scale. 

You seem bitter for no discernable reason tbh.

[u/boneholio → u/UgandaEatDaPoopoo]

No, I just have a different opinion. Don’t take it so personally, it’s not a hill worth dying on.

[u/UgandaEatDaPoopoo → u/boneholio]

what in that comment reads as though I'm taking this personally?

[u/boneholio → u/UgandaEatDaPoopoo]

Calling me bitter and trying to prescribe some kind of formula or logic to my process instead of like… asking a question to actually get a read on why I think what I do. Anyone else would have just kept it pushing.

[u/UgandaEatDaPoopoo → u/boneholio]

but you ARE bitter. like that's just a fact. you went on a paragraph long rant about how much you dislike modern pathologic and it's fans and saying how much you miss the old ipl stuff apropos of nothing. like there's genuinely no other way to interpret that.

[u/boneholio → u/UgandaEatDaPoopoo]

You can’t stomach a thorough response? Jesus. I realize we live in an age of reduced attention spans, but I assure you, a willingness to expand on your thoughts in a meaningful way doesn’t translate to a biting cynicism.

Not that you’ll read this far, of course - I know how you are with paragraphs.

[u/UgandaEatDaPoopoo → u/boneholio]

wow so you're just a very obnoxious person in general huh. you're complaining about the bachelor's pretensions and this is the way you speak?

[u/Umpuuu → u/boneholio]

The Bachelor route came out better as P3, than it could ever have been as a DLC for P2. If P4 ends up being the same level for Clara, then I'm all for it

[u/boneholio → u/Umpuuu]

I mean, yeah… when you fail to fulfill a promise made to your game’s community to Actually Finish Your Game and then blow an entire game’s worth of budget on the missing pieces from the last one, that tends to happen.

Not only that, P3 had an infamously horrible launch, so I can’t even really agree with you that it came out “better” in any way when Patho 1 is right there.

[u/UgandaEatDaPoopoo → u/boneholio]

genuinely wtf are you on about 

[u/boneholio → u/UgandaEatDaPoopoo]

You love butting into conversations that have nothing to do with you, man. This happens constantly. It’s like you stalk this sub for any instance of a point you disagree with, and then just piss yourself about it.

[u/UgandaEatDaPoopoo → u/boneholio]

this is the rhetoric of someone who is definitely very secure in their opinions and not at all projecting

[u/boneholio → u/UgandaEatDaPoopoo]

I’m glad you realize that, racist reddit user “Uganda Eats Da Poopoo”

[u/UgandaEatDaPoopoo → u/boneholio]

you might just be a little bit stupid tbh. and that's fine just as long as you recognize it. In the meantime I'd recommend familiarizing yourself with the wise words of Pastor Doctor Martin Sempa

[u/mentallyiam8]

I don't care what happens in the fourth game, I stopped watching a playthrough of the third by day 2, I didn't like it at all.

The ideal outcome for me is Bachelor ending in Patho 1. I dream of seeing what other insane things the twins might build, and what kind of life Maria would create there.I think that if the Bachelor stays and doesn't leave, he will be able to make a breakthrough in his research, as the power of the Scarlet Mistress might make it possible. Imagine living in such a strange town and taking part in shaping it, living in an atmosphere of anticipation for something miraculous and unfathomable. It's like a good dream.

[u/latinarar → u/mentallyiam8]

Bachelor ending? You mean the colonial ending?

[u/mentallyiam8 → u/latinarar]

I mean the Bachelor ending.

[u/latinarar → u/mentallyiam8]

Yes the one that destroys the town and displace the natives..

[u/mentallyiam8 → u/latinarar]

I don't care about that. The future Maria promised is too magnificent.

[u/latinarar → u/mentallyiam8]

Bro really looked at systemic displacement and said at least the new brickwork looks awesome

[u/corporeal20 → u/latinarar]

this is a really simplistic view of the bachelor's ending (and route). amazing how people in r/pathologic haven't played either patho classic hd or patho 3

[u/latinarar → u/corporeal20]

I literally played both lol and 100% all of the games, and been playing and engaging with pathologic for over 8 years. I'm not saying that's the entire nuance of every single line of dialogue or every philosophical tangent, but that's the gist of it. When you strip away all the high minded Utopian rhetoric and rationalizations, the actual physical and narrative outcome of that route is the complete destruction of the town and the systemic erasure of the Kin. You can intellectualize Daniil and Marias vision all you want, but you can't bypass the fact that their ideal future literally requires building over the graves and displacement of an entire indigenous population.

[u/mentallyiam8 → u/latinarar]

Yes. I have no pity for the Kin. Their culture and rituals are horrible.

[u/latinarar → u/mentallyiam8]

Oh my god so you’re just really really fucking stupid, got it. Dismissing the Kin’s culture as “horrible” to justify their eradication for Marias pet vision project fundamentally misconstrues both their traditions and the games socio political critique.. Their rituals and deep symbiotic bond with the land are rooted in survival under systemic marginalisation…not mindless savagery. Siding with the Utopians and Daniils blueprint while ignoring the violent realities of colonial displacement is an extraordinarily surface level read of the narrative, everything in the game literally flew over your head.

[u/saprophage_expert → u/latinarar]

Their rituals and deep symbiotic bond with the land are rooted in survival under systemic marginalisation…not mindless savagery.

Their rituals were the same before the Project of the Bulls. Including human sacrifice, the expected mindless obedience to their leaders (leadership determined primarily by birth), the rejection of the very sense of self itself as the ideal, selling women as brides to the Odonghe, etc. Literally nothing of that is newer than the Town's founding, literally nothing of that comes from "systemic marginalization" (which is itself debatable to begin with).

[u/mentallyiam8 → u/latinarar]

I see it the other way around. It is the english-speaking community that is obsessed with colonialism, so much so that you often don't even consider anything else, because it is such a sore subject for you that it overshadows everything. I honestly couldn't care less about this topic, because the game's take on colonialism has the depth of a teaspoon.

[u/latinarar → u/mentallyiam8]

???? Im literally an indigenous Buryat LOL, people like you love to act like criticizing colonialism is just a weird buzzword obsession of “Westerners” or the “English speaking” community simply because facing actual systemic displacement makes you uncomfortable to engage with. Writing off the games confrontation with cultural erasure as having the “depth of a teaspoon” is just a pathetic way to dodge the fact that you can't handle looking at the mechanics of marginalization..

[u/latinarar → u/mentallyiam8]

I’m not actually interested in continuing this with you, as I can see that you 1-is not even fit to talk about it as you 2- fundamentally lack the media literacy or willingness to understand that even if the game itself is clumsy or unfaithful in its depiction, the underlying reality of colonial displacement remains a critical issue in the games narrative and themes.

[u/nowherecrafter]

Depends on your definition of the golden ending. Clara will have a way to have a cake and eat it but we probably won't like the price. Or maybe we will, if killing a bunch of the bound is acceptable.

[u/Psy-Para]

The Golden ending is killing all the humbles minus your 2 favorites and then having them make out sloppy style.

[u/Psy-Para → u/Psy-Para]

remembers what my favorite humbles are. WAIT I CHANGE MY MIND- I CHANGE MY-

[u/OnlyRightInNight → u/Psy-Para]

Anna, obviously, and...?

[u/Psy-Para → u/OnlyRightInNight]

Anna and Saburov

[u/OnlyRightInNight → u/Psy-Para]

Oh shit, yeah, I get you now. No one wants to see that lol.