So what is really the "Best" ending? (SPOILERS - Obviously)

[y2mckay]

My first play through I got the self-portrait ending, purely by chance. Didn't really know what I was supposed to be doing so I just tried to find all items. I would go toward the wife's ghost at first, but I'd keep "dying" and waking up in a new area so I wasn't sure if I was being penalized or not, so I avoided her the rest of the game. But apparently, you're supposed to keep moving towards her and "dying" to get the wife and child painting, which many say is the best ending. But is it really?

After watching the other 2 endings on youtube, I almost feel like "wife and child" is the worst ending. At least in the loop ending, it's presumed that you get another chance to try and get it right (or maybe you are just doomed to repeat the insanity forever, so possibly that is the worst ending). But in the wife and child ending, you end up burning yourself to death with her portraits. Sure it's more "selfless", and certainly more tragic and romantic. But you only overcome your insanity just to be stuck on your regrets from the past. You die, and your art dies with you.

The self-portrait feels like the best one to me. Although your character remains a bit of a self-obsessed jerk who felt that the misery and loss of his family was "worth it" to create his masterpiece, the bottom line is that you are able to overcome the insanity and achieve greatness in your painting again. And assuming that your daughter is still alive, then there may be a chance for a reconciliation of some kind (I guess I'll have to play the Inheritance DLC to find out). Burning yourself up in an attic out of remorse resolves nothing, you just die in your regrets rather than learning from them.

Or am I just a selfish person too? :-D

[God of Aeons]

Just finished it myself.

The loop ending, it to me seems like that was the story until another ending happens. Like, there are technically 2 endings.

The loop is what he has been doing for god knows how long. That is why there are so many paintings the discard room. So he is destined to repeat it until he achieves perfection (so its not actually "over")

The wife and child ending is the most.... positive(?). He achieves the perfect painting that he has been desiring, and upon completion he realizes what he has done, almost as if he gains his small sliver of sanity back.

When he realizes what he has done to get his "masterpeice" back, the actions catch up to him. Overcome with depression, sorrow, and guilt, knowing that he will never get what he (now) wants (to be with his family, now that he is done with his masterpeice) he ends it.

To be able to throw yourself in a fire, and overcome that natural instinct to run and stop the burn, he must have been IMMENSELY and UTTERLY devastated. This to me is one of the worst things, as it is the most upsetting... somewhat relatable, cause he finally comes back to reality.

The self portrait ending, he stays "insane". Insteaad of his masterpeice bringing him to reality, and overcoming his insanity, the portrait feeds into it. It makes sense to him, however when it "clicks" it clicks the (morally{?}) wrong way.

He crowns his achievement on the wall, believing that he can now (die?) in peice because he has achieved greatness (well, his version of it) and perfection. Regardless of his family dying (well, you know what he did...) he sees it as a worthwile sacrifice.


So it depends what you classify as worse.... Worse as in, being stuck in insanity forever? Or worse as in coming to terms and realizing that youve horribly killed you true love, bringing to a terrible suicide.


But, as from the stand-point of the character himself, yes the self-portrait is the best one for him!!! As he is happy in this ending.

[AdrianChm]

Nailed it.

Top level, the game is a story on the cost of genius. A lot of famous, "immortal" artists were insufferable in "real life", or were simply bad people. Can you remain a genius and deal with the distractions of regular life?

The protagonist could not. The easiest to see with the rats symbolizing his child (at one point, we literally see the daughter morphing into a giant rat in the cradle, so this could not be any clearer), and anyone who has children themselves can confirm they do demand your attention 24/7. To the protagonist, the child was a pesky rodent, something that constantly interrupted his work and demanded to deal with the mundane.

The most common ending is indeed a loop. It's a fantastic solution: the most impactful, with most production values, dramatic. Solving the puzzle -- and yet not solving anything. Brilliant.

Then the remaining two are the true endings. Either the protagonist "decides" that his genius is so important to the mankind that abandoning his family (symbolized by the fact he paints himself, and you get to that ending by literally avoiding the wife and confirming that the "rats" were evil) was the right choice, or he realizes that love trumps art and commits a suicide, knowing how much he screwed up his priorities.

Note that the self-portrait ending both shows the protagonist as a pathetic, self-obsessed man AND shows his final "masterpiece" as a lifeless piece in a lifeless museum, behind a barrier symbolizing the divide between (a dead) art and life. This makes the emotionally charged (note how the protagonist unites in the suffering with his wife by willingly submitting to fire) suicide ending the true positive ending, as much as we can use the "positive" word in what is a creepy tragedy.