With all the choices to be made and all the people the various player characters can interact with during the seven-hour runtime of Road 96, it can be difficult to figure out which path to take to save one of the main characters who may meet their demise in the final moments of the Election Day onslaught. Major spoilers for the plot and ending of Road 96 follow from here!
John, or Papa Bear as he likes to be called, is a truly beautiful character with a dark past with the Black Brigades, a fatherly protective role with Alex and a budding romance with Fanny. However, upon discovering his identity as one of the Black Brigades in the finale, Fanny ends up shooting and killing John in most of the game’s endings. To avoid this, a specific end must be reached after these steps.
influence John
Throughout the game, there will be times when the player characters can choose how they react to other characters’ statements. There are three general ways: that the player can respond to these questions, shifting the balance from the end of the playthrough.
Choose answers related to: staying away from events, also known as the . named “loner” path is an option. Another is to violently inciting revolution against the tyrannical Tyrak, leader of Petria. The third option is to influence people across the country to vote for peaceful regime changein an effort to get people to vote for Florres instead of Tyrak in the upcoming elections.
If saving John in the endgame is what players are looking for, they will have to stay with option three as they progress through the game. The end of the “loner” and the end of the “revolution” both result in his death at the hands of Fanny. Only the (relatively) peaceful end of the election ensures that John makes it. Influencing John as the game progresses towards peace, especially sending the Black Brigades to peace when the option presents itself, is the best way to ensure his survival or at least a chance at it.
save Alex
The Black Brigades will inevitably make a bomb and take it to the border on Election Day. There’s no way to prevent this, as Robert was geared up for it from the start. However, if the player must stop Fanny from killing John on Election Day, it shouldn’t be Alex making the bomb. In two of the three main possible endings, Alex creates the bomb for the Black Brigades, but in one ending he is still found by John and the player character at the site of the bomb, only this time trying to defuse it.
Fanny will kill John unless Alex is turned away from this path. Again, the main goals players need to take during the game to achieve this are: advising the Black Brigades to take peaceful action, as well as other characters. Take the riskier step of destroying Tyrak election posters, which could put the player in trouble if caught at the wrong time, and leave the Florres posters alone.
The player will find that there are several occasions where they are given the choice to answer another character with one of three options, which clearly represent the three possible routes that can be taken through the game. Choosing one “loner” or “revolution” option certainly won’t kill John, as long as most of the steps taken by the player toward the “election” work.
Reaching the End
If the player has consistently chosen “election” end options throughout the game they must reach the correct end to save John. There are several more steps they need to take – the player is captured and held until Election Day in one of the endings. After you escape, follow John and the pair will find Alex trying to defuse the bomb.
The player will be asked by John to: use a code that can defuse the bombsuccessfully prevent it from exploding. This method prevents Fanny from shooting John when she arrives, and instead accept him and make sure Alex doesn’t run away. Any other method unfortunately ends in the death of both John and Alex. After Fanny shoots John in the other endings, Alex will run off and be caught in the shooting. In this ending, the three characters come together as a new family while the player character chooses to fight or flee.
Zoe’s death
This last choice will not affect either John or Alex’s goals, but if the player chooses to take the fight, it will also prevent Zoe’s death. For a game filled with such a variety of choices and endings, Road 96 is relatively easy to navigate if there is a specific ending or fate of a particular character that players want to influence.
It’s important to note that John and Alex can be saved in a run where the player tries to never die, but Zoe doesn’t. She must be sacrificed by fleeing to stay alive earlier in the game when she tries to cross the border, or at the end when the player will die if they join the battle in her place.
Road 96 is currently available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch.
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