Why Pagan Min's continued absence is key to Far Cry 4's narrative success

As a large part of Ubisoft's marketing campaign, some have moaned that the flamboyant antagonist isn't in Far Cry 4 as much as he should be. Steve argues that his absence is integral, not detrimental.

[pasta_spice]

Nope. He should have appeared more and had more of an impact on the story. After the introduction scene you dont even see him for about 4 or 5 hours! I thought Ubisoft learned their lesson after people complained how little screentime Vaas had in FC3 but Pagan Min gets even LESS screentime than Vaas did!

[Gazondaily]

Wtf seriously?? That's just silly.

[pasta_spice]

It's sad but true. The scenes of Pagan Min in the trailers account for almost 50% of his total screentime!

[WolfDevin]

Not really, With what a success Vaas was in FC3, people complained that he wasn't in the game enough. Pagan Minn had the potential to be a success just like Vaas, but ultimately falls flat because of his lack of appearance in the game. Because of this, I think that FC4's narrative was not even remotely comparable to FC3, just my opinion though.

[kingdomtriggers]

How did these devs fail by committing the same mistake again with a potentially great villain? I mean didn't they even acknowledge in interviews that they messed up with Vaas and that they wanted to improve with that aspect this time around? So…what happened? Dropped the ball again

[DIPSET]

am i the only one who felt vaas being redicolously overrated and embarrassing as villain? so clischee and boring

[plmkoh]

15hr campaign for me, he appeared 4 times in-game. Twice at the start and twice at the end.

Then throughout, you are scatter-shot with 5-6 extremely undeveloped characters who may be introduced and killed within the same hour.

Seemed like the developers had written down interesting characters but failed to implement them in the game.

[pasta_spice]

Yeah I thought IGN was exaggerating when they said Pagan Min appears 4 times in the game. But he really does only show up a couple of times and the scenes aren't particularly substantial. Considering how much Pagan Min appeared in the marketing and on the box art, I thought he would have a much bigger impact on the story. You get brief glimpses of a great villain with an interesting backstory but that's all they are; Brief glimpses. It was disappointing. It seemed like Ubisoft wanted to do more with the character......but for some reason they didn't.

[LightofDarkness]

Yes, I think time constraints got the better of this game coupled with fear. The internet went mad shouting racism when Far Cry 4 was revealed and I'd say the developers were uneasy developing Min's character beyond more than a cardboard cut-out for fear of offending a huge amount of people.

[isa_scout]

I think the game is a success because of its huge open world gameplay not it's narrative. FC4 is like Batman Arkham City if Joker only showed up a couple times. They had a great villain but underutilized him. Also, I hate that Sabal and Amita have you making choices that are rather extreme with no room for middle ground. Most of the narrative choices I made were choices I didn't want to make. The more I progressed through the game the more I hated those two and honestly started agreeing with Pagan Min. I'd want to wipe out The Golden Path to if they're all as big a brats as Amita and Sabal.

[xX_Altair_Xx]

That really should've been an option in the story line; the Easter Egg ending is actually better - they should've just developed it from there as you choosing Min's side and fighting the Path from there on.

[Pozzle]

That would have been pretty awesome. In the end, Ajay is no better than Pagan Min or the Golden Path anyway. He has killed people and wiped out a large portion of the local wildlife, which is the same sort of destruction Pagan Min has caused, but on a smaller scale. Joining Pagan Min wouldn't have been a huge stretch for him. Especially since there is no guarantee that the Golden Path would be better at ruling the country than Pagan Min. Sure, he's an evil ruthless dictator, but he has his shit together better than the rebel group who couldn't even run themselves, let alone an entire country.

[Bennibop]

Yes you only see him a few times but he is heard constantly through the game.