Your Turn To Die: Logic Vs Emotion (Warning: Major Spoilers for YTTD)

11/30/2025

Any YTTD fan should be able to tell what I'm about to talk about just from that title, right? The second vote (or I guess, third... eh), Kanna vs Sue, one dies and it's all up to you. Their fate is in your hands and you have to deal with the consequences. Who do you pick? For some it might be obvious. It... Wasn't for me. I spent quite a while mulling this over, but in the end... I picked Sue, and locked myself into what is, apparently, the worst route by far. Not that I'm there yet.

Side note - If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I assume that means you haven't played the game, or haven't reached the end of chapter 2. In both cases... Why? It's free!! Don't sit hear and listen to me yap about it go play the game first!!!!

Let's talk about the beginning before I write about my choice. A friend gifted me Your Turn To Die this year for my birthday, back in January. Started it, played until introductions, and then uh. Stopped for almost an entire year because I was in the middle of ace attorneyyyyyyyyy..? I kinda only wanted to be doing one visual novel at a time since I was already taking month long breaks from ace attorney every so often, so I sorta never got to it until I finally finished the trilogy. But ever since, I have been HOOKED. I'm not going to say it's hard to get me emotionally invested in a game, because it isn't, but I feel like no other game besides Omori and Deltarune have hit me this hard. And there's some real competition there too! When I was given the 'chance' to save Joe, I FELT real panic, I was mashing that mouse as quick as I possibly could thinking there was a real chance. It wasn't about being afraid of getting a game over, I just couldn't bare to see this character die if I could help it. My heart was actually pounding during the escape attempt before the second main game, and the utter relief I felt when things were turning around on Gashu during the game and it seemed like we could continue without another death, was real. Hell, I was genuinely HOPING I kept the sacrifice card until the main game, because I knew for the story to continue the main game COULD NOT GO ON if Sara got the sacrifice. Obviously Sara wouldn't die in the middle of the game, and there's no way the game would continue with just two characters, so... Of course, that all ended up being in vain. There are so many times that my jaw dropped at just how many insane twists there were. I've barely played any other games since I got this one, and there's good reason for it (although now that I'm on the last chapter I would like to slow down a bit... Who knows how long until the final part).
Of course, like I said, the main game did go on, and two characters did end up dying. Of course I was sad about Nao, though... Honestly her asking me to choose her just before the vote made me feel a bit less bad? I get it, but that was a bit scummy right in the middle of Kanna and Sou's selfless sacrifice attempts. The scene with Reko and the professor did make me tear up a bit though.
Of course, now we get to the main topic. Why Sou? There are two main reasons, and both of them I think show just how invested I am in this. I mean, if I didn't care as much I feel like the answer would be obvious, right? Sou's done some good things but overall he's been a piece of shit, so why spare him?
Honestly? I agree. 100%. And of course, I'm not saying anyone's wrong for choosing Sou. Actually in a lot of ways I think that might be the better choice. Even the more... Logical choice. He has skills but he's not exactly dependable.
I leaned in a different angle though. First off, let's just get the non-story reason out of the way. Between the two, I think that Sou has a lot more development in him. Of course, Kanna IS NOT a flat character. I'm not saying that at all, and Sou's death would of course affect her. But we've kinda... Seen that before, haven't we? A big part of Kanna's entire arc is coping with the death of her sister, that she felt was by her hand. I'm not going to say the emotion route would be repetitive, and considering it's hailed as the True Route™ by most I have to assume the opposite, but to me her arc felt complete. I would like to interject as a side note, that as I'm writing this I JUST finished Chapter 2, and am barely into chapter 3. All I know of the routes comes from comments I've seen about them. But even with the knowledge I've locked myself into the "bad route", I just can't shake my mind from the idea that Sou will just be... So much more interesting narrative-wise. I liked Sou from the beginning, not just as a villain, but because of the depth his character clearly had, and my suspicions have been proven SO right so far. I NEED to see his arc, if he'll have one, to it's completion.
Now of course, I didn't just do this because I thought Sou would have a more interesting dynamic. I might've chosen the logic route, but there was emotion in my decision as well. And no, I didn't feel bad for Sou. Actually, quite the opposite. Like I said, Kanna has been put through this situation already. She had to cope with the fact that her sister died, and work through her feelings that it was her fault. And given the choice, I just... Couldn't put her through that again. Both of them wanted to die, neither wanted to be the reason the other didn't get to see the outside. Doesn't Kanna deserve to have her wish? Maybe it's misplaced, but she cares about Sou, and I just couldn't do that to her. I didn't want to watch her go through this whole thing again, but now it'd be my fault. So no, I don't believe I spared Sou. If anything, I knew this was more of a punishment for him. No matter what I chose the result would be the same, so I gave peace to the one I felt had earned that the most.
Is that right of me? Maybe not. But there really isn't a RIGHT choice, is there? I mean, let's take away faces and names for a second and ask: given no other choice, would you rather kill a bad person and leave a good person heartbroken, or kill a good person and leave a bad person heartbroken. There is no good answer. And that's without addressing whether Sou is really a 'bad' person given his circumstances, but I'm not going to get into that since it's not necessarily my place to say. But THAT. Is what I love about this game. There is no right answer to this, it isn't black and white, just as nothing ever is. This game's story feels so REAL, and it's so, so hard to find stories like that.

buuuut 1000 words in, I think I've written more than enough. I've adored this game so far and I had to let that out somewhere, and I felt this moment was just the perfect way to do that. Maybe I'll see ya here again once the final part releases, eh ;3

Edit: Alright, I just finished the (for now) final chapter, and I have two things to add, and one extra note that's unrelated to the game
First off, I have no regrets. I wanted Sou to live because I knew he had depth and I was so right, I absolutely love how this character is being handled and I'm so glad I'm seeing it on my first go through the chapter. Also I am absolutely a logic-route-isn't-bad believer, they're totally gonna balance out somehow. Or emotion will be worse. There's way too much evidence and right now the emotion route sounds like it's going too well (not that I've played it yet). I recently discovered Melancholiholic's channel and I agree with a lot of the ideas in their theory videos. If you wanna know why I think the logic route won't be evil bad grr route, this and this are pretty much entirely why.
Second, and this is completely unrelated to the entire post but I have to mention, tears were finally shed
I didn't expect it to be for Q-taro though. Especially considering I called his and Alice's deaths before even starting chapter 3. Plus, games do make me emotional easily, but it's rare for me to cry. Really rare. And I was never a huge fan of Q-taro to begin with!! But it hit so much harder in the moment. Especially immediately following the Gin AND Keiji fakeouts. I was primed to be devastated.......
Finally, I'd like to say I'm sorry if I come off as a bit pretentious? I just wanted to talk about why I like this game and about one of the parts that I felt was most impactful to me, and also defend the more disliked route, but I'll admit after rereading, it did tread kinda into like, psychology essay territory? And all I know about psychology is a high school class where we mostly just watched movies?? It was kinda useless tbh. But anyways whatever. Whether I do come off that way or not I do wanna try and chill more in posts like these since I mean... I am just yapping about stuff I like after all. No need to pull out my high school essay vocabulary lol-