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Zoe, a character who is initially met as a troublesome trombone-playing hitchhiker, turns out to be a key figure in the changes coming to Petria. However, it isn’t easy to help get Zoe through the game alive, there is only one path to her survival, and it doesn’t involve all the player’s characters making it out alive. There are major spoilers ahead for the story and ending of Road 96, so beware!
Influencing Zoe
It isn’t crucial so much to Zoe and her arc as much as to the way the game is played overall, but while interacting with Zoe in any scene the player should try to make any choices they can to get involved in events instead of taking the lonely route across the wide open world of Petria. But it is always best to choose the peaceful options, supporting Florres over Tyrak and encouraging Zoe and any around her to vote for change. Make sure to fill her with the hope that change can come in this fashion, it will help the correct ending come about that can help her survive.
Getting Zoe Out
While it is easy to become convinced Zoe’s demise begins with her getting caught by the cops, this scene can’t actually end any better. Even if you successfully start the fire to distract the police and grab the keys, they will turn up and capture both Zoe and the player before she can be freed. Zoe will inevitably be taken and then escape with the help of the Black Brigades.
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The actual path to success in Zoe’s survival begins when she tries to get over the border with the help of a player character. Many of the choices along the way are irrelevant, just keeping moving with her towards the exit on the wall and when prompted with the choice to save her or leave, choose to save her. The player character will die doing this instead of escaping with her no matter what is done prior to that. While this stops any run from saving Zoe and getting every character you take control of out alive, it is worth it for the successful conclusion of the story.
Saving Alex
Zoe won’t be spared at the conclusion of the story, the day of the election, even after escaping Petria, unless the young kid Alex survives as well. To make sure that Alex survives, and in turn that both John and Zoe make it out alive, the player needs to achieve the “election” ending. This involves continuously playing for peace over violence, supporting Florres in conversation, and potentially taking the sometimes dangerous step of vandalizing propaganda for Tyrak, the violent dictator of Petria.
Getting involved in events wherever possible to avoid the “ignore” ending is the best path. Encouraging Zoe to get involved with peaceful change, trying to convince John, Alex, and the Black Brigades that violence is not the way forward and hopefully convincing Alex not to build the bomb for the Brigades. This will result in Alex being at the border to try and defuse the bomb Robert had made from his blueprints instead of being there to try and set it off.
Once the player follows John to try and find Alex, the cut-scene where Fanny arrives should end with her choosing not to shoot John. Consequentially, Alex doesn’t run off and the three of them end up together and happy. This is a difficult step because the entire way the game is played has to lean towards a path, and this can take many forms and is influenced by a huge number of small decisions made throughout the game. Remember simply to choose the peaceful change options in conversations and to focus on getting involved in events, particularly with John and Alex.
Joining the Fight
The last important thing to remember is that after John, Alex and Fanny have decided to stick together and John is safe, the player must join the fight. Unfortunately, this again means death for the final player character, but it is necessary to once again get in the way of death and Zoe before she is finally saved.
Taking this exact path is the only way to save Zoe and the only way to save every major character in the game from death as well. Even if the player brings about the peaceful election ending, and chooses to leave instead of joining the fight, Zoe will be the scapegoat whose death brings about change. Her destiny is to die multiple times, and the player must make the ultimate sacrifice both times with separate characters to keep her alive. It is surprising that a game filled with so many choices and options has such a specific route to the happy ending, but that is the way Road 96 ends.
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