In Far Cry 5, Joseph is a charismatic but demented preacher who leads the Project at Eden's Gate, a well-armed doomsday cult and paramilitary group that occupies the fictional Hope County in Montana, United States.

For the central villain of Far Cry 5, the development team decided to depict a more subtle and insidious form of villainy, which represented a departure from the wild and violent antagonists featured in prior titles.

The team's desire to create a more emotionally-driven villain altered the power structure of Far Cry 5's antagonistic faction and informed the performance of Canadian actor Greg Bryk, who drew from his personal experiences to empathize with Joseph's inner motivation and emotions.

Joseph Seed has received an overall mixed reception; his in-universe role as a cult leader became a point of contention with regards to the controversy surrounding Far Cry 5's themes of religious fanaticism.

Holmes emphasized that in order for the character to be believable as a charismatic yet nefarious cult leader, he needs to be "spooky" in temperament as opposed to being outwardly insane or violent like Vaas Montenegro, a popular antagonist from Far Cry 3.

Bryk said Joseph Seed's monologue about his insecurities about being a young father who lacked access to resources or a support system resonated with him, and that it was "so dark and beautiful" in the way it unfolded that he became interested in being involved with the project, and forwarded an audition tape to the developers.

For Bryk, the main challenge with approaching the character was to "ground" himself in Joseph Seed as a human being first and then, "let the villainy take care of itself", as in his view each person has "a danger that can come out in the right circumstances".

[2] Bryk noted that during the cutscene, Joseph displayed the emotional vulnerability of a six year old child who is reliving his trauma of being abandoned, beaten, and abused, and that he is venting at the player character for ending the lives of his loved ones.

It is later revealed that "Faith" is a title held in the cult, with the latest woman to hold it being botanist Rachel Jessop, whom Joseph apparently saved from suicide and got addicted to Bliss.

After Jacob, John, and Faith are killed, Joseph has an emotional breakdown, and comes to the conclusion that God's plan is for his old family to die so that he may accept the Deputy and their friends as his own, and invites them back to his church for a final confrontation.

[5] The player has the option to make a game-altering decision early in the narrative by disobeying Burke's order to arrest Joseph, and depart from Hope County along with their colleagues.

The player may also decide not to escalate their character's conflict with the cult during the final confrontation at Joseph's compound and leave Hope County to its fate, though it is implied that the deputy's prior brainwashing engineered by Jacob Seed is still intact.

Alongside the junior deputy, now his personal "Judge", Joseph Seed has gathered a new group of devout followers who reside in New Eden, a settlement based in the north of post-apocalyptic Hope County.

[6] Unlike their predecessor, the New Eden cult eschew all trappings of modernity and maintains an isolationist outlook as opposed to aggressive expansionism, and Joseph himself is a seemingly changed man.

By the events of New Dawn, Joseph has vanished, leaving his biological son Ethan Seed to take over as the leader of New Eden while he has secretly retreated to a secluded sanctuary to the north of Hope County.

The novel details events which occur prior to Far Cry 5, and explores the backstory of his involvement with the circumstances surrounding the death of Fall's End resident Mary May Fairgrave's father, as well as her brother's defection to the Project at Eden's Gate.

IGN staff gave a positive assessment of the character, as he is presented by Ubisoft as a realistically disturbing villain who exudes an "absorbing and chilling presence" instead of the "edge-of-your-seat theatrics" that characterized prior series antagonists, and that he has also earned his place in the "bad guy hall of fame".

[2] Dais Johnston from Inverse found Far Cry 5 to be a "chillingly accurate mind control story", and that players could sympathize enough with Joseph to be engaged, but not so much that they would side with the cult.

[16] For his performance as Joseph Seed in Far Cry 5, Greg Bryk received a nomination for Fan Favorite Male Voice Actor at the Gamers' Choice Awards in 2018.

Kai Bailey from US Gamer remarked that while Seed and his cult obliquely referenced American politics during the presidency of Donald Trump, their demagoguery stayed seemingly apolitical throughout the story of Far Cry 5.

[20] Colin Campbell from Polygon opined that Joseph Seed is a recognizable albeit exaggerated part of American political culture, a "guns-and-Bible demagogue who cites scripture often, and speaks in apocalyptic terms", with the iconography employed by his cult co-opted from real-life white supremacy movements.

Joseph's fanaticism reminded Campbell of Roy Moore's unsuccessful attempts to run for the U.S. Senate, and his appeals to voters who subscribe to far-right politics and religious conservatism for their support.

[21] Johnston observed that Joseph's penchant of quoting from the biblical Book of Revelation and use of the military opposition to bolster belief in his prophecies echoed David Koresh's modus operandi, while his "piercing gaze and charismatic ways" as he recounted the disturbing manner in which he killed his own newborn daughter reminded him of Jim Jones and the Jonestown incident.