[Spoiler Alert] About the endings

[Silariell]

I mean, that's kinda the point of Cyberpunk right there. It's written all over the game, and games, or other media just like it: NO FUTURE. The MC either dies, or becomes obsessed, or becomes consumed by the very thing he sought out to rid himself of.

Except, again, this is supposed to be a 'choices matter' RPG. Cyberpunk or not, it was a bit of a jebait with how much they talked about 'better RPG than witcher' and 'best RPG we ever made', but all we got was a linear story with 3 flavours of dissatisfying ending.

Like yeah, Nerevarine, Dragonborn, Dragon Age hero, Shepard, Vault Dweller, Witcher, Kiryu and other iconic RPG characters also die at some point, but that doesn't mean the game has to focus on that. The point of a story is to be enjoyable; These endings were not. You can be dark and still be enjoyable. This story fails at this.

The only reason the story is even -decent- is because the characters are written and acted extremely well; The actual story they're a part of, if you give it any amount of thought, is actually really rather boring, predictable, and ends in an insulting way.

The staple of cyberpunk genre is attempting to rebel against corpo tropes, but I guess accepting that 'its bad because its cyberpunk' is just what you do, because either you die young or live long enough to accept the corpo way.

Johnny Silverhand's story is attacking Arasaka and dying, they're -literally- rehashing his arc with this game, except you don't even get a nuke to 'go out with a bang'. There's a reason no one makes games about where you're a corpo accountant and get gunned down by terrorists, because that'd be a very boring game. The same reason no one makes 'realistic' games about having a terminal illness. It's just not an enjoyable experience.

 

[Guest 4354978]

It's cyberpunk, it's supposed to be a bleak and dark future where you're just a speck in the gears of the corporate machine.
I get that.
I've read my share and was a fan of the setting since the release of Syndicate in 1993.
You wanna write a tragic story where the hero ends up dead, dying or miserable?
Fine, write a novella and sell that.

Don't sell me a 60€$ game and give it a handful of bleak endings.
I'm playing games for fun, having a good time and escape the daily grind.


A second time through, the story simply loses all appeal and the struggle V goes through feels pointless.
But hey, guess that's the point of life and if that's what they wanted to get that across... they succeeded.

to make matters worse the year 2020 has been a shit year to be alive. lots fucked up things happened.
first we got the plague then we got riots and then we lost a few good people along the way.
morale worldwide is at an all down low right now so yeah i think we (the audience) need a goddamn good ending for "morale boosting" purposes.

 

[Nekatinyz]

Everyone talking how Ctrl+V (see what I did there?) is not the real V... That'd be fine. Usually RPG's with actual branching stories don't have just a "Yay! The Reapers are dead, Ciri decided to become a Witcher and the Commonwealth is safe" and a "Damn! The Reapers killed everyone, Ciri is dead and the Commonwealth is ruled by the Brotherhood of Steel" options. They have grey options in the middle. Having V survive as Ctrl+V is a grey ending, as it allows you to enjoy the post-game, live your life as you decide, and develop and enjoy the relationships you built over the game, while still leaving that bitter taste in your mouth reminding you the only reason you are living is because there is, somewhere out there, your parent copy, dying.

IMHO, it is a valid option as a "And they lived happy ever after" ending...



On a side note. Am I just emotionally scarred enough that I cried when V woke up at the Arasaka station, and cried once again when I was told I was going to die, or did someone else was as affected as I was?

V in the final it is not a copy
We were told in the story that the alt program copied the mind, and the Arosaki program first copies the mind, and then transfers consciousness, by so-called burning out the brain, which would then put in another body, if the program copied consciousness, then V would not wake up in the final where you have to choose who to give the body, he would just die in his body, but this is an rpg and we see it on behalf of one character, as you call a copy of V is already another character
Yes, and I think the developers were not going to focus on this as we do, I think it means exactly the transfer
Sorry for the English, this is a translator

 

[Cologan]

Everyone talking how Ctrl+V (see what I did there?) is not the real V... That'd be fine. Usually RPG's with actual branching stories don't have just a "Yay! The Reapers are dead, Ciri decided to become a Witcher and the Commonwealth is safe" and a "Damn! The Reapers killed everyone, Ciri is dead and the Commonwealth is ruled by the Brotherhood of Steel" options. They have grey options in the middle. Having V survive as Ctrl+V is a grey ending, as it allows you to enjoy the post-game, live your life as you decide, and develop and enjoy the relationships you built over the game, while still leaving that bitter taste in your mouth reminding you the only reason you are living is because there is, somewhere out there, your parent copy, dying.

IMHO, it is a valid option as a "And they lived happy ever after" ending...



On a side note. Am I just emotionally scarred enough that I cried when V woke up at the Arasaka station, and cried once again when I was told I was going to die, or did someone else was as affected as I was?

This. for me the 6 months parts ruined it. Its akin to "its all just a dream". Take away that and you have your grey ending that fits with the cyberpunk theme. But also find a way for us to keep playing afterwards. I dont think you get to call this game an RPG if your only way to continue playing is to load a save file. Act 4! You can give each main ending one, adds sooo much more replayability. Maybe as Johnny go nuke arasaka again ? With Panam find a cure or die saving the clan ? Give the MCs death meaning. "Bleak because its cyberpunk" does not belong into a game thats supposed to have replayability. I have no reason to replay this as it stands.

EDIT: They way V is "saved" is literally how EVE Online does it (among other cyberpunk influenced games and stories). I have gotten quite used to it. But it suits the story quite well to give that sort of philosophical debate that for example GITS does really well. Who am i ? Is a copy of myself also me ? Leave that in by all means and just give us a reason to think about it (COUGH IN AN ACT 4 COUGH)

 

[Alenheim]

It's cyberpunk, it's supposed to be a bleak and dark future where you're just a speck in the gears of the corporate machine.
I get that.
I've read my share and was a fan of the setting since the release of Syndicate in 1993.
You wanna write a tragic story where the hero ends up dead, dying or miserable?
Fine, write a novella and sell that.

Don't sell me a 60€$ game and give it a handful of bleak endings.
I'm playing games for fun, having a good time and escape the daily grind.


A second time through, the story simply loses all appeal and the struggle V goes through feels pointless.
But hey, guess that's the point of life and if that's what they wanted to get that across... they succeeded.

Preach. My life's already bleak as it is, don't need any bleak endings from any of my series and games.

 

[Simuxas]

to make matters worse the year 2020 has been a shit year to be alive. lots fucked up things happened.
first we got the plague then we got riots and then we lost a few good people along the way.
morale worldwide is at an all down low right now so yeah i think we (the audience) need a goddamn good ending for "morale boosting" purposes.

Pretty much what I said. We need some little sunshine in these times.
Heck, I would be so happy even if they added additional "happy" ending with just pictures/slides (like ME3) did, just to see V live and return to the city.

 

[Cologan]

Pretty much what I said. We need some little sunshine in these times.
Heck, I would be so happy even if they added additional "happy" ending with just pictures/slides (like ME3) did, just to see V live and return to the city.

with his/her love interest alive. call me a romantic.

Hell even a mention in upcoming DLCs will do. "Have you heard V is still alive and kicking ?" "yeah man, crazy"

 

[Simuxas]

with his/her love interest alive. call me a romantic.

Not rly necessary, but could be an option. Could be an ending where you love interest sacrifices in some way to save you, could be rly impactful aswell.

 

[Cologan]

Not rly necessary, but could be an option. Could be an ending where you love interest sacrifices in some way to save you, could be rly impactful aswell.

it would certainly enhance the writing and at least make me sad for a proper reason, not for beeing jebaited.

I'd grind this game for that "happily ever after" picture with panam until i undug every little detail, thats for sure

 

[BabalKabak]

to make matters worse the year 2020 has been a shit year to be alive. lots fucked up things happened.
first we got the plague then we got riots and then we lost a few good people along the way.
morale worldwide is at an all down low right now so yeah i think we (the audience) need a goddamn good ending for "morale boosting" purposes.

Or, they needed any story but this.
This one at the very best fits more a 15 hours DLC, like an alternate lifepath for V, the one when he got greedy while trying to be the legend of Night City. But I keep thinking this wasn't the ideal story for an introduction to this world.

 

[Simuxas]

I still don't get it why we didn't get one of the most obvious endings that we could.
Where V with correct choices becomes close friend with Johnny and he in retrospect respects and befriends V. And at the ending because of your great relationship with Johnny he decides to sacrifice himself so he could save V or vice versa (up to players choice). Would be bittersweet ending, you live but loose a great companion.

Also becoming a legend. Yeah....no. I didn't want for V to become a legend, yet the game decided otherway, which is insulting.

 

[LingTheSTO]

PLZ I NEED A HAPPY ENDING!!!!!!

 

[Alenheim]

it would certainly enhance the writing and at least make me sad for a proper reason, not for beeing jebaited.

I'd grind this game for that "happily ever after" picture with panam until i undug every little detail, thats for sure

Same for me with Kerry. I'd cap all the skills tree if I must in order to get the happy ending.

 

[BabalKabak]

I still don't get it why we didn't get one of the most obvious endings that we could.
Where V with correct choices becomes close friend with Johnny and he in retrospect respects and befriends V. And at the ending because of your great relationship with Johnny he decides to sacrifice himself so he could save V or vice versa (up to players choice). Would be bittersweet ending, you live but loose a great companion.

Also becoming a legend. Yeah....no. I didn't want for V to become a legend, yet the game decided otherway, which is insulting.

Because the plot begins with V having installed a non-curable cancer in the head ?
That's why I keep saying that this isn't the ideal story to begin with : 99.9% of the possible outcomes are sordid.

 

[Simuxas]

Because the plot begins with V having installed a non-curable cancer in the head ?
That's why I keep saying that this isn't the ideal story to begin with : 99.9% of the possible outcomes are sordid.

So might aswell just shoot yourself in the head at the start of Act2, whats the bloody point.
And wouldn't it be better if you found a way to actually cure/heal yourself from that biochip so it would show that you can overcome that 99.9% of death.
Why not give us that 0.1% chance of possibility to save V.

 

[Nekatinyz]

So might aswell just shoot yourself in the head at the start of Act2, whats the bloody point.
And wouldn't it be better if you found a way to actually cure/heal yourself from that biochip so it would show that you can overcome that 99.9% of death.
Why not give us that 0.1% chance of possibility to save V.

In one ending V alive and panam sad that know smb who can help us, its hope) V has 6 months to save life

 

[Simuxas]

In one ending V alive and panam sad that know smb who can help us, its hope) V has 6 months to save life

Well so far it doesn't seem like actual V lives, but just a copy of V. It's up to debate, then again, if they would expand upon this ending with DLC's where it explains/let's us find a way to save actual V, I wouldn't mind.

 

[Alenheim]

I'm thinking this 6 months left for V to live could be a placeholder for upcoming DLC that finally will give V chance to really save their life. Or maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part if we look back at RGB endings for ME 3.

Yay Artistic Integrity.

 

[KakitaTatsumaru]

Just because Johnny is a copy doesn't mean he isn't alive. Johnny is just as much a living person as V and V's copy. You keep bringing the copy issue up as though the copies are not as valuable as the original. Why is one twin more valuable than the other, simply because she was born later?

It's not a problem of "value", the copy and the original are two different persons, and you don't have to care about one because you cared about the other.

Post automatically merged: Dec 15, 2020

I don't mean to sound like I'm dismissing people wanting a happy ending, but have you never consumed Cyberpunk stories before?

Cyberpunk doesn't have happy endings.

Not true: Cyberpunk is more about there is no black and white, meaning that a V willing to live with the consequences may attain his goal, which is a form of "happy ending", if he's resolved to sit on a throne atop a mountain of dead bodies and shattered dreams.

 

[Simuxas]

It's not a problem of "value", the copy and the original are two different persons, and you don't have to care about one because you cared about the other.

Post automatically merged: Dec 15, 2020

Not true: Cyberpunk is more about there is no black and white, meaning that a V willing to live with the consequences may attain his goal, which is a form of "happy ending", if he's resolved to sit on a throne atop a mountain of dead body and shattered dreams.

I don't get this mentallity "It's cyberpunk/nior lore so it has to be gritty or dark" it's like saying "It's cloudy so it has to rain".
We are not asking to rework ending, change them. What we just ask as an option for a nice ending where players will enjoy it and help the game save replayability for them. I'm no programmer or a dev, but I don't think we ask for too much.