[Spoiler Alert] About the endings

[KakitaTatsumaru]

Because the plot begins with V having installed a non-curable cancer in the head ?

And the player isn't even let a choice about that.

Post automatically merged: Dec 15, 2020

Just find back that one:
"'Those subplots allow us to do something that we have never done before –' they change the main plot of the game. And they are doing that in such a way that you may not even finish the main plot, but still finish the game and get a completely different epilogue than the player with a different lifepath who made different choices, met different characters and formed relationships with them."

 

[Nekatinyz]

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.

Very many people for some reason believe that this is a copy of V, I think this is not so, it was also said that the alt program copied the mind only to collect information , and the arosaki program copies the mind and transfers consciousness to the network( on the chip) burning out the brain is a transfer in the likeness of " cut-paste"))) moreover, this is an RPG where we play one character, a copy of vi is already another character, he would not have woken up in cyberspace. Yes, and I think vryat himself Saburo arasaka agreed to programme where he died, and revived his copy
Or I think we just put too much emphasis on this and the developers did not mean the original copy, etc., so this scene is shown in the final, the original either remains online or returns to the body
sorry for the language it's all a translator)

Post automatically merged: Dec 15, 2020

Vote guys , maybe they will see us)

 

[BabalKabak]

And the player isn't even let a choice about that.

Post automatically merged: Dec 15, 2020

Just find back that one:
"'Those subplots allow us to do something that we have never done before –' they change the main plot of the game. And they are doing that in such a way that you may not even finish the main plot, but still finish the game and get a completely different epilogue than the player with a different lifepath who made different choices, met different characters and formed relationships with them."

Oh, dear god, yes. YES.

 

[KeyranBlake]

And the player isn't even let a choice about that.

Post automatically merged: Dec 15, 2020

Just find back that one:
"'Those subplots allow us to do something that we have never done before –' they change the main plot of the game. And they are doing that in such a way that you may not even finish the main plot, but still finish the game and get a completely different epilogue than the player with a different lifepath who made different choices, met different characters and formed relationships with them."

Seems kind of a bad joke to me now....or a lie.

 

[Kawooozie]

Long time Witcher 3 fan but created an account here just to post due to massive disappointment over the endings.
I want to rant to my friends who've bought the game too but they've yet to finish and I don't want to spoil it for them.

Whether CDPR intend it to be or not.
All of the endings are just so nihilistic for V.
All your struggle and your efforts to stay alive is just futile in the end.
Everything is meaningless.

My emotions right now is basically how I'd feel if I just had amazing sex with someone only to be told that they had a highly contagious STD.
Did I enjoy it while it happened? Yes.
Am I mad once I knew the whole story? VERY.
Would I do it again? NO.

Even the most worthwhile ending, joining the nomads and riding off into the sunset with Judy is depressing.
Just before they leave Night City, Judy opens up about how she never felt safe and at home in night city.
V promises her that she's found it now and gives Judy hope for the future, all the while knowing about that 6 months to death countdown.
This is absolute betrayal, once V dies, Judy would lose her "home" again and what little trust she had left for people will be gone.

I'm still unsure if I'd ever trust CDPR again.

 

[Nekatinyz]

Seems kind of a bad joke to me now....or a lie.

Lol what, there is somewhere quest that can finish the game without main quest. Whaaaaaaaat

 

[revu_]

The story is really unfinished in all endings V dies CDPR took an easy way out, like they didnt have time and said "fuck it".
And becouse of that alot of players dont even want to play this game again

 

[Nekatinyz]

Long time Witcher 3 fan but created an account here just to post due to massive disappointment over the endings.
I want to rant to my friends who've bought the game too but they've yet to finish and I don't want to spoil it for them.

Whether CDPR intend it to be or not.
All of the endings are just so nihilistic for V.
All your struggle and your efforts to stay alive is just futile in the end.
Everything is meaningless.

My emotions right now is basically how I'd feel if I just had amazing sex with someone only to be told that they had a highly contagious STD.
Did I enjoy it while it happened? Yes.
Am I mad once I knew the whole story? VERY.
Would I do it again? NO.

Even the most worthwhile ending, joining the nomads and riding off into the sunset with Judy is depressing.
Just before they leave Night City, Judy opens up about how she never felt safe and at home in night city.
V promises her that she's found it now and gives Judy hope for the future, all the while knowing about that 6 months to death countdown.
This is absolute betrayal, once V dies, Judy would lose her "home" again and what little trust she had left for people will be gone.

I'm still unsure if I'd ever trust CDPR again.

Dude, that's what I wanted to hear the ending is bad, there is one less good with hope, but they give a ton of emotions, but these emotions do not want to experience again, no desire to go through the game again, because whatever you do it will happen, especially to Judy Yes, especially if a relationship with her, there is generally a disaster
Sory for my translater

 

[Simuxas]

Long time Witcher 3 fan but created an account here just to post due to massive disappointment over the endings.
I want to rant to my friends who've bought the game too but they've yet to finish and I don't want to spoil it for them.

Whether CDPR intend it to be or not.
All of the endings are just so nihilistic for V.
All your struggle and your efforts to stay alive is just futile in the end.
Everything is meaningless.

My emotions right now is basically how I'd feel if I just had amazing sex with someone only to be told that they had a highly contagious STD.
Did I enjoy it while it happened? Yes.
Am I mad once I knew the whole story? VERY.
Would I do it again? NO.

Even the most worthwhile ending, joining the nomads and riding off into the sunset with Judy is depressing.
Just before they leave Night City, Judy opens up about how she never felt safe and at home in night city.
V promises her that she's found it now and gives Judy hope for the future, all the while knowing about that 6 months to death countdown.
This is absolute betrayal, once V dies, Judy would lose her "home" again and what little trust she had left for people will be gone.

I'm still unsure if I'd ever trust CDPR again.

Yes, the game is pretty much ruined for all of us. None of us really wanna play just because of those endings alone. The game is fun and the world is interesting, I'm sure we all would love to explore it, but not with whats awaiting for us in the end.

 

[Nekatinyz]

Seems kind of a bad joke to me now....or a lie.

Maybe we didnt find smth for now or it will be a dlc because i didnt seen quests that can finish game without main quest

 

[Subenu]

I don't know what you mean, I definitely had my happy ending. My opinion is, that one should not only look into the "more or less" final decisions you make or can make, but also the time before that happens and what happens after.

BEWARE OF SPOILERS!

Spoiler: My Nomad Playthrough

I for myself played a Nomad and went the full Nomad course. In the end I bonded with the Aldecaldos, was taken in as family member and went on to "use" them (well they offered their help as I asked them) to attack the Arasaka building (which I could probably have done another way, I still need to explore that route). There Saul got killed by Adam Smasher. Then I proceeded my final boss-fight against him together with Panam - Until reaching Mikoshi.
This whole scenario in itself is also what I believe to be part of the ending. of my ending.

Spoiler: Ending - coming from my Nomad Playthrough. Massive Spoiler imho

After reaching Mikoshi and logging into the cyberspace with the help of Alt Cunninghams Engramm after playing through this "event" I was able to make two choices (or was it three?), what I AS AN ENGRAMM of myself, could do from then onward.
1. I could offer my body for Johnnys Engramm and leave with alt behind the black wall
2. I could try to kill myself (a bit before this scene if I remember correctly (with the pills offered by Misty)
3. I could take over my old body and continue to live "my" life. But with Alt telling me, that I probably will only last for more or less another six months at max.

I went for choice 3, granting Johnnys wish to go with Alt behind the black wall and for me to go back to my old body as an Engramm.

Then I left Night City, together with Judy, my Romance and with my new family the Aldecaldos (at least with Mitch ) , leading them together with Panam into the Badlands, free! Where I also said, in a talk with Panam, that we will find a cure and she said, they got connections to help me.

In the very end, as the credits roll and the people you met (and completed the quests of) were shown with their own little video sequence. In there Misty lays my cards a last time, where she prophecised me a long and happy life after.

Dunno if this still calls for Spoiler warning, but it's my very own take on the whole topic. And if you followed the news in NC, if you took time to read some of the different snippets of lore, philosophies ... take in everything you experience on your way. Like what is humanity, what makes you you. Does it matter, if Johnny is just an Engramm of himself. What about humanism. You get confronted with a broad variety of morals. Humans doing inhumane things, loosing ones self, or going to abandon all reasoning for the next big thing to boost ones own fake reasoning to live, and the meaning of the human body, AIs looking and searching for emotions and humanity in this chaos. And then, the Soul and its meaning.

All this combined, the very experience and question the game wants to you answer for yourself.

 

[KakitaTatsumaru]

I don't know what you mean, I definitely had my happy ending. My opinion is, that one should not only look into the "more or less" final decisions you make or can make, but also the time before that happens and what happens after.

BEWARE OF SPOILERS!

Spoiler: My Nomad Playthrough

I for myself played a Nomad and went the full Nomad course. In the end I bonded with the Aldecaldos, was taken in as family member and went on to "use" them (well they offered their help as I asked them) to attack the Arasaka building (which I could probably have done another way, I still need to explore that route). There Saul got killed by Adam Smasher. Then I proceeded my final boss-fight against him together with Panam - Until reaching Mikoshi.
This whole scenario in itself is also what I believe to be part of the ending. of my ending.

Spoiler: Ending - coming from my Nomad Playthrough. Massive Spoiler imho

After reaching Mikoshi and logging into the cyberspace with the help of Alt Cunninghams Engramm after playing through this "event" I was able to make two choices (or was it three?), what I AS AN ENGRAMM of myself, could do from then onward.
1. I could offer my body for Johnnys Engramm and leave with alt behind the black wall
2. I could try to kill myself (a bit before this scene if I remember correctly (with the pills offered by Misty)
3. I could take over my old body and continue to live "my" life. But with Alt telling me, that I probably will only last for more or less another six months at max.

I went for choice 3, granting Johnnys wish to go with Alt behind the black wall and for me to go back to my old body as an Engramm.

Then I left Night City, together with Judy, my Romance and with my new family the Aldecaldos (at least with Mitch ) , leading them together with Panam into the Badlands, free! Where I also said, in a talk with Panam, that we will find a cure and she said, they got connections to help me.

In the very end, as the credits roll and the people you met (and completed the quests of) were shown with their own little video sequence. In there Misty lays my cards a last time, where she prophecised me a long and happy life after.

Dunno if this still calls for Spoiler warning, but it's my very own take on the whole topic. And if you followed the news in NC, if you took time to read some of the different snippets of lore, philosophies ... take in everything you experience on your way. Like what is humanity, what makes you you. Does it matter, if Johnny is just an Engramm of himself. What about humanism. You get confronted with a broad variety of morals. Humans doing inhumane things, loosing ones self, or going to abandon all reasoning for the next big thing to boost ones own fake reasoning to live, and the meaning of the human body, AIs looking and searching for emotions and humanity in this chaos. And then, the Soul and its meaning.

All this combined, the very experience and question the game wants to you answer for yourself.

Maybe you missed one important point: After Soulkiller, you are dead and replaced by someone else.
Or do you consider that, as long a someone makes a copy of you, it's not a big deal if you gets killed?

 

[Simuxas]

I don't know what you mean, I definitely had my happy ending. My opinion is, that one should not only look into the "more or less" final decisions you make or can make, but also the time before that happens and what happens after.

BEWARE OF SPOILERS!

Spoiler: My Nomad Playthrough

I for myself played a Nomad and went the full Nomad course. In the end I bonded with the Aldecaldos, was taken in as family member and went on to "use" them (well they offered their help as I asked them) to attack the Arasaka building (which I could probably have done another way, I still need to explore that route). There Saul got killed by Adam Smasher. Then I proceeded my final boss-fight against him together with Panam - Until reaching Mikoshi.
This whole scenario in itself is also what I believe to be part of the ending. of my ending.

Spoiler: Ending - coming from my Nomad Playthrough. Massive Spoiler imho

After reaching Mikoshi and logging into the cyberspace with the help of Alt Cunninghams Engramm after playing through this "event" I was able to make two choices (or was it three?), what I AS AN ENGRAMM of myself, could do from then onward.
1. I could offer my body for Johnnys Engramm and leave with alt behind the black wall
2. I could try to kill myself (a bit before this scene if I remember correctly (with the pills offered by Misty)
3. I could take over my old body and continue to live "my" life. But with Alt telling me, that I probably will only last for more or less another six months at max.

I went for choice 3, granting Johnnys wish to go with Alt behind the black wall and for me to go back to my old body as an Engramm.

Then I left Night City, together with Judy, my Romance and with my new family the Aldecaldos (at least with Mitch ) , leading them together with Panam into the Badlands, free! Where I also said, in a talk with Panam, that we will find a cure and she said, they got connections to help me.

In the very end, as the credits roll and the people you met (and completed the quests of) were shown with their own little video sequence. In there Misty lays my cards a last time, where she prophecised me a long and happy life after.

Dunno if this still calls for Spoiler warning, but it's my very own take on the whole topic. And if you followed the news in NC, if you took time to read some of the different snippets of lore, philosophies ... take in everything you experience on your way. Like what is humanity, what makes you you. Does it matter, if Johnny is just an Engramm of himself. What about humanism. You get confronted with a broad variety of morals. Humans doing inhumane things, loosing ones self, or going to abandon all reasoning for the next big thing to boost ones own fake reasoning to live, and the meaning of the human body, AIs looking and searching for emotions and humanity in this chaos. And then, the Soul and its meaning.

All this combined, the very experience and question the game wants to you answer for yourself.

You are missing the point of game continuity and playability. Yes that is probably the best option so far in the game, but it's still rly grim because it might not be V but just copy of him/her. Also i think most of us wanna come back into the city to keep doing gigs and other activities, screw around in the city without Johnnys crap inside our heads, you know, being merc for hire. And not all of us want that ride into the sunset with your lover without knowing what happened ending (bit cliche if u ask me). Some of us just want simple stuff. We suffer through hell but we manage to save V.
Reloading a save just before point of no return to do all the gigs and stuff, like, what? Why? Our character died and now go back to previous save to finish off stuff? That ruins immersion completely.

 

[Kawooozie]

I don't know what you mean, I definitely had my happy ending. My opinion is, that one should not only look into the "more or less" final decisions you make or can make, but also the time before that happens and what happens after.

BEWARE OF SPOILERS!

Spoiler: My Nomad Playthrough

I for myself played a Nomad and went the full Nomad course. In the end I bonded with the Aldecaldos, was taken in as family member and went on to "use" them (well they offered their help as I asked them) to attack the Arasaka building (which I could probably have done another way, I still need to explore that route). There Saul got killed by Adam Smasher. Then I proceeded my final boss-fight against him together with Panam - Until reaching Mikoshi.
This whole scenario in itself is also what I believe to be part of the ending. of my ending.

Spoiler: Ending - coming from my Nomad Playthrough. Massive Spoiler imho

After reaching Mikoshi and logging into the cyberspace with the help of Alt Cunninghams Engramm after playing through this "event" I was able to make two choices (or was it three?), what I AS AN ENGRAMM of myself, could do from then onward.
1. I could offer my body for Johnnys Engramm and leave with alt behind the black wall
2. I could try to kill myself (a bit before this scene if I remember correctly (with the pills offered by Misty)
3. I could take over my old body and continue to live "my" life. But with Alt telling me, that I probably will only last for more or less another six months at max.

I went for choice 3, granting Johnnys wish to go with Alt behind the black wall and for me to go back to my old body as an Engramm.

Then I left Night City, together with Judy, my Romance and with my new family the Aldecaldos (at least with Mitch ) , leading them together with Panam into the Badlands, free! Where I also said, in a talk with Panam, that we will find a cure and she said, they got connections to help me.

In the very end, as the credits roll and the people you met (and completed the quests of) were shown with their own little video sequence. In there Misty lays my cards a last time, where she prophecised me a long and happy life after.

Dunno if this still calls for Spoiler warning, but it's my very own take on the whole topic. And if you followed the news in NC, if you took time to read some of the different snippets of lore, philosophies ... take in everything you experience on your way. Like what is humanity, what makes you you. Does it matter, if Johnny is just an Engramm of himself. What about humanism. You get confronted with a broad variety of morals. Humans doing inhumane things, loosing ones self, or going to abandon all reasoning for the next big thing to boost ones own fake reasoning to live, and the meaning of the human body, AIs looking and searching for emotions and humanity in this chaos. And then, the Soul and its meaning.

All this combined, the very experience and question the game wants to you answer for yourself.

Saul, Teddy and (Dakota?) died just to give you 6 more months to live.
That is a shitty trade.
Even though they might have been willing to do so; my V would still feel the guilt.

I agree with you that the game makes you think about many things.
The reason I'm angry over a game right now is only because I got sooo damn invested.
On a micro level, the writing is superb; the dialogue is engaging, most of the characters have depth and are relatable.
It's hard not to be immersed if you excuse the bugs.

On a macro level, once you reach the various endings, the writing feels extremely lazy.
You finally reach Mikoshi and get that sense of relief after triumphing over all the madness to reach this point.
Then all of a sudden, you get told by Johnny "Oh btw, you got SoulKilled, Alt copied you and split us apart."
I'm there thinking "okaaaaay, but at least, on some level, copy or not, I'm still gonna live yeah?"

Nope. In just a line or two, V gets told by Alt.
"Bad news buddy, I get what I want(assimilate Mikoshi prisoners) but you get f*** all, boo-hoo, too bad."

If you zoom out and look at the endings, your choices the whole game is about who gets to use V.
1. Johnny uses V.
2. Alt uses V.
3. Arasaka uses V.

V, the "supposed main character", is just a chess piece being manipulated.
Somebody is gonna benefit from all this, just not V.

 

[MeinChurro]

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.

100% This. I just want to quote somebody from the steam community here with a similar take:

"That aside said, When your telling a story in a medium like this, with the marketing and etc, you kind of give your audience a certain expectation. This is doubly true when your entire plot revolves around the main character trying to achieve some goal. You invest your audience in the narrative, you make them feel like their character, you send them on a journey to seek redemption/relief/salvation or etc. There is a real and valid audience expectation that at least one of the endings/conclusions to all their hard work/emotional investment will be a happy ending.

I am not advocating that all media have happy endings, I am just saying you deserve the backlash you get when what you promise is a power fantasy/adventure, and what you really are telling is a tragedy. Like sure, Shakespeare didn't do a lot of happy endings, but his plays were pretty clear in what kind of story we were getting from the start, tragedy or comedy, expect a serious story audiences can invest in and want to see the good guys win, or expect a comedy low-stakes story where the protagonists failing can be funny.

But in a game with multiple endings? For all of them to be tragedy, and yet presented as anything but until the final hours is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing to do to your audience. Its pulling the rug out from under them, its intentionally going "That happy ending you were working for? There isn't one, Gotcha!""

It's like this game is trying to be dark for dark's sake. As this user says, when you invest your audience in a medium like this, you give your audience a certain expectation. CDPR told us over and over and over, and people have brought quotes here, our choices would matter. We as the audience only find out later, except for those unfortunately spoiled, we wasted our time. Our choices in fact DON'T matter. We couldn't even save ourselves. No matter what we did, no matter what we do in the story. Our struggle is meaningless. We (as V) are meaningless. CDPR needs to read the room.

 

[BGM45]

It's like this game is trying to be dark for dark's sake. As this user says, when you invest your audience in a medium like this, you give your audience a certain expectation. CDPR told us over and over and over, and people have brought quotes here, our choices would matter. We as the audience only find out later, except for those unfortunately spoiled, we wasted our time. Our choices in fact DON'T matter. We couldn't even save ourselves. No matter what we did, no matter what we do in the story. Our struggle is meaningless. We (as V) are meaningless. CDPR needs to read the room.

people like to bring how TW3 wasn't a "real" rpg - mainly because you couldn't really roleplay, only give some flavor to your Geralt, and there were too few choices that really mattered. but Cyberpunk really shows just how much choice TW3 had, and how much it really depended on YOU. my first playthrough I accidentally failed almost all of the hidden checks and got Ciri killed - and yeah, it was a bummer, but in the hindsight, that was totally MY fault, not Geralt's. I chose to drink instead of playing snowballs, I accepted Emhyr's money, I on my high horse decided not to ransack Avalach's lair and I acted as an overprotective ass and didn't let Ciri go meet with Philippa and Co alone.

here, no matter what I do, I die because of the choices the writers made for me. the tragedy of this story, in the end, isn't even cathartic - it's just annoying.

 

[Simuxas]

people like to bring how TW3 wasn't a "real" rpg - mainly because you couldn't really roleplay, only give some flavor to your Geralt, and there were too few choices that really mattered. but Cyberpunk really shows just how much choice TW3 had, and how much it really depended on YOU. my first playthrough I accidentally failed almost all of the hidden checks and got Ciri killed - and yeah, it was a bummer, but in the hindsight, that was totally MY fault, not Geralt's. I chose to drink instead of playing snowballs, I accepted Emhyr's money, I on my high horse decided not to ransack Avalach's lair and I acted as an overprotective ass and didn't let Ciri go meet with Philippa and Co alone.

here, no matter what I do, I die because of the choices the writers made for me. the tragedy of this story, in the end, isn't even cathartic - it's just annoying.

Yeah, my first playthrough in TW3 I also got Ciri killed and got little sad, but then I started over again and wen through story carefully until i got the best ending the Geralt could have. So I was expecting something similar in Cyberpunk.

 

[Guest 4486532]

Honestly I'm just wondering what the point of completing the main story is if we can't continue in Night City. Like... All my XP and upgrades meant nothing by the end. I just got reset to an old save like nothing ever happened. What will be the point of expansions or DLCs if we can't even finish the main story without dying. Do we have to make a new character for Expansions? Or just never complete the story...

 

[BlackHawkV]

100% This. I just want to quote somebody from the steam community here with a similar take:

"That aside said, When your telling a story in a medium like this, with the marketing and etc, you kind of give your audience a certain expectation. This is doubly true when your entire plot revolves around the main character trying to achieve some goal. You invest your audience in the narrative, you make them feel like their character, you send them on a journey to seek redemption/relief/salvation or etc. There is a real and valid audience expectation that at least one of the endings/conclusions to all their hard work/emotional investment will be a happy ending.

I am not advocating that all media have happy endings, I am just saying you deserve the backlash you get when what you promise is a power fantasy/adventure, and what you really are telling is a tragedy. Like sure, Shakespeare didn't do a lot of happy endings, but his plays were pretty clear in what kind of story we were getting from the start, tragedy or comedy, expect a serious story audiences can invest in and want to see the good guys win, or expect a comedy low-stakes story where the protagonists failing can be funny.

But in a game with multiple endings? For all of them to be tragedy, and yet presented as anything but until the final hours is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing to do to your audience. Its pulling the rug out from under them, its intentionally going "That happy ending you were working for? There isn't one, Gotcha!""

It's like this game is trying to be dark for dark's sake. As this user says, when you invest your audience in a medium like this, you give your audience a certain expectation. CDPR told us over and over and over, and people have brought quotes here, our choices would matter. We as the audience only find out later, except for those unfortunately spoiled, we wasted our time. Our choices in fact DON'T matter. We couldn't even save ourselves. No matter what we did, no matter what we do in the story. Our struggle is meaningless. We (as V) are meaningless. CDPR needs to read the room.

Exactly the thoughts bouncing aroung in my head for the last 24 hours since i finished the game. it's like CDPR wants to teach a lifelesson or something. But do we really need that in a game? We play games to escape all that rubbish going on right now in the world not to be more depressed in the end.

 

[MeinChurro]

people like to bring how TW3 wasn't a "real" rpg - mainly because you couldn't really roleplay, only give some flavor to your Geralt, and there were too few choices that really mattered. but Cyberpunk really shows just how much choice TW3 had, and how much it really depended on YOU. my first playthrough I accidentally failed almost all of the hidden checks and got Ciri killed - and yeah, it was a bummer, but in the hindsight, that was totally MY fault, not Geralt's. I chose to drink instead of playing snowballs, I accepted Emhyr's money, I on my high horse decided not to ransack Avalach's lair and I acted as an overprotective ass and didn't let Ciri go meet with Philippa and Co alone.

here, no matter what I do, I die because of the choices the writers made for me. the tragedy of this story, in the end, isn't even cathartic - it's just annoying.

This is a case of CDPR trying have their cake and eat it too. Johnny Silverhand is the true protagonist of this game, V is turned into a sideshow. Instead of having a defined character like Geralt - which Johnny Silverhand would be - they opted to go a custom character route. To appease their audience. But they really wanted Johnny. They marketed this game as an RPG along the lines of Dragon Age Origins, where the player has actual input in the character they play. This unfortunately seems to be a gross exaggeration, or outright lie by cdpr.

Unfortunately, their biases are made plain as day with how the entire story is structured, revolving around friendship with Johnny, having to have Johnny's input on everything. Him being there for even sidequests. They wrote another game with a set protagonist, but tried to manipulate their audience into thinking that wasn't the case.

If they wouldn't have played games with their audience, and just did the story they (obviously) wanted to do, with Johnny. Maybe we could have had a more coherent story, similar to Geralt's. A story with choice and consequence. A story that focuses on their intended protagonist, than the literal walking corpse that is V.

If I sound bitter, it is because I am. Sorry.