After playing the game multiple times and carefully looking at various conversations I've come to the conclusion that V is dead in all but one ending. First the obvious ending suicide. I think all agree that V dies here.
For the rest of the endings, except one, you are subject to soul killer. And this is why I say V is dead. Alt explained it that your "consciousness" or your soul is indeed killed and gone. What is placed back into the body, your or another's, is your engram which contains memories and psyche. You are stored as data and nothing more.
Johnny in other conversations says that he is in fact dead. Johnny can take over the body but his soul is long gone. So most of the endings are who gets the body or which body to place V's memories in.
There is only one ending where V is still the real V. And that is the Arasaka (devil) ending where V leaves to go back to Earth. The removal of the chip did not include sould killer so V is still the real V (what's left anyway).
In all other endings only the data/AI of V is restored.
Now the big question is does our consciousness really define us as who we are. What is a soul after all.
For the rest of the endings, except one, you are subject to soul killer. And this is why I say V is dead. Alt explained it that your "consciousness" or your soul is indeed killed and gone. What is placed back into the body, your or another's, is your engram which contains memories and psyche. You are stored as data and nothing more.
Johnny in other conversations says that he is in fact dead. Johnny can take over the body but his soul is long gone. So most of the endings are who gets the body or which body to place V's memories in.
There is only one ending where V is still the real V. And that is the Arasaka (devil) ending where V leaves to go back to Earth. The removal of the chip did not include sould killer so V is still the real V (what's left anyway).
In all other endings only the data/AI of V is restored.
Now the big question is does our consciousness really define us as who we are. What is a soul after all.