The point is n
I am getting so tired of the strawmen.
Yes it's silly to have a person sit for days/longer in a location but it isn't game mechanics - its how they CHOOSE to design the game. Instead of agree to meet - fade to black - then fade in to the actual meeting.
"Also, realistically, I wouldn't believe takemura would lead me to a solution." I didn't say he realistically would be/appears to be but as you only have two leads from the beginning it would make good sense to see what the guys knows sooner rather than later as you have a mere two clues to go on at the beginning. My point was story design on top of open world with a ticking timer (V's death) reinforced over and over and over by everyone in the game creating a drumbeat of gotta move to save yourself. Wheny our open world and game mechanics directly oppose your story there is a problem hence this thread - not viability of a NPCs ability to save you.
""Likewise a friend of mine, after betrayal by VDBs, he didnt go back there until he was sure there was no other way to progress. You posit that following the main story is clearly the best chance for survival, when the fact is, its literally not."" Considering the only way to reach the endings of the game as written by CDPR you LITERALLY CANNOT reach the end of the game until you do Takemura's questas so CDPR disagrees with you. LITERALLY. You can and should pursue Panam and Judy lines as both good but also makes good sense too but all one of them does is change the ending yo reach AFTER DOING Takemura's Quests!!!!!!!!! I don't disagree with some of your points but Takemura's viability as savior has nothing to do with what I brought up. A man sitting on a motorcycle for weeks without sleep, eating, or drinking was one.
Please let me know what ending you reached when you abandoned the main quest and did every other fixer and NCPD quest on the map - oh wait they have zero affect on the ending of the game. Bad merger of Story/Ticking Timer/and open world.
Do his quests make sense? Not great. This thread is about this story as written on top of a open world and how they don't mesh well and you keep having to change peoples arguments to somehow Takemura is our best hope?!?!
Going back to your VDB statement - I completely agree. The mind-reaped someone to be trapped in their own body to endure reaping, and the inability to move - like someone under anesthesia in surgery waking up. This is a horrendous thing to do to someone. V learns what happened to Ev, sees the affects, knows it took someone really skilled to do it, that she just took a job from the VDB and did her own thing, and this was the retribution they gave her. Yet, as written, our V has near zero problem working for them, doesn't bring up they are suspect #1 for Ev, and blindly trusts them when they want to piggy bank in their heads even a Hacker/skilled computer V blindly goes along with it instead of dumping them out of their head and moving on with the mission - which they aren't needed for as the give zero assistance except "go to the cinema now" . BAD WRITING - granted you didn't want to do their quest - as you the player had reservations - yet your V was never given a chance to say or act on those reservations. Just a binary choose which side you take choice. You didn't argue anything to the contrary -but yet another example of disconnect.
Ok, let me try to simply my point and why we are having this exchange.
1)How the player chooses to engage with the open world aspects has to do with each player's own take on the story.
a)The decision of how, and when to do side quests is not defined by game mechanics, or narrative.
2)Its not unreasonable to let people wait, Its unreasonable, to you, based on your RP, and choices in the game. This is fine. All I'm saying its up to the player to do whatever makes sense to them(in the open world stuff/MQ has less control)
3)Nothing, based on ingame story suggests that the MQ is going to be any more helpful to your survival than doing a fixer quest.
a) fixer quests, are generally lower risk, short quests that give you money, which gives you resources which increases your chance of not dying before you get a cure. They also give you knowledge of the game, some of which can inform you about the groups which you are aligning with, and how good an idea it is to align with them.
b)MQ quests are generally, longer, riskier and more likely to get you killed. If your goal is survival, you should always go into them well equipped, prepared for death, and with no regrets. (based on the context of the story)
So essentially, I'm not disagreeing that
how you see it, doing the mq is the only logical way to proceed. I am debating that it is the
only way to understand the situation for any type of V.
My point is, if V doesn't trust takemura, or VDBs, or wants to have the best cyberware and gear available before putting themselves in deadly hard to escape situation(best way to gear up is money and street cred and experience), that is not an illogical choice.
If V thinks attacking a warehouse crawling with high end Arasaka security might get them killed before 3 weeks passes, they might want to go on a date, or help a friend, or save kidnapped kid first. This is not an illogical choice.
And a lot of information exists in the open world. If V wants a better understanding of who the players are and what risks their are. Some of the non MQ provides it. Extra information on the relic, Whether yorinobu really cares about you, and what he is doing. How the VDBs treat outsiders. How they treat people within their community. What type of organization is the tiger claws, the aldecados, the afterlife mercs, rogue. The nature of consciousness. Who is netwatch, Whats the old net like.
These things are relevant to understanding the main quests, and the choices you have to make.
Unfortunately, it is a game, and the MQ doesnt have infinite choices. So you will eventually have to follow some parts regardless. Vdbs are the only path to Alt. Finding Hellman gives you relic data (though alt doesn't need it, Hanako demands you solve her company problems) And Hanako confirms the location of mikoshi(though I think rogue probably knows already, and Johnny suspects, and the nomads could probably guess) So you have to do this stuff. But who you choose in the end, and why is based on information, and connections you make outside of the MQ.
The MQ is essentially, after the heist, the story of how Arasaka/Hanako/takemura(the world) manipulates V, and V's circumstances to trap V into a solution that serves their purposes. They actively try to lower V's options, and pressure V to choose their path. Takemura suggests Hanako is the only one at arasaka that could help him, (she isn't, rogue knows michiko, yorinobu's main target is takemura not V) Takemura dissuades you from dealing with rival corps. Takemura constantly puts time based pressure on V to act now, don't question, we are your only option.
The only way to break out of this trap is to rebel, and do things outside the MQ, The only way to make better(more informed) decisions is to explore the world and choose for yourself. Its not a coincidence that the other endings exist outside of MQ. However, they don't want it to be a no brainer, they want V to feel a pressure to conform, They want it to be understandable why a person in the world that V lives in feels like the corporate solution, and following the obvious path feels like the only way to survive. They want to make it so the very game(world) itself is telling you the only path forward is through arasaka.
Well, though I'm sure you will be like, this wall of text is nonsense, thanks for the debate, it made me realize somethings about why they structured the Arasaka/corpo path as the default one. And also why some people feel forced dominated by the main narrative.
I'm a natural rebel, so to me not doing everything they say, when they say, and questioning everybody's perspective is natural.
But you are right, there is one dominant aspect of the narrative, which does suggest the player should act a certain way, though they do give clues though that it might not be the only way to see things.
Johnny, rogue, panam, Judy, river, Kerry, Evelyn, VDBs, Delamain, Misty all give different perspectives on how to engage with a world that wants you to take a single path.