#1 Vibe Check
With the exception of the AV Ride (which was handled fantastically), the rest of The Tower makes little effort to establish any kind of tone, atmosphere or invoke any emotion within the player. There is almost no music until the very final scene with Misty, and for me it felt like playing through a side quest rather than an ending of a 30-40 hour story. The quick montage before V wakes up could've been way more fleshed out and impactful to deliver that missing emotional punch.
Compare the clinic stay and the subsequent visit to NC with the entire clinic sequence in the Devil or the final ride with Panam in The Star. In comparison, The Tower just falls flat and feels low-budget as well as underwhelming.
A stark contrast to the other endings.
#2 Character Closure
On top of the natural closure you get for key characters like Panam (Star), Judy (Star, if romanced), Takemura (Devil) or Rogue (Sun) throughout the course of the final mission, during the credits for each ending, there's a long series of video calls from all major characters V has interacted with. These calls are essential in providing closure and wrapping up the character's relationship with V. Each call also has several variations based on your choices and the character's fate, and the overall length of the calls is usually timed so that "Never Fade Away" starts just as the final call ends. It works marveously.
None of this is applied in The Tower. You could make an argument that this was done intentionally to further sell the idea of how everyone has moved on, but then why do Takemura or Rogue call? You mean to tell me they call whilst Mama Welles does not? Or Misty? To make matters worse, the characters who do call leave the exact same message regardless of your choices.
Once again, a stark contrast to the other endings.
If you want to get any closure for some of the characters, your one and only option is to spend 10 minutes awkwardly pacing around the clinic room in total silence as you listen to the phone calls.
3# "Would you take a bullet for me?"
In the base game, this dialogue choice during Tapeworm determines whether V or Johnny are cool with the other keeping the body. If you break the agreement, the other person gets angry.
But not in The Tower. No matter your relationship with Johnny or choices made previously, he always starts out complaining about getting wiped. On the rooftop, his death is also always used as a counter-argument against The Tower.
Only during the AV ride will he ease up to it, but only if you chose the right option during the Oil Fields. However, "Would you take a bullet for me?" ultimately becomes irrelevant. Yet again, a stark contrast to the other endings.
All in all, I'm not comparing The Tower to some impossible standard subjectively set by my unrealistic expectations. When I heard that Phantom Liberty would be introducing a new ending, I naturally assumed it would be on par with the other endings, and just as masterful in its delivery and cinematic presentation.
After all, if they managed it in 4 different endings, surely the 5th would be the same?
With the exception of the AV Ride (which was handled fantastically), the rest of The Tower makes little effort to establish any kind of tone, atmosphere or invoke any emotion within the player. There is almost no music until the very final scene with Misty, and for me it felt like playing through a side quest rather than an ending of a 30-40 hour story. The quick montage before V wakes up could've been way more fleshed out and impactful to deliver that missing emotional punch.
Compare the clinic stay and the subsequent visit to NC with the entire clinic sequence in the Devil or the final ride with Panam in The Star. In comparison, The Tower just falls flat and feels low-budget as well as underwhelming.
A stark contrast to the other endings.
#2 Character Closure
On top of the natural closure you get for key characters like Panam (Star), Judy (Star, if romanced), Takemura (Devil) or Rogue (Sun) throughout the course of the final mission, during the credits for each ending, there's a long series of video calls from all major characters V has interacted with. These calls are essential in providing closure and wrapping up the character's relationship with V. Each call also has several variations based on your choices and the character's fate, and the overall length of the calls is usually timed so that "Never Fade Away" starts just as the final call ends. It works marveously.
None of this is applied in The Tower. You could make an argument that this was done intentionally to further sell the idea of how everyone has moved on, but then why do Takemura or Rogue call? You mean to tell me they call whilst Mama Welles does not? Or Misty? To make matters worse, the characters who do call leave the exact same message regardless of your choices.
Once again, a stark contrast to the other endings.
If you want to get any closure for some of the characters, your one and only option is to spend 10 minutes awkwardly pacing around the clinic room in total silence as you listen to the phone calls.
3# "Would you take a bullet for me?"
In the base game, this dialogue choice during Tapeworm determines whether V or Johnny are cool with the other keeping the body. If you break the agreement, the other person gets angry.
But not in The Tower. No matter your relationship with Johnny or choices made previously, he always starts out complaining about getting wiped. On the rooftop, his death is also always used as a counter-argument against The Tower.
Only during the AV ride will he ease up to it, but only if you chose the right option during the Oil Fields. However, "Would you take a bullet for me?" ultimately becomes irrelevant. Yet again, a stark contrast to the other endings.
All in all, I'm not comparing The Tower to some impossible standard subjectively set by my unrealistic expectations. When I heard that Phantom Liberty would be introducing a new ending, I naturally assumed it would be on par with the other endings, and just as masterful in its delivery and cinematic presentation.
After all, if they managed it in 4 different endings, surely the 5th would be the same?
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