As I've been playing through the game as a Corpo V, I've started to notice a very strong thematic story that is possible to achieve through a playthrough. When I first heard about the Corpo lifepath, I (probably like a lot of people) thought this might be the 'evil' option, focusing on greed, killings, and becoming a soulless capitalist monster. The actual Corpo prologue is quite the opposite, but with the right choices in-game and ending selection, the Corpo prologue becomes a full story focused on shaking off the shackles of Corporate greed and finding freedom with true family.
Let's call it the Corpo Redemption storyline. It involves taking two progressive steps away from Corpo life, one the game dictates for you, and one that you can choose. This path also allows you to experience all three lifepaths, essentially, starting with Corpo, then moving to Street, and ending up with Nomad. The Corpo lifepath also works thematically with Johnny Silverhand.
To build out this story for your V, you need to:
1. Select Corpo lifepath
2. (optional) create a female V
3. (optional) romance Judy
4. Befriend Panam by doing all of her missions and not screwing her over
5. Select the Nomad ending
When we begin the story as Corpo V, she is puking in a bathroom due to work stress. As you move about the office, you can check her email and learn that her hormone levels are out of whack. I think there's a 'ticker' running across the top of your HUD reinforcing this. As V is flying to Lizzy's, her personal trainer calls and further reinforces this message.
This is a critical detail in the Corpo Redemption story. Long before V is saddled with a death sentence because of the Relic, she is already dying from Corpo life. That she's a miserable wreck is reinforced by her conversations with Jackie, who warns her that Corpo life is killing her. Beyond the stress she's suffering from, she is forced to accept a mission that sets her on a path for a much faster death.
This point is worth reiterating: in the Corpo storyline, Corpo lifestyle is the universal antagonist that V must overcome throughout the course of the game. The Relic (the ultimate evil of an evil corporation) then, becomes an extension of what is already a life or death struggle.
With the central challenge of the story set up, the rest of the Corpo Redemption arc is about V learning to leave behind the evils of Corpo life (and by extension, life in Night City) to find freedom and happiness with a new family. This occurs in two stages, each of which is further removed from her original Corpo life.
The first step is to be saved by Jackie and transition to a Street merc lifestyle. If Jackie hadn't been there, V would have been murdered by Arasaka, but he represents one step of removal from Corpo life and her friendship with him saves her.
The opening montage next shows V growing accustomed to her new life. At first, she is dejected about her fall, but as the montage progresses she begins to enjoy her newfound freedom. Various dialog choices during the next several missions reinforce this.
OPTIONAL: when V has her meeting with Dex, I recommend being non-committal when he presents his two stark choices. I chose the "the city decides for you" option. This doesn't matter in terms of gameplay, but it makes more sense in terms of using the game to basically roleplay a story for yourself. The key here is that V should be starting to realize that material things and even fame are not necessarily the path to happiness. In other words, we're starting to go down a path opposite from the one ending in the "one final score in space" merc ending.
Next, V and Jackie go on their ill-fated mission to retrieve the relic. Thematically, V gets into trouble and re-ignites her original issue (death by Corp) by choosing to enter that world again. In the Corpo Redemption arc, corporations are the primary villain and V's goal is to get as far removed from them as possible. Dipping her toes back into that toxic water was a mistake.
Saddled with a Corp death sentence again in the form of the relic, V now progresses through various missions in Night City. Thematically, Night City is an extension (or a symptom) of the Corps, and so there are now solutions to the Relic here. The Street offered one step away from the Corps, but V will need to take one more before she finds true redemption. Her excursion with the Voodoo Boys is a dead end, for example, because the Voodoo Boys are of the Street, and that's still too close to the central corruption of Night City.
To complete her journey and finally have a chance at ridding herself of the Corpo death sentence represented by the lingering effects on her body from the Relic, V has to take her second step away from the Corps: meet the Aldecaldos.
The Nomads represent a lifestyle far removed from V's Corpo origins, and they offer a level of freedom that is practically alien (background states that V grew up in a Corpo household, so this is the life she has known for most of her years). Moreover, in a Fast & Furious kind of way the Aldecaldos represent family. Family in the Corpo Redemption arch is always V's path to health and happiness. It began with Jackie, who saved V from her Corpo lifestyle. The Nomads offer the happiest ending currently in the game and the only ending that offers any strong hope that V will survive the next six months.
This is the bookend to that first scene of V puking from stress. It is only when V steps as far away as possible from Night City and the Corpos that she is able to purge the Corpo sickness from herself.
So in summary, the Corpo Redemption arc is a story about V progressing further and further away from the toxic Corpo "family" that is killing her until she finds her true Family with Panam and the Aldecaldos, who are the only ones capable of fully purging the Corpo toxin from her once and for all. The story is a rejection of materialism and meaningless fame. V learns that fancy pads, wealth, or fame as a merc are not important. Rather, freedom and family are her new path.
Why a female V? So you can romance Judy. If you do this it expands the family available to your V at the end. You get both Panam and Judy as you start your next adventures.
Why is Corpo thematically appropriate for the Johnny Silverhand storyline? Because who better for Johnny to get stuck inside than the very thing he hates, a Corpo? This is a classic story of two opposing personalities learning to come to terms, and growing as individuals, by being forced together.
Let's call it the Corpo Redemption storyline. It involves taking two progressive steps away from Corpo life, one the game dictates for you, and one that you can choose. This path also allows you to experience all three lifepaths, essentially, starting with Corpo, then moving to Street, and ending up with Nomad. The Corpo lifepath also works thematically with Johnny Silverhand.
To build out this story for your V, you need to:
1. Select Corpo lifepath
2. (optional) create a female V
3. (optional) romance Judy
4. Befriend Panam by doing all of her missions and not screwing her over
5. Select the Nomad ending
When we begin the story as Corpo V, she is puking in a bathroom due to work stress. As you move about the office, you can check her email and learn that her hormone levels are out of whack. I think there's a 'ticker' running across the top of your HUD reinforcing this. As V is flying to Lizzy's, her personal trainer calls and further reinforces this message.
This is a critical detail in the Corpo Redemption story. Long before V is saddled with a death sentence because of the Relic, she is already dying from Corpo life. That she's a miserable wreck is reinforced by her conversations with Jackie, who warns her that Corpo life is killing her. Beyond the stress she's suffering from, she is forced to accept a mission that sets her on a path for a much faster death.
This point is worth reiterating: in the Corpo storyline, Corpo lifestyle is the universal antagonist that V must overcome throughout the course of the game. The Relic (the ultimate evil of an evil corporation) then, becomes an extension of what is already a life or death struggle.
With the central challenge of the story set up, the rest of the Corpo Redemption arc is about V learning to leave behind the evils of Corpo life (and by extension, life in Night City) to find freedom and happiness with a new family. This occurs in two stages, each of which is further removed from her original Corpo life.
The first step is to be saved by Jackie and transition to a Street merc lifestyle. If Jackie hadn't been there, V would have been murdered by Arasaka, but he represents one step of removal from Corpo life and her friendship with him saves her.
The opening montage next shows V growing accustomed to her new life. At first, she is dejected about her fall, but as the montage progresses she begins to enjoy her newfound freedom. Various dialog choices during the next several missions reinforce this.
OPTIONAL: when V has her meeting with Dex, I recommend being non-committal when he presents his two stark choices. I chose the "the city decides for you" option. This doesn't matter in terms of gameplay, but it makes more sense in terms of using the game to basically roleplay a story for yourself. The key here is that V should be starting to realize that material things and even fame are not necessarily the path to happiness. In other words, we're starting to go down a path opposite from the one ending in the "one final score in space" merc ending.
Next, V and Jackie go on their ill-fated mission to retrieve the relic. Thematically, V gets into trouble and re-ignites her original issue (death by Corp) by choosing to enter that world again. In the Corpo Redemption arc, corporations are the primary villain and V's goal is to get as far removed from them as possible. Dipping her toes back into that toxic water was a mistake.
Saddled with a Corp death sentence again in the form of the relic, V now progresses through various missions in Night City. Thematically, Night City is an extension (or a symptom) of the Corps, and so there are now solutions to the Relic here. The Street offered one step away from the Corps, but V will need to take one more before she finds true redemption. Her excursion with the Voodoo Boys is a dead end, for example, because the Voodoo Boys are of the Street, and that's still too close to the central corruption of Night City.
To complete her journey and finally have a chance at ridding herself of the Corpo death sentence represented by the lingering effects on her body from the Relic, V has to take her second step away from the Corps: meet the Aldecaldos.
The Nomads represent a lifestyle far removed from V's Corpo origins, and they offer a level of freedom that is practically alien (background states that V grew up in a Corpo household, so this is the life she has known for most of her years). Moreover, in a Fast & Furious kind of way the Aldecaldos represent family. Family in the Corpo Redemption arch is always V's path to health and happiness. It began with Jackie, who saved V from her Corpo lifestyle. The Nomads offer the happiest ending currently in the game and the only ending that offers any strong hope that V will survive the next six months.
This is the bookend to that first scene of V puking from stress. It is only when V steps as far away as possible from Night City and the Corpos that she is able to purge the Corpo sickness from herself.
So in summary, the Corpo Redemption arc is a story about V progressing further and further away from the toxic Corpo "family" that is killing her until she finds her true Family with Panam and the Aldecaldos, who are the only ones capable of fully purging the Corpo toxin from her once and for all. The story is a rejection of materialism and meaningless fame. V learns that fancy pads, wealth, or fame as a merc are not important. Rather, freedom and family are her new path.
Why a female V? So you can romance Judy. If you do this it expands the family available to your V at the end. You get both Panam and Judy as you start your next adventures.
Why is Corpo thematically appropriate for the Johnny Silverhand storyline? Because who better for Johnny to get stuck inside than the very thing he hates, a Corpo? This is a classic story of two opposing personalities learning to come to terms, and growing as individuals, by being forced together.
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