Yeah that's all well and good. So yeah you're playing the "bad guy/gal". You play anti-hero. But having played through all the endings I can definately say that the game rewards you less for playing this way than if you go the other way and play the rebel.
I don't think they are the same because there are moral connotations in the different endings which do tell a story of V through their character arcs and again here a corpo V is rewarded less then a different life path or progression towards a life path other than corpo. If you "succeed" as a corpo V you are rewarded less I would say than if you "fail" as a rebel - that's bakes in into this game's narrative outcomes.
this is true, but the way in which V approaches the corpo life, and the situation they are in, this is the logical conclusion.
The corpo V that you are playing in the Arasaka ending is one who believes in serving the corporation in exchange for "security" or order You arent playing the corpo who believes in winning at all costs and coming out ahead. Jackie mentions this in the prologue. All the risks V took as a corpo were for the benefit of Saburo Arasaka.
V gives hanako EVERYTHING, in exchange for very little.
The ending gives V the best chance for survival, and the most direct/easy/telegraphed path. I hated experiencing it, but it was definitely the logical culmination of the choices V made.
1) V is rejecting almost all the charachters he knows way of life, so they are lonely. This is also the shortest and most direct transactional path, so its likely V has developed no strong relationships, instead focusing on Arasaka plotlines.
2)Arasaka path is transactional, Arasaka has no particular love/respect for V, so the ending is transactional, its lonely hospitals, cost benefit analyses and contracts.
3)Arasaka honors their end, giving V a job if they leave, Or seeking to aquire V for their use. Signing V to what is essentially a immortal lufe time contract with Arasaka. Offering V the surest safest way to a cure (if you believe them). They already have a method that has worked(on saburo) to solve V's problem, They just need to refine it. Which is in Arasaka's best interest and stated goals anyway. The other endings just have vague possibilities.
I think if you want the hungry self interested corpo who wants to be a king, you transition into the Sun ending. Which leaves you as the leader of a business with power and resources at your disposal. This is the equivalent of a start up.
I will say the three endings, they probably needed to write more wiggle room into them, so each one could house more blurred charachter motivations. They designed them to be very different. And fairly tailored for a very specific motivation. They write a very tiny escape hatch, by having a slightly vague dialogue choice path(motivation wise) in each on path. But the game they designed is very open, so the endings misalign. They should have some exposition(dialogue, events) tied to how each type would react/end up in that ending.
For example there is a "family" motivation for each ending, but they expect everyone seeking that to go nomad. There are some corpo's who choose Arasaka out of loyalty to takemura, or zealous belief in Arasaka, even with the same circumstances, thier perspective/thoughts on it might be different.
All that said, it is cyberpunk, and in cyberpunk corporations are one of the main antagonists, so ending up contractually enslaved to one is not generally going to be presented as a win win scenario