[Spoiler Alert] About the endings

[fikretzki]

THE CHANCE OF RETURN FOR PS4 AND XBOX PLAYERS

Important Update

Dear gamers, First of all, we would like to start by apologizing to you for not showing the game on base last-gen consoles before it premiered and, in consequence, not allowing you to make a more informed decision about your purchase. We should have paid more attention to making it play better...

forums.cdprojektred.com

 

[MeinChurro]

If you guys knew what V had to endure, would you have played the game ? I think... not

Post automatically merged: Dec 14, 2020

Adding another question to you (I'm very curious) : what have you learned from this story ?
Something that is meaningful that I (we) should know, that makes replay worth it ?

There is nothing really meaningful here, as you V. Like I've said before many, many times, V's death had no meaning. Because you spend the game chasing a cure that will never be, the end is bitter, you feel like you wasted your time, like none of your choices matter.

I'm sure some people think they got meaning out of the whole Johnny Silverhand thing. No. CDPR forced him on us (literally). If he was the player character, and he changed his outlook on life or whatever as the main character, I could see their point. V absorbed into some ai entity or whatever, while Johnny gets to live happily ever after. No. All I see is Johnny Silverhand looking out for himself, and stealing our body. V and Jackie's lives ended the night of the heist. Two young lives snuffed out, for nothing.

Also, it's not even Johnny Silverhand! It's a COPY of Johnny Silverhand. Johnny Silverhand died 50 years ago! You as the one and true V have the option of death, or death! OR death and a copy of Johnny Silverhand taking over your body! It's a JOKE!

 

[AKANexus]

you guys knew what V had to endure, would you have played the game ?

This. This summarises what we are thinking quite well. Nobody likes lost causes, specially when it all looks like we might have a say on it. Creating a character that you eventually connect to/relate to/roleplay to just simply end their story with "and they died/ceased existing, and all you done made absolutely no difference" is just wrong in so many levels

 

[Silariell]

Adding another question to you (I'm very curious) : what have you learned from this story ?
Something that is meaningful that I (we) should know, that makes replay worth it ?

I learned that Poland can make cyberpunk far cry. xDD

But no, on a more serious note? The story was honestly rather underwhelming. The -characters- were amazing. The animation, the voice acting, the personalities? 10/10. But what they had to do throughout the course of the story was very predictable and run of the mill. "Corporations r bad", boo fucking hoo, 1960s called they want their counter-culture back. I know the whole point of cyberpunk genre is "corp bad", but still.

There's nothing really new the story had taught me. "Corp bad, but some corp people good". Yes, we know this, it's an 18+ game, most of us are adults who either work/ed for a big corp, or have friends that work/ed for big corps who are good people.

I think that's part of what makes the ending so insulting. They double down on the story being this deep amazing thing, but really it's not that far from a 14 year old rocker-rebel's take on the real world. Yes, I said it, Silverhand is a materialistic 14 year old's idea of 'cool'; And well, the ending really fits the '14 year old angst' feels of the story. I thought this was an 18+ game...

 

[MeinChurro]

This. This summarises what we are thinking quite well. Nobody likes lost causes, specially when it all looks like we might have a say on it. Creating a character that you eventually connect to/relate to/roleplay to just simply end their story with "and they died/ceased existing, and all you done made absolutely no difference" is just wrong in so many levels

V will die no matter what, and the real kick in the face is even your COPY will die! It's completely ridiculous! No matter what you do, you and even your copy are screwed!

I said this earlier, but without a full on revisal (or addition) of these endings they have butchered any chance of furthering this story, even through witcher style DLC. That's how bad they did us. I'm literally not even looking forward to the free witcher style DLC, it's pointless with these endings. Even small things like they added in the witcher customization options, would be the same. The entire game is now just a slow march to death.

 

[AKANexus]

Not only they destroyed any chances of changing the outcome of the story, they also killed most of the replayability... Why am I going to go through another 30h of gameplay just to see my character die all over again?

Idk, it just feels like wasted time... I mean, I had fun and everything, but it's like adopting a pet, giving it a name, bonding with it, and having it killed 3 years after... If I wanted to go through this sh*t I would've adopted an elderly pet... RPG characters should not be that easily disposable. Even more when they are so well written that you can relate with them...

 

[Silariell]

Not only they destroyed any chances of changing the outcome of the story, they also killed most of the replayability... Why am I going to go through another 30h of gameplay just to see my character die all over again?

I'm enjoying just doing side quests on my second character and ignoring the main story. The game still plays decently well, but yeah. That's exactly why we have this long ass thread discussing how bad the ending is. It really does sap any motivation I have to touch the main story again. Can't speak for all but I think a lot of people are in the same boat.

 

[MeinChurro]

Not only they destroyed any chances of changing the outcome of the story, they also killed most of the replayability... Why am I going to go through another 30h of gameplay just to see my character die all over again?

I think they can still fix the ending, even if it just means our copy finds a cure. Preferably though we can save true V without getting soulkilled. They can still do it, and I have hope they will listen to feedback and do it.

Post automatically merged: Dec 14, 2020

Basically it's Mass Effect 3 all over again...

No.. You know what, I was actually thinking about this just now. Mass Effect 3 was actually BETTER! You may have not been able to save yourself, but you save the galaxy. So your death had meaning. Well, you can save yourself now, but you take the geth/EDI doing so (still I personally think that's the best ending with less strings attached).

Not only that your relationships had closure. Everything you did in fact, had closure. To add to that the journey was enjoyable you were out to save the galaxy, and you and your friends always knew you may not make it out alive, but you did it anyway! For the big picture, for the galaxy! NONE of that here! There is no meaning, nothing! I probably sound like another broken record in this thread at this point.

Heck, even the ending where you and all your friends die had meaning! Liara's recording would save the future races from experiencing this same destruction. I still cannot believe CDPR wrote what we got here.

 

[angeltime]

let's be positive ^_^

cdpr are not stupid (well, at least i think so), and they couldn't possibly think that these "endings" gonna be well received. like, c'mon, only lazy didn't mention me3 here at this point, so i think they have learned this lesson a long time ago

i'd like to think that they surely have something up their sleeve. cuz it should be a game of the decade at worst, and not... what it is now (for me personally - only because of the ending(s)).
sadly, i can't remember any other games that had similar "bad endings problem" which was solved with dlc (except for me3 ofc, which even after that was pretty shitty, but still...), but i'm sure they are out there. somewhere. most likely. probably.

so, before any of you fall into deep depression, like i did a few days ago (it's good that my best friend came to visit and made me take my sedatives), just wait for the official interview or something, on which they'll confirm or prove false our fears.

until then, let's hope for the best. i definitely will.

 

[endecos15]

its true

until then, let's hope for the best. i definitely will.

yeah we should but it feel like...the last of us 2, we were promised something good as a meal and we only got half a good meal, the steak and rice was great but it wasn't cooked the way it was told and leave a bitter taste that make us not want to finish it

 

[Metropolice]

(Goes without saying, spoilers in this whole thread - and post )

Exactly this. Even during the ending you're like "I've got the biochip removed. Great!" and then suddenly it's thrust upon you "you're gonna die all of a sudden definitely in the next few months" and completely kills the possibility for any further continuation of V.

Everything I did and all I got was sadness from this game, and now I don't even wanna play it.

Can't help but agree with this. While it's of course just a game, I sometimes invest mildly into the plots and things that happen. In short, I immerse myself. The ending I picked gives V as engram in corporate control a future (for DLC or follow-up game?) but in essence you die.

I was heavily invested into the story up. Corpo V. Fall from grace. Damn. Can I ever make it back? And then Takemura comes up with this idea, his contacts. His old pal might even help! Oh no, the meeting goes sour, no help from him. And then the crazy plan begins to get in touch with the other Arasaka daughter. More stuff happens, it goes sour, on the run. Ups and downs, she gets in contact, we make a plan. In a personal dialogue V mentions the fall from grace and she says and implies it would be possible to get it all back!

What a huge motivation! And matter of factly I think it would not just be a simple motivational line for V to act in line, realistically, why NOT resort to such an asset like V in corporate or personal employ? Then we go to the tower, board meeting, crazy stuff happens, V overcomes but collapses, help is there ....

... only to wake up in space and feel a bit like in Portal (but with active testing and not being the last one). I have no clue what's going on, how it will end despite knowing the game will probably end soon. I'm curious to see, I long for closure. I do endless testing, to have a visitor eventually ... and he gives me the grim news I will die anyway?!

...

Wow. All for nothing. I can then decide to either go back to Earth and live the other 6 months to decay and succumb or upload V as engram, which I assume means death to the body (Soulkiller?) on the spot instead of being able to live on in the meat suit. Given what Alt said or hinted at but what V brushed aside in the Net scene and Alt encounter, you are gone anyway and the engram is something else.

Long story short, you die in any outcome I can imagine (not sure about the Nomad one).

I get it, the aim for a sad ending. An emotion. But is it that satisfying for the player, for every player, to have that thrown at them? I don't expect super happy endings or endings without struggle and maybe compromise. But this outcome, written forth in the story and unless retconned, means there will be no clear continuation to the next Cyberpunk game with the protagonist.

In my ending, maybe as engram and "new V", but it wouldn't be an "organic" (literally) continuation. I would've assumed they will go for something along the lines of the Witcher with "the same" protagonist throughout the series, but we'll have to see.

I personally would've longed for a less lethal ending where I get back to the roots and rejoin the corporation - even if I couldn't play the character under their employ in some sort of post-main quest open world play, it would've been a satisfying ending for me.

More than: "Die either way, could copy yourself tho, have fun!"

 

[Cologan]

I get that Cyberpunk is supposed to be dark and gritty. But i have STRONG flashbacks to ME3 ending, which killed my interest in immersive RPGs. Thought CP77 could bring me back, and until the very last "fuck you anyways" it almost managed to do so. Now i feel empty because i didnt get the satisfying ending i was trying to achieve. I could see a "new" main quest where you gotta run down Arasaka or another Corp to get yourself a fresh body that WONT just perish.

As for the whole individual-death thing. That IS! Cyberpunk. The idea that your conciousness is just the information in your head, not the physical form. I would have been perfectly happy with the ending (chose the Panam path btw) without the inevitable death a few months later.

Maybe DLC/Update in the future to fix that ? In the end, this is a game and MOST players (i know some of you are into it which is fine, i am all about options) do not want to feel hollow because they couldn't save V in the end. The inevtitable death ending would have made for a better book than a game.

EDIT: I would love to replay this game, and see all the side quests through. Though i get way too emotionally attached to very well written characters, which this game is full of. I wanted that happy ending for V and Pan. Until that changes i'm afraid i wont be able to bring myself to play it again. At least the somewhat open-ended'ness of Panam ending leaves room for a happy ending after all, just not a playable one (yet?)

 

[KakitaTatsumaru]

While it's a common thing in cyberpunk genre that the stories never end well

It depends of what you consider ending well: ending well for everyone, sure no, but ending well for you because you metaphorically sit on a throne atop a mountain of dead body and shattered dreams, sure yes.

 

[Silariell]

sadly, i can't remember any other games that had similar "bad endings problem" which was solved with dlc

I mentioned Fallout 3 / broken steel several times in this thread. If you didn't play it, here's what happened:

At the end of the game you have to go into a chamber with radiation so severe it would kill you. In the original game, that was how it ended. You had no choice but to go in, get irradiated and die while you pressed some buttons for plot reasons.

What made it extra spicy is that in that game you could have companions, and at least 2 of those companions were immune to radiation. A robot, and a super mutant. A robot, for obvious reasons, doesn't give a shit. A super mutant is a human who was already changed by radiation, rendering them basically immune. Before broken steel DLC, you could ask him to do it for you. And he'll outright just tell you: "No. This is your destiny. Fucking do it you pussy."

Needless to say, the pushback against this was legendary and so they fixed it with a DLC that made it so that 1) you could actually make your companions do it (the game will call you a coward for it, but everyone will live while also fulfilling the larger objective of the plot), 2) you could do it yourself but you somehow survive anyway and eventually fully recover.

A bigger gameplay reason this sucked is because Fallout 3 was an open world free roam game, and before DLC it just ended the game with the main plot, whereas the DLC made it so you could continue to free-roam, and they also added some extra story for you to do in regards to an important faction in the game, that takes place after the original ending.

I think we're looking at the exact same problem here.


Another example is Witcher 3 where blood and wine basically overwrites any ending with a much better one.

 

[Ashii]

I finished Cyberpunk last night and I couldn't belive that when I was left with a choice what to do, I had flashback from those awful endings from Mass Effect 3. All I had to do was to pick my poison and that's it. My choices through the whole game didn't matter. It only mattered whether I finished questline from Panam to have one extra ending, that's it. I haven't felt like that in any game since ME3.

It didn't matter that I tried to resist Johnny with every chance I got, hoping that somehow it would buy V some more time. Nope. The results are the same regardless of those choices. No matter what I do, V is doomed. 7 endings. 7 and in every ending V dies. How is this okay? That is my only problem. I didn't expect any sweet happy ending, but definitely something better than what we got. Ending with Nomads didn't leave me hopeful, it left me fuckin' depressed and from what I've seen, it's the best ending.

You created V, a protagonist that actually felt ALIVE through the whole game. She was angry, sad, happy, she had EMOTIONS. Something that other protagonists in RPG usually lack. I still remember how V reacted after she found Evelyn in bathtub. She was scared and shocked. I loved it. And despite creating such great protagonist you did her dirty and decided to kill her off in every ending, so Johnny could basically live. That's what I was afraid of when I learned that Johnny would be a passanger in V's head. That his role would be bigger than ours and I was right.

I'm jusr disappointed and angry. V fucking deserved better.

 

[Vejsa]

I finished Cyberpunk last night and I couldn't belive that when I was left with a choice what to do, I had flashback from those awful endings from Mass Effect 3. All I had to do was to pick my poison and that's it. My choices through the whole game didn't matter. It only mattered whether I finished questline from Panam to have one extra ending, that's it. I haven't felt like that in any game since ME3.

It didn't matter that I tried to resist Johnny with every chance I got, hoping that somehow it would buy V some more time. Nope. The results are the same regardless of those choices. No matter what I do, V is doomed. 7 endings. 7 and in every ending V dies. How is this okay? That is my only problem. I didn't expect any sweet happy ending, but definitely something better than what we got. Ending with Nomads didn't leave me hopeful, it left me fuckin' depressed and from what I've seen, it's the best ending.

You created V, a protagonist that actually felt ALIVE through the whole game. She was angry, sad, happy, she had EMOTIONS. Something that other protagonists in RPG usually lack. I still remember how V reacted after she found Evelyn in bathtub. She was scared and shocked. I loved it. And despite creating such great protagonist you did her dirty and decided to kill her off in every ending, so Johnny could basically live. That's what I was afraid of when I learned that Johnny would be a passanger in V's head. That his role would be bigger than ours and I was right.

I'm jusr disappointed and angry. V fucking deserved better.

Yeah I mean.. CDPR create characters so well that you actually link with them, and then they pull this. And they break your heart with the credit scene. V is such a powerful character, one of my favorite in all of gaming and they build us them and give us nothing for it.

 

[AKANexus]

I think retconning one of the endings is the most difficult way to fix this situation... Alright, they would just take on the blame and simply rewrite the story, so what we have now is only a possibility, rather than one inevitability... But they have so much more space to expand the story with a DLC...
If V decides to survive through her copy, then she could have a quest line dedicated to pursuing a more "permanent" situation. Or, they could add a different situation before the restaurant that would allow V to choose a different path.

Just "rewriting" a quest plot would seem rushed

Post automatically merged: Dec 14, 2020

Yeah, it's Mass Effect all over again

 

[KeyranBlake]

I got to the middle of the game and felt like I was on a railway. And I was lucky that my instincts told me to watch the endings before moving on. The game is simply rubbish.
They leave greed to others? They have managed to make any gadgets for the game but not the game itself.
I'm so disappointed, beyond words.

Post automatically merged: Dec 14, 2020

I think retconning one of the endings is the most difficult way to fix this situation... Alright, they would just take on the blame and simply rewrite the story, so what we have now is only a possibility, rather than one inevitability... But they have so much more space to expand the story with a DLC...
If V decides to survive through her copy, then she could have a quest line dedicated to pursuing a more "permanent" situation. Or, they could add a different situation before the restaurant that would allow V to choose a different path.

Just "rewriting" a quest plot would seem rushed

Post automatically merged: Dec 14, 2020

Yeah, it's Mass Effect all over again

It's their artistic right to write the story they want, like Bioware did with Mass Effect 3. It's in our rights, though, to say that it sucks as much as Game of Thrones, How I met your mother or Mass Effect 3 endings. Hell, even Mass Effect Andromeda was better than this!

 

[MeinChurro]

I've been thinking more on it. I pretty much posted this on the Steam community, but I'll post my thoughts here:

I think they intentionally made all the endings undesirable, so they could railroad you into choosing the ending where Johnny takes over your body. They manipulate you throughout the game, many endings are literally dependent on the relationship you have built up with Johnny.

IE: You have 6 months left to live, but Johnny can live out the rest of your body's natural life.

This is a case of the creator's vision superseding the player's choice. This is a linear game masquerading as an RPG with choice. There is no actual choice, only the creator's vision. Thus, the endings suck.

 

[Metropolice]

I think the endings they set out put them in a pickle. Retconning has a sour taste, but what good is retconning anyway? Unless we magically get post-main quest gameplay added and can resume quests with some mild reactions to at least make a soft transition based on our choices, it's kind of irrelevant or not changing much.

In my book anyway. The ending is the cherry on the cake, I currently prefer a more optimized cake however.

The ending and what happens with V are, to me, more relevant for a follow-up game if we wonder if we still play the protagonist or get a new one. Then it would become relevant more so, other than the feeling you get by finishing.

Not trying to downplay it, of course.