[Spoiler Alert] About the endings

[lokozar]

I don't know if this will give anyone some sort of hope or maybe some inspiration. But with the Arasaka ending, there is a way out of that one - at least, if you sign yourself over. This is due to Michiko Arasaka - the girl genius - who is mentioned by Goro etc. She's NUSA aligned, NUSA - and Militech are basically one of the same at this point, they're heavily interlaced. If someone was to get V out it would be Michiko. The question, however, is more like 'why', really?

Honestly the same is like that for most things regarding V, what is going to happen to V that allows for the continuation of their story, where Johnny Boy, is more likely to be written out and becomes a side character rather than a near on 'main character protag'.

I mean in every ending, barring the suicide one - they're going to have to make that work. Still with that one, when Johnny is in your body it's kind of weird for me. Like, what can happen there where V regains their body other than forcibly hacking their own chip and taking it over as an AI?

Writers could actually make a lot out of this, even the suicide ending. Sequel: Shot is heard, camera goes back to V. Smoking gun, a hand on V's wrist pulled the gun away from the head. A voice: "Thought you would get out that easily? ..." New segment opens up ...

Arasaka ending: Takemura got time to think, watched the developments, noticed Arasaka is up to no good concerning V, decides to free her, 'cause it's the honourable thing to do. But first he puts together a team of people he can trust in this matter - people who got help from V or love V.

We could make up a lot, but as I've written before, I don't want to fix CDPR's shortcomings in my mind. I don't see this as my task as a gamer, as a customer. I expect them to deliver something that is more fleshed out or tangible. They don't have to get explicit all the way, but they have to hint strongly at something hopeful, in my opinion (for some endings at least). As it stands now, I don't see this. I only see that they strongly hint at V's inevitable death. Take the Arasaka deal with the devil ending again as an example.

There is this one guy in this thread here who keeps telling us to mind the little details. I always do that. Take a look at the facial expressions, the gestures, the pacing of V's movement. V is incredibly vulnerable in this scene. He/she knows this is the end of the line. There is actually no hope in him/her to come back from this whatsoever. The terms of the contract were painfully clear. Even the adjustment of his/her necklace is masterfully done and shows that this is the only thing he/she now has any control over. Making himself/herself passable looking ... Leaving the stage with some last shred of dignity. Then the music sets in and at this point, there is the only vague hope we can get out of this scene, since the title playing seems to be called "Never fade away". But really, that's so freakin' thin ...

 

[omnimon]

Spoiler: A bugged ending about Rogue

In my second ending, I chose "call Panam for help" and played as V, busted Arasaka Tower with Panam and Soul, he died and at the end, I chose to leave the body to Jonny. After that Jonny visited some kind of memorial and left necklace for V and pistol for Rogue, which she was not at the Arasaka Tower and didn^t die there but it was like as if she died there. Devs should fix that ending in which Rogue has no place and shouldn't have died.

 

[QuantEffect]

I guess it's completely possible that the 6 months timer is just a way for them to easily sell more units of a paid DLC. I.e. if you want to see V live, then get the DLC...

 

[Simuxas]

If those endings are truly open ended for continuation, it could be some sort of excuse. But if not, they are bad, mainly cuz not a single one of them has closure unless you give body to Jhonny.

 

[Barsenthor]

I don't know if this will give anyone some sort of hope or maybe some inspiration. But with the Arasaka ending, there is a way out of that one - at least, if you sign yourself over. This is due to Michiko Arasaka - the girl genius - who is mentioned by Goro etc. She's NUSA aligned, NUSA - and Militech are basically one of the same at this point, they're heavily interlaced. If someone was to get V out it would be Michiko. The question, however, is more like 'why', really?

Honestly the same is like that for most things regarding V, what is going to happen to V that allows for the continuation of their story, where Johnny Boy, is more likely to be written out and becomes a side character rather than a near on 'main character protag'.

I mean in every ending, barring the suicide one - they're going to have to make that work. Still with that one, when Johnny is in your body it's kind of weird for me. Like, what can happen there where V regains their body other than forcibly hacking their own chip and taking it over as an AI?

Doubt it. Arasaka ending is a corporation one, probably as a starting point for next expansion. You either way will be working for Arasaka voluntarily if you chose the "go back to Earth" since you don't have any better options and they will pay well or also "voluntarily" as you just love Arasaka and are willing to die for her again and again and again, as long as they will keep you respawning from Mikoshi

Jokes aside (tho I find Arasaka - Mikoshi ending the be the best for climatic and world fitting purposes), Johnny said that Mikoshi is the only place on Earth where Arasaka can do this what they (=Saburo) consider as a ultimate goal - they reprogram people there to fit their (=Saburo) needs.


He just happen to get one of the most skilled person on the planet (flatlinening Smasher and almost Odo if Goro won't be persuasive enough) that voluntarily signs papers to be sent into Mikoshi (official Save Your Soul program while Arasaka "will try to find a new host", that might take sometime, since "there is no technology for it yet", but it is also stated that reprograming engrams is very complicated procedure and also take some time

 

[Doberman999]

Everyone says that the ending with Panam is a good ending. But why didn't anyone pay attention to the message from her during the credits? She says she's not going back to camp today. That means V was without Panam. The rest of the messages also make it clear that this is an answering machine. V could not answer them. This suggests that V died while Panam was not around. Still think this ending is "good"?

 

[Sillivanukas]

Everyone says that the ending with Panam is a good ending. But why didn't anyone pay attention to the message from her during the credits? She says she's not going back to camp today. That means V was without Panam. The rest of the messages also make it clear that this is an answering machine. V could not answer them. This suggests that V died while Panam was not around. Still think this ending is "good"?

In my ending V went with nomads and romanced Judy and in Judy's message V calls Judy for breakfast in background, so very much alive then. I didn't get Panam's message you're referring to, but I feel like you're reading too much into it.

 

[pEestino]

Everyone says that the ending with Panam is a good ending. But why didn't anyone pay attention to the message from her during the credits? She says she's not going back to camp today. That means V was without Panam. The rest of the messages also make it clear that this is an answering machine. V could not answer them. This suggests that V died while Panam was not around. Still think this ending is "good"?

She's a nomad clan leader and shes the kind to take matters in her own hands, she probably went to strike deals/scout/scavenge and was cut off by a storm, storms in CP aren't the same as irl, they're harsh and can kill you easily if you don't know what to do, all endings have a voicemail, all of 'em, you can hear V in some of them but like in 2 tops I think.

 

[StarkHelsing]

Everyone says that the ending with Panam is a good ending. But why didn't anyone pay attention to the message from her during the credits? She says she's not going back to camp today. That means V was without Panam. The rest of the messages also make it clear that this is an answering machine. V could not answer them. This suggests that V died while Panam was not around. Still think this ending is "good"?

That's for the sake of the epilogue. Like it'd be weird if she was sending him a message if they were right there in front of them. It also mentions that they had plans. Also 'I'm so lucky to have you, V' meaning V is currently still alive, otherwise, it'd have been 'I'm so lucky to have had you.'

I mean V can always be riding around her, but let's face it. In this ending perhaps the only person that Panam and Mitch would leave behind in camp to keep people in line would be V. Especially since they're not in tip-top form.

 

[QuantEffect]

On the bright side, I think there is some indication that in the Nomad ending you found the cure anyway (in Arizona?), based on the voice mails.
I mean think about it, by the time you supposedly receive the voice mails in the Nomad ending, you're already somewhere in the Badlands or Arizona (i.e. some time, maybe weeks or months already passed). If you were still sick and most likely getting worse, then Judy/Panam wouldn't be so calm/happy/relaxed in their voice mails. I mean both of them don't mention anything about your condition etc. I would imagine that if you weren't cured they wouldn't be so relaxed about it and would at least seem a bit more stressed.

Judy is basically living the good life with you making breakfast etc. if female V and Panam is a bit more focused on her new leadership role if male V, but still basically implying that there's no impending doom...

Maybe it would be great if a dev could actually confirm this as it's clear most people don't like having to interpret these details...

There is also this interesting forum post (not mine) about a data shard in the Nomad ending:

My thoughts on why the 'Nomad' ending is more positive than I initially thought

Intro A frequent complaint about this game is that there aren't any truly happy endings and that V is doomed no matter what. Initially when I did the Panam ending I thought so too. But then a few days later I reloaded my save and decided to re-experience the ending to see if I could detect any...

forums.cdprojektred.com

 

[Simuxas]

On the bright side, I think there is some indication that in the Nomad ending you found the cure anyway (in Arizona?), based on the voice mails.
I mean think about it, by the time you supposedly receive the voice mails in the Nomad ending, you're already somewhere in the Badlands or Arizona (i.e. some time, maybe weeks or months already passed). If you were still sick and most likely getting worse, then Judy/Panam wouldn't be so calm/happy/relaxed in their voice mails. I mean both of them don't mention anything about your condition etc. I would imagine that if you weren't cured they wouldn't be so relaxed about it and would at least seem a bit more stressed.

Judy is basically living the good life with you making breakfast etc. if female V and Panam is a bit more focused on her new leadership role if male V, but still basically implying that there's no impending doom...

Maybe it would be great if a dev could actually confirm this as it's clear most people don't like having to interpret these details...

Its all just speculation.

 

[Hammerstein]

This thread is 352 pages long, so everything I say is probably already said multiple times. But I need to vent, so bear with me.

Whole main story revolves around V battling to survive. But because every ending has you doomed regardless, whole plot feels pointless miseryfest.

I mean, at the end you are engram anyway, there is already reason for existential crisis, so imminent death seems just excessive misery.

Yeah. Over the last 300 pages I have repeatedly made my point, why the endings are unsatisfying, about the plotholes, the red herrings, the strange conclusions from the books we find in the game and why so much stuff does not make any sense. And that the only thing you can influence is how you want to die.

It's a shameful delivery after all the hype and the promises from the trailers, especially after the brilliant writing in Witcher 3 and I can't understand how anyone thought this would be a good idea.

I'm over the hunch now and I no longer care. I'm playing this a lot more like GTA now and no longer give a fuck about the story or the character. I just wanna see the dialogue options and side missions that I have not done yet and then I will likely uninstall.

I doubt that this game will have the long term appeal of Witcher 3, which kept selling over a period of 5 years.

 

[onosendai7]

And I thought that no one, ever, would botch an ending the way Bioware botched the ending of Mass Effect 3.
Well, I was damn wrong...

 

[Doberman999]

OK, guys. In General, this is a new meme that shows the whole point

 

[Simuxas]

Yeah. Over the last 300 pages I have repeatedly made my point, why the endings are unsatisfying, about the plotholes, the red herrings, the strange conclusions from the books we find in the game and why so much stuff does not make any sense. And that the only thing you can influence is how you want to die.

It's a shameful delivery after all the hype and the promises from the trailers, especially after the brilliant writing in Witcher 3 and I can't understand how anyone thought this would be a good idea.

I'm over the hunch now and I no longer care. I'm playing this a lot more like GTA now and no longer give a fuck about the story or the character. I just wanna see the dialogue options and side missions that I have not done yet and then I will likely uninstall.

I doubt that this game will have the long term appeal of Witcher 3, which kept selling over a period of 5 years.

Pretty much same, gonna do the sidequests and ditch the game
the game

 

[acakomandos]

OK, guys. In General, this is a new meme that shows the whole point

View attachment 11114966

Yeah it fells like that

 

[Master_Plot]

Spoiler: A bugged ending about Rogue

In my second ending, I chose "call Panam for help" and played as V, busted Arasaka Tower with Panam and Soul, he died and at the end, I chose to leave the body to Jonny. After that Jonny visited some kind of memorial and left necklace for V and pistol for Rogue, which she was not at the Arasaka Tower and didn^t die there but it was like as if she died there. Devs should fix that ending in which Rogue has no place and shouldn't have died.

I got the same ending on my first time as female V, only difference is Judy instead of Panam

 

[acakomandos]

Pretty much same, gonna do the sidequests and ditch the game

Post automatically merged: Dec 26, 2020

Pretty much same, gonna do the sidequests and ditch the game

There are some amasing side quests. Its worth to play them, Jhonny wont be too much annoying in them

 

[Luks796]

I guess it's completely possible that the 6 months timer is just a way for them to easily sell more units of a paid DLC. I.e. if you want to see V live, then get the DLC...

I'll be honest, that's fine by me. I love this game and I want to find out how to keep V alive and have other adventures such as finding out what's going on at nightcity/arasaka, this AI story, or Mr. Blue Eyes! That guy is very, very... suspicious, or will he be the one to help us?
We are used to seeing dlc as '' additional stories '' or am I wrong? But they can continue the main story as in this case which is needed.

 

[crawfordman]

you are quite wrong in your assessment. no one here is ignoring the Panam ending, far from it. but there are people who don't like this ending, don't want this ending. it shouldn't be the only go-to ending for people to feel good. players should be satisfied with what they get, happy or unhappy, no matter how they play. this is the point of role-playing in games like that, and this is what's completely missing - player's agency.

for the moment the "nomad ending" was the least damaging of the seven. here's hoping they fix it in the near future.