[Spoiler Alert] About the endings

[Olaf21]

It's not about depression. This is the first game in my memory where the plot is stupidly broken.
You cannot complete the main quest. No matter how hard you try and what you do.
At worst, you just lose. At best, you find yourself in the same situation you started in.
A game that can only be lost, by definition, rubbish for clinical losers. I don't know what the CDPR was thinking, but it sounds more like an insult than an artistic vision.

Some would say life is a game that can only be lost. And life in Night City has mostly been a life on borrowed time for runners. Point to case, to become a legend in the Afterlife, you not only have to die, you have to die in a blaze of glory. Death alone is too common. I think the difference, and that is by no means a criticism or a flex, is that some of us went into the game expecting life in NC to screw us, and boy, we weren't disappointed. I would have found an actual happy ending quite unexpected.
Since I went into the game expecting to lose, I found the endings well written and logical - again, some more depressing than others, hence the perceived level of happiness for V. Which is not to say that even the Nomad ending with my output on board does not leave me frustrated for my V. But that's more than what she could expect becoming a runner...

 

[Didacgomez]

It's not about depression. This is the first game in my memory where the plot is stupidly broken.
You cannot complete the main quest. No matter how hard you try and what you do.
At worst, you just lose. At best, you find yourself in the same situation you started in.
A game that can only be lost, by definition, rubbish for clinical losers. I don't know what the CDPR was thinking, but it sounds more like an insult than an artistic vision.

It can also be argued that rage for missing a clear conclusion,happy ending or win condition its just the players translating their frustrations in real life to a game and not the game/story creators fault.
In reality,I think that many people like Cyberpunk aesthetics,but not that many people likes Cyberpunk as a genre.

 

[Olaf21]

It can also be argued that rage for missing a clear conclusion,happy ending or win condition its just the players translating their frustrations in real life to a game and not the game/story creators fault.
In reality,I think that many people like Cyberpunk aesthetics,but not that many people likes Cyberpunk as a genre.

That is sadly a truth that is easily seen in book sales
I'd go as far as saying that the frustration is part of the genre. See Neuromancer or Voice of the whirlwind, both ending on very bittersweet victories.

 

[Ayinde_Palmer]

It's not about depression. This is the first game in my memory where the plot is stupidly broken.
You cannot complete the main quest. No matter how hard you try and what you do.
At worst, you just lose. At best, you find yourself in the same situation you started in.
A game that can only be lost, by definition, rubbish for clinical losers. I don't know what the CDPR was thinking, but it sounds more like an insult than an artistic vision.

Yea.... well. . up until today no one has figured how to beat the main quest of not dying irl.
If your personal answer is to keep trying and succeed in other ways, thats a possibility in the endings.

 

[Rodocastiza]

Honestly I thought the 6 months thing could be completely disposable because we already have bad o bitter endings.

-Star/Sun: you are dead. You have to "live" as a digital copy. It's already devastating.
-Arasaka: You are you but you can choose to be soulkilled or partially mind-disabled. Even if the disability is not too much, with your choice you have empowered the biggest evil of this game: Saburo.
-Suicide: well, you die. It's ok.
-Temperance: You are in Cyberspace forever (forever?) and Johnny takes your body, and ignore your loved ones.

At least, let me live as a copy. It's bad enough, I think.

 

[Didacgomez]

Honestly I thought the 6 months thing could be completely disposable because we already have bad o bitter endings.

-Star/Sun: you are dead. You have to "live" as a digital copy. It's already devastating.
-Arasaka: You are you but you can choose to be soulkilled or partially mind-disabled. Even if the disability is not too much, with your choice you have empowered the biggest evil of this game: Saburo.
-Suicide: well, you die. It's ok.
-Temperance: You are in Cyberspace forever (forever?) and Johnny takes your body, and ignore your loved ones.

At least, let me live as a copy. It's bad enough, I think.

Well the 6 months is the door open for a follow-up story of returning to NC(or not).
About being a copy or not,actually is a quite old philosophical question that predates cyberpunk as a genre: what is that defines you as a human,can a synthetic (ai type,replicant) be considered a human? "Do androids dream of electric sheep" and the "Blade runner" film(loosely adaptation of the book) explored that kind of questions.

 

[enkee23]

cyberpunk is about dystopian-edge-mind-meatgrinder
if story needs to kill a hero give to player sufficient reason to accept it
but nah, it shows finger and says "deal with it"

i though i could live in night city not just die for nothing
seems that story should look like this (this point of view goes generally from cgi no-tell motel)
act 1: fun gigs grind during first 6 months to earn rep and been immersed in the world
act 2: relic story + sqs about mind (monks, del, brendan, peralez, johnny, lizzy)
act 3: final rush + epilogue

current version feels like a start from the end of the story which doesn't have a beginning

 

[Rodocastiza]

Well the 6 months is the door open for a follow-up story of returning to NC(or not).
About being a copy or not,actually is a quite old philosophical question that predates cyberpunk as a genre: what is that defines you as a human,can a synthetic (ai type,replicant) be considered a human? "Do androids dream of electric sheep" and the "Blade runner" film(loosely adaptation of the book) explored that kind of questions.

Follow up, yeah, that's ok.

And yes, precisely your reasoning, having that philosophical debate it's not a happy ending. It's really interesting that we have that option. But we are supposed to be dead 6 months later so the debate does not have too much weight.

 

[Buckadoz]

Some would say life is a game that can only be lost. And life in Night City has mostly been a life on borrowed time for runners. Point to case, to become a legend in the Afterlife, you not only have to die, you have to die in a blaze of glory. Death alone is too common. I think the difference, and that is by no means a criticism or a flex, is that some of us went into the game expecting life in NC to screw us, and boy, we weren't disappointed. I would have found an actual happy ending quite unexpected.
Since I went into the game expecting to lose, I found the endings well written and logical - again, some more depressing than others, hence the perceived level of happiness for V. Which is not to say that even the Nomad ending with my output on board does not leave me frustrated for my V. But that's more than what she could expect becoming a runner...

It can also be argued that rage for missing a clear conclusion,happy ending or win condition its just the players translating their frustrations in real life to a game and not the game/story creators fault.
In reality,I think that many people like Cyberpunk aesthetics,but not that many people likes Cyberpunk as a genre.

"You can't save the world but you can save yourself"
"You aren't here to be ground underfoot like Rick Deckard"
"Very rewarding ending"

Can I get my money back then for these misleading quotes about Cyberpunk?

 

[Ayinde_Palmer]

It can also be argued that rage for missing a clear conclusion,happy ending or win condition its just the players translating their frustrations in real life to a game and not the game/story creators fault.
In reality,I think that many people like Cyberpunk aesthetics,but not that many people likes Cyberpunk as a genre.

well cyberpunk and pondsmith's vision is not one where winning is impossible. But its not the central focus that you will win and be perfectly fulfilled. Mostly I think pondsmiths vision is more the fantasy that you can live life as you choose. Victory or failure is not guaranteed, but you can do it your way,

 

[Didacgomez]

With that many quotations I start to feel the troll forum serotonin spike(mwahahaha)...
A little bit more serious:
-there is a door open to win(or not,and even winning is relative).

-personal opinion(personal^2): the whole game is based on starting without anything,being betrayed,losing friends,constant references that NC destroys people and one ending give you hope,family and friends;I don't know what else one can ask.

That is sadly a truth that is easily seen in book sales
I'd go as far as saying that the frustration is part of the genre. See Neuromancer or Voice of the whirlwind, both ending on very bittersweet victories.

I completely agree with you, is not a requisite of the genre the frustration and bittersweetnes but the best stories(or more canonical) tend to leave that "bad taste" in your mouth.
Most of the complains seem to
Goto

It can also be argued that rage for missing a clear conclusion,happy ending or win condition its just the players translating their frustrations in real life to a game and not the game/story creators fault.
In reality,I think that many people like Cyberpunk aesthetics,but not that many people likes Cyberpunk as a genre.

Break

 

[jljovano]

I've "mastered" cyberpunk for years, it is a very dark and deadly world. But as a game master, you HAVE to give a small chance of survival and success. Or your players will never play with you again.
All this is about wining but not easily. You cant have fun if you only can loose.

 

[Bridges001]

At the start of the game V dies, at the end of the game V dies ...
it is depressing from start to finish.
if not for the end "sun" the attack of the crystal is really very intriguing but one does not know absolutely not if MBE could save V, one would think that he is not even aware of the state of health of V ....
we do not know how much time elapsed after mikoshi. why V lives peacefully in a huge apartment without being worried about arasaka ...
I was a V female with judy, we don't even leave the choice to the player to go with her or to explain the goal of this mission to her. this epilogue is really very strange. we know this is the end of V's story but i have never seen such an open ending full of unanswered questions in any other work ....
the other endings are much more closed even if we would like to know the rest of the "star" end even if it will surely never happen

 

[ULF+BERH+T]

The end was interesting, I was expecting something different, I think it must have been a very risky move by CDPR to make such a dramatic ending, it shows a lot the reality of life that reaching success involves a great sacrifice and you will not always have the result you expected in your life. but it was also very sad that despite everything you achieved you will only have 6 months to live, I think it would have been a better ending, if it had been the case, where you don't have to, and as johnny silverhand said: never stop fighting, An ending where says this does not end here

considering that for example if you make romance with Judy in one of the messages Judy shows her concern for you hoping that you do not end up like Evelyn and you assure that it will not be the case, in any case all the endings be good bad you're going to die and this is just the beginning of cyberpunk so it makes no sense to put dialogues thinking I'm going to live but you're going to die, for a moment I thought it would be like Witcher, a series of games in different times with continuity of the character V.

But who knows maybe after the repairs and fixing when the DLCs come there will be a change in the story depending on the decisions you made or something similar. I have faith that CDPR will do their best to not stir up the haters and satisfy their fans.

TO ALL CDPR DEVELOPERS: GREAT JOB KEEP UP AND MAKE THE GAME EVEN BETTER ... WE COUNT ON YOU CHOOMBAS

 

[rippercityransom]

I think the problem is that it’s just too much bad taste packed into each ending so all the flavors get muddled in your mouth. Getting a 6 month death sentence doesn’t leave much room to consider whether or not you’re still a person if you’re an engram because there’s more pressing matters to attend to, or not depending on whether expansions will expand the mid game or be after the credits.

It’s like getting diagnosed with ADHD at the same time as brain cancer. Yeah ADHD sucks, but the cancer takes up more of your emotional processing.

Then it leaves you with two options:

-That’s the end, we’re not actually going to see more of V without Johnny attached (I think this is unlikely, but it’s a possibility if they’re satisfied with the story they told.)

-The content following the credits will be more of the same plot of the game, V is dying and coughing up blood, go seek a cure and hope it’s not the equivalent of a dollar on a string dragging V further through the plot again.

 

[wright1978]

I still think the whole railroaded plot cancer death sentence is terrible.
As time passes, it's the annoyance at the horrendous lack of choice that has been growing exponentially. Playing a game where you imbue your character's personality through choices and then getting to a rooftop where who and what your V is, is rewritten on the back of a who do you want to risk during a mission choice. What a load of garbage.

 

[Didacgomez]

I don´t know happy,/not happy, good/bad, evil is quite relative all together.
If you take into account that the world portrayed treats people as disposable trash, that you can find corpses around NC of runners/mercenaries that died doing exactly what V is doing as a job (in the Afterlife you can see a team before and after an operation with a guy bleeding in the table), that TBUG took just one operation too much before retirement I still think that leaving with the Aldecaldos is quite good/happy/positive in the context of the world.
For the 6 month I think that in English language (English is not my mother tongue as most people would have observed already, so I apologize if its not a tale from English speaking world, I think I heard it 1st in English) there is a tale about a thief condemned to death and ask to the King for 1 year grace period to teach his horse to sing, if he succeeds he will gain freedom. The King accepts and the thief has one year still as prisoner but still alive.
The logic of that thief is that in one year maybe he will die, the king might die and his succesor grant a general pardon ,maybe the horse will learn to sing or he can escape (lot of things can happen in one year)

 

[enkee23]

this video closely describes state after ciri's wild hunting, 2 week timer and 6 month clock

 

[djisma69]

To be honest, they disappointed with all those lies, selling us a game that is not finished... etc that when I did see the crappy and rushed endings I did not expect anything better because all trust was lost at that moment.., if they will ever gain this trust back I can't say for sure but after 3 months and them ignoring how many of us don't like the game endings shows that they don't care as much as we think they do.

They promised an RPG and they did give us some action-adventure with a few choices but mostly linear in a way game.
I think is clear they are another EA on the rise.

 

[Ayinde_Palmer]

To be honest, they disappointed with all those lies, selling us a game that is not finished... etc that when I did see the crappy and rushed endings I did not expect anything better because all trust was lost at that moment.., if they will ever gain this trust back I can't say for sure but after 3 months and them ignoring how many of us don't like the game endings shows that they don't care as much as we think they do.

They promised an RPG and they did give us some action-adventure with a few choices but mostly linear in a way game.
I think is clear they are another EA on the rise.

Its an RPG, overall the game is extremely non linear.

maybe its not the type of rpg you wanted, or you wanted it to be non linear in a different way.

But its crazy to suggest a game where 80% of the content can be done after the first hour, Where you can ignore 90% of the content, and where what side content you choose mainly effects your whole journey is linear. Even from a quest perspective, there are many ways to tackle the quests.