[SPOILERS] "Where is My Mind" Ending: What is it really?

[jakefeely]

I think you're already in Mikoshi when you awaken in the orbital "space station". Here's why:

As V, you experience things during that epilogue that are clearly not reality. Sure, It's framed to seem like sensory failures and dreams or hallucinations as he's recovering..

But if you choose the "return to earth" option, during the final sequence when V is looking out onto earth through the window of the ship.. the camera faces V and zooms out, revealing the text "Mikoshi" painted on the top-left of the ship. Also, the phone calls in the credits address V as if he still has not returned.

After he rips off the bullet necklace, the screen fades to black and the final audio is of a painful grunt from V, right before the credits start. Admittedly this last one might be a glitch lol.


After playing the game thoroughly.. If you consider the motivations of Arasaka, do you really believe they would hold up their end of the bargain and actually return V to his body? Why would they? It's a win-win for them, and Corpos only care about winning.

Finally, the title of the mission would be even more fitting if this were true.

Anyone else thinking this?

 

[Krul2k]

So is Hanako's call a dream? She'd know if V returned if anyone would and i dont think would leave a voice mail if indeed V was "trapped" in Mikoshi.

Hanako is i suppose honourable in her way, and even though they could undoubtedly help V more you are probably right and dont see it in there interests to do so at that time but she is honourable enough to do atleast what she said she'd help with and remove the chip, which she does.

If they explore her offer from the credits, you'll probably find they can "cure" V at a price ofc.

 

[enkee23]

i think arasaka keeps their word, honor is important
takemura for sure, oda too
hanako and saburo just owe V their lives

also they did a brain surgery but did not immediately copy as a construct

 

[lostlogic]

Just completed this ending for my Streetkid V. (Doing separate endings for each playthrough instead of reloading and doing them all on one character)

All of the credit screen holo-messages didn't make sense to me with the exception of the Holo from Hanako. V is returning to Earth for 6 months. I had Judy as my romantic interest and she berated me for not hopping on a shuttle and getting down to Earth, and told me when next we spoke it would be on Earth (once V's phone privileges where restored). That followed by the holo-message from her saying she was getting out of Night City, likely for good, and she was sorry it had to end this way.
Also the HM from Misty was also very... Ominous.

I really like your theory jakefeely.
I figure V ended up as a guinea pig to document, check and ensure that the transfer of Saburo's construct into Yorinobu went well and that they could pre-emptively check what was going wrong with V and why the construct used so much time to take over the host.

Since both the endings I've experienced so far leaves V basically pushing daisies either way, it makes for an interesting starting point for the next Cyberpunk 2077 game (with the exception of killing themselves, but even that would be possible to write for ie that Arasaka harvested the biochip and copied the engram data). They could in essence start the next game by following a group liberating the constructs trapped in Mikoshi - Some endings even leave Johnny as V as the potential instigator of this - To reboot your life as V where you could go on a vengeance spree against Arasaka for instance. It would also lend itself nicely to rekindle old acquaintances, having to start from level 1 and use your previous save as a baseline for a dynamic continuation akin to the Mass Effect & Dragon Age games.
This might also be why there are no endings that end up with V alive and healthy, living their best life away from NC.

 

[Witzzard]

Well you go ahead on the Pyramid with that ending, so it's a definate possibility.
But in regards to the "Mikoshi" reading on the space station - wasn't one lines in the game about how Mikoshi was partly on servers in the eart but also in the orbit on space stations? Don't remember where i'd hear that though.

 

[I_Willenbrock_I]

In will.l just answer your question from the title.

It's hell.

 

[jakefeely]

Thanks for the input folks!

How active is the conscious mind of a soul that is trapped in Mikoshi? There may be notes in the game somewhere that describe it in a way that I missed. The Soulkiller program is said to strip consciousness.. but consciousness can exist in the digital emulation of a mind as seen with AIs in the game, most notably as Alt. And she was connected to Soulkiller when Silverhand separated her, right?

If V's mind is in Mikoshi, Professor Kusama and the orbital space station could be part of a program. The tests she runs would be like daily loop checks to keep the emulated mind active and exercised. Takemura (or Hellman) could be present through the same method Hanako used to talk to Saburo during Totalimmortal. As for the part when you call out to your friends.. all I can say is Delamain called me a bunch, so AI's must be capable of holo calls.

I could be totally wrong, for now I'm entertaining the idea that it's possible!
I will also say that even if V is alive and in their body in the space station.. I still believe they do not return to earth. This is the only ending that doesn't show V getting to live their life afterward. After watching the ending again, specifically the final few seconds where it fades to black and V grunts in pain.. if it's not a bug, it definitely implies something happens to V on the ship. This would make it so the credits voice mails still make sense. Definitely supports the "guinea pig" theory.

The Hanako voice mail at the end is most disruptive factor to any of this, I think. But I will say, whether V is trapped in Mikoshi or the ship, Hanako could be unaware.
With Saburo back at the helm he would act in his own interests, and could lie to his daughter about them. Either way, I personally do not buy the idea that any of them would be honorable about this, for starters, Yorinobu is from the same family.
Aside from his individually deplorable actions, Hanako and the whole board of Arasaka supposedly knew Yorinobu murdered Sobura, but they felt it was in their best interest to sweep it under the rug and accept Yori's lies.. where's the honor there? It may be part of their public persona but it wasn't previously present in their decision making. In fact, it would probably be to their benefit for most people to assume they follow a code of honor when they do not.
Assuming Takemura to be the most genuinely honorable among them, I still think he would consider his allegiance to Saburo more important than honoring his promise to V. If it came down to it he might not be able to disobey Saburo's orders.



With all endings resulting in V's inevitable death, the "reboot your life" idea is very interesting alternative to the popular "find a cure" mission most people assume is next.. technically "find a cure" could not be possible if you agreed to sign the contract (or are already in Mikoshi), so I'm curious to see how they handle all possible endings when the DLC releases.

I didn't notice the note about where Mikoshi servers were located.. just that the only mainframes large enough to run Soulkiller were in NC and Tokyo. I'll be keeping an eye out for new info on the next play though!

 

[sullyman83]

As V, you experience things during that epilogue that are clearly not reality. Sure, It's framed to seem like sensory failures and dreams or hallucinations as he's recovering..

The guards haiku is a big clue-

when in kyoto
i hear the cuckoos call and
long for kyoto

A haiku about nostalgia could be relevant to your theory, if you are in kyoto, then what you long for when you hear the cuckoos call is not really kyoto but a nostalgic misrepresentation of kyoto.

I think the haiku tells you how you got here, what you longed for wasn't real so what you got isn't real.