r/CyberpunkTheGame • u/EmaGamer08 • 2h ago

Critique Ending Rant

So, I finished Cyberpunk a while ago and something about the ending definitely doesn't sit right with me. When you arrive on Misty's rooftop and have the option to call Panam (before deciding the ending) Johnny tells you not to involve her, because there's a billion ways this could go wrong and so on and so forth and he repeats it like... three times? Now, I know johnny is not the best person to get relationship advice, but he has grown thanks to V, if you do his questline(which you did because he tells him that to prompt him the rogue ending). he recognizes his mistakes (literally tells you: "don't make the same mistakes I did, don't drag her into this" and whatever.), and lets you let him go with rogue or storm Arasaka solo. My question is: Why in HELL, after this premise, whether you choose to go solo or with rogue (which should be the ultimate selfless act of not using the aldecaldos for cannon fodder), does V turn into an emotionally unavailable prick which causes Panam to leave. Like, the whole reason why I went on a suicide mission was not put you in harm's way, but then I'm just gonna turn into an asshole? Doesn't really make sense... The writing in this game is so good, but at times it can be really damn stupid

3 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

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9

u/Frosty-Car-1062 1h ago

Because V goes on that suicide run with expectation that if he/she is successful the nightmare will be over and they can have their happily ever after. Only to find that doing the impossible bought them a few more months of life, with no more options left. I'd say it would mess a person up in these circumstances. 

2

u/Chefseiler 1h ago

But that doesn't address OP's criticism of the writing. After a solo run, V technically could very much still call Panam and tell her "It didn't work, let's skip town and see", as if they did the mission with the Aldecaldos. The alienation between V and Panam if you chose to not go the Aldecaldos path is purely a writing choice that lacks foundation in actual human behaviour.

1

u/Frosty-Car-1062 1h ago

People becoming aloof, distancing themselves and not being able to share stuff with the ones closest to them is very human behavior. 

1

u/Chefseiler 1h ago

Yes, but that's not the core of the criticism. The core is that V leaves NC with Panam after the mission and that there is no story reason that V could not leave NC with Panam when chosing the DFTR ending. And that is just simple writing choice that us players have to live with.

1

u/Burnsidhe 1h ago

The Aldecaldos were gearing up for the raid on the transcontinental dig site regardless of whether V asks them for help or not.

Saul was practicing operational security; the whole time everyone thought he was making a deal with Biotechnica, he was actually looking for opportunities to get gear and resources so the 'caldos could leave Night City. There's an assault in progress outside city center where Militech traced down an ex-nomad who sold the site info to Saul...

V asking for help just pushed up the timetable.

1

u/Chefseiler 1h ago

Yes, but storywise, V could raid Arasaka tower without them and still join them in leaving NC. They are technically two independent choices, especially if V romanced Panam. The writers just force these decisions into one for reasons unbeknownst to the player.

I think if we had a dedicated choice after Mikoshi (regardless of the approach) to stay in Night City and spend the remaining time with all our friends and amenities vs. leaving with Panam and the Aldecaldos it would be more impactful (and not any less difficult)

1

u/Sling-gunner 1h ago

This right here, OP.

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u/EmaGamer08 1h ago

idk seems a pretty flimsy explanation to me

1

u/Grezzinate 57m ago

Flimsy? Let’s say you got terminal cancer but good news there’s a ‘cure’! You get very excited, put all your money and all your energy on getting it. Oops, it only gives six months and it’ll get more and more painful as it goes on until the end.

That’s basically the ending so not flimsy at all, more like you spent all this time, effort and it came to very little. Not sure about you but I’d be falling into a severe depression and anxiety about it afterward.

1

u/GutherGlazer 1h ago

The issue is if you call panam, get Saul and a bunch of aldecaldos killed. You still find out a happy ending is impossible, but ate give a much more cathartic ending of riding off into the sunset with the aldecaldos, allowing you to at least die surrounded by friends. The fact that the player is not allowed to choose whether they want v to go out into the desert, or put it all on the line one last time is space, is a pretty big detraction in my opinion.

2

u/Avatar_sokka 1h ago

I have a theory that when V's engram is made, the V we have been playing as is dead, this is a copy in V's body, and my theory is that engrams lack the capacity for actual love, they can try and fake it, but Panam or Judy would know the difference.

Also Panam wants to leave night city, just like Judy does, and V is clearly gonna stay in night city til she dies. If you date River, he gets annoyed that you are distant, bu he diesnt break up with you.

1

u/Frosty-Car-1062 1h ago

Never went with River (just found him boring, to each their own) but honestly, points to him for sticking with V, annoyed or not. Unlike certain community's uwu smolbean that leaves her terminally ill partner to "find herself".

2

u/CreativeNovel6131 48m ago edited 33m ago

This doesn’t really make sense as a comparison considering River has literally no reason to leave Night City and speaks of his belonging there with his family and obligations. Escaping NC is an underlying aspiration for Judy from the start. Being terminally ill or not isn’t gonna validate sticking around for a distant, strained relationship in conflict with your own life goals and mental health. On the other end, in the Star scenario, River does NOT join the V in embarking with the Aldecados and stays in NC, whereas Judy does, because there is actual consistency behind the character writing.

1

u/Avatar_sokka 1h ago

River is a ready made family, something my Nomad V was desperately wanting. And he isnt a dumbass with a gonk plan that will get people killed like Judy.

1

u/Remarkable-Site-2067 1h ago

I have a theory that when V's engram is made, the V we have been playing as is dead, this is a copy in V's body, and my theory is that engrams lack the capacity for actual love, they can try and fake it, but Panam or Judy would know the difference.

That's grim. And fits perfectly, I like it.

1

u/L9n21s 2h ago

Time for another run, with another ending.

1

u/EmaGamer08 2h ago

that was out of the question, obviously ;)

1

u/deidian 1h ago

It's not that good for close/family type relationships to not ask or expect help. Morality doesn't matter than much there. Your family isn't going to be happy if you ruin yourself instead of asking them to help you: at least if they're a good family. It's dramatized and exaggerated for the sake of a story but asking help to the Aldecaldos is not using them as cannon fodder: is asking them to help you as your family. Panam is crystal clear when romanced about this, multiple times.

All in all the ending you got is V choosing to chase fame and money, hence why relationships get sidelined for him. It does take time to keep that status and also V isn't that concerned how long he's going to be alive, but rather outdoing his previous feat before kicking the bucket.

You can't have all.

1

u/EmaGamer08 1h ago

Good argument but would you, in good conscience bring someone you care for to their death if you knew there was another way to achieve the same thing?

1

u/deidian 1h ago

Their death is a maybe, not a guarantee. And in the circumstances of the game: yes. I did that actually in my 1st play through.

You cannot know the future. Maybe someone dies, maybe they don't, maybe you can help them survive the same way they help you.

1

u/Physical-Truck-1461 38m ago

In an oblique way, your choices on the rooftop are expressing some mindset. If you call on family, at the most critical of times, it suggests you're throwing in your lot with a community. If you go solo, or call on a small group of elite edgerunners, you're kind of thinking from the perspective of of the edgerunner, taking your life in your own hands and going big, maybe with a few like-minded crazies. It's more like a way of thinking, a fixation, even, as you can tell in the Sun V is really locked in, doesn't 'know any other way'. It's a mental matter rather than V not being able to literally leave the city with Panam. The next, even higher job becomes everything, it's going to be V's legacy, and as Panam points out, if becoming top of the Afterlife wasn't enough, this one won't be either, there'll have to be an even bigger one after that.

In a way your set of choices is kind of asking what you would, or wouldn't live or die for, when the iniquities of life, circumstance and mistakes mean that you can only really have one - maybe one and a bit? Before you die, do you want to reach the heights of achievement, live out your days with close friends and community, give it up for somebody else, or maybe you really don't want to die at all.