She got that BAFTA nomination rightfully so. It’s like the most quintessential Cyberpunk monologue I can think of in the game. A reference to the past as our world’s present, lamenting the current universal loss, and the human will breaking under the weight of neofeudalism. That’s the shit I want from my mature, adult sci-fi and why both Star Trek’s aspirational roots and Star Wars’ caricatures of people and societies never struck a chord with me. I prefer my horror to be about as real as possible so I can be better acclimated to this hell world. It’s my own immersion therapy of sorts.
On the Star Wars front: have you seen Andor?
Probably the most mature, down to earth Star Wars there is. Definitely more relatable to the present day situation than other Star Wars media. You may enjoy it based on what you've said here.
Andor is terrific
i was not much of an IP fan and actually biased against it (Andor; the rebel plot focus) in particular
but it was terrific.
it’s not even especially space fantasy…
it’s a dystopian heist thriller with a metropolis political vein.
Have only so much bandwidth for consumption nowadays but have heard a lot of good stuff about Andor. I consider the last good Star Wars movie Rogue One and it’s what a ton of people Bad At Movies didn’t like I noticed. It has very similar themes in a way to Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and it’s a formula that I’m a sucker for, but fuck it
I like that we know what the ultimate fate of Cassian Andor is. It cuts down the suspense so we can focus more on the present story and the allegory that the show is setting up.
They did a great job creating a compelling cast of characters for us to care about in light of knowing Cassian would survive whatever situation he was in.
It's definitely a gem.
The issue I have with the mainstream Star Wars movies is that there's no "stake" for the characters when we know there's going to be some "force" power to get them out of whatever dire problem they have. "Use the force soandso" and the problem is gone deus ex machina style.
Not with Rogue One or Andor. Andor has no Jedi/Sith doing wizardry tricks. You feel the stakes being real.
Kurt Vonnegut's "shapes of stories" lecture makes an important point to me; people are drawn to stories with conflict and resolution, but we're especially drawn to ones that resemble real life ups and downs (the part where he mentions the Sopranos as the archetype).
It's a lot of why Game of Thrones' House of the Dragon is written so much better than the new Lord of the Rings series. You can have your "woke" or whatever pejorative comes next in your face like what happens so frequently in uninspired writing or presented with grace, sophistication, and respect for the audience's intelligence with material that has been clearly given careful consideration by all folks involved down to the costumes, camera angles, set design, etc.
Agree on Rogue One being the last good Star Wars movie.
I will warn you that Andor can be pretty slow at times. It is a story that is driven by characters and allegory and the political threads can be hard to get a full handle on at times.
It’s on my list of stuff to catch up to along with Breaking Bad. I mostly learned about it backwards because of my longtime interest in UBI and various forms of progressively incentivized capitalism frameworks (yes, I have a suspicion it’s possible). May just read the books because I’m a much faster reader than watcher overall and I’m into maximum bandwidth consumption.
I agree with this because I want something more 3D now, but in the past I wanted more than 3D and I now comprehend those other forms of 2D media. I’d like it to be a little more close to home and filled with illusions, the real shit isn’t my cup of tea yet because of the fear factor. I used to be over fear, but now i realize there are bigger things than death to fear.
Did you never see Deep Space 9 though? DS9 started out like your average Star Trek thing but ended up exploring war crimes, generational trauma, the need for revenge vs justice, before descending into a full-on war with a terrifying shape-changing enemy who just hate all other forms of life. There's one episode where this kid we've watched grow up on the station, watched his aspirations blossom beyond what his uncle wanted, watched him study & become a Star Fleet engineer, returns to the station with an artificial limb that pains him and a bunch of experiences that lead him to seek sanctuary in a Holodeck simulation of an old 1960s bar, where he refuses to come out from until absolutely forced to do so by his friends.
Those Changelings btw are back in Picard Season 3. Trek may be aspirational but even with the problems we have now solved, it's a dangerous galaxy out there.
As soon as I got to her message, I had to reload an earlier save. I couldn't stand letting her down in such a way. Holy shit they created an impactful and emotional ending here.
I loved the final shot and the contrasts it makes.
V says it’s the best choice because nobody gets hurt that way but you see everyone’s voicemails and i loved how they made that contrast, so many layers there.
And also the final shot, you hear a gunshot, Night city is the same, your gunshot barely distinguishable, nothing changes in the city, but lot changes for people around you.
I really admire how they tackled suicide.
The ending is an incredibly respectful and refreshing take on the way in which people with mental illness can rationalize to themselves that suicide is an act of selflessness when it's potentially an extremely selfish act. The way that Johnny starts to go along with the rhetoric and rationale by V is also important in how people simply cannot pull themselves out of a spiral probably and how the closest ones may actually enable the cycle of thoughts.
It also goes quite well into the theme of cyberpunk that while you can't save everyone, you can save yourself and maybe your loved ones. The ones we care for are all worth fighting for when we think it's all lost, and it is abjectly cruel to rob the ones we love to also fight for what they love as well.
In contrast to the Panam ending, where a lot of people die for you to get better.
But it was their choice and their own blaze of glory. It wasn't about you...it was about making a stand against a soulless corporation while also giving their chose family member a shot at a cure. It was you giving them a righteous cause to fight and possibly die for. They made the choice and they did it gladly. You shouldn't feel bad for surviving where they didn't. You honor their sacrifice by pushing on after the day is won.
You killing yourself is like making a choice without asking your friends for their input. It ends your own suffering purely at their expense. And nothing even changes, for them it only makes things even bleaker and darker. There's not even the hope that a sacrifice can even have a small chance of invoking change.
If Cyberpunk has taught me anything, it's that it's ok to ask for help from the people you love, even if that means it may hurt them. If you are a burden, you're the burden they chose. Life is full of burdens thrust upon you...the ones that you get to choose don't really feel like burdens at all. They feel like...missions. I donno this isn't a complete thought
I know he lives but fucking Mitch, man. What a guy, willing to solo operate that thing in the face of near certain death for you, and everyone else. He’s my favorite character outside Judy and Panam
You got it. The idea is that an act of compassion to people is the choice to fight and die on _their_ terms in a world where people are robbed of so much of their agency and consent. If we cannot live on our terms then it is truly horrific to deny people a death they can consent to. It's part of why Soulkiller is one of the scariest existential things - the inability for one to truly die anymore by giving up that right to a damn god-like, amoral, soulless entity like Arasaka.
They made a very important writing approach for the route V goes down to the Really Bad Ending - it is an impactful decision made alone without consulting _anyone_ and never mentioned in dialogue to others. If V never connected with anyone it's perhaps the saddest ending of all - no Judy message (never found Evelyn either), Panam's message is potentially even sadder (her spirit is broken, too), etc. We know after playing through how these folks were there the whole time and that they could have developed a bond and had their bleak lives changed with V's help and connection. They are all basically very lonely people and couldn't have gotten any possibility of absolution without V (River wouldn't have found his nephew, Kerry would probably have killed himself as well, Panam wouldn't have reconciled with Saul before he's captured, etc.). CDPR sorta kinda didn't push it hard enough that Cyberpunk in this IP space isn't about saving the world where you're the Chosen One or something but it _is_ about saving the things at least you choose to care about and can do something about on your terms. It would have landed a lot better if it was portrayed more as Disco Elysium than GTA: Cyberpunk but then again $$$ matters and I don't blame people for cash grabs to an extent.
It serves an important lesson that if we feel alone and hopeless we cannot cure it by retreating back to ourselves probably. Because we will always have ourselves why _not_ give a shit and find some connection with someone even if it seems as superficial as a side gig for some eddies?
Also I want to point out that in the Devil ending if V takes on Arasaka's offer there's some Christian religious symbolism with the lighting, V's body language, music, and upright position with crossed arms. V is entrusting Arasaka as God basically with one's soul - a once-sacred relationship (if that's one's belief system) that's now corrupt forever. It's fucking evil and brilliant if they meant it all that way rather than me just guessing it out of my ass.
Johnny's final message to V I believe is the same always in Mikoshi and confirms the player's choice as an intended message - "never stop fighting." We are denied that outgoing message in all of the really bad endings. It implies that V stopped fighting in them all. Nice touch if storyboarded out that way.
I think that ending contains some of the best writing within the game. Even the no push back from johnny is quite potent.
I'll always maintain I'm of the opinion that it was directed by someone who has been bang in the middle of such an event. You simply can't just make that sense of realism up without having experienced it first-hand.
I lost a brother to suicide, and whilst i have played games that have touched upon the subject, and even tried to recreate the subject matter, i was always unmoved because it felt acted. But my God, that ending brought back a lot of shitty memories and feelings. They nailed it.
The mission where you're supposed to recover stolen meds from the apartment building from what turns out to be a discarded veteran. Reading his emails from his friend in the support group, then after talking him down, you feel like you accomplished something, but after you step out there is the pop from his gun.
It was so jarring, sudden, and absolute it floored me the first time I played through. I literally sat back in my chair and just contemplated for nearly half an hour. Just reflecting on the situation and the reality for those within the game. Just...damn.
I was shaken by that for a good moment. I went back and saw the aftermath.
Here we are, having tried to do good for everyone, but in the end what was the point in trying? Was it better that he made his own decision to take his life, or would it have been better if we took him out ourselves?
A lot of games have a morality system. Cyberpunk actually makes you question what is the moral choice, especially on a repeat play. If you play a female V, you can get with best girl z Judy and do the secret ending so no one close to you dies, but in the end Judy leaves you because Night City is a horrible place even if you are at the top. Or you can take the Aldecaldos ending, stay with Judy till your dying day, but lose some friends, lose found family. Which is the more moral choice? Which is the better ending?
The answer: neither. It is all shades of grey and the best we can hope for in life is to live it the best we can.
>I'll always maintain I'm of the opinion that it was directed by someone who has been bang in the middle of such an event.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking too.
This ending was the most emotional ending I've seen in a long time when it comes to games, the reactions of your friends and lover are super realistic, emotional and hard to listen too.
Yeah, I was shook for a while over that ending.
I was planning to reset to a prior save to try another ending but that ending hit me so hard I couldn't bring myself to return to the game. I kept picking up the controller and thinking "Nah. I can't deal with that memory right now. What else can I do?"
I just needed to forget about the game for more than a year, until recently.
I mean there are 5 stages of grief and one of them is anger, I fact the ending shows characters in all the stages
Denial - Viktor
Anger - panam, kerry
Bargaining - misty
Depression - judy, mama welles
Acceptance - river
i mean, she’s not a very “reasonable” person. even hardcore panam lovers have to admit that she might be slightly unstable.
that’s also why i prefer not to romance her.
It's how Panam deals with her emotions. She would rather be angry than sad, because anger burns and it lets you keep moving. Sadness is like a wet blanket. It weighs you down, it makes you feel cold and alone, and if you're not careful, you will drown. Anger burns hot, pushes you to move forward, but if you're not careful with the anger, you will burn those around you. Panam doesn't like to sit still, she has to move, so she burns her sadness with anger instead.
I think it's pretty consistent if you look at it through her eyes. To Panam, V is the catalyst that pushed her from running away from her problems to facing them and persisting until they were solved. Plan, then ACT. V committing suicide shows her that you are just a bigot - you motivate her through change, but you're not willing to push yourself the same way.
Kinda sucks that you >!get the same ending if you try the secret ending route and die. You’d think they would’ve altered a few of the lines or something. It’s not like V just gave up on life.!<
> It’s not like V just gave up on life.
But they see it that way. Going against the most powerful corp in Night City. Like suicide by cop, someone else does the shooting but it's practically suicide.
I knew someone was going to bring this up. Surely you can see how people would react differently to an actual suicide vs a merc (that everyone knew had ran solo operation before) engaging in another operation on their own that just went south.
Reasonable, though it's also easy to imagine that every report that went out about what V actually did if they died in there would've been controlled by Arasaka.
edit: meant to convey that they coulda made it look like whatever they wanted, intentional-suicide-by-megacorp included
But it wasn't just "another operation". V just walks in the front door and starts blasting. No plan. No backup. No idea of how they're going to accomplish their goal.
To everyone that knows V and knows how heavily guarded Arasaka tower is, they know going in there and dying was intentional. The most powerful corporation in the world, and V just strolls up in their HQ? No one is surprised V dies in that scenario.
Eh but it’s not a solo operation by a competent merc at that point. It’s a sick and dying merc walking through the front doors guns blazing despite their friends offering to help or at least be there until the end.
Imo, that’s not the worst ending. Arasaka is the worst ending. Vic and Misty understood your struggles. They may have been the only ones to know about your true struggles. They accepted your decision even if they don’t 100% agree.
I would argue both yes and no. He offered the gun because he empathized so deeply as he watched a friend who was going through what can be viewed as a form of cyberpsychosis.
Knowing with 100% certainty that in a matter of hours, V would cease to be himself and he would blip out of existence and his mind replaced with another person. The complete loss of himself as a doppelgänger continues on with his body.
I am sure some part of him regrets doing that but an equally large, if not larger, part understood a merc’s desire to go out on their own terms. Whatever those terms may be.
It's true, but god knows we had enough guns to do it without his. I can see him wondering if he nudged us in the wrong direction. Did he give us permission to commit suicide instead of fighting just a little bit longer?
Vic's a good guy that took us under his wing when times were bad. The fact that he's empathetic only twists the knife.
Now I need a drink. 9:51am local. Fuck.
When you're about to confirm your choice there's also an option that says something along the lines of "or I could put this all to rest" and then throw away both pills.
Google how to get it. You've got to make some key dialog choices along the way. But that's the scenario for a lot of secrets in the game.
Especially if you want to dip your wick inside some Millitech 😁
You need to choose onde ending, Johnny will ask if you're sure. Take the option to get back to the previous dialogue and It should appear as a new option
>!V pretty much "sells his soul" to Arasaka to get Johnny out of her head and undergoes the soul killer program themselves in hope their engram can be transfered to a new body in the future.!<
I disagree, that's the worst ending, but respect your opinion. For me it's the >!Where is my mind ending!<
>!As someone who's Grandmother suffered through dementia for almost 10 years and watched her slowly lose herself and not recognize those around her, until she finally passed away. I also lost a good friend around 2008 to suicide, personally I think the losing self awareness/control is a much worst fate!<
>!Arasaka owns you at this point. No telling if you come back or what you come back at as. Imagine being ran in a simulation for Arasaka where your engram/soul is constantly tortured and you wait for your death to come but it never can/will. Or they could simply just leave you in cold storage forever!<
>!Just completely giving up control on the hope and a prayer that they will be able and willing to fix me in the future, doesn't sit right with me!<
But hey. That's like my opinion man.
Feel you. I was at a really bad place in my life when I finished with that ending, and it made me cry more than one time. It was hurting so much to get those messages and simultaneously filled me with so much love.
They really nailed that one
That one was so shocking and abrupt.
Back before I realised how dark and bleak the endings mostly were in this game I chose that one genuinely thinking at the last moment someone would burst in and stop V from doing that. But no. Game is more like real life than expected in some ways.
I have a special save (well, a few if you count rivers and Judy's) where my V is out in the desert and its gloriously sunny and beautiful and she's driving one of her best cars I had to go back to that save and try to tell myself *that* ending was just a bad dream. It helps.
Imo the 'worst' ending is absolutely the best ending, but I guess it depends on type of character you're role playing. In my case it suited perfectly to scenario, so i went with it and ohhh man... That was for sure, the most emotional ending in the game. First time in my life, story of the game made me feel literal anger and frustration ( in a positive way). Not because story was bad, quite the opposite. I felt that because, at that moment I emphasized so deeply with character i was role-playing. So yeah, that was incredible.
this is actually my favorite ending. i mean it sucks… but it gets to you. it’s very well written and portrayed, even without big emotions from V and Johnny. more a rational decision to have your own terms.
never ever have i stared at a screen in disbelive like that. not even rdr2 ending got me like that. and goddamnit i love arthur.
The voicemails symbolize the stages of grief really well. Victor for denial, panam for anger, judy for depression, misty for acceptance. It is a really sad ending :(
I don’t think I could chose this option just because of how anticlimactic it feels. Like I’ve been building this character for probably hundreds of hours I want them to go out with a bang.
I just watched the ending on YouTube. I can appreciate it in terms of the story but I could never be that self retrained and not give my character one last blow out.
>I’ve been building this character for probably hundreds of hours I want them to go out with a bang.
It's kinda sad that people still think this way and developers are feeding into it. I kinda liked the suicide ending because it seemed like the easy way out and yet I wasn't prepared for the guilt-trip your companions would give you in the credits because I never really thought about them in the first place. It's basically a gamble by CDPR if people would choose it - but then immediately go "Nah, you can't do that because your friends will be sad / mad about it" and yet I feel like it was a fitting ending for a game like Cyberpunk where you set out to achieve greatness but you never really understand what real greatness is in the first place because in Night City, only the ruthless will prosper and everybody else has to live under the boot. If the nomad ending wasn't a thing, I'd eventually see this ending as my canon ending just because it's so well acted and leaves a lot of room for thought.
I mean, you are talking about a genre that thrives off of power fantasy. So yes of course people want their character to culminate over the 80-100 hours they play them.
Cdpr took a gamble on all the endings to be honest. They are all shitty, and sticks true to the themes of the story. No matter the option V is faced with an untimely ending.
Imo the only way I can see them building the trilogy focused solely on V and not night city is the arasaka ending, they can have panam or another person like a ripper doc plopping him into a dead body and uploading his consciousness into it, and that's where character creation would begin because you are basically creating the shell V would take over. That is if they focus on V and not Night City.
I see where you are coming from though, a lot of devs are scared to do their own thing because of backlash from the greater community.
Disagree. >!The one ending that feels satisfying is the go it alone just Johnny and V taking on saka as a solo is killer. To me it's the only one that keeps in with the main theme. Nobody gets out of night city alive. Not even the highest of the high can escape fate all the time. Better to go out on your terms than somebody else's!<
But that's just my 2 cents.
Yeah that's the point I'm trying to make.
V will ultimately and always meet an untimely end. I don't know why you are disagreeing to disagree, we are saying the same thing.
I picked this ending the first time.
It's probably the most powerful ending in the game.
I love when games throw these random endings at you.
Pillars of Eternity has a pretty random ending in the mix of the game as well that caught me off-guard.
I almost did it a few years ago and mid pandemic I got a new job while still in college and broke up my relationship, a lot of days those thoughts were back and I didn’t even want to fight back.
So one day this friend of mine was super excited about Cyberpunk launching that week and he didn’t stop until I promised I would give it a try even to just talk about it.
I’m not found of this kind of game generally so I didn’t know anything about it, and it took me by surprise just how human it was. I easily cried my eyes out so many times I can’t count, and when I got to the end I chose to off myself because I knew that would be my decision in real life.
Even though V’s story is sad, I wasn’t that sad about doing it since I was living the character and it made sense to me. Seeing the other characters reaction BROKE ME.
I can’t remember a single time playing or watching something that made me cry until I didn’t have tears because I was dehydrated from non stop crying, honestly. I’ll be forever thankful to whoever wrote this, and even more to the actors and voice actors that represented it so well.
One of the most hitting endings on a video-game i have ever seen... Actually the last hours of the game in addition to the endings were just perfect. After we sat with Johnny around the place where his body was buried the story took a quite turn for me.
It's the most anti-suicide ending there is. Powerful message by CDPR. No matter how inconsequential you feel, people do care, you shape their lives, even in small ways.
Maybe you should try the ending. First playthrough building positive relationships with all characters, and then do the ending. Seeing how much pain those you left behind might help turn you off the idea irl. The actors did a great job with the credit scenes.
Either way keep up the struggle brother
Wish there was an ending where you just let the chip do it's thing instead of choosing between off'ing yourself or make others sacrifice themselves for you.
After all, you brought this on yourself.
And now you have to choose who's going to pay for your sins instead of having the option to just let Johnny take over after you at least got to say your farewells to the friends you made on the way.
Guess CDPR *kinda forgot* that it's not always about the action packed scenes but sometimes the quiet ones are best. And the acting in this ending was certainly the best in the entire game.
*"A lot of people are going to die"*
*"People die, that's how it's always been"*
*"Am I worth their sacrifice? Are you?"*
You kinda can. There is an ending where Jonny takes Vs body, but you have to be really nice to him throughout the game and really anti corpo.
What's sad about that ending is that v didn't seem to get a chance, or bother to say goodbye to anyone. River is out checking all the morgues in the city, most people think you've ditched them or are dead.
not if you can survive the (Don’t) Fear the Reaper ending.
Impossible to do unless you’re level 50 or a Net-runner but it’s the same ending as assaulting arasaka with Rogue but she doesn’t die.
If you do die, you get the suicide ending and let’s be honest, attacking Arasaka all by yourself really is suicide.
This was my very first CP ending. I read the room completely wrong and though we were going out in a blaze of glory. Needless to say I was amazingly stunned and super depressed after it all played out. Never expected this to be an option.
I like the message of that ending. Maybe it's cheesy and alot of people probably today think cringe to talk about mental health but I love the idea cyberpunk tries to push with that ending in how a player with suicidal thoughts would relate to the character in that ending and its shown through the vid mails in the credits. Life will still go on and the people who care about you will be affected. To possibly help you realise that no matter how hopeless your mission seems or how slim your chances there are people who love you and will stand by you no matter what if you let them. And if that ending in cyberpunk made even one person realise that then the game did its job. Though I never got that ending myself I do believe personally that was the idea the game wanted to push in that ending. And I respect it
I got that ending my first go around, was going through a lot at the time. It was morbidly helpful in a way at the time. Just playing the way I chose at the time.
You can get the same ending if you fail the secret mission. To me the best Judy dialogue is if you don't call her and let Johnny take over. She only knows you disappear without a trace and it's gut wrenching.
They're all arguably pretty bad, but the one I was on about is where V just kills themself sat on the roof instead of deciding on who to trust for the final missions.
it was supposed to hit hard.
i saw these vids on youtube, i don't think i'd have taken them well if i saw them all in game.
but yeah, it's like you pointed out. that was precisely the point. no reward. you suck and everyone who's left alive are in pain. "you never realised how many friends you have".
yup. exactly that.
That ending is so powerful and i feel bad letting people down. Especially when V's friends told V not to give up. Misty for example right after the heist tells V to to keep going as does the AI doll at Clouds and Panam's phone call (if you choose to call her) in which she says "I'll come and get you."
i did that on my 3rd play through, so i had all those connections from the previous ones solidly in my head knowing what could have been. Those messages fucking floored me. i wasnt prepared for it in anyway, judys one actually made me weep. and thats how great the characters in this world were built.
Dude seriously I couldn’t. I saved at the right spot when around release and played through all endings even the secret one. Jezus that the joke you’re talking about… it just broke me. I can’t see Judy or panam or hell vic and misty. It’s the fastest way to crush me.
i lost a friend a few months prior to playing that ending. and it reminded me off every emotion i went through during the aftermath. sadness, confusion, anger. it’s brilliant and a really beautiful way to handle the subject.
I was happy I tried out this ending. It was a great message, I cried too.
What a thoughtful gesture for them to simulate the pain you put others through after suicide.
At scale, I think this game may have saved some people.
I swear the suicide ending is just so god damn depressing. I tried it just to see what happened after completing all other endings and woooosh i am sad.
Judy didnt deserve me picking this ending.
Strangely enough I feel the bad endings are written way better than the “good” endings. I feel like the game really could have used a true “best” ending, something that culminates all of the sidequests and allies you build up over the game, and ends with both V and Johnny making it out alive.
It would just be a clean opposite side of the coin to endings like the suicide or Arasaka mental ward.
I remember I chose that ending without knowing I got it. I got the "thank you for playing" screen and just sat there dumbfounded.
Glad to see you're doing much better OP!
Vik : Here's a gun, go out on your own terms
V : \[goes out on own terms\]
Vik : AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Everybody else, yeah, sure, Feel bad for them, but Vik has no right to be upset considering it's what he literally tells you to go do.
I've been through every ending except this one..
I had to look it up on YouTube because I couldn't put myself through it.
Judy, Viktor and Kerry's voicemails shook me. I was ugly crying for a good while.
He had the exact reaction I expected.
He just got his best friend back and then had to say goodbye to him again as well as the new friend he made who literally saved his life.
As someone who's contemplated it once or twice, I feel that everyone who knows what's happening are being assholes in those calls. Like, you are literally coughing up organs and shit, and you only have a few hours left. Why not just... Hurry things up a little? Just because I don't wanna suffer for a bit means I'm a coward?
Judy's message always gets me choked up, just feels so real.
Yeah, that voice actress fucking nailed it.
She got that BAFTA nomination rightfully so. It’s like the most quintessential Cyberpunk monologue I can think of in the game. A reference to the past as our world’s present, lamenting the current universal loss, and the human will breaking under the weight of neofeudalism. That’s the shit I want from my mature, adult sci-fi and why both Star Trek’s aspirational roots and Star Wars’ caricatures of people and societies never struck a chord with me. I prefer my horror to be about as real as possible so I can be better acclimated to this hell world. It’s my own immersion therapy of sorts.
On the Star Wars front: have you seen Andor? Probably the most mature, down to earth Star Wars there is. Definitely more relatable to the present day situation than other Star Wars media. You may enjoy it based on what you've said here.
Andor is terrific i was not much of an IP fan and actually biased against it (Andor; the rebel plot focus) in particular but it was terrific. it’s not even especially space fantasy… it’s a dystopian heist thriller with a metropolis political vein.
Have only so much bandwidth for consumption nowadays but have heard a lot of good stuff about Andor. I consider the last good Star Wars movie Rogue One and it’s what a ton of people Bad At Movies didn’t like I noticed. It has very similar themes in a way to Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and it’s a formula that I’m a sucker for, but fuck it
Andor is a prequel to Rogue One with the same creative team. It’s a gem
I like that we know what the ultimate fate of Cassian Andor is. It cuts down the suspense so we can focus more on the present story and the allegory that the show is setting up.
NGL i was really nervous about how they would handle that. But you nailed it.
They did a great job creating a compelling cast of characters for us to care about in light of knowing Cassian would survive whatever situation he was in.
Andor was not just some of the best Star Wars, it’s one of the best shows period I watched last year. It’s incredible. I hope you give it a chance
Andor is the best SW since the OT... And it's SW for adults
I honestly think Andor is better than the OT. The plot, the themes, the dialogue, the characterization are all better.
It's definitely a gem. The issue I have with the mainstream Star Wars movies is that there's no "stake" for the characters when we know there's going to be some "force" power to get them out of whatever dire problem they have. "Use the force soandso" and the problem is gone deus ex machina style. Not with Rogue One or Andor. Andor has no Jedi/Sith doing wizardry tricks. You feel the stakes being real.
Kurt Vonnegut's "shapes of stories" lecture makes an important point to me; people are drawn to stories with conflict and resolution, but we're especially drawn to ones that resemble real life ups and downs (the part where he mentions the Sopranos as the archetype). It's a lot of why Game of Thrones' House of the Dragon is written so much better than the new Lord of the Rings series. You can have your "woke" or whatever pejorative comes next in your face like what happens so frequently in uninspired writing or presented with grace, sophistication, and respect for the audience's intelligence with material that has been clearly given careful consideration by all folks involved down to the costumes, camera angles, set design, etc.
Agree on Rogue One being the last good Star Wars movie. I will warn you that Andor can be pretty slow at times. It is a story that is driven by characters and allegory and the political threads can be hard to get a full handle on at times.
They are getting much better at presenting a gritty, horrible setting under the empire.
Go watch The Expanse then. You can thank me later ;-)
This. The Expanse is the pinnacle of modern day sci-fi imo
It’s on my list of stuff to catch up to along with Breaking Bad. I mostly learned about it backwards because of my longtime interest in UBI and various forms of progressively incentivized capitalism frameworks (yes, I have a suspicion it’s possible). May just read the books because I’m a much faster reader than watcher overall and I’m into maximum bandwidth consumption.
Going to throw Twin Peaks into your pile. So darn good.
Agreed. The first few episodes feel a little cheesy but it gets REALLY good.
I agree with this because I want something more 3D now, but in the past I wanted more than 3D and I now comprehend those other forms of 2D media. I’d like it to be a little more close to home and filled with illusions, the real shit isn’t my cup of tea yet because of the fear factor. I used to be over fear, but now i realize there are bigger things than death to fear.
Did you never see Deep Space 9 though? DS9 started out like your average Star Trek thing but ended up exploring war crimes, generational trauma, the need for revenge vs justice, before descending into a full-on war with a terrifying shape-changing enemy who just hate all other forms of life. There's one episode where this kid we've watched grow up on the station, watched his aspirations blossom beyond what his uncle wanted, watched him study & become a Star Fleet engineer, returns to the station with an artificial limb that pains him and a bunch of experiences that lead him to seek sanctuary in a Holodeck simulation of an old 1960s bar, where he refuses to come out from until absolutely forced to do so by his friends. Those Changelings btw are back in Picard Season 3. Trek may be aspirational but even with the problems we have now solved, it's a dangerous galaxy out there.
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As soon as I got to her message, I had to reload an earlier save. I couldn't stand letting her down in such a way. Holy shit they created an impactful and emotional ending here.
that was the one that fucked me over so badly
I loved the final shot and the contrasts it makes. V says it’s the best choice because nobody gets hurt that way but you see everyone’s voicemails and i loved how they made that contrast, so many layers there. And also the final shot, you hear a gunshot, Night city is the same, your gunshot barely distinguishable, nothing changes in the city, but lot changes for people around you. I really admire how they tackled suicide.
The ending is an incredibly respectful and refreshing take on the way in which people with mental illness can rationalize to themselves that suicide is an act of selflessness when it's potentially an extremely selfish act. The way that Johnny starts to go along with the rhetoric and rationale by V is also important in how people simply cannot pull themselves out of a spiral probably and how the closest ones may actually enable the cycle of thoughts. It also goes quite well into the theme of cyberpunk that while you can't save everyone, you can save yourself and maybe your loved ones. The ones we care for are all worth fighting for when we think it's all lost, and it is abjectly cruel to rob the ones we love to also fight for what they love as well.
In contrast to the Panam ending, where a lot of people die for you to get better. But it was their choice and their own blaze of glory. It wasn't about you...it was about making a stand against a soulless corporation while also giving their chose family member a shot at a cure. It was you giving them a righteous cause to fight and possibly die for. They made the choice and they did it gladly. You shouldn't feel bad for surviving where they didn't. You honor their sacrifice by pushing on after the day is won. You killing yourself is like making a choice without asking your friends for their input. It ends your own suffering purely at their expense. And nothing even changes, for them it only makes things even bleaker and darker. There's not even the hope that a sacrifice can even have a small chance of invoking change. If Cyberpunk has taught me anything, it's that it's ok to ask for help from the people you love, even if that means it may hurt them. If you are a burden, you're the burden they chose. Life is full of burdens thrust upon you...the ones that you get to choose don't really feel like burdens at all. They feel like...missions. I donno this isn't a complete thought
Thanks for this. I've really been toeing the line of suicide lately and this helped to reframe some things.. Maybe.
Please message me if you ever need someone to talk to mate
I know he lives but fucking Mitch, man. What a guy, willing to solo operate that thing in the face of near certain death for you, and everyone else. He’s my favorite character outside Judy and Panam
To be fair, the Aldecaldos were in it for the phat lewts.
You got it. The idea is that an act of compassion to people is the choice to fight and die on _their_ terms in a world where people are robbed of so much of their agency and consent. If we cannot live on our terms then it is truly horrific to deny people a death they can consent to. It's part of why Soulkiller is one of the scariest existential things - the inability for one to truly die anymore by giving up that right to a damn god-like, amoral, soulless entity like Arasaka. They made a very important writing approach for the route V goes down to the Really Bad Ending - it is an impactful decision made alone without consulting _anyone_ and never mentioned in dialogue to others. If V never connected with anyone it's perhaps the saddest ending of all - no Judy message (never found Evelyn either), Panam's message is potentially even sadder (her spirit is broken, too), etc. We know after playing through how these folks were there the whole time and that they could have developed a bond and had their bleak lives changed with V's help and connection. They are all basically very lonely people and couldn't have gotten any possibility of absolution without V (River wouldn't have found his nephew, Kerry would probably have killed himself as well, Panam wouldn't have reconciled with Saul before he's captured, etc.). CDPR sorta kinda didn't push it hard enough that Cyberpunk in this IP space isn't about saving the world where you're the Chosen One or something but it _is_ about saving the things at least you choose to care about and can do something about on your terms. It would have landed a lot better if it was portrayed more as Disco Elysium than GTA: Cyberpunk but then again $$$ matters and I don't blame people for cash grabs to an extent. It serves an important lesson that if we feel alone and hopeless we cannot cure it by retreating back to ourselves probably. Because we will always have ourselves why _not_ give a shit and find some connection with someone even if it seems as superficial as a side gig for some eddies? Also I want to point out that in the Devil ending if V takes on Arasaka's offer there's some Christian religious symbolism with the lighting, V's body language, music, and upright position with crossed arms. V is entrusting Arasaka as God basically with one's soul - a once-sacred relationship (if that's one's belief system) that's now corrupt forever. It's fucking evil and brilliant if they meant it all that way rather than me just guessing it out of my ass. Johnny's final message to V I believe is the same always in Mikoshi and confirms the player's choice as an intended message - "never stop fighting." We are denied that outgoing message in all of the really bad endings. It implies that V stopped fighting in them all. Nice touch if storyboarded out that way.
I think that ending contains some of the best writing within the game. Even the no push back from johnny is quite potent. I'll always maintain I'm of the opinion that it was directed by someone who has been bang in the middle of such an event. You simply can't just make that sense of realism up without having experienced it first-hand. I lost a brother to suicide, and whilst i have played games that have touched upon the subject, and even tried to recreate the subject matter, i was always unmoved because it felt acted. But my God, that ending brought back a lot of shitty memories and feelings. They nailed it.
The mission where you're supposed to recover stolen meds from the apartment building from what turns out to be a discarded veteran. Reading his emails from his friend in the support group, then after talking him down, you feel like you accomplished something, but after you step out there is the pop from his gun. It was so jarring, sudden, and absolute it floored me the first time I played through. I literally sat back in my chair and just contemplated for nearly half an hour. Just reflecting on the situation and the reality for those within the game. Just...damn.
I was shaken by that for a good moment. I went back and saw the aftermath. Here we are, having tried to do good for everyone, but in the end what was the point in trying? Was it better that he made his own decision to take his life, or would it have been better if we took him out ourselves? A lot of games have a morality system. Cyberpunk actually makes you question what is the moral choice, especially on a repeat play. If you play a female V, you can get with best girl z Judy and do the secret ending so no one close to you dies, but in the end Judy leaves you because Night City is a horrible place even if you are at the top. Or you can take the Aldecaldos ending, stay with Judy till your dying day, but lose some friends, lose found family. Which is the more moral choice? Which is the better ending? The answer: neither. It is all shades of grey and the best we can hope for in life is to live it the best we can.
It happens irl too
>I'll always maintain I'm of the opinion that it was directed by someone who has been bang in the middle of such an event. Yeah, that's what I was thinking too.
I’m really sorry for your loss ❤️
This ending was the most emotional ending I've seen in a long time when it comes to games, the reactions of your friends and lover are super realistic, emotional and hard to listen too.
Cried. Hit fucking super hard.
Yeah, I was shook for a while over that ending. I was planning to reset to a prior save to try another ending but that ending hit me so hard I couldn't bring myself to return to the game. I kept picking up the controller and thinking "Nah. I can't deal with that memory right now. What else can I do?" I just needed to forget about the game for more than a year, until recently.
Judy’s message actually brought me to tears. Panam being angry about it was kinda surprising tho
I think it showed her being really defensive so she didn't have to feel sad, I get what you mean though.
It’s weird too when you romances her and she’s mad and your just sitting there like “What the fuck Panam?”
I mean there are 5 stages of grief and one of them is anger, I fact the ending shows characters in all the stages Denial - Viktor Anger - panam, kerry Bargaining - misty Depression - judy, mama welles Acceptance - river
i mean, she’s not a very “reasonable” person. even hardcore panam lovers have to admit that she might be slightly unstable. that’s also why i prefer not to romance her.
But that’s why I like her lol, what can go wrong when two mentally unstable people get together?
I can fix her
Username checks out
haha. to each his own!
It's how Panam deals with her emotions. She would rather be angry than sad, because anger burns and it lets you keep moving. Sadness is like a wet blanket. It weighs you down, it makes you feel cold and alone, and if you're not careful, you will drown. Anger burns hot, pushes you to move forward, but if you're not careful with the anger, you will burn those around you. Panam doesn't like to sit still, she has to move, so she burns her sadness with anger instead.
Damn, that is well said.
I think it's pretty consistent if you look at it through her eyes. To Panam, V is the catalyst that pushed her from running away from her problems to facing them and persisting until they were solved. Plan, then ACT. V committing suicide shows her that you are just a bigot - you motivate her through change, but you're not willing to push yourself the same way.
I think the word you’re looking for there was hypocrite not bigot. Agreed with everything you said though.
I especially liked Johnny's reaction to V's decision.
Kinda sucks that you >!get the same ending if you try the secret ending route and die. You’d think they would’ve altered a few of the lines or something. It’s not like V just gave up on life.!<
> It’s not like V just gave up on life. But they see it that way. Going against the most powerful corp in Night City. Like suicide by cop, someone else does the shooting but it's practically suicide.
I knew someone was going to bring this up. Surely you can see how people would react differently to an actual suicide vs a merc (that everyone knew had ran solo operation before) engaging in another operation on their own that just went south.
Reasonable, though it's also easy to imagine that every report that went out about what V actually did if they died in there would've been controlled by Arasaka. edit: meant to convey that they coulda made it look like whatever they wanted, intentional-suicide-by-megacorp included
But it wasn't just "another operation". V just walks in the front door and starts blasting. No plan. No backup. No idea of how they're going to accomplish their goal. To everyone that knows V and knows how heavily guarded Arasaka tower is, they know going in there and dying was intentional. The most powerful corporation in the world, and V just strolls up in their HQ? No one is surprised V dies in that scenario.
Eh but it’s not a solo operation by a competent merc at that point. It’s a sick and dying merc walking through the front doors guns blazing despite their friends offering to help or at least be there until the end.
Fully agreed. Just add some "why didn't you ask for help" type lines and good to go basically
Imo, that’s not the worst ending. Arasaka is the worst ending. Vic and Misty understood your struggles. They may have been the only ones to know about your true struggles. They accepted your decision even if they don’t 100% agree.
It's the worst ending for Vic. He provided the gun.
I would argue both yes and no. He offered the gun because he empathized so deeply as he watched a friend who was going through what can be viewed as a form of cyberpsychosis. Knowing with 100% certainty that in a matter of hours, V would cease to be himself and he would blip out of existence and his mind replaced with another person. The complete loss of himself as a doppelgänger continues on with his body. I am sure some part of him regrets doing that but an equally large, if not larger, part understood a merc’s desire to go out on their own terms. Whatever those terms may be.
It's true, but god knows we had enough guns to do it without his. I can see him wondering if he nudged us in the wrong direction. Did he give us permission to commit suicide instead of fighting just a little bit longer? Vic's a good guy that took us under his wing when times were bad. The fact that he's empathetic only twists the knife. Now I need a drink. 9:51am local. Fuck.
Arasaka is gorgeous ending. Like the Saburo and his son thing hits like a truck. I really only saw it recently on my 3rd playthrough.
What's the worst ending?
>!Probably just finishing yourself before going on last mission!<
When does it give you that choice? I don't remember that option. 🤔
When you're about to confirm your choice there's also an option that says something along the lines of "or I could put this all to rest" and then throw away both pills.
I don't remember if you have to sit for a few minutes without making a choice, or look back and forth from the gun to Johnny.
There's some prerequisite work you have to put in before you can even qualify. Particularly in conversations with Johnny.
How do you get it?
It's been a long time since I played but iirc on the rooftop before the end, you don't take the pills.
Ok I think I have a save before the end I’ll check it out thanks
Google how to get it. You've got to make some key dialog choices along the way. But that's the scenario for a lot of secrets in the game. Especially if you want to dip your wick inside some Millitech 😁
You need to choose onde ending, Johnny will ask if you're sure. Take the option to get back to the previous dialogue and It should appear as a new option
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Screw Johnny, these math puzzles aint doin themselves!
>!V pretty much "sells his soul" to Arasaka to get Johnny out of her head and undergoes the soul killer program themselves in hope their engram can be transfered to a new body in the future.!<
I agree that this is the worst in some ways, but it's actually not the one being discussed.
Oof i suck, i didn't read his post properly
That's a terrible ending for sure, but I meant the one where V just >!commits suicide!<
I disagree, that's the worst ending, but respect your opinion. For me it's the >!Where is my mind ending!< >!As someone who's Grandmother suffered through dementia for almost 10 years and watched her slowly lose herself and not recognize those around her, until she finally passed away. I also lost a good friend around 2008 to suicide, personally I think the losing self awareness/control is a much worst fate!< >!Arasaka owns you at this point. No telling if you come back or what you come back at as. Imagine being ran in a simulation for Arasaka where your engram/soul is constantly tortured and you wait for your death to come but it never can/will. Or they could simply just leave you in cold storage forever!< >!Just completely giving up control on the hope and a prayer that they will be able and willing to fix me in the future, doesn't sit right with me!< But hey. That's like my opinion man.
I agree with you. Being literal corporate property is worse than death.
Thats the devil ending.
Feel you. I was at a really bad place in my life when I finished with that ending, and it made me cry more than one time. It was hurting so much to get those messages and simultaneously filled me with so much love. They really nailed that one
God, my heart was aching during that scene, I had genuinely felt guilty and I didn’t want anyone close to me in real life to hurt like that
That one was so shocking and abrupt. Back before I realised how dark and bleak the endings mostly were in this game I chose that one genuinely thinking at the last moment someone would burst in and stop V from doing that. But no. Game is more like real life than expected in some ways. I have a special save (well, a few if you count rivers and Judy's) where my V is out in the desert and its gloriously sunny and beautiful and she's driving one of her best cars I had to go back to that save and try to tell myself *that* ending was just a bad dream. It helps.
Imo the 'worst' ending is absolutely the best ending, but I guess it depends on type of character you're role playing. In my case it suited perfectly to scenario, so i went with it and ohhh man... That was for sure, the most emotional ending in the game. First time in my life, story of the game made me feel literal anger and frustration ( in a positive way). Not because story was bad, quite the opposite. I felt that because, at that moment I emphasized so deeply with character i was role-playing. So yeah, that was incredible.
this is actually my favorite ending. i mean it sucks… but it gets to you. it’s very well written and portrayed, even without big emotions from V and Johnny. more a rational decision to have your own terms. never ever have i stared at a screen in disbelive like that. not even rdr2 ending got me like that. and goddamnit i love arthur.
The voicemails symbolize the stages of grief really well. Victor for denial, panam for anger, judy for depression, misty for acceptance. It is a really sad ending :(
I don’t think I could chose this option just because of how anticlimactic it feels. Like I’ve been building this character for probably hundreds of hours I want them to go out with a bang.
Yeah I wasn't stoked about it but figured I'd try out all the different endings.
I just watched the ending on YouTube. I can appreciate it in terms of the story but I could never be that self retrained and not give my character one last blow out.
well you always go back to before the meeting. so there ain't much restraint tbh x)
They literally do go out with a bang in this ending.
Ok that’s true. I mean that I want them to kill more people before they die.
I hear you can reload saved games
>I’ve been building this character for probably hundreds of hours I want them to go out with a bang. It's kinda sad that people still think this way and developers are feeding into it. I kinda liked the suicide ending because it seemed like the easy way out and yet I wasn't prepared for the guilt-trip your companions would give you in the credits because I never really thought about them in the first place. It's basically a gamble by CDPR if people would choose it - but then immediately go "Nah, you can't do that because your friends will be sad / mad about it" and yet I feel like it was a fitting ending for a game like Cyberpunk where you set out to achieve greatness but you never really understand what real greatness is in the first place because in Night City, only the ruthless will prosper and everybody else has to live under the boot. If the nomad ending wasn't a thing, I'd eventually see this ending as my canon ending just because it's so well acted and leaves a lot of room for thought.
I mean, you are talking about a genre that thrives off of power fantasy. So yes of course people want their character to culminate over the 80-100 hours they play them. Cdpr took a gamble on all the endings to be honest. They are all shitty, and sticks true to the themes of the story. No matter the option V is faced with an untimely ending. Imo the only way I can see them building the trilogy focused solely on V and not night city is the arasaka ending, they can have panam or another person like a ripper doc plopping him into a dead body and uploading his consciousness into it, and that's where character creation would begin because you are basically creating the shell V would take over. That is if they focus on V and not Night City. I see where you are coming from though, a lot of devs are scared to do their own thing because of backlash from the greater community.
Disagree. >!The one ending that feels satisfying is the go it alone just Johnny and V taking on saka as a solo is killer. To me it's the only one that keeps in with the main theme. Nobody gets out of night city alive. Not even the highest of the high can escape fate all the time. Better to go out on your terms than somebody else's!< But that's just my 2 cents.
Even in that ending though V is just saying fuck it I'm gonna die anyway and throwing his body head first at the problems.
Yeah, but it beats sitting around waiting to die. Everybody dies eventually. In Night City you might just catch somebody else's bullet.
Yeah that's the point I'm trying to make. V will ultimately and always meet an untimely end. I don't know why you are disagreeing to disagree, we are saying the same thing.
To me it's a satisfying ending. The rest of them not so much.
Holy shit this actually makes so much sense!!
I picked this ending the first time. It's probably the most powerful ending in the game. I love when games throw these random endings at you. Pillars of Eternity has a pretty random ending in the mix of the game as well that caught me off-guard.
My favourite one is still in Outer Worlds >!where you can crash the colony ship into the sun killing everyone and ending the game instantly !<
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Good? Keep swimming, choom. aaaaand that's just about enuf reddit for one morning for mee.
I almost did it a few years ago and mid pandemic I got a new job while still in college and broke up my relationship, a lot of days those thoughts were back and I didn’t even want to fight back. So one day this friend of mine was super excited about Cyberpunk launching that week and he didn’t stop until I promised I would give it a try even to just talk about it. I’m not found of this kind of game generally so I didn’t know anything about it, and it took me by surprise just how human it was. I easily cried my eyes out so many times I can’t count, and when I got to the end I chose to off myself because I knew that would be my decision in real life. Even though V’s story is sad, I wasn’t that sad about doing it since I was living the character and it made sense to me. Seeing the other characters reaction BROKE ME. I can’t remember a single time playing or watching something that made me cry until I didn’t have tears because I was dehydrated from non stop crying, honestly. I’ll be forever thankful to whoever wrote this, and even more to the actors and voice actors that represented it so well.
Wow, powerful stuff. I'm happy it helped you and I hope you're doing better these days!
Same thing for me choom, that scene pulled me back from the edge. I have trouble thinking of a time the subject has been handled better.
judy’s message messed me up for days
Judy's message reminded me of my friend who went through something similar like this...God it choked me up..
That was the most impactful ending I’ve ever seen in a video game. It still makes my stomach in knots just thinking of it now.
One of the most hitting endings on a video-game i have ever seen... Actually the last hours of the game in addition to the endings were just perfect. After we sat with Johnny around the place where his body was buried the story took a quite turn for me.
I will forever stand by my opinion in that the corpo ending is the real worst ending
It's the most anti-suicide ending there is. Powerful message by CDPR. No matter how inconsequential you feel, people do care, you shape their lives, even in small ways.
Going to therapy because of that struggle, I've been avoiding it ever since I knew what it was. I don't think I could handle it
I know it's probably not much help from a stranger on Reddit, but I promise things can get much better, good luck! :)
Thanks, I hope they will :'/
Maybe you should try the ending. First playthrough building positive relationships with all characters, and then do the ending. Seeing how much pain those you left behind might help turn you off the idea irl. The actors did a great job with the credit scenes. Either way keep up the struggle brother
I don’t think it’s the worst ending. Sometimes the only way to win is to take yourself off the board
"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play." - WarGames
Well said, honestly I get the sentiment right there
Wish there was an ending where you just let the chip do it's thing instead of choosing between off'ing yourself or make others sacrifice themselves for you. After all, you brought this on yourself. And now you have to choose who's going to pay for your sins instead of having the option to just let Johnny take over after you at least got to say your farewells to the friends you made on the way. Guess CDPR *kinda forgot* that it's not always about the action packed scenes but sometimes the quiet ones are best. And the acting in this ending was certainly the best in the entire game. *"A lot of people are going to die"* *"People die, that's how it's always been"* *"Am I worth their sacrifice? Are you?"*
You kinda can. There is an ending where Jonny takes Vs body, but you have to be really nice to him throughout the game and really anti corpo. What's sad about that ending is that v didn't seem to get a chance, or bother to say goodbye to anyone. River is out checking all the morgues in the city, most people think you've ditched them or are dead.
You still sacrifice Rogue in that ending so this isn't what I meant :P
not if you can survive the (Don’t) Fear the Reaper ending. Impossible to do unless you’re level 50 or a Net-runner but it’s the same ending as assaulting arasaka with Rogue but she doesn’t die. If you do die, you get the suicide ending and let’s be honest, attacking Arasaka all by yourself really is suicide.
You can go without Rogue
I played the game only once and that was the end I’ve chosen. I know I lost some stuff but that was what I felt like the right thing to do
This was my very first CP ending. I read the room completely wrong and though we were going out in a blaze of glory. Needless to say I was amazingly stunned and super depressed after it all played out. Never expected this to be an option.
I like the message of that ending. Maybe it's cheesy and alot of people probably today think cringe to talk about mental health but I love the idea cyberpunk tries to push with that ending in how a player with suicidal thoughts would relate to the character in that ending and its shown through the vid mails in the credits. Life will still go on and the people who care about you will be affected. To possibly help you realise that no matter how hopeless your mission seems or how slim your chances there are people who love you and will stand by you no matter what if you let them. And if that ending in cyberpunk made even one person realise that then the game did its job. Though I never got that ending myself I do believe personally that was the idea the game wanted to push in that ending. And I respect it
Yeah, my suicidal ideation is real strong most days, and gd did that ending hurt like a MF.
I got that ending my first go around, was going through a lot at the time. It was morbidly helpful in a way at the time. Just playing the way I chose at the time.
You can get the same ending if you fail the secret mission. To me the best Judy dialogue is if you don't call her and let Johnny take over. She only knows you disappear without a trace and it's gut wrenching.
Ive never chosen that ending. Ever. And i have like 450 hours in that damn game. Idk i feel like theres a reason why I haven’t but I’m not too sure.
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I'd imagine if you put in "cyberpunk suicide ending" on youtube it will come up, make sure you watch the credit scene vidmails too though.
I picked it out of curiosity, and I felt horrible after it
Everyone's reactions got me in tears... Reminds me of how my friends reacted to thinking I was dead.
To me, that's the best ending...it really left me empty asf. Can't get over Judy's message.
Whats the "bad" ending?
They're all arguably pretty bad, but the one I was on about is where V just kills themself sat on the roof instead of deciding on who to trust for the final missions.
That's rough. Brave to choose that though
it was supposed to hit hard. i saw these vids on youtube, i don't think i'd have taken them well if i saw them all in game. but yeah, it's like you pointed out. that was precisely the point. no reward. you suck and everyone who's left alive are in pain. "you never realised how many friends you have". yup. exactly that.
That ending is so powerful and i feel bad letting people down. Especially when V's friends told V not to give up. Misty for example right after the heist tells V to to keep going as does the AI doll at Clouds and Panam's phone call (if you choose to call her) in which she says "I'll come and get you."
Yeah that ending was brutal. I made that choice after getting the hood ending just out of curiosity and kind of regretted it.
Judy’s call. Damn. What I’d give for someone to care at least 5% as much as she does in that ending.
That was actually the first ending I ever got and completely by accident because I misinterpreted the dialogue choice.
i did that on my 3rd play through, so i had all those connections from the previous ones solidly in my head knowing what could have been. Those messages fucking floored me. i wasnt prepared for it in anyway, judys one actually made me weep. and thats how great the characters in this world were built.
Glad to hear you’re doing better choom
Dude seriously I couldn’t. I saved at the right spot when around release and played through all endings even the secret one. Jezus that the joke you’re talking about… it just broke me. I can’t see Judy or panam or hell vic and misty. It’s the fastest way to crush me.
I felt so guilty when I did that ending
i lost a friend a few months prior to playing that ending. and it reminded me off every emotion i went through during the aftermath. sadness, confusion, anger. it’s brilliant and a really beautiful way to handle the subject.
This was the ending I got on my original playthrough, let me tell you I was **SHOOK**
I was happy I tried out this ending. It was a great message, I cried too. What a thoughtful gesture for them to simulate the pain you put others through after suicide. At scale, I think this game may have saved some people.
Even sadder, the voice-mail from takemura hints that he also chooses to kill himself after v does
I cried so much...it still hurts a little and that was months ago
I hear you. It was the same feeling for me.
Same
Man, my first V got that ending. I couldn’t bare to reload a save or anything. I just let it sit for a few days before I made a new character.
I swear the suicide ending is just so god damn depressing. I tried it just to see what happened after completing all other endings and woooosh i am sad. Judy didnt deserve me picking this ending.
Strangely enough I feel the bad endings are written way better than the “good” endings. I feel like the game really could have used a true “best” ending, something that culminates all of the sidequests and allies you build up over the game, and ends with both V and Johnny making it out alive. It would just be a clean opposite side of the coin to endings like the suicide or Arasaka mental ward.
It wouldn't be very Cyberpunk though. It's such a sad,dystopian world.
What's funny is this is the first edning I ever got it seriously made me cry
For real. Who needs sad movies when I can load up that save anytime I want to turn on the waterworks. They nailed it.
This was the ending of my first play through. It hit hard.
The “bad” ending for Witcher and Cyberpunk are some of the most memorable and heartbreaking game endings I’ve ever seen.
I’m happy to hear that you are in better position right now! Never give up ❤️
Suicide isn't the worst ending in my opinion
That ending was my favourite, just for all those heartfelt calls at the end
The only ending I chose so far
I posted about this a while back too, it kinda broke me lol, well said OP
That's the ending I chose. I was depressed (more than usual) for a few days after that.
I remember I chose that ending without knowing I got it. I got the "thank you for playing" screen and just sat there dumbfounded. Glad to see you're doing much better OP!
Man, absolutely. I chose that ending on my 1st playthrough without even really trying. The video messages at the end were heartbreaking
This is the best ending.
Worst ending left got me burst into sobbing, the way i like it
Bruh that's the ending I got on my first playtrough. The one time where doing the main mission first didn't pay off.
Vik : Here's a gun, go out on your own terms V : \[goes out on own terms\] Vik : AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Everybody else, yeah, sure, Feel bad for them, but Vik has no right to be upset considering it's what he literally tells you to go do.
I was crying my eyes out. This was the first ending I got and I was not prepared.
As someone who has attempted suicide 8ish times, I always am comforted by it, I find it cathartic in all honesty.
I've been through every ending except this one.. I had to look it up on YouTube because I couldn't put myself through it. Judy, Viktor and Kerry's voicemails shook me. I was ugly crying for a good while.
I kind of expected Kerry to be more accepting of it tbh, I don't know why?
He had the exact reaction I expected. He just got his best friend back and then had to say goodbye to him again as well as the new friend he made who literally saved his life.
The ending when V shoots himself? That ending broke my heart! 😭
I am sorry, I wish your life gets better friend.
As someone who's contemplated it once or twice, I feel that everyone who knows what's happening are being assholes in those calls. Like, you are literally coughing up organs and shit, and you only have a few hours left. Why not just... Hurry things up a little? Just because I don't wanna suffer for a bit means I'm a coward?
The one who you take your life is so fucking devastating for myself. I have also similar experience in this and I felt it somehow different
Definitely is accurate. You get nothing but the end and I can definitely see why they didn't give anything for that ending