Ok, then for that "mark upon posterity" to come back hen Orion launches, *my* opinion is that V is of course dead. Thinking V survived means the theory *missed the point of Cyberpunk entirely.* The new game will certainly build on the lore, with V becoming the Legend they had wanted. The NEW protagonist will get enough lore about V to back up that they were their, and that they were involved in many things... but no one knows *for sure* what they really did, or decided.
V not having to live in a world with people like claire panam and songbird is enough reason to leave V dead. Let the man get some rest after dealing with those morons
Considering the chip is basically v's brain, shooting himself might not even work if it's a lucky shot. Johnny might decide to hijack v's body and go down the rouge ending regardless.
In the sourcebooks, there is a group of nomads called "Technomancers" in Arizona/other parts of the southwest who's netrunning abilities far outpace that of the Voodoo Boys. I believe this is who Panam is taking V to.
i belive the Nomad ending could be canon, Phantom liberty is not even canon, all u need to do is to let myers die. the whole expansion pack is a wrong choice, Cyberpunks dont help the government. That my theory... Technomancers, Alpha Centauri..... Orion.....The Nomads... Might be that. FF 06 B5's mattress in the desert...... Gary........ Yep.
That could be awesome, Imagine V becoming the final boss of Orion. Not only would you have to go up against the canonically most powerful solo of all time, but you'd also have to kill 'your V'. And who knows if V would even be a willing pawn of whoever controls them and not a ghost in the shell forced to obey the command of their masters. That could be one epic but tragic finale
There's two points I'd like to add. - Several times during elevator rides (as early as riding down the elevator to meet Jackie after The Rescue), news segments are shown about BioDyne having developed an effective treatment to MS. Both V's condition and MS are autoimmune conditions that involve the body's immune system attacking it's neurons. - For the Aldecaldos specfically: In the Cyberpunk Red TTRPG nomads are being described as one of two groups that have a stable connection to the orbital Highrider Confederation. Now I don't know how much has changed between to 2040s and 2077 (probably a lot), but with the Highriders focusing on Bioware instead of Cyberware, due to being more reliable and less prone to malfunction outside the earth's magnetosphere, I'd consider it possible, that they might have a good chance of finding a solution. After all their technological development likely has divereged quite heavily.
Hear me out. What if, in the next installment of Cyberpunk, the game asks you what ending you chose and then based on that, you get a unique prolog for the new game?
@@ahmadjamal200a5that’s what i always thought they were gonna do since CDPR did it for the witcher 3 it would really help fans dictate what story they want to be told for them.
As much as I would love that, CDPR have reiterated their interest in expanding upon life paths. I assume this means different ending paths from 2077 are out of the question
Tbh for me the biggest clues are Misty’s tarot cards, they’ve been shown multiple times to predict the future so them telling us that we have a promising life a head of us in the star ending is proof enough for me.
That and Misty's overall positivity. She'd always been straddling the line between being pragmatic but supportive. But in the Star ending there's none of that "the reality is you dying" underneath her words
OMG! Now that you mentioned it, I just came to realize that V's 2-year "coma" actually being serving NUSA with memory wipe is actually deceptively plausable. One of the French netrunners in Phantom Liberty did store memory on external devices, and got a few years of memory stolen, so we know it is doable in-universe. Also, on the other side of the 4th wall, it is something happened in the Witcher series: both Geralt and Yen were coerced into serving the Wild Hunt at a time, and got memory wiped when their service comes to an end. Geralt recalls that he just remember his time with the Hunt as a blur, then he "appeared in front of Kaer Morhen". So it is possible that CDPR can take a single page out of that book. (And for those who are interested, Phantom Liberty shares a few overarching plot points with Heart of Stone, a Witcher 3 DLC. Both stories involves a highly capable, morally gray, and tragic individual (Olgierd & Songbird) on the run from an exremely powerful entity (Gunter O' Dimm & NUSA), which in turn enlisted the player character (Geralt & V)'s help to "catch" the individual. Both also have a sigular key decision close to the conclusion regarding whose side to take. So if CDPR does decide to take a page out of the Witcher, it probably will not be the first time.) And I really wished that Orion will be a continuation of V's story, and 2077's Endings become the new lifepaths. I imagine this will be a multi-faction free-for-all involving different human -and AI- groups, and 2077's ending decides which side V is on at the beginning: Arasaka (Devil), NUSA (Tower), Aldocaldo (Star), Mr. Blue-eye (Sun & Don't Fear the Reaper), or Alt (Temperance). And during the course of the story, V may stay loyal to their original faction, or "defect" to another. Maybe it will be something like Fallout: New Vegas (Courier 6 is hired by Mr. House, but can eventually continue serving him, or go for the other three major endings in NCR, Legion or independence.)?
They could make us choose from which endings we want to continue in the next cyberpunk like where in the first we got to choose as corpo, street kid or nomad now to choose from the endings and continue from there.
I personally believe that Hanako and Saburo wanted V engram to make him the new attack dog of arasaka After all... V defeated or kill Smasher V is a One man army Soldier, Merc, spy Maybe V can't live in a organic body anymore let's pretend that's true But what about a full robotic body? They can alter the engram and change V memories and make him loyal Imagine a full borg with the digital mind of V in it
@@shuyaku99 Even if Smasher isn't completely dead the fact that V canonically defeated him in combat is notable. More than enough reason to make an altered engram of him.
I'd like a plot where Johnny took our body and ended up helping the next protagonist, and in some way he ends up with an engram of V in his head. "Wake the fuck up douchebag, your conscience is back" - V
Commenting to your comment so potentially both of you will see this. But even if we can not be V from the first game we could still play V in another because of the breadcrumbs left in the first game. Thanks to one scene in where we get our names dropped, Valerie and Vincent. The three life path starts work perfectly for twins of a nomad clan coming to night city after their clan is destroyed, one goes corp (female V's voice works best) and the other street kid (male V's voice). The next game could be the sibling taking up the merc life as a way of honoring or avenging their sibling. The nomad start could be that they and some other members had tried to revive their clan, street kid was in jail and corpo was out of town on business during the events of the base game. I am just hoping that they street kid is a different gang and corpo is a different corp if they do use this idea. The twin idea is not far fetched as in the base game they have the twins that we fight in Kabuki and the twins in PL so that could be another breadcrumb. There could be more to really hint this is the case but I will leave it to you lore experts IF you decide to look into this potential possibility.
My headcanon with The Tower is that my V uses home-made equipment instead of cyberware. For example. Put a Microgenerator in a sort of cyber-gauntlet instead of in the flesh. That’d work. My 20 technical is coming in clutch.
It’s so fucking cool hearing the arasaka agents shit themselves after hearing one man/woman is currently strolling through their most secure headquarters
@@sldarwin5615 I see it as the true ending to the game. I like the fact you learn from Johnny's mistakes( costing his friends their lives) and truly become a legend by soloing one of the most powerful corporations in the world.
Agreed, so is mine. The best ending is a "Don't Fear the Reaper" ending, which saves Rogue and leads into "The Sun" ending. Most people enjoy "The Star" ending more but I'm a sucker for V doing a final impossible heist to become the true legend of the Afterlife and Night City.
I personally would love to return in the next game as V, especially if they made most of these endings a starting option for the game so that we can have vastly different starting positions in the story with actual consequence.
My only concern for that would be how they would handle romance if you got star ending with judy or panam. (The other endings while open ended on survival are a lot less open about the fate of your relationships to basically everyone other than Vik and Misty)
11:20 - I have a theory that Vic saw something in the diagnostic that caused him to stop looking for solutions. If you watch, he pauses while staring silently at the screen for a brief second, before he turns to you saying he can't do anything. No idea what it could've been, but it was clearly something that spooked a veteran ripper doc like Vic into keeping V out of the loop, probably for her own good.
Yeah it honestly sounded like it was a threat to _him_ that made him back off in the midst of scanning viable solutions. That or he found a killswitch that would go off if he even tried, one that would be risky for even the best netrunners to crack.
Which might actually mean she is a type of winter soldier, and they would instantly assassinate vik if he even dared touch the software keeping her that way.
What if him digging around just that is the reason why he got transfered out of his shop in the credits call? - If the NUSA is really planning this, then they'd have all kinds of measures of detecting if V, or anyone, is poking around.
It's possible that there's a new chip NUSA installed between V's jack and their biomonitor that fakes a bunch of data and has instructions to carry out if activated by a specific request and password that are automatically transferred if NUSA sends an agent with the appropriate software to jack into V to activate their cyberware and a sleeper agent state. Could start the next game with V coming out of the sleeper agent state and hunted down by whoever they were fighting. Could be a good way to implement a tutorial. Meanwhile during the fight have someone mention they aren't using any cyberware thus prompting V to investigate. Since V begins investigating and is maybe around Vik at the time it happens, NUSA could try a remote kill switch that Vik is just barely able to save V from. Thus, reasoning to have no cyberware since it was all damaged by the kill switch and Viks rapid disassembly of critical parts.
I settled on becoming an Aldecaldo and moving to Arizona. Saul and Bobby go out like absolute ballers and at least V doesn't get dismissed by any of his actual friends. V most likely is going to die, but it's on V's terms with real people by his side.
Who knows, there might be a story of why you don’t attack a group called the aldecaldos as all who dared found themselves become noting but a story. Their tale ending with either a burst of sparks, decapitation from a blade they never saw or burst of gunfire and screams about an unstoppable force
In mythology, Orion is a great hero and hunter, there are many different stories about him, told by many different Greek regions, one of those stories is Orion going to the afterlife (dies) and then returns, V doesn't absolutely have to survive to be back, after all Johnny Silverhand died and was in CP2077.
21:56 about the tank, it is mentioned what the second pilot is only needed if they enter into combat(while piloting it), piloting it only needs one person, so if there was no enemies when leaving, or if he decided to simply not enter combat, one person was more than enough to pilot the tank anyway, if orion uses the multiple endings for a posible choice of lifepath for a continuation of V, they could be called as "corpo slave"(arasaka ending), "sleeper agent"(pl ending) "revived legend"(jhonny ending), "seasoned nomad"(nomad ending...) and "imposible legend"(rogue/dont fear the reaper ending)
i was thinking about how they could introduce something like lifepaths in orion, but those would be based on which ending you chose in 2077, the base 3 would be the star, the sun and the devil (those even kinda work with the original nomad, street kid and corpo paths), temperance, suicide and tower would be in that case non-cannon, same as in mass effect 2 where shepard can die in the end
@@aryaab1122I liked the ending, I think it’s a bit more of a happy ending than most people think. But I’d never choose it as it requires betraying song and leaving her with myers. Which to me, is not only bad for her, but also fucking scary for the world as a whole
@@aryaab1122 yeah, I get that, but she also ended up giving us the choice to save ourselves on the train. I do wish in the other endings she at least revealed she was lying and apologised. I don’t think she is a perfect person, and maybe not even a good one, but ultimately V also did some pretty bad shit to survive as well. Granted, it was mainly aimed at corps (who fucking deserve it) but still. It has scary implications for the world as well as being awful for her. And tbh, I was like 80% sure she was lying the whole dlc lmao
I might be very late to the discussion and this comment might get drowned out by all the other ones, but I’ve noticed that Mr. B‘s street credit varies ingame. While it’s about 400 in the sun ending, it’s 600 when we see him in Phantom liberty. Since PL takes place before the sun ending he seemingly lost cred somehow?
Gotta say first thing before i even get into this, thank you so much for making this video, it genuinely drives me insane to think about the plot holes and loose threads the endings leave for the sequel, been trying to figure out for so long how it could work, this hopefully can help it, also incredible work regardless :)
V's consciousness is an engram in a foreign body if you choose to send V back to her body. She can theoretically survive by putting that consciousness into a different body and taking it over just like Johnny did to her body. A la character creation in Cyberpunk 2.
But it’s made clear that the Johnny we interact with isn’t the “real” one but a perfect copy, an engram. So by the time V is turned into an engram, the original version is already dead.
@@JimmyMidniteThis is true and pretty dark, but Johnny's engram had to deal with being decades out of time and trying to share a body. As far as V was concerned, they basically just dipped in and out of mikoshi, even if they were soulkilled.
Here's an interesting angle: an engram is a data pattern of your consciousness. How exactly would V's immune system even tell one engram from another? It's simply not physically possible for V's immune system to "reject" the engram. So this means Alt was lying... maybe to encourage V to give Johnny a body?
@@JimmyMidniteit's an imperfect copy. His entire retelling of the Arasaka bombing is very skewed, unclear how much more of his memories and personality doesn't match the real Johnny.
I’d like them to bring V back, can’t beat the actor they used for the male V voice. Gavin Drea made one helluva protagonist! Would like to see it continued.
yeah nah...I cant stand that dudes accent. My first playthrough was as male v...then saw someone say the female voice was much better so tried it, and the next 7 or 8 were all female. He just gets on my wick. Every time he opens his mouth its like a cheese grater over my ears. Complete opposite of how he sounds irl weirdly.
100% agree. both fem v and male v voice actors were pretty amazing, but he was absolutely my personal favorite between the two. it'd be awesome to have them both back for the sequel
See I feel like male V has a decent voice, but shit delivery on most lines. Making conversations just feel different. Like there will be lines that are supposed to be a more sympathetic delivery, or emotional. The delivery of fem V will be spot on, but the delivery of male V will come off as literally hostile or sarcastic. Male V is fun for aggro shit but any emotional point in the game outside of like 2 he sounds like a cunt and I just cant get past it.
i'm also surprised by the amount of people who suggest or want v to return, like isn't the whole point that they can't? writing so many different endings without a single one saying v can live despite this video only to then say "oh yeah no they lived and now you have to play them again" feels like it defeats the impact of all of them. plus i just don't really like v but i do like the world so i'd love to revisit it in a different protagonist's shoes.
I'd love to see V return in Orion, but there's endless potential for new and interesting characters as well. But they'll have to wrap up V's story anyway if the sequel directly connects to CP2077's storyline, so I hope we'll at least get some references and maybe some iconic items belonging to V.
In my playthroughs ALL of the iconics happened to be V's :) ... More seriously though getting his default pistol [Lexington?] as the only "X-Mod-4" weapon would be something else.
V as the protagonist in Orion could actually work if CDPR does it right but I understand those who wants an entirely new character, part of me wants that too but V is such a badass character that it’s gonna be hard to top him
According to CDPR V story is over he or she will not be in cyberpunk 2077 project Orion top of that that means they have a canonized won the endings of the original game that's why they're going to have a new protagonist dreams are nice that's all they are
@@LeonardMosca They never explicitly said it's over from what I've seen. I saw some talk about "V's arc" or them not wanting to make post-endgame expansions, which is the strongest suggestion that next game will have new MC, but that's about it. On the other hand there's an interview with one of the senior writers where she denies stating that V story is over and that they don't want to rule out any possibilities during the current pre-production stage. And Paweł Sasko straight up avoiding questions on canon ending and V's story being over (while smirking at the same time, although he seems like a happy dude so maybe it's nothing). It's a bit frustrating. I hope they'll come out in a year or two and clarify Orion will have new playable character
I like the idea of V selling his soul to Arasaka for one simple reason: it could set up a loop for future games. Adam Smasher has always felt like, to me at least, a finished op character that someone made in a non existent Cyberpunk prequel. It could start a loop where the big bads of every title were the playable characters in the previous title. I don’t know about you, but I’d lose my shit if V was the final boss of Orion. Would make a killer twist final boss
Having V as the main protagonist again would give the sequel the same kind of narrative depth and feeling of connection that Geralt enjoys in the Witcher series. So, it would make a lot of sense to keep V on as the lead. If the sequel's story moves to a different location (city) then having V again would provide continuity between the two games as well.
Cyberpunk will always be about a new protagonist. The live action, game(s), animated. All in one universe, all different protagonists. Each game will be a different one and ofc Cyberpunk = NightCity, it will always be there
The militech sleeper agent thing is very interesting, plausible, and 100% cyberpunk. Spending the 2nd game trying to get out from under a corp would be interesting.
Imagine a twist where we think we're playing as V, only to then discover that our character is just watching a Braindance of the event (like David in the opening of Edgerunners)
I imagine there would be a big tile jump after 2077 maybe 2090 at least, Vs legend status is cemented in history, much like black hand we don’t know if they’re still out there keep it a mystery untill ready to be revealed cdpr can do some very special with V if done right
I'd love for CDPR to make our ending in 2077 actually matter, and impact at least the entire first chapter or so of the next game. I was a little dissapointed with The Witcher 3 in this aspect, since everything that changes when you import a save file from TW2 is wether some minor characters are alive or already know you, but its pretty much impossible to feel the impact of our previous choices. So in the next Cyberpunk it'd be awesome for V to still play a major role in the plot, and your original ending could determine what role that is.
OR perhaps the new Phantom Liberty ending the ONLY ending where V is actually confirmed to live. Probably because V's story is done and dusted and any future games will feature a brand new protagonist. This was hinted at by CDPR handling of Cyberpunk Edgerunners. There's too many endings for CDPR to construct a new game featuring V in, so either V won't be in any future games or, far less lickely but not impossible, CDPR will forcefully canonise one of the endings to preserve V for a future game.
I'm rather surprised StormTech wasn't mentioned for the Star ending, or how much larger the Aldecados actually are as a clan. Still a rather interesting video
Yeah, the game really doesn't go in-depth about just how large the Nomad clans are. The sub-branch of Aldecaldos we see in-game are only a small amount and most of the clans are situated in Chicago, a largely city-based area. There's not just StormTech, but also the Technomancers, which admittedly are a silent clan (so the chance of them being one of Panam's contacts is thinner than StormTech), but they heavily delve into biotechnology too. It's safe to say after learning the Tabletop Lore compared to what's in-game, then yeah, V can get help through the Star Ending.
@englishgiraffe2124 Very interesting bit of lore there! Didn't know about the Technomancers. As for V, I'm like 99.9% sure they get cured in this ending as there's a data shard next to the basilisk and a bunch of symbolism littered throughout that basically say so. Like, once you see it, it's painfully obvious
@@englishgiraffe2124 I was going to mention this, but you beat me to it. The Technomancers are something like the Voodoo Boys: they rely on their own tech, and hire non-clan members when they need things done and not tied back to them. It's entirely possible that this family had done work for them in the past, or Panam simply knows enough about them to make contact. The offer of a working copy of the advanced Relic plus the entire database for it in exchange for saving V might be tempting for a clan that is on the cutting edge of tech. StormTech is one of the less onerous corporations in the game. Again, the offer of having Arasaka's prize tech in-house could motivate them. Either way, it won't be simple or easy, and the risk would be high
i never understood why we couldnt use the fucking SUPER COMPUTER that delemain ascended from and abandoned to just ...upload johnny/V into? hell ALT could have helped!
I feel like don't fear the reaper is basically sortof where it happens already, the line V says when accepting Johnny's request sounds straightup like something Johnny himself would have said, and the fact that you enter the mission with -25% max health and -1% for every relic malfunction that happens every couple minutes seems to indicate that the engram copying is basically in the final stage (because you didn't take either of the pills in this ending to either stop or fastforward the condition).
I rly hope V continues to be the main character for us. After all the emotion of the first game, it would be very difficult for me to just forget V and all their relationships and try to restart with somebody new. Presumably, Johnny won't be present. It would feel weird and hollow if they tried to bring him back with anyone else but V. And I'd like more Keanu! So for me the only way forward is to make V survive and let us play as them during Orion. It would keep far more impactful to continue Vs story of survival.
CDPR already has a history of a sequel having you select the choices you made in previous games therefore setting the stage for the current one. I can see that happening again here with Orion. At least, I sure as hell hope so. V is an ICONIC protagonist and PLEASE have the OG VA’s come back as well
A company investing millions $$$ in building relationships between characters and story wouldn't just discard a created protagonist out of the blue, would they? They claimed in interviews before the premiere that they wanted Cyberpunk to be another trilogy, so starting with a new character now just doesn't make sense, so chill, V will be back for sure :D
@@brandanpalmer CD Projekt Red didn't close the story in Cyberpunk; there are unresolved threads and new characters on the horizon. This is something you don't typically see in Rockstar games; they usually make it clear (through the plot and events) when the story has concluded. The folks at CDPR have just opened up this world, prepared the characters, and even stated that V is indeed a remarkable character who can compete with protagonists from other games - he has a unique "creation" story. Now, with such a foundation, they can tell a story that will be important for V, but it won't necessarily be a story stemming directly from their background - see the Witcher trilogy - The full picture of events is hidden within the seemingly grand story unfolding around the main character. It will be something grander (I'm speculating here, suggesting it might be related to war and AI, which has been lurking in the background throughout the game).
@@Noccas2 , I'd love for V to come back, so I hope you're right, but it's not hard to imagine that the overarching story is about Night City or the corps, or something else that's more thematic or political than any one character. In that case, they certainly COULD continue the story with the next chapter involving a different POV character. They could do this, even if V survived, with V being a legend or even an NPC like Rogue was in the first game. Again, I hope our V comes back and we can play him/her more, but I figure there's even odds that we won't play V again in the next game (even if we do again in the third game, with something similar to Witcher 3 where we play both Geralt and Ciri, maybe the 3rd game has both protagonists from games 1 and 2 involved -- seems unlikely, but not impossible).
I want V to become a sort of ambiguous character in the sequel, imagine the new mc meets up with a mysterious fixer who is very upfront with you and doesn’t bullshit you. They have this modulated voice that makes it impossible to tell if they are female or male and they never reveal themselves. In short I want to become of Mr Hands for new edgerunners
Or do what BG3 did and have you choose and customize your character and then customize your boss/fixer “guardian” V. So you could recreate your V from one of your past play throughs.
Honestly, I firmly believe the cannon ending is Temperance, specifically Don't Fear the Reaper Temperance. The ending is itself a suicide run, this is a suicide ending if you fail it, and also functionally is the acceptance stage in the stages of grief as the game has constant parallels to it. V is both grieving Jackie's death and his, but ending at acceptance. Furthermore, I feel like a return of V in CP2 wouldn't be good, as it emphasizes the character too much in a genre that stems off of noir, and Johnny has more legacy lore that it leads to him being left alive, but somewhat defeated as we see him. Furthermore, if V were to come back, I see it as a Rogue AI in a side quest or dlc that may need to be taken care of, possibly relating to a future request of Johnny.
V sitting at a campfire in Arizona, recovering from a bad attack , trying to console Panham but having nothing good to tell her , then An AV breaks the horizion , a nightcorp AV , it lands and SoMi steps out and says "I've come to return the favor for saving my life, we can save yours"
@@clarencewalters338 you are right about Mr. Blue eyes, the A.I that murdered the Night Corp. founder and took over and created Mr. Blue eyes. Thing is Mr. Blue eyes cured SoMi and at least wants her to still have her mind and soul. Mr. Blue eyes Night Corp A.I does not want some other rogue A.I from beyond the black wall messing with SoMi. why because she owes him now and will gladly serve to repay her debt.
The Tower ending was kind of funny in a challenge run I did because V was sooo sad about losing her chrome... when I had never installed any, I even managed to remove the optics cyberware due to a bug in the cyberware tutorial. She went thru the entire game as a stealth assassin, slinging knives and taking people out with a silenced pistol, I even put it as part of the challenge that she's super suspicious of airhypos because I roleplayed that she was paranoid that there were microchips in them! And then somehow she's sad that she can't do mercwork anymore??
@@muddhutter They may just go with a whole new narrative. New stories in different places would allow them to keep the games IN 2077 Don’t know if that’s a priority or not
Fun fact, Mike Pondsmith (the creator of Cyberpunk 2020 and subsequent installations) talks in a reddit post about how, in a cave buried underground in the Deep South "are hundreds--possibly thousands of flash-frozen human corpsicles linked together by a gigantic neuro-web that allows them to live in a continous VR existence" and it connects well with Panam talking about pulling out "some of [their] folks out of deep, deep cesspits"
Masterpiece. Bravo. Makes me want to do yet another play through. Goddam I love the intricately detailed world building in Cyberpunk 2077. Actually I love just about everything about this game. Can’t wait for Orion.
I’d like for V to continue into the sequel but what they should do is that your beginning would be based of your previous gameplay from part one or if you skipped part 2 or lost your save then you’d start with a default start connected which would also connect to the worst ending. I don’t know about that last idea but would be cool I think.
If V is the protagonist for the next game, then they should offer the ability to either import our saves or pick and choose the information to lock into place for the playthrough if we don't have a save to transfer. Likewise, if CDPR goes with a new protagonist they could allow for all the endings to exist by making important points in V's journey be rumors. When the player interact with certain situations, their choice locks in whatever that point would be. If they are willing to put in extra parts as well, certain NPCs would still be alive depending on our choices, otherwise they are replaced with someone new to fill that same role. E.G. - A group of Mercs you are with are talking about going to Clouds after the mission and you chime in that it was either closed down or the management is stricter than what you heard of before. You head to Clouds and either it is still closed or your crew can't get in due to new "dress codes". This continues till later in the story where you could do a side quest or two and it opens up again / the dress code is lighter due to your influence. - A vendor for Braindances has rare ones that offer the experiences of doing certain Heists and gigs that you can buy. One is the Crystal Palace heist, another is a run with a "certain group of Nomads" to raid a base for supplies, so on and so forth. Even if you didn't say V chose those paths, there would be others who took those jobs and supplied the info for the Braindances. - PL related content would add to it with certain side quests and as for factoring in the endings, there could be mention of the attack on the spaceport (and if a rocket took off that night), or other things in relation to the opposing choice of the main quest. - If they want to keep certain NPCs still alive (even though they die offscreen like Hanako does for most of the non-Arasaka endings), have their deaths be exaggerated or a body double while the original snuck off to safety.
I did the same thing a couple months ago. It is possible for V to survive EVERY ending. Remember, in the suicide ending, you only hear the gun shot. I'm pretty sure there's a way for Johnny to return in our head, as well. I'd hope that there would be a way for us to import our V into Orion. It'd feel as more of a seamless transition.
Cheers! That videogame achievement incentive for 100k has me putting in the 12-14 hour days to these videos atm. Will probs slow down a bit after hitting that milestone though... (It would be unhealthy not to I think)
@@SamBram ah man, as I suspected...you're working nonstop! Don't burn yourself out my guy! Wish I could do more than like and comment to help convince the TH-cam gods to spread the good word of your channel lol
It's all good. I have a careful schedule which is just temporarily in overdrive mode. Another aspect to it is updating all the outdated CP2077 content before I produce anything else on other games. Very soon the releases will have to become less frequent for a while (sadly) whilst I complete another BG3 playthrough for some more videos on that@@CMFL77
Honestly, The Tower and The Devil (provided you deny being an engram) are the only ways V isn't dead anyway. The moment V connects to Mikoshi, they are soulkilled and thus dead. Anything after this is a copy of V's consciousness, but the original is dead. But I suppose that's only relevant if you care about whether V's consciousness is a copy or the original and your philosophy regarding all that.
Imagine if in the Tower ending, the second cyberpunk game began with an anonymous number calling Face-in-the-crowd V and uttering one word: "Orion." With that, V's cyberwars all pulses back to life as he is given directives to hunt someone down, effectively beginning the new game with V having their Winter Soldier code word activating their abilities again. You'd start with all of your gear, but in the recent times and with the war raging, even more advanced kinds of cyber ware have been created.
Part of me wants a brand new character in night city. Getting to listen to V's legendary exploits and everyone spreading rumors on what happened to him (basically the endings) would be awesome
As someone who believes "The Star" ending the true ending for my own V, I am happy to hear others believe it has a hope for a future to it that may be murky but isnt as dark a the others. I would also like to see our V's come back for at least a second game!
it would certainly be interesting if they implemented something more akin to the originally proposed lifepath system for 2077 in Orion, letting you choose the combination of your lifepath, your ending, and some other factors. I like the idea that it could influence the first intro-mission, tying all the narrative threads back together, and give a new reason for character creation
I like to look at each ending more or less as pieces of a puzzle rather than individual puzzles themselves. In "The Sun," Mr. Blue Eyes claims that various hatches open during the Arasaka raid that allow his people to capture various Arasaka assets. Provided he does, in fact, work for Night Corp, then this so-called "hatch" could be the same one V and the Aldecaldos use to infiltrate Arasaka Tower in "The Star" (which was a Night Corp tunnel). Regardless of whether or not V chooses to raid Arasaka Tower, the tunnel still exists ready to be used. With this kind of thought process in mind, what can we assume is a canon event regardless of V's fate?
Very true. I did not fully consider that he might have meant a literal tunnel but yes that makes a lot of sense. After all, there's a big Nightcorp logo on that construction site for a reason!
I want to see V fight against Rogue AI... And it would make sense. Such a story would require an experienced and deadly character. Doesn't need to be a trilogy but EVERYONE loves V's male and female voice actors. Might as well let them play the character one more time. Its hard to make characters that gamers latch on to so much. Take advantage of it when you do.
I feel how much this game keeps hammering in that V will die sooner or later, i dont think V will be brought back. This game is all about accepting the fact that life will end, so its all about how you are remembered, which is why i feel that dont fear the reaper and the star are the best endings. You either become the greatest solo ever, eclipsing Blackhand, Smasher, Weyland, all of them, or you get the greatest family in the Aldecaldos. In both ways, you will be long remembered. I feel like the tower ending eccentuates this even more. You can go back to a normal life, but you have to give everything that made you special, you will be just another face in the crowd and you wont be remembered by many, especially after you dissapeared for 2 years. The story has to end at some point and it can be hard to accept that. Cool theories, still. Thanks for the vids, Sam
I too don't think V will be the main character again in Orion. That being said, I disagree, that V absolutely can't survive. If you want to take Alt's words at face value, sure. But I'd think the entire rest of the game would've taught you, that the devil is in the details. So I'd say, there is reason to doubt Alt's words, that there is no other way for V to live, other than merging with her.
@@paragonyoshi4237 never said V couldnt survive, its just that the story doesnt call for it. For example, they could have written Edgerunners so that David lived happily ever after with Lucy on the Moon, but then it would have been a completely diffrent story. Same with V, their survival with no consequnces changes the story
@@ABadassDragon I think that the setting [as opposed to the story] might be one of the biggest factors against V coming back as that might (?) fly in the face of the whole " Wrong City, Wrong people" thing that Cyberpunk seems to have embraced. Then again maybe that's not a 100% accurate rule as long as "almost nobody" has a happy ending.
@@ABadassDragon The point is: V's fate is meant to be ambiguous. So the people that say "V is guaranteed to die," and people that say "V will for sure survive" are both wrong. The right answer is: It's not set in stone what will happen with V and we will probably never know the answer.
I've played the game twice so I could experence the endings. Now, my next two characters are approaching level 60, and I will not be doing the endings. I will just keep playing. I'm waiting to see what happens with Orion. I hope V can return. I've invested hundreds of hours developing her.😊
idk why but the phantom liberty ending where they get the cyber coma and cant have any type of cyberware inside them might work to they’re advantage cause people are slowly crumbling and going through the blackwall and what if the blackwall somehow crumbles and the rogue ai’s start to wreak havoc to every human who had cyberware and V is safe
You get the high priestess achievement for talking with Hanako. The fool is V, It's the fools journey he's on, you get the fool achievement for "becoming a mercenary" right at the start of the game and "The wandering fool" for finding all the tarots. The Star you get for leaving with the nomads, devil for going with Arasaka, Sun for becoming a legend and robbing the space casino. Though if I remember correctly, her readings are different depending on ending chosen and things done in the game, she has a chance to draw other cards too. I've never actually reloaded a save before that to see if she always deals the same hand at that point or if there is variance.
I've been saying this for a while. Aside from VIK, Reed also mentioned doctors in Europe. Not to mention in this quest line, you have the option to grab the Militech Canto Mk.6 cyberdeck. The rogue AI could also be another form of help for V, since it seems to know what she is going through. If Songbird could see Silverhand using the blackwall protocol then so can the rogue AI located on the Militech Canto Mk.6 cyberdeck.
Don't fear the reaper ending is so amazing. The sheer audacity of going through the front doors of the enemy fortress alone, and winning, is truly legendary.
I may be alone in this, but I think it would be cooler to play as a new protagonist and get the chance to run into V in Project Orion. Maybe they could allow you to tranfer your save file, like in the Mass Effect Trilogy, and they use the information from that to rebuild your V accuarately in terms of appearance as well as installed Cyberware and character build (attributes, perks). I just think it would be so cool to see V from the perspective of another person, so we can witness the person that killed Adam Smasher in all their glory. Maybe V could even turn into a sort of companion or even an enemy, if you decide to challenge them. In that case, the boss fight should either be incredibly difficult or just straight up unwinnable, just to hammer home that V is the real deal in terms of being a legendary merc. I know this is a little far fetched, but I really enjoyed the small section of the temperance path, where you storm Arasaka Tower with Rogue and Weyland and where you control Johnny inside Mikoshi. It was so cool to talk to my version of V from Johnny's perspective, see them move around and respond without any of my input. Maybe it sounds cooler than it actually would be, but I would love to see them implement something like that into Project Orion, instead of just keeping V as the protagonist.
One bit of cyberpunk wisdom that I take from the game: The life of a merc will kill you. It might sooner or later and in a more or less flashy way but if you keep on this road long enough that same road will you. That's why it looks fitting, at least to me, that you lose all your cyberware in the tower ending. It's the only ending where you are truly guaranteed to survive and it does so by removing the main impediment to your continued life : Your job as a merc. As for seeing V in Orion. Except for the suicide ending ( which by the way does not have an achievement), there is indeed a possibility for V to survive in all of them as pointed out by this video. One thing I like to mention is that, in every case where V survives, his brain is picked up by an A.I. . Now people say that V wasn't soukilled in the tower but I am not sure. This could still be a necessity to separate his personality from johnny's engram. Also, if true, it might indicate that Mr Blue Eyes possible solution would also imply the use of something akin to soulkiller. (Soulkiller in that case meaning in that case not just the eponymous arasaka's tech but any software/A.I. that can scan a person brain to make an engram out of their 'soul'.) Which means, if true, that V was soulkilled in each and last one of those ending leading to the possibility of a copy of his engram surviving somewhere. If you go beyond the blackwall, nightcorp might still steal an engram of V from alt. If Mr Blue eye is the one is the one in possession of V's engram it coul still be stolen by Alt ... and you can replace any of those two by another corp, especially Arasaka. And then, there is still the possibility of shenanigans of SEVERAL copies of V running around .... if we go the altered carbon/brain uploading route ... that is a very real possibility.
For the Star ending, there is the possibility of StormTech connections, which has some crazy tech research. There is also a small Nomad Pack that is so Tech focused, some of their tech is almost like magic. The nomad pack however has very specific area of influence, being the ones that hold a old tower/building used for research before the bombs fell
Does V survive though or is it more accurate to say a copy of V survives in most endings... Thats what adds a tinge of darkness even in the nomad ending
Mr Blue Eyes has such Wintermute from Neuromancer vibes. I can see his storyline ending going the most amount of possible directions. I am a fan of the FIA winter soldier theory. It would be a fun opening mission to 'wake up' and break free. Totally keep the spy thriller vibes the whole way and rounding it out back into regular wild dystopia.
That is assuming if V is going to be the protagonist of Cyberpunk Orion to begin with. It would be cool for CDPR to have a quest that actually reflects the ending, but let us face our consequences first hand. The most promising ending, The Star, would probably exclude any odds of encountering V all together. In The Sun/Reaper ending, V would be the owner of Afterlife and essentially replace Rogue as a fixer. The Tower could offer a similar route with V becoming a fixer, but not affiliated with Afterlife. Temperance would probably have an easter egg along the lines of Johnny performing on one of the radios or being reborn as a rock star. And in the Devil ending, V would be simply dead, unless the choice was made to turn them into an engram, which could potentially lead to a one-on-one fight with the very incarnation of consequences of our choices. All of it is just dumbed down to simple concepts, of course, but it's very interesting where CDPR will go with Orion.
About the suicide ending: You fail to take into account another factor: The distance from which the bullet is fired. Headshot wounds are survivable if you receive one from a distance. In the event you're using a weapon from up close, the hot gases leak out of the barrel into the gunshot wound. There, they superheat the tissue, causing it to expand and causing massive internal damage, not comparable to the other scenario. There is little to no chance at coming back from this. Great Video tho!
Ooh good point! Yeah I guess from 1 foot away and against the head should still make a lot of difference. It was a longshot that one anyway haha. Thanks!
Honestly I love V, but as much as I do- I'd prefer a new protagonist. Then the game can ask which ending you picked and give you ways to encounter V throughout the story. More "intro" options could be used to deepen this too- Pick the corpo way again and also have V sigh over to Arasaka? Maybe Vs memories are used as training for new Arasaka Soldiers. Of course none actually being able to match V's skill, aside your character, kicking off the main story. (The same could be done for a brand new NUSA agent if V decided to go that way.) Then you can encounter them in person later!
so interesting, Each of the endings has a unique "corp" except temperance Devil - Arasaka Tower - Militech Temperance - RogueAI (Arguably most "neutral") Star - Biotechnica (lots of the nomad stuff deal with and for them so definitely linked albiet not as directly as the first two) Sun - Nightcorp Really makes me feel like Cyberpunk 2 could easily use a branching and/or direct pull to any of the endings based on a "starter" screen you choose Kind of like we picked our "starter" backgrounds in this game (Street Punk, Corpo, Nomad). Basically in whatever "start" we have in CP2 maybe you "pick" your card which gives an ending to the one you had in CP1. This then goes through the 2 year "timeskip" to 2079 as a weathered V comes back in any of the methodologies explained. Super cool to think about the potential even if it's not going to happen.
Its my belief that Alt - or rather the rogue AI posing as Alt - was simply lying about V being doomed, in an effort to convince V to accept being subsumed. Alt's only reason for helping is the chance to get into Mikoshi and subsume the engrams stored there. No doubt it views V as an especially nice engram as well. As for why it would need to lie to convince V to accept it? The key word here is subsume. Not consume. Its not a shark gobbling up a smaller fish (even if Johnny describes it like that). Its more like trying to hitch a team of horses to a wagon. Its not really practical unless the horses are willing to go along with it. An AI might be able to destroy an engram, or a living person who is jacked in, but to subsume an engram the engram has to be willing. Now, most of the engrams in Mikoshi are probably more than willing to go along with that, rather than continue on in purgatory. But V has options.
Very true. It doesn't seem like engrams can be easily rewritten to simply become subservient. There are smaller encounters in game where netrunners are captured in the net and soulkilled. They're trying to send out messages asking for help, suggesting they still have their own free will and desire to escape
@@SamBramwhy do you need to “rewrite” an engram at all? there is no point in this. what is the difference between "consume/subsume" - it doesn't make any sense at all, because you can just read all the code/information of the engram, so you will know in advance any answer to any of your questions or any train of thought. and alt said all this herself, talking about silver's engram - she is not interested in it. as for why alt can't cure v - it's because she's just stupid af - she's trying to put v's purified (from silver) engram into his brain, instead of putting it in an blank biochip and then causing v's physical death, so chip can this time start rewritting v's brain with V'S DNA (not silver dna), effectively curing his body. it is that simple actually, but she perceives v as an ordinary netrunner who has digitized himself and is stuck in the network, as for example happened when a black wall appeared.
I believe you may have missed 1 ending in this analysis, when i played through 2 years ago i opted to destroy Asaka's tower and visit Alt The major difference is that since i had a great relationship with Johny i was allowed the option to rewrite Johny's engram with V's soul.
I only see it fit for V to become Afterlife legend in any ending tbh. Let Orion’s protagonist bring a new story with them, and hope V at least gets a good time they deserve for all it’s worth.
A note on temperance, isn’t it possible for V’s engram to be able to control their body via using the proxy program hanako uses to talk with you through that girl in the hotel?
I think temperance achieved through don't fear the reaper is cannon and Johnny instead of moving on gets in contact with alt who is in possession of v and then we could either give v the role that Johnny had in 2077 or give them the body back OR steal.a body from biotechnica.
11:26 Network infrastructure analyst and electronics repair technician here, what Vik considers there are doing one of two things, the first is a "factory reset" sort of solution, the second is changing the means used by the implants to connect and communicate to the brain, in the last one he claims that there is a hight risk in this one of the body misinterpreting the commands the brain sends to the implants, and by this happening instead of doing what the brain ordered a hight risk of the whole body turning itself off isntead, including vital organs
If Palpatine can "Somehow" return in Rise of Skywalker then there's nothing stopping characters from just coming back regardless of what happened to them. Doesn't mean they should though
I thought of it this way just like you said: The FIA has a off on switch. Send a signal to V, cyberware kicks back on or The neurosurgery left V weakened for a while while Viktor does a work around or Song Mi is able rework it.
Great content as usual Sam. Given the look of your male V in this video (and how much he looks like that one talk show host from the game), it reminded me of another interesting deep dive topic for this game, that I don't know if anyone has brought up? But who is Doctor Paradox? They show up all the time, and it's ripped RIGHT out of the film Johnny Mnemonic in it's presentation. But who are they? My theory? It's Ziggy Q. Because I recall in one of his interviews....a few of them in fact, he deviates from the simpering talk show host persona, and actually rips into his guest with a really biting comment, that cuts to the very heart of their corrupt society. I remember hearing it like twice I think. He'd be all smiles and nods and then just BAM! Total tonal shift, starts spouting very intelligent and insightful counterpoints to their BS company line, leaving them unable to respond, clearly flustered. So what I think, is that Ziggy Q, secretly moonlights as Doctor Paradox. Because it would be fairly paradoxical, and ironic, for the leading Face of the corporate world, to be actually working against it, to tear it down. Because one of his rants is directly about the tv shows that come on, and how they brainwash the populace into obeying, and how he wants everyone to turn off their TVs, to screw over the advertisers and sponsors and everything. To rise up together and shut down the entertainment industry. And who would be better suited to know how to bring it down? Why one of the most popular, and central mouth pieces they have. Plus the voice for Doctor Paradox sounds an awful lot like Ziggy Q to me, with an obvious voice filter to mask their identity. But anyway, just an interesting thing to ponder. I'd be curious to see what deep dive clues you could find on the subject. 😁
That's stated in the game to be Ziggy's MO: he blindside's his guests with the most controversial takes and accusations to drum up drama. He'll tear into corpos with scandalous cover ups and accuse grieving widows of crocodile tears. It's strongly implied he doesn't actually care about the things he brings up, he's just trying to feed the algorithm or whatever dystopian equivalent exists in their world.
@@MisterCynic18 well yeah but this is conspiracy theory territory, and CP 2077 loves having double/triple fakeouts about stuff. I'm fully prepared for him to be nothing more than a corporate shill, like his public MO says. But we've already seen one example of the entertainment industry being more than just what you are shown on the holovids. Take Us Cracks for example. I'm not saying I have a lot of evidence to back my theory up, it's mostly just a feeling from his tone on a few clips, and the fact that it would be the most ironic twist to the identity of that character. Sure it could just be "random hacker wacko 27" broadcasting from an apartment in one of the blocks. But it seems more interesting from a narrative perspective for it to end up being someone like Ziggy.
I really hope V comes back in the next game. I can't image playing as anyone else. I know Rockstar pulled it off with Arthur Morgan becoming a beloved character. but I feel like that's hard to do consistently.
The Tower ending only says V can't have Cybernetic implants. The tabletop RPG for this game has a VAST library of genetic/bioimplants. Most people don't use them because one-for-one they are both much more expensive than Cyberware AND not as strong as the nearest cybernetic equivalents. Plus, they take along time to "integrate". Getting a cyberimplant takes a few hours and maybe a few days of recovery time afterwards. Where getting a genetic enhancement is non-invasive but can take two months to fully integrate into your body and reach it's full potential. So why use them at all, right? Well, bio enhancements have MUCH less risk of Cyberpsychosis and they can be stacked on top of each other if you're willing to put in the time and ALOT of money. Back when I played the Tabletop game I decided to go almost pure bio-enhancement. I played smart and careful until I reached the power level needed that eventually my character could go toe-to-toe with Adam Smasher butt naked and barehanded, relying on genetic and bio-augmentation. Mind you it took over a decade of in-game time passage to get that strong and there were ALOT of near-deaths along the way. He had a good team to back him up. And that was with 2020-era Geneware and Bioware. 2077-era has to be even better. So Tower V could theoretically go that route if his genetic code doesn't reject geneware and bioware the same way it rejects cyberware.
tbh i dont understand the angle at all. V has exceptional combat abilities (technically thanks to us, the player) regardless of whether they have implants or not.
@@Blox117 For context, Cyberpunk is based on a desk top pen and paper RPG. Unlike most such games, it is EXTREMELY easy to die in Cyberpunk. This ain't Dungeons and Dragons where you just keep getting hitpoints each time you level up until you can pretty much tank a dragonbreath blast to the face. Ironically, the videogame incorporates such leveling mechanics which undercuts the brutal lethality the game and setting are based around. So if you only know Cyberpunk based on the videogame, I can see why you would think that someone can be an Edgerunner purely based on skill. But let me assure you, nobody is going to be able to just "Batman" their way through the world of Cyberpunk with skills if they want to live the Edgerunner life. All the skill in the world means diddly once you go up against a skezzed out junkie with a third-rate bargain bin Sandevistan. In a game where he who shoots first almost always shoots last, any punk with cash to burn can spend a few hours on the operating table and come out with reflexes to match or beat hardened combat veterans who operate on pure skill alone. Skill still matters, but again...there are no Batmans in Night City. The closest thing to that was Morgan Blackhand who had minimal implants and relied heavily on pre-planning his ops. But even Morgan needed Reflex/Speed boosting implants to make sure that when the fighting started he wasn't getting instant-smoked by common riffraff
@@TheCrimsonRevenger indeed, i only know the game through this video game. i come from old school shooters that didnt baby you, so i blasted through this game on the 2nd hardest difficulty (i should've picked the hardest but i didnt know before playing) without any upgrades, just a revolver and lots of headshots. thats why it left me confused lmao
Remember guys, it's just a theory... We'll come back to this video in a few years and see how much was correct though :)
Bold of you to assume that in few years, there would be something new. Morelike 2036😂
@@petterihietala659 Well at any rate we'll hopefully have a little more info on the game. A cinematic trailer even might shed some light
Oh damn, I hope that too. I still go back to old trailer, just to listen. Great content keep it up!@@SamBram
Ok, then for that "mark upon posterity" to come back hen Orion launches, *my* opinion is that V is of course dead. Thinking V survived means the theory *missed the point of Cyberpunk entirely.*
The new game will certainly build on the lore, with V becoming the Legend they had wanted.
The NEW protagonist will get enough lore about V to back up that they were their, and that they were involved in many things... but no one knows *for sure* what they really did, or decided.
V not having to live in a world with people like claire panam and songbird is enough reason to leave V dead. Let the man get some rest after dealing with those morons
V surviving path of least resistance would be so dark it'd loop back to hilarious
Hey V, you're finally awake. I called you like 10 times - Jackie in your room..
Considering the chip is basically v's brain, shooting himself might not even work if it's a lucky shot. Johnny might decide to hijack v's body and go down the rouge ending regardless.
My first thoughts 😂
V beating The Couriers record
There is no escape.
Voice from beyond the Blackwall
V: Goodbye Johnny, Goodbye Night City...
*bang*
Johnny: Wait you forgot to turn off the lights
V: *revives* damnit Johnny
In the sourcebooks, there is a group of nomads called "Technomancers" in Arizona/other parts of the southwest who's netrunning abilities far outpace that of the Voodoo Boys. I believe this is who Panam is taking V to.
That's a bingo
You meant "Techno-necromancers from Alpha Centauri" of course.
The shard next to the basilisk also seems to suggest V is surviving
Preach!
i belive the Nomad ending could be canon, Phantom liberty is not even canon, all u need to do is to let myers die. the whole expansion pack is a wrong choice, Cyberpunks dont help the government. That my theory...
Technomancers, Alpha Centauri..... Orion.....The Nomads... Might be that. FF 06 B5's mattress in the desert...... Gary........ Yep.
I feel like the first one might actually work, where V might be a scarier Adam Smasher replacement
More decked out in chrome than the boogeyman? Fuck it , we ball..
I like the NUSA Winter Soldier angle
It's never happen, but imagine the sequel using save game data from the first game to have our custom V show up as a boss fight.
That could be awesome, Imagine V becoming the final boss of Orion. Not only would you have to go up against the canonically most powerful solo of all time, but you'd also have to kill 'your V'. And who knows if V would even be a willing pawn of whoever controls them and not a ghost in the shell forced to obey the command of their masters. That could be one epic but tragic finale
@@bkgrilaI'd probably cry
There's two points I'd like to add.
- Several times during elevator rides (as early as riding down the elevator to meet Jackie after The Rescue), news segments are shown about BioDyne having developed an effective treatment to MS. Both V's condition and MS are autoimmune conditions that involve the body's immune system attacking it's neurons.
- For the Aldecaldos specfically: In the Cyberpunk Red TTRPG nomads are being described as one of two groups that have a stable connection to the orbital Highrider Confederation. Now I don't know how much has changed between to 2040s and 2077 (probably a lot), but with the Highriders focusing on Bioware instead of Cyberware, due to being more reliable and less prone to malfunction outside the earth's magnetosphere, I'd consider it possible, that they might have a good chance of finding a solution. After all their technological development likely has divereged quite heavily.
That is such a good catch. I never thought too much into the news segments, but seeing how connected everything is, this is a great point.
Yes technomancers in arizona
You son of a bitch, I never understood that bit until you pointed out... well caught, sir. Or ma'am.
Hear me out. What if, in the next installment of Cyberpunk, the game asks you what ending you chose and then based on that, you get a unique prolog for the new game?
You mean like the mechanics of The Witcher 3?
@@ahmadjamal200a5that’s what i always thought they were gonna do since CDPR did it for the witcher 3 it would really help fans dictate what story they want to be told for them.
this would be an amazing thing to do, the outcomes will be much accepted an loved by the fans and players.
As much as I would love that, CDPR have reiterated their interest in expanding upon life paths. I assume this means different ending paths from 2077 are out of the question
Too much work for CDPR. 😂
Tbh for me the biggest clues are Misty’s tarot cards, they’ve been shown multiple times to predict the future so them telling us that we have a promising life a head of us in the star ending is proof enough for me.
That and Misty's overall positivity. She'd always been straddling the line between being pragmatic but supportive. But in the Star ending there's none of that "the reality is you dying" underneath her words
The star ending is cannon to me
OMG! Now that you mentioned it, I just came to realize that V's 2-year "coma" actually being serving NUSA with memory wipe is actually deceptively plausable. One of the French netrunners in Phantom Liberty did store memory on external devices, and got a few years of memory stolen, so we know it is doable in-universe. Also, on the other side of the 4th wall, it is something happened in the Witcher series: both Geralt and Yen were coerced into serving the Wild Hunt at a time, and got memory wiped when their service comes to an end. Geralt recalls that he just remember his time with the Hunt as a blur, then he "appeared in front of Kaer Morhen". So it is possible that CDPR can take a single page out of that book.
(And for those who are interested, Phantom Liberty shares a few overarching plot points with Heart of Stone, a Witcher 3 DLC. Both stories involves a highly capable, morally gray, and tragic individual (Olgierd & Songbird) on the run from an exremely powerful entity (Gunter O' Dimm & NUSA), which in turn enlisted the player character (Geralt & V)'s help to "catch" the individual. Both also have a sigular key decision close to the conclusion regarding whose side to take. So if CDPR does decide to take a page out of the Witcher, it probably will not be the first time.)
And I really wished that Orion will be a continuation of V's story, and 2077's Endings become the new lifepaths. I imagine this will be a multi-faction free-for-all involving different human -and AI- groups, and 2077's ending decides which side V is on at the beginning: Arasaka (Devil), NUSA (Tower), Aldocaldo (Star), Mr. Blue-eye (Sun & Don't Fear the Reaper), or Alt (Temperance). And during the course of the story, V may stay loyal to their original faction, or "defect" to another. Maybe it will be something like Fallout: New Vegas (Courier 6 is hired by Mr. House, but can eventually continue serving him, or go for the other three major endings in NCR, Legion or independence.)?
They could make us choose from which endings we want to continue in the next cyberpunk like where in the first we got to choose as corpo, street kid or nomad now to choose from the endings and continue from there.
I personally believe that Hanako and Saburo wanted V engram to make him the new attack dog of arasaka
After all...
V defeated or kill Smasher
V is a One man army
Soldier, Merc, spy
Maybe V can't live in a organic body anymore let's pretend that's true
But what about a full robotic body?
They can alter the engram and change V memories and make him loyal
Imagine a full borg with the digital mind of V in it
Arasaka don't give a shit about V, they see him/her as a lowly mercenary.
@@shuyaku99 is that why Hanako offers to give you a job if you refuse to undergo the procedure in the devil ending?
@@AveChristusRex789 a measly office job, that's just her pretending she gives a shit, don't go thinking it's anything deeper than that lol.
Doubt Smasher is completly dead, his biopod is prolly intact after you killed him.
@@shuyaku99 Even if Smasher isn't completely dead the fact that V canonically defeated him in combat is notable. More than enough reason to make an altered engram of him.
Mr. Blue Eyes: Where I'm from---
Harbinger: ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL
I'd like a plot where Johnny took our body and ended up helping the next protagonist, and in some way he ends up with an engram of V in his head.
"Wake the fuck up douchebag, your conscience is back" - V
YOUR CONSCIENCE IS BACK
THAAT'S FIRE
Johnny was the worst part of cyberpunk. Hoping we don't get more.
@@PatGunnno way. Loved having him in the game. Better friend than Jackie.
@@PatGunn he was literally one of the greatest parts of it
@@PatGunnbait or mental retardion. Call it
I Have almost 600 hours in this game, and i still suffer after losing my V... i feel like Johnny himself just watchin V slowly fade way. 😢😢😢
Was actually working on a "Should V Return for Orion" video when this popped up, so its cool that you mentioned me. Thanks for your hard work choom!
Thank you for yours Choom! I look forward to hearing your take on things
I hope you didn't stop 👀
Commenting to your comment so potentially both of you will see this. But even if we can not be V from the first game we could still play V in another because of the breadcrumbs left in the first game. Thanks to one scene in where we get our names dropped, Valerie and Vincent. The three life path starts work perfectly for twins of a nomad clan coming to night city after their clan is destroyed, one goes corp (female V's voice works best) and the other street kid (male V's voice).
The next game could be the sibling taking up the merc life as a way of honoring or avenging their sibling. The nomad start could be that they and some other members had tried to revive their clan, street kid was in jail and corpo was out of town on business during the events of the base game. I am just hoping that they street kid is a different gang and corpo is a different corp if they do use this idea.
The twin idea is not far fetched as in the base game they have the twins that we fight in Kabuki and the twins in PL so that could be another breadcrumb. There could be more to really hint this is the case but I will leave it to you lore experts IF you decide to look into this potential possibility.
out of topic for the video but i must see online slang progress to the word "choom". it's so goofy and much more gendwr neutral than "bro"
My headcanon with The Tower is that my V uses home-made equipment instead of cyberware.
For example. Put a Microgenerator in a sort of cyber-gauntlet instead of in the flesh. That’d work.
My 20 technical is coming in clutch.
Sandy enemy: nice junk choom
My favourite ending is the dont fear the reaper because its so badass and cool
It’s so fucking cool hearing the arasaka agents shit themselves after hearing one man/woman is currently strolling through their most secure headquarters
@@sldarwin5615 Adam who? I will reduce him to atoms.
@@sldarwin5615 I see it as the true ending to the game. I like the fact you learn from Johnny's mistakes( costing his friends their lives) and truly become a legend by soloing one of the most powerful corporations in the world.
The only thing they fear is V
Agreed, so is mine. The best ending is a "Don't Fear the Reaper" ending, which saves Rogue and leads into "The Sun" ending. Most people enjoy "The Star" ending more but I'm a sucker for V doing a final impossible heist to become the true legend of the Afterlife and Night City.
I personally would love to return in the next game as V, especially if they made most of these endings a starting option for the game so that we can have vastly different starting positions in the story with actual consequence.
My only concern for that would be how they would handle romance if you got star ending with judy or panam. (The other endings while open ended on survival are a lot less open about the fate of your relationships to basically everyone other than Vik and Misty)
tbh I hope we don't play as V, playing as another solo or even co-op as a crew would go hard as hell
11:20 - I have a theory that Vic saw something in the diagnostic that caused him to stop looking for solutions. If you watch, he pauses while staring silently at the screen for a brief second, before he turns to you saying he can't do anything. No idea what it could've been, but it was clearly something that spooked a veteran ripper doc like Vic into keeping V out of the loop, probably for her own good.
Maybe some kind of kill switch.
Yeah it honestly sounded like it was a threat to _him_ that made him back off in the midst of scanning viable solutions. That or he found a killswitch that would go off if he even tried, one that would be risky for even the best netrunners to crack.
Which might actually mean she is a type of winter soldier, and they would instantly assassinate vik if he even dared touch the software keeping her that way.
What if him digging around just that is the reason why he got transfered out of his shop in the credits call? - If the NUSA is really planning this, then they'd have all kinds of measures of detecting if V, or anyone, is poking around.
It's possible that there's a new chip NUSA installed between V's jack and their biomonitor that fakes a bunch of data and has instructions to carry out if activated by a specific request and password that are automatically transferred if NUSA sends an agent with the appropriate software to jack into V to activate their cyberware and a sleeper agent state. Could start the next game with V coming out of the sleeper agent state and hunted down by whoever they were fighting. Could be a good way to implement a tutorial. Meanwhile during the fight have someone mention they aren't using any cyberware thus prompting V to investigate. Since V begins investigating and is maybe around Vik at the time it happens, NUSA could try a remote kill switch that Vik is just barely able to save V from. Thus, reasoning to have no cyberware since it was all damaged by the kill switch and Viks rapid disassembly of critical parts.
I settled on becoming an Aldecaldo and moving to Arizona.
Saul and Bobby go out like absolute ballers and at least V doesn't get dismissed by any of his actual friends.
V most likely is going to die, but it's on V's terms with real people by his side.
Who knows, there might be a story of why you don’t attack a group called the aldecaldos as all who dared found themselves become noting but a story. Their tale ending with either a burst of sparks, decapitation from a blade they never saw or burst of gunfire and screams about an unstoppable force
In mythology, Orion is a great hero and hunter, there are many different stories about him, told by many different Greek regions, one of those stories is Orion going to the afterlife (dies) and then returns, V doesn't absolutely have to survive to be back, after all Johnny Silverhand died and was in CP2077.
Maybe V will be the antagonist in Orion ?
Doesn't morgan blackhand fit orions description better? Great hero many stories was name dropped multiple times but never shown
@@aryaab1122also fits the line from Claire where she says that he can't decide whether he's alive or dead.
21:56 about the tank, it is mentioned what the second pilot is only needed if they enter into combat(while piloting it), piloting it only needs one person, so if there was no enemies when leaving, or if he decided to simply not enter combat, one person was more than enough to pilot the tank
anyway, if orion uses the multiple endings for a posible choice of lifepath for a continuation of V, they could be called as "corpo slave"(arasaka ending), "sleeper agent"(pl ending) "revived legend"(jhonny ending), "seasoned nomad"(nomad ending...) and "imposible legend"(rogue/dont fear the reaper ending)
i was thinking about how they could introduce something like lifepaths in orion, but those would be based on which ending you chose in 2077, the base 3 would be the star, the sun and the devil (those even kinda work with the original nomad, street kid and corpo paths), temperance, suicide and tower would be in that case non-cannon, same as in mass effect 2 where shepard can die in the end
I like this theory alot i hope they do this in orion though i liked the tower ending
It would also continue CDPR’s tradition of importing saves. But ultimately, I’m pretty CDPR has said they have no intention of continuing V’s story
@@aryaab1122I liked the ending, I think it’s a bit more of a happy ending than most people think. But I’d never choose it as it requires betraying song and leaving her with myers. Which to me, is not only bad for her, but also fucking scary for the world as a whole
@@sldarwin5615 so mi completely fucked us over though to get what she wanted
@@aryaab1122 yeah, I get that, but she also ended up giving us the choice to save ourselves on the train. I do wish in the other endings she at least revealed she was lying and apologised. I don’t think she is a perfect person, and maybe not even a good one, but ultimately V also did some pretty bad shit to survive as well. Granted, it was mainly aimed at corps (who fucking deserve it) but still. It has scary implications for the world as well as being awful for her. And tbh, I was like 80% sure she was lying the whole dlc lmao
I might be very late to the discussion and this comment might get drowned out by all the other ones, but I’ve noticed that Mr. B‘s street credit varies ingame. While it’s about 400 in the sun ending, it’s 600 when we see him in Phantom liberty. Since PL takes place before the sun ending he seemingly lost cred somehow?
Pawel is a fan of the Altered Carbon books, so I wouldn't be surprised if they did go that route
Bonus if the new body V is in looks exactly like the old one.
Gotta say first thing before i even get into this, thank you so much for making this video, it genuinely drives me insane to think about the plot holes and loose threads the endings leave for the sequel, been trying to figure out for so long how it could work, this hopefully can help it, also incredible work regardless :)
V's consciousness is an engram in a foreign body if you choose to send V back to her body. She can theoretically survive by putting that consciousness into a different body and taking it over just like Johnny did to her body. A la character creation in Cyberpunk 2.
That's honestly a fantastic/horrifying way to bring back V, I'd rather have a blank slate for the next game, with a possible cameo
But it’s made clear that the Johnny we interact with isn’t the “real” one but a perfect copy, an engram. So by the time V is turned into an engram, the original version is already dead.
@@JimmyMidniteThis is true and pretty dark, but Johnny's engram had to deal with being decades out of time and trying to share a body. As far as V was concerned, they basically just dipped in and out of mikoshi, even if they were soulkilled.
Here's an interesting angle: an engram is a data pattern of your consciousness. How exactly would V's immune system even tell one engram from another? It's simply not physically possible for V's immune system to "reject" the engram. So this means Alt was lying... maybe to encourage V to give Johnny a body?
@@JimmyMidniteit's an imperfect copy. His entire retelling of the Arasaka bombing is very skewed, unclear how much more of his memories and personality doesn't match the real Johnny.
The Star ending is still my favourite, brilliant video , thank you Sam, 👍👍👍
Mine too John. Though the Sun via DFTR is a close second
@@SamBram definitely 👍
I’d like them to bring V back, can’t beat the actor they used for the male V voice. Gavin Drea made one helluva protagonist! Would like to see it continued.
He is a cool dude. Would honestly have preferred him not doing his American accent.
yeah nah...I cant stand that dudes accent. My first playthrough was as male v...then saw someone say the female voice was much better so tried it, and the next 7 or 8 were all female. He just gets on my wick. Every time he opens his mouth its like a cheese grater over my ears. Complete opposite of how he sounds irl weirdly.
@@ThePsiclone I have the same feeling but for female V it’s like nails on a chalkboard for me I can’t stand it lol
100% agree. both fem v and male v voice actors were pretty amazing, but he was absolutely my personal favorite between the two. it'd be awesome to have them both back for the sequel
See I feel like male V has a decent voice, but shit delivery on most lines. Making conversations just feel different. Like there will be lines that are supposed to be a more sympathetic delivery, or emotional. The delivery of fem V will be spot on, but the delivery of male V will come off as literally hostile or sarcastic.
Male V is fun for aggro shit
but any emotional point in the game outside of like 2 he sounds like a cunt and I just cant get past it.
Counter point: one of the lead writers commented on Twitter in a debate, suggesting that V returning is counterintuitive to their character arc
i'm also surprised by the amount of people who suggest or want v to return, like isn't the whole point that they can't? writing so many different endings without a single one saying v can live despite this video only to then say "oh yeah no they lived and now you have to play them again" feels like it defeats the impact of all of them. plus i just don't really like v but i do like the world so i'd love to revisit it in a different protagonist's shoes.
I'd love to see V return in Orion, but there's endless potential for new and interesting characters as well. But they'll have to wrap up V's story anyway if the sequel directly connects to CP2077's storyline, so I hope we'll at least get some references and maybe some iconic items belonging to V.
In my playthroughs ALL of the iconics happened to be V's :) ... More seriously though getting his default pistol [Lexington?] as the only "X-Mod-4" weapon would be something else.
V as the protagonist in Orion could actually work if CDPR does it right but I understand those who wants an entirely new character, part of me wants that too but V is such a badass character that it’s gonna be hard to top him
According to CDPR V story is over he or she will not be in cyberpunk 2077 project Orion top of that that means they have a canonized won the endings of the original game that's why they're going to have a new protagonist dreams are nice that's all they are
@@LeonardMosca They never explicitly said it's over from what I've seen. I saw some talk about "V's arc" or them not wanting to make post-endgame expansions, which is the strongest suggestion that next game will have new MC, but that's about it. On the other hand there's an interview with one of the senior writers where she denies stating that V story is over and that they don't want to rule out any possibilities during the current pre-production stage. And Paweł Sasko straight up avoiding questions on canon ending and V's story being over (while smirking at the same time, although he seems like a happy dude so maybe it's nothing). It's a bit frustrating. I hope they'll come out in a year or two and clarify Orion will have new playable character
I like the idea of V selling his soul to Arasaka for one simple reason: it could set up a loop for future games.
Adam Smasher has always felt like, to me at least, a finished op character that someone made in a non existent Cyberpunk prequel.
It could start a loop where the big bads of every title were the playable characters in the previous title.
I don’t know about you, but I’d lose my shit if V was the final boss of Orion. Would make a killer twist final boss
Having V as the main protagonist again would give the sequel the same kind of narrative depth and feeling of connection that Geralt enjoys in the Witcher series. So, it would make a lot of sense to keep V on as the lead. If the sequel's story moves to a different location (city) then having V again would provide continuity between the two games as well.
Would also allow the next game to GREATLY expand, seeing as the story of 2077 rushes you into the ending (omg you die, let's quickly do this)
@@SirHaxe true 2077 felt like a first chapter of bigger story
They already confirmed Orion is staying in night city, but I think I'd be happy with V as a lead or as a side character tbh
Cyberpunk will always be about a new protagonist. The live action, game(s), animated. All in one universe, all different protagonists. Each game will be a different one and ofc Cyberpunk = NightCity, it will always be there
@@kobaye2111 would be cool though if Orion played after 2077 and depending on my save game my V would be the queen of the Afterlife.
The militech sleeper agent thing is very interesting, plausible, and 100% cyberpunk.
Spending the 2nd game trying to get out from under a corp would be interesting.
Cyberpunk 2 being more cyber _and_ more punk would be the best possible route.
A crystal palace intro mission in Orion would be dope
Imagine a twist where we think we're playing as V, only to then discover that our character is just watching a Braindance of the event (like David in the opening of Edgerunners)
I imagine there would be a big tile jump after 2077 maybe 2090 at least, Vs legend status is cemented in history, much like black hand we don’t know if they’re still out there keep it a mystery untill ready to be revealed cdpr can do some very special with V if done right
They could retcon V dying in space, and she/he makes it, and finds a cure on the moon. Hence Orion?
I'd love for CDPR to make our ending in 2077 actually matter, and impact at least the entire first chapter or so of the next game. I was a little dissapointed with The Witcher 3 in this aspect, since everything that changes when you import a save file from TW2 is wether some minor characters are alive or already know you, but its pretty much impossible to feel the impact of our previous choices. So in the next Cyberpunk it'd be awesome for V to still play a major role in the plot, and your original ending could determine what role that is.
OR perhaps the new Phantom Liberty ending the ONLY ending where V is actually confirmed to live. Probably because V's story is done and dusted and any future games will feature a brand new protagonist. This was hinted at by CDPR handling of Cyberpunk Edgerunners.
There's too many endings for CDPR to construct a new game featuring V in, so either V won't be in any future games or, far less lickely but not impossible, CDPR will forcefully canonise one of the endings to preserve V for a future game.
I'm rather surprised StormTech wasn't mentioned for the Star ending, or how much larger the Aldecados actually are as a clan. Still a rather interesting video
Yeah, the game really doesn't go in-depth about just how large the Nomad clans are. The sub-branch of Aldecaldos we see in-game are only a small amount and most of the clans are situated in Chicago, a largely city-based area. There's not just StormTech, but also the Technomancers, which admittedly are a silent clan (so the chance of them being one of Panam's contacts is thinner than StormTech), but they heavily delve into biotechnology too. It's safe to say after learning the Tabletop Lore compared to what's in-game, then yeah, V can get help through the Star Ending.
@englishgiraffe2124 Very interesting bit of lore there! Didn't know about the Technomancers. As for V, I'm like 99.9% sure they get cured in this ending as there's a data shard next to the basilisk and a bunch of symbolism littered throughout that basically say so. Like, once you see it, it's painfully obvious
@@englishgiraffe2124 I was going to mention this, but you beat me to it. The Technomancers are something like the Voodoo Boys: they rely on their own tech, and hire non-clan members when they need things done and not tied back to them. It's entirely possible that this family had done work for them in the past, or Panam simply knows enough about them to make contact. The offer of a working copy of the advanced Relic plus the entire database for it in exchange for saving V might be tempting for a clan that is on the cutting edge of tech. StormTech is one of the less onerous corporations in the game. Again, the offer of having Arasaka's prize tech in-house could motivate them. Either way, it won't be simple or easy, and the risk would be high
I always thought that the devils ending is like becoming the new Adam Smasher. Getting a new body at the cost of your soul.
I still feel like we were cheated of an Apotheosis mission, where V and Johnny sync up in a similar vein of Delamain
They’d become…
Vonny?
i never understood why we couldnt use the fucking SUPER COMPUTER that delemain ascended from and abandoned to just ...upload johnny/V into? hell ALT could have helped!
@@oliverbaksvensson1919 Sil. Ver
I feel like this might have been intended with Judy. Her whole thing in pyramid song is syncing 2 neural tracks
I feel like don't fear the reaper is basically sortof where it happens already, the line V says when accepting Johnny's request sounds straightup like something Johnny himself would have said, and the fact that you enter the mission with -25% max health and -1% for every relic malfunction that happens every couple minutes seems to indicate that the engram copying is basically in the final stage (because you didn't take either of the pills in this ending to either stop or fastforward the condition).
I rly hope V continues to be the main character for us. After all the emotion of the first game, it would be very difficult for me to just forget V and all their relationships and try to restart with somebody new. Presumably, Johnny won't be present. It would feel weird and hollow if they tried to bring him back with anyone else but V. And I'd like more Keanu! So for me the only way forward is to make V survive and let us play as them during Orion. It would keep far more impactful to continue Vs story of survival.
CDPR already has a history of a sequel having you select the choices you made in previous games therefore setting the stage for the current one. I can see that happening again here with Orion. At least, I sure as hell hope so. V is an ICONIC protagonist and PLEASE have the OG VA’s come back as well
A company investing millions $$$ in building relationships between characters and story wouldn't just discard a created protagonist out of the blue, would they? They claimed in interviews before the premiere that they wanted Cyberpunk to be another trilogy, so starting with a new character now just doesn't make sense, so chill, V will be back for sure :D
Rockstar does. But I hope you’re right @@Noccas2
@@brandanpalmer CD Projekt Red didn't close the story in Cyberpunk; there are unresolved threads and new characters on the horizon. This is something you don't typically see in Rockstar games; they usually make it clear (through the plot and events) when the story has concluded. The folks at CDPR have just opened up this world, prepared the characters, and even stated that V is indeed a remarkable character who can compete with protagonists from other games - he has a unique "creation" story. Now, with such a foundation, they can tell a story that will be important for V, but it won't necessarily be a story stemming directly from their background - see the Witcher trilogy - The full picture of events is hidden within the seemingly grand story unfolding around the main character.
It will be something grander (I'm speculating here, suggesting it might be related to war and AI, which has been lurking in the background throughout the game).
@@Noccas2 , I'd love for V to come back, so I hope you're right, but it's not hard to imagine that the overarching story is about Night City or the corps, or something else that's more thematic or political than any one character. In that case, they certainly COULD continue the story with the next chapter involving a different POV character. They could do this, even if V survived, with V being a legend or even an NPC like Rogue was in the first game.
Again, I hope our V comes back and we can play him/her more, but I figure there's even odds that we won't play V again in the next game (even if we do again in the third game, with something similar to Witcher 3 where we play both Geralt and Ciri, maybe the 3rd game has both protagonists from games 1 and 2 involved -- seems unlikely, but not impossible).
@@GraniteStateColin Agree ;)
24:03 Headcannon says plan B is chamberd in 9mm or something smaller instead of 45acp like how most unity and liberty models are
I want V to become a sort of ambiguous character in the sequel, imagine the new mc meets up with a mysterious fixer who is very upfront with you and doesn’t bullshit you. They have this modulated voice that makes it impossible to tell if they are female or male and they never reveal themselves.
In short I want to become of Mr Hands for new edgerunners
Or do what BG3 did and have you choose and customize your character and then customize your boss/fixer “guardian” V. So you could recreate your V from one of your past play throughs.
Honestly, I firmly believe the cannon ending is Temperance, specifically Don't Fear the Reaper Temperance. The ending is itself a suicide run, this is a suicide ending if you fail it, and also functionally is the acceptance stage in the stages of grief as the game has constant parallels to it.
V is both grieving Jackie's death and his, but ending at acceptance. Furthermore, I feel like a return of V in CP2 wouldn't be good, as it emphasizes the character too much in a genre that stems off of noir, and Johnny has more legacy lore that it leads to him being left alive, but somewhat defeated as we see him.
Furthermore, if V were to come back, I see it as a Rogue AI in a side quest or dlc that may need to be taken care of, possibly relating to a future request of Johnny.
Right, because obviously the secret ending would be the only canon one. 🙄
V sitting at a campfire in Arizona, recovering from a bad attack , trying to console Panham but having nothing good to tell her , then An AV breaks the horizion , a nightcorp AV , it lands and SoMi steps out and says "I've come to return the favor for saving my life, we can save yours"
An AI inhabiting SoMi's body steps out*
@@MisterCynic18
not if Mr. Blue eyes has anything to say about that.
@@tree003a >Trusting the man orchestrating an AI powered brainwashing of the city's politicians
Yeah I don't think he has her best interests in mind
@@tree003a Hate to break it to you but Blue Eyes is the AI who is manipulating SoMi
@@clarencewalters338
you are right about Mr. Blue eyes, the A.I that murdered the Night Corp. founder and took over and created Mr. Blue eyes. Thing is Mr. Blue eyes cured SoMi and at least wants her to still have her mind and soul. Mr. Blue eyes Night Corp A.I does not want some other rogue A.I from beyond the black wall messing with SoMi. why because she owes him now and will gladly serve to repay her debt.
The Tower ending was kind of funny in a challenge run I did because V was sooo sad about losing her chrome... when I had never installed any, I even managed to remove the optics cyberware due to a bug in the cyberware tutorial. She went thru the entire game as a stealth assassin, slinging knives and taking people out with a silenced pistol, I even put it as part of the challenge that she's super suspicious of airhypos because I roleplayed that she was paranoid that there were microchips in them! And then somehow she's sad that she can't do mercwork anymore??
There is nothing better than watching a new SamBrams cyberpunk video while eating dinner.
Breakfast for me, but it's great just the same
Can’t eat without watching some good content
same bruh
The sun is by far the best ending, especially DFTR. It's also the only where V nor Johnny have any regrets
YESSSS THESE ARE MY FAVORITE KINDA VIDEOS YOU MAKE MAN! Love it
You can't belive how hyped i am just after 30 secs into the video. I need V back in Orion.
I hope V returns for no other reason than the female voice actress is nothing short of phenomenal
Guy was solid too
Cherami Leigh ❤❤
Bro I’m saying I thought I was tripping when I thought there was more feeling coming from a female v
@@DazaiMelrose It was that way with Mass Effect too. An even bigger gap with that one
@@kaushalsuvarna5156 I read online an interview with one of the developers the next game will not be based in Night City. So V would have to move.
@@muddhutter They may just go with a whole new narrative. New stories in different places would allow them to keep the games IN 2077
Don’t know if that’s a priority or not
Fun fact, Mike Pondsmith (the creator of Cyberpunk 2020 and subsequent installations) talks in a reddit post about how, in a cave buried underground in the Deep South "are hundreds--possibly thousands of flash-frozen human corpsicles linked together by a gigantic neuro-web that allows them to live in a continous VR existence" and it connects well with Panam talking about pulling out "some of [their] folks out of deep, deep cesspits"
Masterpiece. Bravo.
Makes me want to do yet another play through.
Goddam I love the intricately detailed world building in Cyberpunk 2077. Actually I love just about everything about this game. Can’t wait for Orion.
I’d like for V to continue into the sequel but what they should do is that your beginning would be based of your previous gameplay from part one or if you skipped part 2 or lost your save then you’d start with a default start connected which would also connect to the worst ending. I don’t know about that last idea but would be cool I think.
If V is the protagonist for the next game, then they should offer the ability to either import our saves or pick and choose the information to lock into place for the playthrough if we don't have a save to transfer. Likewise, if CDPR goes with a new protagonist they could allow for all the endings to exist by making important points in V's journey be rumors. When the player interact with certain situations, their choice locks in whatever that point would be. If they are willing to put in extra parts as well, certain NPCs would still be alive depending on our choices, otherwise they are replaced with someone new to fill that same role.
E.G.
- A group of Mercs you are with are talking about going to Clouds after the mission and you chime in that it was either closed down or the management is stricter than what you heard of before. You head to Clouds and either it is still closed or your crew can't get in due to new "dress codes". This continues till later in the story where you could do a side quest or two and it opens up again / the dress code is lighter due to your influence.
- A vendor for Braindances has rare ones that offer the experiences of doing certain Heists and gigs that you can buy. One is the Crystal Palace heist, another is a run with a "certain group of Nomads" to raid a base for supplies, so on and so forth. Even if you didn't say V chose those paths, there would be others who took those jobs and supplied the info for the Braindances.
- PL related content would add to it with certain side quests and as for factoring in the endings, there could be mention of the attack on the spaceport (and if a rocket took off that night), or other things in relation to the opposing choice of the main quest.
- If they want to keep certain NPCs still alive (even though they die offscreen like Hanako does for most of the non-Arasaka endings), have their deaths be exaggerated or a body double while the original snuck off to safety.
I did the same thing a couple months ago. It is possible for V to survive EVERY ending. Remember, in the suicide ending, you only hear the gun shot. I'm pretty sure there's a way for Johnny to return in our head, as well. I'd hope that there would be a way for us to import our V into Orion. It'd feel as more of a seamless transition.
I cant believe how quick you're able to get videos of this caliber out so quick! Hope 100k happens SOON! Cheers Sam
Cheers! That videogame achievement incentive for 100k has me putting in the 12-14 hour days to these videos atm. Will probs slow down a bit after hitting that milestone though... (It would be unhealthy not to I think)
@@SamBram ah man, as I suspected...you're working nonstop! Don't burn yourself out my guy! Wish I could do more than like and comment to help convince the TH-cam gods to spread the good word of your channel lol
It's all good. I have a careful schedule which is just temporarily in overdrive mode. Another aspect to it is updating all the outdated CP2077 content before I produce anything else on other games. Very soon the releases will have to become less frequent for a while (sadly) whilst I complete another BG3 playthrough for some more videos on that@@CMFL77
Honestly, The Tower and The Devil (provided you deny being an engram) are the only ways V isn't dead anyway. The moment V connects to Mikoshi, they are soulkilled and thus dead. Anything after this is a copy of V's consciousness, but the original is dead. But I suppose that's only relevant if you care about whether V's consciousness is a copy or the original and your philosophy regarding all that.
I think that's wrong,coz only first versions of soulkiller would actually kill original(that's why saburo's engram exists).
Imagine if in the Tower ending, the second cyberpunk game began with an anonymous number calling Face-in-the-crowd V and uttering one word: "Orion."
With that, V's cyberwars all pulses back to life as he is given directives to hunt someone down, effectively beginning the new game with V having their Winter Soldier code word activating their abilities again. You'd start with all of your gear, but in the recent times and with the war raging, even more advanced kinds of cyber ware have been created.
Think of it as being similar to when Raiden turns off his pain inhibitors
Giving body to Johnny is good ending too. Giving him second chance. But I couldn't kill V, so I didn't.
Part of me wants a brand new character in night city. Getting to listen to V's legendary exploits and everyone spreading rumors on what happened to him (basically the endings) would be awesome
Just tons of rumors on v's end would be so great.
Maybe later. But V just feels too open ended to let go atm
I don’t want to see V return as a protagonist.
I want to see him as the Antagonist.
This would be a heartbreaking but 'I am your father' level twist
@@SamBram it’d be phenomenal.
Not really relevant but I think Yorinobu would be very thankful if he knew V was the one who both stole the Relic and then destroyed Mikoshi.
As someone who believes "The Star" ending the true ending for my own V, I am happy to hear others believe it has a hope for a future to it that may be murky but isnt as dark a the others.
I would also like to see our V's come back for at least a second game!
it would certainly be interesting if they implemented something more akin to the originally proposed lifepath system for 2077 in Orion, letting you choose the combination of your lifepath, your ending, and some other factors. I like the idea that it could influence the first intro-mission, tying all the narrative threads back together, and give a new reason for character creation
i’ve always thought a really good intro to the next game would be the casino heist that V is about to do in the sun ending
I like to look at each ending more or less as pieces of a puzzle rather than individual puzzles themselves. In "The Sun," Mr. Blue Eyes claims that various hatches open during the Arasaka raid that allow his people to capture various Arasaka assets. Provided he does, in fact, work for Night Corp, then this so-called "hatch" could be the same one V and the Aldecaldos use to infiltrate Arasaka Tower in "The Star" (which was a Night Corp tunnel). Regardless of whether or not V chooses to raid Arasaka Tower, the tunnel still exists ready to be used.
With this kind of thought process in mind, what can we assume is a canon event regardless of V's fate?
Very true. I did not fully consider that he might have meant a literal tunnel but yes that makes a lot of sense. After all, there's a big Nightcorp logo on that construction site for a reason!
I want to see V fight against Rogue AI... And it would make sense. Such a story would require an experienced and deadly character. Doesn't need to be a trilogy but EVERYONE loves V's male and female voice actors. Might as well let them play the character one more time. Its hard to make characters that gamers latch on to so much. Take advantage of it when you do.
I feel how much this game keeps hammering in that V will die sooner or later, i dont think V will be brought back. This game is all about accepting the fact that life will end, so its all about how you are remembered, which is why i feel that dont fear the reaper and the star are the best endings. You either become the greatest solo ever, eclipsing Blackhand, Smasher, Weyland, all of them, or you get the greatest family in the Aldecaldos. In both ways, you will be long remembered. I feel like the tower ending eccentuates this even more. You can go back to a normal life, but you have to give everything that made you special, you will be just another face in the crowd and you wont be remembered by many, especially after you dissapeared for 2 years. The story has to end at some point and it can be hard to accept that.
Cool theories, still. Thanks for the vids, Sam
I too don't think V will be the main character again in Orion.
That being said, I disagree, that V absolutely can't survive.
If you want to take Alt's words at face value, sure.
But I'd think the entire rest of the game would've taught you, that the devil is in the details.
So I'd say, there is reason to doubt Alt's words, that there is no other way for V to live, other than merging with her.
@@paragonyoshi4237 never said V couldnt survive, its just that the story doesnt call for it. For example, they could have written Edgerunners so that David lived happily ever after with Lucy on the Moon, but then it would have been a completely diffrent story. Same with V, their survival with no consequnces changes the story
@@ABadassDragon I think that the setting [as opposed to the story] might be one of the biggest factors against V coming back as that might (?) fly in the face of the whole " Wrong City, Wrong people" thing that Cyberpunk seems to have embraced. Then again maybe that's not a 100% accurate rule as long as "almost nobody" has a happy ending.
@@erutherford Well, there is one ending, where V leaves the "Wrong City" behind. So... :P
@@ABadassDragon The point is: V's fate is meant to be ambiguous.
So the people that say "V is guaranteed to die," and people that say "V will for sure survive" are both wrong.
The right answer is: It's not set in stone what will happen with V and we will probably never know the answer.
I've played the game twice so I could experence the endings. Now, my next two characters are approaching level 60, and I will not be doing the endings. I will just keep playing. I'm waiting to see what happens with Orion. I hope V can return. I've invested hundreds of hours developing her.😊
The star ending as by far, my favorite. Riding off into the sunset with my girl Panam!
idk why but the phantom liberty ending where they get the cyber coma and cant have any type of cyberware inside them might work to they’re advantage cause people are slowly crumbling and going through the blackwall and what if the blackwall somehow crumbles and the rogue ai’s start to wreak havoc to every human who had cyberware and V is safe
Modified self delete QH to kill kids and bios
i'd expect cd red will let you choose what ending, like the corpo/streetkid/nomad starts
You get the high priestess achievement for talking with Hanako. The fool is V, It's the fools journey he's on, you get the fool achievement for "becoming a mercenary" right at the start of the game and "The wandering fool" for finding all the tarots. The Star you get for leaving with the nomads, devil for going with Arasaka, Sun for becoming a legend and robbing the space casino. Though if I remember correctly, her readings are different depending on ending chosen and things done in the game, she has a chance to draw other cards too. I've never actually reloaded a save before that to see if she always deals the same hand at that point or if there is variance.
I've been saying this for a while. Aside from VIK, Reed also mentioned doctors in Europe. Not to mention in this quest line, you have the option to grab the Militech Canto Mk.6 cyberdeck. The rogue AI could also be another form of help for V, since it seems to know what she is going through. If Songbird could see Silverhand using the blackwall protocol then so can the rogue AI located on the Militech Canto Mk.6 cyberdeck.
Don't fear the reaper ending is so amazing. The sheer audacity of going through the front doors of the enemy fortress alone, and winning, is truly legendary.
I may be alone in this, but I think it would be cooler to play as a new protagonist and get the chance to run into V in Project Orion. Maybe they could allow you to tranfer your save file, like in the Mass Effect Trilogy, and they use the information from that to rebuild your V accuarately in terms of appearance as well as installed Cyberware and character build (attributes, perks).
I just think it would be so cool to see V from the perspective of another person, so we can witness the person that killed Adam Smasher in all their glory. Maybe V could even turn into a sort of companion or even an enemy, if you decide to challenge them. In that case, the boss fight should either be incredibly difficult or just straight up unwinnable, just to hammer home that V is the real deal in terms of being a legendary merc.
I know this is a little far fetched, but I really enjoyed the small section of the temperance path, where you storm Arasaka Tower with Rogue and Weyland and where you control Johnny inside Mikoshi. It was so cool to talk to my version of V from Johnny's perspective, see them move around and respond without any of my input. Maybe it sounds cooler than it actually would be, but I would love to see them implement something like that into Project Orion, instead of just keeping V as the protagonist.
_Yes but which V?_
31:28 know what I drew? Strength, the Emperor and ZA WARUDO
One bit of cyberpunk wisdom that I take from the game:
The life of a merc will kill you. It might sooner or later and in a more or less flashy way but if you keep on this road long enough that same road will you.
That's why it looks fitting, at least to me, that you lose all your cyberware in the tower ending. It's the only ending where you are truly guaranteed to survive and it does so by removing the main impediment to your continued life : Your job as a merc.
As for seeing V in Orion. Except for the suicide ending ( which by the way does not have an achievement), there is indeed a possibility for V to survive in all of them as pointed out by this video.
One thing I like to mention is that, in every case where V survives, his brain is picked up by an A.I. . Now people say that V wasn't soukilled in the tower but I am not sure. This could still be a necessity to separate his personality from johnny's engram. Also, if true, it might indicate that Mr Blue Eyes possible solution would also imply the use of something akin to soulkiller.
(Soulkiller in that case meaning in that case not just the eponymous arasaka's tech but any software/A.I. that can scan a person brain to make an engram out of their 'soul'.)
Which means, if true, that V was soulkilled in each and last one of those ending leading to the possibility of a copy of his engram surviving somewhere.
If you go beyond the blackwall, nightcorp might still steal an engram of V from alt. If Mr Blue eye is the one is the one in possession of V's engram it coul still be stolen by Alt ... and you can replace any of those two by another corp, especially Arasaka.
And then, there is still the possibility of shenanigans of SEVERAL copies of V running around .... if we go the altered carbon/brain uploading route ... that is a very real possibility.
For the Star ending, there is the possibility of StormTech connections, which has some crazy tech research. There is also a small Nomad Pack that is so Tech focused, some of their tech is almost like magic. The nomad pack however has very specific area of influence, being the ones that hold a old tower/building used for research before the bombs fell
Does V survive though or is it more accurate to say a copy of V survives in most endings... Thats what adds a tinge of darkness even in the nomad ending
Damn, first time hearing about Orion for cyberpunk. Got into it this past year and happy to hear there's more on the way
Mr Blue Eyes has such Wintermute from Neuromancer vibes. I can see his storyline ending going the most amount of possible directions.
I am a fan of the FIA winter soldier theory. It would be a fun opening mission to 'wake up' and break free. Totally keep the spy thriller vibes the whole way and rounding it out back into regular wild dystopia.
That is assuming if V is going to be the protagonist of Cyberpunk Orion to begin with. It would be cool for CDPR to have a quest that actually reflects the ending, but let us face our consequences first hand.
The most promising ending, The Star, would probably exclude any odds of encountering V all together.
In The Sun/Reaper ending, V would be the owner of Afterlife and essentially replace Rogue as a fixer.
The Tower could offer a similar route with V becoming a fixer, but not affiliated with Afterlife.
Temperance would probably have an easter egg along the lines of Johnny performing on one of the radios or being reborn as a rock star.
And in the Devil ending, V would be simply dead, unless the choice was made to turn them into an engram, which could potentially lead to a one-on-one fight with the very incarnation of consequences of our choices.
All of it is just dumbed down to simple concepts, of course, but it's very interesting where CDPR will go with Orion.
About the suicide ending:
You fail to take into account another factor: The distance from which the bullet is fired. Headshot wounds are survivable if you receive one from a distance. In the event you're using a weapon from up close, the hot gases leak out of the barrel into the gunshot wound. There, they superheat the tissue, causing it to expand and causing massive internal damage, not comparable to the other scenario.
There is little to no chance at coming back from this.
Great Video tho!
Ooh good point! Yeah I guess from 1 foot away and against the head should still make a lot of difference. It was a longshot that one anyway haha. Thanks!
@@SamBram Considering the messages at the end, I'd say it's more than a longshot.
Honestly I love V, but as much as I do- I'd prefer a new protagonist.
Then the game can ask which ending you picked and give you ways to encounter V throughout the story.
More "intro" options could be used to deepen this too-
Pick the corpo way again and also have V sigh over to Arasaka?
Maybe Vs memories are used as training for new Arasaka Soldiers. Of course none actually being able to match V's skill, aside your character, kicking off the main story. (The same could be done for a brand new NUSA agent if V decided to go that way.)
Then you can encounter them in person later!
The Path of Least Resistance is a lesson from the devs/story writers. There is no coming back from that ending - that's the meaning
so interesting, Each of the endings has a unique "corp" except temperance
Devil - Arasaka
Tower - Militech
Temperance - RogueAI (Arguably most "neutral")
Star - Biotechnica (lots of the nomad stuff deal with and for them so definitely linked albiet not as directly as the first two)
Sun - Nightcorp
Really makes me feel like Cyberpunk 2 could easily use a branching and/or direct pull to any of the endings based on a "starter" screen you choose Kind of like we picked our "starter" backgrounds in this game (Street Punk, Corpo, Nomad). Basically in whatever "start" we have in CP2 maybe you "pick" your card which gives an ending to the one you had in CP1. This then goes through the 2 year "timeskip" to 2079 as a weathered V comes back in any of the methodologies explained. Super cool to think about the potential even if it's not going to happen.
Its my belief that Alt - or rather the rogue AI posing as Alt - was simply lying about V being doomed, in an effort to convince V to accept being subsumed. Alt's only reason for helping is the chance to get into Mikoshi and subsume the engrams stored there. No doubt it views V as an especially nice engram as well.
As for why it would need to lie to convince V to accept it? The key word here is subsume. Not consume. Its not a shark gobbling up a smaller fish (even if Johnny describes it like that). Its more like trying to hitch a team of horses to a wagon. Its not really practical unless the horses are willing to go along with it. An AI might be able to destroy an engram, or a living person who is jacked in, but to subsume an engram the engram has to be willing. Now, most of the engrams in Mikoshi are probably more than willing to go along with that, rather than continue on in purgatory. But V has options.
Very true. It doesn't seem like engrams can be easily rewritten to simply become subservient. There are smaller encounters in game where netrunners are captured in the net and soulkilled. They're trying to send out messages asking for help, suggesting they still have their own free will and desire to escape
in the sun ending, if you complete it with a romanceable character, v outright can state that he is getting worse
The Devil ending comes to the same conclusion about V also, so I highly doubt that Alt was lying. It lines up with what the Relic is intended to do.
@@SamBramwhy do you need to “rewrite” an engram at all? there is no point in this. what is the difference between "consume/subsume" - it doesn't make any sense at all, because you can just read all the code/information of the engram, so you will know in advance any answer to any of your questions or any train of thought. and alt said all this herself, talking about silver's engram - she is not interested in it.
as for why alt can't cure v - it's because she's just stupid af - she's trying to put v's purified (from silver) engram into his brain, instead of putting it in an blank biochip and then causing v's physical death, so chip can this time start rewritting v's brain with V'S DNA (not silver dna), effectively curing his body. it is that simple actually, but she perceives v as an ordinary netrunner who has digitized himself and is stuck in the network, as for example happened when a black wall appeared.
I believe you may have missed 1 ending in this analysis,
when i played through 2 years ago i opted to destroy Asaka's tower and visit Alt
The major difference is that since i had a great relationship with Johny i was allowed the option to rewrite Johny's engram with V's soul.
I only see it fit for V to become Afterlife legend in any ending tbh. Let Orion’s protagonist bring a new story with them, and hope V at least gets a good time they deserve for all it’s worth.
A note on temperance, isn’t it possible for V’s engram to be able to control their body via using the proxy program hanako uses to talk with you through that girl in the hotel?
I think temperance achieved through don't fear the reaper is cannon and Johnny instead of moving on gets in contact with alt who is in possession of v and then we could either give v the role that Johnny had in 2077 or give them the body back OR steal.a body from biotechnica.
11:26 Network infrastructure analyst and electronics repair technician here, what Vik considers there are doing one of two things, the first is a "factory reset" sort of solution, the second is changing the means used by the implants to connect and communicate to the brain, in the last one he claims that there is a hight risk in this one of the body misinterpreting the commands the brain sends to the implants, and by this happening instead of doing what the brain ordered a hight risk of the whole body turning itself off isntead, including vital organs
If Palpatine can "Somehow" return in Rise of Skywalker then there's nothing stopping characters from just coming back regardless of what happened to them. Doesn't mean they should though
I thought of it this way just like you said:
The FIA has a off on switch. Send a signal to V, cyberware kicks back on or
The neurosurgery left V weakened for a while while Viktor does a work around or Song Mi is able rework it.
Great content as usual Sam. Given the look of your male V in this video (and how much he looks like that one talk show host from the game), it reminded me of another interesting deep dive topic for this game, that I don't know if anyone has brought up? But who is Doctor Paradox? They show up all the time, and it's ripped RIGHT out of the film Johnny Mnemonic in it's presentation. But who are they? My theory? It's Ziggy Q. Because I recall in one of his interviews....a few of them in fact, he deviates from the simpering talk show host persona, and actually rips into his guest with a really biting comment, that cuts to the very heart of their corrupt society. I remember hearing it like twice I think. He'd be all smiles and nods and then just BAM! Total tonal shift, starts spouting very intelligent and insightful counterpoints to their BS company line, leaving them unable to respond, clearly flustered. So what I think, is that Ziggy Q, secretly moonlights as Doctor Paradox. Because it would be fairly paradoxical, and ironic, for the leading Face of the corporate world, to be actually working against it, to tear it down. Because one of his rants is directly about the tv shows that come on, and how they brainwash the populace into obeying, and how he wants everyone to turn off their TVs, to screw over the advertisers and sponsors and everything. To rise up together and shut down the entertainment industry. And who would be better suited to know how to bring it down? Why one of the most popular, and central mouth pieces they have.
Plus the voice for Doctor Paradox sounds an awful lot like Ziggy Q to me, with an obvious voice filter to mask their identity.
But anyway, just an interesting thing to ponder. I'd be curious to see what deep dive clues you could find on the subject. 😁
Ooh interesting. I've watched most of the Ziggy Q interviews but possibly not all of them. Will note it down in video ideas. Thanks!
That's stated in the game to be Ziggy's MO: he blindside's his guests with the most controversial takes and accusations to drum up drama. He'll tear into corpos with scandalous cover ups and accuse grieving widows of crocodile tears. It's strongly implied he doesn't actually care about the things he brings up, he's just trying to feed the algorithm or whatever dystopian equivalent exists in their world.
@@MisterCynic18 well yeah but this is conspiracy theory territory, and CP 2077 loves having double/triple fakeouts about stuff. I'm fully prepared for him to be nothing more than a corporate shill, like his public MO says. But we've already seen one example of the entertainment industry being more than just what you are shown on the holovids. Take Us Cracks for example. I'm not saying I have a lot of evidence to back my theory up, it's mostly just a feeling from his tone on a few clips, and the fact that it would be the most ironic twist to the identity of that character. Sure it could just be "random hacker wacko 27" broadcasting from an apartment in one of the blocks. But it seems more interesting from a narrative perspective for it to end up being someone like Ziggy.
I really hope V comes back in the next game. I can't image playing as anyone else. I know Rockstar pulled it off with Arthur Morgan becoming a beloved character. but I feel like that's hard to do consistently.
as much as I like V, i would love if they made him into sleeper agent, and you have to kill him in Orion
Having to fight V in the future as someone else would be an evil thing for CDPR to make us do. However I certainly wouldn't put it past them...
The Tower ending only says V can't have Cybernetic implants. The tabletop RPG for this game has a VAST library of genetic/bioimplants. Most people don't use them because one-for-one they are both much more expensive than Cyberware AND not as strong as the nearest cybernetic equivalents. Plus, they take along time to "integrate". Getting a cyberimplant takes a few hours and maybe a few days of recovery time afterwards. Where getting a genetic enhancement is non-invasive but can take two months to fully integrate into your body and reach it's full potential.
So why use them at all, right? Well, bio enhancements have MUCH less risk of Cyberpsychosis and they can be stacked on top of each other if you're willing to put in the time and ALOT of money. Back when I played the Tabletop game I decided to go almost pure bio-enhancement. I played smart and careful until I reached the power level needed that eventually my character could go toe-to-toe with Adam Smasher butt naked and barehanded, relying on genetic and bio-augmentation. Mind you it took over a decade of in-game time passage to get that strong and there were ALOT of near-deaths along the way. He had a good team to back him up.
And that was with 2020-era Geneware and Bioware. 2077-era has to be even better. So Tower V could theoretically go that route if his genetic code doesn't reject geneware and bioware the same way it rejects cyberware.
tbh i dont understand the angle at all. V has exceptional combat abilities (technically thanks to us, the player) regardless of whether they have implants or not.
@@Blox117 For context, Cyberpunk is based on a desk top pen and paper RPG.
Unlike most such games, it is EXTREMELY easy to die in Cyberpunk. This ain't Dungeons and Dragons where you just keep getting hitpoints each time you level up until you can pretty much tank a dragonbreath blast to the face.
Ironically, the videogame incorporates such leveling mechanics which undercuts the brutal lethality the game and setting are based around. So if you only know Cyberpunk based on the videogame, I can see why you would think that someone can be an Edgerunner purely based on skill.
But let me assure you, nobody is going to be able to just "Batman" their way through the world of Cyberpunk with skills if they want to live the Edgerunner life. All the skill in the world means diddly once you go up against a skezzed out junkie with a third-rate bargain bin Sandevistan.
In a game where he who shoots first almost always shoots last, any punk with cash to burn can spend a few hours on the operating table and come out with reflexes to match or beat hardened combat veterans who operate on pure skill alone.
Skill still matters, but again...there are no Batmans in Night City. The closest thing to that was Morgan Blackhand who had minimal implants and relied heavily on pre-planning his ops. But even Morgan needed Reflex/Speed boosting implants to make sure that when the fighting started he wasn't getting instant-smoked by common riffraff
@@TheCrimsonRevenger indeed, i only know the game through this video game. i come from old school shooters that didnt baby you, so i blasted through this game on the 2nd hardest difficulty (i should've picked the hardest but i didnt know before playing) without any upgrades, just a revolver and lots of headshots. thats why it left me confused lmao