How come V so powerful ?

[Uboa]

If John whick himself can't defead Adam Smasher . David with years of experience and top of the line Arasaka exo sekeleton can't defeat him . Then there is no reason a dying man with a montage of doing street level stuffs and some cyberware he picked up from the local ripper docs have any real chance to defeat Adam Smasher .

[Actalo]

Originally V was supposed to be 27 years old, and, in the case of Corpo V, this made it possible V was involved in the Reunification war as a young Arasaka soldier. In many ways, Corpo V was supposed to be some sorta prodigy, which is why V was second-in-command in Arsaka Counter-Intelligence at such a young age.

However, the game's lore suffers from illogical Bethesda-esque 'chosen one' when trying to apply this logic to other life paths and the ret-con age of 23 or whatever it now is... V is basically super-human for no other reason than V is the main character.

In my opinion, Corpo V is the only background which allows me to head-canon reconcile a lot of the 'V's just special' qualities to the game. And as it's been mentioned, the Relic may be the reason V is allowed to incorporate so much cyberware without negative effect, and once the Relic is removed, V's CNS is completely shot due in part to cyberware overuse.

If you actually look at the amount of cyberware V can potentially have - there's not a lot of human left. Most of V's major organs are cybernetic, arms, legs, much of V's CNS, eyes, skin, etc. V's just borged out with a lot of RealSkin to hide it.

Edit: BTW Iconic cyberware could be seen as experimental or prototype tech, as in, not something people can normally buy even with a lot of money.

[skOsH♥]

To address the OP's points, cyberware was uncommon and not as advanced when Johnny was roaming the streets

V is not nearly as OP as David in the Cyberpunk anime

Imo the strength is perfectly dialed in for most of the game. Some perks, when combined, can allow for easier gameplay than others. For instance, a netrunner doing quick hacks and stealth is easier than someone doing knives and pistols

[wesnef]

Answer: V's the protagonist of a videogame.

[Nar!]

I mean.... I suppose one can say the same about many other games out there between lead characters and their final bosses.

In fact, if we go by this lore logic of improbabilities, then even a Tyger Claw thug can potentially kill V, if one happened to shoot their powered sniper rifle through the back of V's skull, when V's not looking.
V's not exactly bullet proof, after all - lore wise. How far deep are we digging here though?
Just Adam?

If we all get too pedantic for our own good with every minute detail of the lore vs what's in the game with 0% consideration to game play, we might find ourselves going in circles about it.

Some of us have noted that Adam should have had the most advanced cyberware optics installed, capable of being able to detect/see us through the screen we were hiding behind earlier in the prologue.. but nothing was ever determined and Adam just walked away as if nothing. There's some very interesting speculations in regards to this, but nothing concrete.

I'm curious to know if anyone here has already formed a creative suggestion that would have made the final encounter more acceptable?

Would you consider never being able to defeat Adam in the final fight, as an acceptable conclusion?
Perhaps creating some sequence where V finds him/her self on the verge of being mercilessly killed, but manages to barely escape alive, with Adam in the background yelling with his fist in the air "We'll meet again, Spider-man! ..err "V"!"?.

Or perhaps hacking some super powered weapon/robot device nearby to help you kill Adam or create a powerful EMP to shut most of his cyber capabilities down, in order to bring him more to your level? Maybe you get to install a super cyberware like David did, so as to bring you more on par with Adam's strength? But would it be reversible and how would that effect the rest of the story?

hmm....

I don't doubt something could have been developed in the creative department, in order to make the fight make more sense in accordance to the lore of Smasher, but would it have made it more satisfying for the masses, who wanted to bring this villain down to it's knees (literally), utilizing all the abilities, perks and weapons they've leveled up, only to ditch and employ a more lore Adam friendly conclusion?

I'm sure the writers over at CDPR picked their brains about this before coming to the decision they made.

At some point, we may have to accept that game play has to come into consideration when determining what V can and cannot achieve in order to provide a more satisfying finish. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Panpan's input is ultimately correct. It's futile to try and make sense of everything in a futuristic cyber fantasy heavy game. I'm sure there's more than a dozen loose ends we can find out there in Night City. We just have to make peace with it or reject it entirely.
Hopefully the prior.

[Sardukhar]

Plot Armor, basically. CRPG conventions so we all feel powerful in gameplay.

Don't try taking on Smasher (or any Combat FBR) after six months as an Edgerunner in the TTRPG, unless you like char gen and/or very high TTI bills.

[Actalo]

Originally posted by Sardukhar:

Plot Armor, basically. CRPG conventions so we all feel powerful in gameplay.

Don't try taking on Smasher (or any Combat FBR) after six months as an Edgerunner in the TTRPG, unless you like char gen and/or very high TTI bills.

Again, I would argue V was originally 27, with Corpo V a trained and unusually adept Arasaka Corpo-Soldier with a Relic that negated cyber-psychosis, and dependent on the cyberware, nearly as borged as Smasher (70-75% cybernetic). It's not to far beyond the realm of possibility to say that a counter-intelligence officer (and confirmed through dialogue, assassin) with nearly a decade of experience could take down Smasher with the right cyberware and a bit o' luck.

Originally posted by Nar!:

Some of us have noted that Adam should have had the most advanced cyberware optics installed, capable of being able to detect/see us through the screen we were hiding behind earlier in the prologue.. but nothing was ever determined and Adam just walked away as if nothing. There's some very interesting speculations in regards to this, but nothing concrete.

I'm curious to know if anyone here has already formed a creative suggestion that would have made the final encounter more acceptable?

Exceptional netrunners can shield others on the same network from scans and hacks - and since T-Bug had complete control over the hotel's security network, she may have been able to mask V and Jackie's signatures.

[Wingnut Mcmoomoo]

this is... a normal story telling thing... like crazy normal. Gohon beating cell. Link beating ganondorf. Y.T. taking out Raven in snowcrash (and i would argue raven is harder to take out than adam smasher by a large margin).

Its more exciting in a story when the hero is at a disadvantage.

[arador]

how could a random tarnished beat a god?
how could a nord defeat alduin?
how could a witcher defeat a high vampire, king of the wild hunt and outsmart a demon?

it's all about not having another option. and v is not a random stray, v is a nc legend and a living one. v had no choice but to kill adam smasher, so he/she faced him and killed him. v is not all about muscles and chrome like david martinez. v is smart and proffessional too. he/she is an undercover agent of FIA, kidnapped honako arasaka from a parade, defeated her bodyguard on 1v1 combat (oda was much more motivated to kill v), napped biochip from under yorinobu's nose, killed half of nc (a fair amount of them were elite corpo units).

what i am saying is underestimating v is not fair. he/she had enough power, motivation and experience to face smasher.

[Blackheart]

Is this your first game? This is normal. Almost any rpg has main protagonist beat what seems like impossible odds and beat not just one tough guy, but multiple.

Also, fighting for survival with "nothing to lose & want to go out as best merc in the NC" attitude, coupled with plenty of impressive feats until Smasher fight and all the top and latest chrome money can buy, should be quite enough for V to be able to take him out.

In real life, be it human or animal, no one is at top forever. There is always someone smarter, faster, better around the corner waiting.

It seems like OP's game is bugged. Bro went straight to Smasher fight after Jackie montage intro. :D

[Nar!]

Originally posted by Actalo:

Exceptional netrunners can shield others on the same network from scans and hacks - and since T-Bug had complete control over the hotel's security network, she may have been able to mask V and Jackie's signatures.

That is one of the speculations I've read before and it's a pretty good one imho. Still... it's kinda creepy how Adam looks like he's staring right at you when he's standing across the room. lol
I honestly thought he was going to start attacking. I was waiting for it.

[Actalo]

Originally posted by Nar!:

Still... it's kinda creepy how Adam looks like he's staring right at you when he's standing across the room. lol
I honestly thought he was going to start attacking. I was waiting for it.

Ha, yeah, I remember the first time I played and they hadn't fixed the "enemy highlight when detected" on Smasher and I thought for sure he could see me and I kept waiting for the prompt to run.

[Traveler]

OP I feel like you're severely downplaying V. For one, V is able to load up on cyberware with a significantly smaller risk of cyberpsychosis thanks to the relic which is already a huge advantage over normal mercs/thugs. Two, even before Act 2 begins V is already a competent merc. Not NC Legend status at that point, but he/she was no push over. By the end of the game V is nowhere near the same merc you see in the montage with Jackie. Also, It's clear that Viktor is V's main ripperdoc and he gets his hands on fairly uncommon cyberware considering he gives you Kioshi eyes and you run into very few people with ware like that throughout the game.

[Zairev]

Originally posted by d¢:

For instance, a netrunner doing quick hacks and stealth is easier than someone doing knives and pistols

It used to be like that, but not anymore. Stealty netrunner is pretty much useless with trace mechanics, since it cant be stoped, only delayed. I mean, there are some exotic ways of stoping it, but tbh its not worth the trouble for what it do. And using like same 3 untraceable hacks thru whole game get boring pretty fast.

You either go full combat netrunner (feels weird, but it works), yolo frontdoor man (meele or heavy weapons), or stealty with knives or pistols.

I am currently doing stealty knife build, and jezus, if you can hit these headshots, knives are pretty op even in open combat situations (not to mention umnatched in stealth). Also, this playstyle feels cool af, flying around while distributing knifes to some unlucky skulls.

Kinda sad about stealty netrunner being so much weaker compared to other builds now. I know it was too op before, cuz you could clear whole building without as much as exiting the car, but not being able to stop trace is too cripling.

[Titan Awaken]

For the same reason why V can instantly heal wounds from bullets, knives, swords, blunt force trauma, explosives and quickhacks with an inhaler. Smasher can’t do any of that.

Characters in gameplay and lore vary wildly in power and capabilities. Simplest example I can give:

Characters when they get shot during gameplay: 😃😃😃

Characters when they get shot during a cutscene: 💀💀💀

[egg fu]

Originally posted by Uboa:

Originally posted by CPU - EASY:

Have you even watch the show? David was not in his prime, he was dying there before he met and fight Adam.

If V was surrounded by the convoy David faced , he would be dead in 10 seconds .

my gorilla arms, berserk, and axolotl combo says otherwise