end game - not end game?

[6Taylor4]

After finishing the game, I let the credits roll...and roll...and under an hour later, it said go ahead and play on. So I selected a side mission and finished it. The Journal then put me back on the final quest; and every time I finished any other quest, it reset to the final quest. So, how then does one continue playing? Does it add to anything? Will it change the outcome - my ending was a long, boring repetitious nothing, the worst ending ever of a game.
So - is that all there is?

[Herp McDerperson]

After the end-game, the game gives you the option of continuing to play from just prior to the point of no return under the assumption that you have other side-missions and whatnot to do, usually with the ability to keep some items you gathered during the end-game.

If all you have are gigs or side-missions, whenever you finish one, the game is going to fall back to tracking "Nocturne Op55N1" because it's a high-priority main-job, the only one that you probably still have.

If you simply focus on the main jobs, you can reach the end-game rather quickly while missing out on the vast majority of "content" of the game. When you are completely done or otherwise satisfied with side-jobs and gigs and whatnot, you can play the end-game again if you want, maybe intentionally going down a different path for a different ending... or you can just stop playing and move on to a new character if you'd like. There are like 5 endings and they're all worth seeing at least once, even the "bad" one(s).

tl;dr
The game asks you if you want to return to the main menu or "just one more gig" after the credit-roll. Regardless of which you choose, you can consider yourself "done". If you want to play some more side-missions/gigs, go for it, or maybe start a new character... or maybe go play something else? No one is forcing you to play the game in an unending recursive loop.

EDIT: I will say one thing that I found weird and maybe irritating about the game. When going for completeness, I spent A LOT of time with my only active main job being "Nocturne Op55N1"... so much for not making Hanako wait... That's just the way it is.
When you complete a side-job or gig, the journal/map is going to default to "Nocturne Op55N1" again and you'd have to change it manually to something else. If you are going for completeness, there's no way to avoid this weirdness as you don't even gain the ability to complete Silverhands' side-jobs until after you more or less reach that point.

[6Taylor4]

Originally posted by Herp McDerperson:

After the end-game,.........If you are going for completeness, there's no way to avoid this weirdness as you don't even gain the ability to complete Silverhands' side-jobs until after you more or less reach that point.

That was very helpful, thank you! A strange way to end; don't know what I'll do yet, but now I understand what the options are.

[Herp McDerperson]

NP

It is an odd design choice, for sure. They clearly expect that the player hasn't 100%-completed the game by the time they hit end-game. This is clear because they award you with some items that you obtained during the end-game sequence if you choose "just one more gig". These are items you otherwise wouldn't be able to obtain pre-endgame.

1. key card that you find on Adam Smasher that gives you access to a secret room on the Ebunike
2. some cyberware (a legendary berserk, gorilla arms, etc.)
3. character-specific weapons
4. I think an Aldecaldos jacket if you chose the Panam ending?
5. if you choose to attack the tower with Rogue, there's a random legendary shovel in the jungle and if you pick it up, you can keep it afterward

just some examples

[Zebedee]

It's done the way it is because they were coming to this off TW3 having relatively few people completing it. Structure of Cyberpunk 2077 allows for a pretty fast completion if you just stick to the main story. So the idea was to give the player a nice save spot to go do anything else they wanted and/or experience a different ending. (Personally think it doesn't work quite as they'd expected but that's neither here nor there.)

[Silverbane7]

The game does this throughout, tho.

Before starting the main 3 branches after meeting Takemura at Toms Diner, it constantly defaults back to 'call Judy/Find Evelyn at Lizzie's'
I'm constantly switching back to 'find all the tarot cards' from 'fool on the hill' just to get rid of the quest marker and lines.

Never 'go to the Afterlife' (to talk to Rogue)
Its almost as if the game itself has a preferred line of questing it wants you to take.
I've noticed it, because I'm always redoing the early sections (you could say, I'm allergic to the endings lol)

It starts by throwing the call from Goro at me the second I have cleared all the apartment based quests after getting out of the shower.
Then throws Mama Wells at me as soon as I exit the apartment.
Fair enough.
I usually talk to her on the holo while walking to Toms Diner anyway.
But as soon as I have finished talking with Goro, it always defaults to Judy's questline.

I can do whatever I wish. Go back upstairs and bang on Barry's door, then go look at the card on my wall (I find this one less glitchy for Johnny to comment on than the 'chariot' he keeps poping in and out on that one) then put down the iguana egg, read 'feed teh cat' ect.

I can go do the cards quest start. Any left over ncpd points. (The 2 part ones trigger this, while the 1 part ones don't)
Gigs for Regina. Cyberpsyho's for Regina. (Hidden gems for Regina don't trigger this with the mod)
No matter the side quest, it ALWAYS goes back to Judy's line.
(I get that the game considers this one slightly more vital than Panam's or Takemura's. But I always consider it not 'triggered' until I actually call Judy. Until then, nothing has happened as such. But that's just me. I prefer to get the talk with Johnny about his 'crusade against the corps' at the bottom of the lift at the H8, rather than outside the Motel. I feel they should be the other way around. First the tirade, then worrying about decomish'ing before getting rid of the chip, not the other way around)

Once I have started Judy's questlines, it again always auto defaults to it.
And it will always jump to 'call MrHands' and try to steer me to Pacifica.
Like it wants to go
Call Judy>Find Evelyn>Call Mr Hands>Go to Pacifica>Go to the GIM>Go meet Alt>
Then 'oh, NOW you can choose....there's a good little gamer' *pats on head.
Lol.
After that, I'm not sure. But it definitely has its own ideas about which parts you should do up to 'go meet Hanako at Embers' lol.

(I like to leave Pacifica till last, simply because it means that Johnny only has to drag V's a$$ a little way to the hotel, rather than alllll the way from the badlands to get there. Sure, he can klep a car or bike and drive.... But considering how he goes when you let him drive.... Would V even GET to the Pistis Sophia? lmao)

[Herp McDerperson]

Originally posted by Silverbane7:

The game does this throughout, tho.

Before starting the main 3 branches after meeting Takemura at Toms Diner, it constantly defaults back to 'call Judy/Find Evelyn at Lizzie's'
I'm constantly switching back to 'find all the tarot cards' from 'fool on the hill' just to get rid of the quest marker and lines.

Never 'go to the Afterlife' (to talk to Rogue)
Its almost as if the game itself has a preferred line of questing it wants you to take.
I've noticed it, because I'm always redoing the early sections (you could say, I'm allergic to the endings lol)

It starts by throwing the call from Goro at me the second I have cleared all the apartment based quests after getting out of the shower.
Then throws Mama Wells at me as soon as I exit the apartment.
Fair enough.
I usually talk to her on the holo while walking to Toms Diner anyway.
But as soon as I have finished talking with Goro, it always defaults to Judy's questline.

I can do whatever I wish. Go back upstairs and bang on Barry's door, then go look at the card on my wall (I find this one less glitchy for Johnny to comment on than the 'chariot' he keeps poping in and out on that one) then put down the iguana egg, read 'feed teh cat' ect.

I can go do the cards quest start. Any left over ncpd points. (The 2 part ones trigger this, while the 1 part ones don't)
Gigs for Regina. Cyberpsyho's for Regina. (Hidden gems for Regina don't trigger this with the mod)
No matter the side quest, it ALWAYS goes back to Judy's line.
(I get that the game considers this one slightly more vital than Panam's or Takemura's. But I always consider it not 'triggered' until I actually call Judy. Until then, nothing has happened as such. But that's just me. I prefer to get the talk with Johnny about his 'crusade against the corps' at the bottom of the lift at the H8, rather than outside the Motel. I feel they should be the other way around. First the tirade, then worrying about decomish'ing before getting rid of the chip, not the other way around)

Once I have started Judy's questlines, it again always auto defaults to it.
And it will always jump to 'call MrHands' and try to steer me to Pacifica.
Like it wants to go
Call Judy>Find Evelyn>Call Mr Hands>Go to Pacifica>Go to the GIM>Go meet Alt>
Then 'oh, NOW you can choose....there's a good little gamer' *pats on head.
Lol.
After that, I'm not sure. But it definitely has its own ideas about which parts you should do up to 'go meet Hanako at Embers' lol.

(I like to leave Pacifica till last, simply because it means that Johnny only has to drag V's a$$ a little way to the hotel, rather than alllll the way from the badlands to get there. Sure, he can klep a car or bike and drive.... But considering how he goes when you let him drive.... Would V even GET to the Pistis Sophia? lmao)

Hey, man... it was Ruby who crashed the car... even if Johnny "helped".

[Silverbane7]

heheheahahaha. i guess.
guess he's never ridden public busses (only tour bus) because they almost always have a sign sayin
'do not stand past this point, or distract the driver'

(tho, i meant drive the body, not the car)