Is Johnny a liar? (End of Act I spoiler)

[EricHVela]

How did Saburo access the unquiet "Dead" of the soulkilled engrams? He said that it's not in the nature of the dead to lie, not even to themselves... but Johnny apparently lies several times (and likely to himself, too).

So, did Saburo have a different means to access the soulkilled that prevented them from lying?

...or did things happen exactly as Johnny's engram showed?

[EricHVela]

NVM: I just realized that the conversation is coming from Johnny's engram. Given Johnny's ability to lie as a soulkilled engram (even to himself) despite Saburo's claim in the memory, it means the memory is also a lie, providing proof that Johnny is a liar (especially to himself).

[Silverbane7]

Johnny isn't lying about what happened.

He believes what he remembers.

However, some memory is subjective (mostly his memory of how Alt died, and how much of a 'hero' he was. That's why his gun is op in his memories but less powerful once you get it)

Some memory is damaged by the radiation he absorbed during the blast.
(Mike Pondsmith has said as much when asked about this, since the games Johnny's memory of the AHQ attack does NOT match what is known from the tabletop)

Some is probably the damage from the container depressurization and being passed between there and Jackie, then Jackie to V, and finally the bullet.

And some may have been altered by Arasaka.
(He says this himself when you talk to him after the third major Relic Malfunction...'did what they wanted with me'. If you do Lizzy Wizzy's quest and keep listening, when her input asks about 'altering her personality' the Arasaka woman first denied its possible, but then backtracks by asking him 'how big of a change?' Which suggests to me that they CAN do it, if they want)

I think his meeting with Saburo never actually happened.
If they were setting him up to be used as a witness (to be questioned after the fact, by the NUsa president Kress and other world leaders) it makes perfect sense to insert that part.
If they were to just watch the memory like a BD, that would reinforce that the memories were truth.
And if they were to question the engram afterwards, the fact Saburo said 'the dead do not lie' would only reinforce that.
(Forgetting they are living engrams. While they may not be alive in a biological sense, they are still alive enough to lie to themselves. It just takes a while to realise it.... Longer for some than others lol)

[Vela Darney]

The thing with memories is - if you remember you had a favorite orange ball when you were a kid, and you tell everyone about your favorite orange ball because that's what you remember, the ball was orange, and then, you find a photo or yourself as a kid with your favorite RED ball - were you really lying to them about the ball being orange?

If you remember things happened a certain way, and tell people they happened that way - but you remember wrong, are you actually lying? Can you lie when you don't know you're not telling the truth?

If your memories were altered by someone and now you remember things wrong - are you lying when you're telling things the way you remember them?

[EricHVela]

Johnny can possibly explain (using specific dialog options) that he hates Mikoshi because people's minds have no defense in there. While he could still be lying, that could make Saburo's statements true.

The engrams alone can lie, but according to the possibly false memory, the Mikoshi library/prison lays bare their minds for the wardens/librarians to peruse and alter without psychological hindrance.

I'd definitely want that destroyed, especially if I was a prisoner in that place.