Which ending is the least ♥♥♥♥ one?

[Mor]

Cause from what I see REDs ♥♥♥♥♥♥ it up with phantom liberty again...

[Mander]

Cyberpunk as a genre, as a whole, is as bleak as they come.
Forget about heroes, because their corpses rot in ditches or have already been burnt in industrial incinerators.
Forget about happy endings, because anything you may do doesn’t improve the world by a iota.
Morality has been sold, painted over by corpo and shat all over.
What a Cyberpunk story has, at most, is a protagonist, who is never a hero and whose morality nobody really cares.
Searching for happy endings in a Cyberpunk story, is a useless endeavor: a sweet struggle, but a pointless one.

The above said, I believe the best ending depends on how you've lived NIght CIty.
For my streetkid ciberninja? Becoming the living legend (secret ending) of the Afterlife is her good ending.

[Jouchebag]

Originally posted by - EMPTY -:

The one you kill Paarthurnax.

That's the one that ends with you and Panam riding Alduin to Arizona. Great ending.

[☻]

Yeah Panam ending is probably the best but phantom liberty throws a wench in it for me. Considering you can get the chip removed and you could have lived with the nomads and Panam with your millions of eddys...It felt like they just didn't want a happy path to be possible even if it was more probable than everyone not wanting to be around you anymore because you unexpectedly went into a coma for a couple years.

I think the best option is to work with song bird and when you find out she screwed you, just push to the end and send her to the stars. Then assault Arisaka by yourself and get the secret ending of the original. In that you are still pushing forward and working for the same blu eyes guy that made the deal with song bird. Song bird sends you the special tuner cyberware so she obviously survived and you might find a fix after the casino heist or at the very least, go out like a legend that pushed against the establishment to the end.

[CloudSeeker]

Originally posted by Mor:

Originally posted by Mystral:

Happy ending ? In Night City ?

Wrong people.
Wrong city...

Nah, just a cop out from the writers, always was and will be.

Dude. That is literally how Mike Pondsmith, the creator of Cyberpunk, made the setting. You are litreally only supposed to be able to save yourself by surviving Night City. There are no happy endings in Night City. Or have you forgotten that the setting is a dystopia?

[Nar!]

Originally posted by Mor:

"It's quite thought provoking", no, it's pretentious and flat.

Oh well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[CloudSeeker]

Originally posted by ☻:

Yeah Panam ending is probably the best but phantom liberty throws a wench in it for me. Considering you can get the chip removed and you could have lived with the nomads and Panam with your millions of eddys...It felt like they just didn't want a happy path to be possible even if it was more probable than everyone not wanting to be around you anymore because you unexpectedly went into a coma for a couple years.

I think the best option is to work with song bird and when you find out she screwed you, just push to the end and send her to the stars. Then assault Arisaka by yourself and get the secret ending of the original. In that you are still pushing forward and working for the same blu eyes guy that made the deal with song bird. Song bird sends you the special tuner cyberware so she obviously survived and you might find a fix after the casino heist or at the very least, go out like a legend that pushed against the establishment to the end.

I am going to disagree here.

I do not think the Panam ending is the best. Yes. They tell you that they might be able to find someone that can help, but we all know they are just doing some white lies in order to make you feel better. There is no way a bunch of nomads driving around in stolen tech and a tank is going to find someone that can solve a problem the biggest international corporations can't do. The only reason you can get help from the NUSA is because of the MacGuffin in PL. The issue is not getting the chip removed. The issue is that your brain has been rewried to work for someone else. Unless you can find someone to rewire a brain, you will die. Panam can't do a thing but watch you slowly die from something that is worse than alzheimer's. Better to go down in flames, especially if Panam is your love interest.

When it comes to Songbird. I don't think I agree that working with her is the best. She is literally a puppet no matter who you pick. She might even be infected by a rogue AI, and the Blackwall is trying to purge her. The only thing that stops it is the firewalls she has been modified with.
The NUSA wants to use her as a puppet to control the other corporations. Like Arasaka.
Mr Blue eyes is most likely an AI or a puppet controlled by an AI that seeks to infiltrate past the Blackwall and start a new cyber war.

If you help Songbird you not only cause a massacre at the space port with many innocent civilians dead. You also aid the shadow organization of rogue AI's that seek to exterminate all of humanity. Songbird will just be a puppet for them to breach the Blackwall.

If you give her to NUSA, she will be used as a puppet with no feeling, free will and emotions. A puppet that is a living nuke. The only upside is that you get a way to cure yourself at the expense of Songbird while also most likely being immune or heavily limited by the upcoming cyber war from the rogue AI's.


The best ending if you ask my opinion is:
- Betray Songbird, but let her die at the end.
Reed might hate you. NUSA hate you as well. However the fact is Songbird is f**ked no matter how you look at it. She is just an unfortunate soul that has been way to damaged in the whole afair. It is better for her to die than being a tool used and exploited for other people/things gain.

- Befriend Johnny and do the solo run on Arasaka by just kicking down the front door.
Night City is not a place where you will have a happy ending. You become a Legend or you die trying, and there is no better way to do it than this.

- When you get the choice to return or give the body to Johnny, choose the rational thing and give it to Johnny. You can not be saved no matter how you do it. You are literally already dead. You died the day Dex shot you in the head. Trying to prolong your life is in a way profane. Just like how Saburu Arasaka is trying to prolong his own life by taking over the mind of his own sons. Your offspring should not be sacrificed so the parents can live on.
V ís just an unfortunate soul that has been way to damaged in the whole afair. To not recognize that will lead to the death of two souls. You might as well just ended your own life right at the start.
At least Johnny can use the time you lost because of Dex. It is clear he has grown up after the events. He might not be the same rocker boy he used to be, but we all changes with time. It is the best you can do to salvage something from the mess that has happened.

I prefer this ending myself. It suits the setting. V wanted to become a Legend and he did. You just can't become a Legend without paying the price for it.

[P0RTAL]

Originally posted by Mystral:

Happy ending ? In Night City ?

Wrong people.
Wrong city...

its the DLC ending OF COURSE V can be saved , you lose your enhancements and your people but al least you don't die in 6 months or get kept stored in a AI chip.

the DLC is the happy ending you get a long life ahead but powerless nor influence, V is a legend even without enhancements. Giving the body to Silverhand is really bad, hes just a secondary and gets in V's brain the whole game bc that stupid chip mission

V is a female in the DLC and she has to live , that means the best ending is the one the lives untill she gets old ( even an outcast Lol)

[egg fu]

dlc cure ending is probably the best, sure V loses most of their friends but V is canonically like what 23 or 24 years old? V comes out wiser probably and can pretty much start a new life. just no cyberware ig

[☻]

@Cloudseeker, I disagree but that's fine. For me, I have no reason to side with the NUSA at all. The only reason I got involved was because of songbird's possibility of curing me and it was clear to me that the NUSA used and abused songbird, Alex, and Reed. I had no intention of betraying songbird even if she was heartless. Besides, even if you betray her the black wall takes her over and kills everyone in the port anyway. Once I found out that songbird screwed me, I wasn't mad or shocked. I simply got her out of the NUSA as a big middle finger to everyone. Attacking the arasaka HQ was also a big middle finger to everyone. As for Johnny, He had his shot at life and made his choices and died for them. His life is over and I'd rather live out the rest of my life doing things my way and continuing my own legend. When Reed told me that the NUSA could cure me, I didn't believe him and shot him in the face. Sent song bird to the stars and did a suicide attack on Arasaka HQ. At the end there was a glimmer of hope for my future but even if it didn't work out I became a legend and lived and died on my own terms in my own body to the bitter end. After all why would I believe that NUSA could cure me when the company who made the chip and could afford the best doctors could not? Bad writing in my opinion.

As for blue eyes, nobody knows if he is an AI or not. It's all up in the air but song bird obviously survived and he was involved. As to weather or not she is happy or being used as a tool is unknown. She may have been asked to do a single mission in exchange for their help and that was it. As to weather blue eyes could help you is unknown. Either way I have no rational reason to help the NUSA. Once I find out that songbird screwed me I could choose either of her endings and it would feel logical. In hind sight choosing to trade her in means that everyone survives including you at the end( which doesn't make logical sense) but the devs went out of their way to make the ending suck so I would rather spit in the NUSA's face anyway. The way people abandoned you after two years due to an accident was unrealistic in my book but thats what the devs wanted so screw it all. Thats how I look at it.

I have zero interest in giving in to the NUSA, Arasaka or Johnny. They made their decisions and suffered the righteous consequences of them. I'll make my own choices and defy everyone until the bitter end and deal with the consequences like a man. Only way to go in my book.

As for committing suicide, I agree. You could do that and it wouldn't matter. Yeah you get a bunch of sad people during the credits but they all abandon you if you choose to live so who cares? Again, bad writing. If anything it just cements my thoughts of screw everyone and tear it all down via suicide missions on your crazy way out of this place. I can relate with songbird on that thought but unlike her I have the ability to do alot of damage on my way out and follow through with it on my own. Blaze of glory... Dexter was a ♥♥♥♥♥ and went out like a ♥♥♥♥♥.

[CloudSeeker]

Originally posted by ☻:

-snip-

Funny how I never once said that you sided with NUSA. You can do the NUSA side without ever actually siding with them. You can do what is best for So Mi, and that is not actually siding with her. She is on a self destructive path where she will either be betrayed by you, or be used as a pawn. You can only get the cure if you betray her.
What is even more funny is how Reed even say you were correct in the path were you betray her, but let her die. He never say that in any of the other endings.

We can be pretty sure that Songbird will not be free under Mr Blue eyes. You might as well do the Devil ending if you think that can ever happen in Night City. She will not get a happy ending. No one that stay in Night City gets one. That is literally why the happy ending is where you ride off into the sunset with the nomads and leave Night City behind.

I do however disagree with you on that it is badly written. It is actually pretty well written. It seems to me that you can't embrace this style of writing and anti-insitution. I think you are trying to force in a story that just do not work with this style of content. Like trying to play a US civil war story during a medieval fantasy D&D game. You might make most parts work, but you can never actually get what you want because you don't want the medieval fantasy.

[☻]

I never said that you did. I was explaining where I'm coming from. Why would I do the NUSA side of the quest when it doesn't serve my best interests or songbirds? Both of us want a cure and if her delivering that cure requires that you help her escape the NUSA then so be it. She certainly isn't going to help you if she is imprisoned by the NUSA. The NUSA's ability to cure you doesn't even make sense and it is not offered and you are not aware of it until after you make your decision. So unless I was going to use fourth wall breaking knowledge I would not logically betray the person with the cure that hired me in the first place. I wouldn't have even bothered to work with the NUSA at all if it wasn't for song birds skill and ability to force herself into johnny's place inside the relic. Even when I was told that they could help me, I didnt believe it because of fourth wall breaking knowledge that I had from previous endings that don't match up because of poor writing. Of course it doesn't help that the ending has illogical human behavior just to make it unsatisfying to the player for the sake of being edgy.

All that aside, why would I care what Reed says when he works for an agency that tried to kill him and he screwed over alex even though they were friends? He is a blind follower blinded by his flawed ideals. At least songbird feels bad for what she did and wants out. He is controlled by a corrupt president and follows her like dog. Either way he isn't the one with a cure or any understanding of it. Am I going to trust myers? lol nope.

As for blue eyes we can't be sure of anything regarding his intentions because we have been given no information. Will V be free after working with blue eyes at the casino? Who knows? Did songbird do a mission for him and leave or is she cornered into servitude? We don't know. Anyone who says otherwise is just assuming things.

Leaving night city with Panam is a good ending for sure. Even if you are going to die you still spend the last moments of life away from the corrupt city and surrounded by people who care and appreciate you. Of course in other endings they don't care about you and don't want you to come around anymore because the writing contradicts itself.

I do think the writing sucks because it contradicts itself constantly and uses the excuse that each ending exists in a Vacuum rather than using logical world building. If they make an ending to a game that says the best doctors and the guys who created the chip can't fix you and then they create a sequel that says the NUSA can fix you...well it's just lame and doesn't add up.

[Dugaul]

blue eyes mission to the moon or run off with the nomads - but hey maybe V will show up in some way in the next game.

[999]

Send So Mi to the moon -> Don't Fear The Reaper ending -> Either give your body to Johnny or go to the crystal palace.

[Mor]

Originally posted by CloudSeeker:

Originally posted by Mor:

Nah, just a cop out from the writers, always was and will be.

Dude. That is literally how Mike Pondsmith, the creator of Cyberpunk, made the setting. You are litreally only supposed to be able to save yourself by surviving Night City. There are no happy endings in Night City. Or have you forgotten that the setting is a dystopia?

There are plenty of other characters both in game and even more in universe that are fine and dandy.

So no, "it's the setting" is not the winning card everyone thinks.

[Mor]

In fact, this game lacks the most simple version of an ending you would expect from a cyberpunk tabletop campaign that went right, without GM pulling "rock falls" you died anyway.

V lives, with or without Johnny, and continues working in Night City as a solo.