I know Im overthinking this but I cant stop thinking about this after playing The Tower Ending, which seems to be laying a ground canon for Orion.
Considering the outcome of the Tower ending, that suggests that Night City will take its own pre-determined course no matter what the player does, or does not. Does it really matter what the Player does in the first place?
I have seen many people say that they want to always storm at Arasaka tower because its something that “must be done”. But it seems it will always happen anyway and it will always lead to the same outcome of Arasaka stepping behind and Militech taking over in 2080’s, no matter what really happens. So it doesn’t really matter
And it seems you dont really have to go after Arasaka to earn your drink in afterlife either. Considering that you somehow always do in The Tower ending, its more difficult for me to think what would V need to do to not earn a drink in The Afterlife.
By extent, if all charachter V had to deal with/worked with/had relationships with during the game are long gone out of Night City by 2080’s one way or another. So this way nothing the Player (V) does really leaves any meaningful mark in the city. Did anything really happen? Big part of V’s motivation was to want to “matter”. Did V really “matter”?
16 Comments
Only to idiots who gaze at the Afterlife with neon in their eyes.
Such fools are often pitied by the wise.
Militech will always overtake Arasaka unless you do the Devil ending because its new CEO is literally sabotaging it from the inside. So yes, nothing you do will impact that aspect of the world unless you help Hanako right the ship.
To earn a drink in the Afterlife, you need to become an NC legend and then be considered dead. Finishing the events of Phantom Liberty makes you a legend.
Yes, your friends drift away in the Tower ending because you kind of abandoned them without even calling to say goodbye (not even a “I’m heading into a dangerous surgery, might not see you for a while”). This doesn’t happen in any of the other endings.
The message of the game is that you don’t need to matter on a grand scale. What makes you important is how you impact the lives of the people *around* you. Hence why the only two endings with a genuinely optimistic outlook are the Star ending (because you end up with people that care deeply about you) and the Temperance ending (because you left a lasting impact on Johnny and gave him a second chance at life).
Let’s take a step back.
What about the Tower ending is lying the grounds for the canon ending? What have they said that makes you believe this?
Yup, nothing V does affects the city in the long run. It’s just how things are in Night City. Arasaka tower literally got nuked and they just built another on top of it.
I won’t matter what end you have it’s nots gonna dictate the future. I think that is exactly the point. Cyberpunk 2077 is set within the greater cyberpunk universe. It seems the whole point is to make it 2077 as just another story in the world but it’s not the world. Same as edgerunners Martinez is just a brief light that shines in this world and the world goes on but you hear about him. It’s the reason engram johnnys memories aren’t accurate. The whole point is that this is a world where people are just trying to get by. But the world goes on. V is not some iconic world changing hero. Basically Cyberpunk 2077 is just a version of playing the ttrpg. Your story matters to you but not to other tables and won’t matter to people playing the game in the future. I really think they’re gonna continue that and cyberpunk 2 will be a different story. But we’ll hear things about V. Cyberpunk is a bigger IP and they want things to be compatible.
Ponpon shit slaps, ngl it grows on you
Of course not. It’s just a braindance. Orion will start with a scene of some yet to named character waking up from this game. Could a bum like V ever challenge a corp? 🤣
Honestly, that’s the tragedy of Cyberpunk 2077. V’s story did happen and you can argue it mattered. But it’s also just another echo in the endless noise of Night City. Like David Martinez. Like Johnny Silverhand. Like so many others who chased the illusion of control, legacy, or meaning in a city designed to devour it all. V falls into the same trap: trying to live on through memory, reputation, or the myth of being a legend. But legends fade fast here.
Yeah, V does remarkable things. They defy death, topple an empire like Arasaka, killed Adam Smasher, and pull off impossible labours no one else can do, but it’s not enough. Not in the face of other NC Legends like Morgan Blackhand or Rache Bartmoss whose shadows stretch decades. V might earn a drink in the Afterlife, but even that’s just symbolic a trophy in a bar that doesn’t care who sits under the neon next.
The Tower ending, in particular, hammers it home: V was never the center of the world. Never special. Just another merc who tried to beat the system and got chewed up like the rest. They already died the second they stepped into Konpeki Plaza and got shot by Dex’s betrayal. Everything after is just borrowed time.
And even in the other endings either V goes with the Aldecaldos, into the Blackwall with Alt, into orbit to perform an heist that V will likely die from, or V kills themselves, the world moves on. No matter what you do, Night City forgets. It always forgets. That’s what makes the game so damn powerful. It’s not about changing the world. It’s about realizing it won’t change, and figuring out who you are when the time comes.
I highly doubt the tower is laying down ground cannon. Devs almost exclusively go after the “secret ending” and almost never touch dlc endings in sequels, so “Don’t Fear the Reaper is almost certainly the cannon setup
Furthermore, Mr Blue Eyes is getting set up for the sequel, and the moon was originally supposedto be visitable, so if they do touch on tge dlc, they’ll probably keep Somi alive as a potential fixer
it’s a bit the whole point of cyberpunk storyline and that’s why i roll my eyes when i see comments like “wait until orion release and they canonise the gender i prefer !”
the whole game aim to show that v in the end get almost forgotten, there’s almost no heroes that night city remember if you look at it even johnny that nuked the whole city got forgotten except a few peoples, blackhand, weyland and rogue are basically the only one that managed to become a legend still remembered after they dissapeared
if you look at it in edgerunner, david attacked arasaka too and almost nobody remember him
the game is hinting that in orion we won’t play v and we won’t cross them ,everybody that knew him personally is gone and arasaka will try as much as possible to cover what he did
cdpr is preparing for the story to go that way atleast to me that in the end, night city as always won and what v did changed the city, but no one remember them we might cross a few edgerunners that speak about v but it would be nice that all of them have contradicting story some saying it was an ex arasaka agent who attacked arasaka with a nomad group and left night city, some a chick from heywood who made a deal with arasaka ,some say it was a nomad with no past who rushed through the front door and destroyed arasaka by itself.
i think no matter the ending we took the events will mostly unfold the same way with militech taking over somewhere after 2077 (the only ending that won’t be canon in that way unfortunately is the devil ending) especially with how some people managed to explore more freely the city in 2079 with a lot of building preparing for reconstruction
i think the best way to respect v is make them that way, to let everyone have their own headcanon, not making an ending canon and let their story behind is the best way to start orion
Thing is – V is not a Chosen One. This universe is unfit for messiah or superhero. No single person can stop meatgrinder of existing order, or affect it in any meaningful way. Kill Kurt Hansen? Bennett will step up. Help to take down Arasaka? Other corporations will fill the vacuum. Ignore PL and get Myers killed? Her successor most likely won’t be any better.
So answering question – no, V didn’t matter, he didn’t leave any important mark. And he simply couldn’t do that. Game was unfair right from the start.
You’re confusing the outcomes, one thing is Arasaka sabotage from Yorinobu, making Arasaka losing its influence in NC, another thing is storming the tower and throwing the Mikoshi shit at the fan, hurting the company in a internacional status.
Also, Smasher, no, Smasher is dead, CDPR don’t need to rely solely in this character.
I always assumed that making the deal with Arasaka was the Canon ending, and the reason we can fast forward in conversations and as a passenger in rides, is we are playing the role of someone watching and modifying V’s Engram.
I don’t believe there will be a “canon ending.” We might get Easter eggs and hints at events from the first game, but they’ll likely leave things vague on purpose. I doubt anyone with the potential to die in the first game will appear or play a role in Orion.
That depends on what the “canon”, ending they decide to build off of. As of now, with the DLC. There can be a multitude of canon events. If they want to please the most amount of players, they can look at the achievements and use the ones completed by the highest amount of players and use that to define what canon is. But, there are a lot of options to be made and they use any number of ways to decide which they want to go with.
That said, I am looking forward to the game and what the word will look like.
Pssh. This post has no credibility. “Ponpon shit *stops*”!? My choom, true NC legends know there is only one truth:
Ponpon shit *never* stops.