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Cyberpunk 2077 Endings ranked from worst to last.
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Would love for you to cover the Phantom Liberty endings as well. I’ve seen a lot of arguments to save S but I just cannot justify that in the end. I feel one ending is just the most appropriate for the theme of the game. An ending where no one gets what they wanted but gets what they deserved.”
“A happy ending? For folks like us? Wrong city, wrong people.”
Don't Fear The Reaper/Temperance Ending >
Soloing Arasaka is peak and giving Johnny a chance to make different choices is the most thematically cohesive choice.
The only type of overthinking that Gopher engages in, and it's delightful. Thanks a lot for the hard work that led to this.
I’ve discussed this at length with a friend of mine and while we both think the game is brilliant, we hate the fact that every single ending is so utterly depressing. I hear a lot of people say they are bitter sweet but none of them really have much sweetness to them. It kind of felt to me as though regardless of what I do in that game I lose in the end anyway, it’s just a matter of how I lose.
On the sadness of The Star ending (at least according to Gopher), I completely disagree, because if you read between the lines, you'll figure out Alt was lying to you at the end, based on her own words from earlier.
Bless dude, love the vid!
In defence of the star ending. The aldecaldos are dying already, just slowly. Likely to end the way the bakkers did if they're lucky. The star ending though solves a few of the issues. The aldecaldo rep gets a massive boost. They start getting real"logistics" jobs. The stuff they pull out of the tower will be enough to set them up so they can take a survive these better jobs. I think the aldecaldos would thrive. As for v, I don't believe they're just strolling into the sunset to die. Panam herself says you intend to hit up all they're old contacts to find a cure. My final argument is more metta gaming but, if you were to write this with a view to leaving a possible equal, you would need to unite the endings somewhere as much as you could. In this case the answer was space. 3 of the main endings end in space. We know there are clinics out there capable of advanced medicine if you read some of the shards and there's a reason songbird was heading there. As for the other endings, 2 are basically death (temperance and lesat resistance) and the FIA ending would also have a possible continuation since there'd a few shards that talk about repairing nerve damage that prevents cyberware usage,I would assume, another thing done in space. As for the star, v2 electric boogaloo would start with a caldos mission to launch your dying scop chute into …… space. I always saw the star as the good ending. You just trade those nomad lives for a real future for the aldecaldos. Rant end
Star is number one for me, simple because it actually made the most sense for my first Character because she was a Nomad. The only reason the Secret Ending didn't hit number one for me (it's number 2) is it felt like the City won. I didn't like that feeling… but it felt right. Oh and I gave Song Bird over to Reed after I found out she lied to me.
The Secret Ending where V lives is probably the most Jackie ending: becoming a living legend of Night City. But I think Secret Ending, Adam Smasher kill V is the one that should be canon. Its blaze of glory, but in the end "the [Corp] always wins" which is a good thing. I don't think V is supposed to be on the level of Johnny Silverhand, Morgan Blackhand, Spider Murphy, and Rogue combined, they're a merc. A pretty good one, and with a little help for their friends they can accomplish a lot, but at the end of the day they are not going to change the world, no cyberpunk character should, we are all just cogs in the machine
Here's mine, not that anybody cares:
{Don't Fear} The Reaper
Temperance
The Sun
The Star
The Tower
The Devil
The Path Of Least Resistance
The ending of Temperance hits my with a wave of feels.
Gopher, if you have a great relationship with Johnny going into The Tower ending, the conversation is MUCH different. It stops just short of Johnny telling V that he loves them. An absolutely heartbreaking conversation.
Leaving a like and a comment to say I’m excited to check this video out after I’ve finished my next playthrough! Always enjoy when we can listen to your musings on themes and plot
The first Ending I ever did was the Secret Ending back when it first dropped. I've also done Temperance for PL.
I've always been a firm believer that none of this was real and this was a "presentation" on how the Soul Killer would functionally work to investors or buyers. There are just too many little hints left behind, such as the dual brain dance or the "fated chance" of Jackie giving the chip over before he dies (much less being shot in the head ALA Fallout: New Vegas and surviving – yes, I know Soulkiller reboot, blah, blah, blah) or even situation foot / car traffic depending on your method of travel.
It still means Night City wins, which is always does. It also cuts the ties to V for any future sequels and can give a clear slate for anyone ELSE to run through Night City. One that isn't quite so convoluted and requires all of the A-list actors to be a part of it.
And secretly, I've always hated Johnny Silverhand since the very first time I read his character sheet in the TTRPG. It might just be me coping over the fact they chose Silverhand as a character, but still… It makes the game much more tolerable.
I pretty much agree and for many of the same reasons. I admit that I also felt like we had a lot less control of our actions in the endings than I would have liked. We got to write V's story as we went, but in the end we were dictated to and I didn't exactly enjoy that. Having said that, I enjoyed and appreciated the endings that we got. I give CDPR credit for writing good endings even if they didn't go the way I thought they should have. One of the things I enjoy about RPGs over watching movies is getting to write the story for the character I'm playing, not having the ending dictated to me if I don't like it. …but again, I get it and I don't fault them for it.
One thing to keep in mind for the Star ending, this is not just the Aldacados putting themselves on the line to help V. This is them taking the opportunity to raise themselves from the rut they've been in while helping the new family member who has helped them reach the point they can do so. V presents a chance to attack Arasaka in a way that will allow success and escape, taking substantial resources with them. The rewards are great enough to make Saul, notoriously overcautious, to be on board. Good people die, of course, but all of them accept that the risk is worth the reward beyond the potential to help V.
I actually honestly agree with The Tower ending being up there with the 'worst' endings. It's equally (if not more) depressing in the same & different ways as the base game 'bad endings'. In the moment playing and leading up to it I thought it would be a good choice (which I think the game plays it up as the right thing to do choice wise) but after hearing Johnny's conversation and getting the cure it slowly dawns on you that your past life and existence is completely gone to the wind, everything you've done up to this point. The final part that plays out when you return to Night City and see the changes in the environment you started out in + the two gonks that handle you with ease really drives it home.. kick after kick after kick. Great story telling. Loved this LP, great list Gopher.
Okay, Gopher I watched a half hour video about a game I have no interest in, that I "noped" out of during the character creation of your first let's play series. Don't ask me why. Afterwards, still not interested in the game.
Well for starters let me just say great video, I'd love more like this for other games. Now onto the topic, let me preface this by saying I am in the camp of "There are no happy endings in Night City" and therefore I typically prefer for things to be quite miserable in this game. While I have watched all endings I haven't actually played all endings, so I am not sure I should rank them exactly as you did so I'll just rank the ones I've done and give smaller notes on the ones I haven't but know enough.
1. The Tower – I love this ending except for one thing. You don't get the Adam Smasher fight and I like giving Johnny that revenge and it's a cool fight. But from a story perspective I really like it, almost everyone around V ends up miserable. Takamura a fugitive, River a dirty cop, Panam will never trust anyone again, Judy moved on from you completely, although she did get married. You get the idea, I like that Vik ends up on a short leash, I love how messed up Night City feels after it, how different and wrong it feels. I like that V is a nobody now, although a fixer seems like a likely position. But will V ever find love again? Companionship? Probably not.
This ending feels so very Night City, more than the others to me. I actually really like that final convo with Johnny, it's touching and emotional and outside of Arthur's Horse and Mordin Solus, games don't usually get choked me up. Overall is it depressing? Yes and that is kind of the point, it's the ending I think fits V's story the most. As for Songbird, I mean I usually play a very moral V but in the end it comes down to her or me, to borrow a line from someone… might as well be her. As you mentioned she lies to you and plans to dupe you from the beginning, my first run I had zero sympathy for her. My second I felt for her but once again… her or me. Plus I like Reed a lot more.
2. Secret Ending – It's a badass ending, kick the front door down and mow everything down in your path. The downside for me? No one dies, Rogue dying in The Sun just felt right to me. However you do get to play as V here and that is why this ending gets the edge over the next one. Also this ending really only feels like it works with the Corpo Background for some reason, maybe Street Kid.
3. The Sun – I like Johnny, great character but I don't like the last mission being him. After all this time as V and have him/her take a backseat for the big showdown just felt wrong. However Rogue dies here so it does add to that depression factor and the landing on the roof was quite cool. Much like the secret ending V dies in this one, so that works for his conclusion.
4. The Star – The only thing I like about this ending is the amount of content they packed into it, it feels like the longest ending. At least those that I've played. But still it feels too hopeful, too close to a happy ending in a way and like I've said this game, this character of V, it doesn't fit in my opinion.
So those are the endings I have gone through so far, as for what I like about the others or what I don't like, well let me get into that here. I really like the phone calls from the Path of Least Resistance ending, I like how everyone is upset with V, however I think The Tower video calls are better. I also really dislike how this has the least amount of content in it.
Any ending giving Johnny the body feels wrong to me, feels like his time has past and he wouldn't even fit in the world anymore. Plus I think he rather go off with Alt in most endings anyway. As much as I like Johnny, him being wiped feels like a fitting conclusion given Night City is a depressing place. The Devil ending has promise for sure, but the only thing I don't like about it is you never really take it to Arasaka at all, in fact you help them so it doesn't feel right, but I gotta give this one a go. Especially to experience just how awful Takamura is as a person.
Overall it comes down to what you think fits and what you are looking for out of the ending to this game, for me I am looking for a miserable conclusion to V's miserable journey because when it comes to happy endings? Wrong city, wrong people.
The Star hints that the company the Aldecaldos are planning on working with after leaving Night City are researching tech that could provide a cure for V. Another small detail that makes people consider it the best ending. The Aldecaldos needed to leave NC anyway, especially after launching an attack on Arasaka.
When the game launched the Star Ending was my favorite ending even though some of the Aldecados dying made it bittersweet, V still got at least 6 months and hope or I thought. But them after playing PL it got me thinking that The Tower, as much as I hate losing my friends and leaving Songbird to suffer is the only ending where the Real V gets to live, in all other endings its not V living, just an Engram, some code produced by an AI that imitates V.
Personally I also consider the life path in relation of the ending.
Let's take "Path of Least Resistance" as example. Picking that gives the same ending, but tells a different story for each life path.
For a street kid this might be the final act of defiance against the system.
Would Corpo just finally give up, being tired of running around the corporate world?
Two above make sense, but why would nomad end his own life? With that background, going head on against Arasaka would be the final act of defiance. Same could be said from street kid.
Starting life path is usually already meaningless for most players and streamers at this point. I would have loved to see it referenced more often, giving more meaning to story and endings.
As for these endings, I quite agree with your ranking. My general feeling is quite similar.
I loved the idea behind each of these endings (today I mean, after playing them months ago) but when I played them, I either viscerally hated the ending or I simply didn't like it: I'm a "paladin" at heart, I like saving the widow and the orphan, and at the end of the adventure sitting on my big treasure, knowing that my character is living happily with his loved ones. But there is none of that in Cyberpunk2077 because there is none of that in the Cyberpunk pen and paper role-playing game franchise. The stories are always half-hearted, bittersweet. And I knew it, having played the tabletop years ago. Well, my bad ahaha.
So I loved the game Cyberpunk2077, I love the atmosphere, the adventure, the journey, the story but if one day I had to play it again, I know that at some point, probably before the end sequence, I would just stop and leave the game hanging.
I agree with the list. Especially as a RP Netrunner who still wants to rub shoulders with Spider Murphy & Co. Sending SoMi to the Moon and taking the Job from Mr. Blue Eyes are a near guarantee that V can get cured on the moon, too. And the procedure on the moon is the only one that can be successful without compromise.
The FIA aka the best human surgeons couldn't cure you without damaging your nervous system.
Alt couldn't cure you because she failed to understand the human factor, that V's body has changed. She's not a surgeon, only good with data.
Mr. Blue Eyes promises V something, and I bet it's a cure. By combining the abilities of AI and humans in the clinic on the moon, they should be able to avoid both mistakes, giving V a true chance of living a long life.
But that's not the sore reason why I always go for the Path of Glory/Don't fear the Reaper ending. It fit's a Netrunner perfectly and my V would love to help the sentient ghosts/AIs like Mr. Blue Eyes to gain a foothold in Night City through Night Corp. My V realizes that not all AI's are evil, that AI's helped building the Blackwall, that AI's want to live in peace from the rogue AI's as well. And that a sanctuary like the Ghost City is not enough and humans and AI's could co-exist.
I am gladly helping the AI's on the moon, also to keep Militech in check which I'm pretty certain will be the cause for a new war between rogue AI's and humans/sentient ghosts by opening the portal to hell and let rogue AI's flood Night City.
Would be awesome if that's gonna be the topic for Cyberpunk 2 🙂
Also not a fan of the star ending as far as the "good" endings are concerned. I feel similarly that whatever choice I make should only affect me and/or Johnny. I didnt know about the secret ending when I first beat the game and ended assaulting the tower with Rogue. So getting her killed felt awful but still felt like she was at least a old living legend who has done this same thing before whereas attacking with the Aldecados felt like getting them killed unnecessarily
I went with 'The Star' ending before Phantom Liberty, and then 'The Tower' after with the same character. I don't really have much of an opinion on the other endings because I couldn't see myself ever picking them. Good to understand your thoughts better on your phantom liberty playthrough, Gopher. I had been hoping you would pick the tower, but now I can understand why you didn't, even though I don't agree. V getting to live a full lifespan is much more important IMO than going down as a cocktail in the afterlife bar. Plus Songbird lying to and manipulating V was gut wrenching to me, I had little problem with handing her over to the FIA after that betrayal.
I almost feel like the tower ending is even worse than the devil. All throughout Phantom Liberty I had the dawning realisation that Songbird is V; a rat in a cage, with no options left. For me my V choosing to save Song, was also V's choice to actively choose to save their own self. It was enough to save just one person from the fate that we know all too well. For my V, she could let go of the pain and struggles against the world, she could quit 'the game' that is living in a cyberpunk dystopian megacity, and instead choose family, and hope. Even if it means death, and no glory.
Because after all, she saved herself, just not her version of herself.
So the tower? Turning her over in any regard? Well if the Devil ending where you deny Arasaka your Engram, and keep that one bit of pride is a better ending; then choosing not to accept Song's offer and end her life is the same. You are replacing your Devil ending, by giving it to somebody else. I find that to be infinitely more unsettling.
I think the only argument for the tower being less worse than the Devil, is simply that you haven't given the same power to Arasaka. But is it really any better with the power you've given to Myers? Hard to say.
Some notes on endings I like, which is most of them, and how they might impact a potential V-sequel, obviously very spoiler-y.:
1. Did anyone actually go with Tower, but also choose to work for Reed / the FIA ? I have no idea, what that ending might be like.
2. Secret Ending / The Sun: It´s affirming of what most players would have done for most of the game and V being an exceptional person. You end up rebelling against your very mortality, or I guess your struggle against mortality continues. You will either succeed or die gloriously, "reaching for the stars", as it were, to save yourself. The change with the secret ending feels like getting away with something – having no price to pay, but at least you take the even greater risk of attacking Arasaka alone. These endings seem to directly set up a sequel, obviously, and either one might be "canonized" as the beginning of CP 2078. But I hope, they also allow for other endings in setting up the sequel.
3. Temperance: a fair trade, so to speak. Also an act of love and comradery. Johnny has no right to V´s body, but the most generous range of player characters might want to "gift" this to him anyway. It´s still appropriately bitter-sweet, as Johnny has to live with both a loss of a comrade and getting a second chance at life. It will undoubtedly be a new case of crushing survivor´s guilt, but he can get past it and "be worthy" of the sacrifice, as he tried to be with his other fallen comrade from the war. Probably not usable for a V-sequel, unless maybe Alt contacts him, that the V-engram could be given a body from the Crytal Palace and we play as Johnny (at first).
4. The Star: Another perfectly good ending alongside Temperance. Might be the best for many "Vs", as it were. As people here said, very big shift from the individualistic and ego-centric toward the communal. The Aldecaldos suffer losses, but know what they´re getting into and earn the clan a new start. V got to matter in the world in a way very different from Night City´s values, being a true friend and family member, rather than a more flashy "legend" or "hero". We might call it the "personal growth and reform" ending. Potentially usable for a Crystal Palace sequel as well, if V were informed of a way to save themselves, probably by "Blue Eyes".
5. The Devil: Good to have this very dark option as a thematic counterbalance to the other endings. It also makes it understandable, why V might choose such an option out of desperation. Whatever Arasaka might do with them, they might live again in some form. Or Mikoshi might actually be a fine "living" "space" in order to preserve the value of the engrams to the company. Also V might think they get to live forever through this. This could be attractive to "more out there" Vs. Finally, it´s also very usable for a sequel, where Arasaka puts the V-engram in a body to use on Crystal Palace, f.e.
6. It could be possible to use any ending for a sequel, if it´s either something enirely unrelated to V, or you can play it as either V or a new character. I´d certainly prefer they keep any 2077 ending viable and as part of the canon.
Secret ending seems best (original one), least death to everyone involved – except the bad guys!
Hot take: My favorite Cyberpunk ending is the same as my favorite Skyrim/Oblivion/Morrowind/Fallout ending:
Getting bored of being OP and starting a new save to start fresh… and just "be" in the world and have fun. Main quest with great story? Do not need. Do not want.