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Oh, Takemura… he’s hard to dislike, but impossible to truly save. His is a tragic tale of loyalty, but not just to anyone — to the Emperor himself.
Or, at least, his idea of him.
In this video, we explore the paths of Goro Takemura’s story, depending on the player’s choice in Cyberpunk 2077. And gah, its so sad… every path for him is NOT GREAT. He is a good man, tied up with the wrong people. I just wish V could, in even one ending, give him a good life, and get through to him that he can start over.
Thank you for watching! I’ll see you again in the next one… GOOOBYEEEE
*My sister, when she saw the pictures of Takemura while she was making the thumbnail, was like “Oh what a handsome man”. This lady doesn’t even play Cyberpunk, and even she thinks its a crime that he’s not romancable lol!
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FUN FACT: I found out in post, but Takemura can actually TELL V about Jackie being in Mikoshi. I've never had that happen or even heard of it, but damn. It happens during the Bakeneko conversation, I believe. As crappy as that information is for V, it says a lot that he let V know. AGAIN. A COOL DUDE.
ALSO! He was initially considered as a romance option, but there wasn't enough time to properly implement that story. Which, hey, understandable!
Takemura and Solomon Reed are so similar I love them both but it seems the worst thing you can do to them is give them what they want.
I loved spying on Takemura-san after scripted interactions with V, such as the one after meeting Wakako-san on jig jig street.
Another reason Takamura is so disappointed when V rejects becoming an engram is because (as far as I know) V has been the only real friend he's ever known. Sure, he's had apprentices and superiors, but as far as we know, he's never truly had a friend who saw him as Takamura, then just as Suburo's bodyguard.
Classic samurai turned ronin story. The only difference is that it's a more realistic depiction rather than the romanticized version from stuff like old samurai movies. Historical samurai were never "honorable" in our modern sense. They were only honorable in the sense that they were loyal. That meant following their lord's orders including rape, murder, and pillaging of innocents. Even stuff like seppuku was treated as a way of retaining/redeeming any lost honor.
it took a couple of play throughs for Takemura to grow on me but now in that motel i go back & save him every time.
Goro is the living embodiment of self-imposed delusion, blind faith, and sunk-cost fallacy.
It's infuriating that you can't help him escape this trap. But it also probably the most real example of human flaws in the entire game until DLC.
This was a incredible breakdown. Thank you.
19:50 love… I feel quite the opposite… I wish that jackie had kept the biochip and v was so pissed and mentally prepared that the ambush had the opposite effect, with them being the only one that leaves the no-tell hotel… after days of isolation and grieving in the apartment, a shaken misty barges in and urgently drags them to victor's clinic… and there he is, that sunuvabish with his big dumb smile… "hey v, thought you got rid of me, huh?!"
I would turn all of nightcity upside-down to help him get rid of johnny :,,,,)
Takemura is a true samurai loyal to his Daimiyo to the death and beyond. While i understand the loyalty, it strikes to see how he doesn't see the monster Saburo is. For justice or to set things right sure but for Saburo? He is blinded by loyalty
I let him die in the raid usually. Die a hero or love long enough to be the villain, and as much as I feel he's a fool, I'd rather he die while he believes in something rather than being thrown aside like everything else no longer useful to a megacorp
I hate Takemura. No matter how well you treat him V is never his friend.
Takemura is 100% devoted to Arasaka and never sides with V. He is best described as a corpo dog.(as you said jokingly)
I abandoned Goro in the motel when Arasaka came after Hanako because I thought that he was dead. I'm dozens of hours past that point in my current playthrough, so I'm gonna save him next time.
It always felt like Takemura was manipulating me when I played. You might be giving him too much credit. In the devil ending, he gets even more manipulative and tries to cajole you into selling your soul. The giving up your rights bit isn't some esoteric piece of legalese, it's the whole point. And I know I wouldn't trust Arasaka to act in my best interest.
Is him being specifically from Chiba 11 a Code Geass reference?
My headcanon is definitely that goro can leave with us in the star ending. There is good sushi to find out there, somewhere….
In the Arisaka space ending, I think Tak felt more uncomfortable taking Saburos' orders from Yorinobus body. Imagine if the corpse of your sworn enemy started barking orders. It would be like the Nick Valentine/Kellog interaction in F4.
I didn’t realize you could save him on my first play through – I read that and had to restart everything – he’s such an amazing character with such depth
Part of me wishes that there was one more ending. One where you can go along with Arasaka, until you get to Yorinob, but then instead of capturing him, you execute/let him die. Although from V's perspective, you would also be accepting a death yourself without access to Mikoshi.
I always thought that the reason Takemura stuck around while V was recovering was simply duty. Duty to Saburo. That one moment V comes round to see Takemura leaning over them? I don't see that as sweet, I see that as Takemura placing a tracker in V. He really doesn't care about V, he cares about a valuable asset. Nothing more.
Takemura is part of Arasaka. Arasaka is V's enemy. Ergo, my V never goes back for him. They will play nice, charming, chatty, teasing. But when push comes to shove, my V simply doesn't care about Takemura, only what they can get from him. Goro taught that lesson well I think.
I really love your thoughtful review of Takemura's character. You’ve painted a vivid picture of his complexities, and I find myself agreeing with so much of your analysis. However, I’m less convinced of the depth of his feelings, and I think his steadfast refusal to change—despite undeniable evidence—is telling and here is why i think that.
Takemura tends to justify his actions with clever quotes like, 'All hands are dirty, it’s just how you get them dirty,' it's nothing more than a shield for his self-preservation (even though its a great quote). It's a classic rationalization strategy: he frames his morally ambiguous decisions as 'necessary evil,' he avoids acknowledging his culpability. Saburo didn't choose Takemura just for his skills and i think Goro knows this too deep down; he really chose him because Takemura is, at his core, a loyal dog. He’ll do anything to protect the hand that feeds him and not ask questions, even if that hand is abusive. This blind loyalty makes him complicit, and his justifications serve as a means to maintain a sense of moral superiority over other mercs, who he sees as beneath him. Yet, Takemura is no different—he's just as willing to get his hands dirty, only he cloaks his actions in a veneer of righteousness.
In short his unwavering loyalty, even to an abusive master, strips him of agency and reduces him to a cold and mostly (not entirely) unfeeling follower who rationalizes his actions to maintain a false sense of righteousness, making him more of a slave to his duty than a man of genuine feeling toward V, but thats just my opinion and does not mean im right.
Goro’s blindness to Arasaka’s evil is a combination of two things. On the one hand, there’s a self interest motive.
He does benefit a lot from his relationship with Arasaka, even if the corporation itself views him as disposable. Elite level training, cutting edge combat implants, probably a pretty good lifestyle including a decent place to live, good medical care and good food. He’s better off than probably 90% of people.
There’s also the Arasaka training itself. He’s been conditioned to be a good little corporate drone, to ignore his doubts, fears, and even outright manipulation and malfeasance by the corporation. His sense of what honour, loyalty and integrity look like are warped.
Bushido is kind of an overly romanticized concept of the Samurai version of the knightly code of chivalry, which is in itself a romanticized version of “proper” knighthood. In truth, these ruminations on proper behaviour only came about very late into the game for both knights, and Samurai. If you study historical accounts of what both groups of warrior aristocracy actually did, how they behaved, it doesn’t really resemble the purported “code” at all. The reality is that the expectations for both knights and samurai for most of their existence was “Maintain your military skills and be loyal to your paymaster.”
Game of Thrones provides a very interesting example of this in the personages of the brothers Clegane. Gregor, “The Mountain” is an anointed knight, and a complete monster, while Sandor “The Hound” has a character arc where he slowly turns into what some people would describe as “the quintessential knight.” He’s still crass, violent, and a bully, but you actually see him standing up for the weak and taking vengeance for them when he fails, and Sandor isn’t even an anointed knight. The Hound is the romanticized knight to an extent, while The Mountain is closer to what a real knight looks like, from a temperament perspective.
For the Samurai in particular, Bushido only became codified the way we understand it today around the time that the samurai fell out of favour as military forces and began to be replaced with standing armies of peasants. It’s during this period where the Imperial Court began doing things like passing laws banning the wearing of swords for anyone not on official military duty. Then Arasaka comes along and perverts this “code” for its own ends.
Another banger of a video Lydi! I am not sure how familiar with Pink Floyd you are, but there is a song called Dogs on the brilliant concept album Animals. This song seems to me to sum up Takamura as a whole. He’s an attack dog who finds out when his time is up, how little the system cares for him. It would have been a great song to associate with him in game. (Which takes me to my biggest criticism of Cyberpunk, they make music so important to the story but do a poor job tying the themes and songs themselves to the story, like Peralez has the quest Dream On, the title works but the actual song doesn’t connect at all to the themes.) Takamura spent his whole life trying to avoid being a Sheep and working for Pigs that he is shocked to learn the Pigs think of him about as highly as the Sheep.
I perceive Takemura as a traitor. V really treat him like a friend. But just imagine what a real friend would do in his place. Imagine that Jackie promised us that he would help us. And then he didn't. I can't imagine that. I guess Jackie would have died trying to save V's life. But Takemura just… continue working on Arasaka, who treat his friend like garbage.