It's related to the Phantom Liberty DLC for Cyberpunk.
One of the endings allows V to be 'cured' of the effects of the relic chip that had the engram (digital personality) of Johnny Silverhand encoded on it. The relic activated when V was shot by Dexter DeShawn, releasing nanites (nanotechnology robots) into her brain to physically reconfigure it so that her personality could be overwritten by that of Johnny Silverhand's. This means that ultimately V will die and cease to exist leaving Johnny in charge of her body.
At the end of the Phantom Liberty DLC V can choose to ask the FIA/NUSA/President Rosalind Myers to cure her (of the affliction of the relic) and essentially excise Johnny from her brain. This is apparently achieved by literally removing parts of V's brain matter. It also apparently results in extensive damage to V's cortex (I presume they mean her cerebral cortex) which means that she can no longer use 'combat cyberware' or any enhancement beyond a personal link, which is a very minor piece of technology.
After being cured (which for some odd reason results in V remaining in a coma for two years instead of recovering within a month as estimated by the FIA 'specialists'), she returns to Night City to discover that all her friends have abandoned her (except for Viktor and Misty who leave anyway), that she has no place to stay (because she was ejected from her apartment because she was in a coma and couldn't pay rent, clearly debit orders are not a thing in the future), and she can no longer fight or defend herself (even though she would still have the skill if not the cyberware to do so), leaving her utterly destitute and alone etc. (never taking into account factors such as the character's bank account at the time of completing the quest and so on).
Cyberpunk 2077 is a wannabe RPG. It pretends it is one, it tries to walk like one and talk like one, but it isn't. With the addition of the Phantom Liberty DLC the character has one or two more options regarding possible outcomes. Live as Johnny, die, die and become an engram, live for a few months with the nomads (before dying, so essentially die a little later), go on a suicide mission with Johnny and attack Arasaka (and possibly die in the attempt, and then die afterwards if you don't), commit suicide, or live as a nobody with nothing. So it's really just different flavours of death combined with one or two options that allow you to live (not necessarily as yourself in all cases). As I said it's a pretend/wannabe RPG because the player has no true agency or power to achieve distinctly different outcomes as you do in Fallout New Vegas for example.
I chose to take the cure, and live life as a 'nobody'. The images and snippets of story I've posted are my way of making sense of a very poor attempt at an RPG. I've tried to think of plausible, logical outcomes that fit within the existing narrative and are entirely achievable given the circumstances and the world Valerie exists within. The impetus for this was provided by the slap in the face that was the Phantom Liberty ending that allows V to live by taking the cure/asking to be cured. It was just another instance of the player being bulldozed into an outcome that the 'writers' thought was cool, dark, gritty, and edgy. If everything is 'cool,dark,gritty and edgy' nothing is. It irritated me just a tad and I had to make sense of it in my own way.
So, while they might have thought Valerie has or had 'No Future', I beg to differ most strenuously.
3 comments
One of the endings allows V to be 'cured' of the effects of the relic chip that had the engram (digital personality) of Johnny Silverhand encoded on it. The relic activated when V was shot by Dexter DeShawn, releasing nanites (nanotechnology robots) into her brain to physically reconfigure it so that her personality could be overwritten by that of Johnny Silverhand's. This means that ultimately V will die and cease to exist leaving Johnny in charge of her body.
At the end of the Phantom Liberty DLC V can choose to ask the FIA/NUSA/President Rosalind Myers to cure her (of the affliction of the relic) and essentially excise Johnny from her brain. This is apparently achieved by literally removing parts of V's brain matter. It also apparently results in extensive damage to V's cortex (I presume they mean her cerebral cortex) which means that she can no longer use 'combat cyberware' or any enhancement beyond a personal link, which is a very minor piece of technology.
After being cured (which for some odd reason results in V remaining in a coma for two years instead of recovering within a month as estimated by the FIA 'specialists'), she returns to Night City to discover that all her friends have abandoned her (except for Viktor and Misty who leave anyway), that she has no place to stay (because she was ejected from her apartment because she was in a coma and couldn't pay rent, clearly debit orders are not a thing in the future), and she can no longer fight or defend herself (even though she would still have the skill if not the cyberware to do so), leaving her utterly destitute and alone etc. (never taking into account factors such as the character's bank account at the time of completing the quest and so on).
Cyberpunk 2077 is a wannabe RPG. It pretends it is one, it tries to walk like one and talk like one, but it isn't. With the addition of the Phantom Liberty DLC the character has one or two more options regarding possible outcomes. Live as Johnny, die, die and become an engram, live for a few months with the nomads (before dying, so essentially die a little later), go on a suicide mission with Johnny and attack Arasaka (and possibly die in the attempt, and then die afterwards if you don't), commit suicide, or live as a nobody with nothing. So it's really just different flavours of death combined with one or two options that allow you to live (not necessarily as yourself in all cases). As I said it's a pretend/wannabe RPG because the player has no true agency or power to achieve distinctly different outcomes as you do in Fallout New Vegas for example.
I chose to take the cure, and live life as a 'nobody'. The images and snippets of story I've posted are my way of making sense
of a very poor attempt at an RPG. I've tried to think of plausible, logical outcomes that fit within the existing narrative and are entirely
achievable given the circumstances and the world Valerie exists within. The impetus for this was provided by the slap in the face that was the Phantom Liberty ending that allows V to live by taking the cure/asking to be cured. It was just another instance of the player being bulldozed into an outcome that the 'writers' thought was cool, dark, gritty, and edgy. If everything is 'cool,dark,gritty and edgy' nothing is. It irritated me just a tad and I had to make sense of it in my own way.
So, while they might have thought Valerie has or had 'No Future', I beg to differ most strenuously.