#from what i've read about the tower ending it sounds like the FIA is offering you a happy end with a LITTLE twist

[alongtidesoflight]

also on another note i just read through the cp2077 endings i didn't get the chance to play yet and i do think the tower ending is one of the worst endings to pick in terms of what it means for a very self-reliant and anti-corpo V (and maybe this has been discussed and disCOURSED to death already, but i had the tags blacklisted for years so i'm just adding my thoughts to the void). under the cut because i get ranty lately for some reason.

so you survive the relic. but as a tradeoff you can't keep your cyberware. on your way there you pissed off just about every faction there is to be found in night city for one reason or another. there is no surviving a city full of mercs and gangs decked out with cyberware when you don't have cyberware yourself. maxtac is gonna wipe the floor with your innards if you ever cross them. viktor says the FIA doctors are wrong, so let's put a pin in this i'm not done yet.

you hand songbird back over to reed. you lose each and every friend you've had in this city except for vick and misty who realistically can't protect you from any threats that might be headed your way, and there's mitch when you call panam, but realistically he's also too far away to help you immediately. kerry, the only one who's willing to catch back up with you is currently in space and won't be back in a while.

and sure you can say the FIA looks out for you, but let's loop back around to what viktor says. he thinks their diagnosis is wrong. whether that's just wishful thinking or he's right, i can't really determine. but for the sake of this argument, let's say he's right and there's a way for V to use cyberware again.

you're telling me the FIA doesn't know that? i don't buy it and i don't trust myers. it all seems very solid at first. they kept their end of the bargain, they kept you alive. there's a tradeoff but they did what they said they'd do. but let's look at how they acted with songbird and go off of that. songbird was only useful to myers as long as she could keep her in check. as soon as that went out of the window so did myers's goodwill. AND if V attempted to help songbird escape before handing her over to reed, what's guaranteeing that they don't try that again? i suppose there's no guarantee, unless she makes sure they too can't stand up to her anymore. and what better way is there to do that than to rid V of their cyberware?

reed being the one who relays all of that to you is as much a comforting presence as takemura is in the devil ending. you can grow really close with them. they're gonna break it to you gently, you're gonna be more willing to sip that poison. if you end up working for their respective factions, you essentially sign yourself away to the FIA or arasaka after they both influenced you to sign a contract in exchange for help (that doesn't even fully deliver on its promises. mikoshi kills you entirely and the FIA doctors take your cyberware. with both of them you lose johnny and your friends). and maybe there's Vs out there who are fine with that, or wanted that even and in that case all my points are kinda moot. like i said, i'm going off a V who isn't really about sympathising with them.

anyway, slight tangent. back to reed. you might want to think he's a friend to your V. maybe he is. but looking back at his history with alena and songbird... is he? like really? even if he truly considers them friends and i like to think he does, he DOES put duty above them every time. myers points and he shoots.

IF in the tower ending, myers is acting as i'd expect her to, and by that i mean keeping V on a short leash, then reed is helping her do that.

and IF viktor is right and the FIA doctors are wrong about you using your cyberware ever again, then they're only "wrong" because myers told them to feed you false information. and now you're working for her and how are you gonna get out of that when she's the president of the NUSA and everyone around you has cyberware but you don't.

i kept on hearing that the tower ending is one of the "best" endings if you want to hear - with certainty - that V survives. and maybe it is. but really, at what cost man. how much longer are you gonna keep going in night city when half of its citizens hold a grudge against you, your cyberware is gone, your friends are gone, and the faction you're working with might or might not have hired you and taken your cyberware from you just to make sure you don't ever act up again.

how fucking awful of a future would that be to a nomad V. spent 2 years in a coma? they didn't just choose the quiet life over a blaze of glory, they died in their sleep.