I should probably mention now that number 4 (or 2 by the numbers) is no longer the end of the world. Update 2.0 made it so individual rippers no longer sell exclusive cyberware and Fingers therefore has nothing of unique value to offer us. He'll still be lost as a vendor should we punch him though.
@@ZedSetoLV Nah even before the update you didn't lose much. Just some epic level cyberware parts. Not useful for some builds and not crippling to not have for any build. Punch the loser.
in my first playthrough i didn't even know it was possible to save Takemura, i just ran out of the building with johnny, i only stumbled onto the fact afterwards
Just in case someone playing 2.0 and up doesn't know this yet, punching or even killing Fingers is no longer an issue as all Ripperdocs have access to the same implants now.
i’ve been trying to get some legendary cyberware. i have maxed out street cred and i keep skipping 24 hours at the corresponding shops but i never see anything better than rare?
@@ethanhuff3438 i haven't been able to find any either. I just upgrade it with parts found by farming bounties and all the random yellow triangle peoples.
@@ethanhuff3438 Cyberware isnt dependent on street cred, its dependent on your actual level. every 10 levels raises the rarity of cyberware in shop. street cred unlocks more cars in the autofixer.
A mistake I made when the game released, and one I'll be defo highlighting when I do a top tips/do's and don'ts for players returning in the lead up to Phantom liberty
I can't imagine why someone does that. Other than never having played an rpg-ish game and not stopping to think about it for 5 minutes before leveling things randomly. Thinking logically, it's clearly a poor decision haha Or very questionable at the least. I like that you can't respec it. Makes your decisions matter. And you can't suddenly become a completely different person.
I have a question though is there a certain level you have to be to unlock them? I haven’t seen a single one. All ripperdocs are selling the same old blue crap rarity ones. Would appreciate a reply back
I'd add sending Jackie to Vik's place to the list. Not only do you get locked out of the Heroes sidequest but Mama Welles is pretty frosty with you afterwards and you miss out on some pretty funny lines from Misty about how she and Mama get on afterwards. Running into Jackie's 'ghost' later via Hanako is a real punch to the gut if you feel the least bit guilty about what happens from that choice.
I agree, Jackie's ofrienda is defo better than him getting some poor mikoshi Engram. Both from a content standpoint and canonically. A contender if I do another 5 for sure!
Yeah the entire little mini-mission with Misty in Jackie's garage is one of my favorites in the game. It's got a lot of little subtle acting/storytelling on Misty's part. My favorite being after you find the key to the backroom (the inner door), Misty leans against the door frame, but says that she shouldn't go in. You can CLEARLY tell she really wants to, NEEDS to see inside there, but she feels it isn't her place to initiate. So she refuses, until V insists. But as SOON as you unlock that door, before it's even begun to swing open, she pivots her back against the wall, slipping past you to go in there first, because everything in her is screaming to go in there. She's basically just been holding herself back due to social decorum. She doesn't look at you, puts her head down and just slips in like an otter as quickly as she can get in there. Then to hear her exposition the history of Jackie, is also really well done. It's 100% a posthumous exposition dump, but it's framed in a great way, that feels natural and organic. She's someone that knew him since they were kids, telling you about the memorabilia that further fleshes out Jackie for the player. It's just so well done. Misty was such a great support character, I wish they had given her more direct contribution to the events going on.
He was, to me, a modern day samurai story Loyal to an absolute fault to his lord Intensely skilled in combat Hell-bent on redemption or revenge for his master (very 47 Ronin…I wonder why) Direct, always honest, never fond of thieves or murderers Very focused on the question of honor Arasaka never deserved a man like Goro
The only downside to saving Takemura is that if you pick any ending except for the Devil ending, he is beyond pissed off when you gives you a phonecall during the credits. I got The Sun ending my first playthrough, and saved Takemura pretty handily and was kind of heartbroken when he called during the epilogue while standing in the middle of a busted-up Arasaka HQ and more or less told me, "you'd better hope we never run into each other again, because I will kill you." I get why he has this reaction, but it was still sad all the same.
I like to think he just needs time. like when he tells you to "go fuck yourself" if you pick certain options on the phone then he tells you he apologizes for the outburst XD
I didn’t save him because I didn’t know. But even when we met, I had the feeling he would never leave Arasaka. “You can shake the rat out of the corpo, but you can’t shake the corpo out of the rat.” I think Takemura just favored one side of Arasaka as he said, there were factions in Arasaka (I think he was the one to say it)
I don’t believe that’s what the message sent. I believe it implies he’s going to end himself. As he says he’s read many beautiful last words from people who have, but his are his hateful message to you.
Well, it's heavily implied that he takes his own life after he sent that voicemail. He's no samurai, so he tells you to rot in hell. You basically took everything away from him.
To me there’s a secret option that never gets touched on, depending on how you play Johnny in his flashbacks you can actually have him apologize to alt
@@unluckym3 yeah, it’s not touched on because it’s not known but if you do the voodoo boys quest and play Jonny right (ie not being a total ass and even be quiet) Johnny will later in the game actually apologize to Alt and this actually catches alt off guard a bit Edit: a link and in the comments it’s explained greater ua-cam.com/video/8FSz_Y-ySY0/v-deo.html
@@jackmack4181 hey I’m the dude who explained it completely in the comments with dialogue choices! Damn 2 years pass by quick lol. For anyone interested, open up the comment that starts with “I got this outcome too” and my response explains it all in there.
One issue a lot of games with choice have.. is that many (sometimes near all) "bad" decisions don't add anything, they only remove. You don't unlock new paths, you just withhold content. So the options are "do you want more content or do you want to remove content". I really wish more "negative" choices had additional / alternate branches. Sometimes being an asshole or the bad guy can be fun.. but not as much when it cuts out big parts of the game and adds nothing in return..
That's one of the main themes of the game...friendship and family. If you leave your friends in the wind or treat them like shit, that's it. There's nothing more to it. Johnny is the example of that and why his missions are redeeming his past mistakes.
Yes! I like being a good person but when they give you freedom to do whatever, but then secretly punishing you if you don't do it how they want, is that really freedom?
Yeah i am waiting for a game where killing main characters open new arc or not playing is an arc. An AAA game structured like stanley parable i would say...
I actually used the spring legs to jump up through the 2 destroyed floors back to Takemura, I could hear the firefight going on above and wondered if I could get up there. Was surprised I actually could jump up there, even more surprised when the objective changed.
Was just about to say this. Yeah 99% of players get the double jump legs and you can easily just jump stragiht up to Takemura as soon as you are able to move after the fall.
I did the same thing on my first playthrough. I wantet to see if it's only a sound programmed so it would seem like they are shooting up there but they were really shooting. Glad I saved him as I chose the worst possible ending but at least Takemura was by my side at the end.
The coolest part for me was after dealing with the guys in the room I activated my sandevistan to peek out of the door and saw the two squads of arasaka guys coming down from both sides of the hallway only to then deal with them in the patented sandevistan user way
It’s amazing how many different hidden choices are available in this game. I’ve come to realize that in this game, you can’t control V’s fate, but you can still affect the lives of other people around him
@@spritsfal5088 everyones story *always* ends in death. Like, every single story in human history. Its about how you get to that shared conclusion that matter.
@@DellikkilleD but didn't he survived in the end? I had option for keanu to leave with alt and let him go back to his body. Although he didn't have much time to live afterwards, there could be something to fix him.
I legit thought Takemura was dead in my first run. I didn't see anything prompting me to look around better (I don't even remember having any other way to go.. apparently we had to climb up?) so I was sad to find out hours later that he could've survived. I really liked his character, the banter was great lol his text messaging is hilarious.
The game normally does the Nanny-mode pretty hard. For every objective you get a path on the map and a journal entry to follow it. This is one of the few times (are there actually others?) where we'd have had to pay attention. In the little cinematic sequence where the hidout gets attacked we do fall through the floor. So going up is kind of logical.... but since the game normally does all the thinking for us, it's easy to miss the one important occasion where it would have helped.
I always figured the "Friendship" meter isn't what you think it is, it's more like how badly contaminated V's personality has become, the higher the level, the more your personality has been affected and converted. You've started acting more like Johnny and are more willing to do more things just like he would, which is also why "Don't Fear the Reaper" becomes available, because it's the kind of plan you would never even consider if your personality hadn't become so FUBAR.
When i turned myself in to arasaka you get to speak with johnny and he does tell you that V has progressed to be more like johnny while johnny became more like V. Mf tried guilt tripping me on jackie and others that liked me but by that time i personally would rather be in virtual prison forever than let that scumbag take my body. I zero'd myself in another playthrough to spite johnny 😂
Nonsense, that's exactly the kind of decision that gameplay V would do. Placeed wants me to sneak into a mall? Boom, run in heads first Gorilla arms blazing. Panam wants me to sneak in and save Saul? I actually did that. Then went all gorilla arms on everyone on the way out anyway. Takemura needs me to infiltrate an Arasaka warehouse? How about I use the front door, and make Gorilla arms go brrrrrrr. My character also only has 3 intelligence.
I'd say it's more of a merge with Johnny due to him saying himself that you both affect each other and at the end depending how much you befriended Johnny you get the best personality traits of V and Johnny TLDR; I think it's more of a merge than a corruption
@@janisir4529Hah, that's my V too! 20 body, gorilla arms, 20 cool, 20 engineering, a Nomad with 3 int. I like to think of him as the ultimate red-neck in Night city, he's got heart but I done some real dumb stuff too (not that dumb if I walked away, unlike everyone else...).
I love this comments section. It seems like a whole room telling dozens of war stories where each of them have a different view of the same story and how they lived it
I liked Takemura. I dont care what he wants for himself, he is a cool, honorable character that felt like someone I could count on in this big ass city. A man who truly embodies the samurai code is always a friend to me.
that tragic River ending is wild, I imagine it only exists for those occasional gamers who must have a really strange mindset while playing any type of game, and punishing them for it
Johnny's deadpan reaction was pretty funny though. It's a nice addition for a "scumbag" run. This is one of those little things that shouldn't exist, and yet it does.
The Star ending is what I'd consider the best ending. Don't fear the Reaper was badass, challenging too with difficulty enhancing mods, and V becomes a legend like they originally set out to, but V either living out the rest of their days with good people (and potentially their love interest) away from the awful city or even having the potential to find a solution in the outside world seems like a better growth for the character. They went from dreaming big and losing almost everything for it, to understanding the vapid, soulless life in Night City isn't what they needed at all. The death of a certain character in the end drags it down, but it sort of fit the path of the character and the themes of the Aldecaldos story.
I kind of agree, with my second choice being Don't Fear the Reaper and then giving the body to Johnny. (It can't be the Rogue ending as then it's not Vs choice whether he gets the body, and it's a dick move for Johnny to choose to take the body)
Yeah, for me "The Star" is the Good ending while "Don't Fear the Reaper" is just the Secret ending. Leaving NC with Panam and the Aldecaldos with the hope of finding a way to remove the relic sounds like the best way out there. Now ofcourse if V just wants to go out like a legend; then DFTR is the way to go.
@@DanakarEndeel you get the Relic removed in Mikoshi either way, you still attack Arasaka Tower with Panam. The issue is that your brain is too damaged by Relic and you're dying no matter what ending you choose (Arasaka ending included). But, we know that Panam has contracts and promises to fix whatever needs fixing and Mr Blue Eyes offered V some kind of deal. And now we know that the damage done by Relic is actually fixable and it just happens that Blue Eyes orders you heist on a place that fixed Songbird while Aldecaldos are allied with StormTech who specialize in biotech and have their offices in Crystal Palace too
Punching Fingers is by far worth more than any optimal build. In every playthough I cannot resist punching him. Same as with the cruel satisfaction by always shooting Fredrik in front of Gottard's eyes, before shooting him too, in the gig Dirty Biz.
This, specially if the whole idea behind it is getting high relationship with Johnny; then when I read a guide, one of the crucial moments you have to pick a couple of rude dialogue actions, and only those work, if you pick options that arent antagonizing him, the whole thing will fail. It makes zero sense.
I made every single one of these choices on my first play through. I really disliked these characters and how they were just using me for their own ends. I was trying to role play in an action game, and rather than sending ripples, I just lost out on content, or had the story be more hamfisted and less impactful because certain characters weren’t a part of it. Having a relationship with Johnny is Stockholm Syndrome. He’s an unlikeable asshole and supposed to be one. He has somewhat of a redemption arc. But that’s from batshit crazy and completely chaotic evil to chaotic neutral. His ego is defeated by being put in a box that he doesn’t fit in. He was so used to living in his own world by his own rules. It’s not that this story is lost on me, it’s just really not what I expected.
I wish saving Takamura made a bigger difference in other endings. He should have been the final boss in all other endings. It would have made the final battle more impactful
Or he could've been the final boss until he got squashed by Adam, just as you're about to decide whether to let him live or not, Smasher barges in and decides for you.
@@sus45923 and they can easily unbetray him, that's just how things go over there. They already knew he didn't do it, it was always just about saving face. Once it becomes worth welcoming him back, it'd be easy-done.
@@sus45923 he has a sense of superior morality that's married to the idea of corporate obedience. He looks down on you the whole time just for not being Arasaka. He does hate Yorinobu, yes... and? Yorinobu isn't the only one there, and his position as the one in charge is certainly precarious. Takemura wouldn't have come up with the big parade infiltration plan if he didn't think so. I can easily see him trying to put V down if given the excuse - a lowly street merc? It would've been a fun little surprise, maybe depending on your dialogue choices with him, or maybe even not.
I've never looked at ditching Takemura as a mistake at all - he seems cool, but the fact is he is 100% supportive of Arasaka, a supremely evil corp no matter who's at the helm. Him and V may have found some sort of vague respect, but Takemura was just using V's desperation to get back in with Arasaka and avenge Saburo (who seems way more evil than Yorinobu anyway).
I always got tired of V living for someone else’s vengeance. It’s why I chose the Panam ending. V lives for himself, and goes back to being a nomad (I chose nomad origin). As much as I like Johnny, and it pains me to say, he uses V as a way to try and correct his mistakes from 50 years ago. He’s a ghost full of regrets. A dead man separated from V by half a century. What’s done is done.
@monkeymoment6478 Facts, bro. To me, the creepiest, weirdest part of the whole game is that Johnny is treated by all NPCs (V, optionally, but especially Rogue and Kerry) as an actual living person still... he's been dead for decades, and V just has his software program installed in his/her head. V owes Johnny exactly nothing.
@@Snake-filledChimphow does v owe silverhand nothing? he practically owes him his life, if silverhand hadn't been in that biochip she wouldve died in that landfill.
@ileringo Because Silverhand is dead, bro. His likeness was turned into a software program, stored on a chip, and then beamed into V's head. That's not a person anymore.
Nah punching Fingers is a must, just buy the stuff you want from him before the mission and you are good. And not rescuing Takemura is also fine for me. I still don´t see him as a friend and truely believe he only "cares" for V because he needs us to tell the truth about Saburo. I would say not sending Jacky to his family is a far worse descision
I kill him every time, I don't give a fuck what he sells.👍The second time I thought to myself "this time you'll only hit him on his face, he doesn't deserve to die" but my finger twitched when I thought about it.😅
It is kind of unsatisfying leaving him unpunched. The dude really has it coming. He's not just straight up evil like Woodman, he's just a massive slimeball. Killing him would be excessive but a good thrashing seems about right. I give more of a damn about Takamora than Jacky. I know he's supposed to be your best buddy and all but you really don't spend any time with him or have any reason to give a damn. The scene were you are surveilling the Arasoka compound before infiltrating it where you talk about food, each others background, and a Japanese cat demon is more bonding time in one scene then you get the whole game with Jacky. You are not so much friends, you are more like frenemies. That is the one part I hate about the non devil endings, screwing over Taki, still not enough to make it worth selling your soul to Arisoka though. Though the whole Ofreda thing with Misty and Momma Wells is really well done. The book seems to be the best and most thematically fitting offering.
@@Snipergoat1 Takamora was an interesting character that I personally understood relatively well. It was a shame not being able to be friends with him. But I don't think an RPG should become too much of a sandbox either. Example: A woman who doesn't like cocks doesn't like cocks, you have to live with that. This also gives a game credibility and makes decisions more powerful. It's just his character preferring to be alone and it shouldn't always everything possible. So I can understand the decision.
You actually don't have to pick Rogue's option to get the (Don't Fear) the Reaper ending. You can just wait on that screen for five minutes and it will play out as expected. You can pick any other option too without finalizing it and it'll still work.
I followed the Rogue questline and finished the missions with Kerry, I also had a good relationship with Johnny, but that wasn't enough for me to get the Don't Fear the Reaper ending :(
My first playthrough I'm pretty sure I got access to the Don't Fear the Reaper ending and I didn't do the Rogue quest. I couldn't decide what ending to pick and I sat there reflecting on my experiences in the game when Johnny suggests going out in a blaze of glory. I decided to call Panam though because it felt more narratively appropriate. For ages I thought I must have been misremembering because everywhere on the internet says you have to pick very specific dialogue in a quest I didn't even do. Guess I'm not crazy after all.
The worst for me was chosing the "give UP" ending (just to see what it looks like) after being in relation with panam. That one was the only choice in any game that made me fell like shit... Panam and Judy destroyed me.
I was on very hard first playthrough and I was getting mad at my build so I said fuck it and went with that ending and after that I put the game down for a year
That ending made me feel like an awful human being Judy in tears, Panam heartbroken I’ve played a ton on video games but none have made me feel as awful as that one And the devs made sure you knew it
I think the worst is EASILY the “Give up” ending Panam and Judy’s final message. I’ve done messed up shit in a lot of video games, but this one decision is the one that made me feel like a horrible person
i got the give up ending on my first play though a week after launch, I just sat there for another 15 mins after the credits in shock and and sadness that that's how it ends, I didn't even know about the other endings until after edgerunners.
@@Fallen-ky5bytbh you have the choice to repeatedly remind them of the risks and how there is a good chance that people will die (and even tell them that they dont have to help) and they repeatedly say that they will help anyways
@@meir34610 After watching the video, I realized that I was 1 turn away from saving Takemura, I got to that place but left one turn before noticing Take 😭😭😭
Takemura cursing you out before committing ritual suicide if you save him and then choose the Star ending sort of made me chuckle. Great little detail.
There is another Ripper you can make unavailable: Charlie Bucks in Watson. If you discover his collusion with the Scavs while working for Regina Jones or on Sandra Dorsett's quest, and don't agree to conceal his secret he will flee the building. He doesn't have nearly as much cool stuff as Fingers though, so he catches a throwing knife to the back of the head every time. Taking the Devil Ending at all is probably a bigger error than letting Takemura die honestly. The man said we should split up while V was coughing his lungs out on the pavement right outside the door and didn't even help him up before leaving. I may still save him just to feel like a badass, but our relationship is pretty much shot after seeing how he pays me back. I am surprised that taking Maiko's bribe didn't make it onto the list.
Bucks is also the ripper that installed the cyberware that pushes Rose Horrigan over the edge resulting in her killing her sister Juliet who works for El Capitan. Regarding Maiko's bribe...in my latest playthrough, I turned Judy down flat as soon as she proposed the idea of taking over Clouds. It's a terrible idea, with zero insight on Judy's part about how Night City works. Sure, I'm now locked out of all further interactions with Judy, but I saved many lives, and I don't really enjoy the interactions with Judy anyway. Getting her to leave Night City sooner is also the best thing you can realistically do for her.
@@MrVvulf Yeah but Judy is a cutie and then you miss out on that cutie Judy Booty. If you are playing a male V you can change one flag and romance her. All the dialog is in the game. There are only a couple spots where a message or something will say she instead of he but male V has all the lines. You can do the same with a female V and Panam but its a bit more complicated then putting in one line on the console. Haven't tried to get River or Kerry to switch teams yet.
I always shoot him in the nuts with a Carnage/Guts as he's sitting there. Incredibly satisfying to give him his comeuppance. Hell, on a stealth build I straight up crafted a legendary Carnage just to shoot him with.
@@MrVvulf You do miss out on the Mox shotgun if you turn her down (if you care about collecting all the guns, or using it)...but it's also perfectly fine to use the middle option saying you can't help her right now, and her quest line is still available for later when it's convenient.
being like "oh shit, i have to save my boy takemura" and then turning around being able to do that without the game handholding me in a tense moment. that was really cool
01:02 Not Saving Takemura 04:29 Not Helping River/Mistakes 08:42 Wrong Johnny Dialogue/Secret Ending 12:14 Punching Fingers 14:09 Panam's ass The timestamps really helped man thanks!
For Takemura, if you have the double jump, you can immediately jump back up through the hole in the ceiling and save him instantly, skipping the objective
My first and natural reaction was to save Takemura. I didn't care what Johnny said I had to go and see for myself what happened to Takemura. I liked him a lot and he started to open up to me honestly. His message at the end surprised me and hurt terribly but I understand him because Arasaka was everything to him. I generally thought Takemura would fight me in endings other than Arasaka and there would be a choice about his fate. That would be quite an interesting option. I also thought that he could be persuaded to leave Arasaka, but that would be too "cute" and wouldn't suit his character.
I got the devil ending on my first play through and immediately started questioning myself as a person in real life… it was not a proud defining moment in my adult years.
Same here. That ending actually hit me emotionally, which was so strange cause I'm usually never emotional from video games or movies. A real masterpiece of story telling
The Takemura situation closely mirrored the situation in the original Deus Ex where UNATCO attacks Paul Denton's apartment. I remember what happened and that you can save Paul, so I didn't even let the dialog finish before I was off to bail him out.
I just hide in the closet while UNATCO burst in. Paul is still tagged as invulnerable in the code, so he'll massacre the enemies without a problem. He only 'dies' if you leave the building without him.
12:07 Sam: Do you really want to spend hours backpedaling and redoing stuff? At the end of the day time is precious. Me (with 1000+ hours playtime and 6 completed playthroughs including all side, hidden, and DLC content): Yes... precious...
This really shows you how much effort they put into this game. It’s insane how everyone’s playthrough will be slightly different or even very different. This game hit me with so much emotion. The world building was phenomenal. The combat was fun and after 120 hours I can say this has entered my top 10 games of all time. To me it is a sheer masterpiece
There's been only four games to date that have hooked me on stories and gamplay that I keep going back to. Skyrim, rdr2, cyberpunk, and the new one is starfield. The amount of work that went into these games to craft amazing story lines and great gameplay is amazing. And cyberpunk is definitely one of those games I'm going to complete probably 100 more times over the years.
i like witcher 3 in a similar manner. RDR2 lacks decision atleast major one and i havent played starfield. A good decision based series would be falllout@@Maineabeast
did you play 2.0 and Phantom Liberty ? i waited patiently to finally play it again, and the game is so fucking good now. i loved it from release on. one of the best games in the last 10+ years. and with RDR2 and Skyrim my favourite RPG of all time.
I just finished the Corpo Female V who gets along with Johnny, and saved Takamura. V still has months to live after the labrat hell, but chose to go back to earth. I called Hanako when I had the chance, as well as all of V's friends. Johnny was actually pretty silent and didn't berate me for choosing the Arasaka deal. I liked that V says, "Don't be too mad at me", and he replied, "Whatever you choose, I hope you don't regret it". Having Hanako herself call during the end credits was cool. It would have been even more awsome if Saburo called too, especially after being able to flip him off for Johnny.
My absolute favorite thing about Cyberpunk 2077 is the fact that when it’s boiled down to the bare bones it’s nothing more than a character study of the players themselves. That’s why everyone’s play through is so unique, because we all have different values that lead us to making different choices in the game creating different outcomes. For some the Devil ending is the best ending because it gives V who is a representation of the player themselves, the greatest chance of survival. Others think the Star ending is the best because at least then their hope and life and optimism. Cyberpunk 2077 is a unique masterpiece of storytelling that deserves all the love it gets from those who can ignore the bugs
To an extent. I was screaming "NO" and mashing buttons when Jackie went to put the chip in my head. It's the story I guess, but a live RPG trying to get a me as a player to do this would be a game stopper. I put this game down for months after that.
Hey quick thing to note for don’t fear the reaper. As long as you choose the right dialogue choices the friendship percentage doesn’t matter and even finishing the johnny questline doesn’t matter. I tested this where immediately after the oil fields I went to finish the game, I had 40% friendship and only the arasaka ending but I still was able to get don’t fear the reaper.
yes, only that dialog unlocks it, no matter your meter, which is dofus, it should be literally secret, not unlockable but always there but for people taking too much time deciding, like Johnny's dialog suggest, it was my cannon i fixed it with a console command cause the way to unlock it seems tomeh
@@Weiswolfe I agree, the ending is way too tedious and there should be multiple interesting ways to unlock it and not just choose some dialogue choices in one scene and if you choose one wrong you’re fucked
There’s so much to this game, really wish game developers would take time in the immersion factor like this, shows they actually care about the story their telling, not just milking us for money.
I honestly didnt understand what even happened to takemura! I must have missed the one singular line that Johnny said that he was probably dead. So yes I played the devil ending without him and it felt kinda boring
I remember my first playthrough it was glorious. Until the ending that is. Thought when Johnny was talking about taking matters into my own hands he was recommending a Don't Fear the Reaper type plan. Ended up not reloading a save once I realized my mistake since I decided not to do that this run and was heart broken for over a year after. Checked the save file date and it was around a year and a half before I touched the game again. I sat there tears in my eyes as all the voice mails played and made myself listen to them knowing I fucked up. The anime did the same thing to me all over again with it's ending and I came back to this game that could actually make me feel such strong emotions. Such an amazing game that many wont play due to the terrible launch.
I later found out saving Takemura was actually a bad idea… at the end of the day his loyalty is with Arasaka is locked with him and saving you was never in his plans or interests. Mans literally tells you to “rot in hell” on his ending call. His only goal is to do anything he can to bring back Saburo. You’re simply just a tool for his end goal.
Saving Takemura only works well with the Devil ending as a Corpo. As you're both former Arasaka employees. All other endings result in Hanako's and Saburo's engram deaths as Alt takes over Mikoshi which severely weakens Arasaka corp. If you never plan to do devil ending, better to let him die in the mission. Unless you just like messing with him.
@@Cugastratos I always save him because the combat is fun, not out of friendship. (The SOB put a tracker on me when we were at Vik's so Arasaka could track me!) I also save him for the same reason I tell Wakako and the old man that Takemura is actually a late night comedian, I like hearing him curse at me in frustration.
@@Cugastratos My excuse is that, with the people he had sworn his loyalty to dead, there's a slim chance he will move on to better horizons. The other option is that he offs himself, which while not ideal, simply means he ends up dead anyways just like would've happened if i had abandoned him.
I actually saved Takumera a different way. I saw the game wanted me to leave and I thought to myself fuck that i'll get back up there and try and save him even if i have to glitch my way up! So I double jumped up through the broken rubble we fell down and was suprised to see that takumera was still alive and we could save him. Felt like such an amazingly cool detail!
I completely missed saving Takemura my first 2 play throughs. Johnny acted like he was dead already and there was no option to save him so I just assumed he always died there. I guess I'm a half-brained gonk.
I made the mistake of finishing the race with Claire instead of going after her husbands killer I never thought she would be that mad at me. Also made the Jackie engram mistake
@@blizyon30fps86 It was tempting to try and save jackie somehow, but I have managed to send him to mama wells in all of my playthroughs. Finishing the race is also something I wanted to do to get more than just vengeance for her husband after doing all of those races
I'm doing my "final" 3rd run right now as an ice cold corpo V and... Man. The actual role-playing choices you have in this game are insanely good, up right there with otherwise unbeatable classics like New Vegas. All of these worst possible choices are going to hurt to pick but... I love being able to explore what would've happened if the wrong type of person was in the wrong place at the wrong time, because that can make all the difference in the world as well...
nowhere near NV NV has different option, some are subjectively bad, some are subjectively good for different people, because we have different morals. And CP2077 has good and bad choices. That's it.
I absolutely adore this game! It's everything that I wanted in a dark sci-fi, dystopian, Neo noir Blade Runner'esque world. The characters, dialog, delivery, interactions, story and all those minor details just make this game so enthralling and interesting. I also really like the fact that you can kind of screw up, just like in real life haha.... A couple of things I did that I only figured out in retrospect. I didn't know you could go back for Takamura until a mate of mine said he saved him I was like WTF?!?!.... Oh well. And I punched the Ripper-Doc..... Of course I did, he totally deserved it haha!! I did get an amazing ending though, everything seemed to fall into place and it felt so rewarding. I played as a female Corpo, romanced Judy, completed all the Nomad/Panam quests, saved River's brother. It really did feel like I fulfilled all that could be fulfilled within the game and when Judy turned up in the end just before I was about to leave with the Nomads I had such a big smile on my face. What a game!!
Not mentioned in the video, but it's also possible to lock yourself out of Panam's questline and the Star ending route by starting the Riders on the Storm mission and then abandoning it partway through. Waiting 24 in-game hours afterwards will result in an angry text from Panam informing you that Saul is dead, and permanently locking off the rest of her route. The game doesn't seem to know what to do with that though, cause he still calls you in the credits of the Star ending, even if you didn't save him.
This is honestly one of the games bigges streangth, and weakness, as any random conversation can have a huge impact. And whilst definetly annoying unknowingly missing content it does give such a nice variation between runs
I never knew there were so many different options to finish the game. I thought it was linear until i see videos like this, where you can apparently save Takemura and fight besides him. Crazy
Thank you, I've been aiming for the Johnny solo and that will be super helpful. My first 2 play throughs I didnt think about it and denied every smoke break, personal loss from smoking set me adamantly against it irl. This can hurt your Johnny score preventing that option.
I feel like some of these Bad choices that can be made for no justifiable reason are because the game originally had so much more dialog, and cut content. Maybe the game originally made you choose tough choices between two characters or had missions that over lapped at the same time, forcing you to make the choice for the Character or Arc you as a player valued more over the other.
I love that there are people making videos about the hidden details of this game. It’s so easy to miss things on your first play through. This game is soo good on your second, third, fourth, fifth play through with all the decisions you can make. I’ve been sucked in, and I find myself coming back to it over and over. It’s no secret that this game’s launch and issues getting to the level it is at today really tarnished Cyberpunk 2077, and it’s so unfortunate that so many gamers are legitimately missing out and don’t even know it because of it
You can actually punch Fingers once, and only once, but only with the right option. Selecting the dialogue option that is simply "punch" and only using that one punch moment will still let you buy from him later on. Any other option to punch him results in being locked out of getting anything from his shop.
@@mrcrazybozo2450 What else did he think was going to happen? I punched him when I just didn't agree with what he did to a friend of a friend. His only chance to survive when I visited him a second time was to be useful enough to be worth leaving alive. Hell, on the way up to see him the first time I beat the goons at his front door to death with Sir John - and yes I made sure they were dead, not just unconscious. By the time I'd swung round to visit again the group he sold her to was just GONE, the guy who gave her to him was sliced and diced. That guy's boss was dead. And even HER bosses were dead.
I did the Devil ending once, and I don't plan to do it ever again. As such, I actually always let Takemura die. I think going out in a firefight is a better end for him than what happens in any of the non-Devil endings.
I actually deliberately chose most of these options because I was going for the suicide ending with my character and I didn't want to get close to anyone and cause them pain in the ending credits. I pushed them away or let them go for their own good in the end.
My first play-through I saved Takemura. I had double jump and Sandvistan so I want through the floor and went slow mode to take out the soldiers, that straight up felt like a movie scene
I absolutely loved rivers questline, at first I thought it was just another quest but when it got dark I was so invested, had nightmares afterwards though and couldn’t face looking at cows for a while but it was totally worth it, I managed to save Randy and made a friend of river (sadly my poor male V got stood up when I swooped in for a cheeky smooch though 😔)
I agree that it's an awesome quest that seems to start out as one of the regular 'fetch' ones then just keeps getting darker and creepier. It stays rent free in your head for days. I felt the same when I ran the Overlord dlc in Mass Effect 2.
When he called after the first quest i was like “wtf this dude want” then it got pretty deep so i had to help him solve the case and save his nephew and those other kids.
@@radek174 oh come on, man! Female V is so much into River since almost the beginning I just had to let it happen even tho I can't stand that guy lmao
Meanwhile my female V friend zoned him, then proceeded to make a toast "to friendship". She did get shut down trying to start something with Panam though 😭
Sam, buddy, I am watching you from Turkey and I truly love Cyberpunk universe and lore. But I can't just play it over and over and over again cause I would be bored eventually which is an outcome I don't want it happen. Your videos make remember how much I love this game, it's story, it's content and it's mechanics. Please keep creating Cyberpunk content. You are appreciated.
cleared the entirety of phantom liberty right after chippin' in, levelled from like 29 to 60 and CHOSE THE WRONG DAMN VOICE OPTION for Johhny. Still so mad about that lol
Great video, I knew about a couple of them, but not that River could die for example, or that you could snitch on Panam. I only discovered about the Arasako guy in the end credits that first play through too, and then did the corpo soul killer ending solo, which as you say with Smasher makes it very challenging indeed on max difficulty.
First playthrough, I never rescued Goro and I chose the worst ending... Going with Hanako, thinking Arasaka could really help me, but chose to return to Earth and doing the legendary heist. The best ending is the Nomad one, even with the DLC. I have done all the endings now, except I never sent V behind the Blackwall. Never ditched River either, I am on my 5th playthrough and wouldn't even think of it. 😮 Panam will always be my choom. Never refused her! I always punch Fingers 😂 And don't all Rippers have the same stuff now?
I was so upset learning that I could have saved takemaru, messed up my whole run and made me not finish the game. Still on the "hanako waiting at emebers" quest lol But I am glad to know I am not alone in making that bad decision
My first pt was recently after Phantom Liberty. Thanks to that I ended up choosing The Sun which based on some Songbird dialogue seemed like a happier cyberpunk genre themed ending. Loss? Yes. But final outcome? Hope down the road. Also of course forgot Goru and didn't know it was possible for that to happen to River, yikes.
Great video! In my first playthrough I didn't know that you can save Takemura (like many others I guess 😅) but since I found out I always save him. I also made a run where I intentionally chose all the "wrong" options. I wasn't prepared for the messages I got from Panam after I betrayed her. Of course she was right about being outraged and considering I don't even like her that much I felt really, really bad. Never did it again. Also I like being friends with her, I like the conversations you have with her over time.
At the "Punching Fingers" part I immediately remembered the scene from Game of Thrones, where Locke points at Jamies chopped off hand and says "You think the only thing that matters is gold. THIS made me happier than all the gold ever could." I don't care about missing the cyberware. Punching Fingers made me happier than all the cyberware ever could. 😁
Saving Takemura makes perfect sense for any Arasaka-friendly resolution. But, as Johnny points out, he ISN'T your friend - his loyalty is always to Arasaka, and that is made very clear in the Devil Ending. He might gain some respect for V, but that is as far as it will go.
Even if you have no interest in romancing either one of them (or are playing the wrong gender/orientation for it), gaining the friendship of ALL the romancable characters is totally worthwhile. That's where the story shines, in my opinion. It's "just" a shooter until you start to make those friends, who also start to care about you and your plight, and then it actually becomes a story. I never want to miss Judy's underwater quest, for example, and Panam is a character I definitely want on my side.
i never understood why they had gender requirements. None of those romancable characters say what they prefer until you get into the situation. I would have prefered to be able to romance the chars no matter what. (its a game and i play the protagonist)
@@No_Way_NO_WAY I agree, honestly. I can see an argument, as a writer, for "this character feels this way in my head", but it's a game, and players of all kinds are playing it. I had a similar issue with Dragon Age: Inquisition.
@@No_Way_NO_WAY I get that in a way, I want to experience the things I want (like a gay Panam, that'd be nice) but I also get why we can't. V can be whatever we want, that's fair as the player gets to define a lot of who they are within the world but the other characters are their own people, we may be the protagonist but that doesn't mean every character should be automatically attracted to V and I think it would have felt kinda cheap somehow since instead of potential love interests they're just an option to pick from a list
@@unclemikeyplays You could romance everyone except the ninja nun that matters. I just wanted the harem ending of getting all the female love interests...
This is one of those "damn I wish I'd thought of this" videos, nice job as always. Punching Fingers is a mistake this hot blooded Irishman continues to make! lol Next run I promise I'll stay my hand. As for betraying Panam, such a weird option for them to have included (due to how unbalanced the choice is compared to not), it's the car that practically nobody owns or knows about!
Cheers Tez! One does not simply refrain from punching fingers! It's too gratifying, lol. It's defo one of those 'you probably definitely shouldn't do this but you can if you want to' options that they add in to not force you into a narrative. I like it, it gives the game consequences. It's something Bethesda have become too afraid to do. A problem I had with Fallout 4 is how you pretty much can't fail any of the questlines outside of eventually choosing a side for the end. It's kind've rewarding to see that recklessly stupid decisions are actually met with dire consequences.
@@SamBram Yeah actually, that's a really great point. Having a very real "bad" or at least lackluster consequence for a shitty decision is brave and important direction for good game design. It's why it's all so excellent.
@@StuGamePlus actually, if you go to Fingers before the whole Evelyn Parker, you can get his good mods. You open up the window in the waiting room, go out on the balcony, and come in through the window to his operating room/sex dungeon. He will give you lip about intruding, but still allow you to buy mods. After you have everything you need, you can come back and punch the hell out of him/ shoot him in the face.
I got the devil ending with Takemura cuz I accidentally went to save him, second playthrough I played male V and left with Panam. My 3rd and most recent playthrough I discovered so many quests I didn't do. I did a netrunner build, ran thru Arasaka with Rogue and Johnny took my body. Each playthrough was so awesome and except for obvious repetitive side quests I tried to do everything completely different, especially on this 3rd playthru(quiet/stealth).
LOL -- I forgot that one. I deliberately won the race rather than follow What's-his-name, as Claire demands, to see what happened. Short answer...nothing good comes of it. If CDPR _really_ wanted to mess with us, they would have made winning all 4 races an Achievement.
The worst possible decision you can make is one of the first in the game - are you a boy V or a girl V. Because if you choose the latter, you cannot romance Panam. And that's just sad.
It astounds me that there are people that can play huge games like this more than once. A game like Cyberpunk is like a 6 month commitment for me outside friends and work haha. Love it though.
I'm honestly torn when it comes to saving Takemura, on the one hand he is one of the most interesting characters who we become attached to as our paths converge. The Bakeneko cutscene is probably one of the best in the game as we get a glimpse of what his life might have been like and how he ended up how he is. Finally there are also some neat messages and a credits cutscene if you save him. However, I don't believe Takemura is really our friend. It is hinted to us many times that he is only playing nice because he needs our help, and in the end he will still go against our best interests in order to follow arasaka's orders during the devil ending. When we first meet him he is hell bent on capturing us for Arasaka, he doesn't care at all for us and only sees us as a target that Arasaka has set for him. Granted in this situation he may have assumed that his life depended on finding us, but he still showed no care at all for our existence. However as soon as he is betrayed by Arasaka he puts on his nice face and tries to win us over. He states several times that it is because he needs us to innact his revenge in the name of Arasaka, and not for our own good. It would seem that he is only being nice to us as it would increase our chance if helping him while he still doesn't really care when it comes down to it. Another thing is when meeting Oda, he states again that if he were in Oda's position he would deliver his head without question, while he doesn't mention us I see no reason why we wouldn't apply to that sentiment. The last nail in the coffin I think is at the end of the Devil ending when we're faced with the choice of becoming an engram, Takemura is sent to convince us. We are told it is because he is the only one Arasaka could find close by. But in reality we known that Takemura had been in "a secure location" and it's not unlikely he was being saved as a bargaining chip to try and convince v to become an engram. He also contradicts himself twice as he's talking to us, suggesting that he isn't really being honest with us, that he's not here for us but rather because of Arasaka's best interests. His first contradiction being that he states that Hanako didn't care about V or what became of them, while later on Stating that Hanako personally sent him. Secondly he assures us that our engram is of little importance to Arasaka, however the first ever trial version of the new experimental relic would seem extremely important. Of course he then let's slip that Hanako personally sent him, this seems like an incredibly specific order from one of the most powerful people at Arasaka for a company that supposedly doesn't care about v's engram. It's pretty clear Takemura isn't here for us, and he really never was. His interest will always be that of Saburo Arasaka's and by extension Arasaka's before anything else. Sure he may have been nice to us for a bit but once again it is hinted that he's just doing it as it Grants him the best chance at securing Arasaka's interests when in reality he doesn't care for us much at all...
For my streetkid V it was just hard for me to justify any reason to like Takemura more than I needed to. Especially if you take Jackie to Vik I don’t think V would even want to even try and negotiate witn Arasaka
I know this is a little late but, if you were playing as female V, when you betray Panam she also sends you a text messge; which consists of her wishing Wraiths would kill V and use her corpse there after. Arguably worse tha losing your partner imo...
1:43 if you have double jump leg implant you don't need to go around, just jump from your starting position up two floors and you'll reach takemura directly.
I did it and somehow got blocked, I saw the steam coming from the pipes and thought its not allowed, espescially with Silverhand saying he's gone. Thays bad
If you have double jump, you can just double jump up the hole you came down from to save Takemura. 11:34 you don't have to pick the Johnny and Rogue option, you can just wait with those options on screen. I don't know exactly how many Ripperdocs are in the game, but there is one more aside from Fingers who can be completely locked out because you can kill him. Thankfully, he doesn't have anything unique like Fingers, but he sells you the cheapest.
Might be another one. The Doc up in Rancho Coronado. early on, Regina has a gig for you, to rescue a ripper named Lucy from a bunch if Maelstrom gangoons. If you refuse her request to give her patient an injection of synthblood, or choose any option where he dies, she gets super mad with you. No biggie, you think. Till you go visit the 6th street turf ripper, find she is there (with an assumed name) In which case, she tells the ripper not to offer your V any help. Now, the only time this happened to me was because I was impatient, pushed buttons too quickly and accidentally told her no, not helping and he died. I was lucky, I went to that particular ripper for the top grade of optical cammo. And I had already bought it when I spotted her and went to talk yo her. So her telling him not to sell to me had no impact. Not sure if he would actually turn my money down tho, since I had what I wanted lol, so didn't talk to him again in that playthru
@@silverbane8065 I don't think i've never been locked out of that ripper. I've had 5 playthroughs, 2 of which I deliberately let that ganger die. Both times though are in earlier versions of the game.
@@rosshaikenleonen1416 i started playing in september 2022, patch 1.6 so, i dunno. it's only happend to me once tho, i learned my lesson XD (reinforced by telling Johnny 'Patience' when i put down the iguana egg, and his sarcastic tone of voice XD)
@@silverbane8065 I'm sure I've had that before. I've only done what she said once, to see what happened (and I think I loaded it again afterwards because it just sat wrong with me). But just like the "metal monk" from the other mission, she's so damned stupid to want to save him. He's maelstrom. He's going to kill again very soon afterwards, and the victims will get no comfort whatsoever by the fact that some woman they never met randomly decided to forgive herself. Like oh that's such a relief while I'm being stabbed multiple times by this lunatic you desperately fought to unleash! Gimme a break. At least with the monk you can take advantage of his stupidity by just going back to slaughter them all right afterwards. He doesn't even check. What a dumbass. A dumbass who still doesn't deserve what happened to him, but certainly not someone to be listened-to either, lol.
I should probably mention now that number 4 (or 2 by the numbers) is no longer the end of the world. Update 2.0 made it so individual rippers no longer sell exclusive cyberware and Fingers therefore has nothing of unique value to offer us. He'll still be lost as a vendor should we punch him though.
Fine by me, I always decked him lol
ah damn this is some great news, recently started playing cyber for first time and thought I screwed myself over a lot.
Oh that's a relief! I killed the bastard myself lmao
@@ZedSetoLV Nah even before the update you didn't lose much. Just some epic level cyberware parts. Not useful for some builds and not crippling to not have for any build. Punch the loser.
You can (and imho should) kill him after you punch him.
in my first playthrough i didn't even know it was possible to save Takemura, i just ran out of the building with johnny, i only stumbled onto the fact afterwards
Lol yh me too
Same. But on my second playthrough I rescued him and didn't side with Hanako. I should have just left him in that building...
Same... And I sent Jackie to Vik, and I didn't get the reaper option
Same
they really should have made it more obvious. hope in a patch that it comes up as an optional objective after johnny tells you to leave him
The best part of saving takemura is the dad-like selfie he sends you to show you that he's ok
Hahaha that one was gold
I laughed a little at that😂
Hahah I loved this part
I was told that saving him does something funny. I have no regrets 😂
It gets me everytime 😅
Just in case someone playing 2.0 and up doesn't know this yet, punching or even killing Fingers is no longer an issue as all Ripperdocs have access to the same implants now.
i’ve been trying to get some legendary cyberware. i have maxed out street cred and i keep skipping 24 hours at the corresponding shops but i never see anything better than rare?
@@ethanhuff3438 i haven't been able to find any either. I just upgrade it with parts found by farming bounties and all the random yellow triangle peoples.
@@ethanhuff3438 Cyberware isnt dependent on street cred, its dependent on your actual level. every 10 levels raises the rarity of cyberware in shop. street cred unlocks more cars in the autofixer.
@@ethanhuff3438when i started finding legendary parts was when I beat the game for the first time
I feel pretty happy I didn't punch him now
The worst mistake: midmaxing all attributes without knowing you can't reset anything other than perks.
A mistake I made when the game released, and one I'll be defo highlighting when I do a top tips/do's and don'ts for players returning in the lead up to Phantom liberty
Actually my current build has no 20 on level 46 and it's much more fun than my pure netrunner from the previous game.
Why i should get 20 somewhere?
I can't imagine why someone does that. Other than never having played an rpg-ish game and not stopping to think about it for 5 minutes before leveling things randomly.
Thinking logically, it's clearly a poor decision haha Or very questionable at the least.
I like that you can't respec it. Makes your decisions matter. And you can't suddenly become a completely different person.
@@HiddenStr3ngth I didn't know there was a level cap until it was too late. It's a pretty reasonable mistake to make.
If u max out your tech ability and intelligence you can craft legendary weapons and quick hacks
As of 2.0 you can get every item from every ripperdoc. We can now punch Fingers consequence free!
YEESSSSSSS
I have a question though is there a certain level you have to be to unlock them? I haven’t seen a single one. All ripperdocs are selling the same old blue crap rarity ones. Would appreciate a reply back
@@itschoke Yes. Certain items only unlock when you hit certain levels and then all items at all vendors level up as you level up.
@@TuckBolt you’re amazing thank you for answering my question 🫂
@@itschoke I believe it's level 40.
You forgot the worst outcome of all, the one where Skippy the sentient pistol stops shooting people in the head for you.
this this happend to me i choose cold blooded killer first now I got the puppy sh
Put a pax on him. Its great for the cyberpsycho quests since you won't kill anyone. If you want to kill them, just tap them with a sword.
Omg yes when that happened I just gave him back to his original owner lol😅
I gave Skippy back to its owner, I regret this discussion
You can get it back after a while, although without the dialogue.@@youngsavage1275
I'd add sending Jackie to Vik's place to the list. Not only do you get locked out of the Heroes sidequest but Mama Welles is pretty frosty with you afterwards and you miss out on some pretty funny lines from Misty about how she and Mama get on afterwards.
Running into Jackie's 'ghost' later via Hanako is a real punch to the gut if you feel the least bit guilty about what happens from that choice.
I agree, Jackie's ofrienda is defo better than him getting some poor mikoshi Engram. Both from a content standpoint and canonically. A contender if I do another 5 for sure!
plus you'll miss getting Jackie's pistol as well (Use to be you could both of them, but now it's just one, which is understandable)
Yeah the entire little mini-mission with Misty in Jackie's garage is one of my favorites in the game. It's got a lot of little subtle acting/storytelling on Misty's part. My favorite being after you find the key to the backroom (the inner door), Misty leans against the door frame, but says that she shouldn't go in. You can CLEARLY tell she really wants to, NEEDS to see inside there, but she feels it isn't her place to initiate. So she refuses, until V insists. But as SOON as you unlock that door, before it's even begun to swing open, she pivots her back against the wall, slipping past you to go in there first, because everything in her is screaming to go in there. She's basically just been holding herself back due to social decorum. She doesn't look at you, puts her head down and just slips in like an otter as quickly as she can get in there. Then to hear her exposition the history of Jackie, is also really well done. It's 100% a posthumous exposition dump, but it's framed in a great way, that feels natural and organic. She's someone that knew him since they were kids, telling you about the memorabilia that further fleshes out Jackie for the player. It's just so well done. Misty was such a great support character, I wish they had given her more direct contribution to the events going on.
My thought was sending the body to Vik and Misty they would prepare the body and break to to mama wells for V.
Look, I agree with you, but I can't do Heroes again. It rips my soul apart man, I can't keep doing that to myself
The thing I love about Takemaura is that he never lies about his loyalty, we know that he’ll never stop being loyal to Arasaka but we like him anyway
Really one of the few that doesn't make you guess where they stand.
exactly....i really love loyal people even if they are my enemies
@@tansinsami6253 exactly I can respect the honesty
He reminds me of a certain character in Phantom Liberty
He was, to me, a modern day samurai story
Loyal to an absolute fault to his lord
Intensely skilled in combat
Hell-bent on redemption or revenge for his master (very 47 Ronin…I wonder why)
Direct, always honest, never fond of thieves or murderers
Very focused on the question of honor
Arasaka never deserved a man like Goro
The only downside to saving Takemura is that if you pick any ending except for the Devil ending, he is beyond pissed off when you gives you a phonecall during the credits. I got The Sun ending my first playthrough, and saved Takemura pretty handily and was kind of heartbroken when he called during the epilogue while standing in the middle of a busted-up Arasaka HQ and more or less told me, "you'd better hope we never run into each other again, because I will kill you." I get why he has this reaction, but it was still sad all the same.
I like to think he just needs time.
like when he tells you to "go fuck yourself" if you pick certain options on the phone
then he tells you he apologizes for the outburst XD
It sounded to me as if he was planning to kill himself after that message, which is even more sad
I didn’t save him because I didn’t know. But even when we met, I had the feeling he would never leave Arasaka. “You can shake the rat out of the corpo, but you can’t shake the corpo out of the rat.” I think Takemura just favored one side of Arasaka as he said, there were factions in Arasaka (I think he was the one to say it)
I don’t believe that’s what the message sent. I believe it implies he’s going to end himself. As he says he’s read many beautiful last words from people who have, but his are his hateful message to you.
Well, it's heavily implied that he takes his own life after he sent that voicemail. He's no samurai, so he tells you to rot in hell. You basically took everything away from him.
To me there’s a secret option that never gets touched on, depending on how you play Johnny in his flashbacks you can actually have him apologize to alt
Really?
@@unluckym3 yeah, it’s not touched on because it’s not known but if you do the voodoo boys quest and play Jonny right (ie not being a total ass and even be quiet) Johnny will later in the game actually apologize to Alt and this actually catches alt off guard a bit
Edit: a link and in the comments it’s explained greater ua-cam.com/video/8FSz_Y-ySY0/v-deo.html
@@jackmack4181 hey I’m the dude who explained it completely in the comments with dialogue choices! Damn 2 years pass by quick lol.
For anyone interested, open up the comment that starts with “I got this outcome too” and my response explains it all in there.
I hate Johnny as a character, so I don't want him to have any kind of closure.
@@bunglewungle261 why
One issue a lot of games with choice have.. is that many (sometimes near all) "bad" decisions don't add anything, they only remove. You don't unlock new paths, you just withhold content. So the options are "do you want more content or do you want to remove content". I really wish more "negative" choices had additional / alternate branches. Sometimes being an asshole or the bad guy can be fun.. but not as much when it cuts out big parts of the game and adds nothing in return..
That's one of the main themes of the game...friendship and family. If you leave your friends in the wind or treat them like shit, that's it. There's nothing more to it. Johnny is the example of that and why his missions are redeeming his past mistakes.
@@mandu6665 dumb comment
Yes! I like being a good person but when they give you freedom to do whatever, but then secretly punishing you if you don't do it how they want, is that really freedom?
Absolutely. I love being the bad guy but if it’s just eliminates a story line or whatever then I’m obviously going to be good. Let be be bad!
Yeah i am waiting for a game where killing main characters open new arc or not playing is an arc.
An AAA game structured like stanley parable i would say...
River for me felt like a real friend. I loved the Questline with him.
Agree man
I actually used the spring legs to jump up through the 2 destroyed floors back to Takemura, I could hear the firefight going on above and wondered if I could get up there. Was surprised I actually could jump up there, even more surprised when the objective changed.
Was just about to say this. Yeah 99% of players get the double jump legs and you can easily just jump stragiht up to Takemura as soon as you are able to move after the fall.
@@Zhaggysfaction I did it with the charge jump legs.
I did the same thing on my first playthrough. I wantet to see if it's only a sound programmed so it would seem like they are shooting up there but they were really shooting. Glad I saved him as I chose the worst possible ending but at least Takemura was by my side at the end.
The coolest part for me was after dealing with the guys in the room I activated my sandevistan to peek out of the door and saw the two squads of arasaka guys coming down from both sides of the hallway only to then deal with them in the patented sandevistan user way
I tried yesterday that and the doors in the room I jumped in were locked. Can it be something they changed in some patch?
It’s amazing how many different hidden choices are available in this game. I’ve come to realize that in this game, you can’t control V’s fate, but you can still affect the lives of other people around him
@@spritsfal5088 everyones story *always* ends in death. Like, every single story in human history. Its about how you get to that shared conclusion that matter.
@@spritsfal5088 "There are no happy endings in nightcity"
@@spritsfal5088 You can always upload your data and possibly live forever. It just comes at a cost.
@@DellikkilleD but didn't he survived in the end? I had option for keanu to leave with alt and let him go back to his body. Although he didn't have much time to live afterwards, there could be something to fix him.
@@runek100 As you Said, V was still gonna die in a little while. on a long enough timeline, everyone dies. thats literally my entire point.
I legit thought Takemura was dead in my first run. I didn't see anything prompting me to look around better (I don't even remember having any other way to go.. apparently we had to climb up?) so I was sad to find out hours later that he could've survived. I really liked his character, the banter was great lol his text messaging is hilarious.
The game normally does the Nanny-mode pretty hard. For every objective you get a path on the map and a journal entry to follow it. This is one of the few times (are there actually others?) where we'd have had to pay attention. In the little cinematic sequence where the hidout gets attacked we do fall through the floor. So going up is kind of logical.... but since the game normally does all the thinking for us, it's easy to miss the one important occasion where it would have helped.
Agreed, too bad that he basically hates you if you pick any other ending except siding with Arasaka.
I always figured the "Friendship" meter isn't what you think it is, it's more like how badly contaminated V's personality has become, the higher the level, the more your personality has been affected and converted. You've started acting more like Johnny and are more willing to do more things just like he would, which is also why "Don't Fear the Reaper" becomes available, because it's the kind of plan you would never even consider if your personality hadn't become so FUBAR.
When i turned myself in to arasaka you get to speak with johnny and he does tell you that V has progressed to be more like johnny while johnny became more like V. Mf tried guilt tripping me on jackie and others that liked me but by that time i personally would rather be in virtual prison forever than let that scumbag take my body. I zero'd myself in another playthrough to spite johnny 😂
Nonsense, that's exactly the kind of decision that gameplay V would do.
Placeed wants me to sneak into a mall? Boom, run in heads first Gorilla arms blazing.
Panam wants me to sneak in and save Saul? I actually did that. Then went all gorilla arms on everyone on the way out anyway.
Takemura needs me to infiltrate an Arasaka warehouse? How about I use the front door, and make Gorilla arms go brrrrrrr.
My character also only has 3 intelligence.
I'd say it's more of a merge with Johnny due to him saying himself that you both affect each other and at the end depending how much you befriended Johnny you get the best personality traits of V and Johnny TLDR; I think it's more of a merge than a corruption
@@janisir4529Hah, that's my V too! 20 body, gorilla arms, 20 cool, 20 engineering, a Nomad with 3 int. I like to think of him as the ultimate red-neck in Night city, he's got heart but I done some real dumb stuff too (not that dumb if I walked away, unlike everyone else...).
@@daili4917 Cool? Ewww
Reflex is the true way, air dashing everywhere.
Flying gorilla is too good
I love this comments section. It seems like a whole room telling dozens of war stories where each of them have a different view of the same story and how they lived it
I liked Takemura. I dont care what he wants for himself, he is a cool, honorable character that felt like someone I could count on in this big ass city. A man who truly embodies the samurai code is always a friend to me.
that tragic River ending is wild, I imagine it only exists for those occasional gamers who must have a really strange mindset while playing any type of game, and punishing them for it
punishing? no its a reward...
I guess for gamers like Markiplier who try to not do what the game tells them to do.
Johnny's deadpan reaction was pretty funny though. It's a nice addition for a "scumbag" run. This is one of those little things that shouldn't exist, and yet it does.
@@Fallen-ky5byyou have to be a genuine fucking psycho to think like this
The Star ending is what I'd consider the best ending. Don't fear the Reaper was badass, challenging too with difficulty enhancing mods, and V becomes a legend like they originally set out to, but V either living out the rest of their days with good people (and potentially their love interest) away from the awful city or even having the potential to find a solution in the outside world seems like a better growth for the character. They went from dreaming big and losing almost everything for it, to understanding the vapid, soulless life in Night City isn't what they needed at all. The death of a certain character in the end drags it down, but it sort of fit the path of the character and the themes of the Aldecaldos story.
I kind of agree, with my second choice being Don't Fear the Reaper and then giving the body to Johnny. (It can't be the Rogue ending as then it's not Vs choice whether he gets the body, and it's a dick move for Johnny to choose to take the body)
True but also comes with the death of almost all the aldecaldos which kinda leaves the ending bittersweet
With Phantom Liberty confirming that damage done by Relic is fixable, Star ending is certified the best
Yeah, for me "The Star" is the Good ending while "Don't Fear the Reaper" is just the Secret ending. Leaving NC with Panam and the Aldecaldos with the hope of finding a way to remove the relic sounds like the best way out there. Now ofcourse if V just wants to go out like a legend; then DFTR is the way to go.
@@DanakarEndeel you get the Relic removed in Mikoshi either way, you still attack Arasaka Tower with Panam. The issue is that your brain is too damaged by Relic and you're dying no matter what ending you choose (Arasaka ending included). But, we know that Panam has contracts and promises to fix whatever needs fixing and Mr Blue Eyes offered V some kind of deal. And now we know that the damage done by Relic is actually fixable and it just happens that Blue Eyes orders you heist on a place that fixed Songbird while Aldecaldos are allied with StormTech who specialize in biotech and have their offices in Crystal Palace too
Punching Fingers is by far worth more than any optimal build. In every playthough I cannot resist punching him.
Same as with the cruel satisfaction by always shooting Fredrik in front of Gottard's eyes, before shooting him too, in the gig Dirty Biz.
I always liked how takemura’s “night city has shitty food” arc ends with the devil ending
“Visit me in kagawa, i will show you what is real food”
To be honest, I didn't really like how they locked the best ending behind such specific dialogue choices.
The best ending is with the nomads bruh not the "secret" ending...
not specific just dont be a dick
@@HoYuPhat Secret ending is far cooler and impactful to the world
This, specially if the whole idea behind it is getting high relationship with Johnny; then when I read a guide, one of the crucial moments you have to pick a couple of rude dialogue actions, and only those work, if you pick options that arent antagonizing him, the whole thing will fail. It makes zero sense.
I made every single one of these choices on my first play through. I really disliked these characters and how they were just using me for their own ends. I was trying to role play in an action game, and rather than sending ripples, I just lost out on content, or had the story be more hamfisted and less impactful because certain characters weren’t a part of it. Having a relationship with Johnny is Stockholm Syndrome. He’s an unlikeable asshole and supposed to be one. He has somewhat of a redemption arc. But that’s from batshit crazy and completely chaotic evil to chaotic neutral. His ego is defeated by being put in a box that he doesn’t fit in. He was so used to living in his own world by his own rules. It’s not that this story is lost on me, it’s just really not what I expected.
I wish saving Takamura made a bigger difference in other endings. He should have been the final boss in all other endings. It would have made the final battle more impactful
Or he could've been the final boss until he got squashed by Adam, just as you're about to decide whether to let him live or not, Smasher barges in and decides for you.
How, saka betrayed him
@@sus45923 and they can easily unbetray him, that's just how things go over there. They already knew he didn't do it, it was always just about saving face. Once it becomes worth welcoming him back, it'd be easy-done.
@@Torthrodhel takemura hate sthem, he hates yorinobu, he wouldnt agree
@@sus45923 he has a sense of superior morality that's married to the idea of corporate obedience. He looks down on you the whole time just for not being Arasaka. He does hate Yorinobu, yes... and? Yorinobu isn't the only one there, and his position as the one in charge is certainly precarious. Takemura wouldn't have come up with the big parade infiltration plan if he didn't think so. I can easily see him trying to put V down if given the excuse - a lowly street merc? It would've been a fun little surprise, maybe depending on your dialogue choices with him, or maybe even not.
I've never looked at ditching Takemura as a mistake at all - he seems cool, but the fact is he is 100% supportive of Arasaka, a supremely evil corp no matter who's at the helm. Him and V may have found some sort of vague respect, but Takemura was just using V's desperation to get back in with Arasaka and avenge Saburo (who seems way more evil than Yorinobu anyway).
Theres a reason why his name starts with "Take"
I always got tired of V living for someone else’s vengeance. It’s why I chose the Panam ending. V lives for himself, and goes back to being a nomad (I chose nomad origin). As much as I like Johnny, and it pains me to say, he uses V as a way to try and correct his mistakes from 50 years ago. He’s a ghost full of regrets. A dead man separated from V by half a century. What’s done is done.
@monkeymoment6478 Facts, bro. To me, the creepiest, weirdest part of the whole game is that Johnny is treated by all NPCs (V, optionally, but especially Rogue and Kerry) as an actual living person still... he's been dead for decades, and V just has his software program installed in his/her head. V owes Johnny exactly nothing.
@@Snake-filledChimphow does v owe silverhand nothing? he practically owes him his life, if silverhand hadn't been in that biochip she wouldve died in that landfill.
@ileringo Because Silverhand is dead, bro. His likeness was turned into a software program, stored on a chip, and then beamed into V's head. That's not a person anymore.
If you didn't get to bang Judy, you made the single worst choice in the entire game, just scrap the file and restart the campaign.
Nah punching Fingers is a must, just buy the stuff you want from him before the mission and you are good. And not rescuing Takemura is also fine for me. I still don´t see him as a friend and truely believe he only "cares" for V because he needs us to tell the truth about Saburo. I would say not sending Jacky to his family is a far worse descision
I kill him every time, I don't give a fuck what he sells.👍The second time I thought to myself "this time you'll only hit him on his face, he doesn't deserve to die" but my finger twitched when I thought about it.😅
I happened to walk past his shop after punching him, and there may or may not have been a frag thrown through his office door
It is kind of unsatisfying leaving him unpunched. The dude really has it coming. He's not just straight up evil like Woodman, he's just a massive slimeball. Killing him would be excessive but a good thrashing seems about right.
I give more of a damn about Takamora than Jacky. I know he's supposed to be your best buddy and all but you really don't spend any time with him or have any reason to give a damn. The scene were you are surveilling the Arasoka compound before infiltrating it where you talk about food, each others background, and a Japanese cat demon is more bonding time in one scene then you get the whole game with Jacky. You are not so much friends, you are more like frenemies. That is the one part I hate about the non devil endings, screwing over Taki, still not enough to make it worth selling your soul to Arisoka though. Though the whole Ofreda thing with Misty and Momma Wells is really well done. The book seems to be the best and most thematically fitting offering.
@@Snipergoat1 Takamora was an interesting character that I personally understood relatively well. It was a shame not being able to be friends with him. But I don't think an RPG should become too much of a sandbox either. Example: A woman who doesn't like cocks doesn't like cocks, you have to live with that. This also gives a game credibility and makes decisions more powerful. It's just his character preferring to be alone and it shouldn't always everything possible. So I can understand the decision.
@@Snipergoat1 Yeah he is pretty slimy. For me it's how he treats my baby Judy, I can't forgive him that 😅
You actually don't have to pick Rogue's option to get the (Don't Fear) the Reaper ending. You can just wait on that screen for five minutes and it will play out as expected. You can pick any other option too without finalizing it and it'll still work.
I followed the Rogue questline and finished the missions with Kerry, I also had a good relationship with Johnny, but that wasn't enough for me to get the Don't Fear the Reaper ending :(
@@MightyFigure8 I didn't notice the missions with Kerry actually affecting my score, which surprised me as it felt like they should.
My first playthrough I'm pretty sure I got access to the Don't Fear the Reaper ending and I didn't do the Rogue quest. I couldn't decide what ending to pick and I sat there reflecting on my experiences in the game when Johnny suggests going out in a blaze of glory. I decided to call Panam though because it felt more narratively appropriate. For ages I thought I must have been misremembering because everywhere on the internet says you have to pick very specific dialogue in a quest I didn't even do. Guess I'm not crazy after all.
Here's another one: sending Jackie's body to Vik instead of his family.
The worst for me was chosing the "give UP" ending (just to see what it looks like) after being in relation with panam. That one was the only choice in any game that made me fell like shit... Panam and Judy destroyed me.
Oh yeah, that ending hit hard. Devs made sure to let you know that you chose the worst ending possible.
I was on very hard first playthrough and I was getting mad at my build so I said fuck it and went with that ending and after that I put the game down for a year
Simp
That ending made me feel like an awful human being
Judy in tears, Panam heartbroken I’ve played a ton on video games but none have made me feel as awful as that one
And the devs made sure you knew it
I was expecting 'game over, credits roll'.
I was _not_ prepared.
I think the worst is EASILY the “Give up” ending
Panam and Judy’s final message. I’ve done messed up shit in a lot of video games, but this one decision is the one that made me feel like a horrible person
i got the give up ending on my first play though a week after launch, I just sat there for another 15 mins after the credits in shock and and sadness that that's how it ends, I didn't even know about the other endings until after edgerunners.
yes, you are a much better person if you take panems ending and get half her family killed xD
@@Fallen-ky5bytbh you have the choice to repeatedly remind them of the risks and how there is a good chance that people will die (and even tell them that they dont have to help) and they repeatedly say that they will help anyways
@@Crap_A.I_bird so its a good thing to get half your friends killed just because you warned them its dangerous?....
@@Fallen-ky5byonly 3 people died not half of the aldecados.
the game not even telling us that we had the chance to save Takamura was infuriating!
yess i thought he is dead for real
@@meir34610
After watching the video, I realized that I was 1 turn away from saving Takemura, I got to that place but left one turn before noticing Take 😭😭😭
Takemura cursing you out before committing ritual suicide if you save him and then choose the Star ending sort of made me chuckle. Great little detail.
There is another Ripper you can make unavailable: Charlie Bucks in Watson. If you discover his collusion with the Scavs while working for Regina Jones or on Sandra Dorsett's quest, and don't agree to conceal his secret he will flee the building. He doesn't have nearly as much cool stuff as Fingers though, so he catches a throwing knife to the back of the head every time.
Taking the Devil Ending at all is probably a bigger error than letting Takemura die honestly. The man said we should split up while V was coughing his lungs out on the pavement right outside the door and didn't even help him up before leaving. I may still save him just to feel like a badass, but our relationship is pretty much shot after seeing how he pays me back.
I am surprised that taking Maiko's bribe didn't make it onto the list.
Bucks is also the ripper that installed the cyberware that pushes Rose Horrigan over the edge resulting in her killing her sister Juliet who works for El Capitan.
Regarding Maiko's bribe...in my latest playthrough, I turned Judy down flat as soon as she proposed the idea of taking over Clouds. It's a terrible idea, with zero insight on Judy's part about how Night City works. Sure, I'm now locked out of all further interactions with Judy, but I saved many lives, and I don't really enjoy the interactions with Judy anyway. Getting her to leave Night City sooner is also the best thing you can realistically do for her.
@@MrVvulf Yeah but Judy is a cutie and then you miss out on that cutie Judy Booty. If you are playing a male V you can change one flag and romance her. All the dialog is in the game. There are only a couple spots where a message or something will say she instead of he but male V has all the lines. You can do the same with a female V and Panam but its a bit more complicated then putting in one line on the console. Haven't tried to get River or Kerry to switch teams yet.
I always shoot him in the nuts with a Carnage/Guts as he's sitting there. Incredibly satisfying to give him his comeuppance. Hell, on a stealth build I straight up crafted a legendary Carnage just to shoot him with.
@@MrVvulf You do miss out on the Mox shotgun if you turn her down (if you care about collecting all the guns, or using it)...but it's also perfectly fine to use the middle option saying you can't help her right now, and her quest line is still available for later when it's convenient.
being like "oh shit, i have to save my boy takemura" and then turning around being able to do that without the game handholding me in a tense moment. that was really cool
01:02 Not Saving Takemura
04:29 Not Helping River/Mistakes
08:42 Wrong Johnny Dialogue/Secret Ending
12:14 Punching Fingers
14:09 Panam's ass
The timestamps really helped man thanks!
I didn't save Takemura 😢
For Takemura, if you have the double jump, you can immediately jump back up through the hole in the ceiling and save him instantly, skipping the objective
can do the same with super jump
in update 2.0 you can beat up fingers since all docs have same upgrades, so please, beat the shit out of him
I think the un-aliving yourself option when you make the decision for the finale. The worst decision you can make. The credits had me crying.
Judy's message is soul crushing
@@kadenkinsey222 judy is bae:)
Panam and Judy’s reaction…..yh I’ll never forgive myself for choosing that ending
Still better ending than trusting Arasaka
Wait until you decide to take FIA's deal
My first and natural reaction was to save Takemura. I didn't care what Johnny said I had to go and see for myself what happened to Takemura. I liked him a lot and he started to open up to me honestly. His message at the end surprised me and hurt terribly but I understand him because Arasaka was everything to him.
I generally thought Takemura would fight me in endings other than Arasaka and there would be a choice about his fate. That would be quite an interesting option. I also thought that he could be persuaded to leave Arasaka, but that would be too "cute" and wouldn't suit his character.
same here it hurt
Due to 2.0 update now Fingers doesn't have exclusive cyberware so you're free to do whatever you want to him.
I got the devil ending on my first play through and immediately started questioning myself as a person in real life… it was not a proud defining moment in my adult years.
Same here. That ending actually hit me emotionally, which was so strange cause I'm usually never emotional from video games or movies. A real masterpiece of story telling
Lol this ending was terrible for the player and a little ridiculous you essentially get tortured for trying to preserve life across the board.
It's not that deep bruh
The Takemura situation closely mirrored the situation in the original Deus Ex where UNATCO attacks Paul Denton's apartment. I remember what happened and that you can save Paul, so I didn't even let the dialog finish before I was off to bail him out.
Good connection!
I just hide in the closet while UNATCO burst in. Paul is still tagged as invulnerable in the code, so he'll massacre the enemies without a problem. He only 'dies' if you leave the building without him.
OH FUCK, YOu're right! I hadn't thought of it... cause he tells you to fucking run for it, but you can stay behind and fuck up the MIB. Nice one.
12:07
Sam: Do you really want to spend hours backpedaling and redoing stuff? At the end of the day time is precious.
Me (with 1000+ hours playtime and 6 completed playthroughs including all side, hidden, and DLC content): Yes... precious...
This really shows you how much effort they put into this game. It’s insane how everyone’s playthrough will be slightly different or even very different. This game hit me with so much emotion. The world building was phenomenal. The combat was fun and after 120 hours I can say this has entered my top 10 games of all time. To me it is a sheer masterpiece
it definitely is
There's been only four games to date that have hooked me on stories and gamplay that I keep going back to. Skyrim, rdr2, cyberpunk, and the new one is starfield. The amount of work that went into these games to craft amazing story lines and great gameplay is amazing. And cyberpunk is definitely one of those games I'm going to complete probably 100 more times over the years.
i like witcher 3 in a similar manner. RDR2 lacks decision atleast major one and i havent played starfield. A good decision based series would be falllout@@Maineabeast
did you play 2.0 and Phantom Liberty ? i waited patiently to finally play it again, and the game is so fucking good now. i loved it from release on. one of the best games in the last 10+ years. and with RDR2 and Skyrim my favourite RPG of all time.
It’s truly a great game people just focus to much on the gameplay and the release
I just finished the Corpo Female V who gets along with Johnny, and saved Takamura. V still has months to live after the labrat hell, but chose to go back to earth. I called Hanako when I had the chance, as well as all of V's friends. Johnny was actually pretty silent and didn't berate me for choosing the Arasaka deal. I liked that V says, "Don't be too mad at me", and he replied, "Whatever you choose, I hope you don't regret it". Having Hanako herself call during the end credits was cool. It would have been even more awsome if Saburo called too, especially after being able to flip him off for Johnny.
My absolute favorite thing about Cyberpunk 2077 is the fact that when it’s boiled down to the bare bones it’s nothing more than a character study of the players themselves. That’s why everyone’s play through is so unique, because we all have different values that lead us to making different choices in the game creating different outcomes. For some the Devil ending is the best ending because it gives V who is a representation of the player themselves, the greatest chance of survival. Others think the Star ending is the best because at least then their hope and life and optimism. Cyberpunk 2077 is a unique masterpiece of storytelling that deserves all the love it gets from those who can ignore the bugs
True. My V is me.
To an extent. I was screaming "NO" and mashing buttons when Jackie went to put the chip in my head. It's the story I guess, but a live RPG trying to get a me as a player to do this would be a game stopper. I put this game down for months after that.
Hey quick thing to note for don’t fear the reaper. As long as you choose the right dialogue choices the friendship percentage doesn’t matter and even finishing the johnny questline doesn’t matter. I tested this where immediately after the oil fields I went to finish the game, I had 40% friendship and only the arasaka ending but I still was able to get don’t fear the reaper.
yes, only that dialog unlocks it, no matter your meter, which is dofus, it should be literally secret, not unlockable but always there but for people taking too much time deciding, like Johnny's dialog suggest, it was my cannon i fixed it with a console command cause the way to unlock it seems tomeh
@@Weiswolfe I agree, the ending is way too tedious and there should be multiple interesting ways to unlock it and not just choose some dialogue choices in one scene and if you choose one wrong you’re fucked
I did the right choices not knowing it has so much impact, I answered as I would answer in that situation. But I don't mind it.
There’s so much to this game, really wish game developers would take time in the immersion factor like this, shows they actually care about the story their telling, not just milking us for money.
I honestly didnt understand what even happened to takemura! I must have missed the one singular line that Johnny said that he was probably dead. So yes I played the devil ending without him and it felt kinda boring
I remember my first playthrough it was glorious. Until the ending that is. Thought when Johnny was talking about taking matters into my own hands he was recommending a Don't Fear the Reaper type plan. Ended up not reloading a save once I realized my mistake since I decided not to do that this run and was heart broken for over a year after. Checked the save file date and it was around a year and a half before I touched the game again. I sat there tears in my eyes as all the voice mails played and made myself listen to them knowing I fucked up. The anime did the same thing to me all over again with it's ending and I came back to this game that could actually make me feel such strong emotions. Such an amazing game that many wont play due to the terrible launch.
I later found out saving Takemura was actually a bad idea… at the end of the day his loyalty is with Arasaka is locked with him and saving you was never in his plans or interests. Mans literally tells you to “rot in hell” on his ending call. His only goal is to do anything he can to bring back Saburo. You’re simply just a tool for his end goal.
Saving Takemura only works well with the Devil ending as a Corpo. As you're both former Arasaka employees. All other endings result in Hanako's and Saburo's engram deaths as Alt takes over Mikoshi which severely weakens Arasaka corp. If you never plan to do devil ending, better to let him die in the mission. Unless you just like messing with him.
@@Cugastratos I always save him because the combat is fun, not out of friendship. (The SOB put a tracker on me when we were at Vik's so Arasaka could track me!) I also save him for the same reason I tell Wakako and the old man that Takemura is actually a late night comedian, I like hearing him curse at me in frustration.
I like to save him because he has a bad ass character design that's worth saving.
@@Cugastratos My excuse is that, with the people he had sworn his loyalty to dead, there's a slim chance he will move on to better horizons.
The other option is that he offs himself, which while not ideal, simply means he ends up dead anyways just like would've happened if i had abandoned him.
"The saddest thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies, it comes from those you trust the most."
I actually saved Takumera a different way. I saw the game wanted me to leave and I thought to myself fuck that i'll get back up there and try and save him even if i have to glitch my way up! So I double jumped up through the broken rubble we fell down and was suprised to see that takumera was still alive and we could save him. Felt like such an amazingly cool detail!
at the time I first played, I had no idea takemura could be saved glad I didn't make other mistakes :)
I completely missed saving Takemura my first 2 play throughs. Johnny acted like he was dead already and there was no option to save him so I just assumed he always died there. I guess I'm a half-brained gonk.
@@hifromcyn same lol
takemura is an asshole anyway, better off leaving him dead after what he says to you in almost all endings
I made the mistake of finishing the race with Claire instead of going after her husbands killer I never thought she would be that mad at me. Also made the Jackie engram mistake
@@blizyon30fps86 It was tempting to try and save jackie somehow, but I have managed to send him to mama wells in all of my playthroughs. Finishing the race is also something I wanted to do to get more than just vengeance for her husband after doing all of those races
I'm doing my "final" 3rd run right now as an ice cold corpo V and... Man. The actual role-playing choices you have in this game are insanely good, up right there with otherwise unbeatable classics like New Vegas. All of these worst possible choices are going to hurt to pick but... I love being able to explore what would've happened if the wrong type of person was in the wrong place at the wrong time, because that can make all the difference in the world as well...
nowhere near NV
NV has different option, some are subjectively bad, some are subjectively good for different people, because we have different morals. And CP2077 has good and bad choices. That's it.
Fingers has ... never survived a playthroug of mine. Optimum build be damned. Scavs, Fingers, and TigerClaws get it on sight. Thats how I roll
I absolutely adore this game! It's everything that I wanted in a dark sci-fi, dystopian, Neo noir Blade Runner'esque world. The characters, dialog, delivery, interactions, story and all those minor details just make this game so enthralling and interesting. I also really like the fact that you can kind of screw up, just like in real life haha.... A couple of things I did that I only figured out in retrospect.
I didn't know you could go back for Takamura until a mate of mine said he saved him I was like WTF?!?!.... Oh well.
And I punched the Ripper-Doc..... Of course I did, he totally deserved it haha!!
I did get an amazing ending though, everything seemed to fall into place and it felt so rewarding. I played as a female Corpo, romanced Judy, completed all the Nomad/Panam quests, saved River's brother. It really did feel like I fulfilled all that could be fulfilled within the game and when Judy turned up in the end just before I was about to leave with the Nomads I had such a big smile on my face. What a game!!
Not mentioned in the video, but it's also possible to lock yourself out of Panam's questline and the Star ending route by starting the Riders on the Storm mission and then abandoning it partway through. Waiting 24 in-game hours afterwards will result in an angry text from Panam informing you that Saul is dead, and permanently locking off the rest of her route.
The game doesn't seem to know what to do with that though, cause he still calls you in the credits of the Star ending, even if you didn't save him.
Better Saul Call
This is honestly one of the games bigges streangth, and weakness, as any random conversation can have a huge impact. And whilst definetly annoying unknowingly missing content it does give such a nice variation between runs
I never knew there were so many different options to finish the game. I thought it was linear until i see videos like this, where you can apparently save Takemura and fight besides him. Crazy
Thank you, I've been aiming for the Johnny solo and that will be super helpful. My first 2 play throughs I didnt think about it and denied every smoke break, personal loss from smoking set me adamantly against it irl. This can hurt your Johnny score preventing that option.
I feel like some of these Bad choices that can be made for no justifiable reason are because the game originally had so much more dialog, and cut content. Maybe the game originally made you choose tough choices between two characters or had missions that over lapped at the same time, forcing you to make the choice for the Character or Arc you as a player valued more over the other.
I love that there are people making videos about the hidden details of this game. It’s so easy to miss things on your first play through. This game is soo good on your second, third, fourth, fifth play through with all the decisions you can make. I’ve been sucked in, and I find myself coming back to it over and over. It’s no secret that this game’s launch and issues getting to the level it is at today really tarnished Cyberpunk 2077, and it’s so unfortunate that so many gamers are legitimately missing out and don’t even know it because of it
It's safe to punch the crap out of fingers now, all rippers have the same inventory in 2.0
You can actually punch Fingers once, and only once, but only with the right option. Selecting the dialogue option that is simply "punch" and only using that one punch moment will still let you buy from him later on. Any other option to punch him results in being locked out of getting anything from his shop.
gotta say, I punched, then executed that goon.
I punched him, got locked out of the sandevistan, and then shot him in the head cus I got mad and I didn’t feel like backtracking
@@mrcrazybozo2450same
@@mrcrazybozo2450 What else did he think was going to happen? I punched him when I just didn't agree with what he did to a friend of a friend. His only chance to survive when I visited him a second time was to be useful enough to be worth leaving alive. Hell, on the way up to see him the first time I beat the goons at his front door to death with Sir John - and yes I made sure they were dead, not just unconscious.
By the time I'd swung round to visit again the group he sold her to was just GONE, the guy who gave her to him was sliced and diced. That guy's boss was dead. And even HER bosses were dead.
Good news everyone! Punching Fingers is now consequence free in 2.0.
I did the Devil ending once, and I don't plan to do it ever again. As such, I actually always let Takemura die. I think going out in a firefight is a better end for him than what happens in any of the non-Devil endings.
1:55 You can climb up the broken ceiling left to V, after standing up. Glad I tried saving Takemura, still on my first playthrough :D
I actually deliberately chose most of these options because I was going for the suicide ending with my character and I didn't want to get close to anyone and cause them pain in the ending credits. I pushed them away or let them go for their own good in the end.
You ok man?
FR tho you good big dog?
Wtf???
The Kiritsugu playthrough frfr
Hes litterally me🙃
My first play-through I saved Takemura. I had double jump and Sandvistan so I want through the floor and went slow mode to take out the soldiers, that straight up felt like a movie scene
I never knew Takamura could be saved. Always chose this ending. Never noticed he was missing.
I absolutely loved rivers questline, at first I thought it was just another quest but when it got dark I was so invested, had nightmares afterwards though and couldn’t face looking at cows for a while but it was totally worth it, I managed to save Randy and made a friend of river (sadly my poor male V got stood up when I swooped in for a cheeky smooch though 😔)
I agree that it's an awesome quest that seems to start out as one of the regular 'fetch' ones then just keeps getting darker and creepier. It stays rent free in your head for days. I felt the same when I ran the Overlord dlc in Mass Effect 2.
When he called after the first quest i was like “wtf this dude want” then it got pretty deep so i had to help him solve the case and save his nephew and those other kids.
My female V friend zoned him 😂
@@radek174 oh come on, man! Female V is so much into River since almost the beginning I just had to let it happen even tho I can't stand that guy lmao
Meanwhile my female V friend zoned him, then proceeded to make a toast "to friendship". She did get shut down trying to start something with Panam though 😭
Sam, buddy, I am watching you from Turkey and I truly love Cyberpunk universe and lore. But I can't just play it over and over and over again cause I would be bored eventually which is an outcome I don't want it happen. Your videos make remember how much I love this game, it's story, it's content and it's mechanics. Please keep creating Cyberpunk content. You are appreciated.
cleared the entirety of phantom liberty right after chippin' in, levelled from like 29 to 60 and CHOSE THE WRONG DAMN VOICE OPTION for Johhny. Still so mad about that lol
For the Takemura mission I used the double jump legs to go straight back up the floors to him. Didn’t even know there was a crawl through space 😂
Ill sacrifice the cyberware and brake Fingers jaw any day
Go to fingers before the quest and get the cyberware then you can punch him.
I picked up his weapon and beat him to death after talking...absolutely no regrets
Good to know I made every bad decision except the Panam and River ones
Great video, I knew about a couple of them, but not that River could die for example, or that you could snitch on Panam. I only discovered about the Arasako guy in the end credits that first play through too, and then did the corpo soul killer ending solo, which as you say with Smasher makes it very challenging indeed on max difficulty.
Your channel has real potential, keep up the good work!!
First playthrough, I never rescued Goro and I chose the worst ending... Going with Hanako, thinking Arasaka could really help me, but chose to return to Earth and doing the legendary heist.
The best ending is the Nomad one, even with the DLC. I have done all the endings now, except I never sent V behind the Blackwall.
Never ditched River either, I am on my 5th playthrough and wouldn't even think of it. 😮
Panam will always be my choom. Never refused her!
I always punch Fingers 😂 And don't all Rippers have the same stuff now?
I was so upset learning that I could have saved takemaru, messed up my whole run and made me not finish the game. Still on the "hanako waiting at emebers" quest lol
But I am glad to know I am not alone in making that bad decision
Why not just load an older save file and safe Takemura? 🤷♂
My first pt was recently after Phantom Liberty. Thanks to that I ended up choosing The Sun which based on some Songbird dialogue seemed like a happier cyberpunk genre themed ending. Loss? Yes. But final outcome? Hope down the road. Also of course forgot Goru and didn't know it was possible for that to happen to River, yikes.
Cyberpunk is the definition of "It'S about the journey not the destination"
Case of "the game engine may be lacking, but the story telling is on point"!!!
Great video! In my first playthrough I didn't know that you can save Takemura (like many others I guess 😅) but since I found out I always save him.
I also made a run where I intentionally chose all the "wrong" options. I wasn't prepared for the messages I got from Panam after I betrayed her. Of course she was right about being outraged and considering I don't even like her that much I felt really, really bad. Never did it again. Also I like being friends with her, I like the conversations you have with her over time.
At the "Punching Fingers" part I immediately remembered the scene from Game of Thrones, where Locke points at Jamies chopped off hand and says "You think the only thing that matters is gold. THIS made me happier than all the gold ever could." I don't care about missing the cyberware. Punching Fingers made me happier than all the cyberware ever could. 😁
Saving Takemura makes perfect sense for any Arasaka-friendly resolution. But, as Johnny points out, he ISN'T your friend - his loyalty is always to Arasaka, and that is made very clear in the Devil Ending. He might gain some respect for V, but that is as far as it will go.
I'm ashamed to admit I only found Takemura because I thought "He's got to have some bangin loot" .
Ever since 2.0 all Ripperdocs sell the same Cyberware.
You know what to do
Even if you have no interest in romancing either one of them (or are playing the wrong gender/orientation for it), gaining the friendship of ALL the romancable characters is totally worthwhile. That's where the story shines, in my opinion. It's "just" a shooter until you start to make those friends, who also start to care about you and your plight, and then it actually becomes a story. I never want to miss Judy's underwater quest, for example, and Panam is a character I definitely want on my side.
i never understood why they had gender requirements. None of those romancable characters say what they prefer until you get into the situation. I would have prefered to be able to romance the chars no matter what. (its a game and i play the protagonist)
@@No_Way_NO_WAY I agree, honestly. I can see an argument, as a writer, for "this character feels this way in my head", but it's a game, and players of all kinds are playing it. I had a similar issue with Dragon Age: Inquisition.
@@No_Way_NO_WAY I get that in a way, I want to experience the things I want (like a gay Panam, that'd be nice) but I also get why we can't. V can be whatever we want, that's fair as the player gets to define a lot of who they are within the world but the other characters are their own people, we may be the protagonist but that doesn't mean every character should be automatically attracted to V and I think it would have felt kinda cheap somehow since instead of potential love interests they're just an option to pick from a list
@@unclemikeyplays You could romance everyone except the ninja nun that matters. I just wanted the harem ending of getting all the female love interests...
@@helplmchoking You can be a Futa V and still get denied...
This is one of those "damn I wish I'd thought of this" videos, nice job as always. Punching Fingers is a mistake this hot blooded Irishman continues to make! lol Next run I promise I'll stay my hand.
As for betraying Panam, such a weird option for them to have included (due to how unbalanced the choice is compared to not), it's the car that practically nobody owns or knows about!
Cheers Tez!
One does not simply refrain from punching fingers! It's too gratifying, lol.
It's defo one of those 'you probably definitely shouldn't do this but you can if you want to' options that they add in to not force you into a narrative. I like it, it gives the game consequences. It's something Bethesda have become too afraid to do. A problem I had with Fallout 4 is how you pretty much can't fail any of the questlines outside of eventually choosing a side for the end. It's kind've rewarding to see that recklessly stupid decisions are actually met with dire consequences.
@@SamBram that is one of the reasons cyberpunk is my favorite game
@@SamBram Yeah actually, that's a really great point. Having a very real "bad" or at least lackluster consequence for a shitty decision is brave and important direction for good game design. It's why it's all so excellent.
@@StuGamePlus actually, if you go to Fingers before the whole Evelyn Parker, you can get his good mods. You open up the window in the waiting room, go out on the balcony, and come in through the window to his operating room/sex dungeon. He will give you lip about intruding, but still allow you to buy mods.
After you have everything you need, you can come back and punch the hell out of him/ shoot him in the face.
My first play-through, I didn’t just punch him, I put multiple bullets in his head. It was very satisfying. Just wish I could have killed Wakako, too.
I got the devil ending with Takemura cuz I accidentally went to save him, second playthrough I played male V and left with Panam. My 3rd and most recent playthrough I discovered so many quests I didn't do. I did a netrunner build, ran thru Arasaka with Rogue and Johnny took my body. Each playthrough was so awesome and except for obvious repetitive side quests I tried to do everything completely different, especially on this 3rd playthru(quiet/stealth).
I’d add Claire’s beast in me mission to the list as you get locked out of ordering drinks at the afterlife if you do it wrong
It was on my list of options tbf. Defo one for a 2nd video at some point!
Wow, I didn't know that one.
I had no idea! My current character's going to win the race at all costs and screw friendship, so he's gonna mess that up for sure.
@@Torthrodhel Nooooo Jane! SAMPSON MUST DIE.
LOL -- I forgot that one. I deliberately won the race rather than follow What's-his-name, as Claire demands, to see what happened. Short answer...nothing good comes of it. If CDPR _really_ wanted to mess with us, they would have made winning all 4 races an Achievement.
The worst possible decision you can make is one of the first in the game - are you a boy V or a girl V. Because if you choose the latter, you cannot romance Panam. And that's just sad.
at least at the latter, you can romance judy(after competing her optional side quests) because she's a yuri character! better than nothing
It astounds me that there are people that can play huge games like this more than once.
A game like Cyberpunk is like a 6 month commitment for me outside friends and work haha. Love it though.
I'm honestly torn when it comes to saving Takemura, on the one hand he is one of the most interesting characters who we become attached to as our paths converge. The Bakeneko cutscene is probably one of the best in the game as we get a glimpse of what his life might have been like and how he ended up how he is. Finally there are also some neat messages and a credits cutscene if you save him.
However, I don't believe Takemura is really our friend. It is hinted to us many times that he is only playing nice because he needs our help, and in the end he will still go against our best interests in order to follow arasaka's orders during the devil ending.
When we first meet him he is hell bent on capturing us for Arasaka, he doesn't care at all for us and only sees us as a target that Arasaka has set for him. Granted in this situation he may have assumed that his life depended on finding us, but he still showed no care at all for our existence. However as soon as he is betrayed by Arasaka he puts on his nice face and tries to win us over. He states several times that it is because he needs us to innact his revenge in the name of Arasaka, and not for our own good. It would seem that he is only being nice to us as it would increase our chance if helping him while he still doesn't really care when it comes down to it. Another thing is when meeting Oda, he states again that if he were in Oda's position he would deliver his head without question, while he doesn't mention us I see no reason why we wouldn't apply to that sentiment.
The last nail in the coffin I think is at the end of the Devil ending when we're faced with the choice of becoming an engram, Takemura is sent to convince us. We are told it is because he is the only one Arasaka could find close by. But in reality we known that Takemura had been in "a secure location" and it's not unlikely he was being saved as a bargaining chip to try and convince v to become an engram. He also contradicts himself twice as he's talking to us, suggesting that he isn't really being honest with us, that he's not here for us but rather because of Arasaka's best interests. His first contradiction being that he states that Hanako didn't care about V or what became of them, while later on Stating that Hanako personally sent him.
Secondly he assures us that our engram is of little importance to Arasaka, however the first ever trial version of the new experimental relic would seem extremely important. Of course he then let's slip that Hanako personally sent him, this seems like an incredibly specific order from one of the most powerful people at Arasaka for a company that supposedly doesn't care about v's engram. It's pretty clear Takemura isn't here for us, and he really never was. His interest will always be that of Saburo Arasaka's and by extension Arasaka's before anything else. Sure he may have been nice to us for a bit but once again it is hinted that he's just doing it as it Grants him the best chance at securing Arasaka's interests when in reality he doesn't care for us much at all...
For my streetkid V it was just hard for me to justify any reason to like Takemura more than I needed to. Especially if you take Jackie to Vik I don’t think V would even want to even try and negotiate witn Arasaka
I know this is a little late but, if you were playing as female V, when you betray Panam she also sends you a text messge; which consists of her wishing Wraiths would kill V and use her corpse there after. Arguably worse tha losing your partner imo...
Translation
Don’t betray the pretty aldecaldo girl she doesn’t take it well
1:43 if you have double jump leg implant you don't need to go around, just jump from your starting position up two floors and you'll reach takemura directly.
I did it and somehow got blocked, I saw the steam coming from the pipes and thought its not allowed, espescially with Silverhand saying he's gone.
Thays bad
If you have double jump, you can just double jump up the hole you came down from to save Takemura.
11:34 you don't have to pick the Johnny and Rogue option, you can just wait with those options on screen.
I don't know exactly how many Ripperdocs are in the game, but there is one more aside from Fingers who can be completely locked out because you can kill him. Thankfully, he doesn't have anything unique like Fingers, but he sells you the cheapest.
Might be another one.
The Doc up in Rancho Coronado.
early on, Regina has a gig for you, to rescue a ripper named Lucy from a bunch if Maelstrom gangoons.
If you refuse her request to give her patient an injection of synthblood, or choose any option where he dies, she gets super mad with you.
No biggie, you think.
Till you go visit the 6th street turf ripper, find she is there (with an assumed name)
In which case, she tells the ripper not to offer your V any help.
Now, the only time this happened to me was because I was impatient, pushed buttons too quickly and accidentally told her no, not helping and he died.
I was lucky, I went to that particular ripper for the top grade of optical cammo.
And I had already bought it when I spotted her and went to talk yo her.
So her telling him not to sell to me had no impact.
Not sure if he would actually turn my money down tho, since I had what I wanted lol, so didn't talk to him again in that playthru
@@silverbane8065 I don't think i've never been locked out of that ripper. I've had 5 playthroughs, 2 of which I deliberately let that ganger die. Both times though are in earlier versions of the game.
@@rosshaikenleonen1416 i started playing in september 2022, patch 1.6 so, i dunno. it's only happend to me once tho, i learned my lesson XD
(reinforced by telling Johnny 'Patience' when i put down the iguana egg, and his sarcastic tone of voice XD)
@@silverbane8065 I'm sure I've had that before. I've only done what she said once, to see what happened (and I think I loaded it again afterwards because it just sat wrong with me). But just like the "metal monk" from the other mission, she's so damned stupid to want to save him. He's maelstrom. He's going to kill again very soon afterwards, and the victims will get no comfort whatsoever by the fact that some woman they never met randomly decided to forgive herself. Like oh that's such a relief while I'm being stabbed multiple times by this lunatic you desperately fought to unleash! Gimme a break.
At least with the monk you can take advantage of his stupidity by just going back to slaughter them all right afterwards. He doesn't even check. What a dumbass. A dumbass who still doesn't deserve what happened to him, but certainly not someone to be listened-to either, lol.
Yup. Always, always, always pay for double-jump.
Punching Fingers crew checking in 💪😄
I didnt know i could save takemura, that explosion looked pretty deadly