WEBVTT

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(logo swooshing)
(mellow music)

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- What's up chooms?

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It's Steve.

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- Hi, it's Levi.

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"Phantom Liberty," the
upcoming $30 expansion

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from CD PROJEKT RED's "Cyberpunk 2077"

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will add a new ending.

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That's pretty preem!

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Or is it?

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- See, the rumor mill has
long thought this would happen

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but they thought that the
new ending would be something

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that it might not actually turn out to be.

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- [Levi] See, a lot of
folks out there have thought

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or hoped that "Phantom Liberty"
would give "Cyberpunk 2077"

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the same kind of post ending free play

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that the "Broken Steel"
DLC did for "Fallout 3."

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- [Steve] But new info
from CD PROJEKT RED says

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that the DLC will only add one ending

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to the game's current selection,

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not a sweeping edit that changes them all.

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This, at least to me, is
actually a good thing.

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- Cyberpunk 2077 is a
narrative driven game after all

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and the focus is V's battle for survival,

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a battle against Night City itself.

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In each of its endings,

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you pick how V lives out
their final moments of life.

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- And in doing so,

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you're picking what V stands for,

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what's important to them in
this bright, shiny dystopia.

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Retconning those endings through DLC,

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giving V the chance to live
on indefinitely afterwards

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robs them of the gravitas of that choice

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and it undercuts the game's themes.

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- Cyberpunk isn't a
genre of happy endings.

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It's a genre of choices and consequences

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as they fall under an oppressive
hype-capitalist hellscape,

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tacking on a saccharin conclusion

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in which V just rides off into the sunset

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with Judy on one arm
and Kerry on the other,

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that doesn't fit.

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- [Steve] If CDPR does
want to add an ending

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where V survives, there is
a way that they could do it

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without betraying the themes
and the world they've built.

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Give V the option to live on
the same way they're living

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in "Phantom Liberty,"

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as an agent of the fascist
New United States of America.

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- That gives the player
a truly terrible choice,

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allow V to die for their
ideals, slowly losing themselves

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while those they love watch

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or let them continue to survive

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as an inhuman tool of genuine evil.

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- [Steve] Lots to chew on there, chooms.

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Let us know in the comments
below your own theories

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for how "Phantom Liberty's"
new ending will play out.

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- Video games forever.

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kotaku.com.

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