Cyberpunk 2077 was never going to get an expansion designed to take place following the conclusion of the base game’s main story, as the team behind the game didn’t want to risk diluting how V’s tale ends.
This is according to CD Projekt Red narrative director Igor Sarzyński, who told PC Gamer that, prior to settling on the premise that would end up coming to life as Phantom Liberty, Cyberpunk’s developers did contemplate taking things in a couple of other directions. Though, Sarzyński says that continuing on from the events that can follow V’s meeting with Hanako Arasaka at Embers wasn’t on the cards.
Acknowledging that, had CDPR selected one set of ending circumstances to serve as the basis for a post-final mission adventure, it would have risked annoying players by potentially undermining the choices they’d made for their version of V during the events of the game, narrative director also suggested that doing so wouldn’t have meshed with the team’s desires.
“The endings are written as we wanted them⁠—leaving players with an uneasy feeling, forcing them to think, not providing straight answers,” Sarzyński said, adding: “They stick with you. (There’s) no need to water them down. Sometimes less is more.”
Though I personally didn’t find Cyberpunk’s base endings to be as enigmatically compelling as the likes of Blade Runner’s iconic tears in rain monologue followed by an origami-based tease, I can certainly appreciate its developers’ conviction in the strength of their writing and dedication to letting players decide their fate.
That said, given I also feel that Phantom Liberty features a lot of the strongest writing, both in terms of both character motivation and dialogue, in the entirety of the game, it might have been nice to see what CD Projekt could have done had it decided to take on the task of continuing V’s tale.
Then again, Phantom Liberty did come with an entire new ending option for Cyberpunk’s main quest, so we can’t really complain.
If you’re planning on jumping back into Cyberpunk this weekend to check out how patch 2.02 has influenced the playing experience, you might also want to check out these mods that’ll allow you to grab an immersive snack or drink in Dogtown.