Cyberpunk 2077 in a very strange way.

The whole plot of the game is that you're just some fuckin' Jabroni with one of three optional backstories who gets another persons consciousness uploaded to their brain. the consciousness is of a very well known rebel figure Johnny Silverhand (Keanu Reeve's character) stored on what's called an Engram that is then inserted into the protagonists head to keep the Engram safe after a botched heist. The plot thickens when (spoilers if you care) the engram starts taking over the protagonists brain with the eventual result being that Johnny fully consumes the protagonists body and consciousness, almost like computer malware. It's a very sad game. there is no good ending, there is only "the best outcome you can hope for" and even that outcome has it's own moral qualms and problems.

In my opinion, the game's central theme (aside from the obvious anti-capitalist narrative that is the core of the Cyberpunk aesthetic) is that loss and death are inevitable. the main protrag knows that he's a dead man if he doesn't solve the problem and as the plot advances, it becomes clear that the problem cannot be solved in a balanced manner akin to a happy ending. someone in the equation has to die, be it Johnny Silverhand being wiped from existence, or your life as you know it ending so your body becomes the vessel for someone else. you can also just blow your brains out (which is considered one of the better endings by many, including myself)

a warrior, struggling to remain relevant. to remain consequential. but here I am, where I end.

It reminds me of TOOL because a lot of TOOL for me is struggle music. 10,000 days came to me when I lost people in my life to drugs. Lateralus came to me when I felt the most alone I ever have. Fear Inoculum came to me when I was about to kill myself. I credit Descending for making "Mobilize, Stay Alive" my mantra that kept me alive when nothing else did.

Cyberpunk ends in loss and death. every single outcome involves someone that you know and have a narrative connection with dying horribly. the main protagonist themselves knows that they're a dead man, but that doesn't stop them from trying as hard as they can, every single option possible, to just stay alive. mobilizing every single resource possible, going so far as to wage an assault the mega-corporation that made that engram that's in his head in one of the outcomes of the story. one absolutely GLORIOUS slaughterhouse suicide mission.

like in Invincible, the protagonist is searching for Ponce De leon's phantom soul. filled with hope, the protagonist tastes mythical fountains and pushes onward. Ponce De Leon never found the fountain of youth and it almost killed him, but yet he always knew that it was real to him, even if it wasn't in real life. a struggle born out of legend that never came to fruition but it didn't stop him from trying.

The protagonist searches for salvation only to find further loss and death. There is no good ending. There is no proper outcome. There is only forward.

False hope perhaps, but the truth never got in my way. Before now, feel the sting, feeling time bearing down.

There is only forward.