Cyberpunk 2077

I’m finally playing this again, the story did pick up and got more interesting as expected after losing Jackie. Granted, it feels more like an fps interactive story with how much there is sequence after sequence during this. I will say though once again, it makes a lot of sense to me for Viktor, and now Takemura to be the actual romances in this game. They are both involved in your survival, it seems odd you can’t develop something more with them. I have yet to meet any of the actual romances in the game besides Judy, and at this point they don’t feel will be as important with how little presence they have so far.

In any case, I’m trying to just play through it as an action game rather than get my hopes on rpg romancing. I did start enjoying the shooting gameplay and the story got interesting enough. Not sure if I’ll get the dlc yet, is pretty expensive, will have to wait and see how I feel when it all ends or is close to.

That is one thing I had noticed about the game recently-the more they "improved" the car mechanics the worse the bikes drove. I haven't run into the hill issue though, but I also haven't played since the newest patch so that could be why. I'm still qq about the nerf to Netrunner. Once I get over that I'll begrudgingly play with smart guns I guess cause I suck at aiming guns, and melee is just too squishy early game.

I've heard blades are really good now, but the violence with that is kind of a turn-off for me. Plus again...not crazy about being close to enemies.

And they *shudder* added vehicle combat because people whinged it wasn’t in the game. Sounds like hell. Driving was awful.

My thing with Panam is that I think there's interesting character work to do with her, but the game actively refuses it by way of always making her correct - every risk she takes pays off, which undermines the inherent character arc she SHOULD be getting of learning that she's not always right. There's even the fact that the whole thing with the Basilisk is pretty clearly some kind of Millitech plot - they JUST HAPPEN to have a convoy moving through, mentioned on comms that the Aldecaldos JUST HAPPEN to be monitoring, and then the discovery of those monitored comms JUST HAPPENS to be discovered right after they've taken the panzer? All indications are that Millitech WANTS the Aldecaldos to have the tank, probably with eyes of them doing exactly what they do in the Star ending, raiding Arasaka. But, because Panam Must Always Be Right™, none of this is discussed or put forward, and Panam's risk pays off for the clan, getting her made clan elder. And then there's her interactions with Rogue, which end up HAVING to just trail off and never get concluded, because there are only two ways that it COULD pan out - Panam admits that Rogue had her number and HAS to change her ways, a change that means she CANNOT be the character she is in the rest of her storyline, or she proves Rogue wrong, and, again, is not the character the rest of her storyline makes her out as.

THAT, at its core, is my problem with Panam, with Liara, with Lana - they are written to NEVER be wrong, to never face the consequences of being wrong. These are characters who are interesting and flawed, but the writing refuses to acknowledge it, and, as a result, flattens them out, primarily in the purpose of shilling them as a romance option.

Personally, I don't like the idea of Takemura as a romance, but that's mostly because I roll Street Kid, and so for me, I see him as being too distant for V to take that step - Takemura is a true believer in the corp, in Arasaka specifically. My V's are down to seeing Arasaka collapse entirely, which will inevitably have him at odds with Takemura.

I do see the appeal for Vik, and I wouldn't turn him down or anything, but I feel like there's a professional ethical line that might be crossed with a doctor and their patient, y'know? Like that may not be a thing in the Cyberpunk world, but it is a thing for me that I'm not all that comfortable with.

Aside from letting River be the bi romance he should have been, I'm not sure who I'd pick specifically as a potential M/M romance over Kerry. I might have to go into the realm of new characters entirely, or picking a character to give more attention in the story entirely, and not any of the characters who are specifically introduced properly.

Well, as it turns out, the new ending doesn't even apply for me, because playing through, that didn't feel like the right way to go for my V. He ended up siding with Song and helping her escape, even though it cost him the shot at the cure. So much for that, huh?

I member when they said you could do quests and invite any npc back to your apartment for sex...I found that a little creepy in a way-but it's funny how anyone went down to 4 Sex Workers and 4 romance options. (oh and one really poorly executed fling with the corpo lady) "Have sex with me or I will haunt your journal for your whole play-through!"

I'm still so mad on my Corpo run where I forever had that lil quest stuck in my phone because the game gives you ZERO ways to turn her down. Oh you helped her? You must want to fuck her then. Bruh. My poor Corpo!V was traumatized, I've never reloaded so quickly in my life.

As for Panam, my Corpo was going to help her - but then I read the quest blurb (that is 'written' by Johnny) and it pretty much implied that my V was only helping her so he could get in her pants and I was just kinda hell no and went to tattle on her to Saul because that V hated Johnny and the game trying to make him feel guilty every step of the way for wanting to get rid of him and not be his bff just made me hate him even more.

So I finally finished Cyberpunk! I haven't done the phantom liberty dlc yet, will leave it for another time to come back to the game, wanted to first run it full the original content from beginning to end. So time for my pros and cons and rants, including romancing Kerry:


The Johnny Pros & Rants:

So In order to romance Kerry I had to do chippin in, where you have to give control to Johnny, which you all know and we discussed a lot on it, and from a story standpoint I think is an interesting moment and narratively there's some great beats there, but the chapter suffers from the same bits that stops me from fully loving this game, and is trying to be edgy and cool in a desperate way. I think Johnny getting drunk and getting a tattoo with your name is pretty fun and funny with your body, that's fine. But going into this strip club is iffy, and it gets worse once you get in the car with the chick and THAT bit happens, now is short, saved by the car crash mind you, something that out of context sounds awful XD, but yeah. It's very out of place in every way possible because, not only is weird if your V is gay and is touching women using your body, but you can be in a relationship with Panam or others up to this point, so anyone could see you on town and say your cheating. Anyway, that awful bit aside, I did genuinely enjoy the end of the quest where you have a heart to heart with Johnny. And I think my problem with Johnny in this game is not the character itself in terms of how is written, but of HOW is presented. Because overall I actually liked Johnny's arc with you in the game, what I dislike is how the developers choose to present us moments of this character. I once again didn't have to watch a flashback of Johnny having sex in graphic detail, more graphic than the actual romance scenes in the game. Nor did Johnny need to use your body in a sexual way to get information. Fade to blacks exist please use them CDPR.

The Kerry Romance:

Now in terms of Kerry, I actually ended up liking the character, I think he's cool, but the way he comes into the story, and how late flirts start to happen, it felt incredibly short. He's about the same length as River which is short really. Judy and Panam have very extensive arcs, and even Takemura has a longer arc with you in the game. I think his introduction is confusing because Johnny is concerned that he is depressed and so forth, but we never get to like to explore that depression on Kerry I feel, at least as V. You have this coffee chat with Kerry but I don't' think we had enough time knowing each other for that moment to be so impactful. The rest of the quests is just trying to get the band together, with a choice of a band member that seemed like a big deal, but it amounted to nothing lol. Now the actual romance first kiss flirt is cute, is a nice spot, is a nice moment, I still felt it was too soon but oh well. The sex bang scene is okay, is different, over the place at times but it stands out. However, I wish there was an extra scene or moment after that, where you and Kerry have something more intimate, quieter, to seal more the romance. Because I mostly felt Kerry was this cool dude friend of mine and didn't get that part of where I was shipping the relationship. This is however fixed A LITTLE bit with the last update, where you can now invite your romance in the apartment, sit down and cuddle them, meditate, shower, etc. It's not a substantial amount per say but is still nice addition, especially the mirror scene where you can see your V getting kissed by your romance.  Kerry was also on my ending choice at the end which also helped matters.

 
Made a gif of my mirror kiss in the cheek  

The final Panam Rant:

I giggled typing the above, but I have to! I got called by Panam once again to test out the new vehicle, and like sure. And somehow that ends up being the entire purpose of trying out extra sensitivity sex? It just seemed out of nowhere to me because I said to Panam at least twice that I'm not interested in a relationship and like to be friends. But yet again she insists and is using also extra technology to get me horny on top of it! But you know what, I'm a man of science, and said screw it I want to see how this plays out. And UNSURPRISINGLY, Panam's sex scene is actually the only 3rd person sex scene where you get to see your V and her all the time on it. No first-person shenanigans, pure cutscene. So needless to say I was annoyed that she got perhaps the steamiest and best scene scenario in the game, which I shouldn't be surprised but is no less frustrating lol. 

The ending:

So this is the part that I was very nervous about, has we all discussed in length about them here but is not the same me discussing based on what I read or watch clips of, versus getting to it myself and experience the whole thing. I ended up choosing the Sun ending. Now for starters, Takemura died on my run, I had no idea I had to rescue him in that one mission because the game gave 0 indication that was possible, and I didn't see a way to go back up myself. So, without Takemura I had 0 trust in following Hanako. Next choice is Panam Nomads, which well... for my Corpo V at least there's just no history there or strong bond for me to go that route. So that leaves me with listening to Johnny and grab Rogue or do the secret version. I failed to unlock the secret ending but after reading about it I prefer the original version. I think original the sun ending made sense to me that Rogue makes a sacrifice, and now Johnny only has Alt, so is fitting Johnny is willing to let go with Alt rather than want your body.


Now I didn't really care for the mumbo jumbo of Mitoshi, it felt like a deus ex machina just to make things sound complicated. I see people discuss whether is V or not after Mitoshi, Im like I rather not overthink that and just think is V. So, after Rogue's sacrifice you follow/honor her death taking over Afterlife. Then what follows is taking on the possibly "impossible" mission to help mr blue eyes who will give you a cure if you succeed. Now the reason I ended up liking this ending more than I thought I would (besides being mentally prepared to them beforehand thanks to this forum XD) is because is open ending whether your V succeeds the mission or not and gets cured, and I personally prefer this over the game telling me straight up in my face that V dies anyway nothing mattered. Sure they make an emphasis he will likely die, but that's a dilemma for most protagonists in a game or movie, doing the impossible so I don't think is out of the question you live. 


Overall:

So yeah overall, I still had a good time with the game, much more than I originally thought. I think the game has great characters, a great world, and a very solid protagonist to play as throughout it all, and all the quests for the most part were interesting, even the peculiar humor ones, like mr grenade nose clown. I think the thing that holds back this game for me to say is one of my very favorites is the lack of Role play agency. The only major choices in the end are the ending and the romance. Apart from that most of the game is very straightforward no matter what you choose. Their focus is very much pushing the narrative they want to tell, that while is a strong interesting narrative, it doesn't feel at times I'm playing an RPG, and more so playing one of those action games with rpg elements. Oh yeah and the combat gameplay was fun but never really spent time playing with any skills or upgrades much, I just stealthed most of the game or got a good gun doing headshots on the easy mode, there was no need for me to upgrade anything. So if anyone is worried about game being hard, easiest mode is still just fine. And vehicle controls suck and is the only times I died in the game XD.

To get myself more into the whole johnny thing, I changed a bit the look and vibe of my V, to show more visually when Johnny is the one in charge, was pretty fun. I ended up sticking with the look by the end of it to visualize he adapted some of the cool stuff of Johnny, just not the bad person parts:



My V after doing the impossible heist and living cured because I said so:

So about the new "date night" content. It was awkward.



Some of it would probably be cute in third person, but the whole first-person thing just makes it feel kind of ick to me for whatever reason. -shrug- On the bright side it does at least let River visit different places instead of just sad sacking in front of Joss's trailer for the rest of his life.