In this meaty episode of VOID ARCADE, Brando is joined once again by the fantastic Jordan of Jorddagreatest fame, to discuss any and all aspects of Cyberpunk 2077. We hope you enjoy it.
Show Outline
Our take on CP2077’s troubled history & a brief synopsis of that
December 10, 2020, how could anyone forget
after 3 full delays
Brando pre-ordered… again
(have also pre-ordered no man’s sky lmao)
Brando played at release with little issue and was still very impressed with the game
(Apparently, Witcher 3 was buggy at launch, maybe look into that)
Now we’re at Patch 1.[whatever] and… the game is good (or at least has been fixed up a lot)
Brando is biased (loves “cyberpunk” dystopian future games)
Retrofuture specifically is fascinating with its focus on hardware… just don’t get that anymore
The dangers (and advantages) of AI
Cyberware/body modification, lots of ethics questions here, ripe for excellent brain churning
Deus Ex (specifically Human Revolution) is also an incredible dystopian cyberpunk game and probably the reason why I love this genre in the first place
Act 1 (up to Johnny’s first appearance)
Thoughts about Jackie (such a strong character, how do they do that in such a short amount of time)
The voice acting is so good in this game?
Female V especially nails her lines.
But I think the exceptional talent in the voice acting department is one of the reasons why I really love the game.
Kinda feel like I missed out - 1st cutscene breaking into the merc scene... feel like the ascent up the merc ladder would have felt more impactful coming from nothing. It’s also kinda weird because that cutscene makes it seem like we’re moving up in the world, then the heist happens, and when the open world really opens up, it feels like we just do that all over again and start from scratch with jobs from fixers and such. Still feels like we start from the bottom and go to the top. But I guess the fixers wouldn’t reach out if we weren’t “somebody” already.
Talk about what life paths we did (and maybe how those actually, minimally impact the game)
favorite life path?
Talk about the Maelstrom gang mission and what we did there (apparently there are like 6 endings to this?)
makes me think that act 1 has the polish they were hoping to include in the entire game, but couldn’t due to budget restraints. Just something preem about the whole section.
one of them leads to a spicy romance with the Corpo lady
one of them leads to an additional weapons vendor opening at that location
The Heist goes down for real
Things go bad… wrong place, wrong time
uh, brief aside about dexter Deshawn
get shot in the head, wake up, get almost shot in the head again, get saved by Takemura, then Johnny shows up
The rest of the game is kinda like “how do I get this guy outta my head”
Music
Have an entire section about the music because great 5-layer burrito Gandhi, it is beyond excellent, and I have listened to the entire 8-hour soundtrack at least 20 times over because I am a psychopath.
Tracks like [below] have such a sense of emotion, and really set the mood and ambiance of a scene, and I really think that they’re some of the most powerful tracks in gaming
Outsider no More
The Sacred and the Profane
Been Good to Know Ya
V
The hardcore electric tracks like [below] are some of the most hype stuff. Also, I think it’s the perfect fusion of the implied “PUNK” feeling from the 2020 tabletop (But of course the SAMURAI tracks are the ultimate rendition of that), with the “ELECTRO” that we commonly identify with the future
The Rebel Path
Cyberninja
Patr(idiots)
The radio is freakin’ glorious, so many tracks in there that are just good, and still, feel like they would be from the 2077 universe. But they’re just excellent. I think also the bonus here was the inclusion these tracks were able to have with the anime to make it feel like a contiguous world.
Act 2
Lot of the main missions revolve around potential ways to get johnny out of V’s head, a lot come from Takemura as you see yourselves working together. Can go into more detail in some of these?
capturing the scientist that worked on soul killer
“convincing” Hanako that yeah while V did steal the chip, Yorinobu killed Saburo (his dad)
meeting with some voodoo boys in Pacifica that may be smart enough to understand the chip
Best of Side Quests
Side quests are probably the bread and butter of the game… their quality as far as world-building and stuff is on par with the main quests (to a point where I think it’s pretty impressive they all hit a pretty high bar of quality). Beforehand, probably cherry-pick 3–5 to get into. My picks:
River Wards “I fought the law”
Definitely one of my favorites, diving deep into an actually good cop who tries to live and work for the truth no matter the cost.
Starts with you partnering with him to investigate the murder of the old mayor, which was a closed case
Find out there was foul play and the murder wasn’t how it was reported. River turns the information in
He dives deeper and starts getting hunted by the bad actors
(quest in progress RN will finish on completion)
Future Mayor suspects he’s being spied on
The quest where you learn the Peralez couple are being spied on
But psych! They’re actually being brainwashed
Bigger psych, the involved is actually an AI manipulating them
Moral dilemma… tell them… or don’t.
Just love all the thinking you can do with all the “future” concepts surrounding and involved in this quest
Honorable mentions
The Delamain quests
The cyberpsycho quests (and each individual’s tragic backstory)
Skippy
Our Character Builds
Up to like level 10 I realized I was playing the same way as my other play through… so I switched from there to be a street brawler… complete with optical camo and a sandevistan… that’s right, I went full David Martinez, and boy… I was unstoppable.
Slightly limited by the 20 levels I put in Engineering for the crafting perks so I could have endless Eddies… going for the vehicles and all. But still, I was absolutely unstoppable.
talk about gameplay
Endings SPOILERS Act 3
The worst one: Siding with Arasaka and Takemura - The Devil
Yorinobu suspects Hanako and kidnaps her, so you go on a rescue mission
Hanako shows you that Saburo is still alive - has been keeping engrams of himself
Hanako takes you to a meeting at Arasaka and you testify about the murder. Saburo tells the board members to listen to Hanako
Yorinobu has a bunch of his lackeys shoot and kill the board members
Smasher comes after you, you and Takemura zero him
You find Yorinobu and hand him over to Haneko
Haneko puts you in a facility in space to remove the engram and try and make you better
The news comes through and turns out Yorinobu was overwritten with Saburos engram - the world is going wild about that
Go through tests and tests and tests
Have some wild spooky nightmares
Turns out the tests don’t work, and you have less than 6 months to live (less than other endings)
Don’t end up with your love interest
Have the option to become an engram in Mikoshi via soul killer or return to earth with less than 6 months to live
Getting help from the Aldecaldos
They organize a plan to use a mining rig to dig into the Arasaka towers subsection that has Mikoshi
just have to steal the mining rig on Militech property, NBD
Gear up and get inaugurated as an official member of the Aldecaldos - get a jacket and everything
Everyone kinda knows it’s a suicide mission
Contact Alt AI on the net, who promises to help split you and johnny if you help her “free” all the currently soul-killed people in Mikoshi… who will be absorbed into her (creepy)
Day of the heist, get into the basilisk tank you stole (earlier in Panam’s storyline) and you start blastin’
Some things don’t go to plan, of course. Bob and Teddy (I don’t even remember who these guys are) die
But the takeover is pretty smooth beyond that. The mining drill has some issues drilling into the tower or whatever and Panam almost dies
It goes pretty smooth in the tower until you’re confronted by smasher, who curb stomps Saul’s head into a pile of mush - So I beat smasher to a pulp
after that you connect to the personal link in Mikoshi, meet with alt, who separates you and johnny, and you have the choice to choose to keep your body and live for 6 months or give it to johnny who will live the remainder of the body’s lifetime.
It’s mentioned at this point that you are an engram and just a copy of V. The body of V is empty, stripped of its consciousness. And an interesting tidbit. Reminds me of the ship of Theseus.
keeping your body, you say goodbye to johnny and wake up talking with Panam
end up leaving the city with the Aldecaldos AND your love interest
probably the best (happiest) ending IMO
