When it was originally announced way back in 2020, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was a concept that many fans were more than apprehensive about. Although on the outside the concept of game developer CD Projekt Red teaming up with both Netflix and anime juggernaut Studio Trigger seemed destined to succeed, the entire property was shaky after the disaster that was the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. Many fans were unsure how this team-up could go, and if the interest in the deep, lore-filled world was still too tarnished by the bad taste the game had left in the mouths of fans.
However, now that the anime has proven to be a rousing success, and has even revitalized interest in Cyberpunk 2077 with fans to a degree not seen since its release, things have definitely changed. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners isn’t just a gorgeously written and animated television show that fans have wholeheartedly embraced, but a triumph that more than makes a case for its own video game spinoff. Here’s why Cyberpunk: Edgerunners deserves to come full circle with its own game, and how it could work.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunner’s Characters Deserve More Screen Time
Despite all of its many faults, Cyberpunk 2077 was a game that was created to tell a story that fits within its long history of lore. The game featured Keanu Reeves playing a well-known hero of the overarching tabletop game’s massive world, and connected his narrative to that of the player character, V. However, for the television show, Studio Trigger and showrunner Rafal Jaki utilized the lore differently to tell a brand new grounded story with characters that feel more believable and real than anything the game had to offer.
Edgerunners protagonist David Martinez and his dysfunctional family of cyberpunk criminals are not only relatable to many fans but come off as charismatic underdogs that fans can’t help but root for. After the shocking death of his mother, David finds a new family in Night City, and his character arc is a fascinating portrayal of one teenager’s plight in a cruel world. Whereas Cyberpunk 2077 forced players to create V as a blank slate, the show, by its nature as a narrative device, had to have a fully fleshed-out character, and this worked much better. David feels like more of a citizen of Night City’s hopeless environment than V ever did, and this in turn makes the world feel that much more alive.
A game that features David as its protagonist would have an advantage from a storytelling point of view that Cyberpunk 2077 couldn’t achieve due to its wide variety of creatable options for V. This could help to tell a narrative that feels more personal and true to the world of Cyberpunk as a whole. A great example of this lies in the other big series from CD Projekt Red, its Witcher games. In those games protagonist, Geralt of Rivia is an established character, and fans see the world through the eyes of a person who has a history within it. David’s tragic rise and fall in Night City is a great story, and it could totally work as an interactive experience with players getting to see it extended past the show’s 10-episode run time.
An Edgerunners Game Could Give Cyberpunk 2077 Fans a New Perspective
Another reason why Edgerunners makes sense as a spinoff game is that it gives many players an opportunity to have the alternate experience that many wanted but never got with Cyberpunk 2077 — a third-person open-world adventure. For many fans, the decision by CD Projekt to release Cyberpunk 2077 as a first-person game was a huge misstep, especially after the success of the Witcher series. Furthermore, the decision to remove all the third-person cutscenes featuring V only served to further distance players from its main character.
An Edgerunners game that features a third-person perspective, where players control David and perhaps some other characters in his gang of misfits, could serve its narrative and the fans who felt left out by Cyberpunk 2077. Players could not only experience the bullet-time ability of David’s signature Sandevistan implant in full action but could customize his player model as the game wore on, adding more and more “chrome” enhancements to his frame.
Recently, CD Projekt outlined its development plans for the next decade, and the studio aims to continue its success with the Cyberpunk property well into the future. Hopefully, it will revisit the world of Edgerunners and give fans one more adventure with the characters that revitalized the series as a whole.
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