Romance in this game is truly amazing, and equally disappointing. [Spoilers]

+
I posted this elsewhere, but I think its best to make a proper thread about my thoughts on it.

The Romance in this game is truly amazing, and equally disappointing.

Judy Alvarez, as an example.

You're led on an almost 12 hour long journey, starting off where she doesn't like/nor trust you very much. Over time winning her over to your side and are able to to quests for her. All the while doing side missions with her and getting closer via dialogue options and a general closeness of time spent, and when you're not, getting excited for the random text/phone call that she might send. You comfort her, help her out with missions, get invited to her house/apartment. You save her seemingly best friend, there for her during the traumatic experiences of this mission and become quite close. All these decisions that impact whether or not she actually wants you to be in her life, and you see these decisions come to fruition by her slowly beginning to want to spend time with you in general.

After a while the Messages get more personal, the phone calls as well. You're actually in a sort of relationship with this in-game character you're getting to know slowly, and despite what anyone might think, spending 12 hours or so even with an in-game character, you do have a unique bond with them. I would add every other persons playthrough with this person is unique as well as they would have approached it with a completely different reasoning and feeling throughout the game.

At one point in a mission, V says something like - "I only tell people I care about my real name". This led me to believe this game has a lot of impactful moments if you were to get close to certain characters, and I thought this would be such an amazing way to learn about V, and Judy, through a side mission with one of the bigger characters. It gives what you're doing so much more meaningfulness that it actually made me postponed the endgame content.

Anyway, at a certain point you help Judy, and she obliges by opening herself up, and taking you out into probably one of the most amazingly romantic missions/scenes I have encountered in any game. You go underwater diving, after flirting quite amazingly (I'm still waiting for that MaxTax uniform btw) - and you visit Judy's old home, and you learn about her past and feelings.

She breaks down and you comfort her, ending up in a tasteful, not over done sex scene where two characters are enjoying each others company. If you're role playing this game, this was a sweet moment for you, as you have spent 12 hours or so with this person who has suddenly changed their whole dynamic with you, to get to this point. And she clearly tells you there's more to her story. You changed her life at this point. This is probably the most meaningful impact you have on any character in the game.

You go outside, and are posed with a question, What did this mean to you?

Well after 12 hours, this wasn't just a one night stand, if it was for anyone else, I would be amazed.

You explain you hope this is the start of something nice, and are suddenly in a relationship, with a few more dialogue options. The immersion, romance, excitement of a new message/phone call coming through suddenly, a thought of a date, the thought of maybe hearing V's REAL NAME to someone that she's in-love with, has all but disappeared because Judy is no longer part of the story in any shape or form, other than standing at the window repeating the same line of dialogue.

Where did all my effort, of time spent with someone, even an NPC, go? Why did it amount to only having a bio-link created or whatever it was, why not have her come to V's apartment, have dinner/date/drinks - You have drinks with every other character, for every other reason. What was the purpose of that, just a mere sex scene that you can have with any other sex worker. Where's the actual romance of two newly in-love people. There's a GIANT whole in a missed opportunity here and I HOPE CDPR see's this and offers an explanation or at least, update this to progress to a point where my time spent with Judy is more meaningful, not just a throw away sex scene that happened once, and is forgotten in the games memory.

I have never been this disappointed in a game after spending so long with one part of it, to have to end as if sex was the highlight of that endeavor. If I new that before hand, I wouldn't have bothered.

I am holding out for an update/dlc where this progresses. This was a great missed opportunity, and I expected a little better.
 
Ok.

I feel Ive barely started the journey involving Judy, and while that will probably be very nice in the end, the thing that troubles me most is that other options
apparently Rogue and Kerry
Are actually 70+ years old. That doesn't feel... right. Aren't they like Male V's only options?

Whereas Stout is only given one scene. I was really looking forward to being a corpo bitches secret sin.

I also think that one way for V's apartment to have some actual use would be inviting certain people over...
 
Totaly agree, after sealing the deal with judy i went to do some missions and then decide to drop by at her place but there is nothing to do, no even a repeated sex scene, what im gonna do, go and cheat on her with a joytoy, i wouldnt mind the innocous feeling at the end of the whole ordeal, if it was added to turn the love interest into a sex partner or even add a variety of actions with them,
even Aivor can engage in several thrysts with their love interest, so c'mon...
 
Totaly agree, after sealing the deal with judy i went to do some missions and then decide to drop by at her place but there is nothing to do, no even a repeated sex scene, what im gonna do, go and cheat on her with a joytoy, i wouldnt mind the innocous feeling at the end of the whole ordeal, if it was added to turn the love interest into a sex partner or even add a variety of actions with them,
even Aivor can engage in several thrysts with their love interest, so c'mon...
I know it might sound dumb but honestly, I didnt even feel like doing that with a joytoy or something after Judy, even doing Panams questline, and she flirts with you. I wanted an option to push her aside saying "im with judy" or something but all you can do is role play no your own and feel guilt in real life haha
 
That sounds like you hit the end of the alpha/beta phase of her romance. I hope they do more along that arc and all romanceable arcs. Would be a waste to have players just wham bam thank you ma' am NPC's when they were trying to have an in-game romance instead.

I see a potential problem if/when they add multiplayer. They are going to have to make the NPC's lean more toward monogamy or sleeping around. If each person has that amazing feeling of having that special someone in-game then there are going to be a lot of hurt feelings when they see this guy/gal dating the NPC they thought they were the special someone to/for.

They would have to wipe all former relationship status stuff if/when they include multiplayer which will most assuredly set a lot of players off that already spent time romancing certain NPC's before such time. They should've thought of that before they launched it and not had NPC's be romanceable till after multiplayer hit. Would've been a great incentive for those that want this one NPC as their partner and not lose them to another player.
 
While ME3 had a maybe controversial ending, they nailed the romance part. I always felt connected to Liara and they put the bed up there for the occasional cuddle and even the repeating dialog options felt like there was a bond and that I am with her.
I am now scared to invest in this emotional part of the RPG and then feel suddenly dropped by CDPR because they "forgot" that there is much more than a "mission accomplished, move on" after you "romanced" a character.

First NPCs scream randomly at me, then this news of the OP. Someone at CDPR should study story telling and player connection and not just assemble loose assets to a final game.
 
While ME3 had a maybe controversial ending, they nailed the romance part. I always felt connected to Liara
In ME games, the character you romanced is almost always nearby. On the very same ship, or even in your squad. I guess it helps feeling closer to them too.

Unfortunately, allies AI is so bad in CP77 that you wish they would never join you on a mission. Especially on a stealth mission, which they will ruin with 100% chance.
 
That sounds like you hit the end of the alpha/beta phase of her romance. I hope they do more along that arc and all romanceable arcs. Would be a waste to have players just wham bam thank you ma' am NPC's when they were trying to have an in-game romance instead.

I see a potential problem if/when they add multiplayer. They are going to have to make the NPC's lean more toward monogamy or sleeping around. If each person has that amazing feeling of having that special someone in-game then there are going to be a lot of hurt feelings when they see this guy/gal dating the NPC they thought they were the special someone to/for.

They would have to wipe all former relationship status stuff if/when they include multiplayer which will most assuredly set a lot of players off that already spent time romancing certain NPC's before such time. They should've thought of that before they launched it and not had NPC's be romanceable till after multiplayer hit. Would've been a great incentive for those that want this one NPC as their partner and not lose them to another player.
That's what it felt like. I finished the beta and there was "nothing" more after that. I really hope they expand this in an update or something, its so lacking its actually depressing because of how well they 1st part actually is done. You cant even go "relax" in the game after a long mission or two, sometimes I don't want to log out and do something, keep playing but not continuously be killing things over and over, sometimes nice conversation is nice to slow things down and have another "reason" to keep playing.
Post automatically merged:

While ME3 had a maybe controversial ending, they nailed the romance part. I always felt connected to Liara and they put the bed up there for the occasional cuddle and even the repeating dialog options felt like there was a bond and that I am with her.
I am now scared to invest in this emotional part of the RPG and then feel suddenly dropped by CDPR because they "forgot" that there is much more than a "mission accomplished, move on" after you "romanced" a character.

First NPCs scream randomly at me, then this news of the OP. Someone at CDPR should study story telling and player connection and not just assemble loose assets to a final game.
My thought was that, no one at CDPR actually played the game by themselves, while just actually emotionally investing their time in what they are doing. I dont understand how sex can be the if and end all of a relationship, where the last thing is that you end up in a relationship and the interaction stops. Thats the best part isnt it?
Post automatically merged:

In ME games, the character you romanced is almost always nearby. On the very same ship, or even in your squad. I guess it helps feeling closer to them too.

Unfortunately, allies AI is so bad in CP77 that you wish they would never join you on a mission. Especially on a stealth mission, which they will ruin with 100% chance.
This is sort of what I was looking forward to, at least more interaction throughout the story. A bit more caring nature when you see them, not a finite amount of replies after sex. Really made the whole journey there a bit empty.
 
Honestly I'm not terribly excited about having Judy as my romance option. I haven't played through the whole thing yet but so far she is clearly head over heels for that prostitute that screwed V over at the start of the game. And I am supposed to be super excited about picking up her leftovers? (n)

I'd rather had Panam as an option but we are locked out of that because reasons... :rolleyes:

Heck I was even more interested in Meredith till I found out that was just a one time fling.
 
I think Evelyn is more of her best friend or something, its not left overs lol, that's a bit harsh to say. Judy is great, probably best part of the game for me. Also in life, most people have had a significant other that didn't work out. Thats life.
 
Panam romance progress with my male V got me real good - goosebumps. Some scenes and dialogues are very romantic. What I love the most is how music changes when important dialogue begins. So good <3 .

They did good job with romances but I wish it lasted longer, I mean some sort of dates, extra dialogues.
I don't mean sex, just sort of conection to those characters in the open world - outside of missions etc.
Post automatically merged:

 
While ME3 had a maybe controversial ending, they nailed the romance part. I always felt connected to Liara and they put the bed up there for the occasional cuddle and even the repeating dialog options felt like there was a bond and that I am with her.
Agreed on this 100%. While of course I could always use more interactive options, the ME3 romancing was fantastic. It really is the standard that all romances to any game should be judged and hopefully surpassed. I could not believe the level of bonding I experienced with Kaidan and Shepard. To this day, that relationship remains the best experience I've had with gaming.

That said, CP77 is a huge let down when they're YEARS after games like ME3 and had plenty of study material to use.

When it comes to Judy, I completely get where the OP comes from, but honestly, compared to the rest of the romance options the rest of us get, you should be grateful. These characters are hardly even worth doing side missions for. No desire to get to their sex scenes because they're completely off type.
 
I wish it had more depth to it. I feel like it is just a series to event that result to sex. (Like in real life after thinking about it lol)
 
I'm still disappointed that they gender locked Panam too, because of how integral Panam is to the story, and possibly even to your ending, and yet only males can fully do her storyline. I get the gender lock on the other relationships, but Panam's storyline is too important to simply neuter it on some gender whim.

But yeah for romances this game fell seriously into the Bioware romance trap. Gender lock the romances, and once you seal the deal, it's like the romance never happened until the ending. Heck Judy even asks you to move into her apartment with her, but the apartment doesn't change except the stash opens up. You can't even sleep in the bed. I'm not asking for sex scenes at will, but even a hug or a kiss would be nice, and the ability to actually move into her apartment, and not just have it be another stash hole.

You'd think a game as revolutionary as Cyberpunk would have learned from Bioware's romance mistakes, instead of emulating them.
 
Top Bottom