I think I could manage with having only 2 options and accept that my V has to be bi to even have a choice, if both romances are very different and they have a different personality, so that there is any choice involved at all. Right now choice between River and Judy seems just to be choice of prefered sexual organ, because they are the exact same character.
I play a hard ass Street Samura / Solo, who enjoys city life, synthetic clothes, chrome and neon light. If Iam not the stylished bitch in the room, someone needs to die, so that I can take her clothes.
Now lets see what my options are, regardless of gender:
- Judy. She is a netrunner composing BD porn. Hell yeah. But she doesn't like doing that and wants to help others and then move to the country to live out her farmgirl fantasy. Wouldn't even help me survive my last 6 months searching for a cure before moving to greener fields. Meh.
-River. He is one of the good cops left in this big bad City that no one else seems to survive morally unchallenged. Hell yeah. As soon as we bond he decides to move to the country side, to help his broken trailer trash family and invites me to do the same. Urgh, meh. One grilling is ok, but I will never set my foot again in this trash heap until drunked out of my mind.
- Panam. She is a hard ass mercenary and smuggler. Hell yeah. But she is constantly bickering about her trashy family and friends who wouldn't stick their neck out for her when it counts. I tried to convince her to leave them behing but no. In the end, she just wants to live the low life in the countryside aka badlands, among the trashiest people who besides being adults, need her constant babysitting. Yeah, very inviting.
See that? 3 out of romances dream about being trailer trash and living the dirty hobo life together with emotionally scarred and effed up people who you must constantly babysit. Wow, that was surely my fantasy entering a game set in 2077 named Cyberpunk.
- Kerry. He just wants to fuck and then sell out to some female N-Sync Band to gethis name on the newsfeed again, sucking corporate cock all the way.
I just want to be the most basic character in the setting of cyberpunk. A full blown solo, a merc, who enjoys being on the edge all the time and lives a "devil may care" life. That is like being the lawfull-good warrior in a fantasy game like Neverwinter Nights or Dragon Age. It is THE MOST iconic lifepath for the setting. There is NO ROMANCE for such a character in this game.
Your lover wants to live like a coward with crying hobos or he wants to sell out to little girls for fame and money. V is called a mercenary all the time. Where is the romance that wants to live this live WITH her. I don't even care if gay or not, if the romance is crafted well.
Look at the Mass Effect 2 romances. If I played a do good standard Shepherd I could have a romance with Miranda, Tali, Jack, Jacob, Garrus and Thane. Yeah, thats right. Playing as the regular hero allows you to romance EVERYONE.
if you play an asshole you can have sex with Jack, but not romance her, because she test you with her first try to get sexual. If you hate powermongering and means-to-an-ende morales you won't get near Miranda. If you don't like soldier life, Garrus isn't for you. But if you play some upright guy, a soldier doing his best and not something very specific, all these romances can add a little personal touch to your story. They may have gender preferences, but that is ok if you have so many alternatives.
I want a romance option from someone with Jackies goals. To be a legend, to live fast, hard and with style. Because that is what Cyberpunk is about. Cyberpunk isn't about romanticing living on a trash heap with emotional children in poverty. 75% of romances in this game want to do exactly this. The other one prefers his career and fame over anything else. Wow.
If I played a Netrunner (another extreme iconic role), I have basically no romance options, because netrunner Judy doesn't want to do that anymore. Everyone just wants to live like gypsies. It may be fitting vor Panem, but it fells totally out of character for River and Judy. I fell in love with cop/porn editor - now they just want to be something else. Something simple and boring.
They all want to live like you could today. They all hate the setting they are in. Well I don't, else I wouldn't have bought a game named CYBERPUNK 2077 - it isn't called Badlands Simulator 2020.