I’ve finished the game multiple times and now, after analyzing it, I think one of the greatest problems of Cyberpunk’s narrative is no one else but its main antagonist – or rather the way he is presented.
Why is that? Can we call him a villain at all? Well, the game is built on the idea that evil corporations want to control the world – and for a huge part of the game it’s Yorinobu who represents this idea by being the evil face of Arasaka (contrary to Takemura who’s all about values and virtues). But is his character worth a whole story built around him? Well, that’s an interesting question – and one of the core problems of the game.
But before we start, I want to emphasize that I didn't read any wiki texts because I believe that a good story works only within itself and doesn't need any external info. If it's not in the game it doesn't exist for me. Adding something post-factum or expecting the gamers to read additional articles is just poorly writing. Also it’s not ok if important details can be found only in reading chips – they should be shown in the main storyline.
To sum things up, we need him to be personally related to V’s journey and have some backstory with Johnny – preferably, Johnny’s attack on HQ and his execution should be the very reason why Yarinobu turned his back to Arasaka and start to think about destroying it. We need him to play a more prominent role in the story and cause V real problems. And he should be our final boss.
But there are still a lot of questions, right? Why he tries to kill Hanako although he clearly loves her? Why he steals the Relic with the infamous terrorist Johnny Silverhand? Why he is so focused on destroying Arasaka although he has everything because of it?
There is one simple answer.
Because he’s no longer Yarinobu – but Johnny Silverhand.
I think the perfect ending would be if it occurred that Yarinobu too had the Relic inside him – and went the same journey as V having conversations with Johnny and getting their memories twisted together. But where V was kind and understanding to Johnny’s construct, Yarinobu was led by desire to revenge – and Johhny maximized it to the point where Yarinobu decided to become the bomb himself. So the more hatred Yarinobu felt towards Arasaka, the stronger Johnny’s construct became – and it resulted in Johnny finally taking control of Yarinobu.
After that, having Yarinobu’s memories, he manages to fool Hanako and build a new plan with him becoming the heist of Arasaka – and finally destroying it.
So in the ending we must use everything we’ve learnt about Johnny to win this fight – and make him realize that killing everyone is not an option. This way our journey with him would be of much more importance – and at the ending we’d have a feeling that we indeed saved his soul. It’d even make a nice connection to Delamain side-job where the cars are the same but choose different paths.
Also,it would make Johnny inside V realise the whole weight of what he did – because it doesn't seem that the game is really bothered with Johnny having killed thousands of people. It doesn't matter if they're corps – they are human beings and their blood is on his hands. Johnny should realize that andaccept the guilt for their lives. Otherwise, his arc is leading nowhere.
Anyway, I’d be glad to hear what you think of Yarinobu and whether you like him or not.
Why is that? Can we call him a villain at all? Well, the game is built on the idea that evil corporations want to control the world – and for a huge part of the game it’s Yorinobu who represents this idea by being the evil face of Arasaka (contrary to Takemura who’s all about values and virtues). But is his character worth a whole story built around him? Well, that’s an interesting question – and one of the core problems of the game.
But before we start, I want to emphasize that I didn't read any wiki texts because I believe that a good story works only within itself and doesn't need any external info. If it's not in the game it doesn't exist for me. Adding something post-factum or expecting the gamers to read additional articles is just poorly writing. Also it’s not ok if important details can be found only in reading chips – they should be shown in the main storyline.
- He’s not exceptional. There’s not much we can say about him. He’s the second son of Saburo Arasaka and the rebel child who left the family but then came back. He spent years with gangs and now he’s back to be the heist. His bodyguard is a monstrous criminal and he has a soft spot for his sister. Also, he’s quite lonely since he invites Evelyn to spend a night with.
He doesn’t seem to be a man of any talents or charisma. Even his design is flat (compare him to Takemura, for example). By the end of the game, I’d completely forgotten how he looked at all. Even Smasher looks much more interesting – and, funnily, you may say that it’s Smasher who’s actually the main villain, because, first of all, he appears in every ending as the final boss, and, second, he has a personal issue with Johnny.
- He doesn’t threaten V. He’s not causing V any personal troubles: it seems that Yorinobu doesn’t even know that it’s V who’s stolen the Relic, because no one seems to be interested in catching her. Her face is not on the TV and she doesn’t get instantly known as she walks into any corporate facility. We don’t hear anyone asking about V or running some secret investigation to find her (it could be a nice side-job). Yorinobu is not trying to kidnap any of our love interests by the end of the game to force us to stop our journey. He doesn’t even send V Jackie’s stuff to remind her of what exactly happened the last time they stood against Arasaka. In other words, Yorinobu isn’t shown as a threat – therefore we don’t have to be scared of him.
But what’s worse, he plays no significant role in V’s personal journey. There are even endings where he doesn’t appear at all. What the hell?! He is supposed to be the very person that stands on V’s way and makes it impossible for her to gain freedom – but he seems to be more interested in Takemura than V. What’s the point of paying him any attention then?
- His motive is a cliché. For a huge part of the game we’re expected to believe that all Yorinobu wants is power. It’s only in the ending where we learn that he’s actually a rebel who wants to destroy Arasaka. But even if you're planning a twist by the end, the “get unlimited power” motivation is too weak to provoke any interest until the said twist actually occurs. Whether or not we admire villains usually depends on their motivation – but better their inner conflicts.
And this is where Yorinobu actually has some potential. Because who is Yorinobu? He's the son of Saburo a.k.a. the most powerful man on this planet – but, what's more important, the man who's going to live forever. What is it like to be a heist that will never get all the power? To be an eternal child even when you, like, 80 – and don't have freedom to do what you want? Sure, they didn't want to step on "Altered Carbon" territory, but their characters clearly struggle with the same dilemmas.
Ok, now we start to think that he's just a rebel child who's tired of immortal strict father and wants power – it's fine because this motive is based on the lore and can happen only in Cyberpunk world where powerful people can live centuries or so.
But it’s even better if there’s a clear situation that made Yorinobu turn his back to his father. Perfectly – something related to the terrorist attack by Johnny. For example, Saburo decided not to pay the victims’ families any insurance money. Or killed some of his enemies in the chaos – anything will work as long as it influences Yarinobu and makes him anger with everything the corporation represents. But at first it should seem as if Yarinobu hated his father for causing this situation at all and only then we realize that everything is a bit more complicated.
It can also be Johnny himself – Saburo could force Yarinobu to watch what Arasaka does with terrorists, but Yarinobu, being softer than his father, saw it as a terrible execution and realized that Johhny was right. And since then he decided to continue Johnny’s riot.
- Everything you learn about Yorinobu is true. Characters become more interesting when they appear one way but then prove themselves to be something completely different. The writers tried to do this when they added the twist where it’s revealed that Yorinobu was trying to stop Ararsaka and destroy his father’s legacy. But by that time we hadn’t learnt enough about Yorinobu to actually believe he might be planning something like that or even care about him having some depth at all.
And here's the trick. How we get info about Yorinobu? First, through Eve's memory who's clearly scared of him (so her experience is purely subjective). Then we see him killing his father – both times it's natural for us to feel fear of him (and our experience is subjective). But how we learn the rest? Through Takemura. And who's Takemura? The bodyguard of the very person Yorinobu killed. See the conflict? Even if Takemura wants, he cannot give us a purely objective info because he disdains Yorinobu.
This, by the way, should be the main idea of Yorinobu's quest that ties it with Johnny – that the way we remember a person or a situation is based on our feelings. In other words, we remember everything the way we want to. I’m pretty sure they thought about this concept, because Alt said that Johnny's memories of her abduction only showed his own way of remembering it and not how it’d really happened.
But just imagine how much deeper the character looked if we were constantly getting hints that Yorinobu is something more than just a rebel child? Additional quests, jobs, or people he’s close to – anything is fine, because the more we learn about his past the more we doubt that he’s interested merely in power for power – but rather in freedom. Even Johnny could help with that by noticing hints of Yorinobu’s true goals.
- He doesn’t use his power to change anything in the City to worsen the situation. Ideally, the journey of the antagonist should cause troubles and risks not only for the protagonist but also for the people they care about. But nothing really changes since Yorinobu gets this unlimited power – no real consequences, no additional risks or problems on the streets. And this is a problem itself, because what exactly should I be scared about? Maybe Yorinobu is actually a good guy who will lead the world to freedom? Maybe I should help him? After all, it’s the father he killed who built Arasaka and controlled the world. What reasons do I have to think otherwise?
And it doesn’t have to be obvious of course. For example, the first day after Saburo’s death a riot happens, but Arasaka suppresses it following Yorinobu’s order. There’s a lot of blood and pain and we see it ourselves. Then we constantly watch TV where rebels are described as savages. The gangs are pissed off and planning another riot. So we realize that the situation is getting hot very soon. This, by the way, would nicely work with the mechanics of V working with gangs and choosing which of them would attack Arasaka in the final mission. This way it would be understandable why the whole army couldn’t stop two or three people from breaking into HQ and killing everyone – because the main forces were fighting on the streets.
Plus, it goes exactly with Yarinobu’s plan because he wants to destroy Arasaka but cannot do it openly. So he provokes the gangs to make a move – and in this chaos he can kill Hanako or anyone else.
And it’s not necessary to make it all obvious. Until the last mission we can stay under impression that he’s a dictator who wants to destroy every Arasaka’s enemy. But through the game we would hear the gangs talking about some messiah or force that is trying to destroy Arasaka. And while doing side-jobs we would read messages about mysterious people who keep buying the gangs properties or make deals with them – which means there is a war coming. It can also lead to the fact that Yarinobu is planning a war with Militech – I had some dialogues about this in the game, but it didn’t seem like a big deal since there're no consequences.
To sum things up, we need him to be personally related to V’s journey and have some backstory with Johnny – preferably, Johnny’s attack on HQ and his execution should be the very reason why Yarinobu turned his back to Arasaka and start to think about destroying it. We need him to play a more prominent role in the story and cause V real problems. And he should be our final boss.
But there are still a lot of questions, right? Why he tries to kill Hanako although he clearly loves her? Why he steals the Relic with the infamous terrorist Johnny Silverhand? Why he is so focused on destroying Arasaka although he has everything because of it?
There is one simple answer.
Because he’s no longer Yarinobu – but Johnny Silverhand.
I think the perfect ending would be if it occurred that Yarinobu too had the Relic inside him – and went the same journey as V having conversations with Johnny and getting their memories twisted together. But where V was kind and understanding to Johnny’s construct, Yarinobu was led by desire to revenge – and Johhny maximized it to the point where Yarinobu decided to become the bomb himself. So the more hatred Yarinobu felt towards Arasaka, the stronger Johnny’s construct became – and it resulted in Johnny finally taking control of Yarinobu.
After that, having Yarinobu’s memories, he manages to fool Hanako and build a new plan with him becoming the heist of Arasaka – and finally destroying it.
So in the ending we must use everything we’ve learnt about Johnny to win this fight – and make him realize that killing everyone is not an option. This way our journey with him would be of much more importance – and at the ending we’d have a feeling that we indeed saved his soul. It’d even make a nice connection to Delamain side-job where the cars are the same but choose different paths.
Also,it would make Johnny inside V realise the whole weight of what he did – because it doesn't seem that the game is really bothered with Johnny having killed thousands of people. It doesn't matter if they're corps – they are human beings and their blood is on his hands. Johnny should realize that andaccept the guilt for their lives. Otherwise, his arc is leading nowhere.
Anyway, I’d be glad to hear what you think of Yarinobu and whether you like him or not.
