My idea machine is cooking:
EDIT: My silly self wrote about Braindance without really understanding what braindance is, so, please, for the following post, replace "braindance" with whatever the Cyberpunk 2077 terminology is for full-featured VR ... or, maybe braindance could still apply? I don't know. The idea for a virtual-world Matrix-like experience inside the game, nodding as a tradition all the way to Shakespeare writing a play within a play, still stands. It's an old time honored device and could plausibly work in this setting /Edit
Braindance is a thing in CP 2077. As I understand the concept, it's like VR, but ... more, perhaps with haptic feedback and 3D smell-o-vision. It's also rumored to be addictive, and, is additionally rumored as a Matrix solution for convicted criminals to cool their heels kicking rocks in a virtual world until they've learned their lesson.
Okay, so, first, I personally find it annoying AF when you've acquired a bunch of cool things and abilities in a main quest line, and then, for whatever reason, ALL of that gets taken away until you complete that particular quest.
I can see braindance getting used this way, but, I'd prefer it if it was part of a non-essential SIDE QUEST.
What I think would be cool: You're hired to rescue a client trapped in braindance.
Their brain has been hacked, and "kidnapped" by luring them into a braindance world where the kidnappers are demanding a ransom, or they burn the victim's cortex ... or, some other explanation.
There's already some other team trying to trackdown the "kidnappers", but, you've been hired, specifically, to enter the braindance, and try to rescue the mind of the victim from the inside.
You call on the help of your netrunner connection TBug, or whomever, and get jacked into the braindance world.
From there, it gets weird.
You can pick from several archetype character avatars that will work in the braindance, each with their own specific specializations, equipment, abilities and skills. Only one will have the right tools to save the day, but, you don't know which one, and, if you fail with one archetype, you can try again with the same, and/or choose another archetype.
This can force the player to explore different ways of completing a mission with a more focused approach on narrow specialization.
The braindance world could present itself as indistinguishable from the "real" world setting of Night City, or, if the devs wanted to, they could Easter Egg the Eff out of all the old Witcher assets and make the braindance experience into a Swords and Sorcery Fantasy landscape.
I'm a little partial to mixing up CP 2077 by having the latter Witcher assets get used for a braindance quest.
It could even be a classical fairy-tale save the princess thing where your kindnapped client, regardless gender, is the princess ... or, even the big baddie guarding the princess for a bit of a twist, and you, don't really know how the trapped client is represented inside the braindance, so, there's the danger of killing the client if the wrong braindance NPCs are dealt with harshly.
Additional EDIT: Extra nextra story/quest twisty - the mind you just saved from VR prison wasn't actually "kidnapped", but, is a dangerous AI the contact that hired you discovered and is serving after discovering it, that was locked away long ago in the VR logic loop prison then eventually forgotten, and the body you thought was the human body of your client is actually a sophisticated especially modified human-passable High-end Gemini Borg full-body job, possibly Raven Microcybernetics Ghost "Black Raven" (modified for AI instead of human biopod) variant that's now inhabited and controlled by this dangerous jail-broke AI. Additionally, your jailbreak of this long forgotten dangerous AI triggered forgotten alarms on the net, and now, there's a manhunt for you, and the AI, but, there's still the dangling question of whether the manhunt knows exactly who you are, and you need to take quick action to cover your tracks.
All the exposition detail about the AI, the specially modified high-end human-passable body and what that means, and how very extremely pee your panties right now scary that all is could get relayed by your netrunner friend over comms that was assisting you with the jailbreak that didn't detect any of this earlier due security protocols in place that prevented her seeing what was really happening.
The AI, now in the modified human passable Borg full-body, depending on how you act, could be a potential ally later in the game, or, might snap your neck with just a flick of the wrist depending on how you respond to it once you're back in the real world and it knows you know it's a rogue, dangerous AI. /Edit
The more I think about this, the more I like it.
If anyone knows some dev peeps, and likes this as much as I'm starting to, chirp at them and say; "hey, lookit this".
If it's too late in development to add this as a side quest, it could be a whole DLC thing?
... also, if this braindance the Witcher thing gets to be a thing, I'm not arguing for the WHOLE Witcher game. It's one quest. Stamp out a manageable plot of confined, virtual realestate for that one quest, a few buildings, a cast of characters, different red-herring methods for completing it, and one path that eventually completes.
Thanks.