River Ward Feedback (Spoilers)

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The problem is all the disconnects. Like everyone says here. The romance section of the characters where slapped on. Weather that's true or not. Is not really the point. The friendship parts are all fine. But the other half rears its head hard. Especially on Kerry. You have to cover all avenues with a game like this. That also means no awkward moments that make people think the character swings both ways. But they didn't. All characters have moments where the Romance portion starts up. Than it just gets slammed down. When you hit the conversation wall.

Examples. Going on the water tower with River. This is all setup for the romance. This does not work with male V. Panam, in the shack they wait out the storm. The cheers for boobs scene triggers her to put her legs on V. This does not work with female V. Kerry puts his face up to V. When they're destroying the boat. This REALLY does not work with female V. Especially after he rejects you on that rooftop right before.

Laziness to fully animated and do dialog clues to tell you their preferences. Instead of: Kerry puts face up to V, and puckers. Car slams into wall. Nah, I don't go that way. Uh, this is not how humans react. The other indicators: V has no option to say I'm in a relationship. You have to make sure to say no, like if you have no romance going on. Second, you can avoid telling River about Johnny. But when you call him up for the final time. There is no option to tell him about Johnny this last time. So once you make that choice the first time. it's not coming back up. This is against the ending of the game. Where even after you make your decision on an ending. It STILL gives you a chance to change your mind.
 
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My apologies for not commenting on River specifically but...

And then there is Kerry, who is like my favorite comedy relief character after Takemura (but of course Takemura has also a lots of depth). Obviously in love with Johnny and desperate for his approval. I just finished the quest where he asks for help in destroying some poor k-pop girls band. Seriously guys... Romancing Panam is just so much easier...
Hard disagree. While Kerry does take things up to 11 super fast he's not a comedic relief character. He's more complex than people give him credit for and it's pretty sad to see him being continuously simplified.
 
River has so much potential and not just as an interesting romance character, but the untapped gigs he could provide. Panam is fun but River could really bring you 'behind the scenes' of the NCPD which is a constant presence throughout the game.
Initially, I was looking forward to that little insight with the Barry quest in the beginning. (but that turtled quickly.)
Aside from small jobs and minor conversations, you really don't get a big role in anyway with the NCPD. (Most you get that I have experienced is the Crucification guy.)
I guess I'll have to keep my fingers crossed for an NCPD/Rivers DLC. ♥♥
 
I personally don't even like River in general. All other characters have their own unique personality, charisma, motivation, but River... don't know. He's just boring. Typical good guy. Seems like devs where too lazy for inventing some good story for him. I don't like the look of him neither.

Kerry is great character, his only problem is a lack of content compared to Panam and Judy. His questline was way too rush (as well as River's one).
 
I was initially so put-off by his ogre gait and Macklemore jacket lol. But he really grew on me like a lot of the characters did. His character arc was great. I felt gutted for him when his partner told him his do-good "idealist BS" didn't mean anything. I really liked him as a romance option, but the actual romance arc was the most neglected of the 4.

I wish the endings for him weren't all so sour. I did the Nomad ending first and got DUMPED. Then I rode off into the sunset cuddling with Panam (???) in what was clearly a nice romantic ending written only for straight male V (???????)

I did Path of Glory next and the conversation with River is just so tense and sad. I braced for another breakup (NO NOT AGAIN :(). It ultimately just ends there on a shaky note.

Oddly enough, the nicest River ending is the Arasaka ending but it's just a 30 second phone call. He goes full Liam Neeson and tells you he is going to fly up and find you and take you home. Where was this guy in all the other endings?

The devs poured all the warm fuzzies into the male V/Panam ending. Judy can also sneak in for a nice happy ending. Games in general still really cater to straight male players. But the RPGs I've played that made an effort to be inclusive with romance options have also all attempted to do so equitably - except CP2077.

It sucks to love a game and have one of its final messages to you be "you weren't the priority".
 
The devs poured all the warm fuzzies into the male V/Panam ending. Judy can also sneak in for a nice happy ending. Games in general still really cater to straight male players. But the RPGs I've played that made an effort to be inclusive with romance options have also all attempted to do so equitably - except CP2077.

It sucks to love a game and have one of its final messages to you be "you weren't the priority".
That's the core problem. And it becomes painfully obvious when it comes to River's romance.

:giveup:
 
After finding the River post dinner scene fine with my male V i found it very cringy with with Female lesbian V.
You've just had the fun but very awkward moment where Joss has outed River(she clearly missed the point when my V mentioned how fine she was looking). You then go on the tower walk with V injecting lots of romantic auto-dialogue, then river's 'you know why we're here' moment and the pick up lines stuff before you can shut him down. Surely some sort of romance flag/cutoff during the dinner convo would have made sense and then either shifting or romantic or platonic tower scenes dependent on your choice.
 
After each romance is over I was surprised that I could not go back and at least sleep next to them or choose to share a meal again or in rivers case play with the kids once more and same with judy, maybe utilize the BD's you can buy in shops and you can do another BD with judy or something.

After friendship and romancing there is what I am sure of cut content, because Panam camp, judys and rivers places all get the House symbol on map and it states a place for V to rest.

In judys place you can also see an area that says storage, but unable to interact or use. So I think each place were supposed to have storage and usable bed, otherwise the house symbol makes no sense at all.

And the fact that there is no need to sleep also seem maybe something cut or missed, like fallout where if you don't sleep you will pass out where you are with sometimes bad things happening. There is stuff missing with the houses and homes.
Like in Skyrim you should be able to go sleep with your romance more then once.
 
After finding the River post dinner scene fine with my male V i found it very cringy with with Female lesbian V.
You've just had the fun but very awkward moment where Joss has outed River(she clearly missed the point when my V mentioned how fine she was looking). You then go on the tower walk with V injecting lots of romantic auto-dialogue, then river's 'you know why we're here' moment and the pick up lines stuff before you can shut him down. Surely some sort of romance flag/cutoff during the dinner convo would have made sense and then either shifting or romantic or platonic tower scenes dependent on your choice.

I felt similar with some parts of Judy's quest, but River's really puts you on the spot the longest if you're not interested. Needs a much earlier bail-out button.

The man needs an in-between quest cuz boy does it go from 0-100 quick.
 
After finding the River post dinner scene fine with my male V i found it very cringy with with Female lesbian V.
You've just had the fun but very awkward moment where Joss has outed River(she clearly missed the point when my V mentioned how fine she was looking). You then go on the tower walk with V injecting lots of romantic auto-dialogue, then river's 'you know why we're here' moment and the pick up lines stuff before you can shut him down. Surely some sort of romance flag/cutoff during the dinner convo would have made sense and then either shifting or romantic or platonic tower scenes dependent on your choice.

It was kind of cringe worthy because of it's abruptness in every context. My "V" was flexible in the sex department. Not for any particular reason. It's just given the setting I was like fuck it, if it's got two legs.... <--- Creepy in the context of a video game, I know. Don't fucking judge me :). Anyways.... It struck me as, "Let's have dinner with my family.". That somehow quickly turned into, "Let's bail on the family and go fuck.". Okay then....

Fast forward a bit and, yep, we hooked up with Judy beforehand. I sure hope she doesn't connect the dots. Cause, sorry, my V got dicked pretty good by River. Only got weeks to live Judy... gonna party like a rockstar.
 
I think you somehow skipped some of his dialogue? Because I remember talking about the Johnny situation with him.

I actually had this happen too! So maybe it's a glitch? I do know I encountered one or two during his quests that mighta mucked something up. Basically it was stuck as though he was on the holo for most of the quests and I couldn't interact with him in person/in between until I completed it.
 
I actually had this happen too! So maybe it's a glitch?

If it is a glitch I didn't get, but should be reported then.

I do know I encountered one or two during his quests that mighta mucked something up. Basically it was stuck as though he was on the holo for most of the quests and I couldn't interact with him in person/in between until I completed it.

I saw someone having the same stuck holo with Takemura, in the patch 1.1 thread. I know that River's dialogue is messed up after romance scene you can not talk to him on the holo, he always hangs up.
 
If you choose the dialogue option "heavy convo for the morning" it completely skips the conversation about the relic. It's not clear either so it's really easy to miss.

I actually think this is one of the main reasons the romance feels off. V never opens up in any way to River before this one dialogue about the relic, which happens AFTER the final romance scene. Through the first 2 (of only 3) quests, all your conversations are about the mission you're on. There's no set up for a personal connection between V and River.

He's supposed to be a subtle and reserved guy. I think they tried to create the spark as V is flirted with by proxy. The Tyger claws and the niece/nephew make comments about V being his girlfriend. But he brushes it off so unphased and nonchalantly that it had the opposite effect for me.

River then calls V to trigger the last quest and says he misses her. My reaction was - uhhh.. why? Up until this point V hasn't said or done anything beyond just being a helpful merc and River has shown zero romantic interest. Then up at the tower he teases that he might be falling in love with her. He's somehow getting wrapped up in someone he knows nothing about. It's a huge jump and left me feeling like I missed a quest somewhere.

To pull an example from Panam - you can tell her about your loss of Jackie and she makes a quiet toast to him by a fire. It's a small detail, but it matters that we get to see these reactions when V opens up. It is a very endearing scene and a lot of players still talk about this moment. Panam asks a lot more personal questions in general. There's nothing like this for River and there really are no moments that feel like 2 people getting to know or growing on each other.
 
If you choose the dialogue option "heavy convo for the morning" it completely skips the conversation about the relic.
And if you don't romance him you can't tell him about relic at all. Some "friend" he is... You can tell Judy and Panam about Johnny no matter if you romance them or not, they are friends anyway and will sympathize and comfort you, but River just gives a zero fucks about V :coolstory:
 
If you choose the dialogue option "heavy convo for the morning" it completely skips the conversation about the relic. It's not clear either so it's really easy to miss.

You still can tell him if you go about "not being able to think of the future", instead of kissing.

But I agree that in the friendship with Panam you can talk much more about it than when romancing River, his romance was rushed compared with the straight male V got, a shame.
 
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I think its fair to say that CDP could do with looking to add in a bit more content and interactions with all of the characters, especially the romanceable ones. By the time I'd gotten to River I'd already romanced Judy so the 'come over meet the family' thing being a puppy dog playdate was kind of awkward too say the least, especially as there's no opportunity at the dinner table to politely drop that you're already seeing someone, so you have to get all the way to the water tower to then give him the 'let's be friends' treatment (I felt bad, but I can't abandon Judy).

One of my big criticisms is also that there's no real 'end dialogue' a lot of the time. Like 'Ok I've gotta go, catch you later Judy' instead you just run out of things to say and then awkwardly just walk away. For a game that's really tapping into immersion through FP that lack of goodbye feel's like a lost opportunity.

Beyond bug fixes and QoL if CDP really wants to score some points back with players, they need to look at adding those small touches as well as upping the general level of interactions, especially post romance. I quite liked with River on the water tower in answering his questions you actually learn a bit about V, and it would be kind of cool to see that extended to Panam and Judy (they're big on talking about themselves less in asking V questions).
 
One of my big criticisms is also that there's no real 'end dialogue' a lot of the time.
This! I hate it too. I mean in general I like the idea that during the dialogue your are not heavily scripted with cutscene where you a totally locked from everything except for picking the answers, I like these immersive dialogues Cyberpunk provides, but hell yes, they could do something with decent ending of conversation. In most cases V looks like schizophrenic when acting like this, just turning away from the person he's chatting with
 
This! I hate it too. I mean in general I like the idea that during the dialogue your are not heavily scripted with cutscene where you a totally locked from everything except for picking the answers, I like these immersive dialogues Cyberpunk provides, but hell yes, they could do something with decent ending of conversation. In most cases V looks like schizophrenic when acting like this, just turning away from the person he's chatting with

Indeed. At the very least say for example with Judy, post romance at her apartment, you might give her a hug and a kiss, peck on the cheek or something before leaving.
 
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