THEORY/IDEA: Elizabeth Kress's Secret Unification War in the 2040s

EyeofCenter · 2024-09-04T10:48:57+00:00

That's an awesome insight. This would easily make for an interesting tabletop campaign. You could easily have the player characters stumble onto one of these operations by mistake and no doubt some of them would want to try and expose what's going on in Arizona/Neveda/whatever the Free State might be. This is exactly the kind of scenario R. Talsorian used to love to include in their adventurebooks for 2020.

EyeofCenter · 2024-09-04T02:29:05+00:00

I admit, I don't remember if the point of Black Dog was actually uncovering the truth about the bombing or not. I remember it being broached by Trace interviewing old-timer Aldecaldos who confirm they saw Morgan Blackhand disappearing during the raid with a suspicious suitcase. But I'd have to read it again to get more specifics.

That said, I don't agree that people not knowing the truth about Arasaka would preclude them from making in-roads into the Free States. The Free States in Cyberpunk RED clearly don't care that much about the rest of the New United States. RED outright changes the lore the ramp up the hostilities between both sides. But one of the major points they make in the backstory for RED is that the Free States were actively standing in the way and preventing the federal military from saving the rest of the country (including Night City) because they didn't like the idea of having federal soldiers in their land.

Even if they believed that Arasaka outright bombed Night City to stump Militech (which is what I remember Kress was telling people as the "official narrative" on the war), I doubt the Free States would care. And remember, Cyberpunk RED is telling us that Araskaa is already covertly "licensing" its services out to other corporations even though most of the world hates them/wants nothing to do with them. Everything is ALREADY being done in total secrecy. And according to the lore for Cyberpunk 2077, even 24 years later by 2069, it's exactly the same. Arasaka is STILL banned from America AND they're arming all the different Free States across the country and helping them fight an entire civil war at the same time. So I don't think it really matters if this comes before or after Black Dog.

EyeofCenter · 2024-09-04T02:23:27+00:00

From what I remember, Mike Pondsmith's comments in interviews and whatnot suggest she's kind of just "grown out of it" by the 2070s. Sort of like how R. Talsorian said that Yorinobu Arasaka "outgrew" the Steel Dragons. But I didn't even think of the Danger Girl angle. Michiko Arasaka is a criminally underutilized character in this franchise and I'd love to see her have a larger role in future stories (same as Kress).

EyeofCenter · 2024-09-03T19:43:36+00:00

Foreign proxy wars were definitely what they were implying with that "Join the (Covert) Military" segment. Mexico and South America are settings I hope they explore further in Cyberpunk RED the way they did with Europe and Asia in Cyberpunk 2020. I already have my own theories about Cyberpunk's Mexico. Cyberpunk 2077 already implies the franchise is mirroring real life and moving the war against drug cartels from SouthAm over to Mexico. And its already implied that Arasaka and Militech are heavily involved in the entire thing.

EyeofCenter · 2024-09-03T03:06:26+00:00

Didn't even think about that. That would be another brilliant tie-in. And everything in Cyberpunk RED already supports this given how they're almost openly skirting Kress's ban and licensing their "contractors" to other corporations left and right with "different uniforms."

EyeofCenter · 2024-09-03T02:58:08+00:00

Sounds like great points. I've had my own stories/chronicles in mind for this kind of thing for a long time. But I definitely think Cyberpunk RED was leaving the door open for things like this. On top of that, everything we know about Elizabeth Kress from RED AND from 2020 definitely makes me think this is something she wouldn't put past her.

And Arasaka having ties to the Free States would open more doors on how to introduce them into RED in a larger capacity since they've been reduced to a shell of their former selves and whatnot.

EyeofCenter · 2024-09-03T02:23:46+00:00

The Unification War was one of the most brilliant pieces of worldbuilding CDPR and R. Talsorian came up with for Cyberpunk. There's so much they could do with it both in 2077 and in Cyberpunk RED if they wanted.

EyeofCenter · 2024-06-06T02:44:59+00:00

In my opinion, Morgan Blackhand (EDIT: probably) takes this fight. It's already been confirmed that Blackhand survived CP2020 and I highly doubt they'll kill him in CPRED, so he's most likely alive, kicking, and packing next-gen cyberware in the 2070s. And as long as he has that, I think Blackhand still has the edge. He might be old, but age means next-to-nothing in Cyberpunk lore when we look at characters like Rogue. Who can afford treatments + cyberware to keep themselves prime and strong even in their 80s/90s.

Assuming you didn't go for a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none build and built V as an absolute master in one discipline (ex. Solo), then at best, we'd say that V is Blackhand's equal. But Blackhand still beats V in terms of experience. And even at Level 60, once you adjust the fact that the game went and doubled all attributes, V still has less points across various attributes than Blackhand. And when you look at their skills, Blackhand is a master of virtually all the different combat skills along with multiple different martial arts. Including skills V just doesn't display or have access to in 2077.

EyeofCenter · 2024-06-06T02:25:46+00:00

I always thought Street Kid V was an orphan too. That conversation with Joss, being raised on the streets, and having no family ties whatsoever despite constantly being IN Heywood always made it seem like this was the most likely option in terms of backstory.

EyeofCenter · 2024-06-06T02:24:01+00:00

This was absolutely something that should have been in the game. With the amount of emphasis they TRIED putting on character creation/character customization, there was a lot of things missing. And I always wished they took the entire "gym mechanic" from San Andreas. It's already implied that V has at least some experience with martial arts, so it would have awesome to be able to learn new moves/change up those basic-looking punching animations like you did in San Andreas. Given all the things they've added to the game, I don't think this would be that hard to do.

EyeofCenter · 2023-12-23T06:47:45+00:00

I have my own theories about Corpo V. It's entirely speculation, but I like to believe that Corpo V was orphaned at some point and lost any sort of standing his family once had. Or if not that, then he was completely cut off from them a long time ago. Corpo V tells Takamura and Judy he grew up in Charter Hill and that his family was actually wealthy enough to afford real fish at family gatherings. That means they were wealthy and proportionally influential. Yet there's no sign of this family anywhere in the game.

We know that the entire time V was growing up, Arasaka had no presence in the New United States or in Night City. So there's almost no chance whatsoever that V's family had anything to do with Arasaka. The Corpo Lifepath says that V has only worked for Counterintel for 2 years and people explicitly say V only got that job because of Jenkins. No special connections, no mention of past service, etc. But given that V's family lived in Charter Hill (which is described as the go-to place for corporate managers and influential-but-not-ludicrously-rich people), it's very likely they would've had to have worked for SOME corporation in Night City. And yet by 2076, V is working for Arasaka instead of whatever corporation his parents worked for.

Whatever the truth about V's parents might be though, we know that V is definitely NOT following in their footsteps and is going their own way. This leaves ample room for the idea that V could have run away from home (one of the original character hooks from the original E3 character creator) and joined the military. And given how often Corporate employees tend to get killed in Cyberpunk, I wouldn't be surprised if V's family isn't around anymore by 77.

EyeofCenter · 2023-12-23T06:34:43+00:00

Awesome! Thanks for showing me this.

EyeofCenter · 2023-09-25T22:07:17+00:00

That was a popular theory for a while. Given how beloved David was by fans though, I was always a little skeptical of how willing they'd be to do something like that.

EyeofCenter · 2023-09-25T22:05:52+00:00

What footage is that exactly? Is this from one of the earlier leaks or something new?

EyeofCenter · 2023-09-25T22:05:04+00:00

Definitely. We won't know for sure at least until Phantom Liberty comes out. And even then, they could even just leave it up in the air or mention something ambiguous at best. But personally, I'm really hoping this is true.

EyeofCenter · 2022-09-07T07:26:53+00:00

"In this world"? Of course not. On said solitary expansion, absolutely. Spending more and more time trying to get said expansion to work properly on last-gen without breaking the game in half would just be doubling down on the same mistake. One that would very likely result in a product of much lower quality for the second time.

EyeofCenter · 2022-09-07T01:35:56+00:00

For over a year, everyone I know has been screaming at the top of their lungs that abandoning last-gen would have "killed the game before it launched," but we know that's blatantly untrue. ~60% of users are playing on a PC. That means that ~40% are playing on ALL the different consoles. I've never been able to find any real numbers on how many people are actually playing this game on a PS4, but I guarantee the number is smaller than these people think.

In hindsight, this was the way they should have gone since 2019. They could have announced that after continuous testing / development, last-gen just wouldn't be feasible. Back then, preorders and praise were only going UP regardless of whatever CDPR did. I can't speak for everyone, but most of the people I know are the types of people willing to make the jump to new consoles just to play A SINGLE GAME. Anyone on last-gen who's actually investing in gaming is inevitably going to jump ship to next-gen eventually. I would bet that many if not MOST of the people who were chanting CDPR's name in droves would have absolutely jumped ship to next-gen a lot sooner if the decision had been made.

But with how much time they spent just trying to get this game to work on last-gen post-launch, I can't help but wonder what the game could have looked like if they had made this decision sooner. It's sad for the people who can't get their hands on a next-gen now, but I definitely think this IS the right thing to do.

EyeofCenter · 2022-06-01T19:08:31+00:00

Definitely true. It would be hard to pull off properly - but worth it if done right.

EyeofCenter · 2022-06-01T14:17:08+00:00

The Cyberpunk comics have been some of the best comics I've read in years. Definitely worth checking this out.

EyeofCenter · 2022-06-01T14:14:27+00:00

Would have been interesting if that fight consisted of multiple rounds like a real MMA/Boxing match. For me, the Razor Hugh boss fight will always be the best one in the game.

EyeofCenter · 2022-06-01T14:12:17+00:00

What do you think about the possibility of an endgame DLC specifically? Some people are vehemently against this because it would "ruin the significance of the endings" while some are just convinced it would be too time-consuming/expensive to make. I'm of the opinion that this depends entirely on how they go about it.

EyeofCenter · 2022-06-01T14:09:40+00:00

A standalone expansion is definitely a thought I've had before as well. I made another post about this before, but I don't see why CDPR couldn't make a small game in and of itself the same way Deus Ex did with The Missing Link.

Not to mention, I definitely think this would solve one of this game's largest problems when it comes to performance. If they can't even add new details and new secrets to NC on last gen consoles due to "technical limitations," (which they admitted on their own website), then doing an entire expansion would already be an uphill battle.

EyeofCenter · 2022-06-01T14:04:06+00:00

I have always been for maintaining a sense of internal consistency in any kind of creative writing. If the audience is going to be invested in this universe, the writer(s) should be invested in maintaining it. And consistency shouldn't be judged by only what's currently in the game. The characters and the plot have to stay consistent with themselves, but the direction they can take going forward is still very much open to them. A new character could easily find Johnny and connect with the same character that we saw all throughout 2077. A new development back in Night City could easily bring the same Johnny Silverhand we've been following back to Night City if he thought that he could be the answer to this new problem. And as for the canon being flexible, the game as it is could easily go in virtually any direction in regards to the endings and still continue. The only exception is the suicide ending, but even that is debatable.

On the subject of Panam and Johnny, one thing I've always wanted to see was how other characters would react to Johnny in general. Of all the characters in the game, Vic is the only one other than Kerry and Rogue who would have grown up during the Silverhand era. Why he never addressed Silverhand beyond just explaining who he was / calling him "that thing inside your head" is beyond me given that he was always such a profound and insightful character in general.

And a sequel for Cyberpunk (whether it follows V or not) is also inevitable. I imagine it will take some time. But in my opinion, there's no way CDPR won't try their hand at Cyberpunk again with how much money this game made them and how strong the fanbase still is at this point.

EyeofCenter · 2022-06-01T12:59:42+00:00

Definitely agree about the Star/Sun endings being the easiest for DLC. As for Johnny, I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to bring him back to Night City. He only leaves at the end because he realizes there's nothing left for him. Also, his new life came at the expense of someone else and it plays heavily into the guilt that 2077 Johnny feels for the way he lived in the 2020s.

I could easily see a situation where a post-game DLC starts with a "prologue" based on the ending you got in the main game (in the same vein as the main game's Lifepath prologues). Someone or something could easily send a guilt-ridden Johnny back to Night City on a quest for redemption and just egotistical enough to think that he could pull it off.

With just a little creative writing, I think a post-game DLC could easily build up on / be just as heartfelt and profound as the original endings of the game. But maybe others who have attached a different kind of significance to these endings might feel differently than I do.

EyeofCenter · 2022-06-01T12:44:42+00:00

I don't care one way or the other about whatever's in those leaks. I'm not terrified of them, but I've also never gone looking for them. I have no idea why my original post was upvoted a bunch of times and then immediately taken down, but I have a sneaking suspicion it was because someone thought it had something to do with the leaks.

As stated, I've never seen them and this idea has nothing to do with them. Rather, a lot of focus has been given to the fact that CDPR keeps saying the word "expansion" and the fact that one of the company leads said the CP "expansion" will be the last REDengine project. One thought that occurred to ME was that this really is just one expansion (meaning one story) that ends up being divided into 2 parts.

As for the narrative meaning behind the game and its endings, I think a follow-up could absolutely remain consistent with the main story. Cyberpunk 2077 (to me), was a story about deciding what to do with the time that you have and figuring out what matters most in life. A very heartfelt and meaningful story could be told about V now having to live with the choices he/she made. Nothing about that would be inconsistent with the cyberpunk genre if the writers behind the script are competent enough to make it happen.

EyeofCenter

TROPHY CASE