One of the most anticipated video games coming this year is Cyberpunk 2077 with its futuristic setting, promising mechanics, featured popular actors starring in it, and the sprawling Night City with what it offers to players. It is a city filled with different kinds of NPCs with different races, gender, modifications, preferences, and many factors.
One of the concerns of many gamers right now for this game is how will the NPCs react to the customized characters they have created. Would their relationships be affected by their gender? Would some quests be deprived from them because they chose to be male or female?
Lead Quest Designer Pawel Sasko explains how NPCs will perceive the customized characters.
According to Sasko, this is a particular issue for the game studio since this is quite sensitive for society these days. In the game though, NPCs will perceive the player’s customized character depending on how the character was built.
“How you create your character is influenced by what type of body you have, whether it is male or female, but the voice you choose affects how the characters you meet perceive you and what pronoun they address to you, i.e. how you identify as a character,” said Sasko. “For us, the world of Cyberpunk and the future is something that in Mike Pondsmith’s pen & paper role-playing game, was a very progressive approach to the very concept of a character and what a human is as a person.”
Players are given a lot of freedom to create their own characters in the game. This was the reason for CD Projekt RED to separate genital choice from body choice and voice choice. They wanted players to define their characters however they want them to be. These choices will be very important in the game.
NPCs will identify the characters the players created with the voice they chose. This will also affect how these in-game characters will address each other in the game. The important factor that the game studio is looking for is how they approach the narrative with the plot.
Sasko revealed that the characters that players meet in the game will have their own preferences. He explained that NPCs will not judge the players with the character’s body, background, voice, or the sexual organs they chose. They can become their friends or lovers depending on the choices the players make in the game. The preferences they have might affect slightly, but ultimately it will be about the decisions the players make.
Sasko continued:
Thanks to this, you’ll be able to create your individual story and relationship with that particular character. Will you develop a friendship or a romantic relationship between you and lead to sex and an intimate, close relationship, it is in your hands.
In the real world, gender and physical appearance might affect relationships as well as how you approach that particular person, but it will be different in Cyberpunk 2077. It will be more about the choices that you make in the game and live with the consequences.
Cyberpunk 2077 will launch this coming Nov. 19 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia, and PC. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions will launch when the next-gen consoles will be released.
Interview source: Spider’s Web