A Table at the Cantina

After finally beating the character creation boss (this involved much rinsing, much repeating), I settled in and played a max-Intel, max-Cool Netrunner: so hacks as weapons with stealth. I also played non-lethal except in the few instances where that wasn’t an option. 

Quests in the game give credit toward three quest categories:

1. related to side-jobs and gigs and tracks your effort to become a legend in Night City.
2. tracks your progress getting to know Jonny and helping him reconnect with his past.
3. tracks progress toward finding a way to remove the biochip that’s killing you and Jonny both.

I cleared all side-jobs and gigs before doing much work on the 3rd category. (On second play through I realized I hadn’t been clearing the NCPD gigs. Live and learn.) When I got to it, the quests in that category went quickly, and I was soon meeting with the daughter of Arasaka to launch the final quest sequence. When I was finally done with everything, I felt spent. The story worked for me and wound up being unexpectedly emotional. (I mean, I’m writing this….)

Me and Jonny

The game starts with a job gone wrong that puts Jonny—a rock star slash rebel slash apparent terrorist—inside my head as a data construct. Everyone thought he died decades ago setting off a bomb in Arasaka Corp’s headquarters, but he was actually captured and his psyche was removed from his body and translated into a data construct on a chip. That chip wound up stuck in my head and is slowly killing me. The upside is that it also means Jonny’s there, offering advice and sometimes later in the game, taking the driver’s seat for a few quests related to the second category. The quest journal text is actually Jonny’s commentary on the quest, although I didn’t realize this at first. Early on, when he first awoke and before he realized he was a construct, he tried to kill me. Good times.

Oh and for the record, Jonny’s attack on Arasaka Tower was his attempt to save his girlfriend, Alt, who had been kidnapped. He was also trying to destroy the Soulkiller, the secret Arasaka software that can kill people while converting them into data constructs that can be stored in the corporation’s vaults.

Here Jonny is waiting for me at the entrance to one of Maelstrom’s clubs early on in the quests for the second category:

Here is Kerry, Jonny’s best friend from when he was alive, and who has a not at all secret crush on Jonny:

Here’s Jonny looking at a portrait of Kerry, who has become a reclusive musical genius during his absence.

It’s all trashy, but good trashy lol

My take on the endings I played through in another post. See here for various play throughs I’ve done so far.