Transcript

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome back to the Gaming Backlog book club. We are here to chat about all of Act 2’s story quests and the special moments of Cyberpunk 2077. Up until you unlock. But don’t start the quest. Nocturne op5005N1 reminder, we do go into spoilers, so if you want to avoid those, start at a previous episode, catch up, and come back to this one once you’re ready.

Alex, do you know what I’m gonna ask now?

[00:00:29] Speaker B: Radio station.

[00:00:31] Speaker A: Yeah, you got it,

[00:00:36] Speaker B: man.

Now I’m blocking. I was actually been switching through radio stations.

[00:00:42] Speaker A: Yeah. To be fair, this was a very long section of Game over, two weeks.

So that’s totally fair. And I was the same. Right. Bounced between a couple of different ones. But did you have, like a. Anything that sticks out in your mind?

[00:00:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the main one that I was actually listening to to most of this time was.

I think I might have been Ritual FM 96.1. Ritual FM.

[00:01:05] Speaker A: Okay. That sound. I know the name was. What kind of music was that?

[00:01:13] Speaker B: Very good question. I don’t know. It was just enjoyable.

[00:01:16] Speaker A: All right, all right.

[00:01:17] Speaker B: No, it was more. That’s what it is. It’s more extreme metal.

[00:01:21] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I believe that was the one I was actually. Last time.

[00:01:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Which actually worked. It was fitting for. It was fitting for a few. I think I did it later on. I think I did it more with the later on Judy quests, which actually kind of fit more.

[00:01:38] Speaker A: Yeah, fit the narrative there. Yeah, yeah. I got a lot of my heavy metal anger out in last. Last episode after Jackie. So I. I hear you on that one. And it fits here in many places, of course.

Yeah, I also switched. Oh, go ahead.

[00:01:55] Speaker B: No, I was gonna say I also switched to like 98. 7, which was a body heat radio, which was like just pop music.

[00:02:01] Speaker A: Pop.

[00:02:02] Speaker B: Okay.

[00:02:04] Speaker A: Which I. Okay, I guess. Side note, I did notice during the Mr. Hands quest, of all places, that there was a song from Cyberpunk Edgerunners playing, like, the cl. Like the most famous song, I want to say, from. From that show.

I was like, this does not fit your little office here, dude.

But anyway, I also mixed it up the radios a lot. I this time listened the most to 88.9 Pacific Dreams, which I describe as somewhere between downtempo electronic music and just ambient sounds.

It’s a vibe, that’s for sure.

[00:02:45] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:02:47] Speaker A: But, yeah, good music all around.

Have you modded your appearance at all?

[00:02:52] Speaker B: I did, yes. I did mod my appearance.

I changed my hairstyle, I changed My hair color. I changed my eye color. I changed some scarring on my face. I changed the cyberware on my face.

And then some makeup colors and lipstick color. I changed.

[00:03:14] Speaker A: Okay, okay, okay.

[00:03:16] Speaker B: I have a. I have a actual photo from me playing what I look like with, like, the stuff I had on doing this. So I will post that.

[00:03:23] Speaker A: Excellent.

As will I. I think I have been a little bit throughout the two weeks here.

Yeah, I’ve gone all in on basically every time I finish either a character or a portion of this.

Like every time I’ve finished an arc of. Sorry. I’ve gone back to Ripper Doc and changed my appearance. So I’ve gone from crazy colored. I don’t even know what it was like. It was like a crazy green and blue type of thing with some. A weird viking style beard to.

With some face cyberware, to most recently having a red and orange mohawk and some weird facial hair and weird cyberware in the face and a snake tattoo on my chest.

[00:04:17] Speaker B: Dang.

[00:04:18] Speaker A: All to fit in with my fiery katana theme.

Yeah, yeah. Good times.

[00:04:26] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:04:28] Speaker A: Anyway, listeners, we all also want to see on Discord what your V looks like now. So post it in there if you made any major body modifications since last time.

[00:04:39] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.

[00:04:41] Speaker A: Right. Before just jumping into the, like, main quest, I rented that same Japantown apartment that you mentioned last time.

[00:04:49] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:04:50] Speaker A: While you were there, did you pick up the guitar?

[00:04:53] Speaker B: No.

I didn’t know you could.

[00:04:55] Speaker A: There’s. So there’s. I just went around and saw, like, all the little button prompts. Like you can light incense and you can put on a vinyl player near your bed. Obviously there’s the normal, like, stash and bathroom stuff and wardrobe and whatever, but there’s a bar with some whiskey you can drink and a guitar.

And it’s awesome because since Johnny is inside your brain, you just instantly know how to play all the samurai songs.

[00:05:26] Speaker B: Oh, okay, that’s. That’s cool.

[00:05:28] Speaker A: So. So you just. I mean, you basically all you do is click square twice for a song. And it’s not like the whole thing, but it’s a decent chunk of it. But yeah, after listening to them, I think I’m a samurai fan.

That that type of music is kind of right up my alley.

[00:05:44] Speaker B: So.

All right, I’m gonna have to go back to the Japan apartment and do that. I’m not gonna lie. I don’t very much go back to my apartment.

[00:05:50] Speaker A: I pretty much very rarely do. Yeah.

[00:05:53] Speaker B: Yeah. But I’m gonna have to go. At least try that.

[00:05:55] Speaker A: So since you can do Many things, either at a Ripper Dock or somewhere else. Yeah, you can skip time. You don’t technically need to sleep.

[00:06:05] Speaker B: I don’t know.

[00:06:05] Speaker A: It’s still a nice immersion feature to

[00:06:07] Speaker B: have in cars you own. You can open the stash, so.

[00:06:10] Speaker A: Yes, yes. In the trunk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, That’s a good point. I mean, I.

I have seen, like on Reddit where people say for full immersion, they literally go back, shower, sleep, and change wardrobe every time, every day, every full. Like in game day.

But those are people that have played this before and aren’t doing it for a podcast. So there you go.

[00:06:34] Speaker B: Impressive.

I could not do that.

[00:06:36] Speaker A: Yeah.

But very cool. We have a lot to cover today, and I think we and anyone listening probably all tackled these main story quests in different orders.

So I’ll just kind of lead based on the way that I went through them in my order, and let’s just jump around as. As need be. So let’s get to it.

I started by deciding, hey, we got a little lead on Evelyn, so I’m going to just switch gears a bit and go track down this guy Hellman.

[00:07:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay, Got it. He went straight to Hellman.

[00:07:12] Speaker A: So I. Yeah, I decided to go after Hellman. So I went to the afterlife, obviously, stopped at the bar and ordered a Jackie Wells, which the bartender from before the heist gave me. The first one ever ordered on the house. Very kind.

She even remembered the recipe, so. Thanks, Claire. Did you do that too?

[00:07:32] Speaker B: Yes, I did. I did.

[00:07:34] Speaker A: Classy.

[00:07:35] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:07:36] Speaker A: Gotta keep it classy for Jackie and I. You know, similar to the samurai that I was just playing on the guitar. I gotta say, I would just go hang out and listen to the rock music that they’re playing a ton of at the afterlife. There’s not enough hard rock bars left in the real world these days, so let’s bring it back.

And then, in meeting Rogue for the first time, the fixer of all fixers in Night City, it’s interesting that she’s the one who worked with Johnny in the flashback scene.

The one that was in the helicopter.

[00:08:15] Speaker B: Yep, I was in the helicopter. Yeah. Looks much younger.

[00:08:19] Speaker A: Much younger. Yes. Makes sense.

50 years does something to a person’s body.

And so when she called me out for Dex T, Bug, and Jackie all not making it through the heist, you know that I damn well brought up Johnny, especially since he was sitting on a couch with her feeding me info the whole time. Did you kind of attack her about Johnny too?

[00:08:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I did.

I did the same thing. Yeah,

[00:08:52] Speaker A: it’s the only fair, you know, thing to do. And it’s kind of. You surprise her a little bit with knowing about that detail.

But anyway, after waiting overnight on a bar stool, I don’t know if he actually left Afterlife and came back, but I just sat on the bar stool and waited the time.

[00:09:07] Speaker B: I just sat on the bar tool as well.

[00:09:08] Speaker A: Yeah, Efficiency here. Yeah, Rogue already has all the info and the suggested spot to attack Hellman’s convoy before it reaches the city.

And it’s out in the Badlands, which is where I came from as a nomad origin, which. And it may have been your first trip to the Badlands. Does that make sense?

[00:09:26] Speaker B: Yes, it was.

[00:09:29] Speaker A: And yeah. Okay. And so it was her.

Her suggestion that our guide threw this up is Panam Palmer. And I guess I should clarify I’ve in my head Ken, because I knew who she was as a character from seeing it on, I guess, Reddit beforehand.

I always thought her name was Panam, pronounced Panam, but at least my version of he calls her Pan Am, like a redneck.

[00:09:55] Speaker B: Mine calls it Panam too, so forgive

[00:09:59] Speaker A: me if I’m incorrect. I’m just going to keep calling her Panam.

[00:10:04] Speaker B: I wonder. It’s. It’s like, it’s like, what’s it? Pan America. It’s like Pan Am.

[00:10:09] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:10:09] Speaker B: That’s kind of the way that she travels everywhere. So maybe she is called Pan Am.

[00:10:14] Speaker A: Well, I don’t, you know, I don’t know. Maybe there is lore behind this. I’m sure Wiki could tell us or somebody that’s played this.

That day before, when you walk up to Rogue the first time Panam walks by and says in a very frustrated way that you should watch who you work with.

So it gives you a little bit of not foreshadowing, because I think nothing crazy has happened yet between them. But yeah, Panam and Rogue are not best of friends.

[00:10:45] Speaker B: No.

[00:10:46] Speaker A: Anyway, Rogue describes Panam as a nomad who can’t count on her clan anymore because she bailed on them.

So to me, it sounds like she and I are two peas in the pod here because I also ditched my own nomad clan six months before.

And in order to get her help with Anders, we have to help her first Classic to recover her previous botch job and her car before we can go after him.

So, back to the Badlands. I was wondering when it would be time to go back to where I came from.

And it took all the way until Act 2. So here we go.

As I was walking out of the afterlife, I Got a text message and it turned out to be an Easter egg side quest of sorts, which I haven’t done yet, but you have to go find a bunch of Joker graffiti from the game Balatron.

[00:11:47] Speaker B: I’ve got that too. I have not done that yet either,

[00:11:50] Speaker A: which I haven’t played Balatro, but I’ve heard very good things about it.

[00:11:54] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:11:55] Speaker A: And want to try it eventually. It doesn’t. I don’t see the connection, but hey, I’m glad it’s here.

Makes you wonder about other connections to other games because I’m sure there are many and they’re just going over my head.

After trading info with Panam on the outskirts of town and getting her to agree to help each other through gritted teeth using the hey, I’m also a nomad who didn’t see eye to eye with my backer clan and left them card hop in the passenger seat while she drove and ranted a lot about Rogue on the drive. I was actually watching out the window and there are a lot of wind turbines in between all these cacti and Joshua trees of the desert.

[00:12:41] Speaker B: I did notice that as well. I did too. I didn’t skip the car ride. I just.

[00:12:45] Speaker A: No, no, there wasn’t. I mean, there was a conversation for like half of it and yeah, I mean, I guess a place with as much neon as Night City has, it needs power.

Yeah, it definitely does fairly accurately look like the eastern parts of Central and Southern California

[00:13:03] Speaker B: for sure.

[00:13:03] Speaker A: As. I mean, as it should. It supposedly is a little bit. It’s based on Morro Bay area, which is a bit farther north, but it aligns pretty well.

Then as you arrive at the Aldecaldos camp, you meet her old friends Mitch and Scorpion.

And I don’t know if you weren’t able to convince them to join us as backup. Right. I think that’s scripted.

[00:13:28] Speaker B: No, I was. Yeah, no, I did try.

No, I was not able to have them help me as back up.

[00:13:35] Speaker A: And yeah, at least on my end. They said they would like to help her, but they need to stay to help with some busted generators.

[00:13:41] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:13:43] Speaker A: And then, yeah, Saul, the leader of the clan, wouldn’t be happy with them, but they did say it would be fine for her to borrow some gear, which is much appreciated.

Once you get to that kind of stakeout spot.

What was your approach to getting rid of the ref and shiv that came came for you?

[00:14:06] Speaker B: Oh, I did a lot of like, hacking quick hacks, so I would distract a lot of enemies and then you’re

[00:14:19] Speaker A: using the distract Quick hack mostly.

[00:14:22] Speaker B: Yeah. I’m using that to distract. Then if I have it to initiate overload and blow things up.

[00:14:28] Speaker A: Overload blows things up. Okay.

[00:14:30] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:14:32] Speaker A: I have not used quickhack since.

[00:14:35] Speaker B: Since like the start.

[00:14:37] Speaker A: Since pretty much the start. So yeah, I’m.

Have you picked up any new ones that you find pretty cool?

[00:14:42] Speaker B: Yes, I have picked up detonate grenade, which is cool.

[00:14:47] Speaker A: So like if they’re holding grenades, you can just explode them. That’s awesome.

[00:14:50] Speaker B: And then I don’t see that in

[00:14:51] Speaker A: games very often suicide,

[00:14:55] Speaker B: which is crazy.

It literally.

[00:15:00] Speaker A: Did they literally just pull the gun to their head or.

[00:15:02] Speaker B: Yes.

Wow. Yeah.

[00:15:05] Speaker A: Impressive.

[00:15:05] Speaker B: I’ve also picked up contagion, so I can. So that I felt like actually quite

[00:15:10] Speaker A: a few because you set a virus on one person and someone else picks

[00:15:13] Speaker B: it up and then. And then it goes. It spreads throughout. And then I’ve also done like.

What else have I done?

Cyberware. Like malware. Cyberware where I cyberware malfunction. So I can malfunction their cyberware for a little bit and then also weapon malfunction. So then if they’re shooting me or something like a heavy weapon, I can.

Yeah. Malfunction their weapon for just a few seconds. So then I can either run in and melee them or. Yeah.

[00:15:45] Speaker A: Wow.

[00:15:46] Speaker B: I’ve picked up a few. I have. I have. What? How many you can have? 8.

[00:15:50] Speaker A: Are you maybe creating a decent amount into like tech or.

[00:15:55] Speaker B: Because like ram. I’m up to like 20.

[00:15:57] Speaker A: I was gonna say like 20 full ram because I know in the beginning I was like using one quick hack and then waiting.

Yeah, no, like waiting in cover until I could use another one kind of thing.

[00:16:08] Speaker B: No, I can now I can do. I think I have 24. Four maybe total, I think. Okay, that’s.

[00:16:15] Speaker A: I mean that seems pretty useful.

[00:16:16] Speaker B: I can do it through multiple people.

[00:16:19] Speaker A: So you can like basically like do pre plan and then like really quickly, like quick fire, quick hack. Yeah. Three people at the same time kind of thing.

[00:16:27] Speaker B: Yeah. And like other things, like I go through the cameras and I can quick, quick hack through all the cameras as well people.

So I do a lot of that.

[00:16:35] Speaker A: You can quick hack people through the cameras?

[00:16:38] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:16:39] Speaker A: That’s awesome too.

[00:16:40] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:16:40] Speaker A: Okay, so I’m getting closer and closer to definitely committing to a second playthrough this game just to try the complete opposite end of the spectrum of the builds you can do.

[00:16:49] Speaker B: I’ve definitely got like, as I said, I think I talked about this last time, so my main is still. It’s a throwing knife. Where I found an even better throwing knife that does a bit more damage and then poison damage on top of it as well and has like 200 plus headshot multiplier.

Uh, so I use a throwing knife, the Errata Katana. Same as you. The one that also sets enemies on fire.

Um, and then I have a strong revolver. So if I have to get up close and personal, I can usually just one shot.

[00:17:16] Speaker A: So it’s funny that we. We have very different cyberware and semi skill trees and yet our weapons almost exactly the same.

[00:17:28] Speaker B: And then I have monowire. I bought thermal monowire, so I changed to thermal.

[00:17:33] Speaker A: From the launcher.

[00:17:35] Speaker B: Yeah, from the missiles. The arm missiles.

[00:17:37] Speaker A: Interesting.

[00:17:38] Speaker B: And the monowire is great. It’s been. Yeah, it’s been really good.

[00:17:44] Speaker A: Huh. Okay, so you mostly quick hacked people and then met up, went off of the car?

[00:17:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I quick hacked a lot of people. All the objects around. So like, as I said, they’re like those big red like gas canisters where you can distract them where it leaks it. And then when they walk over you initiate overload and explodes. And then it just blows them into pieces or multiple people in the pieces.

[00:18:06] Speaker A: Incredible.

Yeah, quick hacks will be part of my next playthrough.

[00:18:10] Speaker B: Or like I can take on turrets. I quick hack the turret and then I’m the turret and so then I can just.

So maybe. Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun.

I like that you can.

Yeah.

[00:18:24] Speaker A: You know, once we, once we roll credits, I might just take like a couple hours.

Completely respect my build just to see what you can do with the complete opp. Like 180 degrees from what I’m at now.

[00:18:37] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:18:37] Speaker A: And then use that to guide my next playthrough. All right, sweet.

So you quick, quick hacked your way through these guys.

[00:18:43] Speaker B: So I, I quick hacked slash like slightly stealth to get a couple people. But then as I said, I have the throwing knife, so there’s a lot of ones where I can just. I just do the throwing knife at people from the distance.

[00:18:54] Speaker A: And so I think we might have talked about the throwing knife offline, which I ended up using a little later than this.

But yeah, so I.

My approach, I guess I snuck around the back from where the shiv drove in from non just snuck up behind and non lethally took out the massive behemoth of a man with a skull icon outside the building and then distracted someone with the. It’s not an EMP grenade. What’s it called? I think it’s called a recon grenade. So it just like Emits some light noise. So they move from their position.

Someone that was just sitting down at the booth and then snuck and took. Snuck behind her, took her out, and then slowly walked up the stairs to knock out the one who had panam’s keys and then walked out back and took out a lookout on a roof, Then hopped in her giant badass truck.

[00:19:44] Speaker B: That.

[00:19:44] Speaker A: That reminds me at least of the. At least the inside of it. Reminds me in some ways of that high Tech Ninja turtles van bus, if you remember that with all the gadgets and weapons, there’s like a. Even a pop out passenger door with a turret on it. Yes.

[00:20:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:20:03] Speaker A: But yeah, the second I got in the car, it alerted the shivs, obviously, that I didn’t kill, but I sped away and nobody chased after.

But yes, since the guy she wanted to take out wasn’t there, I said, fine, let’s go get your revenge. But then is my turn.

[00:20:22] Speaker B: So that was the same thing.

[00:20:23] Speaker A: Did he just go straight over there? Yeah, ended up taking them out in their hideout cave with a combination of an assault rifle from afar, my smart pistol for some snipers that were up high.

And yeah, this.

[00:20:39] Speaker B: That.

[00:20:40] Speaker A: There was a guy up there with a throwing knife too. Which is when I discovered that the knives that I’ve been carrying this whole time were actually throwing knives. And you can use them for melee and throwing.

[00:20:49] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:20:49] Speaker A: I think that’s the moment that I realized this was this guy just like launching knives at me. And I was like, all right, you’re really far away.

[00:20:54] Speaker B: But.

[00:20:56] Speaker A: But I ended up experimenting with it later and really love it now.

And then I. I pounced on. I forget the guy’s name already.

[00:21:05] Speaker B: Nash.

[00:21:06] Speaker A: Nash. So I just pounced on him with Sandevistan and my toxic Mantis blades.

He got one shotgun shot off, but I blocked it and it deflected back at him. And then I just swiped a couple times.

He didn’t stand a chance.

[00:21:23] Speaker B: Have you.

Wait, is that. Is that in the perk tree that you unlocked that perk or skill or whatever it is you can block?

Well, can you just do that? I don’t know.

[00:21:34] Speaker A: Oh, there’s. Okay, so there’s a.

There is block with. You can block at any level with just any bladed weapon or I think clubs too. You can just instantly block no matter what level your ear your skill is at. But when you get to. I think it’s the reflexes skill tree, if you get to a certain point, you can unlock a perk that lets you. When you perfect block, it deflects it back exactly where you were aiming. Otherwise you’re just deflecting it in other directions.

[00:22:05] Speaker B: Okay, gotcha. Okay. Okay, so I’m.

[00:22:09] Speaker A: Yeah, it’s. It’s awesome.

I assume this, you know, kind of cave fight with Nash’s crew is pretty straightforward.

[00:22:19] Speaker B: Yeah, it was. I mean, I kind of flew in there a quick tack of quick. Hacked a few people to get them weaker or to take them out, like with overheat or contagion or.

[00:22:35] Speaker A: Sounds like your bread and butter right there.

[00:22:37] Speaker B: Yeah. And then use the throwing knife on a couple. And then with Nash, I was able to. I. Yeah, I think I. Oh, I did like cyberware malfunction. Oh, no, I did weapon malfunction on him, so his shotgun. And then I just ran up with my katana and took him out.

[00:22:58] Speaker A: All right, that’s a good mixture of everything you’ve got.

[00:23:02] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:23:05] Speaker A: Yes. The Deadpool’s random bullshit.

[00:23:07] Speaker B: Go.

[00:23:11] Speaker A: So, yeah, I mean, we take the guy out, we got a revenge.

Then once we decided to rig a power plant as an EMP to knock down that AV transporting Hellman, she gets out of the. Out of her car, launches a rocket at it, and when it didn’t take it out of the sky.

Oh, I. Sorry. When the EMP didn’t take out of the sky and then I. She launched the rocket. I knew she was like this headstrong badass, even though she’s also very stubborn and very immature when she. Yeah, she.

[00:23:40] Speaker B: She.

[00:23:41] Speaker A: But hey, the fact she just, like, basically just said, all right, hold my beer. And then within two seconds, whips out a homing rocket launcher to finish the job on that thing.

You earn my respect.

Some kind of respect.

[00:23:55] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely.

[00:23:59] Speaker A: That whole approach into the AV was kind of interesting because there was a bunch of robot guards, which, yeah, we haven’t seen a whole lot of, to be honest.

And I expected maybe a little bit more of it. Like these Terminator style robot security.

[00:24:17] Speaker B: But yeah, they were cool and interesting.

[00:24:21] Speaker A: They didn’t put up too much of a threat, I suppose, but the turrets that were on top of the AV did.

So I died to those like once or twice, but I ended up on the third time just using those natural rock formations. Thanks, Badlands, for providing those.

And basically just kind of wormed my way around and took out each of those robots from pretty far between the EMP grenades that do damage to androids and robots.

And then I had a silenced regular assault rifle. So not iconic.

And that was able to take out most of them. And then I snuck behind the AV with the Sort of crash landing, fire trail popped on Sandevistan and then ran up to the right side to the terminal before the turrets caught me. Jacked in and shut them down.

[00:25:09] Speaker B: Okay. Okay. Yeah.

[00:25:12] Speaker A: What did you do with this whole thing? I mean, mostly hacking.

[00:25:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I hacked a few.

Some of the robots, a lot of the, like, throwing knife, because I can get them from far.

Throwing knife.

And then kind of. Yeah. Snuck my way around and then almost got killed by the turret because I thought I jumped on top of the av thinking that you could shut the turrets off because I also couldn’t. I couldn’t hack the turrets. Those ones, I don’t.

[00:25:42] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. So they have extra defense, so I

[00:25:44] Speaker B: thought you’d shut them off on top because sometimes there’s, like, something. It’ll stay on top or whatever if you’re next to them to shut it off. But it wouldn’t let me. So then I, like, fell down the

[00:25:53] Speaker A: side, and that’s where I saw the.

[00:25:55] Speaker B: I jacked in. I’d killed everybody else around there by that time.

Okay. Yeah, I hear you. So, yeah, jacked in and shot him off

[00:26:06] Speaker A: from there. The motorcycle chase and sort of. That intermission was awesome. In that old hangar. I took a couple guys out with the AR to thin them down and then just sprinted on the rest of them with toxic mantis blades and leaping.

And I had just recently unlocked a finishing move in the perk tree, which looks so cool.

[00:26:31] Speaker B: Oh, okay, so you’re.

[00:26:33] Speaker A: So. It’s. It’s a bladed finishing move. So basically, with the mantis blades, you just, like, kind of pummeling them in the chest with your blades. And then I. It varies. There’s a couple different, like, ending animations, but you. You rip them apart. It’s great.

[00:26:48] Speaker B: Okay, but great.

[00:26:50] Speaker A: But yes.

[00:26:51] Speaker B: Seen that in the.

In the menu. I just haven’t got to that section.

[00:26:54] Speaker A: I’ll definitely say reaching 15 in a particular skill path has its perks.

[00:27:00] Speaker B: Yeah. I think I’m at 18 for cool right now. I’m trying to get 20. Yeah.

[00:27:05] Speaker A: I’m at I as the end of this section. I’m at 20 on reflexes, and I think I’m at 14, maybe, or 15 in cool.

And everything else is a five.

[00:27:19] Speaker B: That’s why. Okay, so everything on mine is at least a nine. And then.

[00:27:22] Speaker A: Damn. All right. You’re spreading things around.

[00:27:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I was, but then I’ve just gone. Because cool is, like, for throwing knives, so.

[00:27:29] Speaker A: Yeah, sure.

[00:27:30] Speaker B: Yeah. So I’ve just upped. I’ve just been upping that. And then on the perks or whatever.

Taking the ones now where throwing knife, like the time goes down. It gives me more damage. Like it doesn’t. It’s way shorter to regenerate them.

[00:27:43] Speaker A: You had a comment about the motorcycle that Panam was riding.

[00:27:49] Speaker B: Yeah. So during this. Yeah, during this motorcycle, like the chase section when you’re looking for the AVO Hellman.

When we stopped off at the. Yeah, at the. Whatever the cargo port or the air. The hangar. I like turned around and I looked at Pan Am’s motorcycle and I was like, that looks very familiar with all the luggage on the front and the back.

[00:28:15] Speaker A: And I did not notice it during this quest.

[00:28:18] Speaker B: No.

[00:28:18] Speaker A: But you show me a picture of it and yes, it is very suspiciously similar to.

[00:28:24] Speaker B: It is a reverse trike from Death Stranding. It looks so much like a reverse trike from Death Stranding. Otherwise it is an actual motorcycle. So it doesn’t have.

[00:28:32] Speaker A: It doesn’t have two wheels. Like two wheels in front. Yeah.

[00:28:34] Speaker B: With the way the cargo is placed on it, it’s like exact to like a reverse strike. And we know that Kojima is in this game during the heist. Early in the game. During the heist, we see him in the bar.

So I feel like it’s just another Easter egg ode to Death Stranding.

[00:28:53] Speaker A: And you had a good note too about Panam being a nomad as well. Similar to Sam Porter Bridges.

[00:29:00] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. Yeah.

[00:29:01] Speaker A: And if it weren’t for the fact that Kojima was in the game already.

To seal the deal, I’ll just add the extra layer here that in Death Stranding you can find various cosmetics as well as a Johnny Silverhand arm and a couple other easter eggs to Cyberpunk 2077. So the connection is complete. This particular bike might not be, but I think you’re pretty spot on.

[00:29:29] Speaker B: Yeah. I feel like if it’s not. It’s like at least a little ode or Easter egg to just.

[00:29:34] Speaker A: It’s not a replica, but it’s a. It’s definitely a tribute. Yeah.

[00:29:37] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:29:38] Speaker A: Well placed. Well found. Um, thanks for sharing.

Um, from there, once I arrived at the gas station, I snuck around back from the field after scoping out the front of the area. Um, and then I used. Do you have double jump in your legs or some other.

[00:29:55] Speaker B: I have. No, I have the charge jump.

[00:29:58] Speaker A: How is. You just like hold it for a bit and then let go?

[00:30:00] Speaker B: Yeah, you hold it for a bit and let go. Okay.

[00:30:02] Speaker A: I still using the double jump. I want to try the other ones, but I’m not going to because it’s too useful.

But I use the double jump to get onto the roof without getting noticed. Took out the two guards up there in stealth and then used the double jump to leap across to the tower. The, like, radio tower nearby where a sniper was on a computer, took him out, logged onto it, turned off the camera, and then one turret of the two took control of the other turret and shot all of the rest of the guards that were outside, and then walked inside and took out two more and a camera with my silenced rifle. And then I used Sandevistan and my Mantis blades to take out one last guard before grabbing Hellman.

And of course, yeah, you then let Panam know that Saul might be worth talking to. At least that’s how I approached it.

But it’s nice every once in a while where I can just jack into a computer or log onto a computer the normal way and control everything, because I don’t have all these quick hacks available.

[00:31:03] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I have. Yeah, yeah, for that area. For all the quick hacks, I quick stacked a couple.

Also for the turrets, what I can do is I can. I can overload the turret as well and explode and have them explode.

[00:31:19] Speaker A: So just like.

[00:31:20] Speaker B: So I think there’s. I think there’s an option to, like, distract the enemy to get it closer to the turret, and then I can just explode and it. It’s quite a large explosion. Oh, then. And then on another one, when there were a couple of people around, I just took control of the turret and then started shooting people.

[00:31:33] Speaker A: And you can take control of the turret from far away.

[00:31:36] Speaker B: Good amount away. Yeah. Like, I was up on that hill looking over, and I can.

[00:31:40] Speaker A: That’s convenient. Yep.

Quick hacks have their perks.

[00:31:44] Speaker B: I think that’s probably because also I’ve upgraded a lot of, like that for, like, the memory of all that flash optics as well, of, like, distances and everything. So.

[00:31:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.

So, yeah, from here, you find out at the Sunset Motel, you find out from Hellman that the biochip in your brain has essentially turned your actual brain to scrap, and you definitely don’t have long to live.

And he basically, essentially suggested that you go to a hospice in Sweden instead of trying to fix it.

[00:32:20] Speaker B: Mm.

[00:32:21] Speaker A: But this is also a guy who has everything to lose and will try to smooth talk his way to a better deal. So I. You know, at least up until this point, we don’t really know what Takamura talked to him about after taking up that interrogation when we left.

Either way, it’s a raw deal for us and Johnny might end just end up owning our body for real.

So we gotta change something soon.

Johnny did seem to sympathize though. When I asked him about it, he said losing one’s identity is the worst way to go.

[00:32:56] Speaker B: True. He did. Yes, he did say that.

[00:32:57] Speaker A: And I think it probably slightly varies whatever sort of conversation options you pick along this route.

[00:33:04] Speaker B: But.

[00:33:05] Speaker A: But yeah.

So yeah, bad news.

And I, Yeah, I found out this pretty quickly. Where along this, this whole session did you play this particular request line of the Badland stuff?

Just out of. You just had a curiosity like in comparison to the other sort of line.

[00:33:27] Speaker B: So I, so I think I started more with the Evelyn like the Judy. Evelyn and Judy ones. And then I got up to.

I think it was after I rescued Evelyn.

[00:33:40] Speaker A: Huh.

[00:33:42] Speaker B: And then. Which we’ll get to. But after that. And then I switched over to Pan Am, did the Badlands.

And then.

And then, yeah, and then I think I did, I think I did hers. And then, and then I went and did one thing for Takamura and then back to finish the Judy.

Well, not finish, but I think I did then Judy up to whatever the

[00:34:09] Speaker A: last one for her was.

[00:34:11] Speaker B: Okay, okay. Yeah, I kind of, I kind of, I did. I switched back and forth around. Yeah. Until the end. Like I finished fully with the last two or three for Takemura.

[00:34:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I did, I did.

Pretty straight shot. Like once I started one line I would just finish it. Except I’ll explain the one exception to that in a little bit.

But yes. So this, this kind of wraps up that Badlands, Panam and Hellman line.

After all of this, I was very close on the map to a side quest. I received a text message about which is about my original Nomad car being repaired. So I don’t, I didn’t know it was actually busted. This is not a thing for you, I’m assuming because I’m the Nomad origin. I.

From like three minutes into the game I was already driving.

So it was like one of these kind of beat up, clamped together cars that I used in that whole like crossing, smuggling the iguana across the border with Jackie early on.

But I didn’t know that because it just skips to the. The time jump. Right. I didn’t know what happened to that car.

Um huh.

But yes. So this quest pops up. I got a text message my original car was being repaired. So I decided to pop on over to check it out because it was so close to where this Sunset Motel is.

And much to my surprise, I was able to buy back my original car for, you know, a dirt cheap. 11,000 eddies.

[00:35:53] Speaker B: Oh, there you go.

[00:35:55] Speaker A: And the funniest part, the woman, Lana, who didn’t see me when I arrived and was checking out the car, yelled at me for messing with her car and then agreed to sell it to me because I was able to convince her and pay way over the price that she thought it was worth.

Guess who voiced this character? Lana.

It’s kind of a stretch, so you probably won’t know without seeing the picture, but I will send it to you after.

[00:36:23] Speaker B: Is it a famous, like, voice actress?

[00:36:28] Speaker A: No, not tons and tons, but is known in the video game space by a handful.

[00:36:34] Speaker B: I. I mean, I have a.

[00:36:37] Speaker A: Just throw a name out there and I’ll correct you.

[00:36:39] Speaker B: I don’t know. To me, it’d be like someone like. I don’t know. Is it someone like Laura Bailey? Who.

[00:36:44] Speaker A: Okay, no, you’re. You’re. You’re shooting. You’re shooting. Shooting high.

Okay, so. And I say, you know, involved in the video game space because I believe she worked at IGN for a while, has a very successful YouTube channel I think is part of the. One of the writers of God of War, Loafe and Alana Peers. Correct.

[00:37:05] Speaker B: Is that her name? Yeah. Alana.

[00:37:06] Speaker A: Correct.

And, like, fully modeled in the game. Super funny.

It was kind of a fun interaction there. But it makes me wonder what other small cameos or familiar faces we might come across in the rest of the game’s side jobs.

Because we’ve now seen Alana Pierce and we’ve seen Kojima Goddard wander. If we’re lucky, Conan o’ Brien will make a return from our podcast, season one.

[00:37:30] Speaker B: Oh, that’d be great.

[00:37:36] Speaker A: And so this quest was literally in the middle of nowhere, like, at the very end of a road.

Like the very last part of the officially map road. But I saw there was still dirt heading past it when I arrived.

So I followed that trail for a bit in the dead of night and came up on a place that was lit up by a bonfire.

And I found Dexter DeShawn’s body still lying there.

[00:38:02] Speaker B: Oh, interesting.

[00:38:04] Speaker A: And I was able to loot his iconic power pistol, which is called the plan B as well.

And it. It has this weird thing which I haven’t confirmed it actually doing, but because I was using it for a while and wasn’t paying attention. And I finally read that, like, you know, extra details or attributes, description. And supposedly it shoots. It spends money when you shoot.

[00:38:32] Speaker B: Oh.

[00:38:33] Speaker A: Which is strange and doesn’t seem like a perk at all so I stopped using it, but. But yeah, interesting.

Of course, Johnny had some sassy comments for him when I arrived, but yeah, never thought a trip to the city’s trash dump could be so lucrative. I got an iconic weapon.

[00:38:50] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:38:55] Speaker A: After that, I did also find another iconic weapon from a side job, which has to be the funniest one in the game.

And if it’s not just, wow, these guys are hilariously creative.

I don’t know if you found this. It’s called Sir John.

[00:39:16] Speaker B: Sir John.

[00:39:17] Speaker A: No, I don’t think I’ll leave the last name redacted, but if you know, you know, it’s not quite enough of a blade to fit my build because it’s more of a club, but I imagine many people use it for the shenanigans that you can get into or for the sheer novelty of.

Was from a quest called Venus Infers.

[00:39:39] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, no, I definitely haven’t seen that one.

[00:39:41] Speaker A: Which. So it unlocked after a text message from Meredith Stout, that Militech agent before the heist who gave me the money shard with the virus in it.

[00:39:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I think she’s dead in mine.

[00:39:53] Speaker A: Oh, well, there you have it.

So you’re not going to get this.

Since I gave Royce the infected chip because I didn’t know it was infected, I suppose that endeared her to me a little bit because she told me to meet her at the no Tell Motel, which I won’t tell what happened, both because it’s written on the sign of the motel. Come on. Gotta respect the request.

But also because if the quest does unlock for anyone listening, it and the iconic weapon are worth experiencing because you’re unlikely to see something so unusual in another game anytime soon. Or maybe ever. Maybe Cyberpunk 2.

I’ll tell you offline what the actual item is.

[00:40:35] Speaker B: I have a feeling I know what this is. Okay, yes, I think I’ve heard about this before.

[00:40:39] Speaker A: Probably.

[00:40:42] Speaker B: Okay, yeah.

[00:40:44] Speaker A: After that, still reeling from the news about the fact there might be no solution to our issue, I said, eff it, and went and got those tattoos that I mentioned and some cyberware, because who cares anymore?

Did a couple more side gigs here before driving into the city. I went scanning some of those tarot murals.

I did a side job for a fixer named Nix at the afterlife, who sent me to go buy an old piece of tech from, you know, one long, long ago.

I don’t know. It was.

[00:41:16] Speaker B: I. I did that as well.

[00:41:17] Speaker A: I know the quest didn’t really turn into much.

[00:41:21] Speaker B: I. I was able to.

Because you had to buy a book, right? It was like an ancient book.

[00:41:26] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It was like a shard or a book or.

It was like a shard about, you know, witchcraft or something.

[00:41:33] Speaker B: So he gives you. I forgot how much he gives you, but he gives you double of what it was supposed to cost.

[00:41:38] Speaker A: Yes.

[00:41:39] Speaker B: Huh.

[00:41:39] Speaker A: But being a corporal, if you don’t do something, I think it gives you extra. Oh, being a corporal, you what?

[00:41:45] Speaker B: I was able to, like, negotiate. I was like, threatened her and negotiate the price down from like, I think it was like 4880s or maybe somewhere around there to like 1500.

[00:41:56] Speaker A: Look at you.

[00:41:57] Speaker B: So then I bought it and then when I gave it back to Nyx, I got a 8,000 back. So I still got the regular price.

Double money back.

Yep. But I didn’t have to because I was able to. Yeah. Negotiate it down.

[00:42:12] Speaker A: Hmm. Okay, very interesting.

Well, that’s the. I. I have a bunch of nomad prompts that pop up and give me some kind of benefit, I hope.

After that, I.

I got a call from Panam while I was out in the Badlands requesting urgent help. And between it being Panam and the fact that the quest was called Raggers in the Storm, which is a straight up fantastic song by the Doors, I had to go do it.

And I’m sure you will receive this quest and may do it too, so I don’t know if I want to hold on to it for next time, but some cool things came out of it.

[00:43:00] Speaker B: What was it called?

[00:43:01] Speaker A: Riders in the Storm?

[00:43:03] Speaker B: No. Okay.

I don’t think I haven’t done it, but I. It might be on my list.

[00:43:10] Speaker A: Okay. I’m going to just put a pin in it and bring it up next time because it’s the start of a Panam side quest line.

[00:43:21] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. Yes. Because I’ve got a call from her to come out and meet her to do something, so it might be that. And I just haven’t. I haven’t done that yet, so.

[00:43:29] Speaker A: Okay. So, yeah, just to avoid spoilers, gameplay spoilers in general, I’m gonna put a pin in it, come back next time, and we can. Once you’ve done it, we can chat more.

But yes, I did it at this point in my playthrough, basically, I guess, is my main point.

So let’s see here.

There’s a whole lot already and we haven’t even gotten to Judy yet. All right.

After doing that quest with Panam, I decided to just drive through and check out some parts of town. I hadn’t really spent much time in yet.

Because honestly, now that I’ve gotten the hang of it, driving and riding motorcycles in first person is one of my favorite things to do in Night City.

Just turn the radio on or off and. And just cruise. Not even at any major speed. Just kind of looking around and seeing what else is out there. It’s also a good way to get many of those fast travel points, which apparently there are an endless amount and are required for a platinum trophy, which I probably am not going for, but if you want that, just drive around.

So I was driving through Pacifica, and obviously we know about the mall from a little bit later, but I came up to the. This giant mall on the ocean, and it had this giant roller coaster behind it.

And as I approached, a side job popped up. So it turns out I found yet another music reference in a super random side quest before that, Evelyn’s part.

So it’s called Love Roller Coaster, which is a reference to the most famous song by the Ohio players, Love Roller Coaster, which also has its own dark lore wrapped up in it. Did you ever hear about this in, like, middle school, high school, or any of that?

[00:45:25] Speaker B: No, I did not.

[00:45:26] Speaker A: So I think you’ll know the song if you listen to it for sure.

But there’s this sort of urban legend behind it where.

And what I found out when trying to confirm if what I heard in middle school was true. You know, it. It did turn out to be one of many different urban legends that I hadn’t heard. None of them are true.

The one I did know is that the album cover model. So the album is called Honey. The COVID has this model who’s like, has like honey dripping out of a jar onto her and whatnot.

And she was kneeling. What I know about the. From the backstory, you don’t see her whole body is more like shoulders up.

She was kneeling on some kind of Plexiglas. And according to this urban legend, unfortunately, throughout the shoot, the honey stuck to the glass and her skin ripped when they removed her from it.

Oh, indeed. And. And so they kept that moment in the song, since you can hear her scream in the background.

Okay, yeah, terrible stuff and very cyberpunk, but not true.

The detail of the honey starting to stick actually is true. But they just safely used warm water to detach her, no problem. Okay, so that’s like many years of not believing necessarily, but worrying about that for no reason. I guess I could have looked it up a long time ago, but in researching it, it turns out there were these other rumors that were perpetuated on the radio and by word of mouth. And the band didn’t outright deny it because it drove up sales of the album, of course.

So the other myths that I heard and just learned about the last couple days include that someone random was stabbed and recorded.

It was a rabbit screaming while being killed outside the recording studio.

That’s number two.

That same cover model was murdered by the band’s manager because of the honey skin ripping story, and she came to sue them.

And none of those are correct. It turns out the sound in the song actually comes from a high pitched inhaling screech from the band’s keyboardist.

So, you know, it’s crazy how one song and a weird sound effect end up creating all of this. But back to the point, the quest itself was actually pretty wholesome. You just help a group of young adults fix the circuits on the roller coaster.

Then you get to ride it in first person with Johnny next to you enjoying it too.

[00:48:10] Speaker B: Okay, that’s kind of cool.

[00:48:12] Speaker A: Yeah. And it’s a very futuristic roller coaster that goes way higher than any in real life.

But I’m assuming the technology with cyberware and people is at a level of quality that they can handle that.

At this point, I finally decided to go continue my search for Evelyn.

Right as I got back to that part of town, I got a call from Mitch that they’re planning a funeral for Scorpion and the rest of the people that died in those other missions. But I didn’t want to just fast travel back because I just got here.

So I moved on and decided they’ll probably just wait on this non aldecaldos outsider to hold their funeral. Because it’s a video game and they wait for the player.

So I.

I’ll do it later. I don’t think that.

[00:49:00] Speaker B: I don’t think I’ve heard from. Yeah. You said it was from Mitch.

[00:49:04] Speaker A: From Mitch. Correct?

[00:49:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Because Mitch was in the av, right? He got taken hostage and then we saved him.

[00:49:09] Speaker A: Yes.

[00:49:10] Speaker B: Yeah. I don’t think I’ve received anything.

[00:49:13] Speaker A: Well, you’re not friendly enough to the nomads, Mr. Corpo.

[00:49:17] Speaker B: I didn’t haven’t said anything bad.

[00:49:21] Speaker A: Maybe they just took me in because I’m more one of their own being a nomad, dude.

[00:49:25] Speaker B: Maybe.

[00:49:25] Speaker A: Maybe they take that kind of tree of logic.

Anyway, Evelyn. So obviously Automatic Love last time figured out some details from clouds when you arrive at Fingers Ripperdoc Lab. I just kind of convinced the guards of the door that I was an escort and had an elite clientele with some weird kinks.

[00:49:52] Speaker B: Okay.

[00:49:53] Speaker A: Did you kill them or talk your way through?

This is minor enough that if you don’t remember, that’s fine. Um, maybe you went in the back door.

[00:50:04] Speaker B: I don’t know. I think I might have gone through the back door. I know there was. Oh, no. Was it a. Was it security guards or was it like a group of people that, like.

[00:50:15] Speaker A: It was just like three people just sitting on the stairwell. Stairwell, Stairwell. Like in the front. Oh. Did you.

[00:50:19] Speaker B: Okay.

[00:50:20] Speaker A: I just talked to them.

[00:50:21] Speaker B: I got angry. We got angry at each other. And then they wanted to fight me and they didn’t take it.

[00:50:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I was just like, yeah, I’m an escort. My clients have weird kinks.

And it creeped me out because they said, Fingers will like you.

Uh, so, yeah, you. You know, and then you have the neon sign of a condom in. In front, side the stairwell, so, you know, you’re. You know, you’re in for a weird scenario.

[00:50:45] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:50:48] Speaker A: How did you cut the line of people waiting in the waiting room to talk to him?

[00:50:53] Speaker B: It was a lie about Judy being sick.

[00:50:56] Speaker A: Yes. Okay. I use that. I think that’s. I think that’s unlocked by having the. A high cool skill stat. So I had the same thing.

[00:51:03] Speaker B: I did the. Yeah.

[00:51:04] Speaker A: Just said. And she just starts fake coughing. And they’re like, she seemed fine a minute ago.

[00:51:11] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:51:12] Speaker A: And yeah, Fingers is a creep.

[00:51:15] Speaker B: Yes, he is.

[00:51:16] Speaker A: You know, he. He might be helping the working guys and girls to semi recover to their normal life after taking heavy damage. I mean, avoiding paralysis would make sense in that situation, but. But not exactly cream of the crop type of guy.

And it also sure sounds like Evelyn is screwed after interrogating him.

Yes, he does. Didn’t paint a pretty picture about her status, so I half expected her to be dead at this point, the way he described it.

But needless to say, this situation is urgent, so you can be damn sure I didn’t go off doing more side jobs for the moment. Had to go find her.

I did not like the sound of Fingers using Wakako as his fixer, though.

Makes me a little suspicious of her. Yeah, like, she’ll just take anyone off the street, but it gotta save Evelyn from being a creepy underground braindance victim.

And you know, in this portion, there’s the electric company power plant. I was able to mostly sneak into that area picking off scavs with my.

Yeah, at this point, I started using throwing knives especially. Do you have the perk that lets you see how much damage you’ll do?

Like tentative damage you’ll do based on where you hit them?

[00:52:43] Speaker B: No, I don’t think I have.

[00:52:45] Speaker A: Okay. There’s a perk for that. And I don’t know if it’s just for throwing. For throwing weapons or everything. I don’t remember now, but there’s a perk for that. And so when I hover my reticle over like a headshot with the knife, I’ll see if I’ll kill them or just alert them.

[00:53:02] Speaker B: Interesting.

[00:53:03] Speaker A: So I can decide whether I want to sneak up instead or, like, try the knife.

[00:53:07] Speaker B: Got it. That’s interesting. I will say just before we get into this section, I punched fingers at the end.

[00:53:14] Speaker A: Nice.

[00:53:15] Speaker B: So because he said something rude about Judy and I was like going with him, it gave me a couple opportunities to punch him, but I kept kind of talking back and fighting with him and then he said something really rude about Judy or Evelyn or whatever else, and so I just punched him.

[00:53:28] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:53:28] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, I wasn’t sure if I killed him or not. I don’t know if it fully killed him, but. Oh, well, I don’t think it killed him.

[00:53:36] Speaker A: Huh. I think, yeah, I.

I said don’t freaking talk to her that way.

[00:53:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I just punched him.

[00:53:43] Speaker A: I think it was the other option.

[00:53:44] Speaker B: Yeah, it was punch. I was just like, yeah.

[00:53:51] Speaker A: But yeah, I think, you know, it was getting down into the basement to find Evelyn, I stopped mostly using silencers because I was using the throwing kn.

And I was stoked too, because I actually found in the forge fire pit down there the iconic rarity level katana called Errata, which is a sick katana with a light up red portion to it on its frame, which I actually picked up the replica of the real life replica of. From the CDPR store long ago, knowing I would want to try it eventually in the game.

It has a very cool perk of doing extra damage to enemies that are on fire too.

So, you know, I tried out some flag flame augmentations to my weapons to build on that. So you kind of light them on fire and then slice them.

[00:54:39] Speaker B: Yeah. I think also the Errata has like a. It’s like a plus 25 or 30% chance of burning.

[00:54:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, yeah. So it can light on fire itself, but. And then if you light them on fire once they’re burning, it does extra damage.

[00:54:50] Speaker B: It does extra damage. Yeah.

[00:54:53] Speaker A: Love it. Huge fan.

Evelyn didn’t have a great time though, obviously in here.

So I didn’t push or ask for any info relevant to me quite yet or how she can help me and just help Judy get her out of there.

And then we go on to Double Life where we work through some vds.

One where we find out Evelyn actually was on the job for someone in the Voodoo Boys to snag the chip from Yorinobu and another brand dance that mentioned that they wanted it in the first place because they want to get access to Johnny to locate someone named Alt.

So that kicked off the next section.

Judy is a good friend though, I will say. And I’m glad she’s on our side.

[00:55:37] Speaker B: Yes, same.

[00:55:42] Speaker A: Right after I finished Double Life here, I got a call from panam, who yet again was having issues with Sol. Who would have guessed, right?

But things were getting pretty intriguing here in the main quest line. So I decided to focus on that and reconnect with panam next time.

Also got a text from none other than Sandra Dorsett, that medic woman we saved from the scavs in the. Basically the tutorial quest with Jackie.

[00:56:06] Speaker B: Interesting. I have not got that either.

[00:56:09] Speaker A: Yeah, it was. It was right after that. Yeah. So that’s the woman from right after the montage.

She had a job for me.

It had me intrigued. So I earmarked that quest to take on right after connecting with Takemura. I eventually did it, basically.

It was funny because I was trying to locate where this building was and there was a gig in there too. So I did two, you know, two birds, one stone kind of thing.

So you pick up one item for her and another item and you just kind of show up at her apartment and give her the thing.

I did not look through what she had. It was sensitive information. But I think there’s an option to like hack it and see what it says.

[00:56:46] Speaker B: That’s interesting. I wonder. Okay, it’s interesting that I haven’t got that. I wonder if it’s just slightly different if that’s a male V thing only or.

[00:56:55] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I don’t know. I mean, I’d be curious, you know, once we kind of get further.

[00:57:01] Speaker B: Yeah, that’s like. We all. We both did that. Like, that was just part of the main story at the start. Yeah.

[00:57:09] Speaker A: I am curious what we’ll find as we continue.

[00:57:14] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.

[00:57:17] Speaker A: But anyway, if it does pop up, you know, if you decide to hack it, I want to hear about it because I want to know what the. What’s in the info. But.

[00:57:24] Speaker B: Okay.

[00:57:26] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.

[00:57:26] Speaker B: Keep.

[00:57:27] Speaker A: Keep me posted.

[00:57:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Well,

[00:57:30] Speaker A: from here I decided to move on to Takemura.

Turns out Takamura’s friend Oda is Hanako Arasaka’s bodyguard sketch.

Why are we meeting with this dude? I was half expecting to be descended upon by a fleet of helicopters to take me in by surprise, but was pleasantly mistaken.

Except for the fact that Oda was none too pleased with the news that Yorinobu killed his father and didn’t believe it for a minute either.

[00:58:01] Speaker B: No, he did not.

[00:58:02] Speaker A: I. I don’t know what you did here, but I tried to convince him to let us chat with Hanako.

I think no matter what choices you make, you probably just get negated.

[00:58:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I did as well. And I think it’s just a. Yeah.

[00:58:15] Speaker A: You know, at least Takamura knows enough background on the family that he was able to deduce that they’re heading back to Tokyo after the parade.

The parade to honor Sanobu.

Something tells me that parade is going to wait for us to decide. It’s time for it to start, though.

Um, and that turned out to be true. Um, and based on our schedule for the rest of this season, they might be waiting a long time. But anyway, now it’s time to go chat with Wakako to get details on the parade.

Did you meet Takamura at Wakako’s, or did you get in the van with him?

[00:58:54] Speaker B: I.

I’m.

No, I got in the van. Yeah, I got in the van with

[00:58:59] Speaker A: him, so I don’t know if it would be the same for you, but I knew he was kind of a classy guy already, but even though he’s vicious when he needs to be, he’s a bodyguard for the most powerful person after all. But the fact that he had on the jazz station just cemented the classiness for me. I was like, this makes sense. I appreciate you.

[00:59:21] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:59:24] Speaker A: And then you arrive, and Wakako is suspiciously chill about having the most wanted man in Night City in her office, and then also gives us the shard for free. The One with the Parade Details this hasn’t come to bite us yet, because we just finished this, but like, what’s going to happen because. Or she’s going to come to collect, I’m assuming.

[00:59:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I would assume.

[00:59:48] Speaker A: I know. All I’ve gotten so far is just a text message about how she underestimated us.

[00:59:54] Speaker B: That’s all I’ve got as well. Yeah.

[00:59:59] Speaker A: So from here, I moved on to the Voodoo Boys.

And that’s because you’re supposed to wait on Takemura to call you back for the next portion. And boy, did I wait a long time.

To the point where I ended up looking up how long it should take from the end of that quest. Just now down on the corner and turns out. It’s only 24 in game hours.

I had passed way more than that because I did the full Voodoo Boys arc and still nothing happened.

[01:00:32] Speaker B: Oh, interesting.

[01:00:34] Speaker A: So it was a bug.

[01:00:36] Speaker B: Okay.

[01:00:36] Speaker A: A game bug. And I tried a variety of supposed solutions, including calling Judy and chatting, visiting Misty in her shop and chatting, sleeping at my apartment.

Advancing time by 24 hours using the skip time option in the menu.

[01:00:52] Speaker B: Yeah.

[01:00:53] Speaker A: Shutting down and restarting the game. Shutting down and restarting the whole PlayStation, fast traveling to Jig Jig street, then skipping 24 hours, then running laps around the area and also ending it all by jumping off a very high building and respawning.

In my case it was the balcony outside of Clouds because I was near there at Jig Jig street and just took the elevator up. None of those worked.

The only thing that did work was fast traveling to the Sunset Motel in the badlands, skipping 24 hours and then waiting like two minutes.

[01:01:30] Speaker B: Interesting.

[01:01:31] Speaker A: So, yeah, yeah, Takamura is playing hard to get.

So anyway, because of that, I didn’t do the rest of Takemura’s line until after I did the Voodoo Boys. So let’s chat about the Voodoo Boys.

[01:01:45] Speaker B: Yes,

[01:01:47] Speaker A: I did. Yeah. Maptan Belen.

And then you. You. Right, you meet up with Placide and take on this task of figuring out what the animals are doing in the Grand Imperial Mall, the one with the roller coaster.

And of course, you know, another music reference comes up with this quest that’s called I Walk the Line by Johnny Cash.

[01:02:11] Speaker B: By Johnny Cash. Yeah.

[01:02:12] Speaker A: So I guess, spoiler alert. Which is very obvious now at this point. And I looked it up too. It’s. I think every quest from the moment you meet Johnny, every main story quest and a lot of side jobs have a song title as the quest name.

[01:02:29] Speaker B: That makes sense. Okay.

[01:02:31] Speaker A: If something doesn’t sound familiar, it’s just because you haven’t heard the song before.

So, yes, there are many, many more to come.

Did you fight the Sasquatch? Sasquatch boss in the cinema lobby? I think you have to, actually. But I stumbled upon her before getting to the. Before hacking the van.

[01:02:51] Speaker B: Oh, I did not. No, I fought. I did the van hack. I had like, so for like that whole mall area, that whole thing, like, I did. That was all, like. Most of it was like quick hacks for me where I was going camera to camera, marking people, quick hacking things like distracting enemies, overloading things, taking people out. I don’t. Through the camera because it tells you as well, like, I don’t do contagion or Other ones like that. Because it says traceable.

[01:03:17] Speaker A: Oh, traceable. Yeah. Traceable is not a good thing. I remember that from when I was doing it.

[01:03:21] Speaker B: So I don’t do that. But so instead of, like, I’m going through and I’m marking everybody that I can see. So then at least when I’m out of it and I’m upgraded so much, I can see, like, their silhouette through the wall or wherever. Once I’ve marked them, I can tell where they are. Like, I. I don’t lose track.

[01:03:36] Speaker A: Okay.

[01:03:38] Speaker B: So, yeah, so I went kind of through that area with a lot of throwing knives. I think I sent you a video of me. I threw a throwing knife. Yeah, A long throwing knife kill where I had to aim it a little high, and I got the guy right in the head across, like, a whole walkway in the mall from one side to the other side of the mall, which I was.

[01:03:54] Speaker A: Those are always so satisfying.

[01:03:56] Speaker B: Yeah, it was very satisfying. I was like, I gotta aim this up a little higher because of the arc. And I got it. And that’s. Yeah.

Said I took everybody out. And then. Yeah, I got to the van and then. Yes. I fought the giant Sasquatch, who, I’m not gonna lie, hit me a few times with their hammer.

[01:04:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, like, knocked me back a couple times between a giant smash. I died once to that, I think. And then because I only have 5 in body, so I’m very much. At this point, I’m very much a glass cannon. I’m super high in reflexes, and I have Sandevistan, and I have multiple. Like, if you get caught or if you. Whatever, whatever.

Time slows down. So I. I’m dodging. I’m double jumping. I have an air dash now, which is great.

So I’m very mobile.

[01:04:47] Speaker B: Regular dash. Now, this was after this, though, but

[01:04:50] Speaker A: I did regular dash, so I’m very mobile and jumpy, but I get. Take damage. Right.

[01:04:57] Speaker B: Okay.

[01:04:58] Speaker A: So I’ll run away and hide and. And pop some healing items if I run out of. If I don’t judge things properly.

But yes. So the. The. The Sasquatch fight was fun. I. It was like a really fun, like, duel, a boss fight, essentially.

But at this point, I had swapped out my toxic blades since I picked up the errata katana.

And so I switched my Mantis plates to the thermal mono wire to whip the crap out of the enemy and then light them on fire and then use that burn status. Extra damage with the katana.

I tried doing my blocking here, but she hit so hard. Being one of the Animals gang members that I just stopped trying to do that and just started dodging all over the place.

[01:05:47] Speaker B: Yeah.

[01:05:47] Speaker A: But it worked really effectively. Did you side with the netwatch agent or with the Voodoo Boys here in that conversation with him in the movie? The.

[01:05:57] Speaker B: I think I sided more with. Yeah. Placid and the Voodoo Boys.

I think. Yeah, I’m pretty sure, because I do end up taking that guy out.

Yeah. I don’t know if I fully killed him. Like, but, like, knocked him out.

[01:06:13] Speaker A: I think there’s an option to punch him or something.

[01:06:15] Speaker B: Yeah.

[01:06:16] Speaker A: Okay. Well, that’s great. I’m curious to see where things diverge because I sided with the netwatch agent.

I chose it because even though they seem like the terrible Big Brother type agency, the Voodoo Boys both did irreparable damage to Evelyn, who seemed like a decent enough person. And also, Placide infected me with malware. So I took the approach of, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me and all that.

But, yes, then you actually. How did you get out of the mall?

[01:06:51] Speaker B: Oh, I just.

I don’t know. I just ran out. I don’t. Oh, yeah, no, I.

Okay, I do remember running out, and then I go back to see Placide, and then his.

Like, when I walk out of the mall, the two guys are waiting there by the car because they thought I was dead, obviously, because Placide, like, tries to sacrifice you with the malware in your head, and they’re like, oh, crap.

[01:07:21] Speaker A: So, okay, so you didn’t have to fight anyone on your way out?

[01:07:24] Speaker B: No, I didn’t have to fight anyone. No, no, no.

[01:07:25] Speaker A: Okay, so you either cleared everyone out beforehand or something.

[01:07:28] Speaker B: I cleared everybody out.

[01:07:29] Speaker A: This is why. Okay, so I did not. When I was working my way through the mall, I just. Okay, I was sneaking. I wasn’t killing anyone that couldn’t see me, and I was sneaking around. I got caught once or twice, but took them out really quickly so they didn’t alert anyone.

But because I sided with netwatch, the guy just called everyone else in the mall and said, stand down. This guy’s fine. He’s joining the team, I think he said.

Which is false, but.

So they just let me waltz on out. Not so bad.

But, yes, at this point, you go back to Placide, you talk with Bridget, and we learn that they want to talk with Johnny to lure someone named Alt Cunningham in cyberspace, which, you know, the old version of the Internet, beyond the black wall that’s full of AI and viruses, supposedly, if you’re reading the lore Shards.

And they want to do that so that they can get past the Black wall, too, and survive the next great uprising of AI that supposedly will topple the wall and send society into who knows what kind of even worse dystopia than this one they’re already in.

And maybe it’s full on Terminator Skynet style.

[01:08:43] Speaker B: Maybe.

[01:08:45] Speaker A: But to do that, we gotta get in an ice bath.

[01:08:49] Speaker B: Yes.

[01:08:50] Speaker A: I assume that’s to prevent overheating, since we’re basically walking computers at this stage.

Yeah, but this is really the next level of netrunning, and it’s something that I saw multiple times in Edgerunners, which makes me understand the concept a bit better now and is maybe a reason for me to rewatch the show in those moments that they do that. Because this is the first time we’re seeing it in game.

And Johnny’s all for us getting in. He even tries to hurry us up.

I think he just wanted his reunion with Alt.

[01:09:21] Speaker B: I think so too.

[01:09:24] Speaker A: In cyberspace, we get a tiny intro from Bridget and then take over as Johnny at a samurai concert where he proceeds to shoot an employee on stage.

Yeah, this guy was way beyond your typical hard rock singer.

Fortunately, we don’t hear about that happening in real life.

Johnny has some fun with Alt in his dressing room.

She then breaks off their relationship and walks out.

He follows her and then gets skewered by some Mantis Blades while Alt is kidnapped all by Arasaka. I mean, yeah, that’s to be expected after what he pulled.

[01:10:05] Speaker B: Yeah.

[01:10:07] Speaker A: And you come to in a Ripperdoc clinic and talk to the guy who saved you, named Thompson, who explains that Alt is one of the best netrunners around and Arasaka is trying to gain control of Soulkiller, which she created.

[01:10:20] Speaker B: Yes.

[01:10:22] Speaker A: So it all loops back around between Johnny and Alt and now us.

[01:10:26] Speaker B: Alt and us. Yeah.

[01:10:27] Speaker A: But it’s time to go free. Alt in this kind of back flash, flashback flashback. Lost that.

And I think everyone has to. So you stop off at a club, I think it’s called the Atlantis, to ask Rogue for help with. Of course, you know, 50 years ago, different hairstyle and 50 years younger.

Aging works differently in the age of Cyberware, though, doesn’t it? Because she doesn’t look all that like, just a little bit different now.

And yeah, you convince her and her friend Santiago to help out. I just. Just said I’ll pay you triple your usual fee.

[01:11:08] Speaker B: That’s what I said too.

[01:11:09] Speaker A: Yeah.

Arasaka shows up and we get another opportunity to use his awesome gun.

Yeah, that pretty much one shots everything, especially a headshot. Did you try out his melee attack?

[01:11:23] Speaker B: No.

[01:11:24] Speaker A: So I don’t know how often you use the. I think it’s L1 melee attack. When you’ve got your.

When you’re using a gun just in general during gameplay with this, with Johnny, when you’re living as Johnny, he just kind of like crosses his arms a little bit and blasts fire out.

What in this like short spray right in front of him. And it insta killed the goons that I was hitting them with. It was great.

Then there’s a car chase, then there’s the Arasaka tower. You fight your way up. Not tough at all with Johnny’s one and done headshots because even Rogue just kept saying, hey, leave some for me.

That final bruiser in the group was fun though.

As Johnny. And then you find out Alt’s already dead.

[01:12:16] Speaker B: Yes.

[01:12:19] Speaker A: Nobody’s happy. I as Johnny punched out.

What was the guy’s name?

Thompson wasn’t having it?

[01:12:29] Speaker B: No, he was pissed.

[01:12:34] Speaker A: But yes. So you come back to cyberspace where Johnny says she’s not actually dead, but kind of more like Casper the Friendly Ghost since she escaped to Arasaka subnet and that’s why Johnny took the two thermo nukes to Arasaka. It was a very personal thing and not just being against Arasaka or the establishment generally.

[01:12:55] Speaker B: Yeah.

[01:12:56] Speaker A: So that’s a kind of a big reveal.

[01:12:59] Speaker B: Yes, it was.

[01:13:00] Speaker A: And now this plan starts to develop. Right. We’ve gathered some sources of intel. If we get Alt inside Mikoshi, she’ll help V and Johnny by copying V’s engram, then killing V and his soul and then uploading his Engram back to his body.

Does that all add up to you? That sounds right.

[01:13:23] Speaker B: I think so. I think that sounds right. It was a little confusing, but yes. I think that’s.

[01:13:26] Speaker A: I think that’s like what a wild effed up Sydney situation. Like you’re essentially going to be a Johnny version of yourself.

[01:13:34] Speaker B: Like a.

[01:13:36] Speaker A: Which supposedly means you still just gotta keep on living. But also you’re not the same. You’re like a program version of yourself.

Doesn’t sound good. But it’s better than disappearing completely, I suppose.

Now here’s where I’m wondering if things are different. Because when I got out of the ice bath, Bridget and all the other voodoo boys, netrunners in the room there are all dead in their matrix chairs.

Because they tried to follow me through the wall in cyberspace and Alt killed them because it turns out The Netwatch guy that I teamed up with to get rid of the Voodoo Boys virus, he decided to put a virus into.

So the Net. The Netrunners from netwatch came in and so did the Voodoo Boys. And he just all. Cunningham just wiped them all out. So they were all just dead in their chairs. Did you just wake up and talk to people?

[01:14:35] Speaker B: Yes, I woke up and talked to. Yeah, Prakit or whatever, My mom, Prigit or Brigitte, whatever.

[01:14:46] Speaker A: And

[01:14:48] Speaker B: the conversation took a turn.

Oh, yeah, you can choose. Yeah, get like choosing kind of to get payback and all that. And then it gave me the option of like, talking to her. Like kind of pushing her away or talking to her or pull a gun. And I pulled a gun and then got into a fight with everybody and killed them all.

[01:15:14] Speaker A: All right. Same end result, different approach.

Yeah, I did have to fight my way out of the church, though. So, like, from that Netrunner room, I had to fight my way out of there.

[01:15:23] Speaker B: But yeah, yeah, so I. Yeah, I killed her down there and then all the other people down there. And then I had to fight my way out of the church and I had to fight Placide as a boss fight.

[01:15:32] Speaker A: Yes, a little mini boss fight. And that for that I used, you know, I was whipping with the fire wire and then slicing with the katana, dodging and deflecting a shotgun again.

And then I ran out of potion charges because he hit me too many times. I almost died. But there’s a little computer closet in that church, so I just closed the door and he kind of just waited for me to come back out. So I was able to wait for the health to recharge. I don’t think that would happen in real life, but, you know, game design.

But yeah, it’s. It is also a bit beyond me how someone could deflect a shotgun scatter with a narrow bladed katana. But never mind that. I’ll take it.

As I walked out of the church and finished the quest transmission, this may have happened to you too. I got an encrypted call from someone named Songbird saying she knows how to save me and to go to Dogtown. And that call ended the quest that leads you to start Phantom Liberty if you already had it unlocked. Which means we can now do Phantom Liberty, but we’re not quite ready for that yet. So we’ll let you know when we go down that path.

[01:16:38] Speaker B: Yep.

[01:16:39] Speaker A: I think two episodes from now.

[01:16:41] Speaker B: Yes.

[01:16:42] Speaker A: So after that, I finally did the whole thing to, you know, unfreeze Takemura’s Quest.

And, you know, you go into Japantown, Gimme dangers, the name of the quest. After you do this kind of stakeout and a heart to heart chat with Goro.

How did you infiltrate the warehouse?

[01:17:01] Speaker B: I drove a car in. I stole a vehicle. I stole the van that was coming down the street.

[01:17:06] Speaker A: Cool.

[01:17:06] Speaker B: I kind of ran after it and was able to jump in, pull the guy out, jump in. And then I actually had to restart this, reload it, because when I pulled in, I like, went up to the, like through the gate, and then around to the left to another gate. And then all the cameras caught me and everyone started shooting me and I, like, died. Okay. I didn’t realize, like, you have to pull. I will. So I did it again. And you go in the gate and then right off to the right are two parking spaces. So I parked in there and then took a little. Took a guy out in the security office, was able to shut off the cameras with quick axe and then jumped up on pipes and then went inside.

Okay. Up on the roofish area. Yeah.

[01:17:47] Speaker A: Okay.

[01:17:47] Speaker B: That’s how I got it.

[01:17:49] Speaker A: So, yeah, I, I, because we were in that construction site with Takamura, I just double jumped and then air dashed over to the walkway that you see in that stakeout.

So I was on top of a roof.

Then I used one of those recon grenades to distract the guard that was farther away. And then I just used Sandevistan and sprinted by the two guards on the walkway.

[01:18:13] Speaker B: Okay.

[01:18:13] Speaker A: Got into the darkness, climbed a roof to get a closer look at where everything was, and then I jump. Dashed across the courtyard out of range of the security cameras.

Used a throwing knife on one of the cameras in the main building and then climbed it to the roof. Used a throwing knife on the other camera on the other corner, waited till some guards moved and then dropped down and just walked inside.

But I walked inside just as one guy’s suspicion almost got the better of him with that red eye meter almost maxing out. But I literally just closed the door to cut off the sight line and he stopped caring.

And then, yeah, you know, you do the things inside and then you get. You’re home free because Takamura just opens the entire roof of the building.

[01:18:58] Speaker B: Yes, he does.

[01:18:59] Speaker A: Yeah, this guy’s pretty handy to have around. I don’t know why. I mean. Yes, okay, I know why Johnny hates him so much, but, you know, he’s. He’s becoming a bud.

[01:19:09] Speaker B: Yeah, he is.

[01:19:12] Speaker A: At the parade, I mostly just stealth through. Nothing to write home about.

I didn’t.

I guess. Funny Story. I didn’t realize that the sniper, that first sniper that was next to the billboard had a laser wire defense bomb defending his position.

So I just walked right through that and exploded the first time.

[01:19:30] Speaker B: Nice.

[01:19:32] Speaker A: Obviously was on the lookout the rest of the time. The last of the three snipers had mines behind him, so I just. I just tripped one and then backed away. And the bomb took care of him instead of me.

[01:19:43] Speaker B: I. Yeah, I didn’t realize that. So the first one I. Because I can disable. So I disabled them.

[01:19:48] Speaker A: Well, made him friendly mode.

[01:19:50] Speaker B: I can disable or friendly modem. So I. Friendly mode in the mine. That one. But on the third one, I jumped through the window behind him, and I didn’t see the mines. And then all I heard was, like, beeping, and I kind of moved a little bit to the side, and they exploded still, and I survived. And then my V just goes, okay, he’s dead.

[01:20:08] Speaker A: I was like, oh, okay, okay.

[01:20:11] Speaker B: I totally didn’t even see them.

[01:20:13] Speaker A: I just wanted to do things. Yeah.

[01:20:15] Speaker B: Yeah.

[01:20:16] Speaker A: And the funny thing is, because I also tripped those mines just on purpose. The guy’s head exploded, but the rest of his body was there.

[01:20:23] Speaker B: Nice.

[01:20:25] Speaker A: But, yeah. So pretty uneventful. At the parade here, I stopped to listen to the music for a sec. They’re like, there’s a place you can lean on the balcony. And then you reach the netrunner, who.

The second you rip out her connection, you get this glimpse of movement in the corner of your eye.

And. Yeah, Oda has arrived.

I gotta say, he seemed pretty unassuming in our first meeting by the water, but seeing him in action, I’m pretty impressed.

[01:20:54] Speaker B: Yeah, same.

[01:20:55] Speaker A: And I love this boss fight. It may be the best one so far.

It felt like a duel for the ages between his glowing red Mantis blades versus my glowing red katana.

And he’s so fast and can go invisible and can heal, and I really want that cloaking cyberware, but. Haven’t seen anything like it anywhere, have you?

[01:21:17] Speaker B: I have. Yeah.

[01:21:19] Speaker A: Do you know what it’s called?

[01:21:20] Speaker B: It’s cloaking something. It’s. It.

It’s.

[01:21:24] Speaker A: I want to find that.

[01:21:25] Speaker B: No, camo. I think it’s camo.

Yeah, it’s. It’s on there. I just. I.

[01:21:30] Speaker A: Do you see the other doors or you have some.

[01:21:32] Speaker B: I saw it at Ripper Duck. No, I saw it at the Ripper Duck.

[01:21:35] Speaker A: Okay, I gotta look at the Ripper Duck.

[01:21:37] Speaker B: Um. Like, I went through. I’ve.

[01:21:38] Speaker A: I guess I wonder what spawn it’s in.

[01:21:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I’ve upgraded it it’s for.

[01:21:43] Speaker A: You have one.

[01:21:44] Speaker B: I don’t have camo. I didn’t choose that. Okay. Okay. It’s for, you know, like, your first one.

I have, like, titanium bones. Is one of the ones I forgot. What now what?

[01:21:55] Speaker A: Oh, okay. It’s like the.

[01:21:56] Speaker B: It’s for.

[01:21:56] Speaker A: It’s like the dermal level or the skeleton level or something.

[01:21:59] Speaker B: Yeah, skeleton. I think it’s skeleton level. Yeah. So I have thermal. I have the titanium bones, which give me carry capacity and other stuff, and I have, like, two others. But I read the camo one, and I thought about it, but it was.

It’s like you have to activate it with L1 or some other button. And to me, I was just like, I’m stealthy, but I’m not that stealthy. So I was like, I’m not going to use it. Like, it’s not.

[01:22:23] Speaker A: Okay, I hear you.

[01:22:24] Speaker B: For me.

[01:22:25] Speaker A: Yeah. So I think it’d be a nice compliment to my Sandevistan.

[01:22:29] Speaker B: All right.

[01:22:29] Speaker A: I’m going to have to stop by a Ripperdoc soon.

[01:22:31] Speaker B: Yeah. I’ve upgraded everything on mine up to at least tier four, if not tier four plus. Nice. Okay. And, like. And put everything that’s unlocked. I’ve added, I think, a slot. So.

Sure.

Yeah.

[01:22:47] Speaker A: But, yeah, it was. That was a fantastic fight.

[01:22:49] Speaker B: That was fun.

[01:22:50] Speaker A: So fun.

[01:22:51] Speaker B: I was able to, like. Yeah, do, like, a cyberware malfunction, so, like, slow him down, and then I could. I do it like a. Throw a knife to his head, which would do some damage. And then also, yeah, I had the monowires and the.

[01:23:02] Speaker A: So we. We at some point, swapped. So you went from the missile launcher to the monowire? I was using mantis blades at the start of this. Switched the monowire once I got the katana, and then I switched over to the missile launcher, a thermal version of the missile launcher.

Because I realized I have a knife, I have a katana, and I wanted something a little bit farther away to, like, light him on fire from. Farther away.

[01:23:24] Speaker B: Yeah.

[01:23:25] Speaker A: So I was using that. And so when he was going invisible, but I had a general idea where he was, I’d launch that missile at him to light him and then go sprint up with the katana.

[01:23:33] Speaker B: Smart.

[01:23:35] Speaker A: Super fun. I still want to try those gorilla arms, but I don’t know what I’m gonna get a chance to that last arm slot. But I got a bug, too. When I killed him, he was literally just floating in the air next to a balcony.

So I had to wiggle my way to the very edge of this thing kind of above the entrance where you walk into the room.

And I’m really glad I did because he also has a sweet katana with an Arasaka branding on the blade, which I now swapping with that and the Errata katanas are a good time. But yes, Moving on.

Goro sneaks in. You’re watching the video through the feed.

He tranqs Hanukkah and instantly alerts security.

Then you sprint out of the building with nobody bothering to chase you at all.

And then once I got to the ground floor, I just sat.

Sat there and kind of leisurely hung out, expecting someone to chase me. But then I was just starstruck because it’s about as close as I’d seen to a celebrity in this world. That reporter, Jillian, something from the news that you see on all the screens around town.

[01:24:41] Speaker B: Oh, okay.

[01:24:42] Speaker A: Well, she was just standing there giving an update on the parade being attacked.

So I just sat there and listened to the rest of the report and then moved on to Takemura’s hideout.

You know, Hanako isn’t too convinced, but then she kind of goes silent.

I’m surprised she didn’t try to jack in to us and confirm we have the relic in our head the way that, you know, Hellman did, but it feels like that would make it pretty clear.

[01:25:09] Speaker B: Exactly.

[01:25:10] Speaker A: Maybe she’s more pure than most people and just not full of cyberware.

[01:25:14] Speaker B: I don’t know.

[01:25:15] Speaker A: Of course she was going to be found by Arasaka one way or another, though. So you get bombed out. Did you go back for him?

[01:25:25] Speaker B: Oh, no. For Takamura. No, I.

[01:25:28] Speaker A: So Johnny convinced you?

[01:25:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I. Yeah, I left.

[01:25:34] Speaker A: Oh, that’s. That’s. Wow.

I expected better.

[01:25:38] Speaker B: I didn’t know that you could actually go back because I turned around to look and it was all blocked, so I didn’t know.

[01:25:42] Speaker A: It doesn’t give you a waypoint until you go back up the stairs.

So you fall through the apartment below him. But then you have to go backtrack a tiny bit the opposite direction from the thing because he said, no, leave him. Leave him. But I kind of still hear him. So I did. I went up the stairs. He’s surrounded in his bathroom by three or four Arasaka agents. And despite Johnny not wanting me to and saying he’s dead meat, I just went anyway, saved him. And then we both went out of the building together. And I was basically became Darth Vader from that scene at the end of Rogue One.

Yeah, just slowly marching down the dark hallways with my red light katana. Deflecting shots back at them, slashing once or twice, and then performing these sweet finishers.

[01:26:32] Speaker B: Felt good, huh?

So I’m intrigued now.

[01:26:37] Speaker A: You’ve killed Takemura. It sounds like. Not directly, but by lack of saving. I don’t know.

[01:26:43] Speaker B: But that’s gonna be interesting.

[01:26:46] Speaker A: He was surrounded by three or four agents. He may have been arrested. Right? Like that’s a possibility, I suppose.

[01:26:51] Speaker B: I honestly didn’t think. Because I turned around and I didn’t even think about, like, oh, shit, I can go. Can I get back upstairs? Like, I was just like, yeah, all right, well, I.

[01:27:00] Speaker A: We will have to track this and see what happens.

[01:27:02] Speaker B: Yeah, we will.

Yeah.

[01:27:06] Speaker A: Back at the Sunset Motel, Johnny’s not pleased, and Hanako sends a joy toy to say she believes you and wants to meet at Embers.

And as you try to leave, your relic issues kick up again and you almost die.

But Johnny takes over and saves you while bringing you back to an old abandoned hotel near the ocean, which, of course, is next to the mall and the roller coaster.

And he digs out some dog tags. I don’t know if we had the same experience here, but he said he would take a bullet for me and he will agree to go into the great beyond when it comes time to fix the relic so I can have my body back.

[01:27:45] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah.

[01:27:47] Speaker A: Okay, cool.

His one request, though, is that you flatline Adam Smasher for revenge.

[01:27:53] Speaker B: Yes.

[01:27:54] Speaker A: Which does not sound like an easy task.

And anyone who’s seen Edgerunners will also agree it is not an easy task.

But Johnny says to get Rogue’s help to do it and that she’ll definitely agree. And that wraps up our required quest for this timeline.

[01:28:15] Speaker B: Yes, it does.

[01:28:18] Speaker A: We’ve chatted throughout about what our build’s looking like these days.

You know, I swapped from toxic Mantis blades to the flame arm cannon because I didn’t need the redundancy of arm blades when I was also using an A Katana, Even though that finishing move for the blades looks sweet.

Yeah, the Errata Katana is my main weapon. I replaced my previous silence standard assault rifle with Panam’s overwatch sniper rifle, which you get later.

And then I replaced the silenced Dex Plan B with a standard power revolver. But I love revolvers.

And still using. Yeah, sand out of Stan. That’s just slow time. Double jump, air dash, jumping all nimbly bimbly from tree to tree.

And, yeah, it sounds like you’re a quick hacker extraordinaire.

[01:29:11] Speaker B: Yes, I kind of am. Yeah. I don’t know. Yeah, I’m really enjoying kind of doing it that way.

[01:29:19] Speaker A: Excellent.

Well, got to see how things kind of continue to evolve. But in summary, we advanced the story a hell of a lot here as we approach the climax of the main story.

And it’s been a wonderful ride so far. It kind of feels strange to be so far in the main story and now pump the brakes a bit. But it was the only way to make the episode timing actually function without hindering the open nature of the game and being too prescriptive on the order of your play sessions.

But as with the best open world RPGs, some of the best moments come from side quests.

And for that reason we are, you know, I guess the task of saving our own consciousness from being consumed by a rocker boy terrorist. We’ll just have to take a back seat to these stories we create for ourselves.

But yeah, considering we’ve now completed the bulk of the main story quests, with Nocturne being the point of no return, I will say in my personal opinion, I feel they did a pretty good job of layering in a lot of variety in the quests in terms of the types of things you have to do and the places you do them in, but it’s been great. I also kind of would have liked the build up to the heist to be longer, but it is sort of structured as two distinct halves.

[01:30:38] Speaker B: Yeah, it has.

[01:30:40] Speaker A: I guess it would have been good to have like a full either full open world map access before the heist, just to get that variety a little bit earlier on. Because I feel like even though we’ve done most of the main story, I haven’t seen like a handful of neighborhoods in much depth at all. Unless I’ve wandered there myself.

[01:30:58] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah. Same.

Yeah, definitely haven’t.

[01:31:01] Speaker A: Anyway, for next time, play until after the last major personal quest for your chosen companion, romance companion, which supposedly will be called something different based on who that is for you. The quest, the final quest. In each of these lines, there’s four of them. The one’s called Queen of the highway, one’s called following the river, another is called Boat Drinks, and the last one is called Pyramid Song. And most likely you will see maximum two of those, maybe just one, maybe none.

Additionally or alternatively, you can spend this time doing side quests if you’d like to, since some may not go down the romancing path, then save and quit and hang on for the next episode.

Also, just as an extra kind of caveat, from here on we’re saving Johnny’s specific side quests that start with chipping in until right before we go into the end game. So that’s a few weeks away still, so just don’t play those for the time being.

We’ll let you know when.

Based on Johnny’s request to take out Adam Smasher and enlist Rogue’s help, it feels kind of fitting to prep for it before we go meet Hanukk.

Oh, and whatever you do, do not do the quest Nocturne OP5 5N1 no, that message will be on repeat for a few more weeks, so just bear with the broken record over here and squeeze in as many side quests as you feel like.

Thank you everyone.

[01:32:29] Speaker B: Yes, thank you. Thank you all for listening. I hope you guys enjoyed this long long but super detailed and story full section of of gameplay.

Yeah it was it was a lot of fun.

Very different detailed and yeah well excited to now start act three and I think get into the soon the soon get into Act 3 in the end game of the game. So yeah but looking forward to continuing on. Hope you always well so thanks again for listening. Have a good one.

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