Transcript

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome back to the Gaming Backlog Book club. We are here to chat about romance in Cyberpunk 2077 and playing through a handful of side jobs up until unlocking but not starting Nocturne Op 55N 1. It should be unlocked as of the last time you played.

Just. It will keep defaulting to that, so just keep untracking it.

It’s rather annoying.

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

[00:00:28] Speaker A: Also, please join us on our Discord server, which you can find in our podcast description and episode notes, as well as on our website thegamingbacklogbookclub.com we’re having some fun conversations over there and always happy to revisit old games. If anyone’s listening to an earlier season, you can participate as much or as little as you like. So no pressure.

Now reminder, we do go into spoilers here and there, so if you want to avoid that started a previous one, catch up and come back to this episode once you’re ready.

Alex, I’m not even gonna say anything. You got one guess.

[00:00:59] Speaker B: Radio station.

[00:01:00] Speaker A: Indeed.

[00:01:02] Speaker B: Yes, this time it was.

Hold on. It was. Oh, my gosh. I remember what it was. Oh, no, it was nice rock music, but it was less. It was Radio fm.

Ritual. No, not ritual. Ritual was the. No, that was the heavy metal stuff. Yeah. No, is it Body Heat? It might have been Body Heat.

Yeah, it was Body Heat.

[00:01:31] Speaker A: I don’t know what that has on it. Okay, how was. It was rock music?

[00:01:38] Speaker B: No, it was pop music. Sorry, I don’t know why I was saying pop rock.

[00:01:41] Speaker A: Okay, that sounds like a pop music station. Yeah.

[00:01:43] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a pop music station. It was nice. It was good. I was just kind of been listening to that.

[00:01:49] Speaker A: Gotcha. Okay, sweet.

I was listening to 107.3 Moro Rock Radio, which the name kind of threw me off because I kept scrolling to that and being like, oh, I like rock. And then every time the first song that would be on the station is always some form of country or bluegrass, which I’m not a fan of. And then the next song after that, I just stuck with it this time. The next song after that would be something more along with my taste. And it’s just a very weird mixture of music on a rock station.

But anyway, good times.

Have you modded your appearance at all?

[00:02:27] Speaker B: Have.

I have modded it quite a bit, but I will need to post that photo. So I have modded it in.

I actually, just before we finished the section, I got a mirror and took a screenshot of myself.

So, yeah, I did my hair, eyes, nails, tattoos, Other things.

[00:02:53] Speaker A: Okay. You’ve done everything.

[00:02:54] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:02:55] Speaker A: Any new cyberware in your face? I guess.

[00:03:00] Speaker B: Yeah, I changed up what it looks like along with. Yeah, like new piercings and stuff too.

[00:03:07] Speaker A: You know what? It would. Now that I think about it, it would be interesting if they allowed you to go all in maelstrom style and completely replace your face with robot.

[00:03:17] Speaker B: That would be.

[00:03:18] Speaker A: I’m sure there’s a mod for that on PC.

We’re not there.

Cool.

After hanging out with Takemura so much last time, I switched to something that’s similar to his haircut and made my hair all green and facial hair kind of interesting.

But now that the Witcher 3 Remastered has released, I’ve decided to swap over to the wolf jacket with some leather pants, boots, all white, gray hair, and a katana with the Witcher signs on it.

[00:03:50] Speaker B: Nice.

[00:03:51] Speaker A: Gotta love it. I’ll stick with that for a little bit while I’m in the spirit. Even though I’m not replaying Witcher 3 until the.

Until a new expansion comes out, but. Yeah, that’s a conversation for another time. But listeners, we also want to see on Discord what your V looks like now and if you’ve made any major body modifications since last time.

[00:04:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I think my major one was I shortened my hair. I did a shorter hairstyle and changed it red.

[00:04:17] Speaker A: Okay.

All right.

[00:04:19] Speaker B: Like a fire red.

I changed my eyes to like a black, greenish color.

[00:04:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I did do this weird, like black and red thing a couple episodes ago.

I don’t know if I got a close up of the eyes, though. Yeah, some of those things are freaky.

[00:04:35] Speaker B: Some of them are weird.

Yeah, I just thought it looked cool, so. Thought it looked good.

So.

[00:04:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Cool. So on this episode of Harvest Moon 64, it’s all about wooing the townsfolk.

So, Alex, let’s play.

Who did you woo?

Was it Ann, Ellie, Karen, Maria, or Potpourri?

[00:05:04] Speaker B: Actually, it was option D or E? Other.

[00:05:09] Speaker A: I always chose Karen back then, by the way, but. Oh, who was the book?

[00:05:14] Speaker B: Who was the book?

[00:05:15] Speaker A: Oh, I think it might have.

[00:05:19] Speaker B: I don’t know.

[00:05:22] Speaker A: I’m not gonna just make things up.

[00:05:23] Speaker B: Yeah, I don’t know.

It was. Yeah, I think it was.

[00:05:26] Speaker A: You were with the book lover. I hear it.

So who did you woo here in Cyberpunk then?

[00:05:31] Speaker B: For Cyberpunk, I wooed Judy.

Judy Alvarez.

[00:05:36] Speaker A: All right.

So, yeah, I mean, between the romance partner selection and side quest line, as well as just side jobs galore.

Yeah.

Was an interesting episode, to be sure. For me, it was PanAm.

But I guess, like, I started. I started before continuing on. I started with Judy’s first kind of side job, which I think we can follow along your track here. But it’s where you get a call from Judy to go to her apartment.

[00:06:12] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:06:13] Speaker A: You want to take it away.

[00:06:17] Speaker B: So you get a call to go to Judy’s apartment. Is this. Oh, I might have done this, like, earlier.

[00:06:23] Speaker A: Oh, I think you did. Yeah. Now that you mentioned it. I think you mentioned it on the side that you had. I will fill you in.

You arrive and Evelyn is.

[00:06:31] Speaker B: Yes, unfortunately. Yes, unfortunately.

[00:06:35] Speaker A: Dead in the bathtub by.

[00:06:36] Speaker B: Dead in the bathtub. Yes, yes. Yes.

Yeah.

[00:06:40] Speaker A: Not.

[00:06:41] Speaker B: Not good.

[00:06:41] Speaker A: Not good for Judy, not good for Evelyn, not good for anyone. I mean, it’s such a crazy 180 from how you meet Evelyn in the first place.

Like, just super confident and in control and with this huge heist plan, man. Just rough, rough stuff.

[00:07:00] Speaker B: Yeah, it was. It was a. Yeah.

I don’t know. I was not expecting something. I was expecting to see, like, Evelyn back and, like, live and. But unfortunately not.

So.

[00:07:16] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think. I mean, that’s technically, like, she calls Judy, calls the police, and they don’t want to come get her. They say to put her on ice or something, so. But you move Evelyn’s body to the bed, and then you. Basically, Judy just wants time alone. Makes sense.

Because of where she lives in Kabuki, I went straight to a side job right there in the slums down the hill that’s been in my quest log for super long, where you have to. I don’t know if you’ve done this where you open a specific refrigerator that says no escape on it or something like that.

[00:07:53] Speaker B: Oh, yes. Yeah. Yes.

[00:07:55] Speaker A: You’re. You’re. You’re tasked vaguely with escorting the goods to the fixer. Right.

Turns out the goods was actually a Japanese guy that you have to escort, but you use both arms to carry and can’t even use a gun to defend yourself.

And the route to the car you need to get.

Get into is full of tiger claws that are looking specifically for this guy.

I got about halfway up the stairs before getting caught and getting shot at. And I used Sandevistan a little bit to move faster, but almost died and then threw him in the trunk. And when you arrive, you learn he’s a brain surgeon who actually deliberately killed the leader of the tiger claws during an emergency surgery while, like, he’s essentially the best brain surgeon in Japan. So he’s on the run. Yeah. Couldn’t have guessed that.

The nice part is he gives you an awesome electronic, no, electric katana called the scalpel.

[00:08:57] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:08:58] Speaker A: That especially for me, has extra crit damage if you’re using Sandevistan.

[00:09:03] Speaker B: Okay, there you go.

[00:09:05] Speaker A: So between the scalpel, the. I think it’s called the Jinchu Maru from ODA and the Errata, I really wish that we had more quick slots for our weapons without having to go back to the inventory, because I see situations where I could have three different katanas that I scroll through based on whether Sandevistan’s on cooldown or.

I think I’ve now installed optical camo as well. So one of them is related to that. The ODA’s one gives you a bonus if you have optical camo on.

[00:09:39] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah.

[00:09:41] Speaker A: So I really wish I could have a 3 Katana set on quick and then also have throwing knife and gun, but no chance.

But that was a very entertaining quest. I thought I was gonna die for sure, because you can’t fight back until you get him in the car.

[00:09:59] Speaker B: No, I had to. There were a few times I had to drop him inside, like a building.

[00:10:04] Speaker A: Oh, you know what? I don’t know why that even didn’t even come to mind. I didn’t think to put him down. I probably should have done that.

[00:10:09] Speaker B: I put him down a couple so then I could take out some people and then.

[00:10:14] Speaker A: All right, all right. Well, yeah, shame on me, not thinking of the most obvious solution.

And I guess after all that, at least on my end, I decided to finally clear out some cyberpsychos and gigs that I had seen on the map in various places.

But I also realized, and I think I mentioned this Maybe in the second gameplay episode this season, after both rewatching the 1995 movie Ghost in the Shell and the full Amazon TV series, which I think I’ve mentioned earlier as well, it just wrapped up a couple weeks ago. And then thinking back on these cyberpsychos while fighting more cyberpsychos, I mentioned one earlier that I fought way back then, who is a cop that has invisibility. So the optical camo and is fighting in a courtyard that has a giant layer of water covering the ground. Oh, yes, you recall that fight. Did you go back and fight that too, or I don’t know if you did in that moment.

[00:11:13] Speaker B: I’ve done that. I did that earlier. I’ve done it. Yeah.

[00:11:16] Speaker A: Between all those details and the fact that the cyberpsycho target there is named Major, like the main character, Major Kusanagi of Ghost in the Shell, very clearly a reference oh, okay.

[00:11:30] Speaker B: I’ve never seen some of that. Okay.

[00:11:34] Speaker A: It just flew completely over my head back then. But now that I’ve got some hindsight on it, it’s great.

You also got to expect that a game like this with lots of Easter eggs and references to other properties across the board will include something related to another major cyberpunk franchise, but good stuff. They’ve absolutely peppered this game with references and Easter eggs to everything.

[00:11:58] Speaker B: Oh yes, they have for sure. Oh yeah.

[00:12:03] Speaker A: Anyway, so after that, I believe the next quest in Judy’s line is when she calls you back and asks you to meet her at Clouds.

[00:12:15] Speaker B: Yeah, it’s called. Yeah, X Factor was the next one. Yeah, it’s what she wants. Yeah, you meet her on like a balcony or something just outside the top of Clouds to meet Mako Maeda, I believe her name was. Yes. So you can go in and speak to Mako or Maiko. Forgot how they say it.

I think it’s Mako to. Yeah. Talk to her about like Judy’s plan. I think it’s.

It’s more of like to have Clouds taken over, run by the dolls, see if she can get Mako and stuff on her side or make out a help out more.

But Meiko kind of refuses there. Yeah.

[00:12:56] Speaker A: And she refuses me too. Yeah.

[00:12:57] Speaker B: Yeah, she refuses no matter like if I talk or whatever it. Yeah, I think she refuses also.

[00:13:02] Speaker A: I don’t really remember.

She very clearly knows V and I don’t remember why. I don’t remember her at all.

[00:13:09] Speaker B: I don’t know either. I couldn’t. She’s.

[00:13:11] Speaker A: She’s not the front desk person from Clouds and she’s not the person that did the sort of therapy session. So I don’t remember seeing her. So maybe some other flashback exists. I don’t know.

[00:13:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I don’t remember that either. She said that and I was like, where? Yeah, where do we meet? For sure.

She then like you kind of tell her like what Woodman did. Like Woodman did some awful stuff to Evelyn when she was out. And I guess if obviously there was a. There was a quest earlier with Woodman and I guess on that one you had the option. Well, not maybe the option, but.

[00:13:48] Speaker A: No, you have the option.

[00:13:49] Speaker B: Kill him.

[00:13:50] Speaker A: You can absolutely. Like I think anyone in this game except for, I don’t know, some of the main, main characters. I think you can just kill them straight up while they’re talking kind of thing.

[00:13:59] Speaker B: But I had not killed him during

[00:14:02] Speaker A: that one, which is. We talked about this confrontation.

Neither did I. He tried to Give me a job.

[00:14:09] Speaker B: Yeah, so I didn’t kill him. So if you don’t kill him, then Meiko kind of tells you, like, oh, well, he’s currently, like, taking a break downstairs on the maintenance level if you want to go talk to him.

So after that, after you talk with

[00:14:24] Speaker A: Meiko, did you go get revenge?

[00:14:27] Speaker B: Yes. Yes, I went down to the maintenance level.

We were talking to him, and then I basically kind of let Judy take the way of getting angry and take revenge. And then, yeah, we ended up killing him.

Yeah, Pretty quickly.

[00:14:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Because she. She told me on the elevator landing, like, she was kind of hinting at it. I wish somebody would go do something. And then I was like, what are you talking about? And she says, I want. Okay, I want you to do it.

So. Because she said that, I. We got down there, Judy was yelling at him. I was yelling at him, and they just started kind of ranting, you know, between the fact that he was lying to my face back when we first met, I guess that’s. That’s expected from scum like that. But, yeah, I.

Absolutely. Just as he was starting to talk extremely disrespectfully about Evelyn, I just pulled out the revolver, which alerted him to start a combat scenario. But I just killed him in two headshots.

[00:15:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I threw. I think I actually. I had model wire out, so I.

[00:15:32] Speaker A: Okay. Just whipped him to death.

That’s a hell of a punishment. Probably more appropriate.

[00:15:38] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:15:38] Speaker A: More painful.

[00:15:39] Speaker B: So did that. And then after that, it’s like another good riddance. Yeah. Yeah, it’s good riddance to him. And then after that, it’s kind of like you talk to Judy, and she says she’s got to think of a plan or whatever, and she’ll get back to you.

And you do your waiting game like you do for a lot of these missions, especially these romance ones.

[00:15:59] Speaker A: A lot of waiting. You know, it’s so much waiting. And not just these, especially. I feel like in between each one, it’s at least a full 24 hours.

But, yeah, a whole lot of waiting going on.

[00:16:13] Speaker B: I know. I know. You can skip the time to make it go faster. I understand that. But there’s a lot of it where I’m just. I. I mean, I’ll just go do, like, a side quest or explore around or do whatever else to make the time go.

So then the next one was like. I think it’s called, you know, talking about a revolution.

So I think, if I remember rightly, Judy.

I can’t remember if she calls her. Oh, no. Yeah. She calls V and says that she’s, like, devised a plan to take over Clouds, and then invites us over to her apartment to discuss the whole plan in detail.

When you get to the apartment, there are two dolls there called Tom and Roxanne who work at Clouds.

And then Maiko also shows up.

[00:17:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I do remember Tom. Tom was part of that Evelyn research quest. Yeah.

[00:17:11] Speaker B: Yeah. So Tom and Roxanne are there, who are two dolls that worked close. And then Michael Mako comes, and you guys kind of sit down.

When Judy called, she asked you, like, do you have a preference on pizza?

And I had, like, a special answer or something where I could do, like, artichokes. Something else. Something else. She was like, oh, fancy. I was like, okay. One of them was Locust pizza that I had found.

[00:17:39] Speaker A: You sent me a picture of that

[00:17:40] Speaker B: I had found earlier in the game. That was one of the choices is, like, locust and cheese. I was like, no.

I will say, though, I said no to that one, because when I first found it and sent you that picture, I then ate it afterwards.

And then I’m just determining that my V didn’t like it. So,

[00:18:01] Speaker A: yeah, gross.

[00:18:04] Speaker B: So you go over. You have, like, a meeting. It’s basically a meeting. Like, yeah, it’s about revolution to take over Clouds.

And it’s to take over Clouds with, like, the dolls. To take over. To take over and run Clouds is what it is now.

Also, if you have killed Woodman, Meiko kind of, like, goes, so he never showed back up after his break.

Do you guys know what happened to him? It’s like, oh, no.

[00:18:36] Speaker A: Oh, what are you talking about?

[00:18:38] Speaker B: What are you talking about?

Yeah, so, yeah, so you kind of talk about and go over an idea of the dolls taking back over Clouds.

How. Then you talk about how Judy came up with the idea.

She learned to. Just, like, she’s learned to adjust behavioral trips while she was working at Clouds. And given how easy it is that the idea, I don’t know, didn’t jump into her mind sooner.

Mako says, like, obviously, there’s a whole lot of surveillance of Clouds. This probably never happened during his time there, as the tiger claws would prevent taking measures to prevent it.

V, like, you, as a V, want to see, like, how the modified chips work. So, yes, for a demonstration, like, Tom will proceed to.

It’s basically, you’re able to modify the dolls to, I guess, do some violence. So Tom will proceed to, like, throw three kitchen knives at, like, the wall behind you very quickly. And if you’re not convinced, you do Like a one on one sparring duel with Tom who like grabs you and then throws you onto the couch like very harshly.

[00:19:49] Speaker A: Like really training to make sure this system works.

[00:19:53] Speaker B: Yep.

And then it kind of just goes like Judy says, like once they take over Clouds, the bosses will be given an ultimatum to take, take the color proceeds to never show up again at the club. So like the head of the Tiger Claws or.

Or basically. Or else. But then like Mako points out basically that the Tiger Claws will just send more security to gain control. And they need to go after a gentleman called Hiromi Saito Sato. Hiromi Sato, who’s the Cloud’s real owner, wasn’t Woodsman. It’s this gentleman.

So you have to go after him and remove him.

So yeah, so that was then like you kind of move forward with that. You agree with the plan and say, okay, let’s go, let’s go. Like we’ll do that. And then again, it’s kind of a waiting game. And so then it moves into the next quest, which is Pisces is what it was called.

[00:21:10] Speaker A: Pisces is a scorpion. No, that’s Scorpio. What is Pisces? In whatever. Horus goes, wasn’t fish. Fish?

[00:21:15] Speaker B: Isn’t Pisces a fish?

[00:21:17] Speaker A: That’s exciting.

[00:21:18] Speaker B: Pretty sure, yeah.

So basically. Yeah. So Pisces starts with, obviously you’re helping to agree. Free Clouds. You get a phone call from Judy that she finally heard back from Meiko and that she’s gathering with the others at the Mega Building.

Once again, V joins the Medi Wheeling group, reiterates the plan.

And so they go over.

Now I’m just trying to remember this from memory. So we go over. So basically Tom and Roxanne go to Clouds to kind of take down security. And then you.

Meiko goes up to Hiromi Sato’s penthouse apartment because obviously she knows him.

So she goes up there and then you kind of have to sneak your way in there. So I was like sneaking away around like cameras, taking those out with.

Taking those out with whatever cyber hacks. And then taking down a few people.

And then you go up into the room where Hiromi Sato is. But there are also two other gentlemen in there along with Mako, who are also. They’re all under. They’re all looking. Watching a brain dance.

[00:22:31] Speaker A: Yeah. I’ve come across a couple rooms where just everyone in the room is doing a brain dance.

[00:22:36] Speaker B: Yeah. So they’re all like doing a brain. I think it’s a brain dance.

Yeah. They’re all Engaged with a brain dance while, like, while you talk with Meiko. And it’s kind of like, what’s going on? Like, this wasn’t the plan. Who are these two extra gentlemen? You find out. The two extra gentlemen are like, the bosses of Hiromi Sato. Like, he reports to them.

And so Maiko’s kind of then trying to change the agreement of, like, let’s embarrass him and humiliate him in front of these two. And then they’ll. They won’t want him to run Clouds anymore. And then she’s kind of making it where she wants to run Clouds, like, to convince them to hand it over to her.

[00:23:13] Speaker A: Okay, going on here?

[00:23:16] Speaker B: Yeah. So she then, like, jacks him out.

Obviously you’re talking to her, and she jacks him out. And then the two gentlemen come up and they’re like, hey, hey, who’s this person? Who’s this person?

She jacks them out.

Hiromi stays, like, in his brain dance.

Also on the table is Hiromi’s katana, which I forgot what it’s called, but it’s badass. I picked it up afterwards.

[00:23:45] Speaker A: Is it an iconic one, too?

[00:23:46] Speaker B: Yeah, it’s an iconic one.

[00:23:48] Speaker A: Okay, you say it’s badass. Is it because of the looks or the stats or what stats?

[00:23:53] Speaker B: I can’t remember if it’s shock or burning. It does some other stuff. It’s also. It also does, like, compared to. Because I was using the errata. I think it does. The errata is like 70 something damage. I think this is like 120 or more damage per hit. I don’t know. It does a lot of damage.

[00:24:07] Speaker A: Very nice.

[00:24:08] Speaker B: It’s cool.

But she jacks out the two. The two gentlemen who.

Who were in the Braindances, who are higher than Hiromi or who he answers to. They’re like, hey, who’s this person? And blah, blah. And then kind of have a talk back and forth, back and forth. And depending on what you pick, obviously it depends how it goes.

And I was. My way was basically like. Maiko was basically saying, like, look. And she shows a video monitor of Tom and Roxanne holding Tyger claws hostage.

She’s like, this is happening at your club right now. Like, you can’t trust this guy and roll me to take care of this and put me in charge. And then you kind of can interject of, like. And Judy’s, like, talking like, that’s not the plan. What is she doing?

Blah, blah. And then, like, I interjected with, no, we want Clouds to be taken over and controlled by the Dolls. Not. And then Maiko kind of goes like.

She’s like, no, V. Like, let me talk. Like, that’s not the way.

No. The plans for me to take over and then the gentlemen kind of go back and forth is like, why would we let you take over when even this mercenary. You can’t even control this mercenary of yours here.

[00:25:19] Speaker A: Ew.

[00:25:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And then you get into a fight, and so I took them.

[00:25:24] Speaker A: Talk to Judy like that.

[00:25:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, no, not to Judy. It was to Mako.

They’re talking to her saying, like, why are we going to put you in charge if you can’t even have. You don’t even have the respect of your mercenary here.

Like, she’s saying something different. Like, she wants the dolls in charge.

[00:25:40] Speaker A: So you’re one of gangs, just always taking everything.

[00:25:44] Speaker B: Yeah. So they want to fight you. So then I take them out, and then as you take them out, it kind of wakes Hiromi out. But before he could even get out of his brain dance, I just put a throwing knife in his head.

So I took him out as well. So I took those three out. And then I guess you have the option to kill Meiko. I didn’t. Like. It doesn’t give you the option. But you could, like, turn on her and kill her. I didn’t. I left her alive.

I left her alive. And then I kind of.

Actually. Yeah, Then. No, that’s okay. Yes, that’s how it goes. I left her alive. But then she talks with you, and if you kind of disagree with her, she fights you.

And so I took her out. But I didn’t, like, kill, because, you know, obviously you can take someone out and then they’re, like, rolling on the floor, and if you hit them again,

[00:26:38] Speaker A: that’s like the one where. Yeah. If you hit them again, then they’re.

[00:26:40] Speaker B: So I just did it where she was just rolling on the floor. I didn’t kill her. I left her still alive.

[00:26:45] Speaker A: Okay. You just.

[00:26:45] Speaker B: She was still alive, but just maimed, basically.

[00:26:48] Speaker A: Yeah, maimed. Maimed is.

[00:26:49] Speaker B: Yeah, maimed is the way I think they go.

Because I did that. Judy is actually pleased. That one. I stopped Mako’s power grab, and that cloud is now managed by the Dolls,

[00:27:01] Speaker A: as it should be. That was the plan all along.

[00:27:05] Speaker B: And then she’s, like, happy, and we’re kind of like, yeah, well, we got, like, the dolls to take over now. We got what we wanted. And then, like, Judy gives you a little kiss on the cheek, and then that’s how that is. And then again she goes, wait for me to call. It’s like, oh, my God, Fine.

[00:27:22] Speaker A: But yes, more waiting.

[00:27:23] Speaker B: Yeah.

So then I’m waiting for her to call, text, or whatever it is.

And then. And then once you get it, once she gets back in touch with you, it’s for the last mission called Pyramid Song.

And Pyramid Song is the final Judy mission, which is actually.

Yeah.

[00:27:47] Speaker A: I’m curious, you know, as we’ve learned last time, every song since Johnny gets into your head is.

What’s it called?

A real song.

[00:27:59] Speaker B: Yeah, it is.

[00:28:00] Speaker A: So who is Pyramid Song?

[00:28:02] Speaker B: I have no idea.

[00:28:03] Speaker A: But it’s Radiohead. I think I know this one.

[00:28:07] Speaker B: Yeah.

Is Pyramid Song based off of Silent Hill? No. I’m just kidding. Pyramid.

[00:28:13] Speaker A: Not quite.

[00:28:14] Speaker B: No.

[00:28:14] Speaker A: There you go. Connection back to season.

[00:28:16] Speaker B: I know.

[00:28:17] Speaker A: Five, six.

[00:28:19] Speaker B: No, no.

Wow. That was like a year ago. Yeah, probably. Sure was moving along, but yeah. So now you’re on the last mission, Pyramid Song. So Judy contacts you and she says she would like to meet you out by Laguna Bend Reservoir at sunrise. Like, it’s way out there on the map.

[00:28:42] Speaker A: Like in the bathroom way.

[00:28:43] Speaker B: Yeah, way out there.

So you go out there. Oh. And she. Because she’s like, oh, do you know how to dive?

I’ll bring you scuba gear. We’re going to go diving. And it’s like, oh, okay. And then you kind of have a little flirt thing of like. Like, I look good in a wetsuit. Do you look good? And she’s like, I look good in the wetsuit. It’s like, okay, all right.

[00:29:04] Speaker A: So you get there, Judy. I see you.

[00:29:06] Speaker B: Yeah, you get there, and then you’re talking with, like, Judy, and you’re like, at a cabin. She’s like, oh, I know the person who’s owns this cabin here, but, like, come over here.

I’m trying to think of how it’s basically what it was, was syncing with each other. She found a way that she can sync together, like, two people together.

[00:29:36] Speaker A: So don’t put it past.

[00:29:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I’m trying to think.

[00:29:41] Speaker A: You need to figure something like that.

[00:29:42] Speaker B: I’m trying to look at it. See how they.

So, like, you. You kind of sink. You sink together. You go into the water together, into this reservoir which goes deep.

And then you kind of get onto, like a. This pole thing that will lower you down. But before that, she’s like. She’s like, we have to calibrate our being synced with each other.

[00:30:02] Speaker A: So you swim around her, you look

[00:30:03] Speaker B: at her in the face, and then it like, calibrates While.

[00:30:07] Speaker A: While you’re underwater, right?

[00:30:08] Speaker B: Yeah, while you’re underwater, like, swimming together.

And then you go down. You stand on, like, this.

It’s like a pole that you hold onto, but then it will low. It lowers you down to the bottom of Laguna Bend.

[00:30:20] Speaker A: Okay.

[00:30:21] Speaker B: And Laguna Bend is. It’s basically, as Judy puts it, it’s our Atlantis underwater. And it’s where Judy used to live. It’s where she grew up as a child.

Basically, when they put the dam in, it flooded the whole.

The whole place. So it’s like an Atlantis underwater. All the buildings are there. Everything.

[00:30:39] Speaker A: I was like, how did she live underwater this whole time? Okay, well, that’s very sweet.

[00:30:45] Speaker B: That’s where she grew up.

[00:30:46] Speaker A: Hometown.

[00:30:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So it’s where she grew up.

You kind of go around and you explore, and you have, like, options of, like, scanning and finding little bits of her childhood or home and other little places. And.

And then you’re swimming around with each other. And then you go into the church where, like, Judy used to hang out and all that. And while you’re in the church, your relic malfunctions, and you have a heart attack, basically.

And then you wake up back on the dock, and Judy saved you. And you’re like, how did you do that? And Judy’s like, I have no idea. She’s like, I just did it. She’s like, I just. I just. She’s like, I don’t even think of what to do. I just grabbed you and brought you back up.

So then kind of like, oh, thanks, and blah, blah. And then you can get affectionate.

And then, as you should. Yep. You, like, go into the cabin, and Judy’s. Judy’s like, oh, put on some tea with you. How do you like your tea?

Gets tea or coffee? One of the two.

[00:31:50] Speaker A: Classy.

[00:31:51] Speaker B: And then she goes, oh, the power’s not on. I need to turn on the generator. And you’re like, oh, you’ll turn it on for you. You turn on the generator. And then when you coming back inside, you hear, like, a clip of Evelyn saying something in your head.

And then you hear something of Judy. And then when you walk in, Judy’s locked herself in the bathroom. And you’re like, judy, Judy, you okay? And she was like, yeah, yeah. And she lets you in. And then it’s like a real. Like, you have, obviously, options. And I said, like, oh, well, we’re still like, talk to me. We’re still synced together.

[00:32:21] Speaker A: Mm.

[00:32:22] Speaker B: And then she talks. She’s like, I didn’t want to talk about this Evelyn thing. And then she says, like, I just also found out that was it Tom.

That the tyger claws retook over clouds and Tom was killed and.

But Roxanne got away.

Oh, yeah. Okay. I didn’t want to be. Yeah. She’s like, I didn’t want to be all negative and upsetting. She said I wanted this to be like our time, us together.

It’s like, it still can be. It still can be. And then. And then it gives you, like, the option of, like, kiss. And then you go all close. And then. And then it does your romance scene.

[00:33:00] Speaker A: All right.

[00:33:01] Speaker B: It takes you to the bedroom, and then it goes. And then it goes steamy.

Oh, okay.

[00:33:06] Speaker A: Steamy is steamy. Is steamy.

[00:33:08] Speaker B: Yep.

[00:33:09] Speaker A: All right.

[00:33:09] Speaker B: Okay. And then you wake up the next morning from your clothes, go outside to talk to Judy, who’s sitting at the dock, and then you have the option of like, did you want this as a relationship or did you think it was just kind of a fling?

And then I think I chose, like, a relationship thing. She’s like, unless you don’t want it to be Judy. Judy’s like, no, I do. And then Judy gives you, through cool cyber tech wise, access to her apartment on a permanent basis.

[00:33:38] Speaker A: Ooh.

[00:33:38] Speaker B: So where’s.

[00:33:39] Speaker A: Oh, her apartment.

[00:33:40] Speaker B: Yes. Okay. Yep, yep.

And then.

Oh. And then you’re asked, like, oh, do you want to go there now? And she said, Judy’s like, no, I’ll stay here for a little bit. And then a little bit later, actually, this is like that. That finishes the Judy Romance, like, side quest in line. And then I got a text later on just saying like, oh, hey, do you want to meet up or go on, like, a date or get together and blah, blah. And then you can pick.

So you’re like, yeah, let’s meet up at my place. And if you own multiple places, you get to pick which one.

[00:34:12] Speaker A: Yep.

[00:34:13] Speaker B: So I own, like, five or six places.

So you do.

[00:34:17] Speaker A: Jesus. I’m not dumping money into all that.

[00:34:19] Speaker B: I picked the corp. The corpo, the corporate, like, apartment, which is nice. Yeah, I did earlier.

It was just super nice. So I said, oh, come over there. And she’s like, oh, you’re so fancy. She’s like, hopefully I won’t be underdressed.

And then that’s where it’s left off. I haven’t done that part.

[00:34:35] Speaker A: So there must be unique commentary based on where you do it.

[00:34:39] Speaker B: Yeah, that was that. So, yeah, that’s how the. That’s the Judy Romance Questline. Okay.

[00:34:45] Speaker A: Did you have her Kind of your apartment.

[00:34:47] Speaker B: I haven’t done that part yet.

[00:34:48] Speaker A: All right, all right. Well, it’s probably different based on the person, but I’ll touch on that in a sec.

Okay, well, let’s switch gears to Panam.

So I mentioned last week that I did the first Panam side quest, Riders in the Storm. Love the doors, by the way. Way back before even finding Evelyn in the first place, so.

But since that quest pertains more specifically to the frame of this episode’s play session, I’ll bring it up here. But I did it super long ago, and then Panam was just waiting around

[00:35:19] Speaker B: for me,

[00:35:22] Speaker A: so she needed help recovering Saul, who had been kidnapped by the Wraiths, and no one else wanted to go with her because they said, solid thinks this is a stupid idea.

So I joined Pan Am in a minivan, snuck into this kind of complex using a mix of a throwing knife that I finally decided to try out way back then, especially because I was already putting points into cool for something else, and then realized that throwing knives were in there. I know we chatted about our affinity towards throwing knives now, but anyway, yeah, still a fan of the throwing knives, but between that, stealth takedowns and Sandevistan, I just breezed through this place.

Almost. Almost got caught once or twice. But my various cyberware elements that slow down time when I get spotted, I was able to just walk on through.

And then on my way out after acquiring Saul, I had already cleared a decent path. So there were enemies still patrolling in some areas, but not where I needed to go. So I was able to just go and arrive at this side gate, that. A very tall gate with barbed wire on top.

And then, even though my body skill was nowhere near high enough to break down the gate because I’m still at 5, I was able to just kind of climb up on this electrical box and then double jump and air dash over the high fence and. And what do you know? Saul apparently can do that too, because he just seemed to teleport to me.

[00:36:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I noticed a couple times, like, on the Judy one, it says, like, find an alternate way into the church swimming, and you find a way in. And then Judy’s like, hey, I’m here. She’s like, just above you in the church. It’s like, oh, okay.

[00:37:11] Speaker A: It’s like, wouldn’t it be. I mean, yeah, okay. If you want pure simulation and realism, you know, you could. You could walk back and you realize that Saul can do that too. But we’re playing a video game. We don’t want to be held up too far.

So yes. Then a. Basically this giant sandstorm completely sweeps over this area we’re in.

So instead of going back to the Aldecaldos camp, we go to an abandoned safe house.

Saul being. Saul kind of being rude to Panam. I defended her and then earned V a kiss in the morning when we were riding off.

I gotta say, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in first person in a video game before.

It’s kind of odd, like it closes the eyes and all that stuff. But anyway, the better part of all this is that Panam decided to part ways with her sick Overwatch iconic sniper rifle.

[00:38:12] Speaker B: Oh.

[00:38:14] Speaker A: So.

[00:38:14] Speaker B: Oh, that’s. Oh, okay. It’s the name of the sniper. Okay, okay.

[00:38:18] Speaker A: It is. So it’s a really. It’s cool. It’s kind of like slow to reload and slow to put a new clip in and all that, or new round in. But it’s a very nice sniper rifle. I need to start upgrading it. Although I’m not really in a sniper build so much so it might have to wait for another playthrough. But I do enjoy it. I keep it on hand just because there are some scenarios where I’m way too far and don’t want to deal with running up.

I also mentioned last time that I got a follow up phone call from Panam after that and basically I just put the side job aside to tackle more serious matters.

And I wanted to do Scorpion’s funeral quest too.

So after completing all that prep work last week and doing all that, I went back out to the desert here.

But on the way to the Badlands, I did a cyberpsycho quest that was like almost in the Badlands, but still in the city in the outskirts where this construction worker basically had a full mech suit around him, but it was like attached to a skeleton. I know we talked about it because there’s another one of those out in the actual Badlands, but this construction, like they have a giant piece of construction, sheet metal as a shield.

[00:39:31] Speaker B: Yes, I remember. Yeah.

[00:39:32] Speaker A: And a literal laser cannon too. Well, you can like charge up and like either rapid fire or take like, like buck shots of this laser cannon, which super pack a punch. So yeah, the. The one that in the construction yard I took out with Panam’s Overwatch rifle until, you know, the 6% to go down and punch him with Sin Davistan because otherwise he was just like destroying me. If I got up close. He has a shield, he has armor like this katana is not doing Much. And he just kind of whips around and smacks you out of the way.

[00:40:02] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:40:03] Speaker A: Then you can’t come back. Like, you’re. You’re stunned long enough that he can just, like, load up a shot right in your face.

So, yeah.

Thank you, Panam, for your rifle.

And so when I tried, I finally arrived back at the Aldecaldo’s camp. I tried to do the funeral first, but when I got there, Mitch was with Panam and Saul for the intro of the next Panam questline job. What’s called With A Little Help from My Friends, which yet again, class act choice right there. Love the Beatles.

But because Mitch was there, it wouldn’t let me move the funeral quest forward, even though I had it tracked. So it started down this other quest for panam, even though the tracking was still for the funeral.

But anyway, I just decided, well, this isn’t going to work. So I just switched to the panam quest, where obviously, we had saved Saul a bit ago, but now he and Panam are arguing again, bickering about the next big plan.

So I kind of stepped in to help out.

But it’s a great quest that you should definitely do because you get to steal a Militech tank.

[00:41:16] Speaker B: Ooh. Okay.

[00:41:20] Speaker A: And so you go and you kind of figure out, you get basically this train that’s been this nuclear train car that’s been left since long ago, and you have a campfire while you’re waiting for Militech to approach, and just kind of hang out with the team of veterans from the Aldecaldos, which is a good time. They’re playing the guitar and all that. Starting to feel like a family a little bit.

Plus, being in the outdoors is always nice. And I had my V express his feelings for Panam, and she got all nervous about it. But things seemed to be progressing smoothly. And once it was time to roll on the job, panam’s truck turret gets jammed. I popped out of the car, thinking it would default me to my smart pistol because there was this group of Militech soldiers, but it was my katana, so I just switched to deflecting shots and slicing apart all the guards with Sandy, which works surprisingly well.

[00:42:12] Speaker B: Nice.

[00:42:13] Speaker A: Once we got the tank abducted and arrived back at camp, Panam let Saul.

She basically let him have it, like, defending herself, and it let me finally move to the funeral. So Scorpion’s funeral involves literally just Mitch and I, nobody else, driving his car to the edge of a cliff, putting his body in the driver’s seat, and a gas tank in the passenger seat, stomping on the gas while lighting a fire and then sending it off a ramp.

[00:42:41] Speaker B: Interesting. Okay.

[00:42:43] Speaker A: All by Scorpion’s request.

He sure went out with a bang.

[00:42:48] Speaker B: Yeah, it sounds like it.

[00:42:52] Speaker A: Side note, out in the Badlands, it seems like a lot of the cars have weapons loaded in them.

So I use that to clear out a number of NCPD situations. And this getaway side gig with a car in a minefield.

I don’t know if you did that one, but it’s like way, way out there. Past Cyberpsycho, there’s like a car sitting in a minefield.

I won’t tell you much. You can go find it. It should pop up out there.

[00:43:22] Speaker B: Okay.

[00:43:24] Speaker A: So once enough time had passed to finally reunite with Panam, I had the bug happen again. So I had to do the whole fast travel to town, then go back to the Sunset motel. We’ll skip 24 hours because of the bug. So very annoying. It’s happened to me many times. So if. If this happens to you, just follow that set of.

If you’re waiting on a call, follow that set of instructions and it should work.

This time. The quest involves connecting to and setting up the Militech tank that we stole last time around.

Panam and I get in. She tells me how it works. You jack into the tank and you don’t manually pilot the tank at all. It reads your brain waves and just does what you want.

So I found it to be a clever touch here that to mimic that difference in piloting compared to a regular vehicle. It also had a different control scheme from a car or a motorcycle by just using sticks, no triggers.

Very cool.

You do some target practice and light maneuvering, and then come up to a parking spot where it switches back to the in cockpit view.

You start chit chatting, and Panam is talking about various features of the tank, including why there’s a co pilot at all if the main driver just uses their brake, among some other things.

And she’s telling me this all with this expression on her face like she’s ready to pounce.

And she eventually asks, do you remember what I said about impulses from our previous conversation?

And then jacks herself into the tank too, and explains that everything feels super heightened because by both of us being connected to the tank and having similar emotions, we are synaptically linked.

[00:45:07] Speaker B: Okay. It’s like the same thing, but it’s

[00:45:09] Speaker A: pretty much a similar concept. Yeah. Just a different way of doing it. So Judy’s just a tech expert, and this is like, we got a High quality piece of tech, so. And then things again get titanic level hot and heavy.

It swaps many, many times in a lot of quick transition camera angles between V’s perspective, Panam’s perspective.

And then since, yeah, our brains are linked inside of this claustrophobic tank, I guess that’s why. But just as I was thinking, since we’re both connected to a tank by being jacked in, this sequence has to end with the tank’s cannon metaphorically blasting a shot off and destroying a car nearby or something. Right.

But even more dramatically and kind of similar to you, we get interrupted by a raff and shiv attack before being able to finish.

Fortunately, we’re literally in this tank because armor wise, not much being worn right now.

And then we get to chase them down in the tank and make easy work of them on the way back to camp.

As Panam walks into what she thinks is yet another chewing out by Saul, he surprises everybody by saying Panam is going to co lead the Eldecaldos family with him. Because she was right about a lot of things.

Bravo, Saul. Took you long enough, you stubborn ass.

[00:46:29] Speaker B: Yeah, seriously.

[00:46:31] Speaker A: The whole veteran crew that was working with us is stoked. Panam decides it really is the right place for her at this point.

I walk with her to their bar, share a drink and say that I’ll think about it because she kind of invites me to rejoin a Nomad family. I just kind of said I don’t know if it’s the right choice for me right now.

And then similar to you, the relic collapses me.

And I come to with her taking care of me. They had moved camp to a safer spot and brought me with them while I was unconscious.

She asked what the hell is going on? And I explained the biochip, my whole situation, things don’t look great. And so.

[00:47:11] Speaker B: Okay, I did that as well. Yeah, I meant to forgot the.

[00:47:13] Speaker A: I think that’s gotta be a similar scenario.

[00:47:15] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mentioned to Judy as well the whole thing of like.

Because at some point it says like Judy like can hear. She’s like, I heard whining and it’s Johnny who was whining.

And I’m like, oh, you heard Johnny? Like it’s Johnny. And then I tell her about the whole relic thing.

[00:47:29] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I think it kind of lines those up across whatever character.

And then, yeah, Saul and Mitch say I’m welcome to join them as long as I please.

And then walking. Panam walks me back to my truck I picked up from a weird movie set earlier.

And so we discussed basically how to continue our story.

But after all that, what I’m really curious about is if we’ll ever be able to pilot that tank again.

Because don’t give me access to a tank for a minor consequences mission and then a little skirmish and then never let me touch it again. Like that’s just rude. And also a lot of dev work for a one time mechanic.

And then yeah, I guess similar to you, I got a lot of text messages from Panam along the way, just asking about my situation, et cetera, et cetera.

And then I got friends texts from her friends about relationship advice and other tips. Kind of funny.

And then yeah, she texted me similar thing. I want to stay at your house.

So I invited her to my Japantown apartment because it’s the only other one I’ve bought at the date.

At your apartment you can chat, cuddle on the couch, have a dance party while listening to the most popular song from Edgerunners, which is called the Name of the quest. I really want to stay at your house, take a shower and then sleep.

FYI.

And yeah, so that kind of wraps up that last bit there of the romancing, which is certainly an interesting departure from the other quests we’ve been doing.

Also, we asked on Discord for anyone who’s already played what their favorite or can’t miss side jobs are. And thank you so far to Zenity and Sith Warsmith for sharing in our next side quest focused episode. In a few weeks we’ll hopefully tackle some of those.

I think they were mentioned I Fought the Law, Sinner Man, Epistrophe, the Prophet Song, which I have an idea I know who that’s about Dirty Biz and all the quests related to Johnny’s bandmates, but everything Johnny specific we’re saving for later.

It is funny that Johnny has commentary on a lot of these side quests too. Yeah, he’ll just pop in and just give his thoughts.

Well yeah, with that we’ll move on. So for next time we’ll be starting the Phantom Liberty expansion, as it sounds like playing it here is good timing within the story.

So to start up the expansion if you have it purchased, the first quest is called Dog Eat Dog and it should have unlocked after a phone call with someone named Songbird after finishing the Transmission quest with the Voodoo Boys earlier.

So go along that questline partially and quit after the quest. Lucretia My Reflection where you secure a safe house, have a late night conversation with somebody and rest in the apartment, then save and quit and hang on for next episode.

[00:50:30] Speaker B: Nice. Yeah. Looking forward to starting up Phantom Liberty.

Yeah, I’ve heard good things about it. So excited to see how it goes. So, yes, thank you everyone for listening.

Hope you enjoyed the episode. Let us know who you romanced or if like you romance the same people as us. If like a little bit of maybe it went differently for you. If the conversation went differently, yeah, let us know in Discord. And thanks again for listening and have a good one.

If you want to follow along and discuss our playthrough of any games on the Gaming Backlog Book Club Podcast, please give us a follow on your podcast platform of choice. Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Amazon Music or Pocketcasts, as well as our Discord and Instagram account under the same name. Thanks.