Just like Andy Dwyer, we all love a good comeback story. Seeing games like No Man’s Sky go from the rough state of release to receiving The Game Award for Best Ongoing Game a few years later gives players hope that developers still care about the community. I don’t have to remind everyone of the disastrous launch of Cyberpunk 2077 back in 2020, the game was a broken mess that still needed polish despite multiple delays that promised to deliver a finished game. In the months following that launch, CD Projekt Red went from being one of the most decorated and beloved game development studios to seemingly the complete opposite. The company’s value fell, their game was removed from the PlayStation Store for months (a rather drastic decision at the time), and a lot of the goodwill they had been building with The Witcher games crumbled.
But CDPR kept working. Releasing updates that slowly but surely fixed the game bit by bit. Earlier this year they released the next-gen version of Cyberpunk 2077 which also came as a free upgrade to players who bought the last-gen version and had managed to procure a next-gen system too. It was that version of Cyberpunk 2077 that I went back to in July, having previously played the game near release and having had a rather unpleasant experience. I was excited to finally see what CDPR crafted, and you can read my full review here, but my overall thoughts can be summed up in this: Cyberpunk 2077 is still not without its flaws, but you shouldn’t let that stop you from experiencing one of the best video games ever conceived.
It was clear from the response I got to that review that people still weren’t happy with the CDPR. The bad taste that Cyberpunk 2077 had left in their mouth was still there and inhabiting players from returning to the game. So, it makes me happy that September was such a great month for Cyberpunk and that the game is finally getting the second wind it so desperately needs.
The Edgerunners Anime
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is a new Netflix original anime from Studio Trigger, known for Kill la Kill, Little Witch Academia, and more. The show was initially written internally at CDPR and then given to Studio Trigger. The result of this collaboration is a vibrant and chaotic character-focused story and one of the year’s best anime. And that praise isn’t just from me either. Edgerunners is currently sitting at 100% fresh from critics and 98% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, marking a rare occurrence where critics and audiences actually agree about something.
I binged the ten-episode series the day after release and I think the reason why it works so well is that it builds on what CDPR has already created wonderfully while telling its own story. If you played the game, you will identify a few familiar faces here and there but as I said in my CP2077 review, one of the strongest characters in the game was Night City and it’s brought to life in beautiful ways by Studio Trigger. Often as I watched the show, I would recognize a location and remember my own memories of exploring the map, meeting new characters, and crashing my car. As I watched David Martinez meet Lucy, I thought back to Panam, and when things so sideways, I thought of Jackie.
In that way, the anime sort of validates your own journey as V while never overly mentioning it. To add to that (without spoilers), there is a rather pivotal scene at the end of the show that plays out to the tune of I Really Want to Stay at Your House, a song that players might have heard as they drove through Night City with the radio on like I did. To me, and I’d imagine all the other players who watched the show, that song now has a new significance that I will remember every time I hear the song going forward.
Of course, even when you ignore all that, Edgerunners looks fantastic thanks to Studio Trigger’s incredible work in animation. The show is contently visually stimulating with colors that pop and shots that could freeze frame and double as wallpapers. It is violent, with no shortage of brutal blood and gore effects, but that’s juxtaposed with serene shots that are anything but. This works well to visually depict the surprisingly human drama that is at the heart of Edgerunners. Not to mention that Mike Pondsmith, the creator of the Cyberpunk 2020 IP, even took to Reddit to praise Studio Trigger for nailing his vision of Cyberpunk.
The Edgerunners Update
A week before the anime was released, CDPR hosted a special episode of Night City Wire where they announced a new update that went live later that day which added much-requested features like transmog to the game and they also teased Cyberpunk 2077‘s highly anticipated first DLC. You can find out more about Phantom Liberty here, but these announcements were a great marketing move, promising players (not on last-gen consoles) more content to come while also tying the show into the game further with easter eggs that can now be found on the map.
The impact of Edgerunners on Cyberpunk 2077 and its community is already very apparent. The game nearly hit 70K peak player count today (the highest player count since January 2021) and it’s seen a resurgence in sales, sitting at #2 Global Best-Selling Game on Steam after Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. And the r/cyberpunkgame subreddit has also seen increased activity and as a longtime member of that community, I have not seen them so excited since the weeks leading up to the game’s original release.
This is the second wind that Cyberpunk 2077 so desperately needed, giving people a reason to return to the game, perhaps for the first time in years, and experiencing firsthand all the work that CDPR has put into it. But as players come back to the game (or pick it up for the first time) the ball is now in their court. The Night City Wire promised even more updates in the future with vehicle and melee combat rework on the horizon but considering that Phantom Liberty is the only planned DLC for the game and with CDPR claiming they are all in on the Cyberpunk series going forward, the goodwill being earned can’t fall victim to rushed development cycles once more.
That brings me to the end of my exposition about Cyberpunk. I loved the game, I enjoyed the show, and I wanted to discuss this before I booted up the game once more. Plus, it’s always nice to talk about a gaming comeback story. If you liked this or want to spread the news, consider sharing the link. It goes a long way in helping the site. Let us know down in the comments what you think of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and whether it has convinced you to return to Night City. And if for some reason you still haven’t seen the show, you can start by watching the opening credits below.
Night City Always Wins