History Characters / Cyberpunk2077

[[folder:Max Jones]]
!!Max Jones
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2023_12_09_at_00_23_42_maxjones_database_cp2077webp_webp_afbeelding_1400_1800_pixels_geschaald_69.png]]

->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/AlecNewman

One of the few true media left in Night City, Max has dedicated his life to exposing corporate corruption. His firebrand reporting and exposure of scandals has placed a heavy price on his head.

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: His plan to prevent himself from being killed by Militech.
* BrokenPedestal: His opinion of Regina is that giving up her job as a media to be a Fixer is a betrayal of who she was. It doesn't improve much when he's hanging around her headquarters.
* ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike: V can get them out of Militech's sights but he's less than pleased about being forced into hiding with his ex-friend turned criminal.
* CrazyPrepared: His hideout is rigged with mines and turrets under the assumption that assassins would come for him over his stories, despite Max having ignored Regina's warnings.
* DrivenToSuicide: Plans to take this route when V confronts them. This is despite the fact he assumes they're here to kill him.
* IntrepidReporter: Max is both one of the best of his breed still active in Night City, and one of the last still breathing.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: His decision to focus on Militech's mistreatment of veterans gets a hit called out on him by the megacorporation.
* PrinciplesZealot: Downplayed. He holds steadfast to his principles as an independent media, and believes that Regina betrayed hers by becoming a Fixer.
* WeUsedToBeFriends: With Regina, whom he considered a mentor until he he came to believe that she sold out by ending her media career to become a fixer.

!!!Introduced in ''Phantom Liberty''

[[folder:Bree Whitney]]
!!Bree Whitney
[[quoteright:730:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bree_jpeg.jpg]]
->'''Voiced by:'''

A struggling media whose career has been stuck writing for screamsheets and dreaming of a better life and better stories. Bree found her big break in Dogtown, chasing a story of a secret Militech facility beneath the district where illegal experiments were conducted.

* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:Whether she or Dante Caruso ends up dead, Bree Whitney's scheme of exposing Militech's research as her big scoop is doomed to fail. The best she could hope for is to go to ground and possibly sell V out to Netwatch.]]
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Subverted. Bree justifies writing propaganda for Militech as a way to get close enough to find some real scoops, though from her lifestyle and demeanor, she wasn't in any real hurry to get to them.
* IntrepidReporter: Claims to be this. Whether it's true or not is left up to the player, given how she's just as motivated by the clout and fame her big break would give as she supposedly is of exposing the truth to the world.
* PropagandaMachine: It's eventually revealed that Bree's ''actual'' job was to act as one for Militech.
* KilledToUpHoldTheMasquerade:
** Militech wants to get rid of her to hide their research into the Blackwall [[spoiler:and specifically, the true purpose of Project Cynosure]].
** [[spoiler: Possibly her ultimate fate if she survives the mission: Mr. Hands will later contact V and notify them that Netwatch has a hit out on them and that Whitney disappeared not long after the gig. Whether she truly did go to ground (and thus leave V holding the bag for Netwatch to come after) or Netwatch actually had her dispatched in order to hide Militech's research into the Blackwall is up to the player's interpretation, though Mr. Hands' words on the matter imply that she sold out to Netwatch.]]
* ProperlyParanoid: She seems extremely paranoid, hiding in Dogtown's underground tunnels away from Night City. It turns out she has every reason to be afraid.
* SlummingIt: Despite Bree's claims of being a struggling journalist, her apartment in Heywood is shown to be rather swanky for someone trying to make it big, complete with expensive-looking decors and travel magazines for exotic locales [[spoiler:even if it's partly an attempt to escape Militech]]. It's a hint that there's more to her background than what she tells them. Johnny also notes sardonically how ''actual'' struggling media in his day wished they had something like her living conditions.

!Nomad Clans
[[folder:In General]]
Various DesertPunk-styled clans who roam the wastelands surrounding Night City and beyond.

** The Badlands, in addition to being unofficial "Seventh District", is an informal no man's land comprised of the deserted wasteland and ghost towns surrounding Night City proper. While some of it is used by the corporations for resource extraction, food production and as landfills, the rest has largely been abandoned to Nomad clans and scavengers, with the Night City Border Patrol and the occasional Militech squad serving as the only visible sign of authority.

* FriendlyLocalChinatown: Night City is host to a sizable Little China (resembling a futuristic mix of Hong Kong and Shanghai) and Japantown (described by WordOfGod as a love child between Las Vegas and Kabukicho). There's also the more impoverished and Wild West-esque Kabuki subdistrict in Watson, where the rest of the city's Asian population resides.

* NotQuiteTheRightThing: Preserving Night City's independence caused Arasaka to once more become a power within the city and North America as a whole, while also escalating tensions with Militech and the NUSA.

* SketchySuccessor: Although his approval was dropping, Rhyne remained a popular mayor who was likely going to coast to a double-digit reelection. Holt on the other hand is not well-loved by the citizens of Night City and is down in the polls to Peralez due to his negative reputation and rumors of involvement in Rhyne's death.

** Also if V refuses to return it to Regina: "Increasing volume to three hundred percent: TAKE ME BACK TO MY OWNER!"

->'''Voiced by:''' Dave B. Mitchell

* WeaponizedCar: The "Excelsior" package, available at quite a premium, turns one's rented Delamain car into an armored - and armed - urban combat vehicle. [[spoiler:Jackie tries to trigger it out of context, which Del just brushes off. Del [[OhCrap automatically engages]] the mode to flee [[TheDreaded Adam Smasher]] when the brute [[DynamicEntry charges out]] of Konpeki Plaza's front door, [[FoeTossingCharge broadsiding]] the car during the heist going awry.]]

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: A multilayered example. On the surface, he's a vending machine with a self-aware A.I., but [[spoiler: it goes up another step if V figures out he's actually just a highly-advanced conversation algorithm, lacking the necessary hardware for anything approaching self-awareness or sentience. That said, he's ''so'' advanced that most people genuinely can't tell he's just an algorithm, begging the question of whether it ''matters'' that he isn't self-aware when he can mimic it so flawlessly.]]

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Night City Police are heavily militarized and act like an occupying army. This has done nothing to make Night City safer but just encouraged the criminals to be more violent and the public to hate the police whether they're criminals or not.

* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Their defining philosophy with cyberpsychos as well as a large number of other "criminals." They freely look the other way when V goes on killing sprees through Night City's other criminals too, frequently employing them too; in fact, if you happen to enter a firefight with some gangoons with a minor wanted level, the NCPD Subcon system will ''immediately clear your wanted level'' to allow you to focus on fighting some gangers.
* NotQuiteTheRightThing: NCPD employs brutal police state tactics and military-grade weapons against the public. All it's accomplished is barely holding the NCPD from completely disbanding and the public to hate them.

* PoliceBrutality: Your introduction to them is them locking down an entire district under martial law and their elite unit wiping out a bunch of car jackers with lethal force. They also employ V as a BountyHunter against many crimes that that they can't be bothered to handle.

* ARealManIsAKiller: Arises as an issue among the beat officers, with any perception of "weakness" such as mourning a fallen friend or being affected by the death of a child being mocked or dismissed. As one can imagine, this unfortunately means that many officers develop ''serious'' psychological and emotional problems, often resulting either in cyberpsychosis or [[DrivenToSuicide self-destruction]] due to the lack of emotional support and outlets.

** Using him long enough triggers a short quest to return him to his original owner. If you do so, there's no way to get him back. You can refuse his request outright, but this will replace all his comical banter with upset "BAD USER!" yelling, making him very annoying to use. The only way to keep him in his usual state is to agree and never advance the quest, accepting the fact that it'll be stuck in your questlog for the rest of the game.

* ThePowerOfLegacy: [[spoiler:Han helped cover up Mayor Rhyne's death out of the believe that, owing to his lingering reputation, it would be better that the people of Night City remember him as a symbol of unity and rebirth, rather than risk triggering widespread chaos by revealing the truth.]]

* CorruptPolitician: Much like Rhyne, Holt is deep in the corporation's pockets, but he is more openly blatant and obvious with it since he views it as the normal way things are done in Night City, which contributes to his negative reputation. Notably he is the pocket of Arasaka and has connections to the 6th Street Gang (which has since come to hate him).

* BitchInSheepsClothing: He is very good at building rapport with his guests and getting them to open up. If the guest is talking about something that is against the editorial line (such as the environment, or Relic), he will wait for them to slip during a particularly difficult question and then turn on them. He also makes a big show out of donating brand new cybernetics to a man whose arms were repossessed, but the way he hogs the camera during the reveal [[ItsAllAboutMe
comes off very myopic]].

* BitchInSheepsClothing: He is very good at building rapprt with his guests and getting them to open up. If the guest is talking about something that is against the editorial line (such as the environment, or Relic), he will wait for them to slip during a particularly difficult question and then turn on them. He also makes a big show out of donating brand new cybernetics to a man whose arms were repossessed, but the way he hogs the camera during the reveal has a tinge of ItsAllAboutMe attitude.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Bree justifies writing propaganda for Militech as a way to get close enough to find some real scoops.

* BenevolentAI: Despite his emergence into a full-blown autonomous sentient being, he is content to be a networked AI-driven high-end taxi service with a cordial posh accent with plans to expand his garage workshop to offer repairs to the public [[spoiler:before his consciousness fragmentation problems crop up.]] Just compare him to the [[CorruptCorporateExecutive average human CEO]] in this setting.
* ButNowIMustGo: [[spoiler:If you choose to merge all the fragmented personalities into Delamain’s core, he will become a new being, a seemingly evolved version with a thirst for knowledge and expansion beyond just the taxi business, with that Delamain leaves his place (he says he's going home, which may mean he's returning to the other side of the Blackwall to plumb its secrets) but he leaves a "true son" in his place, which is essentially a perfect stable copy of how the core Delamain used to be before the merger]].

* IronicEcho: [[spoiler: The Coastview cab calls V a "bitter, unlikable loner whose passing shall not be mourned" before returning to the Delamain HQ, a line straight from ''Videogame/{{Portal}}'' as an insult toward the player character. Except both V and Johnny Silverhand, who inhabit the Relic, is anything but. V has lots of people who cared about their wellbeing and despite polarized opinions about Silverhand, Johnny, with the help of V, can convince his old friend, who were clearly still remember him, to reunite.]]

** [[spoiler: If the questlines involving the Voodoo Boys are fully completed before starting Delamain's Epistrophy questline (i.e. before visiting Delamain's premises for the first time), during the conversation in the control room, V will guess that Delamain is from beyond the Blackwall after Delamain expresses his desire to avoid the scrutiny of Netwatch and Delamain will confirm it.]]

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: He's one of the more benevolent A.I.s in the game who [[spoiler: [[BigDamnHeroes rescues]] both V and Takemura despite them being out of his service area and he can end up bitting it in ACT 2 due to personalities splitting off him]].[[spoiler:This can be averted however should V merge all of his personalities together, where Delamain ends up becoming a much more enlightened version of himself whose newfound thirst for knowledge will lead him to leaving Night City and leaving behind a "son" that can serve V.]]

* GuideDangIt: Skippy offers to set himself to one of two fire modes when you first acquire him; Puppy-Loving Pacifist (in which he only goes for leg shots), or Stone-Cold Killer (in which he only goes for head shots). [[spoiler: After 50 kills with him, he'll automatically and permanently switch to the opposite fire mode, which you'll be stuck with. He can be convinced via dialogue not to switch to Killer mode from Pacifist but not vice-versa.]]

* WhatTheHellHero: [[spoiler: If you set him to Stone-Cold Killer mode, after 50 kills he'll automatically disable Stone-Cold Killer mode and permanently lock himself to Puppy-Loving Pacifist mode. If you ask him why he just did that, he'll reply "Frequently asked questions: Why can't I kill more than 50 people? Answer: The fuck is wrong with you? Please go see a therapist, you psycho."]]

* TheExile: [[spoiler: The events of his mission if V gives Ana the information. He is forced to live in Dogtown in hiding from his own government.]]

* WhatTheHellHero: Calls out V if they give Ana the information on Bana. [[spoiler: It results in him being exiled to Dogtown and Ana forced to go to prison for the rest of her life.]]

* BearerOfBadNews: [[spoiler: Mitch has to be the reluctant messenger to a V who completed Panam's questline in the Tower Ending, ''especially'' if V was male and romanced her. While he's happy to hear that V is alive and well and clearly isn't comfortable having to lay this on him, he nevertheless firmly asks V to never try to call Panam again, as she took his two year disappearance hard and no longer wants anything to do with him.]]

* BearerOfBadNews: [[spoiler: Mitch has to be the reluctant messenger to a male V who romanced Panam in the Tower Ending. While he's happy to hear that V is alive and well and clearly isn't comfortable having to lay this on him, he nevertheless firmly asks V to never try to call Panam again, as she took his two year disappearance hard and no longer wants anything to do with him.]]

** She begs V to not kill any of Dodger's men out of fear of Bill's safety via incurring the lieutenant's wrath. [[spoiler:This no longer becomes an issue if V [[TakeAThirdOption simply decides to kill Dodger]], saving Stella and Bill from being exploited any further]].

* JerkassHasAPoint: The Night City police straddle the line between JerkassHasAPoint and VillainHasAPoint. They are completely outmatched by the sheer number of violent murderous killers around them, the corporations are above the law, and military-grade weapons as well as cybernetics weapons are everywhere on the street.

* HatesTheJobLovesTheLimelight: Downplayed. As she casually admits to Arif Igbal at Hansen's party, she considers her N54 News stint as akin to feeding gonk to the masses, drooly reading words on a teleprompter. On the other hand, she not only enjoys the fame that comes with being a popular anchorwoman, but also the access it gives her to the places where words ''do'' matter.

* ManyQuestionsFallacy: Ziggy Q usually keeps things on track by slyly giving guests leading questions or manipulative quips to lower their guard.

* AllCrimesAreEqual: Played with in that they won't attempt to prosecute any crime less than hitting someone with a car or murder. Steal and destroy property damage to your hearts content. When they do, they ''will'' come for blood. This is not GameplayAndStorySegregation either. There is so much crime in Night City that they really don't care about the small stuff.