Update (1/5/2020, 1:30 PM) – CD Projekt Red has commented on the Cyberpunk 2077 Judy male romance situation, affirming that it was not cut content and that she was always intended as a female-exclusive romance option.
Speaking to Eurogamer, a CD Projekt Red representative has confirmed what many have suspected: Judy was always intended to be a female-only romance option and there was no male romance option cut from the game.
"It was simply more convenient and easier for our localisation team from a production point of view to record all lines with both voices, so we could avoid missing something by mistake that would require future recordings," a CD Projekt Red representative explained to Eurogamer.
"This was done with pretty much everything just to be on the safe side although it can vary between the different languages."
Our original story continues below.
A Cyberpunk 2077 Judy male romance has been uncovered in the game files, leading some players to suspect that the sexual orientation of your allies wasn't always set in stone.
Cyberpunk 2077 has been out for almost a month now. The game had a very shaky launch, so much so that CD Projekt Red guaranteed refunds for all players before a deadline in late December 2020. As CD Projekt Red ramps up for the game's first DLC, modders have been tinkering with the game — and they've discovered an unfinished version of a male V romance path for Judy.
Here's the context if you haven't yet played Cyberpunk 2077: as with some modern RPGs, the player character has the opportunity to "romance" multiple characters in the game. These romances, however, are restricted based on whether the player has a male or female character. The Nomad woman Panam, for example, can only be romanced by a male player character. On the opposite side of the coin, Judy can only be romanced by a female player character. New discoveries in the game's code, however, show that they may not have always been the plan.
How to Access the Cyberpunk 2077 Judy Male Romance
Unlocking the Cyberpunk 2077 Judy male romance is described in this YouTube video [NSFW] that was highlighted on the game's subreddit. The process requires a mod, so it's only available to PC players for now. Here's what you have to do:
- Download the Cyber Engine Tweaks Mod which grants access to an in-game console.
- Install the mod by following these instructions
- Input the following command in the console before the "Check on Judy" objective in the "Pyramid Song" quest
for i, v in next, {"judy"} do
Game.GetQuestsSystem():SetFactStr(v.."_romanceable", 1)
end
You will now have unlocked the Cyberpunk 2077 Judy male romance, although it might not be quite what you expected.
'Cut' Content Isn't Quite So Clear
Some players — myself included — have speculated that the sex-specific romances may have been cut content. After all, not all games with romance options restrict player choices in such a fashion. However, the situation surrounding the Cyberpunk 2077 Judy male romance option isn't quite so clear.
I did a side-by-side comparison of the female and male scenes. In all cases I've seen, the male options have some obvious animation problems; one such example is the cigarette clipping through the male V's index finger. The sex scenes for both male and female V are identical save for the player character's model — it's evident that the male version is likely a placeholder animation and not the intended finished product.
What about the voice lines, though? Cyberpunk 2077 rarely mentions the player character's sex, but the male V has voice lines for the relationship scenes that you should never have been able to access as you couldn't romance Judy.
"For the most part, [Blizzard doesn't] do two voice lines at a time. They'll prepare Halloween voice lines, Easter voice lines, new skin voice lines. They are very organized and they set up a bunch of stuff so that our session is a little bit longer. So we'll kill a bunch of birds with one stone." — Overwatch's Sombra Voice Actress Carolina Ravassa Explaining the Voice Acting Process
The answer is simple: developers like to cover all of their bases. Two years ago, I interviewed Carolina Ravassa, the voice actress for Sombra in Overwatch. She explained that Blizzard Entertainment had her record the vast majority of her voice lines over several back-to-back recording sessions. The fruits of this labor are most evident in an update made to Overwatch back in April 2020 where it added the ability to customize the Communication Wheel. Each and every character received dozens of new voice lines ranging from simple lines like "Yes" and "No" to more complex lines centered around a theme such as "Push Forward" or "Fall Back." The odds are that Blizzard recorded most (or all) of these voice lines (and others) in the original recording sessions for the voice actors months before the game launched.
Similarly, CD Projekt Red likely wrote scripts for both male and female player characters in all situations — including the romances. Those scripts were then recorded by the male and female voice actors. Considering the janky animations for the male V's body, these locked romance options may never have moved beyond the earliest planning stages.
Were the romance options cut to save development resources or a separate design decision? There isn't enough evidence to say for certain either way; for now, we've reached out to CD Projekt Red for clarification on the matter and will update this article when we receive a reply.
Are you upset by the limitations placed on Cyberpunk 2077 romances? Who is your favorite romantic option in the game? Let us know in the comments below!
