Cyberpunk: Edgerunners review – Zing

A lot has happened around Cyberpunk 2077. Players, mostly those who bought the long-awaited title on older generation consoles, have expressed their dissatisfaction. Personally, I’m not surprised at all, because the PS4 and Xbox One versions were absolute failures. The other versions were not without problems, but on the PC I played CP2077 on, I had virtually no problems since the day of release. The creators of CD Projekt not only lost a significant part of their finances, but (and this is even worse) lost the reputation of the company that gave us the brilliant The Witcher 3. Nothing lasts forever, and the storm is gradually subsiding. disappears less than two years after its release. In my opinion, CP2077 is a great game, but not perfect. But what is it? The recently announced Phantom Liberty DLC has caught my attention and I’m looking forward to it without hesitation.

But today we will talk about the long-awaited series from the Cyberpunk 2077 universe – Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, which was released on the Netflix streaming platform on September 13th. I can say right away that it is definitely worth returning to Night City – the city that never sleeps. When it comes to anime, I’m very careful. I have seen quite a lot of TV series, but I don’t really look for them and I definitely can’t be called a so-called weakling. Until now, for example, the series “Death Note” or “Wolf’s Rain” have stuck in my memory. I highly recommend both. For me, Edgerunners wasn’t something I looked forward to as I crossed off the days on my wall calendar. If I knew what was waiting for me, I could resort to it. A few Eurodollars for a stagnant Netflix subscription definitely paid off this time around.

Hard life in the night city

The people of Night City are having a hard time. The city is ruled by two rival corporations, Arasaka and Militech. None of them is worth an argument. Without enough Eurodollars in your account, you will most likely find yourself on the street eating you before you even notice. In this situation is the main character of Edgerunners – schoolboy David Martinez, studying at Arasaka Academy. One day he is in the wrong place at the wrong time. As a result, he finds himself completely alone, in despair and in debt. Thanks to a difficult life situation, he decides to embark on the path of crime and become a cyberpunk – a “man” who, thanks to modifications, rises to a much higher place in the food chain than it should be by nature. The price for this is very high, and I’m not just talking about the Eurodollars that will fall to install improvements. I have to stop here so as not to tell you too much of the story.

The city is ruled by two corporations – Arasaka and Militech.

The plot of Edgerunners grabbed my attention almost immediately. Everything falls apart, there is a lot of action and twists, and the characters are written brilliantly. That is, except for a few annoying individuals. The series has ten episodes, each of which lasts about half an hour. These five hours will fly by like water, and I dare say that many viewers will choose the so-called “drunk viewing” and see all the Edgerunners in one sitting. I am not surprised. After each end credits, I immediately started the next series. Everything has been complemented by the fact that Edgerunners will take you to famous places from the game itself, and you will also meet old acquaintances. In addition to, for example, the U Lizzie bar, I also got to know individual streets, overpasses and highway exits, warehouses, shops and a car park that the Cyberpunk universe offers. Big. This is exactly what I want to see in a game adaptation. For those of you who haven’t played the game, don’t worry. You will understand the plot without any problems.

Ode to violence

Edgerunners are definitely not for kids. I hope it doesn’t happen like when my mom brought me South Park: Hell on Earth from the video store. I was eight years old, and she thought that if it was animation, then it would definitely be a fairy tale. It is still a mystery to me that she allowed me and my sister, who is five years older than me, to watch the cult film. Well, mainly because she banned me from animating Batman through violence. Edgerunners really has a lot of that. Blood splatters everywhere, and limbs and intestines fly through the air.

The creators from the Trigger studio did not bother with nudity either. Although there are only a few sex scenes, there are really a lot of bare-chested shots. One might argue that this is all cartoonish, but even so, nothing is suitable for children. The same applies to the vulgarisms that accompany the main part of the dialogues. For the reasons mentioned above, the show has been rated TV-MA and is therefore not recommended for viewers under the age of seventeen. I personally can only agree with this decision. This is really strength. But don’t worry, romance lovers will find their way too.

Quality assurance

Japanese animation studio Trigger really took care. Overall, the visuals of Edgerunners are excellent and pay homage to the game itself. The environments are rendered to perfection and I don’t have the slightest problem with facial animations. In anime, I often object to overloaded expressions, but fortunately, with rare exceptions, this does not happen here. Everything you see on screen exudes a love of craftsmanship. The aforementioned violence is masterfully crafted. A lot of the scenes made me think, “What the hell…” and I really enjoyed that.

Musical accompaniment is carefully selected depending on the scene. You can expect a mix of downbeat songs, electronic music creation, and during the action scenes you get really hard metal a la Doom Eternal. I have absolutely nothing to complain about the audiovisual processing. The icing on the cake is the original Japanese dub. In this regard, Edgerunners belongs to the absolute pinnacle of modern anime production, and I applaud the creators of Studio Trigger. Great job.

More, I want more!

Game adaptations are generally of poor quality. Respect exceptions. But Edgerunners is one of the best I’ve ever seen. They managed to keep my attention from start to finish, and although I’m not a huge fan of anime, I’m very satisfied. This is a ride that won’t let you breathe. The plot is excellent and you can build relationships with the characters even in just five hours. I would immediately take more details. I hope this is only the first sign, because the world of Cyberpunk offers endless possibilities. While I’m writing this review, I have the game installed in the background again and I just need to go back to it after watching Edgerunners. Because I want more Night City, more Cyberpunk.