To me, Vincent and Valerie felt like two different characters. Vincent comes off as more jaded or used to Night City, he gets how things usually go. Valerie seems a lot more optimistic and less accepting of Night City’s nature. Both are dealing with a terrible situation, but it feels they deal with it in different ways.
Are Vincent and Valerie the canon names for V? That's good to know. I had been thinking Victor and Victoria (think the Julie andrews musical). I overall like the voicing of FV more than MV, but it's a close call, both are good but not really great. Other than prefered voice, the ONLY dif is prefered romance. The 4 big romances are hard-gated for gender and pref... F seeks F, F seeks M, M seeks F, M seeks M. That seems very binary and 90's, but fV+Judy is my fave hottest romance in the game. (but WHY OH WHY is there no 3rd person view?)
That's why cyberpunk 2077 is one of the few games with multiple genders to pick from where I'd suggest people play through the game with both characters at least once. Otherwise you haven't truly experienced all CP2077 has to offer
I’m a dude and I always talk in sarcastic and theatric tones? I think cheremi lee. has a ton more experience with her other roles. So I vibe with that. But I love male v sounding like more like a person with the tough front and again hits those emotional notes. The desperation and fear in his voice.
@@Divergent-ym3py yeah the issue I have with Valerie is that she overemotes in my opinion, she has great tones and really good expression but it's just too hammy from my perspective, so over the top Vincent on the other hand is more understated and he feels very authentic, his lack of experience makes him feel so much more like a real person rather than this over the top performance. To me, Vincent is kind of grounded when compared to his environment, so his regular-guyness really makes me feel like a stranger in a strange land and his seriousness is so real.
@@oorto1393 this only rlly hits if u watch anime esp edgerunners but try japanese female v trust, if u have pc u can mod it 2 where yer game is still in english and u have that voice or ppl j speak native languages etc etc, playing thru da game in other languages is like an entirely diff experience
For me, I much prefer male Vs voice. He just sounds tired of everyones bullshit and the scenes where he breaks down made me feel more than they did with fem V. I honestly think it's because of how cartoonishly tough his voice sounds usually. Its kinda like the whole "im afraid" scene from rdr2. The whole time before this, Arthur was acting tough and pushing his fear down, but in this moment, he just breaks. I get the same vibe from male V every time he breaks, too. I like fem Vs voice a lot, but after playing through both, male Vs voice just hit harder for me. Also, to be widely unfair, my name is Van, and i have a similar accent to V. So im obviously gonna pick Male V so i can pretend like he's me.
Thought the same thing! When V breaks down I just get more emotional with male V, plus I think personally he performed those scenes just a bit better. Moreover, I think the story benefits from V and Johnny having this sort of Bromance towards the later stages of the game. Another reason I like him so much is because he kind of reminds of Jesse Pinkman. Don’t know guess it’s just the story of young man that turns into an absolute unit because of the people who he lost and the ones who betrayed him.🤷♂️
Absolutely agreed, I did my first playthrough as female V and only heard snip-bits of male V online and I didn't really like his accent, but after doing my second playthrough as male V I was instantly sold on the voice acting with his performance when talking to Johnny for the first time, I'm at the end of the second playthrough and I definitely have to say I think I prefer male V personally.
I prefer male V's voice as well, and simply for the fact that Gavin is using an accent that isnt his native one and has not voice acted before, makes him get bonus points for sounding pretty damn good
Both Vs are perfect and I think their actors did a phenomenal job. I myself prefer to play as male V. Mainly for Panam ngl. Female V puts more emotion in her voices. Male V has a more rough voice and sounds threatening. Perfect for a street kid path. So during the parts when male V finally breaks down, like when losing Jackie and finding out he’ll die in a few months, I actually feel bad for him because of how broken he sounds. I wish there was a fanfic or alternate canon where both Vs were twins.
Having something similar to odyssey where the one you don’t pick end up being an antagonist. Having both canonically exist with one doing one action while the other does something else would’ve been cool
I like the idea that the different voices are best suited for different lifepaths! I usually like to go Nomad, and I think fem V's more emotional performance makes a lot of sense, since their upbringing wasn't in NC.
I think that Vincent is better at hitting the player when shit gets heavy. Like when it’s the final scene with Johnny after you choose to go back to your body, and you can hear his voice crack as he’s holding back tears. It’s kind of like watching your dad cry.
I love both of them but small stuff I've noticed between the 2 V's Male V to me sounds stoic and intimidating and he also sounds like he's accepted the fate that he'll die no matter what. Despite that he pushes, because y'know story and all. His stoic voice doesn't work always but when it has to work it does, same goes for him being intimidating. Female V on the other hand sounds more desperate and emotional to me, like she'll do anything to survive, and you can hear it in her voice. She sounds brash too and thinks more with emotions rather than actions. That's how she sounds to me. Few differences I've heard/noticed between the 2 V's Relationship with Johnny Male V and Johnny sound like they're bros, or best friends to me. Whilst Female V and Johnny sound like siblings who spat at each other for laughs. When Fury perk kicks in, Male V sounds like they enjoy the killing as they laugh out, like they are going on a rollercoaster ride. Whilst Female V sounds like she's lost it and gone full Cyberpsycho, and she sounds demonic with her laughing, scary In the end who do I choose? I can't both are that good to me.
Awesome way of looking at it, I've never heard fem Vs laugh because I usually play male but might go female for character creation, clothes, and the rare "cuteness" in her voice on specific lines, I find it slightly funny especially if it shows up in serious situations
all im saying is the mild sexism that is male autism is showing. "sounds demonic" you hear 2 different laugh pitches and think demon lmao wild "thinking with emotion and not action" buddy they make the same choices , with the same emotions, its a different VOICE , nota different PERSON. just because another autistic male notice dyou doesnt make you right. this comes off as suuuuper emotionally stunted which is just not cool and theres no excuse. youre not bad , not saying you are at all. but you are accidentally bordering on sexist comments because you lack normal interactions with women to the point you actually think this portrayal of generic human emotion is only emotional , when in the female voice. do better monkey brain
tbh feel you got the fury perks reversed. Female V sounds scary, don't get me wrong, but she sounds more focused. On the other hand, male V's VA replicated David's laugh when he went cyberpsycho perfectly.
V is whoever you want V to be. Regardless of male or female, there are little to no difference when it comes to gameplay aside from the romance options
Bought Cyberpunk 2077 on release date and Nomad Male V was my very 1st playthrough, I feel the Nomad lifepath is better suited for Male V while Streetkid suits Female V alot better, for Corpo both genders work well imo
I think female V works pretty well on the nomad route too. Can’t romance Panam but you can build something that feels like a close friendship. And if you romance Judy, she talks about how she wants to leave night city and she actually joins you if you leave. Don’t know if the general interactions were as good though
I like Male V just bc I like to put myslef into games like this, and mostly because his voice and actitude makes the game darker, and I feel like cyberpunk is supposed to V a dark hopeless story, also the sarcasm and rudeness of male V kinda feels like johnny taking over V’s behavior
I had just finished both jedi games, replay through all mass.effects and the first 2 dragon ages as male characters I decided to started as female V for this game. I did a replay through the base game with male v. I didn't like his voice and I actually liked the more confrontational dialogue between Johnny and female V better. I like Judy better than panam. The bro relationship with river is way better with male V. Too bad we couldn't have chosen which hood we came from to get different accents like creole, Japanese or Spanish. Defintely prefer corpo female v vs my.original street kid v
I really dig both voices for different reasons. As a lot of others have said, Vincent's more calm demeanor exhudes a sense of danger, and because of that, the scenes where he is breaking down are very impactful. With Valerie, there's a similar powerful contrast that I don't see brought up too often. Fem V in general is more energetic in her responses, which is why it hits me like a truck when the relic is wearing her down, and you can hear how low and weak her voice is. I also find her expressions of pain from relic malfunctions to be a bit better, too. So with Vincent, I find his portrayal of the mental torture V is going through be a tad more impactful, while with Valerie, the physical strain on her from the relic works a little more for me. I think the one thing that makes me lean slightly towards Fem V is her sass. The highlight for me is that whole quest with Flaming Crotch Man, lol.
For one, I like the fact that you were sharp enough to have actually picked up on their names in the cutscenes, kudos to you for that.👏🤞😂 Secondly, I see your analogy of the Voice Actors' portayal strengths as both insightful and thought provoking.🤔🤔 I have found that society tends to wear on both genders in certain ways more than the other, and maybe that's an underlying theme that both the actors and creators wanted to shine through....
@famouzrockz I definitely think gender plays a small part in their performances. Pawel Sasko talked in his streams about how he and a large chunk of the department made sure to incorporate accurate psychology in their portrayal of the characters, I'd like to think that extends towards the vocal direction of both V's. Here's the fun thing that I've noticed, that highly energetic/aggressive approach to situations I see in Fem V is something you find present in a loooot of the other female characters in this game. Alex, Panam, Judy, Susie Q, Meredith, Young Rogue, etc. Perhaps this is a common survival strategy some of these women have adapted for one reason or another? One of the things I'm immediately reminded of in my Fem V playthrough is when you approach Finger's clinic and are confronted by some thugs outside. As Valerie, you get catcalled and hit on, and I can't help but wonder how many times things like that might have happened in her life to get her to be so aggressive in the first place. It's already bad enough irl, just imagine how much worse it would be in NC of all places. Now with Vincent, I see a similar layed back approach among some other male characters, most notably Vik and Johnny. They sort of struggle to open up in similar ways, but when they do holy shit do you feel it. I immediately think of Vik's call in the Path of Least Resistance and how you see him crack open like an egg.
Vincent is more experienced, calmed, collected and knows hes the strongest and smartest person in the room. Meanwhile Valerie is more emotional, cheerful, and she knows that she is the strongest and smartest person in the room. She likes to look on the bright side of things when shit gets serious...she acts as if shes on the verge of a psychotic break at any moment. Bitch is fuckin crazy. Vincent int he same situations is just as scary..How to explain it..? Vincent is Terror, that feeling that something is off, yet you dont know what, you sense danger but dont know what said danger is. Meanwhile Valerie is Horror. You can see the danger, know what its source is, but know youre powerless to stop it.
honestly, Male V’s “weak” sensitive side is sooo gooood cause i feel emotions but sometimes struggle to properly communicate them! it was amazing to hear the voice actor progress as we did in the story. even if it wasn’t intentional it still was perfect to me.
That's an interesting take. I don't know if you've ever played the original Mass Effect. Most players agree that the VA for the female protagonist did the best work, and I don't necessarily disagree, Jennifer Hale is a legend. But here's the thing, the VA for the male protagonist's deliverance was more often than not a little flat, but I felt like it suited my version of the character. I played him as a full-on, howling mad, sociopath, totally incapable of telling right from wrong. A completely unpredictable kind of guy who derives a sick sense of pleasure at deliberately choosing the options that would get the most civilians killed, even if that option is more difficult than the option that saves innocents. The flat delivery suited that kind of person very well, imo.
@ that’s incredibly valid though. Partially why i love the RP part of RPGs. We both agree the delivery is flat and a little stuffy. However what we do WITH that changes how in universe V would be perceived. for me, V has been broken by night city, jaded, and struggling to fully be a “human”. He opens up emotionally near the end (I assume cause the male VA has gotten into the groove of things by then). for you he is flat monotone and emotionless. his psychopathic tendencies pop out every once in a while during the rush of battle. He derives pleasure from the pain of others. I’m kinda just rambling now but yeah thanks for this
I thought "Male V does look quite intimidating" After my female nomad V, I gravitated towards him and did a corpo run. And dear lord are storyline-specific voice responses just.... wow. Granted, played with a Polish dub with Lidia Sadowa as female V and Kamil Kula as male V. And oddly... the pros and cons here are seemingly the same in the Polish dub. Kamil is more threatening sounding, his delivery can be nice ESPECIALLY as a corp... but something about his voice sounds like he's constantly tired, bored or just doesn't give a crap. And when he does want to joke about, he sounds a bit too devoid of emotions. Lidia, however, gives much more emotions. I would like to point towards Takemura and V casing out Arasaka complex with the daichi platforms. The joking "Will you go get pizza" sounds better on Female V for me, cuz the actress conveys V's humorous pronounciation of it - she's about to crack from laughing, though it sounds somewhat sincere. Male V's sound is a bit more of a taunt. Still - love them both.
Best corpo male V line ever is when he is getting escorted out of Hansens party and he's says something like "WHO the FUCK do you think you are ? FUCK you." to some random guard that was tying to chirp him lmao
Female Corpo V sounds like that obnoxious manager or boss you have to deal with at work, a Karen for lack of a better term. Male Corpo V sounds like a cold soulless sociopath you might come across if you work at a large corporation.
@@bmbrowns1778 Yeah that single line is what makes me prefer Male V,that line on paper sounds bad and a little corny but Gavin made it work in game and made it sound pretty intimidating
1:32 Actually, Male V had 70% of the pre-launch marketing, Fem V had the 2018 Demo, the 2019 Deep Dive was evenly split, Fem V also had some of her artwork posted pre-launch, the reversible cover had Fem V too. Since 1.6 Male V barely had anything, only some screenshots and in game renders for free DLC. So people who are saying that the reason why Male V barely appeared in any PL marketing is because he was prominently featured on pre-launch marketing are 30% wrong, Fem V had a good chunk of pre-launch marketing, so it wasn't really an equal distribution since 1.6
Male V still had the vast majority. Having watched it back, Fem V has like 3 lines in the 2019 demo so her presence in the marketing is basically the 2018 demo and nothing else. All the trailers were Male V. PL naturally has less promo, I get people like Male V but he was no more shafted than Fem V before launch. It's not a woke conspiracy or anything. That being said, Male V not having a reversible cover for the GOTY edition is bullshit. Everything else... ain't that deep.
Ehh, Mark Meer definitely got into his stride in the third game, but his voice acting is painful in the first game, and to be fair, Mass Effect was and still is his only major acting role, so of course hes not gonna stack up, especially against a VA titan like Jennifer Hale, but i can definitely see why someone would discount him in the first game.
I like both. Female V feels perfect for a Corpo, male V feels perfect for Street Kid or Nomad. I also love how having a male and female choice even with the same lines show how different it makes the characters
I wish male V retained his voice from the original trailer depicting the heist gone wrong. I also find it odd how originally the game was very Male V centric in the marketing and then they did a whole 180, even my platinum trophy banner on steam changed from male V to female V
Yeah they probably should’ve been more even with the marketing instead of doing this weird half and half thing, but I guess their marketing team decided it’s better for outside fans if it remains consistent.
I like male v because of him being more like Johnny with the better voice meshing and he also looks better in johnnys outfit which is what I usually wear in all my playthroughs
big thing i prefer about male v is his pained acting, found his expressions of sadness or painful experiences more believable than female v! but i still love fem v did a whole playthrough as her and now doing male v!
I definitely think female V was the better voice acting, BUT I can get what you mean because there’s one moment specifically I think the male voice actor outdid her on. It’s when he initially finds out he’s dying. He sounds so desperate when asking Vick for help. It makes me tear up everytime.
I think MascV fits how a Nomad or Streetkid would sound while FemV can be more convincingly from a Corpo background. Since Streetkid is my go-to lifepath I prefer how he sounds more rough & experienced, it's all down to preference.
The only issue I have with the voice acting (mainly more on the male V side) is how race specific the voice actors sound. I’m obviously a dark skinned man, therefore the vast majority of characters I create will have the same complexion. Not adding extra voice options to cater towards different races is a downside for me. Saints Row along with many other games managed to incorporate different voices which added an extra layer of uniqueness to every character you created, so it can 100% be achieved. Maybe I’m just being too picky, but I feel like it’s something that would’ve made V feel more special.
I’ve seen this mentioned before, totally valid. It probably would’ve been a massive undertaking but it would’ve been cool if the game had multiple voices for each gender.
It’s a lot of work, but I’d love to see more games take the saints row approach of voice acting. 3 male voices, 3 female voices and a zombie voice for shits and giggles
Saints row is linear, there's no branching stories so it's much easier to have multiple accents, but imagine the pain of having to record all of those lines multiple times for various accents in CP. I highly doubt that's even happening with Cyberpunk 2 but we'll see i guess.
Male V, hands down. Just the voice actor's performance after the Heist, when he's recouping in Vik's clinic, is worth playing as Male V. I don't know if the actor has just been thru shit in life, or he kinda "researched" for the role or what, but the croak in his voice from being bedridden & unconscious, the pleading in his voice begging Vik to help him, God damn man, it gets me every single time. Like it's what I look forward to starting a new game. The female voice actor isn't like, bad. There's nothing _wrong_ w/ her performance, besides it feeling flat at times. But the male V voice actor is truly gifted at what he does. I hope to see him in other big projects in the future. Anyway, that's my two cents, literally three seconds into the video. Reacting to the thumbnail w/o watching the video. Typical gonk move.
Vincent’s voice acting was absolutely great, the emotional scenes where he breaks down are truly phenomenal. For example when he desperately asks Vik if he’s going to live or die, as well as one of the endings.
Gamer theory, takemura was originally supposed to be romancable but due to the story it didnt make sense, we can see v flirt with him a few times yet he always shoots them down So as a replacement for female v they added romance options with river and didnt have the time to flesh him out more
@@Camou. You can even have cute texts with Takemura and get him to send smiley faces in text. Would have been horrible for Johnny feeling a corpo Valeria doing stuff with a corpo Takemura.
@@mcjcave18it makes a lot more sense now why rivers content feels short. But being a family man while also being loyal to arasaka? Seems to clash a lot.
Excellent analysis and commentary! I've played through this game many times, alternating between male and female V with each new game. I think both Gavin and Cherami did outstanding jobs, and any differences simply make them feel like different people. I was thoroughly involved with the game before encountering interviews with both actors and I was a little shocked by both of them. Gavin not only delivered a top-notch acting job, but had to suppress his natural accent to deliver an American tough-guy accent. Impressive! I though Cherami had the easier job, just using her natural voice...except it turns out her natural voice is quite different from female V's...lighter and 'bubblier' than V's somewhat weightier tone. Love them both! I've been playing female V for the last while and I'm starting to miss Male V...it's one of the things that keeps me coming back to the game,
I think they're both equal and I really like both their voice actors. Which is fairly rare because the times I do play as a female, it's usually because I tried the male but I just couldn't stand his voice (DA2 an AC Odyssey immediately spring to mind). However I didn't notice this as an actual physical male until my daughter pointed it out because she's played it for the first time over Christmas but female V still moves like male V as in she still sits with her legs wide open and stuff. She played as a Corpo V from my understanding and she was complaining that V doesn't cross her legs even when she's in a skirt or have feminine movement outside of her walk and I can't unsee it now that she's pointed it out, so on that basis I'm going to tilt slightly towards male V.
Pretty much the same impression I have. Male V to me just has a hell of a presence and some truly great delivery during some heavy moments. The way he speaks the lines in the new ending from PL sticks with me. However, there are deliveries that female V does that took me by surprise. Also her general oofs and grunts from taking damage and movement seem less....dull? Ultimately, as a man who loves a foxy woman, I'm glad it's a case of a modern game where we can make her look great. Most of the time I'll play a male V, but I'll never knock anyone's choice because they're both strong.
Not a lot of people preferring Female V but I think Cherami Leigh does an excellent job, sometimes I even forget there’s a Male V because of how natural and convincing Female V is
I don't think it's more about more people preferring male V. It's more male players default to male V and more female players default to female V... and TH-cam has a larger demographic of males. It's about 56% and 44% female. Then on top of that about 53% of male identity as games, but only 46% of females. So this compounds the problem of responses about the best V on TH-cam. I'm a male, I prefer female V in moments of when Johnny taking over is weakening her but male V when dealing with loss. In these moments theyre both better than the other. But beyond that they're both overall just as great, just slightly different in how they're portrayed in equally well ways. To me both are V. Getting to play the other again is a great excuse for one more playthrough. I'm not a player who prefers to "have a character representing myself" I want a different character to experience a story through. So my only preferences are great voice acting and writing.
Regarding River: My biggest problem is that he is self centered and just commands you around and then drowns in self pity. He never asks how I am doing, as if he would not care. Well, and that he thought it'd be cool to shove a GoPro 3 into his eyesocket... But thanks for the in depth analysis about the voice acting. I never really could put it into words why I felt like V was the better choice for me. I intuitively just found she sounded quirkier and more light hearted and I like that you can hear that she's often sounding more innocent/surprised towards the world and encounters. Is that necessarily better? No. In the end it's personal preference. I'm a male and often play female characters in RPG's. And it's never just about aesthetics, I just feel I can connect better with female V's character. Undertand her better, relate, feel the desperation in Vik's clinic etc. But also roleplay wise, it feels like fem V has a bigger arc throughout the game because of her optimism and lightheartedness. Coming from that place, being betrayed, pushed down and hit in the face feels much stronger emotionally.
@@Zymemaru Nah, way before any bonding she asks if we are sick, if there is a solution and let's us crash on the couch, even having some brekkie ready the next morning. River just tells you where to show up so he can work his case, then in his car he basically blackmails you leaving you in a situation where you can either help or leave the car as the most cold hearted person on earth. Judy asks you for help, but almost always gives you options or at least makes sure you do it for the right reasons. Even Panam does and she can be very bossy. But River... He's so self-occupied that he literally never let's you know that he cares. Sure, tough man, strong guy, hidden emotions blah... but man, let me at least know once that it's not only some never had a mother-syndrome or conquering a hot edgerunner.
@@Llanovanya85 Major difference is that you have stroke right in front of Judy. You never have one of your relic attacks in front of River so there's literally no way he knows there's something wrong with you. River at least fights and entire group of animal gangers by himself to save your life during the Rine investigation. And in the second quest he's self-occupied because his nephew was kidnapped by a lunatic. You can't blame him for having tunnel vision. You can't compare River trying to save his family with Judy trying to get control of a sex club. Despite his flaws he isn't nearly as toxic as Judy is to V in a bunch of situations
@@Zymemaru also if you read Maiko's old emails, Judy definitely comes across as overly clingy and quick to anger in them, and Maiko is noticeably less vicious than she is in the present (although Maiko was of course pretty obviously manipulating her even then). and then if you go with Maiko's solution to her questline instead of Judy's, she's convinced nothing changed and the City's broken her because... Maiko is holding out over sick pay and such, exactly like when their old boss was *selling them into sex slavery*. Johnny was completely right when he said she gets unhealthy expectations, both of life and other people. all the potential lovers are rebellious hotheads, but she's probably the least stable long-term one because of that IMO, even if you leave NC together. but hey, Cyberpunk generally isn't a world where life just stops once you ride off into the sunset, so it's not necessarily a knock against her. it's about enjoying the good times while they last.
@@Zymemaru This is my opinion but after watching my brother play as a Male V, I can’t say I agree with the whole “Judy is toxic” argument. From our perspective, Panam felt pushy almost to the point of being obsessive in some scenes. I get it’s for the romance to “show she cares”, but it made her character feel very unnatural, like she grows a liking to V way too quickly. She’s a girl that has what I would call “toxic positivity”. Always saying yes to anything the player asks or replying in a positive way to his actions despite the situation. I think that’s actually why people like her so much over Judy because she’s never negative towards the player, but it created a huge disconnect between her and V from our point of view. The chemistry felt very 2 dimensional. Same thing applied for River. Him inviting V to dinner was really random after everything he went through. Judy ironically felt like she shared more chemistry with his Male V than Panam did even though he played a Nomad Male V. Her losing Evelyn also tied in well with V losing Jackie.
Cherami Leigh is one of my favorite voice actors. i grew up with her appearing in my ear left and right from Lucy in Fairy Tail to Patty in Soul Eater to playing as A2 in Nier Automata. and she's one of the only Voice actors i know the name of by heart and who i would recognize instantly in any game or show.
This is the definitive video on the topic by a mile, great job. Finally played through as Fem V after 800-ish hours as Male V and I had a pretty similar change in opinion like you did. It’s actually kind of tragic because I find myself in moments where Fem V’s performance blows me away, and others (especially the Johnny takeovers) where I end up greatly missing Gavin Drea’s delivery lol Despite preferring Male V, another place he loses out is in the modding community. Feels like a 10 to 1 ratio of Female to Male appearance and clothing mods
@Ublivion01 i had a chuckle when I was modding my skyrim and found a mod that literally just adds realistic breast veins. Complete with subsurface light scattering. That's it, that's the mod. Needless to say, it's now an essential mod in my modlist. Couldn't play without it.
Dude this is a phenomenal video, literally 10/10 takes all throughtout and you even had some similar gripes as me, like thinking femme V's attempts at threats normally fell flat and that male V sometimes sounds like he hates the side characters during normal conversations 😂
My name is Vincent so male V has always always had a soft spot in my heart, but they both give it their all and I love to make headcanon backstories for either of my V’s in any playthough I do
I like the aged voice male V has especially after the prologue because it feels like Johnny’s experiences and Speech patterns are effecting how he holds himself
I like male v. I don't knock the female. Male v is s dude. He is more relatable to me + he sounds more intimidating. When I'm playing a grimy city game like cyberpunk, I want my character to sound intimidating, not more emotional, especially more feminine. Cool, calm, and collected. But that's my preference if we're simply going off voice.
@toxiczombiewolf5692 it's simply just voice preference most of the time. Although I know people like female v because she has more mods. Whether someone is being a gooner, I can care less these days. All I wish is that we saw male V in more advertisement; it's been too long.
I like to think of a fanfiction of what if Male V and Female V were Twins and they both have the Street Kid Lifepath. If Male V joined Jackie Welles on the Heist and Female V organises a Celebration at Mamma Welles until the Delamain returned with Jackie's Remains which both shocked Female V, Misty and Mamma Welles.
I thought it'll be an interesting story, when it reaches the Climax, Male V and Female V coordinated Storming Arasaka Tower where Male V Storms from below with Panam and Female V Storms from above with Rogue Amendiares. After Male V plugged into Mikoshi, he leaves Night City with Panam and Female V succeeds Rogue as the new Queen of Fixers and lives in the Manor with Judy, her Girlfriend.
Definitely had the same idea, except I see whichever V you don’t pick living a completely different life away from their sibling (the one you pick) somewhere else in the NUSA, and they aren’t close whatsoever which is why they don’t keep contact or acknowledge one another
Another Twin V story I thought of is where both Male and Female V were Twins but they're rivals in the Corpo Lifepath. After Male V and Jenkins were undermined and Male V gets fired from Arasaka, Male V learns his Twin Sister threw her Twin Brother under the Bus to climb the Corpo ladder. During Male V's Adventures, Female V will always be around to undermine him over a Game length Cat and Mouse until Male V Storms Arasaka only for Female V to he betrayed by Adam Smasher.
male V looks better and feels better for the story it just makes scene if u look at it in a realistic way. and the tone of his voice dose not mean age bro bc iv talked to 18 year olds sound like that kinda
I will say, I prefer Female V, but that Panam romance quest line is pretty great. I do not "hate" the River romance, but I do feel it is severely underdeveloped. And, your listing of the related quests as you did really highlights that fact. It does feel rushed, lacking. I also feel like it gets to be... I dunno, awkward feeling if you go into it with the Corpo background. I mean, sure, plenty of fish in the sea, love can come out of nowhere, blah blah, but yeah. In this city, dress a Corpo up in street clothes and they still (generally) will give off a Corpo vibe, even if it is "former." And it doesn't feel to me like River would be all that into a Corpo. He feels too blue-collar than that to me. I do like the intimidating feel of Male V's interactions in combat scenarios better. In fact I'd completely agree with all of your points in relation to the voice acting. Excellent video!
To me, V is an up and coming merc who's out of their dept. The event with Johnny is what escalate them into the legendary status. The male voice sounds way too over confident in my opinion. Almost like he's trying too hard to sound intimidating and I can't take him seriously. While the female voice makes her sound more nuanced and it makes more sense when people don't initially take her seriously. NPCs often seems to have a double take when realising she means business. I thought it fit the character better but that may be just me.
I enjoy both honestly. First time i played, I was Fem V. The second, Male V. Ima gonna play a third time and im going back to Fem V, mainly cause im just alternating every playthrough. The voice acting does change how everything feels tho so i guess who the best is just comes down to whose reactions you like better
Female V is my pick. After reading some of these comments, there seems to be a pattern in ppl choosing male V mostly. I find female V's overall voice performance to be more natural, especially when it comes to relationship with Johnny and Jackie and related dialogues. Being friends with Panam and Kerry instead of romancing them is fine by me, Judy is a decent replacement but man, the god-forsaken River is what kinda ruins it. I didn't even particularly like him that much and the game already wanted me to sleep with him. The quest with family dinner and kids saying they'd make a good couple really kinda grossed me out even. It's not even like the time we spent with him was too little, I mean, same goes for Jackie and I freakin loved that guy! There are certain moments where male V sounds better, but that's maybe 10% of the gameplay, and still, female version is definetely not bad. Male V's voicelines are kinda flat and generic to me most of the time, sounds like he's tryharding to be tough. Female one has more emotion, better modulation, doesn't sound like a dickhead when unnecessary. Also no "problems" with pronunciation as you mentioned in the video, but that's super minor. Female V earns her respect from who she becomes, not just from her voice. Plus, she forms a nice "sibling" type relationship with Jackie and Johnny unlike male V who becomes just bros with them. Customization - yeah, you've explained it accurately in the video, nothing to add. She really fits streetkid background to me, this badass chick who knows Nightcity inside out, knows her way around etc. It's hard to explain but it "flows" within her voice acting and mixes well with the emotional "survivor" vibe. Cherami's experience really stands out I think.
I think both voice actors are great. As a female gamer I prefer to play as a female, it's more immersive for me, so I naturally pick female V. I also love the brotherly-sisterly bickering both Valerie and Johnny do. Reminds me of me and my siblings. Still, playing as female V has it's negatives, not being able to romance Panam or Kerry. Although got to admit the way Kerry turns down Valerie was hilarious. He seemed genuinely scared of her. It's even funnier for Johnny if he wakes up in a woman's body after a fifty year coma in Mikoshi, can't imagine how weird it must be for him. 😆
Your conclusion matches mine note for note. My immersion is broken almost completely whenever my Valerie talks, but her customization is so much better. It's just so hard to take her seriously, which kinda works, for better or worse.
I played both and (as a male) i definitely prefer female V. I like her voice actor performance more, especially the interactions with Johnny. And Judy is the best girl ever.
@@yokiweyy4770 to me, her romance progression is pretty bland or even nonexistent until she suddenly decides to be romantic in Pyramid song. The romance scene is the only one they put effort into tbh, which is a shame & shows bias or evidence of their time constraints, & what I think most players are fixated on. Panam's is more gradual, you see her initially guarded showing vulnerability & reject V twice, then grows on her until she makes a move... which is interrupted similarly in real life (especially if you have kids). There's more intimacy in how they interact (closeness, not sexual). With Kerry it's more nuanced & still early on when one makes the first move yet feels more natural, River really was just half assed since they had to deal with splitting his character from Takemura, his 'romance' is more of a joke for players than enjoyable/relatable. Take away Pyramid song, Judy's playful flirtation & 'interest' in V starts/ends with one optional interaction post BD tutorial before the heist. Which this 'flirtation' could be chalked up to a playful/teasing personality which isn't really seen later in the story. I've played nearly 1000 hours as both characters & probably half that time watching lore/showcase/commentary videos since launch, I'm not ignorant but this is my interpretation.
Male V just feels more natural with the "slowly fading and turning into Johnny" aspect of the story. Also Gavin having to anatagonize Johnny to get into the voice of V is golden lmao
@@CbIP-Azrael think he's taking a shot at how some games make their different gender protagonists sound very homogenous, so much so you their voice and demeanor don't fit with either. One offender I can think of right off the top of my head, although I love these games to death, are Saints Row 2 and 3. Your male and female protags in those games were both the same not-quite-a-dude/gal character.
I had my suspicion male v might have been an Irish voice actor,the line "not our looky gal" during the Sandra dorsett mission gave it away lol I say it the exact same while trying to do an American accent 😂
I prefer female V. I just prefer the way her voice sounds. It’s also easy to hear from the performances that Cherami has a bit of more experience with voice acting. I also just like the dynamic of Johnny male and V female. It feels more right to me idk how to put it. I don’t think male v is bad by any means but for me he’s the weaker voice of the two options.
@@OrangeTtop That is ultimately my biggest issue with male v. I like the sound of his voice but his range is lacking. I don’t like being negative towards voice actors especially those who are more novice but since we’re here that’s just how I feel.
It's absolutely mind boggling how many people don't like River. Me and my dad thought the detective quests with him were the best part of the game. We both thought an entire game like that would have been good. It was like LA Noir mixed with Cyberpunk 2077. Some of my favourite gameplay moments are from me being creative with the opportunities there. I actually unsubscribed from a channel just over River hating. And why wouldn't Valerie see it like bonding time? That's how it goes in crime dramas. V likes being a merc and facing gross and evil situations. Something to consider is crime dramas are literally more popular with women irl. Women tend to be fascinated by this kind of stuff, even if it's real. They even like true crime shows. I'm a man but I like that too, so
i think its more about the romance side of it, sure trauma bonds, but not exactly in a healthy manner. i think the point was that it was too short, as you said "whole game" and all, and that having some interpersonal time outside of "wow that sure is footage of a dudes brain getting blown out" would've made his personality and arc as a whole pop more
For me he's just a bit cringy especialy on the water tower i just wanted to fall through the floor from the sheer amount of cringe i was feeling and very much didnt like that you cant tell him youre in a relationship when his sister tries to set you up with him or that you basicly have to play a v thats into the guy and is also slighlty hitting in him when you know you dont want to be with the guy the dialogues just kinda force this whole lovebird vibe for me idk , but this whole romance stuff aside his quest line was good.
@@Jaemisu After writing this comment I went on Cyberpunk again and just got to the bit where Judy calls you because SPOILER Evelyn anhero, and it made me think 'wait a minute. River is farfetched, but your romance with Judy starts over her friend anhero?' Judy talks about a lot of negative stuff too.
I personally think the default version would be the canonical one, like Nate from fallout 4, male in fallout 3, male in fallout new Vegas, Kassandra in assassins creed odyssey. And the thing is, male v is the default option, if you read left to right and not right to left
I think it’s weird that there were people willing to die on a hill of who is better, I play a male V because I’m a dude and in my personal power fantasy of chrome it’s what I chose to be, but I’m sure if I were female it would be female V, I don’t think either actor really one ups the other they both do fantastic work and I couldn’t imagine what having different voice actors would make the game today.
Both are amazing, 2 of my favorite voice acting performances in gaming. I give the slight edge to female V b/c of her emotional line delivery, especially in phantom liberty.
The German synchro is just amazing! Male V is Intimidating when he‘s supposed to and Friendly or even soft in moments were it fit‘s. His Name is Björn Schalla same guy that does the German synchronization for Jax Teller in Sons of Anarchy. Simply an amazing Guy with an amazing voice.
The "emotional delivery" for female V is true but also kind of a double edged sword. While in some emotional scenes it has an amazing effect, in some others it comes of as overly emotional when not really necessary. A supposedly hardened merc like V, should be a bit more deadpan a lot of the time and more emotional in rare occasions like when Jackie dies. I think male V does this slightly better than female V imo.
I think whether Fem V is being overly emotional might just depend more on subjectivity rather than a merc thing. Trauma affects us all differently, and for some people, that means adopting a more layed back approach to things while others might have a more aggressive and energetic response. I think a great example of this is Jackie and how bombastic he is despite being a merc, or Panam for that matter.
@@Vargon9 But that's very subjective, while it is often used objectively as a reason why fem V is better. You can say for example that you prefer it when V is more emotional, but saying it's objectively better is fundamentally wrong. And I'm not saying you did that, just in general.
@ilias856 Oh, for sure, it is subjective, I even acknowledged that. I was just pointing out that the sort of experiences V has had in their life is rather well presented in how both V's conduct themselves. CDPR made sure to put extra attention to actual psychology into how these characters act, including voice direction. Of course, which ever V works better for you is going to be subjective; there isn't an objectively better choice, as you say. And to be fair, the type of Fem V fans you're describing are also present within Male V's fanbase. On both sides, you have people screaming about why their choice is objectively better, which is largely why these discussions end up getting so tiring.
Great video. As someone who spends WAY too much time playing Cyberpunk, I always alternate between male and female V. However, I do prefer female V's voice acting overall. Both are amazing examples of character acting, especially for such a deep game, but female V just sounds that little bit more natural to me. Although, neither of them can say "Rust in piss, shitbot" without making me cringe lol. I definitely prefer male V's romance options, though. As a bi man, having both Panam and Kerry calling me to hang out, far outweighs Judy leaving Night City and sticking me with River.
Honestly I think the “Rust in Piece, Shitbot” kind of… works? Especially with Valerie, she kind of gives a “fuck it we ball” vibe. It’s definitely over the top but it’s just fun
I think they’re both great, however in the ending based on one of the choices you make in Phantom Liberty’s climax you have what was for me an especially somber moment. I didn’t know if I made the right choice in that decision (although my previous Male V chose the other option and didn’t love it either) and I’m consoling the FIA agent I’m speaking to about the outcome of the mission, and I sit on the scorching hot ground with them and Fem V cries out “ahh shit, hot hot hot” and it was the funniest thing I’d heard all game. I genuinely cracked tf up, and that made FemV click even more. Plus, l Male V’s voice is so *very much* not African American and as a person who is, I can’t limit throws me off. But objectively they’re both amazing performance and male or female V is great.
5:33 these just feel overacted to me. Male V is my preference because I find him more relatable. Im also just a guy that prefers to play male characters, especially in story games where I have a choice, because its familiar. femV just doesn't click with me.
Girl had to sit in a car while her best friend bled to death next to her and you're calling those somber last words overacting? You just dont understand emotion.
While I actually tend to like my RPG protagonists without a voice, I love Cyberpunk’s use of it and how you get to experience two different portrayals of the same character. It very much the same experience of playing male or female Shepard across the Mass Effect trilogy.
V feels like a man to me. Just the context of everything, the way V is spoken to and talked about, responded to, ect. I'm definetly biased though, because I lean very heavily into playing a male in RPGs. I think both are very solid performances.
WHAT I've started my first playthrough recently and never noticed that fem V is voiced by my fav VA. Dunno if this is showing her incredible range of acting or I'm just used to her "anime" voices in Japanese games. Great vid btw
That’s so wild after finishing your video that I much prefer Johnny with female V works! It works better for the dialogue where Johnny would soften up to and start to care about a woman V.
It’s not really Johnny softening up to V but both personalities merging into one so gender wouldn’t matter. Plus I doubt Johnny cares what you have between your legs
I mean girls are arguably sexier As you said there are better option for clothes too Playing any male character to me feels like there is just no character at all, every hero is man, how about a female for a change Also Judy...
Got 2000 hours, had numerous playthroughs on both female and male but I always prefer the male V over female because of the Bromance I can have with Johnny and also how pure of a badass I can be with the intimidating voice and not to mention the Panam option.
That bromance with johnny thing is pretty stupid, you have the same exact relationship with him as FemV, i dont see why the gender being different discounts their level of friendship.
@allhandsnodik7803 By bromance I meant how two boys could vibe and understand each other and relate together in some areas due to their gender. If you played the game thoroughly and listened to some dialogues and compared them between male and female V you'd know what I'm talking about. No need to call anything stupid before you even know something about it.
@Firemage12135 i have, and other than the talks that relate strictly to gender and Panams romance moments, I didn't notice too much different from how he interacted with both V's. I think it mightve been nice to have more gendered moments, FemV teaching him how to be in woman's body, and more solely bro moments with MV, but the way it is now, the Bromance isn't really there, at least more than the general friendship he displays with either V.
I love male v voice acting, even when be needs to show emotion and fails seems a bit more like he is hiding his pain or trying to be though, so when he actualy shows emotion you know is serious biz
Fem V's voice acting>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> during the whole whole post-heist scenes, her pleading with Victor, fighting with Johnny? CHILLS! I am constantly blown away with how raw and real and on edge she sounds I promise I will get to you someday, Male V, if only for Panam 😅
Great vid bud, I think both are super talented and did a great job! Personally I prefer Cherami, she's top shelf as a VA and I just believed her more often than not. Add on my girl Judy and there's almost no contest in the decision for me 😁
I believe that Male V has a couple of really stand out performances but a lot of his regular dialogue is kinda flat. Female V is more consistent but there wasn’t many times that really stood out. If you want to play like an asshole male V def feels the way to go
First playthrough I played male V and the second female V. Have to say I enjoyed the dialogues a lot more with female V. I think in my future playthroughs I will most likely choose female V again but still have to say I also like male Vs voice a lot but it doesn’t fit the character that I want to play.
As the only honest man in the comments section, I just like V's voice more because I find women's voices more pleasing. Better to just admit that than try and make up some excuse for how Vincent's acting is "worse"
I actually haven’t commented on a TH-cam video since 2019 maybe but I just had to say, I appreciate this video more than anything, I’ve seen so many videos and comments of people bashing both options and bringing out very ugly comments and sexist ideology, but finally watching a video with comments and content that finally talks fairly and truly about both characters makes me happy. I’ve seen so many people talk how the devs are “woke” and etc for promoting female V now and how upset some of the fanbase is over it, but I’m excited to see more of female V, I definitely prefer female V as my original choice but I love both of them and I’m happy that both of them have promotion.
Greatly appreciated! This comment section has turned into a bit of a battlefield too, but I’m glad I was able to inspire some civil discourse about the two Vs.
Lets not mention the fact that the Relic is rewriting Silverhands DNA in V's body! So when you end up at Mikoshi and Alt tells you that your body is now Johnnys DNA (Who is a male) It doesn't make any sense because if you go back into the body as a female but your body has the DNA of a male? Also I think Silverhand & V's relationship makes more sense as men and the brotherly type bond they have by the end game.
In a game universe where people can change their entire bodies with machine parts to become completely different beings altogether, gender and biology shouldn’t matter at all tbh
To defend River a bit, he was going through a time of a lot of stress and V was there with him for the entire ride, so no surprise that he would develop some sort of bond there. He could've used a quest or two more, but all in all I never really noticed his questline was so short until it was directly pointed out to me.
I've always had a weirdly hard rule for myself of choosing male V for Streetkid and Corpo playthroughs and fem V with Nomad playthroughs. I could never really put a finger on why, I just preferred them for each role, until I watched this vid. You're 100% right. NC feels grittier with male V, and that fits better with a Corpo or Streetkid, it just makes more sense for them to sound more cynical. Meanwhile fem V always feels kind of light and whimsical, and that vibe feels a lot more at home coming from a Nomad who's more or less going through NC with fresh eyes.
The way you described the differences between their voices is also probably part of the reason someone might choose one over the other as their preferred V. Male V sounds like he's in the shit of Nightcity. He's down in the dirt, giving and taking hits, ramming his car into the side of a van full of scavs just so they can't drive away anymore and he can deal with them. No muss, No fuss, get the job done as serious as possible. A Batman type. Female V sounds like she's enjoying herself, Galivanting through Nightcity with a smile on her face as she jumps off the seat of her bike to land on the roof of the scav's van so she can slide down the windshield and stop the ride from on top of it before beating them down. Jokes, playing with the enemy, knowing she's better and is going to squeeze all the enjoyment she can out of her less than stellar life. A Spider-man type. And while that probably didn't play a part in who was chosen specifically for Fortnite, it's probably part of the reason why Patrick chose Female V as his own personal preference for V. I bet if he was asked, he'd prefer Spider-man over Batman.
I preferred famale V's voice as I thought it fit her better than male V's fit him, the tone of his voice just sounded off to me. I would have preferred if it was more like Adam Jensen's voice in Deus Ex, I downloaded a mod that's supposed to change it to his but haven't used it yet.
I think they both were great too. Preferably, I play as female V every time. I will say this though, even with how great female V voice performance was, i hope we get a more sultry, less gruff direction next time for the female voice in the sequel.
Well I think it all perfectly depicts the differences between being a man and a woman. It should be like that, so they both nailed it. I don't agree on River take, it's an option, take it or leave it, it's who he is, and he's deffinitly not underdeveloped
idk... to me out of the two FemV is the one who sounds scarier. There's a certain grit to her voice when intimidating lines come up specially the ones related to Streetkid and Body builds dialogues options. She has the upperhand of course in soft scenes specially when she herself shows vulnerability like when Vik breaks the news to her of the chip or when she says goodbye to jackie in the car. But by far the best about Female V's voice acting has to be her humor and sass when being unserious, her ironic lines are so damn good.
While female V sounds more consistent in the emotional moments I agree, that example with the "for fucks sake defend yourself, you're not even trying" sounds waaaaayyy better from male V, he just sounds totally defeated as he should at that very end point in the game, whereas female V comes across as more annoyed than devastated. The scene with Jackie in the car she did way better tho
That’s fair. I actually do agree with that. I think it speaks to the different reads of the characters as well. Male V and Johnny seem like they became bros, whereas female V and Johnny kinda felt like he was babysitting his bratty sister.
I played male v as a nomad, tough but does good decisions like a nomad should. And also to make the panam romance even more special 😊 but I feel like female v goes more in line with the corpo backstory more. The voice acting for female v got this sassy attitude and makes those quick remarks that you wouldn't like to hear sometimes. Definitely gonna see if it's true when I play corpo backstory next playthrough.
To me, Vincent and Valerie felt like two different characters. Vincent comes off as more jaded or used to Night City, he gets how things usually go. Valerie seems a lot more optimistic and less accepting of Night City’s nature. Both are dealing with a terrible situation, but it feels they deal with it in different ways.
I head canon it as male V being 27 and female 23.
@@Papa_Khannot anymore , the creators changed Both Vs to 23
@@quint4573 HEAD canon..
Are Vincent and Valerie the canon names for V? That's good to know. I had been thinking Victor and Victoria (think the Julie andrews musical). I overall like the voicing of FV more than MV, but it's a close call, both are good but not really great. Other than prefered voice, the ONLY dif is prefered romance. The 4 big romances are hard-gated for gender and pref... F seeks F, F seeks M, M seeks F, M seeks M. That seems very binary and 90's, but fV+Judy is my fave hottest romance in the game. (but WHY OH WHY is there no 3rd person view?)
@ Yeah those are the canon names, in Clouds, the dolls in Clouds refer to the Vs as Vincent and Valerie.
I like male V’s dry banter. The actor being Irish probably added to it even more lol
I like that they both give off a difference type of atmosphere
That's why cyberpunk 2077 is one of the few games with multiple genders to pick from where I'd suggest people play through the game with both characters at least once. Otherwise you haven't truly experienced all CP2077 has to offer
I’m a dude and I always talk in sarcastic and theatric tones? I think cheremi lee. has a ton more experience with her other roles. So I vibe with that. But I love male v sounding like more like a person with the tough front and again hits those emotional notes. The desperation and fear in his voice.
@@Divergent-ym3py yeah the issue I have with Valerie is that she overemotes in my opinion, she has great tones and really good expression but it's just too hammy from my perspective, so over the top
Vincent on the other hand is more understated and he feels very authentic, his lack of experience makes him feel so much more like a real person rather than this over the top performance. To me, Vincent is kind of grounded when compared to his environment, so his regular-guyness really makes me feel like a stranger in a strange land and his seriousness is so real.
@@oorto1393 this only rlly hits if u watch anime esp edgerunners but try japanese female v trust, if u have pc u can mod it 2 where yer game is still in english and u have that voice or ppl j speak native languages etc etc, playing thru da game in other languages is like an entirely diff experience
but like japanese female v sounds like the complete opposite of da english dub, down to the demeanor and everything
For me, I much prefer male Vs voice. He just sounds tired of everyones bullshit and the scenes where he breaks down made me feel more than they did with fem V. I honestly think it's because of how cartoonishly tough his voice sounds usually. Its kinda like the whole "im afraid" scene from rdr2. The whole time before this, Arthur was acting tough and pushing his fear down, but in this moment, he just breaks. I get the same vibe from male V every time he breaks, too. I like fem Vs voice a lot, but after playing through both, male Vs voice just hit harder for me. Also, to be widely unfair, my name is Van, and i have a similar accent to V. So im obviously gonna pick Male V so i can pretend like he's me.
Thought the same thing! When V breaks down I just get more emotional with male V, plus I think personally he performed those scenes just a bit better. Moreover, I think the story benefits from V and Johnny having this sort of Bromance towards the later stages of the game. Another reason I like him so much is because he kind of reminds of Jesse Pinkman. Don’t know guess it’s just the story of young man that turns into an absolute unit because of the people who he lost and the ones who betrayed him.🤷♂️
Absolutely agreed, I did my first playthrough as female V and only heard snip-bits of male V online and I didn't really like his accent, but after doing my second playthrough as male V I was instantly sold on the voice acting with his performance when talking to Johnny for the first time, I'm at the end of the second playthrough and I definitely have to say I think I prefer male V personally.
I love female V tbh male V not as fun to me lol
I find male V unplayable because of the unbearable voice.
I prefer male V's voice as well, and simply for the fact that Gavin is using an accent that isnt his native one and has not voice acted before, makes him get bonus points for sounding pretty damn good
Both Vs are perfect and I think their actors did a phenomenal job. I myself prefer to play as male V. Mainly for Panam ngl. Female V puts more emotion in her voices. Male V has a more rough voice and sounds threatening. Perfect for a street kid path. So during the parts when male V finally breaks down, like when losing Jackie and finding out he’ll die in a few months, I actually feel bad for him because of how broken he sounds. I wish there was a fanfic or alternate canon where both Vs were twins.
Having something similar to odyssey where the one you don’t pick end up being an antagonist. Having both canonically exist with one doing one action while the other does something else would’ve been cool
Make V is always my best
Worry not about the alt takes, there are at least 2 on a03
I like the idea that the different voices are best suited for different lifepaths! I usually like to go Nomad, and I think fem V's more emotional performance makes a lot of sense, since their upbringing wasn't in NC.
I think that Vincent is better at hitting the player when shit gets heavy. Like when it’s the final scene with Johnny after you choose to go back to your body, and you can hear his voice crack as he’s holding back tears. It’s kind of like watching your dad cry.
I love both of them but small stuff I've noticed between the 2 V's
Male V to me sounds stoic and intimidating and he also sounds like he's accepted the fate that he'll die no matter what. Despite that he pushes, because y'know story and all. His stoic voice doesn't work always but when it has to work it does, same goes for him being intimidating.
Female V on the other hand sounds more desperate and emotional to me, like she'll do anything to survive, and you can hear it in her voice. She sounds brash too and thinks more with emotions rather than actions. That's how she sounds to me.
Few differences I've heard/noticed between the 2 V's
Relationship with Johnny
Male V and Johnny sound like they're bros, or best friends to me. Whilst Female V and Johnny sound like siblings who spat at each other for laughs.
When Fury perk kicks in, Male V sounds like they enjoy the killing as they laugh out, like they are going on a rollercoaster ride. Whilst Female V sounds like she's lost it and gone full Cyberpsycho, and she sounds demonic with her laughing, scary
In the end who do I choose? I can't both are that good to me.
Awesome way of looking at it, I've never heard fem Vs laugh because I usually play male but might go female for character creation, clothes, and the rare "cuteness" in her voice on specific lines, I find it slightly funny especially if it shows up in serious situations
all im saying is the mild sexism that is male autism is showing. "sounds demonic" you hear 2 different laugh pitches and think demon lmao wild "thinking with emotion and not action" buddy they make the same choices , with the same emotions, its a different VOICE , nota different PERSON. just because another autistic male notice dyou doesnt make you right. this comes off as suuuuper emotionally stunted which is just not cool and theres no excuse. youre not bad , not saying you are at all. but you are accidentally bordering on sexist comments because you lack normal interactions with women to the point you actually think this portrayal of generic human emotion is only emotional , when in the female voice. do better monkey brain
tbh feel you got the fury perks reversed. Female V sounds scary, don't get me wrong, but she sounds more focused. On the other hand, male V's VA replicated David's laugh when he went cyberpsycho perfectly.
Oooo. So that's the fury perk? I thought it's just some rolling into cyberpsychosis.
@maciejkukla9615 kinda
V is whoever you want V to be. Regardless of male or female, there are little to no difference when it comes to gameplay aside from the romance options
It's really about the voices, female V is just about ok but male V ...no way I'm listening to that stupid voice for a whole playthrough!
The rpg with no real choices at all the game was trash
@@CosmicVoid_119
It's just an open world shooter story, not much of an RPG.
Contradiction.
wow all the replies are bad takes
male V as a nomad was the best choice Ive ever made
his entire character and interation between Johnny and Panam was perfect
Like it has to be canon because it feels too perfect.
Bought Cyberpunk 2077 on release date and Nomad Male V was my very 1st playthrough, I feel the Nomad lifepath is better suited for Male V while Streetkid suits Female V alot better, for Corpo both genders work well imo
I think female V works pretty well on the nomad route too. Can’t romance Panam but you can build something that feels like a close friendship. And if you romance Judy, she talks about how she wants to leave night city and she actually joins you if you leave. Don’t know if the general interactions were as good though
@mayab2099 doesn't feel authentic playing Female V with the Nomad lifepath imo, Nomad feels more natural with Male V
He is the best as the street kid, nomad, and the corpo.
I like Male V just bc I like to put myslef into games like this, and mostly because his voice and actitude makes the game darker, and I feel like cyberpunk is supposed to V a dark hopeless story, also the sarcasm and rudeness of male V kinda feels like johnny taking over V’s behavior
Agree
I had just finished both jedi games, replay through all mass.effects and the first 2 dragon ages as male characters I decided to started as female V for this game. I did a replay through the base game with male v. I didn't like his voice and I actually liked the more confrontational dialogue between Johnny and female V better. I like Judy better than panam. The bro relationship with river is way better with male V.
Too bad we couldn't have chosen which hood we came from to get different accents like creole, Japanese or Spanish. Defintely prefer corpo female v vs my.original street kid v
0:28 there is one main difference between male and female V is that only female V can get the maxtac armor and rivers tank top.
😅😅
I really dig both voices for different reasons. As a lot of others have said, Vincent's more calm demeanor exhudes a sense of danger, and because of that, the scenes where he is breaking down are very impactful.
With Valerie, there's a similar powerful contrast that I don't see brought up too often. Fem V in general is more energetic in her responses, which is why it hits me like a truck when the relic is wearing her down, and you can hear how low and weak her voice is. I also find her expressions of pain from relic malfunctions to be a bit better, too.
So with Vincent, I find his portrayal of the mental torture V is going through be a tad more impactful, while with Valerie, the physical strain on her from the relic works a little more for me.
I think the one thing that makes me lean slightly towards Fem V is her sass. The highlight for me is that whole quest with Flaming Crotch Man, lol.
For one, I like the fact that you were sharp enough to have actually picked up on their names in the cutscenes, kudos to you for that.👏🤞😂 Secondly, I see your analogy of the Voice Actors' portayal strengths as both insightful and thought provoking.🤔🤔 I have found that society tends to wear on both genders in certain ways more than the other, and maybe that's an underlying theme that both the actors and creators wanted to shine through....
@famouzrockz I definitely think gender plays a small part in their performances. Pawel Sasko talked in his streams about how he and a large chunk of the department made sure to incorporate accurate psychology in their portrayal of the characters, I'd like to think that extends towards the vocal direction of both V's.
Here's the fun thing that I've noticed, that highly energetic/aggressive approach to situations I see in Fem V is something you find present in a loooot of the other female characters in this game. Alex, Panam, Judy, Susie Q, Meredith, Young Rogue, etc. Perhaps this is a common survival strategy some of these women have adapted for one reason or another?
One of the things I'm immediately reminded of in my Fem V playthrough is when you approach Finger's clinic and are confronted by some thugs outside. As Valerie, you get catcalled and hit on, and I can't help but wonder how many times things like that might have happened in her life to get her to be so aggressive in the first place. It's already bad enough irl, just imagine how much worse it would be in NC of all places.
Now with Vincent, I see a similar layed back approach among some other male characters, most notably Vik and Johnny. They sort of struggle to open up in similar ways, but when they do holy shit do you feel it. I immediately think of Vik's call in the Path of Least Resistance and how you see him crack open like an egg.
Vincent is more experienced, calmed, collected and knows hes the strongest and smartest person in the room. Meanwhile Valerie is more emotional, cheerful, and she knows that she is the strongest and smartest person in the room. She likes to look on the bright side of things when shit gets serious...she acts as if shes on the verge of a psychotic break at any moment. Bitch is fuckin crazy. Vincent int he same situations is just as scary..How to explain it..? Vincent is Terror, that feeling that something is off, yet you dont know what, you sense danger but dont know what said danger is. Meanwhile Valerie is Horror. You can see the danger, know what its source is, but know youre powerless to stop it.
Yeah female V has sass for days but Male V sounds too done with everyone’s bullshit
honestly, Male V’s “weak” sensitive side is sooo gooood cause i feel emotions but sometimes struggle to properly communicate them! it was amazing to hear the voice actor progress as we did in the story. even if it wasn’t intentional it still was perfect to me.
That's an interesting take. I don't know if you've ever played the original Mass Effect. Most players agree that the VA for the female protagonist did the best work, and I don't necessarily disagree, Jennifer Hale is a legend. But here's the thing, the VA for the male protagonist's deliverance was more often than not a little flat, but I felt like it suited my version of the character. I played him as a full-on, howling mad, sociopath, totally incapable of telling right from wrong. A completely unpredictable kind of guy who derives a sick sense of pleasure at deliberately choosing the options that would get the most civilians killed, even if that option is more difficult than the option that saves innocents. The flat delivery suited that kind of person very well, imo.
@ that’s incredibly valid though. Partially why i love the RP part of RPGs. We both agree the delivery is flat and a little stuffy. However what we do WITH that changes how in universe V would be perceived. for me, V has been broken by night city, jaded, and struggling to fully be a “human”. He opens up emotionally near the end (I assume cause the male VA has gotten into the groove of things by then).
for you he is flat monotone and emotionless. his psychopathic tendencies pop out every once in a while during the rush of battle. He derives pleasure from the pain of others.
I’m kinda just rambling now but yeah thanks for this
i’m autistic so i kinda relate to it lol
male V with the corpo start has some really terrifying lines.
The best way to play the game imo. Male Corpo V.
I thought "Male V does look quite intimidating"
After my female nomad V, I gravitated towards him and did a corpo run. And dear lord are storyline-specific voice responses just.... wow. Granted, played with a Polish dub with Lidia Sadowa as female V and Kamil Kula as male V. And oddly... the pros and cons here are seemingly the same in the Polish dub. Kamil is more threatening sounding, his delivery can be nice ESPECIALLY as a corp... but something about his voice sounds like he's constantly tired, bored or just doesn't give a crap. And when he does want to joke about, he sounds a bit too devoid of emotions. Lidia, however, gives much more emotions.
I would like to point towards Takemura and V casing out Arasaka complex with the daichi platforms. The joking "Will you go get pizza" sounds better on Female V for me, cuz the actress conveys V's humorous pronounciation of it - she's about to crack from laughing, though it sounds somewhat sincere. Male V's sound is a bit more of a taunt.
Still - love them both.
Best corpo male V line ever is when he is getting escorted out of Hansens party and he's says something like "WHO the FUCK do you think you are ? FUCK you." to some random guard that was tying to chirp him lmao
Female Corpo V sounds like that obnoxious manager or boss you have to deal with at work, a Karen for lack of a better term. Male Corpo V sounds like a cold soulless sociopath you might come across if you work at a large corporation.
@@bmbrowns1778 Yeah that single line is what makes me prefer Male V,that line on paper sounds bad and a little corny but Gavin made it work in game and made it sound pretty intimidating
1:32 Actually, Male V had 70% of the pre-launch marketing, Fem V had the 2018 Demo, the 2019 Deep Dive was evenly split, Fem V also had some of her artwork posted pre-launch, the reversible cover had Fem V too.
Since 1.6 Male V barely had anything, only some screenshots and in game renders for free DLC. So people who are saying that the reason why Male V barely appeared in any PL marketing is because he was prominently featured on pre-launch marketing are 30% wrong, Fem V had a good chunk of pre-launch marketing, so it wasn't really an equal distribution since 1.6
fem v was also in the pre launch marketing,in the first trailer you can see her taking cover behind a pillar
This, totally agree, always say the same thing. It feels like the rumours of cdpr are true, sadly.
Male V still had the vast majority. Having watched it back, Fem V has like 3 lines in the 2019 demo so her presence in the marketing is basically the 2018 demo and nothing else. All the trailers were Male V.
PL naturally has less promo, I get people like Male V but he was no more shafted than Fem V before launch. It's not a woke conspiracy or anything.
That being said, Male V not having a reversible cover for the GOTY edition is bullshit. Everything else... ain't that deep.
@Telos1807 all the trailers weren't male v,cuz you could see fem v taking cover in the E3 trailer
@@Eleyrica ... Come on. Point stands, the first E3 Demo was really all Fem V got.
V is very much like Shepard in Mass Effect. Two different interpretations, and its worth going through twice to experience them
Not always worth it, I could barely play through the first mass effect as fem shep let alone the next two
Ehh, Mark Meer definitely got into his stride in the third game, but his voice acting is painful in the first game, and to be fair, Mass Effect was and still is his only major acting role, so of course hes not gonna stack up, especially against a VA titan like Jennifer Hale, but i can definitely see why someone would discount him in the first game.
I like both. Female V feels perfect for a Corpo, male V feels perfect for Street Kid or Nomad. I also love how having a male and female choice even with the same lines show how different it makes the characters
I think Male V is just PERFECT for the corpo.
I would only play male as nomad because the accent makes no sense for where the others grew up
I wish male V retained his voice from the original trailer depicting the heist gone wrong.
I also find it odd how originally the game was very Male V centric in the marketing and then they did a whole 180, even my platinum trophy banner on steam changed from male V to female V
Yeah they probably should’ve been more even with the marketing instead of doing this weird half and half thing, but I guess their marketing team decided it’s better for outside fans if it remains consistent.
I like male v because of him being more like Johnny with the better voice meshing and he also looks better in johnnys outfit which is what I usually wear in all my playthroughs
Female V is more like Johnny tbh she sounds just as emotional as him while Male V sounds stoic
@@Xxsorafan nah
big thing i prefer about male v is his pained acting, found his expressions of sadness or painful experiences more believable than female v! but i still love fem v did a whole playthrough as her and now doing male v!
I definitely think female V was the better voice acting, BUT I can get what you mean because there’s one moment specifically I think the male voice actor outdid her on. It’s when he initially finds out he’s dying. He sounds so desperate when asking Vick for help. It makes me tear up everytime.
Male V puts on a facade, he’s not Vincent, he’s simply V when on gigs, but when he’s breaking down you can see the real guy
I think MascV fits how a Nomad or Streetkid would sound while FemV can be more convincingly from a Corpo background.
Since Streetkid is my go-to lifepath I prefer how he sounds more rough & experienced, it's all down to preference.
The only issue I have with the voice acting (mainly more on the male V side) is how race specific the voice actors sound. I’m obviously a dark skinned man, therefore the vast majority of characters I create will have the same complexion. Not adding extra voice options to cater towards different races is a downside for me.
Saints Row along with many other games managed to incorporate different voices which added an extra layer of uniqueness to every character you created, so it can 100% be achieved.
Maybe I’m just being too picky, but I feel like it’s something that would’ve made V feel more special.
I’ve seen this mentioned before, totally valid. It probably would’ve been a massive undertaking but it would’ve been cool if the game had multiple voices for each gender.
It’s a lot of work, but I’d love to see more games take the saints row approach of voice acting. 3 male voices, 3 female voices and a zombie voice for shits and giggles
Saints row is linear, there's no branching stories so it's much easier to have multiple accents, but imagine the pain of having to record all of those lines multiple times for various accents in CP. I highly doubt that's even happening with Cyberpunk 2 but we'll see i guess.
Same, my V is a European immigrant who went to night city, and he just sounds American.
@@Casey420saints row isn't the only game that does this though. Dragon Age Inquisition did it, and I think that they did it in Veilguard too.
I prefer male V, his voice is a bit clearer and more direct and understandable. Also, I find his "sarcastic asshole" tone quite hilarious.
Male V, hands down. Just the voice actor's performance after the Heist, when he's recouping in Vik's clinic, is worth playing as Male V. I don't know if the actor has just been thru shit in life, or he kinda "researched" for the role or what, but the croak in his voice from being bedridden & unconscious, the pleading in his voice begging Vik to help him, God damn man, it gets me every single time. Like it's what I look forward to starting a new game.
The female voice actor isn't like, bad. There's nothing _wrong_ w/ her performance, besides it feeling flat at times. But the male V voice actor is truly gifted at what he does. I hope to see him in other big projects in the future.
Anyway, that's my two cents, literally three seconds into the video. Reacting to the thumbnail w/o watching the video. Typical gonk move.
Vincent’s voice acting was absolutely great, the emotional scenes where he breaks down are truly phenomenal. For example when he desperately asks Vik if he’s going to live or die, as well as one of the endings.
9:20 Male V took this scene
Gamer theory, takemura was originally supposed to be romancable but due to the story it didnt make sense, we can see v flirt with him a few times yet he always shoots them down
So as a replacement for female v they added romance options with river and didnt have the time to flesh him out more
@@Camou. You can even have cute texts with Takemura and get him to send smiley faces in text. Would have been horrible for Johnny feeling a corpo Valeria doing stuff with a corpo Takemura.
The devs talked about splitting Takamura and Rivers stories, they originally were supposed to be one person
@@mcjcave18yup. There was concept art of river finding V in the landfill. Which makes sense, as I’m pretty sure he lives nearby
@@mcjcave18it makes a lot more sense now why rivers content feels short. But being a family man while also being loyal to arasaka? Seems to clash a lot.
Excellent analysis and commentary! I've played through this game many times, alternating between male and female V with each new game. I think both Gavin and Cherami did outstanding jobs, and any differences simply make them feel like different people. I was thoroughly involved with the game before encountering interviews with both actors and I was a little shocked by both of them. Gavin not only delivered a top-notch acting job, but had to suppress his natural accent to deliver an American tough-guy accent. Impressive! I though Cherami had the easier job, just using her natural voice...except it turns out her natural voice is quite different from female V's...lighter and 'bubblier' than V's somewhat weightier tone. Love them both! I've been playing female V for the last while and I'm starting to miss Male V...it's one of the things that keeps me coming back to the game,
I think they're both equal and I really like both their voice actors. Which is fairly rare because the times I do play as a female, it's usually because I tried the male but I just couldn't stand his voice (DA2 an AC Odyssey immediately spring to mind). However I didn't notice this as an actual physical male until my daughter pointed it out because she's played it for the first time over Christmas but female V still moves like male V as in she still sits with her legs wide open and stuff. She played as a Corpo V from my understanding and she was complaining that V doesn't cross her legs even when she's in a skirt or have feminine movement outside of her walk and I can't unsee it now that she's pointed it out, so on that basis I'm going to tilt slightly towards male V.
Pretty much the same impression I have. Male V to me just has a hell of a presence and some truly great delivery during some heavy moments. The way he speaks the lines in the new ending from PL sticks with me. However, there are deliveries that female V does that took me by surprise. Also her general oofs and grunts from taking damage and movement seem less....dull? Ultimately, as a man who loves a foxy woman, I'm glad it's a case of a modern game where we can make her look great.
Most of the time I'll play a male V, but I'll never knock anyone's choice because they're both strong.
Not a lot of people preferring Female V but I think Cherami Leigh does an excellent job, sometimes I even forget there’s a Male V because of how natural and convincing Female V is
I don't think it's more about more people preferring male V. It's more male players default to male V and more female players default to female V... and TH-cam has a larger demographic of males. It's about 56% and 44% female.
Then on top of that about 53% of male identity as games, but only 46% of females. So this compounds the problem of responses about the best V on TH-cam.
I'm a male, I prefer female V in moments of when Johnny taking over is weakening her but male V when dealing with loss. In these moments theyre both better than the other. But beyond that they're both overall just as great, just slightly different in how they're portrayed in equally well ways.
To me both are V. Getting to play the other again is a great excuse for one more playthrough.
I'm not a player who prefers to "have a character representing myself" I want a different character to experience a story through. So my only preferences are great voice acting and writing.
Regarding River: My biggest problem is that he is self centered and just commands you around and then drowns in self pity. He never asks how I am doing, as if he would not care. Well, and that he thought it'd be cool to shove a GoPro 3 into his eyesocket...
But thanks for the in depth analysis about the voice acting. I never really could put it into words why I felt like V was the better choice for me. I intuitively just found she sounded quirkier and more light hearted and I like that you can hear that she's often sounding more innocent/surprised towards the world and encounters.
Is that necessarily better? No. In the end it's personal preference. I'm a male and often play female characters in RPG's. And it's never just about aesthetics, I just feel I can connect better with female V's character. Undertand her better, relate, feel the desperation in Vik's clinic etc.
But also roleplay wise, it feels like fem V has a bigger arc throughout the game because of her optimism and lightheartedness. Coming from that place, being betrayed, pushed down and hit in the face feels much stronger emotionally.
Your complaints about River can apply to Judy twice over.
@@Zymemaru Nah, way before any bonding she asks if we are sick, if there is a solution and let's us crash on the couch, even having some brekkie ready the next morning.
River just tells you where to show up so he can work his case, then in his car he basically blackmails you leaving you in a situation where you can either help or leave the car as the most cold hearted person on earth.
Judy asks you for help, but almost always gives you options or at least makes sure you do it for the right reasons. Even Panam does and she can be very bossy.
But River... He's so self-occupied that he literally never let's you know that he cares. Sure, tough man, strong guy, hidden emotions blah... but man, let me at least know once that it's not only some never had a mother-syndrome or conquering a hot edgerunner.
@@Llanovanya85 Major difference is that you have stroke right in front of Judy. You never have one of your relic attacks in front of River so there's literally no way he knows there's something wrong with you. River at least fights and entire group of animal gangers by himself to save your life during the Rine investigation.
And in the second quest he's self-occupied because his nephew was kidnapped by a lunatic. You can't blame him for having tunnel vision. You can't compare River trying to save his family with Judy trying to get control of a sex club.
Despite his flaws he isn't nearly as toxic as Judy is to V in a bunch of situations
@@Zymemaru also if you read Maiko's old emails, Judy definitely comes across as overly clingy and quick to anger in them, and Maiko is noticeably less vicious than she is in the present (although Maiko was of course pretty obviously manipulating her even then). and then if you go with Maiko's solution to her questline instead of Judy's, she's convinced nothing changed and the City's broken her because... Maiko is holding out over sick pay and such, exactly like when their old boss was *selling them into sex slavery*. Johnny was completely right when he said she gets unhealthy expectations, both of life and other people. all the potential lovers are rebellious hotheads, but she's probably the least stable long-term one because of that IMO, even if you leave NC together.
but hey, Cyberpunk generally isn't a world where life just stops once you ride off into the sunset, so it's not necessarily a knock against her. it's about enjoying the good times while they last.
@@Zymemaru
This is my opinion but after watching my brother play as a Male V, I can’t say I agree with the whole “Judy is toxic” argument. From our perspective, Panam felt pushy almost to the point of being obsessive in some scenes. I get it’s for the romance to “show she cares”, but it made her character feel very unnatural, like she grows a liking to V way too quickly. She’s a girl that has what I would call “toxic positivity”. Always saying yes to anything the player asks or replying in a positive way to his actions despite the situation. I think that’s actually why people like her so much over Judy because she’s never negative towards the player, but it created a huge disconnect between her and V from our point of view. The chemistry felt very 2 dimensional. Same thing applied for River. Him inviting V to dinner was really random after everything he went through.
Judy ironically felt like she shared more chemistry with his Male V than Panam did even though he played a Nomad Male V. Her losing Evelyn also tied in well with V losing Jackie.
Cherami Leigh is one of my favorite voice actors. i grew up with her appearing in my ear left and right from Lucy in Fairy Tail to Patty in Soul Eater to playing as A2 in Nier Automata. and she's one of the only Voice actors i know the name of by heart and who i would recognize instantly in any game or show.
I think Male and Female should be evenly split on the marketing as focussing only on one alienates anyone who preferred the other
This is the definitive video on the topic by a mile, great job.
Finally played through as Fem V after 800-ish hours as Male V and I had a pretty similar change in opinion like you did. It’s actually kind of tragic because I find myself in moments where Fem V’s performance blows me away, and others (especially the Johnny takeovers) where I end up greatly missing Gavin Drea’s delivery lol
Despite preferring Male V, another place he loses out is in the modding community. Feels like a 10 to 1 ratio of Female to Male appearance and clothing mods
That’s every modding community. Fallout is a Piper Remake Circle Jerk with only Waifu followers.
@Ublivion01 should we tell him about skyrim?
@@TrevorVeillette I shudder to think of someone who doesn’t know, finding out for the first time
@Ublivion01 i had a chuckle when I was modding my skyrim and found a mod that literally just adds realistic breast veins. Complete with subsurface light scattering. That's it, that's the mod. Needless to say, it's now an essential mod in my modlist. Couldn't play without it.
Dude this is a phenomenal video, literally 10/10 takes all throughtout and you even had some similar gripes as me, like thinking femme V's attempts at threats normally fell flat and that male V sometimes sounds like he hates the side characters during normal conversations 😂
My name is Vincent so male V has always always had a soft spot in my heart, but they both give it their all and I love to make headcanon backstories for either of my V’s in any playthough I do
I like the aged voice male V has especially after the prologue because it feels like Johnny’s experiences and Speech patterns are effecting how he holds himself
I like male v. I don't knock the female. Male v is s dude. He is more relatable to me + he sounds more intimidating. When I'm playing a grimy city game like cyberpunk, I want my character to sound intimidating, not more emotional, especially more feminine. Cool, calm, and collected. But that's my preference if we're simply going off voice.
I think that's what's so good about them both different people can relate to each character.
@toxiczombiewolf5692 it's simply just voice preference most of the time. Although I know people like female v because she has more mods. Whether someone is being a gooner, I can care less these days.
All I wish is that we saw male V in more advertisement; it's been too long.
Well said
@@jairesemccoy9779 You were doing so well until you said "people like female V because of the mods". Like bro, stfu
I like to think of a fanfiction of what if Male V and Female V were Twins and they both have the Street Kid Lifepath. If Male V joined Jackie Welles on the Heist and Female V organises a Celebration at Mamma Welles until the Delamain returned with Jackie's Remains which both shocked Female V, Misty and Mamma Welles.
It would've been dope if you had interactions with the other like in AC Odyssey.
I thought it'll be an interesting story, when it reaches the Climax, Male V and Female V coordinated Storming Arasaka Tower where Male V Storms from below with Panam and Female V Storms from above with Rogue Amendiares.
After Male V plugged into Mikoshi, he leaves Night City with Panam and Female V succeeds Rogue as the new Queen of Fixers and lives in the Manor with Judy, her Girlfriend.
@@Sasuke81aif they were to ever adapt the story of 2077, that would be a good way of going about it without cutting choices from the game
Definitely had the same idea, except I see whichever V you don’t pick living a completely different life away from their sibling (the one you pick) somewhere else in the NUSA, and they aren’t close whatsoever which is why they don’t keep contact or acknowledge one another
Another Twin V story I thought of is where both Male and Female V were Twins but they're rivals in the Corpo Lifepath. After Male V and Jenkins were undermined and Male V gets fired from Arasaka, Male V learns his Twin Sister threw her Twin Brother under the Bus to climb the Corpo ladder. During Male V's Adventures, Female V will always be around to undermine him over a Game length Cat and Mouse until Male V Storms Arasaka only for Female V to he betrayed by Adam Smasher.
male V looks better and feels better for the story it just makes scene if u look at it in a realistic way. and the tone of his voice dose not mean age bro bc iv talked to 18 year olds sound like that kinda
I will say, I prefer Female V, but that Panam romance quest line is pretty great.
I do not "hate" the River romance, but I do feel it is severely underdeveloped. And, your listing of the related quests as you did really highlights that fact. It does feel rushed, lacking. I also feel like it gets to be... I dunno, awkward feeling if you go into it with the Corpo background. I mean, sure, plenty of fish in the sea, love can come out of nowhere, blah blah, but yeah. In this city, dress a Corpo up in street clothes and they still (generally) will give off a Corpo vibe, even if it is "former." And it doesn't feel to me like River would be all that into a Corpo. He feels too blue-collar than that to me.
I do like the intimidating feel of Male V's interactions in combat scenarios better. In fact I'd completely agree with all of your points in relation to the voice acting.
Excellent video!
To me, V is an up and coming merc who's out of their dept. The event with Johnny is what escalate them into the legendary status. The male voice sounds way too over confident in my opinion. Almost like he's trying too hard to sound intimidating and I can't take him seriously. While the female voice makes her sound more nuanced and it makes more sense when people don't initially take her seriously. NPCs often seems to have a double take when realising she means business. I thought it fit the character better but that may be just me.
I agree. Male V's voice performance comes off as some seasoned action hero and it just doesn't work for me. It ends up it corny territory for me.
I enjoy both honestly. First time i played, I was Fem V. The second, Male V. Ima gonna play a third time and im going back to Fem V, mainly cause im just alternating every playthrough. The voice acting does change how everything feels tho so i guess who the best is just comes down to whose reactions you like better
Female V is my pick. After reading some of these comments, there seems to be a pattern in ppl choosing male V mostly. I find female V's overall voice performance to be more natural, especially when it comes to relationship with Johnny and Jackie and related dialogues. Being friends with Panam and Kerry instead of romancing them is fine by me, Judy is a decent replacement but man, the god-forsaken River is what kinda ruins it. I didn't even particularly like him that much and the game already wanted me to sleep with him. The quest with family dinner and kids saying they'd make a good couple really kinda grossed me out even. It's not even like the time we spent with him was too little, I mean, same goes for Jackie and I freakin loved that guy!
There are certain moments where male V sounds better, but that's maybe 10% of the gameplay, and still, female version is definetely not bad. Male V's voicelines are kinda flat and generic to me most of the time, sounds like he's tryharding to be tough. Female one has more emotion, better modulation, doesn't sound like a dickhead when unnecessary. Also no "problems" with pronunciation as you mentioned in the video, but that's super minor. Female V earns her respect from who she becomes, not just from her voice. Plus, she forms a nice "sibling" type relationship with Jackie and Johnny unlike male V who becomes just bros with them.
Customization - yeah, you've explained it accurately in the video, nothing to add.
She really fits streetkid background to me, this badass chick who knows Nightcity inside out, knows her way around etc. It's hard to explain but it "flows" within her voice acting and mixes well with the emotional "survivor" vibe. Cherami's experience really stands out I think.
I think both voice actors are great. As a female gamer I prefer to play as a female, it's more immersive for me, so I naturally pick female V. I also love the brotherly-sisterly bickering both Valerie and Johnny do. Reminds me of me and my siblings. Still, playing as female V has it's negatives, not being able to romance Panam or Kerry. Although got to admit the way Kerry turns down Valerie was hilarious. He seemed genuinely scared of her. It's even funnier for Johnny if he wakes up in a woman's body after a fifty year coma in Mikoshi, can't imagine how weird it must be for him. 😆
Your conclusion matches mine note for note. My immersion is broken almost completely whenever my Valerie talks, but her customization is so much better. It's just so hard to take her seriously, which kinda works, for better or worse.
Female V voice actress is so good and felt more relatable to how I would express myself irl in these situation.
I played both and (as a male) i definitely prefer female V. I like her voice actor performance more, especially the interactions with Johnny. And Judy is the best girl ever.
Male V fell flat for me and was very annoying. But that's just me.
agreed. judy's romance is the best in the game imho, if not one of the best romances in videogames in general.
could do disagree more
More like 6 out of 10 girl ever.)
@@yokiweyy4770 to me, her romance progression is pretty bland or even nonexistent until she suddenly decides to be romantic in Pyramid song.
The romance scene is the only one they put effort into tbh, which is a shame & shows bias or evidence of their time constraints, & what I think most players are fixated on.
Panam's is more gradual, you see her initially guarded showing vulnerability & reject V twice, then grows on her until she makes a move... which is interrupted similarly in real life (especially if you have kids). There's more intimacy in how they interact (closeness, not sexual).
With Kerry it's more nuanced & still early on when one makes the first move yet feels more natural, River really was just half assed since they had to deal with splitting his character from Takemura, his 'romance' is more of a joke for players than enjoyable/relatable.
Take away Pyramid song, Judy's playful flirtation & 'interest' in V starts/ends with one optional interaction post BD tutorial before the heist.
Which this 'flirtation' could be chalked up to a playful/teasing personality which isn't really seen later in the story.
I've played nearly 1000 hours as both characters & probably half that time watching lore/showcase/commentary videos since launch, I'm not ignorant but this is my interpretation.
Male V just feels more natural with the "slowly fading and turning into Johnny" aspect of the story. Also Gavin having to anatagonize Johnny to get into the voice of V is golden lmao
The reason male V sounds scarier is because he sounds like a man. The reason female V sounds softer and more empathetic is because she's a woman
Damn bro how u so smart m8, cant say something factual and normal like that :O
@@CbIP-Azrael think he's taking a shot at how some games make their different gender protagonists sound very homogenous, so much so you their voice and demeanor don't fit with either. One offender I can think of right off the top of my head, although I love these games to death, are Saints Row 2 and 3. Your male and female protags in those games were both the same not-quite-a-dude/gal character.
...are you a 5y/o? Did that sound intelligent in your head?😂😂😂
@@CbIP-Azrael In the video he said the differences after starting by talking about the way the actors act, as if it's because of the voice actors.
@@Nemoticon Got me top comment. My point is it's not because of the voice actors acting differently, but the inherent nature of their voices.
I had my suspicion male v might have been an Irish voice actor,the line "not our looky gal" during the Sandra dorsett mission gave it away lol I say it the exact same while trying to do an American accent 😂
Male Nomad V and Female Corpo V. This to is my go to. I think streetkid fits both really well but this 2 is just phenomenal.
I prefer female V. I just prefer the way her voice sounds. It’s also easy to hear from the performances that Cherami has a bit of more experience with voice acting. I also just like the dynamic of Johnny male and V female. It feels more right to me idk how to put it. I don’t think male v is bad by any means but for me he’s the weaker voice of the two options.
Your opinion. My is the total opposite. And her experience does nothing for me. My opinion.
lol wtf are you talking about, simp
@@jairesemccoy9779 expirence is key tho that's why she sounds more human male v just sounds annoyed a lot.
Male V sounds the exact same all game long.
@@OrangeTtop That is ultimately my biggest issue with male v. I like the sound of his voice but his range is lacking. I don’t like being negative towards voice actors especially those who are more novice but since we’re here that’s just how I feel.
It's absolutely mind boggling how many people don't like River. Me and my dad thought the detective quests with him were the best part of the game. We both thought an entire game like that would have been good. It was like LA Noir mixed with Cyberpunk 2077. Some of my favourite gameplay moments are from me being creative with the opportunities there. I actually unsubscribed from a channel just over River hating. And why wouldn't Valerie see it like bonding time? That's how it goes in crime dramas. V likes being a merc and facing gross and evil situations. Something to consider is crime dramas are literally more popular with women irl. Women tend to be fascinated by this kind of stuff, even if it's real. They even like true crime shows. I'm a man but I like that too, so
i think its more about the romance side of it, sure trauma bonds, but not exactly in a healthy manner. i think the point was that it was too short, as you said "whole game" and all, and that having some interpersonal time outside of "wow that sure is footage of a dudes brain getting blown out" would've made his personality and arc as a whole pop more
For me he's just a bit cringy especialy on the water tower i just wanted to fall through the floor from the sheer amount of cringe i was feeling and very much didnt like that you cant tell him youre in a relationship when his sister tries to set you up with him or that you basicly have to play a v thats into the guy and is also slighlty hitting in him when you know you dont want to be with the guy the dialogues just kinda force this whole lovebird vibe for me idk , but this whole romance stuff aside his quest line was good.
@@Jaemisu After writing this comment I went on Cyberpunk again and just got to the bit where Judy calls you because SPOILER Evelyn anhero, and it made me think 'wait a minute. River is farfetched, but your romance with Judy starts over her friend anhero?' Judy talks about a lot of negative stuff too.
@@fyjypko4207 Are you a straight male?
@Godzilla_Star_Eater yes i am indeed
I’m a female, and preferred to play by male V
I personally think the default version would be the canonical one, like Nate from fallout 4, male in fallout 3, male in fallout new Vegas, Kassandra in assassins creed odyssey. And the thing is, male v is the default option, if you read left to right and not right to left
I think it’s weird that there were people willing to die on a hill of who is better, I play a male V because I’m a dude and in my personal power fantasy of chrome it’s what I chose to be, but I’m sure if I were female it would be female V, I don’t think either actor really one ups the other they both do fantastic work and I couldn’t imagine what having different voice actors would make the game today.
Both are amazing, 2 of my favorite voice acting performances in gaming. I give the slight edge to female V b/c of her emotional line delivery, especially in phantom liberty.
Really reminded me of the Male Shepherd vs Female Shepherd debate from Mass Effect.
Both are great idk why people compare them
The German synchro is just amazing! Male V is Intimidating when he‘s supposed to and Friendly or even soft in moments were it fit‘s. His Name is Björn Schalla same guy that does the German synchronization for Jax Teller in Sons of Anarchy.
Simply an amazing Guy with an amazing voice.
The "emotional delivery" for female V is true but also kind of a double edged sword.
While in some emotional scenes it has an amazing effect, in some others it comes of as overly emotional when not really necessary.
A supposedly hardened merc like V, should be a bit more deadpan a lot of the time and more emotional in rare occasions like when Jackie dies.
I think male V does this slightly better than female V imo.
I think whether Fem V is being overly emotional might just depend more on subjectivity rather than a merc thing. Trauma affects us all differently, and for some people, that means adopting a more layed back approach to things while others might have a more aggressive and energetic response. I think a great example of this is Jackie and how bombastic he is despite being a merc, or Panam for that matter.
Yeah I also felt she tried way too hard in some scenes.
@@Vargon9 But that's very subjective, while it is often used objectively as a reason why fem V is better.
You can say for example that you prefer it when V is more emotional, but saying it's objectively better is fundamentally wrong.
And I'm not saying you did that, just in general.
@onesaucynougat7471 Trying to hard is actually a good description of it.
@ilias856 Oh, for sure, it is subjective, I even acknowledged that. I was just pointing out that the sort of experiences V has had in their life is rather well presented in how both V's conduct themselves. CDPR made sure to put extra attention to actual psychology into how these characters act, including voice direction.
Of course, which ever V works better for you is going to be subjective; there isn't an objectively better choice, as you say. And to be fair, the type of Fem V fans you're describing are also present within Male V's fanbase. On both sides, you have people screaming about why their choice is objectively better, which is largely why these discussions end up getting so tiring.
Male V sounds like Jon Bernthal, which made me want to do a Punisher playthrough. It was super fun.
Great video. As someone who spends WAY too much time playing Cyberpunk, I always alternate between male and female V. However, I do prefer female V's voice acting overall. Both are amazing examples of character acting, especially for such a deep game, but female V just sounds that little bit more natural to me.
Although, neither of them can say "Rust in piss, shitbot" without making me cringe lol.
I definitely prefer male V's romance options, though. As a bi man, having both Panam and Kerry calling me to hang out, far outweighs Judy leaving Night City and sticking me with River.
Honestly I think the “Rust in Piece, Shitbot” kind of… works? Especially with Valerie, she kind of gives a “fuck it we ball” vibe. It’s definitely over the top but it’s just fun
I think they’re both great, however in the ending based on one of the choices you make in Phantom Liberty’s climax you have what was for me an especially somber moment. I didn’t know if I made the right choice in that decision (although my previous Male V chose the other option and didn’t love it either) and I’m consoling the FIA agent I’m speaking to about the outcome of the mission, and I sit on the scorching hot ground with them and Fem V cries out “ahh shit, hot hot hot” and it was the funniest thing I’d heard all game. I genuinely cracked tf up, and that made FemV click even more. Plus, l Male V’s voice is so *very much* not African American and as a person who is, I can’t limit throws me off. But objectively they’re both amazing performance and male or female V is great.
5:33 these just feel overacted to me. Male V is my preference because I find him more relatable. Im also just a guy that prefers to play male characters, especially in story games where I have a choice, because its familiar. femV just doesn't click with me.
Girl had to sit in a car while her best friend bled to death next to her and you're calling those somber last words overacting? You just dont understand emotion.
While I actually tend to like my RPG protagonists without a voice, I love Cyberpunk’s use of it and how you get to experience two different portrayals of the same character. It very much the same experience of playing male or female Shepard across the Mass Effect trilogy.
V feels like a man to me. Just the context of everything, the way V is spoken to and talked about, responded to, ect. I'm definetly biased though, because I lean very heavily into playing a male in RPGs. I think both are very solid performances.
WHAT
I've started my first playthrough recently and never noticed that fem V is voiced by my fav VA. Dunno if this is showing her incredible range of acting or I'm just used to her "anime" voices in Japanese games.
Great vid btw
That’s so wild after finishing your video that I much prefer Johnny with female V works! It works better for the dialogue where Johnny would soften up to and start to care about a woman V.
It’s not really Johnny softening up to V but both personalities merging into one so gender wouldn’t matter. Plus I doubt Johnny cares what you have between your legs
a core memory was unlocked with the need for madness music
1:12
FINALLY
SOMEONE SAY THAT
I mean girls are arguably sexier
As you said there are better option for clothes too
Playing any male character to me feels like there is just no character at all, every hero is man, how about a female for a change
Also Judy...
Got 2000 hours, had numerous playthroughs on both female and male but I always prefer the male V over female because of the Bromance I can have with Johnny and also how pure of a badass I can be with the intimidating voice and not to mention the Panam option.
That bromance with johnny thing is pretty stupid, you have the same exact relationship with him as FemV, i dont see why the gender being different discounts their level of friendship.
@allhandsnodik7803 By bromance I meant how two boys could vibe and understand each other and relate together in some areas due to their gender. If you played the game thoroughly and listened to some dialogues and compared them between male and female V you'd know what I'm talking about. No need to call anything stupid before you even know something about it.
@Firemage12135 i have, and other than the talks that relate strictly to gender and Panams romance moments, I didn't notice too much different from how he interacted with both V's. I think it mightve been nice to have more gendered moments, FemV teaching him how to be in woman's body, and more solely bro moments with MV, but the way it is now, the Bromance isn't really there, at least more than the general friendship he displays with either V.
I love male v voice acting, even when be needs to show emotion and fails seems a bit more like he is hiding his pain or trying to be though, so when he actualy shows emotion you know is serious biz
Fem V's voice acting>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
during the whole whole post-heist scenes, her pleading with Victor, fighting with Johnny? CHILLS! I am constantly blown away with how raw and real and on edge she sounds
I promise I will get to you someday, Male V, if only for Panam 😅
just say u goon to her lmao
Great vid bud, I think both are super talented and did a great job! Personally I prefer Cherami, she's top shelf as a VA and I just believed her more often than not. Add on my girl Judy and there's almost no contest in the decision for me 😁
I believe that Male V has a couple of really stand out performances but a lot of his regular dialogue is kinda flat. Female V is more consistent but there wasn’t many times that really stood out. If you want to play like an asshole male V def feels the way to go
That's probably the closest to reality comment here
Gavin Drea (Male V actor) deserves more love.
Both are amazing and deserve the same amount of love, each have an even amount of talent.
First playthrough I played male V and the second female V. Have to say I enjoyed the dialogues a lot more with female V. I think in my future playthroughs I will most likely choose female V again but still have to say I also like male Vs voice a lot but it doesn’t fit the character that I want to play.
As the only honest man in the comments section, I just like V's voice more because I find women's voices more pleasing. Better to just admit that than try and make up some excuse for how Vincent's acting is "worse"
Gooner
@@rabs7290 🤦♀️
I actually haven’t commented on a TH-cam video since 2019 maybe but I just had to say, I appreciate this video more than anything, I’ve seen so many videos and comments of people bashing both options and bringing out very ugly comments and sexist ideology, but finally watching a video with comments and content that finally talks fairly and truly about both characters makes me happy. I’ve seen so many people talk how the devs are “woke” and etc for promoting female V now and how upset some of the fanbase is over it, but I’m excited to see more of female V, I definitely prefer female V as my original choice but I love both of them and I’m happy that both of them have promotion.
Greatly appreciated! This comment section has turned into a bit of a battlefield too, but I’m glad I was able to inspire some civil discourse about the two Vs.
Lets not mention the fact that the Relic is rewriting Silverhands DNA in V's body! So when you end up at Mikoshi and Alt tells you that your body is now Johnnys DNA (Who is a male) It doesn't make any sense because if you go back into the body as a female but your body has the DNA of a male? Also I think Silverhand & V's relationship makes more sense as men and the brotherly type bond they have by the end game.
Good point!
In a game universe where people can change their entire bodies with machine parts to become completely different beings altogether, gender and biology shouldn’t matter at all tbh
To defend River a bit, he was going through a time of a lot of stress and V was there with him for the entire ride, so no surprise that he would develop some sort of bond there. He could've used a quest or two more, but all in all I never really noticed his questline was so short until it was directly pointed out to me.
I played female V and enjoyed the relationship with Johnny and fixers. Judy was my girl and I couldn’t stand that creep River.
I've always had a weirdly hard rule for myself of choosing male V for Streetkid and Corpo playthroughs and fem V with Nomad playthroughs. I could never really put a finger on why, I just preferred them for each role, until I watched this vid. You're 100% right. NC feels grittier with male V, and that fits better with a Corpo or Streetkid, it just makes more sense for them to sound more cynical. Meanwhile fem V always feels kind of light and whimsical, and that vibe feels a lot more at home coming from a Nomad who's more or less going through NC with fresh eyes.
Male V, mainly because it's an FPS so you barely see your own character and he has objectively better voice lines.
The way you described the differences between their voices is also probably part of the reason someone might choose one over the other as their preferred V. Male V sounds like he's in the shit of Nightcity. He's down in the dirt, giving and taking hits, ramming his car into the side of a van full of scavs just so they can't drive away anymore and he can deal with them. No muss, No fuss, get the job done as serious as possible. A Batman type. Female V sounds like she's enjoying herself, Galivanting through Nightcity with a smile on her face as she jumps off the seat of her bike to land on the roof of the scav's van so she can slide down the windshield and stop the ride from on top of it before beating them down. Jokes, playing with the enemy, knowing she's better and is going to squeeze all the enjoyment she can out of her less than stellar life. A Spider-man type. And while that probably didn't play a part in who was chosen specifically for Fortnite, it's probably part of the reason why Patrick chose Female V as his own personal preference for V. I bet if he was asked, he'd prefer Spider-man over Batman.
I preferred famale V's voice as I thought it fit her better than male V's fit him, the tone of his voice just sounded off to me. I would have preferred if it was more like Adam Jensen's voice in Deus Ex, I downloaded a mod that's supposed to change it to his but haven't used it yet.
I think they both were great too. Preferably, I play as female V every time. I will say this though, even with how great female V voice performance was, i hope we get a more sultry, less gruff direction next time for the female voice in the sequel.
I like Breadballer voice too
agreed
i am addict for it too
Appreciate it!
I played both genders options, but the male V voice fit perfectly in this game.
Only romance i do as male v is the corpo chick to get the magic rod
Male v seems to be a cold professional. And female v seems like she is on a brink of psychosis
I wonder if the two V's had different voice directors? The vibes are different so I wonder if the two actors got different instructions.
Are people seriously fighting over this? I like playing with both
Even in this comment section people have some pretty firm opinions on this
I surprisingly preferred female V it just sounded more grounded too me, almost as if she wasn't even really acting.
Well I think it all perfectly depicts the differences between being a man and a woman. It should be like that, so they both nailed it. I don't agree on River take, it's an option, take it or leave it, it's who he is, and he's deffinitly not underdeveloped
True
idk... to me out of the two FemV is the one who sounds scarier. There's a certain grit to her voice when intimidating lines come up specially the ones related to Streetkid and Body builds dialogues options. She has the upperhand of course in soft scenes specially when she herself shows vulnerability like when Vik breaks the news to her of the chip or when she says goodbye to jackie in the car. But by far the best about Female V's voice acting has to be her humor and sass when being unserious, her ironic lines are so damn good.
While female V sounds more consistent in the emotional moments I agree, that example with the "for fucks sake defend yourself, you're not even trying" sounds waaaaayyy better from male V, he just sounds totally defeated as he should at that very end point in the game, whereas female V comes across as more annoyed than devastated. The scene with Jackie in the car she did way better tho
That’s fair. I actually do agree with that. I think it speaks to the different reads of the characters as well. Male V and Johnny seem like they became bros, whereas female V and Johnny kinda felt like he was babysitting his bratty sister.
Yes, i also mentioned that, i am glad people agree. Male V ABSOLUTELY nailed that moment
I played male v as a nomad, tough but does good decisions like a nomad should. And also to make the panam romance even more special 😊 but I feel like female v goes more in line with the corpo backstory more. The voice acting for female v got this sassy attitude and makes those quick remarks that you wouldn't like to hear sometimes. Definitely gonna see if it's true when I play corpo backstory next playthrough.