In the neon and smoke of Night City, "Edge Walker" tells the tragic journey of David Martinez from an ordinary boy to a legendary prosthetic man in just ten episodes; At the same time, "Cyberpunk 2077" relies on the open world setting, allowing players to immerse themselves in the experience and incarnate a new legend of the city. The animation is exciting, the game is cold and realistic, and the two are cross-media linkage, which is by no means a simple easter egg pile, but a spark of cyberpunk spirit that deeply collides.
Trigger Club is ingenious, using highly saturated colors and bold storyboards to visualize the despair and madness of Night City. David's apartment is the same as V's residence in the game, both of which are modular in design; The fierce gunfight under the Arasaka Tower is exactly the same as the oppressive feeling of the game's "get the goods" mission. Among them, the visual display of the "Sianweistan" prosthesis is a must, with particle effects and motion blur when time freezes, accurately restoring the combat experience of the prosthesis in the game.
In terms of character creation, David and Lucy's lunar covenant is just like V and Judy's starry night confiding; Mann laughs wildly on his deathbed, not unlike the madness in the game's "Cyber Psychosis" mission. And the ultimate villain Adam Hammer, who runs through the animation and the game, shows the mechanical tyranny in the animation, so that gamers are more afraid when facing him.
CDPR has carefully built an "animation memorial" in version 0.0:
Quest Linkage: Players who complete the side quest "Gift" will unlock the David Jacket, as well as exclusive prosthetic bonuses, and can reminisce about animated classics with the help of Mewtwo devices. Rebecca's iron shotgun is hidden in the grass of Arasaka Tower, and the recoil is the same as in the anime, as if she can be heard laughing aggressively.
Scene reproductions: The hospital where David's mother died, the rooftop where he and Lucy first met, and the highway where Mannin died can all be found in the game. The incident of the prosthetic man running amok at the beginning of the anime is recreated in the game in the form of the "Corpoplaza Cyberpsychotic" mission.
Spiritual resonance: The "David Martinest" concoction at the Afterlife Bar and the Arasaka Tower shot from the sake glass perfectly fit the harsh reality that "there are no living legends in Night City". In the skill tree, Rebecca's avatar represents the "manic" bonus, and David's back symbolizes "prosthetic overload", which is cleverly integrated into the characteristics of the animated character.
Emotional precipitation: On the columbarium monument, Lucy leaves a message "You didn't take me to the moon, but I took you there", echoing the choice of the game ending V. As players drive a float car and listen to IReallyWantToStayAtYourHouse and look up at the moon, the animation and the game's emotional line blend here.
Although the animation and the game timeline are one year apart, they share the same worldview:
Corporate rule: The Arasaka Group relied on "military technology" to cause tragedy in the animation, and it is still the black hand behind the scenes in the game. The biochips stolen by the player's game are the same as the "Sianweistan" prosthesis implanted by David, which is a tool for the company to squeeze the bottom.
Prosthetic alienation: In the animation, David is out of control due to prosthetic overload, and V in the game is also at risk of "cyber psychosis", both of which are discussing how human nature should adhere to the problem of how to stick to human nature when the flesh becomes a replaceable part.
Spirit of Defiance: David's suicide attack on the Arasaka Tower is similar to V's confrontation with Adam's hammer. As Johnny Silverhand said, they are fighting against the entire rotten system.
David: Because his mother was forced to die by Arasaka Company, he had no choice but to implant a military-grade "Sianweistan" prosthesis. With the constant replacement of the prosthesis, the old watch left by his mother became the only sustenance of his humanity. In the end, he ripped off his prosthetic eyeballs and saw the world with flesh and blood, which was a rebellion against the lie of "transcending humans".
Lucy: I'm a Arasaka watcher, but I give my heart to get along with David. Unable to shoot the out-of-control David, she infiltrates the Arasaka Tower alone to fulfill David's last wish, holding the ashes at the moon base, her dream come true but she loses her love.
Group portrait: Rebecca carries a gun and laughs wildly, and is killed by Adam with a hammer to protect Lucy; Main's prosthetic body lost control and ripped off the spinal nerves with his own hands; Eddie uses a brain-computer interface to hard-connect the Arasaka firewall, and the comfort of his virtual girlfriend becomes his last tenderness. Their deaths are ordinary but real, just to prove that they lived.
The Trigger Club uses highly saturated colors, the metal crashing sounds of prosthetic battles, intertwined with piano music to show the aesthetics of violence. David's prosthetic body has changed from black to gold, but the flesh has become more and more fragmented, suggesting that "the prosthetic body is a cage", asking whether human beings' pursuit of strength and the loss of flesh and blood are evolution or degradation.
From anime premieres to game updates, "Edge Walker" and "Cyberpunk 2077" are constantly linked. David's wild laughter at the hammer and V's back looking up at the moon are all telling: in the cyberpunk world, resistance means freedom, and burning is eternal. When players don David jackets and hear familiar music, they connect with those struggling souls, because we are all the unquenchable light of Night City, and we are all indomitable edge walkers.