V

Representation

During the development of Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red decided to treat both the male and female versions of V as equally valid portrayals of the character. The game's lead quest designer, Błażej Augustynek, said the studio had approached an idea where quest designers were encouraged to think of V as female, while writers believed it was male. Augustynek said he personally viewed V as female, while other team members interpreted the character differently. The goal was set to avoid presenting either version of V as the default, so players could define V for themselves. Narrative director Philipp Weber said that this approach contrasted with the studio's work on The Witcher series titles, which were built around the established protagonist Geralt of Rivia. Because Cyberpunk 2077 featured a customizable protagonist who could also be female, the development team intentionally referred to V as female in quest design documents to reinforce that V was not meant to be written like Geralt, with Cyberpunk 2077 allowing players to alter the way V is depicted by their own preferences within the setting of the game.

According to creative director Igor Sarzynski, for V, the first-person perspective was chosen to present the narrative from an intimate and internal point of view, allowing the player to experience events directly through V's eyes rather than observing them externally. It was also viewed as well-fitting for player-driven avatars like V, whereas the third-person perspective was better suited to characters like Geralt, Kratos, and Ellie, having a more defined and fixed identity, where the player observes things differently. Cyberpunk 2077 also allows players to customize V's appearance extensively, even sexual organs, and features romance options for V to expand on their love life. Although the game initially does not reveal the real name of V, a mission named "Automatic Love" confirms male V's name as Vincent and female V's name as Valerie. Male V is voiced by Gavin Drea, and female V is voiced by Cherami Leigh. Both male and female V are 27 years old with the same birth date.

During the voice recording sessions for the male and female versions of V, Drea and Leigh were separated and rarely heard each other's voices so they would not imitate one another and could shape their own interpretations of V. According to the team at CD Projekt Red, role-playing games with gender-optional protagonist often try to match the female protagonist voice with its male counterpart as closely as possible, so they wanted to be different from them and chose this approach. In the pre-launch marketing of Cyberpunk 2077, the male version of V was the main face of the game, dominating its early marketing, making that version of V the one most associated with the game before release. Since then and particularly for the Phantom Liberty DLC expansion, female V took on a more central role in marketing. This change aimed to balance representation between both versions of the character, reflecting the view that V was meant to represent the player rather than a fixed protagonist. Additionally, in 2024, female V was prioritized and chosen for the Fortnite collaboration over male V.

Synopsis

In Cyberpunk 2077, the player's chosen "Lifepath"—Nomad, Streetkid, or Corpo—determines V's background and the game's opening sequence, each leading to V operating as a mercenary in Night City. V, their friend Jackie Welles, and netrunner T-Bug are hired by fixer Dexter "Dex" DeShawn to steal a biochip called "the Relic" from the Arasaka Corporation. The heist goes awry when they witness Yorinobu Arasaka murder his father Saburo to take control of the company. During their escape, T-Bug and Jackie are killed while the Relic's case is damaged, forcing V to slot the chip into their head. Although V is betrayed and shot by Dex, they are revived by the Relic and rescued by Saburo's bodyguard, Goro Takemura. V learns that the Relic contains the digitized engram of deceased rocker-turned-terrorist Johnny Silverhand which is overwriting their mind, leaving them with a limited time to live.

Although V and Johnny are initially hostile towards each other, the two slowly form a deep connection as Johnny resolves to help V search for a cure, which makes up the game's main story. V and Takemura capture Yorinobu's sister Hanako to prove that he killed Saburo, and Hanako offers to help V in exchange for their assistance in ousting Yorinobu. Separately, V tracks down Anders Hellman, the creator of the Relic, and Evelyn Parker, who commissioned the heist; though Hellman is unable to help, V learns that Evelyn was hired to steal the Relic by the Voodoo Boys, a gang that wanted Johnny's engram to breach the Blackwall, a firewall that protects the world from rogue AIs. V communicates with Alt Cunningham, Johnny's ex-girlfriend who became an AI beyond the Blackwall, and strikes a deal: if V helps her gain access to Arasaka's data fortress Mikoshi, Alt will separate V and Johnny.

The gigs, side jobs and quests that V accepts and completes increase their reputation and "street cred" in Night City's criminal underworld. Throughout the game, V comes into contact with and is supported by several major characters, including ripperdoc Viktor "Vik" Vector, esoterica owner Misty Olzewski, renowned fixer Rogue Amendiares, and Aldecaldos nomad leader Saul Bright. If chosen by the player, V can form romantic relationships with braindance editor Judy Álvarez, renegade Aldecaldo Panam Palmer, police detective River Ward, and music artist Kerry Eurodyne.

The Phantom Liberty DLC expansion introduces a quest line in which V is contacted by netrunner Song "Songbird" So Mi with the promise of a cure in exchange for their help rescuing New United States of America (NUSA) President Rosalind Myers, whose aircraft has crashed in the lawless district of Dogtown, ruled by warlord Kurt Hansen. V manages to save Myers but Songbird is captured by Hansen, forcing V to ally with NUSA sleeper agents Solomon "Sol" Reed and Alena "Alex" Xenakis. V learns that Songbird's mind is slowly being corrupted by rogue AIs as Myers has been forcing her to probe the Blackwall; Songbird orchestrated the plane crash as Hansen has a device called the Neural Matrix that can cure both her and V's conditions. V is given the choice to help Songbird escape from Myers' clutches, or betray her to Reed in exchange for the cure. If the latter is chosen, one possible ending for the game is unlocked wherein the NUSA successfully removes the Relic at the cost of V entering a two-year coma and no longer being able to use combat cyberware.

Critical reception

Hayes Madsen of GamesRadar+ classified V as a more flexible protagonist than Geralt from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, given the character's player-driven nature. He praised Cyberpunk 2077's Lifepath system, saying that the Nomad, Street Kid, and Corpo backgrounds influenced how players viewed V's place in Night City, affecting dialogue, relationships, and characterization across the game. Madsen also observed that the first-person perspective was an essential aspect for V's portrayal, making the story feel more direct and improving the link between the player and the character. He discussed V's connection with the character Johnny Silverhand and quests such as "Sinnerman" for allowing players to shape V's morality and personal beliefs through intimate choices instead of major plot decisions, and lauding the game's progression and skill systems for helping players shape V through different combat and hacking styles.

Harvey Randall of PC Gamer praised V's portrayal in Cyberpunk 2077 for presenting the character as socially awkward and less idealized than a typical suave RPG protagonist. Randall noted that V's romance interactions often relied on clumsy humor, awkward flirting, and uncomfortable text exchanges, which he argued made the character feel more believable and relatable. He singled out V's relationships with characters such as Panam Palmer, River Ward, and Goro Takemura, arguing that awkwardness occurring during their interactions made them feel genuine and that these moments reveal V as emotionally vulnerable beneath the violence of Night City. He further described the romances as giving the story quieter and more personal moments, defining V as much through personal conversations as through the main plot.

Matteo Lupetti of Gayming Magazine criticized V's customization system and handling of gender identity, reasoning that it still treated gender too rigidly despite the game's transhumanist setting. Writing from a non-binary perspective, Lupetti stated that while the game allowed players to customize V's body type, voice, and genitalia independently, the character remained constrained by traditionally masculine and feminine body models, gendered hairstyles, and limited customization options. He particularly criticized the game for tying pronouns to V's voice selection and argued that the inclusion of genital customization was largely cosmetic rather than meaningful to role-playing. Lupetti contended that V's customization system only partially explored cyberpunk themes of identity and bodily autonomy, limiting the player's ability to create a more convincingly non-binary version of the character and associated these criticisms with controversies surrounding the game's marketing and depiction of transgender imagery. Conversely, there has been controversy within the Cyberpunk 2077 community, where fans have criticized the perceived bias towards female V receiving more representation than male V, noticed by media outlets including Eurogamer, ComicBook.com, and Rock Paper Shotgun.