*Fun Fact:* _In the original Cyberpunk TTRPG, the Cyberpsychosis mechanic was going to be corporations taking ownership/control of your body after you replaced a majority of it with their tech. It was changed to "you go crazy" because the publishers thought the message was too anti-corporate._ EDIT: For context, the original TTRPG came out right at the end of the cold war (in the 80s) so the publishers likely feared something so obviously anti-corporate would be seen as communist propaganda.
What if the corpo taking over your body-thing is what actually happens within the universe, but only the “highest ups” know of it, so people dub it “going crazy?”
Actually, V and Adam are both cyberpsychos. V's is just negated by having 2 minds to split the load with because of Johnny and Adam is explicitly a high-functioning cyberpsycho
Psychopathy is the reason for Adam. His mind is already wrought with those ideas caused by cyberpsychosis that drive a normal person insane, while those who are already psychopaths aren't effected the same because they're already wired to have those emotions and disconnects.
Fun fact: cyberpunk initially started as a table top rpg, among the ranks of DnD. Cyberpsychosis in the ttrpg can be caught in the game, where if you get it you have to turn in your sheet to the game master, and the game master control your character. They can do anything, from murder, self-termination, or anything else the gm wants your character to do against their will.
@@titan1umtitan The original 2nd Edition of the TTRPG, also known as Cyberpunk 2020, akshually. At least that is what is titled as the sourcebook, according to the game files. Cyberpunk RED is just the newest edition of it.
@@robertyocum7200 Though I have tried discussing it with my own group, they haven't been open to the idea of playing the game, so I can't say anything concrete. What I can say, after checking out both 2023 and RED, that there is lots of cool stuff in there. Especially the way the books are written is just fun, as it really feels like this isn't just the rules and information laid out, but that they are told to you by someone who lives in the Cyberpunk universe. Hope this advice helps.
7:08 There is a theory that the reason Adam Smasher seems so unchanged from his former self after his rebuild, is that he was already a deranged psychopath and enjoyed mindless violence. I mean, he literally stipulates in his contract with Arasaka, that he will only take missions from them where heavy civilian casualties are expected. Now, doesn't that sound Cyberpsycho to you?
Well to be fair that's just the facts. Cyberpsychosis is an umbrella term so it can really mean a lot of things. Adam Smasher is considered a cyberpsycho simply because he was already a psycho then got a full borg conversion cause he got blown up.
Mike Pondsmith actually went over this, he explained that everyone has a different tolerance to cyberpsychosis depending on multiple factors, one of them being empathy towards others. Adam is such a sociopathic deranged maniac that he basically has negative empathy. If you think of it like a glass, where everyone has a different sized glass, and every time you get chromed up, some water goes into the glass, until it fill up and you go psycho, Adam's glass is upside down. No matter how much water you pour in there, it will never fill, because there is nowhere for the water to actually go into. That's why he is able to get as many implants as he wishes, and he'll always be in control (And has).
High-functioning cyberpsychotic? Perhaps, but the fact Adam Smasher genuinely enjoys and is energized by atrocities that would mentally break other villains makes him truly dangerous.
Adam smasher will only take jobs that will include a collateral damage to add onto this. Bro wants there to be as much potential destruction and possibly death as possible
Ironically, if 2077 game wasn’t an epic fail at the start you won’t see how many ppl actually give the game a second chance just because of this anime. Absolutely a miracle.
6:10 Lore wise, the reason V doesn’t go cyberpsycho is because of the Relic in her head. Johnny Silverhand bears the mental weight of any implants. This has been confirmed by the series creator
You can get fairly heavily modified before you ever get Johnny in your head I had mantis blades and camo skin before going on the heist because I did all the side-missions in Watson first
So it was confirmed that V is practically immune to cyberpsychosis due to the relic chip in their head that houses Johnny, with Johnny helping take off the mental load and helping keep V grounded. Adam Smasher is suggested to have already have a level of psychosis/psychopathy long before he became so heavily modded, he loves violence innately so he didn't suffer a loss of self identity like most due with cyberpsychosis, he is even mentioned to maintain a high level of control and able to hold professional relationships and his missions are his chance to unwind his stress. A part of the cyberpsychosis lore is that people can be conditioned to be more heavily modded, such as having mods installed over a long period of time and mental conditioning. Maine was ex military and he had most of his cyberware added over the course of his career, he was built from the ground up over a long time and likely had special mental training to help him handle the load. Its mentioned therapy and downgrading cyberware even helps alleviate symptoms.
That and probably the fact that the game takes place over the course of like 2 weeks depending on how you play, so he didn’t have time to go cyberpsycho
The devs for the dlc did mention they were thinking about people having too many implants and how to limit that but tjey probably wont add onto that cause gameplay reasons
Apparently people who get mechanical hearts sometimes have a problem feeling emotions because so much of our feelings are felt throughout our body. So replacing too many body parts makes it easier for you to dissociate from your bodymind (because there's not as much separation as people think), and the software replaces that felt sense (basically your intuition and basic nature and connection with the world). Peter Levine's writing on somatic experiencing is where I'm getting a lot of these concepts. It's an actual thing but it's a relatively new concept.
Yes, the more we learn, the Literal Heart is MUCH more than a simple pump. Our bodies are wholistic structures, not isolated parts. Remove one part & the entire structure suffers to some degree.
@@lienomzekon4763 The human gut and heart contain their own networks of neurons that allow them to process information independently of the brain. The enteric nervous system in the gut contains around 500 million neurons. This is about as many neurons as are found in the brain of a cat, small dog, or 2 year old human. Meanwhile, the cardiac nervous system in the heart contains approximately 40,000 neurons. This number is comparable to the amount of neurons found in a lizard brain. So while we often think of the brain as the seat of intelligence, our other organs have their own "mini-brains" with neuron counts rivaling the brains of other mammals and young children. These mini-brains handle local information processing and influence our physiology and emotions independently of the main brain.
Cyberpunk Edgerunners was one of the best short animes of all time. It had everything and the end message of one's dreams towards a walking death city highlighted the Edgerunners crew
The worst part about this show is the post-depression that you develop after watching. This show made me cry. Such an amazing anime, the idea of how they told such a tragic and happy story in just a 10 episode show is god tier. They definitely have done the best of the best with it.
We can't forget the Words of Mike Pondsmith (the creator of Cyberpunk) He says that it is also based on your Mental Stability. David started with a stable environment, but then it all crashed down. Making his psychosis worse
How much influence does Pondsmith have over the writing at CDPR? Just because Pondsmith has theories based on how it works in his own lore, doesn't mean that that's how it works in CDPR's version of the lore.
@@cleverman383 CDPR part of the lore is well connected to the rest of the franchise. It might eventually be split but as of now its in the same boat. If I'm not mistake he even voices the conspiracy guy on radio who's theories are basically more nonsensical recap of the books.
There was one detail I learned some time ago after I watched Edgerunners that felt very thematic. Cyberpsychosis is stated to have a stronger effect on people who have a weakened mental state than a healthy one, love is the literal natural medicine for cyberpsychosis but not a permanent cure. We saw how Main’s relationship went when he went psycho and how long David lasted in that giant death machine to rescue Lucy. My only hypothesis for why other people who are classified as cyber psychos is because they’ve been detached from all emotional connections and fully embraced the corruption which made them easier to control.
You’re correct and that was confirmed by Mike pond smith. If you have good relationships and good things in your life, your baby better able to resist it.
@@Halauris it's also proven by the series too where David's relationship with the gang were among the best days of his life, bonding with everyone and even taking injection/booster shots with Main. Which is why his death and the other two members, his girl and Rebecca's brother, both traumatized him so he only had Lucy as his strongest relationship.
Cyber-implants themselves aren’t what causes cyberpsychosis, but the stress of life in Night City mixed in with it. And Night City is absolutely loaded with things that can stress the mind.
@crimson-foxtwitch2581 its also a part of the brain recognizing "this isn't mine its not me" thus creating the disillusionment. Why we see Main as his young self first in the salt bed running then the constant return to the salt flats for him cause that's when he last remembers being mostly human
What I learned about cyberpunk dystopias is that learning how to install and maintain neon lighting fixtures is going to be a permanently in demand job
One thing he forgot to mention about the Maxtech agent who was featured in that trailer - specifically what made her go cyberpsycho was her mantis blades. Those blades were taken off market because installing them (and presumably their software) made people exceptionally prone to cyberpsychosis. So more than just the amount of cyberware, certain faulty software can instantly make someone go cyberpsycho. We know it's the software here, too, because she still has the arms installed. Presumably, it was just the software cleaned out that helped her to function again
I love how Edgerunners managed to appeal to players by the authentic representation of the in-game universe and to everyone by writing great characters. Looking for important places from the show in the game was really fun
It's way more fun with mods. If you've beaten it already, then retry the game with mods. Some of my favorites were increased slots which gave you a second OS so you could hack minds and machines while also slowing down time. Also another mod that lets you control how long and how slow the slow down ability lasted (1 second to 60 seconds), (1% decrease to 99% decrease in time).
I fricking love cyberpunk. And it’s so cool to see one of my favorite RUclips channels, with matpat in the video talk about it. And I think it’s very sad to see that there isn’t going to be a part two of edgerunners.
And on a sidenote. I hope that for cyberpunk 2 they put a hint at the fact that David could still be alive. And they just have to make the moon dlc happen.
nah he is all the way gone... he has just been like that since day 1 so there was no change in personality. since he was always crazy he cant exactly go more crazy... its hard to fill a cup thats already full. so instead of going insane it was just more of the same
Using Adam smasher from cyberpunk 2020, the ttrpg he actually has 0 humanity, so right off the bat, he was psyco like his humanity stat literally says "yeah right..."
I’m so glad Mat is finally covering the cyberpunk universe, it’s such a deep universe with so many mysteries to solve. I really hope this isn’t the only video on cyberpunk he makes ❤
Cyberpsychosis is also huge thing in the cyberpunk game. There's a huge sidequest (handed by Regina) where u basically catch/neutralise victims of cyberpsych, who were mostly good ppl but gone into mentally insane killers bc of their ware. But oddly no matter how much u max upgrade V's ware, she never gets to psychosis. Could argue maelstrom n Adam smasher also is only partially mad. Those who are fully psychos are basically wild animals, like Maine at the end and the wild psychos u neutralise in game
if you have noticed, maelstrom gang members are never alone so they have a community support where they cant go completely psycho. plus the maelstrom are complete psychopaths themselves. Razor Hughes has the money to deal with his implants, its only a matter of time before he goes psycho and he has the support mechanism of being rich and can afford the best care for him. Lizzy Wizzy is rich but ignored her support and fans, which made her withdrawn and she went cyberpsycho and killed her manager.
I have never played the game, but after watching the show, my reasoning for why different people experience cyberpsychosis at different amounts of modification is just the amount of information that a person's brain can actually process before getting overwhelmed. This would also explain why characters start getting stuck thinking about key or traumatic moments in their life like Main running in the desert and David taking a innocent life, both things that Mat conveniently forgot to mention.
Oh god I remember those quests, I wasn't paying attention at first and just killed the psychos for quick money, and then there was one by a pier where you had to track down the psycho, and I realised he had only lost it because some gang members had turned his daughter into their s*x sl*ve and I realised I should've been sparing those psychos and not killing them, because they were actual sadistic murderers but good people who went nuts because of the dystopia they lived in. I don't remember if sparing them actually changes anything about the end of the questline though
It's a mix of their chrome and mental. The biggest thing with that mission is that none of them went psycho until something really traumatic happened and V has the relic which is what stops them from going psycho and Adam is just a high functioning psycho
A little thing in regards to V They're Immune to Cyberpsychosis, thanks to the Relic They have Johnny's Psyche to help with the strain Essentially split the Cyberware load between 2 people, letting V safely Chrome out to an insane degree
You know an anime was truly something magnificent when once it's over, tears run down your face knowing it's over and you're left with this sense of longing for each and every character. I'm sad to see it go but it burned bright as f*ck when I got to experience it, I could feel the sun.
@@rokasciurinskas7890 nah the guy in charge of it(Pawel Sasko) said that when someone gets it he’ll let us know but that we get no hints whatsoever until someone does.
What makes this especially fun for me is that my husband is running a Cyberpunk Red game in which the rogue AI we've been running into is genuinely hijacking people's brains. Of course he'd already taken over the body of one of our party leaving him pretty much a hunk of metal so this is just another lovely notch on the rung of "yeah, this thing's gotta die"
Im one of the rare people who didnt get a buggy mess when I purchased cyberpunk and played it on my laptop. I genuinely enjoyed the game a lot. I had been waiting for it to release since the first trailer in 2014 and felt like, while it wasnt all it promised, it was really good in terms of defining a new genre and creating solid lore to build off of. I was avoiding edgerunners because I thought it'd be another bad show adaptation of a game. I was wrong, this show hit hard. I binged watched it all in one day, I was glued to the screen. If you havent watched it yet, I highly recommend it
I'm really happy you made a theory about one of my fav games and anime series. This is also a pretty convincing theory since I also found it odd how some characters can get cyberpsychosis but some don't. I would also like to add the idea of AI probably having a larger role and that is a line Johnny Silverhand says after you either tell the truth or lie to Peralez. The line is about Johnny saying how back then, people worried about rogue AI so there is a possibility that in later Cyberpunk games or maybe the Phantom Liberty DLC, the story or most of the side quests will be related to rogue artificial intelligence and maybe gigs from Mr. Blue Eyes.
I mean you can view it that way if you like, but this isn't even his theory YET AGAIN this has been around in the cyberpunk community since not long after the game was launched!
6:22 there's actually a reason for this, given by Mike Pondsmith, the creator of the cyberpunk tabletop RPG, and lead writer for the game and anime. In a discussion Q&A, someone asked specifically about V and how they're able to endure all the cybernetic enhancements they get throughout the game without a single sign of cyber psychosis while Maine and David eventually run out of tolerance and the immune suppressants wear off. TLDR Mike said that due to the events in the game where Johnny Silver-hand's (Keanu Reeves Character) consciousness was uploaded into V's mind, the Psychosis process had less of an effect because of Johnny's rage essentially acting as a digital buffer/fire wall between the implants and V's mind. Ontop of this, Johnny's consciousness was actively trying to take hold of V's body, so V was more occupied and focused on Johnny rather than the implants. If I can find a specific comment/Q&A session again I'll be sure to paste it here in an edit (if I don't forget) Edit: Found the post I was talking about www.reddit.com/r/LowSodiumCyberpunk/comments/xklzsx/why_doesnt_v_get_cyberpsychosis/? Okay so not exactly how I described it above, but pretty close. Edit 2: Just thought of this when re watching the video... it's funny that MatPat will beg Scott Cawthon to explain the tiniest details in the FNAF lore, but when it comes to to a fairly popular series or franchise with notes from the creator themselves available to the public, he doesn't notice. I'm making this edit on 4/22/2023 (happy belated 4/20 btw) and in the short time frame this video has been up, there have been multiple people in this comment section who essentially said the same things I did regarding the Q&A. Now I can't speak for everyone, but I only got into the world of cyberpunk around last November 2020 with the release of cyberpunk red, so I have some relative and transferable knowledge going into this video and by extension the edgerunners anime. I'm bringing that up because I knew relatively what to look for and to properly understand the concept of cyberpyschosis via fan wiki, source material, etc. To further clarify my point, Cyberpunk:Edgerunners came out in September 2022 and the Reddit Q&A came not long after, 9 months before the publishing/upload of this video. So in that time frame, with all the concrete evidence, lore, and terminology know how, this man and his writers are making theories to questions that not only have answers from the horses mouth but have been answered before this video was thought Really makes you think. But hey that's just a theory. A comment theory. Thanks for reading
My head canon was always that since he had essentially two consciousness’s inside his head it was working to share the burden of operating all of the cyberware but that explaination make a lot of sense
Came into the comments to see if anyone else mentioned this. The intro to this video is baffling, acting like 2077’s botched launch “destroyed” the Cyberpunk brand… the tabletop games are more popular than ever. Does he not know they exist? Might have been a good resource for, y’know, research purposes.
@@Zerphses Nah, he may be wrong about many of the details in this theory, but that was not one of them. Cyberpunk 2077 basically turned into a joke online, the show definitely changed that reputation.
@@KoolMonkE Thats debatable. Cyberpunk 2077 was first announced in May 2012 after CDPR had wrapped up the Witcher series, and with that came the investigation into Mike Pondsmith and his work on Cyberpunk 2020 and the various amount of lore he had worked on in universe since 1990 that was going to be translated in game.
To me the reason V doesn't get Cyberpsychosis (beside gameplay reasons) is the Relic, the Relic is replacing V's mind slowly, so it would make sense that it would affect a half AI person or even if it did, the Relic would just heal that part of your brain, you can actually die a second time in the Voodo Boys questline because of a virus and still come back
@@cleverman383or you wake up at Vick’s Some games have that, like in Bioshock, but you can argue that even the Relic has limitations on how much it can heal you, remember that at the beginning of act 2 you are still dying when Takemura finds you, so it isn’t and infinite respawn, it mainly fixes brain damage because it’s rewriting it
I have to point out that the reason V can't suffer Cyberpsychosis is that the Humanity mechanic they were planning was removed for the sake of a cohesive gameplay and story experience.
It also kinda fits with the plot though. So while it was removed it doesnt feel like a world breakingn reason. Like you have 2 souls in the body so the presence of tech kinnda doesn't outweigh the humanity.
@@raldrid8264 I think it was added somewhat added in 2.0, or at least the expansion. I haven't gone that far with it, but it's with the limit you now see on the side of the cyberware screen, and I know that once you get close you'll start with some symptoms like hearing voices
You did miss a couple things: Certain cyberware is more refined and less likely to cause cyberpsychosis, even if a lot of it is installed Adam Smasher is a cyberpsycho and so are MaxTac, but they get therapy braindances that can help manage it Even after becoming a cyberpsycho it can be a slow descent and can be managed in mild cases V can manage because of the engram I'm not saying the corps aren't causing it intentionally sometimes, but there are reasons for the seeming discrepancies.
Smasher was already a psycho before a rocket turned him into a meat pillow, getting borged just let him keep killing. He was never attached to his body.
@@blunderingfool yeah, that's the point I was going to make. Long before he was cyber, Adam was a garden-variety meatspace Psychopath. He spent his whole life successfully living that way, so of course going full-conversion 'borg didn't do anything but make him better at being what he already was.
Mike Pondsmith kind of already confirmed that Cyberpsychosis is more closely related to mental illness and stress rather than how much "chrome" you got, kind of like how a person can have a mental breakdown irl. MaxTac can manage cyberpsychosis since they erase the "bad memories" while V can manage it since Johnny is basically there for him all the time (not that he really has a choice)
@@Kaxology _Technically_ a psychosis is some kind of persistent break with reality. If Johnny's in your head through your cyverware, and he's not really physically there, wouldn't that make him technically a form of psychosis caused by cyberware? AKA ... a cyber psychosis. Oh no! you've been psycho all along!
@@Kaxology yes, in the cyberpunk red (core rulebook pg.230) cyberpsychosis is defined as basically a form of dissociative disorder, and it's mentioned (core rulebook pg.109) that you could also lose Humanity in particularly horrific events or situations. Couldn't find that rule in CP2020, but in that book (cp2020 core book pg.73) it's said that many cyberpsychos exhibit more subtle symptoms, like kleptomania, violent mood swings, compulsive lying or split personality.
It is said that V was only able to handle so much because he shared his consciousness with Mr Keanu Reeves. Adam Smasher was already practically not even human before he was made practically a robot.
I wish you hadn't referenced the song "I really want to stay at your house." Edgerunners hurt but the moments it used that song hurt the most. And music has this way of attaching itself to memories in a way that's almost like a super glue.
I played cyberpunk since release on ps4. Sold that, then rebought it quickly after once I got a next Gen console. Loved it to bits. There's a running theory that the dude that brought down the original internet in the lore transfered his consciousness to the new net. Making him an AI so in reality he could be playing like 5D Chess in the whole scheme of things because his goal was to bring everything down around in game. Bartmoss was his name
I mean, Bartmoss is probably still in the old net, all the infrastructure still exists. The "new net" is just a ton of LAN networks that are airgapped from each other.
The tabletop has a mechanic for this, its called empathy. You loose it for cyber mods or trauma that happens to your character but you can also get it back by.... get this... LITERALLY GOING TO THERAPY
Someone probably said it in here already. But the reason V doesn't go cyberpsycho from all their implants is actually partly because of Johnny, the second mind ends up taking some of the stress off V's.
It's not only that it depends on a characters humanity/empathy, a stat in the ttrpg that determines how much implants you can have before you break. Hit 0 and your a cyberspyco.
@user-wy5rs2zj6u that's fine it doesn't contradict my statement about how cyberpsycosis works in lore and the table top rpg especially since there is a good chance Johnny himself was cybercyco or at least very close to it.
@@zkapsh oh no he was most definetly cyberpsyco, i forgot if it was in game or if it was in another lore material, basically he acts like he’s in a conversation with his hand
@user-wy5rs2zj6u for me that alone isn't enough to say cyberpsycosis, because cyberpsycosis is a dissociative disorder and hallucinations really isn't a symptom of dissociative disorders. Other actions he's seen taking shows sign of cyberpsycosis. I would argue just boiling it all down to Johnny Taking the brunt of it weakens the impact of cyberpsycosis narrative wise. And a video game excuse to get around a mechanic from the ttrpg.
I had a theory of my own when I was playing the game, I thought maybe Cyberpsychosis was just their way of covering up every other mental illness, like Regina's quest said, whenever you find a psycho they have some kind of tragic past, like drug addiction or ptsd.
Cyberpunk is legitimately not bad anymore, they even added a bunch of edgerunners references like being able to get David's jacket and Rebecca's shotgun
The bugs aren't even there. I've been playing since 2020 and only started encountering bugs on my 4th playthrough. Unlike Skyrim, which was held in such a high regard, but has game breaking bugs in every corner and doesn't get updated for free
a theory I had is that maybe kiwi wasn't as great of a net runner as we thouught. In the game we are told that the ice tubs are for novice net runners that can't control their body temperatures yet, which is why V has to enter one whenever she needs to do her thing. We can see people like the voodoo boys as well as Nix not need it.
this entire video straight up designed to make me cry, thanks MatPat, it's also worth mentioning that there is an entire questline that focuses on the fact that cyberpsychosis isn't a real thing. ~
@@kitnal4143 because the whole point of the quest is Regina wants to prove (and it gets proven) that pretty much all of these "cyber psychos" are just people that have been manipulated into having a rough time due to the world being shitty. it becomes readily apparent that cyberpsychosis just isn't real. ~
@Haruko Hoshiko idk, I firmly believe that it is real simply due to the TTRPG mechanic not making any sense otherwise and as something that happened first it should take the lead. I do believe that the psychosis can be induced due to struggles though?
Studio Trigger is amazing with their art direction! i'd also love to see you guys cover their movie, Promare! i feel like there's probably some theory fodder in there somewhere - and the visuals are absolutely stunning.
Sadly as much as I enjoy this theory there are actual reasons why certain characters are less affected such as the entirety of Maelstrom as well as maxtak and why atom smasher is completely unaffected and it is quite simply because they are already psychopaths and it's actually stated that they all are affected by cyberpsychosis all the time they can just ignore it's thanks to their level of empathy already being 0
And likewise, David's resistance to Cyberpsychosis is implied to be more because of his good upbringing than because of software. It's not until he starts really getting into the mercenary life that he really starts to suffer from cyberpsychosis, and it doesn't really become a problem until until he pushes his augmentations beyond reasonable limits.
@@laserwolff6640 Basically. V is pretty much already Cyberpsycho because of Johnny. Also, its a video game and being told you can't get all the cool Cyberware just wouldn't be fun.
I always assumed that V having Silverhand their mind automatically classified them as a cyber-psycho so all of the crazy augments you add throughout the game don't affect you because of it. a natural immunity of sorts
I wasn't surprised that I was only scratching the surface. It seems that even Arasaka is getting played too but they know about it too. I remember crossed paths with this Entity towards the end of the Jefferson Side Quest and I wonder if it got its fingers in some Nomadic Clans too. In my Edgerunners fanfiction, my OC is hesitant in getting Cyberwear because he's scared of Cyberpsychosis. However, he's David and his Mom's Neighbour and is a Corpo Employee until he's made redundant and joins David in becoming an Edgerunner.
If you want more cyberpunk lore, you should check the ttrp books (cyberpunk 2020 and cyberpunk red) In the ttrpg, the amount of cyberware you need to become a psycho depends on your empathy so maybe david just really has an high empathy
Edgerunner singlehandedly saved the game or even the company, this anime is truly something special and it's forever gonna stay in a place at my heart ❤️
It didn't save the company. CDPR is the same company that made the Witcher games. That trilogy earned the studio enough good will and staying power that the rough launch of Cyberpunk was nothing more than a bump in the road for them.
There was enthusiasm from many who wanted to play 2077 despite the bad launch, as the patches were released. Edgerunners captured the attention of those who've never heard of the tabletop game/video game.
I highly recommend the cyberpunk ttrpg, it's so much fun and pretty easy to pick up the mechanics I really appreciate how the series had quite alot of elements of the ttrpg
The reason I think that David gets Cyberpsychosis and V doesn’t get is because there may be a link between cyberpsychosis and trauma. David goes psycho is because he loses his mother, Maine a few other close members of the Edgerunners crew and is eventually pulled over the edge when he finds out Lucy is gone. We don’t know much about V’s backstory but no matter what life path we take, we still don’t go psycho. This could be just a gameplay thing or that Johnny might be acting as a buffer and holding her mental state together. Edgerunners is a prequel to 2077 (by a year but still) so there could be more development in research. Adam Smasher is actually a cyberpsycho but is said to be a “high functioning” cyberpsycho due to his personality before using cyberware. This is confirmed by the creator of Cyberpunk 2077.
The reason is because of the Relic. It is constantly re-structuring and re-building his brain; it’s basically confirmed via in-game lore. Smasher is just legit “built different” which is why he’s so legendary.
Good guess. Both! Not only V is sharing load with Johnny, but mental state is important too. Incredibly important. Because cyberpsychosis is just a brand people slap on everyone, despite real cause being mental illnesses.
In the quest line where you find out about the mind alternating... johny silverhand actually says in game that he thinks an rouge Ai could be behind this.
Good video with some things I like to add, V technically has two minds in the game, one of johnny silver hand and himself. So that could affect V's ability to take on a large amount of implants without it heavily affecting his mind. Another thing is how cyberpsychosis is treated, basically using the 2020 Rules talking about cyberpsychosis, you can go to Therapy to be treated but it isn't exactly like talking to a therapists. The book states that "Probes deactivate your cybersystems one by one,while the shrink jacks your rabid psyche into the braindance. Then begins the long, arduous process of disassembling your brain and reconstructing it in a more socially acceptable form." So this could support of an AI because if they basically dissasemble it and reassemble your brain than that could be them working against the AI taking over your brain switching around what the AI has already switch. However it could be against it with the idea that its a genuine mental illness that your brain has requiring someone to fix your brain because your brain is recieving signals wrong due to the cyberwear glitching out your mind. Just something I wanted to add and to think about however I enjoyed this video. I was suprised you didn't use any example from the actual original concept but its understandable you want to use stuff from exclusively the show and game due to them being around the same time frame however I feel like you should've used the actual TTRPG
This was the single biggest thumbnail to suspected content enjoyment neuron firing i've ever experienced, my favorite content creator talking about my favorite show.
This is why looking into the core books helps. There is plenty of more info in many of the core TTRPG and supplimental materials that will give you a better idea of what this is really like as far as the AIs go.
I wonder if he read the source books for 2020? Tattoos can cause cyberphycosis, behavior software can make people act exactly how you want, and eye implants can make them any color you want, along with glowing tattoos Edit: the souce books also say that cyberphycosis isnt just people being violent and not caring about loved ones, it also says that people can become very paranoid and obcessive, hide away from everyone in the outskirts of the cities, or hoard tecnology
Who else was just waiting for this video to come out. But it's far from over. We need more. Do "is David really dead?". We need this video. DO IT MATPAT, MILK CYBERPUNK CONTENT LIKE IT MILKED OUR EMOTIONS OUT OF US!
@@jesusblanco7657 I don't believe that. Plus if anyone can find clues as to why and how he's still alive it's matpat. Also its not a dumb theory theres lots of clues indicating he's alive
Has anyone thought that Adam Smasher is a construct loaded into himself, thus his consciousness is code and avoiding the cyberphycosis. Soulkiller Modified by Arosoka, well before either series with Alt severing herself Example: Pulling the Deamon hack out of himself...
I think the only reason why he isn't a cyber psycho is because he's barely human. He's literally only a brain and that's it. So basically I think he's just too far gone. Also not to mention Adam smasher himself already has the mentality of a cyber psycho. Idk tho. Tbh I believe your theory too and tbh it would actually make a lot of sense
“None leave the slaughter house! Not alive!” “Who are you to challenge me?! You think your special because your scrappy? Don't make me laugh!” “You’re all the same meat to me.” Also jumps out of a like 400 feet tall building like nothing
Played it at launch, watched the anime in one sitting and excitedly waiting for whatever comes next. Edit: Uh huh. Never noticed the AI part of the story even with 200 hours in. Now let's see whether they go further with this.
I can’t shake the feeling my “Cyberpsychosis Is NOT Real” video was a big inspiration for this. You’ve done a great job tying in the game w the anime, though corporate mind control isn’t the only possibility. I’ve also discussed how 1) cyberware itself could have the will to survive, thus throwing someone in a bloody rage to defend itself 2) The products are designed to fail, forcing people to continuously upgrade to avoid product failure (going psycho) 3) Cyberpsychosis is a lie. It’s plausible that the term was invented to draw attention away from the system and those at the top and instead making people think “wow, that person is crazy. I’d never go that far,” when in reality the horrible circumstances of night city push some people to insanity.
Bro when I first watched this, I was hooked asf bro. the art style, the character development, and the music was so touching. I love the fighting scenes and stuff. But when the last episode rolled around it broke me emotionally, physically, and mentally :( Overall 100/10
David saying “I’m built different”, and having it be an actually cool line was the best thing to come out of this show.
It's also an actual early indicator of vulnerability to cyberpsychosis.
meh
bill dipperly
It was always a cool line, the internet simply memed it to death.
When he said “I’m built different time” I felt that 😩
*Fun Fact:*
_In the original Cyberpunk TTRPG, the Cyberpsychosis mechanic was going to be corporations taking ownership/control of your body after you replaced a majority of it with their tech. It was changed to "you go crazy" because the publishers thought the message was too anti-corporate._
EDIT: For context, the original TTRPG came out right at the end of the cold war (in the 80s) so the publishers likely feared something so obviously anti-corporate would be seen as communist propaganda.
Sounds like the game Syndicate.
That would have been better and made much, much more sense.
What if the corpo taking over your body-thing is what actually happens within the universe, but only the “highest ups” know of it, so people dub it “going crazy?”
That's such a cool concept though. Freaking Corpos.
Repent to Jesus Christ “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;”
Psalms 24:1 NIV
R
Actually, V and Adam are both cyberpsychos. V's is just negated by having 2 minds to split the load with because of Johnny and Adam is explicitly a high-functioning cyberpsycho
Psychopathy is the reason for Adam. His mind is already wrought with those ideas caused by cyberpsychosis that drive a normal person insane, while those who are already psychopaths aren't effected the same because they're already wired to have those emotions and disconnects.
The Relic was also working for V’s mind.
Both V’s resilience and Johnny’s mind + The Relic = makes him the perfect pseudo-cyberpsycho.
No V it’s just built different with help from journey
The Relic is designed to keep your psyche intact, protecting against even traumatic events such as cyberpychosis and death
@@DanskerneFraDanmarkno
Fun fact: cyberpunk initially started as a table top rpg, among the ranks of DnD. Cyberpsychosis in the ttrpg can be caught in the game, where if you get it you have to turn in your sheet to the game master, and the game master control your character. They can do anything, from murder, self-termination, or anything else the gm wants your character to do against their will.
Yup, the whole game was built on Cyberpunk Red.
@@titan1umtitan The original 2nd Edition of the TTRPG, also known as Cyberpunk 2020, akshually. At least that is what is titled as the sourcebook, according to the game files. Cyberpunk RED is just the newest edition of it.
@@thenewbie8924 that’s true, but when anyone makes any connections to it, they use red as the lorebase
Is the cyberpunk ttrpg good? I've played a lot of DnD and have recently begun expanding outwards and would love a cyberpunk ttrpg.
@@robertyocum7200 Though I have tried discussing it with my own group, they haven't been open to the idea of playing the game, so I can't say anything concrete.
What I can say, after checking out both 2023 and RED, that there is lots of cool stuff in there. Especially the way the books are written is just fun, as it really feels like this isn't just the rules and information laid out, but that they are told to you by someone who lives in the Cyberpunk universe.
Hope this advice helps.
7:08 There is a theory that the reason Adam Smasher seems so unchanged from his former self after his rebuild, is that he was already a deranged psychopath and enjoyed mindless violence. I mean, he literally stipulates in his contract with Arasaka, that he will only take missions from them where heavy civilian casualties are expected. Now, doesn't that sound Cyberpsycho to you?
Well to be fair that's just the facts. Cyberpsychosis is an umbrella term so it can really mean a lot of things. Adam Smasher is considered a cyberpsycho simply because he was already a psycho then got a full borg conversion cause he got blown up.
I mean, its no theory, i suggest you dive more into his backstory, Smasher is the Cyber-Boogeyman
Mike Pondsmith actually went over this, he explained that everyone has a different tolerance to cyberpsychosis depending on multiple factors, one of them being empathy towards others.
Adam is such a sociopathic deranged maniac that he basically has negative empathy.
If you think of it like a glass, where everyone has a different sized glass, and every time you get chromed up, some water goes into the glass, until it fill up and you go psycho, Adam's glass is upside down. No matter how much water you pour in there, it will never fill, because there is nowhere for the water to actually go into.
That's why he is able to get as many implants as he wishes, and he'll always be in control (And has).
High-functioning cyberpsychotic? Perhaps, but the fact Adam Smasher genuinely enjoys and is energized by atrocities that would mentally break other villains makes him truly dangerous.
Adam smasher will only take jobs that will include a collateral damage to add onto this. Bro wants there to be as much potential destruction and possibly death as possible
Ironically, if 2077 game wasn’t an epic fail at the start you won’t see how many ppl actually give the game a second chance just because of this anime. Absolutely a miracle.
why do you think they made an anime of a game that failed horribly... they made it to revive the franchise
@@leoneyamada5408 it was in the works before the botch of Cyberpunk 2077
@@leoneyamada5408sorry buddy.. but the anime was in talks before the game release.
@@fades9105it's a minor coincidence really
@@leoneyamada5408 they also spent 100 million dollars making the new free 2.0 version and a 20hr DLC
6:10 Lore wise, the reason V doesn’t go cyberpsycho is because of the Relic in her head. Johnny Silverhand bears the mental weight of any implants. This has been confirmed by the series creator
I’m so glad someone said it
plus johnny is already a cyberpsycho canonically. in the TTRPG he talks to his arm and his arm talks to him.
You can get fairly heavily modified before you ever get Johnny in your head
I had mantis blades and camo skin before going on the heist because I did all the side-missions in Watson first
Well, it proves or disproves nothing. It's too general. It might be that Johnny acts _like a firewall_ for any such control attempts.
@@libertylemonz7145 still, canonically, Johnny bears the weight of any and all implants
So it was confirmed that V is practically immune to cyberpsychosis due to the relic chip in their head that houses Johnny, with Johnny helping take off the mental load and helping keep V grounded. Adam Smasher is suggested to have already have a level of psychosis/psychopathy long before he became so heavily modded, he loves violence innately so he didn't suffer a loss of self identity like most due with cyberpsychosis, he is even mentioned to maintain a high level of control and able to hold professional relationships and his missions are his chance to unwind his stress. A part of the cyberpsychosis lore is that people can be conditioned to be more heavily modded, such as having mods installed over a long period of time and mental conditioning. Maine was ex military and he had most of his cyberware added over the course of his career, he was built from the ground up over a long time and likely had special mental training to help him handle the load. Its mentioned therapy and downgrading cyberware even helps alleviate symptoms.
That and probably the fact that the game takes place over the course of like 2 weeks depending on how you play, so he didn’t have time to go cyberpsycho
Wait a minute, if that’s true, doesn’t that mean that V could go Cyberpsycho in a future dlc? The chip is removed after all
The devs for the dlc did mention they were thinking about people having too many implants and how to limit that but tjey probably wont add onto that cause gameplay reasons
Apparently people who get mechanical hearts sometimes have a problem feeling emotions because so much of our feelings are felt throughout our body. So replacing too many body parts makes it easier for you to dissociate from your bodymind (because there's not as much separation as people think), and the software replaces that felt sense (basically your intuition and basic nature and connection with the world).
Peter Levine's writing on somatic experiencing is where I'm getting a lot of these concepts. It's an actual thing but it's a relatively new concept.
That make little to no sense. Emotion comes from the mind.
@@lienomzekon4763 the mind isnt an isolated organ, its connected to everything else, YOU are not just your mind but rather your ENTIRE body.
@@TheProtoMachine After doing some research I see what you mean.
Yes, the more we learn, the Literal Heart is MUCH more than a simple pump. Our bodies are wholistic structures, not isolated parts. Remove one part & the entire structure suffers to some degree.
@@lienomzekon4763 The human gut and heart contain their own networks of neurons that allow them to process information independently of the brain.
The enteric nervous system in the gut contains around 500 million neurons. This is about as many neurons as are found in the brain of a cat, small dog, or 2 year old human.
Meanwhile, the cardiac nervous system in the heart contains approximately 40,000 neurons. This number is comparable to the amount of neurons found in a lizard brain.
So while we often think of the brain as the seat of intelligence, our other organs have their own "mini-brains" with neuron counts rivaling the brains of other mammals and young children. These mini-brains handle local information processing and influence our physiology and emotions independently of the main brain.
Cyberpunk Edgerunners was one of the best short animes of all time. It had everything and the end message of one's dreams towards a walking death city highlighted the Edgerunners crew
Cyberpunk isn't just an anime
These are the bots you're looking for :
👊🤡👊👊🤡👊💥
@@johngarcia4139 but the theory is about the anime
I didnt expect much from a 10 episode cyberpunk anime and I love it so much
Best of all time is a stretch but it is still pretty good.
The worst part about this show is the post-depression that you develop after watching. This show made me cry. Such an amazing anime, the idea of how they told such a tragic and happy story in just a 10 episode show is god tier. They definitely have done the best of the best with it.
A bot reposted this comment sadly
If you getting depression bro go see a therapist
Wimp
I'll assume you haven't watched End of Evangelion.
Im just like you, i feel very bad knoeing that the story finished that quickly.
We can't forget the Words of Mike Pondsmith (the creator of Cyberpunk) He says that it is also based on your Mental Stability. David started with a stable environment, but then it all crashed down. Making his psychosis worse
How much influence does Pondsmith have over the writing at CDPR? Just because Pondsmith has theories based on how it works in his own lore, doesn't mean that that's how it works in CDPR's version of the lore.
@@cleverman383 CDPR part of the lore is well connected to the rest of the franchise. It might eventually be split but as of now its in the same boat.
If I'm not mistake he even voices the conspiracy guy on radio who's theories are basically more nonsensical recap of the books.
@@cleverman383 Pondsmith confirmed that they're part of the same timeline on his reddit account.
There was one detail I learned some time ago after I watched Edgerunners that felt very thematic. Cyberpsychosis is stated to have a stronger effect on people who have a weakened mental state than a healthy one, love is the literal natural medicine for cyberpsychosis but not a permanent cure. We saw how Main’s relationship went when he went psycho and how long David lasted in that giant death machine to rescue Lucy. My only hypothesis for why other people who are classified as cyber psychos is because they’ve been detached from all emotional connections and fully embraced the corruption which made them easier to control.
You’re correct and that was confirmed by Mike pond smith. If you have good relationships and good things in your life, your baby better able to resist it.
@@Halauris it's also proven by the series too where David's relationship with the gang were among the best days of his life, bonding with everyone and even taking injection/booster shots with Main. Which is why his death and the other two members, his girl and Rebecca's brother, both traumatized him so he only had Lucy as his strongest relationship.
Cyber-implants themselves aren’t what causes cyberpsychosis, but the stress of life in Night City mixed in with it. And Night City is absolutely loaded with things that can stress the mind.
@crimson-foxtwitch2581 its also a part of the brain recognizing "this isn't mine its not me" thus creating the disillusionment. Why we see Main as his young self first in the salt bed running then the constant return to the salt flats for him cause that's when he last remembers being mostly human
@@Russianforrest97 That gets mixed in as well, the whole dissociative element to cyberware.
What I learned about cyberpunk dystopias is that learning how to install and maintain neon lighting fixtures is going to be a permanently in demand job
One thing he forgot to mention about the Maxtech agent who was featured in that trailer - specifically what made her go cyberpsycho was her mantis blades. Those blades were taken off market because installing them (and presumably their software) made people exceptionally prone to cyberpsychosis. So more than just the amount of cyberware, certain faulty software can instantly make someone go cyberpsycho. We know it's the software here, too, because she still has the arms installed. Presumably, it was just the software cleaned out that helped her to function again
I love how Edgerunners managed to appeal to players by the authentic representation of the in-game universe and to everyone by writing great characters. Looking for important places from the show in the game was really fun
Edgerunners was what made me give 2077 a chance. I ended up sinking 81 hours into it. It’s one of my all-time favorites now.
It's way more fun with mods. If you've beaten it already, then retry the game with mods. Some of my favorites were increased slots which gave you a second OS so you could hack minds and machines while also slowing down time. Also another mod that lets you control how long and how slow the slow down ability lasted (1 second to 60 seconds), (1% decrease to 99% decrease in time).
@@gamefinders4133 Unfortunately, I played it on the PS5. If I had played it on PC, I definitely would have been playing around with mods.
@@TheSamathan The coolest thing about PS5, you can actually play Cyberpunk with mods on the PS5. But, I will warn you, not all work so be aware.
@@gamefinders4133 I thought that only the PS4?
Literally, sadly I can't use mods cause console limitations 😖
I fricking love cyberpunk. And it’s so cool to see one of my favorite RUclips channels, with matpat in the video talk about it. And I think it’s very sad to see that there isn’t going to be a part two of edgerunners.
And on a sidenote. I hope that for cyberpunk 2 they put a hint at the fact that David could still be alive.
And they just have to make the moon dlc happen.
Im so glad Matpat decided to make a theory on this show. I recently rewatched it and its just too good.
To me, adam smasher was so special because he went so down into insanity that he came out of the other side sane (or close to it).
nah he is all the way gone... he has just been like that since day 1 so there was no change in personality. since he was always crazy he cant exactly go more crazy... its hard to fill a cup thats already full. so instead of going insane it was just more of the same
Using Adam smasher from cyberpunk 2020, the ttrpg he actually has 0 humanity, so right off the bat, he was psyco like his humanity stat literally says "yeah right..."
I’m so glad Mat is finally covering the cyberpunk universe, it’s such a deep universe with so many mysteries to solve. I really hope this isn’t the only video on cyberpunk he makes ❤
oh buddy, don't I have something to tell you.
@@DCDPS 😭😭😭
MatPat may not be pregnant, but he never fails to deliver
this is gold
I just saw this comment on a Meatcanyon video
So corny
Except.... There is certainly a chance
Ayoo
Cyberpsychosis is also huge thing in the cyberpunk game. There's a huge sidequest (handed by Regina) where u basically catch/neutralise victims of cyberpsych, who were mostly good ppl but gone into mentally insane killers bc of their ware. But oddly no matter how much u max upgrade V's ware, she never gets to psychosis. Could argue maelstrom n Adam smasher also is only partially mad.
Those who are fully psychos are basically wild animals, like Maine at the end and the wild psychos u neutralise in game
if you have noticed, maelstrom gang members are never alone so they have a community support where they cant go completely psycho. plus the maelstrom are complete psychopaths themselves. Razor Hughes has the money to deal with his implants, its only a matter of time before he goes psycho and he has the support mechanism of being rich and can afford the best care for him. Lizzy Wizzy is rich but ignored her support and fans, which made her withdrawn and she went cyberpsycho and killed her manager.
I have never played the game, but after watching the show, my reasoning for why different people experience cyberpsychosis at different amounts of modification is just the amount of information that a person's brain can actually process before getting overwhelmed. This would also explain why characters start getting stuck thinking about key or traumatic moments in their life like Main running in the desert and David taking a innocent life, both things that Mat conveniently forgot to mention.
Oh god I remember those quests, I wasn't paying attention at first and just killed the psychos for quick money, and then there was one by a pier where you had to track down the psycho, and I realised he had only lost it because some gang members had turned his daughter into their s*x sl*ve and I realised I should've been sparing those psychos and not killing them, because they were actual sadistic murderers but good people who went nuts because of the dystopia they lived in.
I don't remember if sparing them actually changes anything about the end of the questline though
It's a mix of their chrome and mental. The biggest thing with that mission is that none of them went psycho until something really traumatic happened and V has the relic which is what stops them from going psycho and Adam is just a high functioning psycho
V can now suffer from Cyberpsychosis in the game.
*"I'm built different"*
- David Martinez, 207X
A little thing in regards to V
They're Immune to Cyberpsychosis, thanks to the Relic
They have Johnny's Psyche to help with the strain
Essentially split the Cyberware load between 2 people, letting V safely Chrome out to an insane degree
Or their brain is already so scrambled that cyberpsychosis is little more than a itch to the massive problem of a hostile takeover by another person.
You know an anime was truly something magnificent when once it's over, tears run down your face knowing it's over and you're left with this sense of longing for each and every character. I'm sad to see it go but it burned bright as f*ck when I got to experience it, I could feel the sun.
Miss Pat~ :( Hearing his voice made me happy thought he came back but then realized this was a year ago. Matt Patt WE SALUTE YOU!
Ok now Mat has to get involved in the Cyberpunk FF-06-B5 mystery that no one has managed to figure out.
They have just nobody knows if they were right
@@rokasciurinskas7890 nah the guy in charge of it(Pawel Sasko) said that when someone gets it he’ll let us know but that we get no hints whatsoever until someone does.
@@Gunn3r71 isn't the arg just in pause?
Missing texture meme
Heard it was a "studio joke" that was put into the game. Dont know much about it tho
Thing about V, is that he have two mind operating in him, so Johnny takes most of load of cyberware.
That and V knows they're dying anyways, so there's little need to worry about long term effects
6:30 you did NOT just call maelstrom friendly 💀
Some maelstrom guys can be friendly like dum dum and brick
So glad FT are tackling an Edgerunners theory, this show was insane and beloved by so many :)
I'm honestly surprised Matpat hasn't done any Murder Drones stuff yet. Each episode has so much Lore, and new questions every episode
because it has the "m word" in its title, the algorithm would punish the videos
What makes this especially fun for me is that my husband is running a Cyberpunk Red game in which the rogue AI we've been running into is genuinely hijacking people's brains. Of course he'd already taken over the body of one of our party leaving him pretty much a hunk of metal so this is just another lovely notch on the rung of "yeah, this thing's gotta die"
So glad you made a video on this show. One of the best pieces of animated media I’ve ever seen
Im one of the rare people who didnt get a buggy mess when I purchased cyberpunk and played it on my laptop. I genuinely enjoyed the game a lot. I had been waiting for it to release since the first trailer in 2014 and felt like, while it wasnt all it promised, it was really good in terms of defining a new genre and creating solid lore to build off of.
I was avoiding edgerunners because I thought it'd be another bad show adaptation of a game. I was wrong, this show hit hard. I binged watched it all in one day, I was glued to the screen. If you havent watched it yet, I highly recommend it
I'm really happy you made a theory about one of my fav games and anime series. This is also a pretty convincing theory since I also found it odd how some characters can get cyberpsychosis but some don't. I would also like to add the idea of AI probably having a larger role and that is a line Johnny Silverhand says after you either tell the truth or lie to Peralez. The line is about Johnny saying how back then, people worried about rogue AI so there is a possibility that in later Cyberpunk games or maybe the Phantom Liberty DLC, the story or most of the side quests will be related to rogue artificial intelligence and maybe gigs from Mr. Blue Eyes.
I’m honestly impressed by MatPat’s dedication: Multiple channels and a live channel and yet he still manages to regularly make good content for us!
and me unable to pay attention long enough to get through a single playthrough of minecraft :\
He's got a great team working with him
*Not* live channel, hopefully he does post more live content later on. I think he’ll do it eventually, right?
I mean you can view it that way if you like, but this isn't even his theory YET AGAIN this has been around in the cyberpunk community since not long after the game was launched!
@@darkmatter411 good point, I forgot about those original ones
6:22 there's actually a reason for this, given by Mike Pondsmith, the creator of the cyberpunk tabletop RPG, and lead writer for the game and anime.
In a discussion Q&A, someone asked specifically about V and how they're able to endure all the cybernetic enhancements they get throughout the game without a single sign of cyber psychosis while Maine and David eventually run out of tolerance and the immune suppressants wear off.
TLDR Mike said that due to the events in the game where Johnny Silver-hand's (Keanu Reeves Character) consciousness was uploaded into V's mind, the Psychosis process had less of an effect because of Johnny's rage essentially acting as a digital buffer/fire wall between the implants and V's mind. Ontop of this, Johnny's consciousness was actively trying to take hold of V's body, so V was more occupied and focused on Johnny rather than the implants.
If I can find a specific comment/Q&A session again I'll be sure to paste it here in an edit (if I don't forget)
Edit:
Found the post I was talking about
www.reddit.com/r/LowSodiumCyberpunk/comments/xklzsx/why_doesnt_v_get_cyberpsychosis/?
Okay so not exactly how I described it above, but pretty close.
Edit 2:
Just thought of this when re watching the video... it's funny that MatPat will beg Scott Cawthon to explain the tiniest details in the FNAF lore, but when it comes to to a fairly popular series or franchise with notes from the creator themselves available to the public, he doesn't notice. I'm making this edit on 4/22/2023 (happy belated 4/20 btw) and in the short time frame this video has been up, there have been multiple people in this comment section who essentially said the same things I did regarding the Q&A. Now I can't speak for everyone, but I only got into the world of cyberpunk around last November 2020 with the release of cyberpunk red, so I have some relative and transferable knowledge going into this video and by extension the edgerunners anime. I'm bringing that up because I knew relatively what to look for and to properly understand the concept of cyberpyschosis via fan wiki, source material, etc. To further clarify my point, Cyberpunk:Edgerunners came out in September 2022 and the Reddit Q&A came not long after, 9 months before the publishing/upload of this video.
So in that time frame, with all the concrete evidence, lore, and terminology know how, this man and his writers are making theories to questions that not only have answers from the horses mouth but have been answered before this video was thought
Really makes you think.
But hey that's just a theory. A comment theory. Thanks for reading
My head canon was always that since he had essentially two consciousness’s inside his head it was working to share the burden of operating all of the cyberware but that explaination make a lot of sense
Came into the comments to see if anyone else mentioned this. The intro to this video is baffling, acting like 2077’s botched launch “destroyed” the Cyberpunk brand… the tabletop games are more popular than ever. Does he not know they exist? Might have been a good resource for, y’know, research purposes.
@@Zerphses Nah, he may be wrong about many of the details in this theory, but that was not one of them. Cyberpunk 2077 basically turned into a joke online, the show definitely changed that reputation.
@@Zerphses exactly my reasoning for making this comment in the first place. The Wiki and books kinda outline his "Theory" in plain English
@@KoolMonkE Thats debatable. Cyberpunk 2077 was first announced in May 2012 after CDPR had wrapped up the Witcher series, and with that came the investigation into Mike Pondsmith and his work on Cyberpunk 2020 and the various amount of lore he had worked on in universe since 1990 that was going to be translated in game.
To me the reason V doesn't get Cyberpsychosis (beside gameplay reasons) is the Relic, the Relic is replacing V's mind slowly, so it would make sense that it would affect a half AI person or even if it did, the Relic would just heal that part of your brain, you can actually die a second time in the Voodo Boys questline because of a virus and still come back
imagine if you didn't get a game over when you died, and instead you just woke up in a dumpster or a morgue
@@cleverman383or you wake up at Vick’s
Some games have that, like in Bioshock, but you can argue that even the Relic has limitations on how much it can heal you, remember that at the beginning of act 2 you are still dying when Takemura finds you, so it isn’t and infinite respawn, it mainly fixes brain damage because it’s rewriting it
One of the endings for Cyberpunk 2077 was that Arasaka finally managed to transfer consciousness to another body whether that body was given or taken.
4:06
He's built different guys
if he was actually a TTG character it's because of a high starting Humanity, lets you take more augmentations later down the line
I have to point out that the reason V can't suffer Cyberpsychosis is that the Humanity mechanic they were planning was removed for the sake of a cohesive gameplay and story experience.
It also kinda fits with the plot though. So while it was removed it doesnt feel like a world breakingn reason. Like you have 2 souls in the body so the presence of tech kinnda doesn't outweigh the humanity.
@@raldrid8264 I think it was added somewhat added in 2.0, or at least the expansion. I haven't gone that far with it, but it's with the limit you now see on the side of the cyberware screen, and I know that once you get close you'll start with some symptoms like hearing voices
You did miss a couple things:
Certain cyberware is more refined and less likely to cause cyberpsychosis, even if a lot of it is installed
Adam Smasher is a cyberpsycho and so are MaxTac, but they get therapy braindances that can help manage it
Even after becoming a cyberpsycho it can be a slow descent and can be managed in mild cases
V can manage because of the engram
I'm not saying the corps aren't causing it intentionally sometimes, but there are reasons for the seeming discrepancies.
Smasher was already a psycho before a rocket turned him into a meat pillow, getting borged just let him keep killing. He was never attached to his body.
@@blunderingfool yeah, that's the point I was going to make. Long before he was cyber, Adam was a garden-variety meatspace Psychopath. He spent his whole life successfully living that way, so of course going full-conversion 'borg didn't do anything but make him better at being what he already was.
Mike Pondsmith kind of already confirmed that Cyberpsychosis is more closely related to mental illness and stress rather than how much "chrome" you got, kind of like how a person can have a mental breakdown irl.
MaxTac can manage cyberpsychosis since they erase the "bad memories" while V can manage it since Johnny is basically there for him all the time (not that he really has a choice)
@@Kaxology _Technically_ a psychosis is some kind of persistent break with reality. If Johnny's in your head through your cyverware, and he's not really physically there, wouldn't that make him technically a form of psychosis caused by cyberware? AKA ... a cyber psychosis.
Oh no! you've been psycho all along!
@@Kaxology yes, in the cyberpunk red (core rulebook pg.230) cyberpsychosis is defined as basically a form of dissociative disorder, and it's mentioned
(core rulebook pg.109) that you could also lose Humanity in particularly horrific events or situations. Couldn't find that rule in CP2020, but in that book (cp2020 core book pg.73) it's said that many cyberpsychos exhibit more subtle symptoms, like kleptomania, violent mood swings, compulsive lying or split personality.
It is said that V was only able to handle so much because he shared his consciousness with Mr Keanu Reeves. Adam Smasher was already practically not even human before he was made practically a robot.
I wish you hadn't referenced the song "I really want to stay at your house." Edgerunners hurt but the moments it used that song hurt the most. And music has this way of attaching itself to memories in a way that's almost like a super glue.
I LOVE THIS ANIME ITS SO SAD AND GOOD AND IM SO HAPPY THAT YOU DID A THEORY ABOUT THIS also you should 100% do a theory about murder drones
I played cyberpunk since release on ps4. Sold that, then rebought it quickly after once I got a next Gen console. Loved it to bits. There's a running theory that the dude that brought down the original internet in the lore transfered his consciousness to the new net. Making him an AI so in reality he could be playing like 5D Chess in the whole scheme of things because his goal was to bring everything down around in game. Bartmoss was his name
You can find his body in a fridge where Dex took you for Takemura. It's a quest.
I mean, Bartmoss is probably still in the old net, all the infrastructure still exists. The "new net" is just a ton of LAN networks that are airgapped from each other.
Rache Bartmoss is probably in the Old Net, not in any of the new Localnets
The tabletop has a mechanic for this, its called empathy. You loose it for cyber mods or trauma that happens to your character but you can also get it back by.... get this... LITERALLY GOING TO THERAPY
I LOVED this show. All 10 episodes follow the “killer no filler” mentality, and it worked. I love it so much.
Someone probably said it in here already.
But the reason V doesn't go cyberpsycho from all their implants is actually partly because of Johnny, the second mind ends up taking some of the stress off V's.
It's not only that it depends on a characters humanity/empathy, a stat in the ttrpg that determines how much implants you can have before you break. Hit 0 and your a cyberspyco.
@@zkapshthe devs stated that canonically Johnny takes the brunt of the cubertwayre
@user-wy5rs2zj6u that's fine it doesn't contradict my statement about how cyberpsycosis works in lore and the table top rpg especially since there is a good chance Johnny himself was cybercyco or at least very close to it.
@@zkapsh oh no he was most definetly cyberpsyco, i forgot if it was in game or if it was in another lore material, basically he acts like he’s in a conversation with his hand
@user-wy5rs2zj6u for me that alone isn't enough to say cyberpsycosis, because cyberpsycosis is a dissociative disorder and hallucinations really isn't a symptom of dissociative disorders. Other actions he's seen taking shows sign of cyberpsycosis. I would argue just boiling it all down to Johnny Taking the brunt of it weakens the impact of cyberpsycosis narrative wise. And a video game excuse to get around a mechanic from the ttrpg.
I had a theory of my own when I was playing the game, I thought maybe Cyberpsychosis was just their way of covering up every other mental illness, like Regina's quest said, whenever you find a psycho they have some kind of tragic past, like drug addiction or ptsd.
I think its partly that and also partly corporate entanglement.
Im pretty sure this is legit soft confirmed
To be fair dislyte has one of the most expansive and astounding soundtracks I've ever encountered in any game its pretty great
And it's still an exploitative gambling system, NOT A VIDEO GAME.
I just got reminded of the emotional damage this anime gave me. One of the best shows I’ve seen an absolute rollercoaster
Cyberpunk is legitimately not bad anymore, they even added a bunch of edgerunners references like being able to get David's jacket and Rebecca's shotgun
Cyberpunk theories always seemed like the next step. So much is left open ended
This video makes me actually want to back to cyberpunk...and now there's like 50 percent less bugs or at least I hope
The bugs aren't even there. I've been playing since 2020 and only started encountering bugs on my 4th playthrough. Unlike Skyrim, which was held in such a high regard, but has game breaking bugs in every corner and doesn't get updated for free
@@viknightingale552 that's mainly because of the modding community
There’s bugs but way less than before thankfully
a theory I had is that maybe kiwi wasn't as great of a net runner as we thouught. In the game we are told that the ice tubs are for novice net runners that can't control their body temperatures yet, which is why V has to enter one whenever she needs to do her thing. We can see people like the voodoo boys as well as Nix not need it.
Cyberpunk was so dam good, glad to see the film theory make a video on this stellar show.
this entire video straight up designed to make me cry, thanks MatPat, it's also worth mentioning that there is an entire questline that focuses on the fact that cyberpsychosis isn't a real thing. ~
Which quest?
@@denegwynn2869 the whole Regina Jones quest line ~
@@HarukoHoshiko how does the quest = it not being real? I thought it was just killing people that succumbed to it
@@kitnal4143 because the whole point of the quest is Regina wants to prove (and it gets proven) that pretty much all of these "cyber psychos" are just people that have been manipulated into having a rough time due to the world being shitty. it becomes readily apparent that cyberpsychosis just isn't real. ~
@Haruko Hoshiko idk, I firmly believe that it is real simply due to the TTRPG mechanic not making any sense otherwise and as something that happened first it should take the lead. I do believe that the psychosis can be induced due to struggles though?
Studio Trigger is amazing with their art direction!
i'd also love to see you guys cover their movie, Promare!
i feel like there's probably some theory fodder in there somewhere - and the visuals are absolutely stunning.
Sadly as much as I enjoy this theory there are actual reasons why certain characters are less affected such as the entirety of Maelstrom as well as maxtak and why atom smasher is completely unaffected and it is quite simply because they are already psychopaths and it's actually stated that they all are affected by cyberpsychosis all the time they can just ignore it's thanks to their level of empathy already being 0
And likewise, David's resistance to Cyberpsychosis is implied to be more because of his good upbringing than because of software. It's not until he starts really getting into the mercenary life that he really starts to suffer from cyberpsychosis, and it doesn't really become a problem until until he pushes his augmentations beyond reasonable limits.
V's resistance to cyberpsychosis is also thought to be a result of the relic
@@laserwolff6640 Basically. V is pretty much already Cyberpsycho because of Johnny. Also, its a video game and being told you can't get all the cool Cyberware just wouldn't be fun.
@Kane Bravo well, I think the real reason we dont have cyberpsychosis as an in game mechanic is because they just didn't have time to add it lol.
@@aslandus cute picture 🥰
I always assumed that V having Silverhand their mind automatically classified them as a cyber-psycho so all of the crazy augments you add throughout the game don't affect you because of it. a natural immunity of sorts
I wasn't surprised that I was only scratching the surface. It seems that even Arasaka is getting played too but they know about it too.
I remember crossed paths with this Entity towards the end of the Jefferson Side Quest and I wonder if it got its fingers in some Nomadic Clans too.
In my Edgerunners fanfiction, my OC is hesitant in getting Cyberwear because he's scared of Cyberpsychosis. However, he's David and his Mom's Neighbour and is a Corpo Employee until he's made redundant and joins David in becoming an Edgerunner.
If you want more cyberpunk lore, you should check the ttrp books (cyberpunk 2020 and cyberpunk red)
In the ttrpg, the amount of cyberware you need to become a psycho depends on your empathy so maybe david just really has an high empathy
And he rolled very low Humanity Loss every time he installed new cyberware
Edgerunner singlehandedly saved the game or even the company, this anime is truly something special and it's forever gonna stay in a place at my heart ❤️
It didn't save the company. CDPR is the same company that made the Witcher games. That trilogy earned the studio enough good will and staying power that the rough launch of Cyberpunk was nothing more than a bump in the road for them.
Singlehandedly is a bit much. The devs still had to actually put work in order to fix the game and add new features.
There was enthusiasm from many who wanted to play 2077 despite the bad launch, as the patches were released. Edgerunners captured the attention of those who've never heard of the tabletop game/video game.
“with no trwaining” looks like matpats gotten used to the baby talk 😭
This anime had me go through every stage of grief in one day
Ever since I saw NegativeLegend’s take on Cyberpunk Edgerunners, I’ve been waiting for SOMEONE to expand on it. Glad Matt delivered!
I highly recommend the cyberpunk ttrpg, it's so much fun and pretty easy to pick up the mechanics
I really appreciate how the series had quite alot of elements of the ttrpg
Matpat never misses hes gonna have to start a netflix series soon
You know a show's good when it can revive a game's community and make you cry.
The Irony of covering a Cyberpunk video while having a scripted ad break.
The reason I think that David gets Cyberpsychosis and V doesn’t get is because there may be a link between cyberpsychosis and trauma. David goes psycho is because he loses his mother, Maine a few other close members of the Edgerunners crew and is eventually pulled over the edge when he finds out Lucy is gone.
We don’t know much about V’s backstory but no matter what life path we take, we still don’t go psycho. This could be just a gameplay thing or that Johnny might be acting as a buffer and holding her mental state together. Edgerunners is a prequel to 2077 (by a year but still) so there could be more development in research.
Adam Smasher is actually a cyberpsycho but is said to be a “high functioning” cyberpsycho due to his personality before using cyberware. This is confirmed by the creator of Cyberpunk 2077.
The reason is because of the Relic. It is constantly re-structuring and re-building his brain; it’s basically confirmed via in-game lore. Smasher is just legit “built different” which is why he’s so legendary.
@@dirgeofthedawn yeah that’s what I meant by Johnny holding her together. And yeah, some people are built different like David and Adam
Good guess. Both! Not only V is sharing load with Johnny, but mental state is important too. Incredibly important. Because cyberpsychosis is just a brand people slap on everyone, despite real cause being mental illnesses.
I absolutely love Cyberpunk 2077. I'm so glad MatPat covered Edgerunners ❤
In the quest line where you find out about the mind alternating... johny silverhand actually says in game that he thinks an rouge Ai could be behind this.
"Dont trust everything you see"
The more I watch Matt, the more I believe he is not real and he's merely a figment of our imagination
Then we're 12 million who got Cyberpsychosis
@@timgorg1919 ye
Good video with some things I like to add,
V technically has two minds in the game, one of johnny silver hand and himself. So that could affect V's ability to take on a large amount of implants without it heavily affecting his mind.
Another thing is how cyberpsychosis is treated, basically using the 2020 Rules talking about cyberpsychosis, you can go to Therapy to be treated but it isn't exactly like talking to a therapists. The book states that "Probes deactivate your cybersystems one by one,while the shrink jacks your rabid psyche into the braindance. Then begins the long, arduous process of disassembling your brain and reconstructing it in a more socially acceptable form."
So this could support of an AI because if they basically dissasemble it and reassemble your brain than that could be them working against the AI taking over your brain switching around what the AI has already switch. However it could be against it with the idea that its a genuine mental illness that your brain has requiring someone to fix your brain because your brain is recieving signals wrong due to the cyberwear glitching out your mind.
Just something I wanted to add and to think about however I enjoyed this video. I was suprised you didn't use any example from the actual original concept but its understandable you want to use stuff from exclusively the show and game due to them being around the same time frame however I feel like you should've used the actual TTRPG
This was the single biggest thumbnail to suspected content enjoyment neuron firing i've ever experienced, my favorite content creator talking about my favorite show.
He stole these from two other guys, not his own original content. GUy just copy pastes other theories he finds online, mattpat sucks
Cyberpsychosis being portrayed in this way and it being a red herring for something bigger is a really clever idea...
Just when I thought this franchise couldn't get any more sad😢
This is why looking into the core books helps. There is plenty of more info in many of the core TTRPG and supplimental materials that will give you a better idea of what this is really like as far as the AIs go.
I wonder if he read the source books for 2020? Tattoos can cause cyberphycosis, behavior software can make people act exactly how you want, and eye implants can make them any color you want, along with glowing tattoos
Edit: the souce books also say that cyberphycosis isnt just people being violent and not caring about loved ones, it also says that people can become very paranoid and obcessive, hide away from everyone in the outskirts of the cities, or hoard tecnology
Like what happened to Lizzy Wizzy. she has a gold realskin
man watching his old videos makes it feel like he is still alive
he is still alive, they just replaced him because he wanted to retire
@@Lucky和 no he isn’t
Who else was just waiting for this video to come out. But it's far from over. We need more. Do "is David really dead?". We need this video. DO IT MATPAT, MILK CYBERPUNK CONTENT LIKE IT MILKED OUR EMOTIONS OUT OF US!
He's dead
He’s dead lol
Let’s make him solve ff06b5
@@jesusblanco7657 I don't believe that. Plus if anyone can find clues as to why and how he's still alive it's matpat. Also its not a dumb theory theres lots of clues indicating he's alive
@@IsaacAiden144 he’s dead though there’s more evidence to suggest he’s dead lol
In theme of this video : Matpat has definitely gone insane
Has anyone thought that Adam Smasher is a construct loaded into himself, thus his consciousness is code and avoiding the cyberphycosis.
Soulkiller Modified by Arosoka, well before either series with Alt severing herself
Example: Pulling the Deamon hack out of himself...
I think the only reason why he isn't a cyber psycho is because he's barely human. He's literally only a brain and that's it. So basically I think he's just too far gone. Also not to mention Adam smasher himself already has the mentality of a cyber psycho. Idk tho. Tbh I believe your theory too and tbh it would actually make a lot of sense
No, its not. The creator of Cyberpunk said that Adam is a high functioning cyberpsycho, he isnt avoid anything
The idea of cyber psychosis is beyond coding into a machine. A machine can't become a psycho. Only people can.
what a coincidence that i just finished this show. isnt it like already a year old?
Cyberpunk actually seems like an interesting show
the grip that this anime had on me with the animation and art working with the gut wrenching german-suplex of a story just… gets me hooked every time.
Theory Suggestion: How Strong Is Ash Ketchum
I always thought V was immune to Cyberpsychosis because they had Johnny to share the burden of the implants with.
matty silver hand 0:12
1:12 Yeah, Matt, wearing leather and a motorcycle are the biggest changes to this version of Oden.
7:29 OH, SO HIM BEING THE WAY HE WAS WASN'T HIM BEING INSANE? Seemed pretty insane to me.
“None leave the slaughter house! Not alive!”
“Who are you to challenge me?! You think your special because your scrappy? Don't make me laugh!”
“You’re all the same meat to me.”
Also jumps out of a like 400 feet tall building like nothing
@@reflection6401 yeah, this video is just Mat not understanding psychology
I got so used to new show runners it's weird to hear Matpat
Played it at launch, watched the anime in one sitting and excitedly waiting for whatever comes next.
Edit: Uh huh. Never noticed the AI part of the story even with 200 hours in. Now let's see whether they go further with this.
Lets be real, 2077 Matpat is cool af
Bro how dare you say the words “ i want to stay at your house” you made me remember the sad events that happened
I can’t shake the feeling my “Cyberpsychosis Is NOT Real” video was a big inspiration for this. You’ve done a great job tying in the game w the anime, though corporate mind control isn’t the only possibility. I’ve also discussed how 1) cyberware itself could have the will to survive, thus throwing someone in a bloody rage to defend itself 2) The products are designed to fail, forcing people to continuously upgrade to avoid product failure (going psycho) 3) Cyberpsychosis is a lie. It’s plausible that the term was invented to draw attention away from the system and those at the top and instead making people think “wow, that person is crazy. I’d never go that far,” when in reality the horrible circumstances of night city push some people to insanity.
Bro when I first watched this, I was hooked asf bro. the art style, the character development, and the music was so touching. I love the fighting scenes and stuff. But when the last episode rolled around it broke me emotionally, physically, and mentally :(
Overall 100/10
bro