Why is "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" so popular among gamers?

Adapted from the game "Cyberpunk 2077", "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" tells the story of a street kid struggling to survive in a city of night where technology is rife.

Because of its popularity, it has boosted game sales. The number of players of "Cyberpunk 2077" has soared by four times. Hideo Kojima, a famous game producer even sent 4 tweets in a row praising: "This is a miracle of squeezing the trigger to the world."

After watching "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" overnight, I'm ready to talk briefly about where it cleverly wins.

First, the rich game text was kept

Game adaptation into episodes or movies has always been complicated. This one was actually successful, thanks to the solid worldview and rich story text of the game.

Regardless of the evaluation of the game "Cyberpunk 2077", players admit the central and side themes of the game are enormously complex.

"Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" focuses the audience's attention on one character, David, and one single theme. It is divided into 10 episodes, which makes it possible to complete the character development. So the storytelling strikes a balance between new audiences and old fans.

It also makes an obscure but important core setting clear in the game: cyberpsychosis.

"Cyberpsychosis" is used to describe mental illnesses associated with prosthetic abuse. In 2077, a year of high human prostheticization, it has become a common terminal disease with an expensive treatment.

In the game, the ins and outs of "cyberpsychosis" are hidden in item descriptions, street broadcasts and scattered character conversations. Players have to piece them together to a whole picture. It results in a totally different story experience by different gamers. Many people may not figure out what cyberpsychosis is.

But in the series, the creators let David become the center of attention. The audience is wrapped up in his fate. They could understand the tragedy behind the "cyberpsychosis" step by step, which will lead to a better story experience.

Second, the creative style is quite similar to that of the original work

Studio Trigger's wild style matches the game "Cyberpunk 2077" all too well. It uses a lot of large blocks of color on the screen and large subtitles to make the animation closer to the game.

The soundtrack was composed by Akira Yamaoka, who wrote the legendary song for the famous game "Silent Hill". The songs for the opening and closing credits are This Fire by British indie rock band Franz Ferdinand and Let You Down by Polish singer Dawid Podsiadlo. The music is bold yet tasteful, once the intro started... ah... the flavor of niche rock and Japanese cyberpunk was back.

Third, there are some tributes to classic science fiction works

"Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" obviously shows homages to three sci-fi classics, which are "Blade Runner", "Ghost in the Shell", and "Akira".

"Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" portrays a hacker girl named Lucy, who's always aspiring and wishing upon a star. She has a signature move which is looking up at the sky under neon lights, reminiscent of "Blade Runner". The heroine Lucy imitates Kusanagi Motoko heavily, they are both short-haired mature women, who have higher ideals outside of their daily lives.

"Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" is the most obvious homage to "Akira". David is Tetsuo. The alien teenager on the ruins, with infinitely multiplying body organs, is revolted by touching the unmanageable power.

I think the success of "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" lies in the fact that neither the animation company nor the game makers are overly ambitious. So that it is possible to keep the animation as the game setting. Although lacking depth and narrative perfections, we have to say it is a successful game adaptation.