Cyberpunk 2077 2.0's new Edgerunners easter eggs just hit me with an existential crisis all over again

My V from Cyberpunk 2077 crouches and stares at the ground in raw dread, having just read some memorial messages which broke his heart.

(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is fantastic, and—like Cyberpunk 2077 itself—it's something I hadn't engaged with until recently. I'm new to the post-corpo war hellscape of this setting, but I figured after sinking about 20 hours into the game itself I might as well check out this anime everyone's been raving about. Spoilers ahead for Edgerunners, obviously.

I knew from my friends that the series was an emotional gut-punch, and through osmosis I knew that it ended in tragedy. That knowledge didn't help. Battling off a cold last weekend, I wrapped myself up in a blanket and watched the tidy ten episodes in a single day. This was a mistake.

Edgerunners is an achingly beautiful tragedy brave enough to ask: "hey, what if Juliet's family also died, but she lived, and she had to live the rest of her life alone?" The answer to that question is "it'll rip your heart open". I'm a sucker for a good tragic love story, so by the end credits I was a bubbling mess. Nearly made it, too, but that final scene on the moon. Man.

So imagine my horror when I discovered that the Cyberpunk's 2.0 update added some new "fun" easter eggs in the Columbarium, a type of memorial graveyard which stores the cremains of the dead. While that's a thing in real life, it's the preferred method in Night City because people kept digging up the dead to nick their implants. Grim.

If you visit, you'll be able to find memorials for a lot of characters—including Edgerunner's cast. The real sobering implication is that Lucy, the aforementioned Juliet stand-in I mentioned, likely had to go and place these herself. I decided to go and check them out, and all I can really say is: ow.

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A memorial in Cyberpunk 2077 that reads: "Kiwi: You taught me never to trust anyone in NC."(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)

This is great for fans who've had the time to emotionally recover from Edgerunner's punk, heartbreaking rage against the inevitable crush of the corporate heel—but I watched the frigging thing less than a week ago. I feel like I've just had the wind knocked out of me all over again.

It's a lovely capstone to the series. Plus, it confirms that Lucy is alive and well—or was at least safe enough from Arasaka to 'bury' her friends and leave tributes to them. But the words "you didn't take me to the moon, but you were there with me" is a fresh dose of salt in the wound. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go and throw knives at some Arasaka goons to make myself feel better.

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.