Cyberpunk 2077’s Most Overlooked Characters Might Finally Get Their Moment

River and Kerry Deserve Better Than a Cameo in Night City

Cyberpunk 2077 is the rare redemption arc that stuck the landing: systemic overhauls, Phantom Liberty’s stellar spy-thriller pivot, and a slate of patches that made Night City feel alive instead of barely holding together. But even after the fixes and fanfare, two names keep popping up in my group chats: River Ward and Kerry Eurodyne. Both characters arrive with heat, deliver a handful of memorable quests, and then vanish like fog in neon. That’s stuck with me since 2020-and not in a good way.

• River and Kerry show up strong, then abruptly exit the stage.
• Players want post-ending life for Night City’s supporting cast, not just new cars and guns.
• Reports of collaboration with Virtuos have fans hoping for narrative add-ons.
• The big question: will CDPR actually fund story content after saying Phantom Liberty was the only expansion?

Why These Two Matter Now

River Ward’s questline-tracking a serial kidnapper, navigating NCPD politics, and (for a female V) a believable, if brief, romance-felt like a proof of concept for what Cyberpunk does best: messy human stories inside a tech-drowned city. It’s three side missions and done. No impact on endings, no epilogue beats, no “Night City remembers.” For a character who gives you a window into the city’s broken institutions, that silence stings.

Kerry Eurodyne gets more screen time, sure. Reuniting Samurai, his midlife artist crisis, the yacht moment—these are high points. But even Kerry’s arc lands in an odd limbo. In the “Star” ending he won’t leave Night City, which tells you plenty about who he is, but nothing about what comes next. The guy is a living bridge between V and Johnny Silverhand’s legend, and he just… fades into the skyline. It feels like a door left ajar the game never walks through.

Could Virtuos Be the Key? Only If CDPR Lets Them Be

Here’s where the industry chatter gets interesting. Virtuos has a long history of parachuting into big projects to help scale content without breaking the original tone. If the rumored partnership extends to Cyberpunk’s narrative, that could mean targeted, character-driven missions—think a private-eye arc for River that exposes new layers of NCPD rot, or a multi-part Kerry storyline that treats Night City’s music scene like a battlefield. Celebrity meltdowns, label feuds, gigs that go sideways because corpos bought the venue—this is fertile ground Cyberpunk barely tills.

But let’s be real: the roadblock isn’t talent, it’s will. CD Projekt Red publicly positioned Phantom Liberty as the game’s only expansion, and later patches focused on systems, QoL, and world detail. Handing character epilogues to a partner only works if CDPR invests narrative oversight and voice talent (yes, including returning performances)—otherwise you get flavor, not stakes. Nobody wants “two gigs and a gun skin” for River. We want consequences and callbacks that echo into the city after the credits.

What Would Actually Move the Needle for Players

• River’s Post-Force Chapter: A detective-for-hire thread that surfaces new districts-by-night mechanics—stakeouts, informant webs, light investigative minigames that tap into Cyberpunk’s braindance roots. Tie outcomes to neighborhood safety, not loot.
• Kerry’s Comeback (or Collapse): A branching music-industry arc with set-piece gigs, PR sabotage, and choices that steer him toward artistic relevance or sellout superstardom. Let V act as fixer/manager, affecting radio playlists and street chatter.
• Persistent World Reactions: News shards, radio segments, and fixer messages reflecting your choices. If River exposes a precinct, patrol AI changes; if Kerry torches a contract, a rival artist drops a diss track you actually hear in bars.
• Cross-Talk With Johnny: Even brief new Johnny scenes would stitch these stories back to Cyberpunk’s beating heart. No, we don’t need a full Keanu-led arc, but meaningful commentary is non-negotiable.

The Bigger Picture: Single-Player Games Can Still Evolve

We’ve seen studios treat single-player RPGs like living worlds without sliding into live-service hell. From The Witcher 3’s character-rich expansions to post-launch story drops in action RPGs, there’s a middle path between “massive DLC” and “nothing but cosmetics.” Cyberpunk already proved it can reinvent itself mechanically; the last frontier is narrative continuity for the people who make Night City feel human.

Of course, CDPR is spinning up the Cyberpunk sequel. That’s exactly why smaller, focused narrative updates—potentially with a support studio—make sense. They keep goodwill burning, test ideas for the next game, and, frankly, repay the players who stuck around through the rough years. If the studio is going to keep shipping patches anyway, give us stories with a pulse.

TL;DR

River Ward and Kerry Eurodyne are two of Cyberpunk 2077’s sharpest threads that never got pulled. If the Virtuos partnership materializes into character-focused missions—and CDPR commits to real narrative weight—Night City could finally feel alive after the credits, not just prettier. We don’t need another car; we need consequences.