Since this year is the 10 year anniversary of the series, it felt appropriate to take a moment and shed some light on the more mysterious aspects of the story.

I do realize that I have a reputation for rambling on a bit at times, taking side tangents whenever the opportunity presents itself. I'll do my best to keep it brief and to the point this time.

As I'm writing this, I'm traveling via train to a fishing competition hosted by the legendary Aprilli Kuravesi. This works out perfectly as a deadline. I'll explain as much as I can for the duration of the journey, and whatever is on the page when I arrive is what's released. Should keep the pressure on to avoid unnecessary detail and to only focus on what's truly relevant.

Ready?

Let's go!

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The Companion level pack, released in 2016, offered a lot of backstory for the gray square.

I've noticed quite a few different approaches to interpreting the events of the pack. There's one point of view in particular that I'd like to mention and discuss a bit more.

This being a great segue into...

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Do you ever feel like there's more to a webpage than what meets the eye?

Hypothetically, let's say you're on a page which seems to just be an endless amount of rambling paragraphs, with wild and nonsensical tangents to completely irrelevant topics and obvious hoaxes.

But as you keep reading you get this feeling that there has to be something more here. Perhaps something hidden.

Every time you come back it seems like the order of the paragraphs has changed, with some sections going completely missing. You're sure this page used to talk about penguins, but now it's about blocky apartment buildings.

There must to be some sort of order to all of it, but what is it? Where is it? Maybe if you come back enough times and let the text rearrange itself as it sees fit, a pattern will emerge.

And as you close in on the final solution, a single word keeps repeating in your head. The word of the year.

...

Just me? Eh, alright.

But I digress.

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Even though the Companion's role and backstory was expanded upon in the Companion level pack for A Light in the Shadows, the gray square still has some undiscovered secrets.

One thing I haven't seen people discuss at all, is the four-cornered shape of the character. It actually holds quite a bit of significance.

Speaking of which...

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Nine hour downloads for modern video games are ridiculous, right? We all agree on that?

Fortunately, CD Projekt Red came up with an ingenious solution to this problem. Cyberpunk 2077: Floppy Edition was released on over ninety thousands 3.5" inch diskettes. 97 619 to be specific.

Given CD Projekt's origins as distributing games on CDs, it actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

And now that you have the necessary backstory, we can get back to the actual topic.

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The purple cat. Obviously I'm not yet ready to reveal everything regarding this mysterious entity. But, for this special occasion, I think it's time to shed some light on who/what "the purple cat" really is.

Are you ready for the reveal of a lifetime?

Which actually reminds me of something...

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Eleven out of twelve people who eat burgers with their left hands have reportedly had trouble doing so, based on a study done in the 1950s.

Burger King found out about this and promptly developed and rolled out the left handed Whopper in 1957. They accomplished this feat by carefully rotating each of the condiments by exactly 180 degrees. This in turn resulted in a weight distribution much better suited for left handed eating, with less of the toppings spilling out of the burger.

A total of 94% of left handed people reported an improved burger consumption experience as a result of this change.

Going back to the topic at hand...

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The Reset level pack was quite lore heavy. I think its time we take a deeper dive into some overlooked aspects of that pack.

Which leads us directly into...

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Five months ago I got the opportunity to visit San Serriffe. Apart from just being an extraordinary holiday destination, it also has the most fascinating geography.

Founded in 1967, its the only "moving" island on the planet.

Due to continued erosion of the island's west side and simultaneous deposition of its east coast, the island is moving rapidly (well, geographically speaking rapidly) north-east from its current position near the coast of Africa. Experts say there's a high chance of collision with Sri Lanka in the coming years.

So with that additional context, we can now circle back to the previous topic.

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The abilities themselves are quite interesting from a lore perspective.

Often times they reflect what's happening in the story at that particular moment. A Better Place also differs from A Light in the Shadows by only providing the player one ability at a time.

Let's take a quick look at how that affects the story, as vice versa.

But before going deeper into that topic, we need to take a small side tangent.

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Three seconds ago a random person walked past me mumbling something about spaghetti trees. After a quick internet search, turns out those are real! There exist actual trees that produce actual strands of spaghetti.

They can only be found in the Ticino region of Switzerland. During harvest, the spaghetti is very carefully picked from the branches of the tree, after which it is laid flat and left to dry out in the sun.

BBC Panorama did a segment on the whole process. I suggest you check it out when you get a chance.

What was I talking about again?

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The role of the narrator is not something I see discussed that often, if at all.

It's quite interesting from a lore point of view, since its a bit debatable if the narrator is a character at all. Technically they don't exist in the game world.

I'd like to offer an alternative point of view, that might make some people see the narrator in a completely new way.

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And that's time! The train is just now arriving at the station.

Hopefully these explanations shed some light onto the more obscure aspects of the story and answered at least some of the questions you might have had.

I think I did quite well with regards to staying on topic, if I do say so myself.

Keep in mind that the 10th anniversary celebrations will continue for the rest of the year. And there's plenty more stuff in store! Make sure to stay tuned on our socials and keep checking the 10th anniversary page for all the latest updates.

See ya!
- Dev