Starting as Nomad, City Kid, or Corpo>>> Does it matter?

[Soylent_Greene]

Other than dialog choices is there a substantive difference with the starts?

[ImHelping]

This isn't really considered "spoilers" as this is all information you get from the intros anyway.

The the biggest surprising thing, is Corpo is the only one with a real reason to care about Jackie.

Nomad, you have just met, you are both terrible at your job smuggling and can barely deal with corpos.

Street kid, you met, you are both terrible at trying to steal cars and can barely deal with corpos.

Corpo. Jackie has been your best friend for years. Jackie cares about your well being already. When you get fired from your job at Arasaka, Jackie steps in and says "Wow sure would suck if you all got murdered for threatening my friend V, huh?" and scares off corpos when they are about to also kill you.

The memes are to go on about corpo scum and how nomad and street kid are all about freedom and family. But either by accident or design, Corpo start is the only one with a meaningful connection to Jackie. instead of "I met this guy five minutes ago."

From a gameplay standpoint: Corpo intro is also probably the fastest one to speed through if you smash skip dialogue buttons.

While it has been a while since I looked into later speech flavor text by comparison, from all the people complaining "Why doesn't Nomad/street kid get as many optional text choices as corpo!?!?!", I guess Corpo ends up with more incidental "Say something that reminds the audience you used to work for a corp" dialogue than you can get street/nomad commentary?

[Crimsomrider]

There are unique rewards exclusive to certain lifepaths and naturally unique dialogue choices which affect certain quests differently.

It's mostly a backstory thing, similar to Mass Effect's backstory where you can choose where you were born and have some unique flavor and rewards based on it. It does not affect the story in major ways other than the very beginning.

[Rivazar]

There are 3 unique quests but they don’t have much impact they are more about references to your prologue past.
As streetkid Kirk offers you Job
As nomad you find your vehicle
As corpo you meet Frank who came out to be rat.
Dialogues have no huge impact relating to your origin. They play immersive role. As streetkid you know gangs and how to deal with them bypassing skillchecks (also gang and street life lore).
Corpo will surprise people being some dirty merc but knowing all about corpo deals and sounding like pro.
Nomad knows nothing about night city and he is most immersive for new player who also doesn’t know a thing about game

[Bruh]

They're all good, and it's not gonna change the whole course of the story or anything. You get dialogue options whenever it's relevant to the topic at hand, which is a nice touch. You can still build your character however you want, it doesn't affect that part.

Personally, I think Nomad ended up being my favorite, but it's also the longest intro mission. Instead of being dropped into the city, you're literally a newcomer to town meeting everyone for the first time and having lots of culture shock. I think it does a good job introducing narrative/setting elements for a first-time player, and you'll get a better understanding of the Nomads as a people through the dialogue options that pop up (relatively rarely) throughout the game. Most people in Night City steer clear of the larger Nomad society and vice-versa, so it doesn't really come up as much in the deeper parts of the city, but you gets lots of special dialogue outside of town and during certain side-quest chains. Also, cool car.

The other two are equally good, it just gives you a faster crash-course in who you used to be and how you fell into the mercenary life. It's a little more "stepping into the shoes of a pre-existing V and taking over from there", but that's great for subsequent playthroughs.

The corpo path is perfect for a V who's more sassy, jaded, and ruthless. Many of those dialogue options and lifepath-related story branches are a bit more callous and manipulative on the surface. Things like "hey what would your boss think about X?" to blackmail people, or "I know corpos, and I'd do X if I were them, so they'll probably do that" as ways of foreseeing your enemies' actions. You can still play V however you want, it's just a different kind of delight to be a smug jerk to everybody at every opportunity.

Streetkid I have the least experience with, but they definitely gave me the cleverest vibe of the three. I have a feeling that they're the type who can talk their way out of situations the other two would have to shoot their way out of. There's probably a lot of insights into street-level city life and inter-gang politics I was never really privy to, because I didn't end up playing this lifepath fully.

In any case, my "head-canon" playthroughs ended up being Male Nomad V and Female Corpo V. This is the kind of game where the changes are subtle but worth playing through again for trying out different gameplay/story builds and seeing what you missed. And also to keep messing around with the combat elements you passed up the first time. Going "Loud" vs. playing a stealth or hacking build, for example. It's less a "roleplaying game" in the pen-and-paper sense where it's a super-deep simulation with unlimited freedom, and more in the sense that you can build up a sense of who "your" V is in your head, and you can lean into that as you play. A run-and-gun Hotline Miami-style shotgunner/bludgeoner in my Nomad playthrough one day, and a stealthy knife-throwing assassin in my Fem V playthrough the next.

[Water]

The Corpo dialogue options don't really add anything to the game other than the fact that V gives insight on why corpos do what they do.

I've seen past games give XP points or unlock dialogue trees when you give 'Corpo type' responses. CP2077 just totally whiffed on this one.

[Oaktown]

Originally posted by ImHelping:

The the biggest surprising thing, is Corpo is the only one with a real reason to care about Jackie.

May be a spoiler below.

I played the streetkid and corpo intros.

I couldn't stand Jackie, his dialogue was awful and the part later in the game with the book he read was laughable. The cyberpunk writers are really, really bad. I was surprised because Wild Hunt's writing was decent.

[Faiza, Star Made Knight]

I haven't played Street Kid yet, but I have done Corpo and Nomad

Nomad is good if you enjoy talking about cars - literally all Nomad dialoague options are about cars. Dakota (one of the fixers) is a little nicer to you if you're a Nomad.

Corpo dialogue options let you manipulate some minor characters into giving you information or stuff without really working for it/without having to fight, so that's cool.

The Corpo path does favor Jackie more, but I also feel several of the endings had throwbacks that were specific to events of the Corpo start. The nomad path start also has an easter egg in the intro during the Heist as well.

[Alex_x86]

The nomad's intro rhymes really nice with one of the endings.

[Stray952]

No it doesnt matter. In fact, I'm fairly certain they were all supposed to be steps on the same life path before they rewrote the plot for Keanu intrusion. None of V's dialogue makes sense if they aren't at least 2 of the life paths at once. Why would nomad V know more about cyberware than Jackie? At a minimum, you were supposed to be a nomad that came to NC and became a corpo. If you run the Nomad tree until after The Pick Up, you can almost switch Anthony Gilchrest for Arthur Jenkins, I think they have the same skull ring even. Gilchrest asks you for additional work which you never do.

My suspicion? The original plot was Nomad comes to NC, meets Jackie, teams up with Gilcrest to work on the corporate side, gets fired, becomes a 28-year-old street kid with Jackie again. In the corpo path Jackie even makes reference to working with you before. Too much overlap to be a convenience.

Given the shallow husk of a game we got... Makes sense.

[Nubadak]

Originally posted by Soylent_Greene:

Other than dialog choices is there a substantive difference with the starts?

What would Henry Cavill say?

[Onimaho]

Originally posted by Soylent_Greene:

Other than dialog choices is there a substantive difference with the starts?

Yes it matters (on an immersion level and fun extra dialogue) and corpo is the best choice for a first time playthrough.

[Pocket Dog]

Originally posted by Soylent_Greene:

Other than dialog choices is there a substantive difference with the starts?

No, not really. Honestly, just play whichever sounds good to you.

[ImHelping]

Oh right, as a heads up even if I lean towards corpo starts. The gun you can get is one that just lives in my closet forever for how forgettable it is. "Hmm, a kenshin that works slightly better when I am almost dead.... I am god of crafting and I would not upgrade that even as a joke."

The car from Nomad is also a less impressive version of a nomad car you can already buy. No, not the sports cars. The Thornton Galena 4 door hatchback for grandmas. The nomad start one they only managed to repaint the front half, added a new bumper and roof lightss... and hadn't gotten around to anything else. The one you can buy is a full conversion.

and that is even if you Demand you keep it or throw $100 pity dollars to "buy" it from a lady who was rebuilding it so she can escape night city

Sass about item quality aside, I am perfectly fine with the background specific items just being "oh that is cute I guess" instead of locking good items behind specific paths and pretending that is the same thing as replay value.

[GoreTiger]

Originally posted by Soylent_Greene:

Other than dialog choices is there a substantive difference with the starts?

corpo gives more unique convo options and a unique revolver. Street kid I believe gets a unique piece of clothing, Nomad gets a unique ride.
They all have different legacy missions tho.

Personally I say go nomad for the car, it's pretty sweet.

[tranquillant]

Originally posted by Soylent_Greene:

Other than dialog choices is there a substantive difference with the starts?

In every RPG the most important decision is Who you are. Who ypur character is. How does he think and behave.

The Nomad: an outsider, outlaw, a biker. For example.

The corpo: power hungry, highly paid corporate agent, assassin, security, for example

Street kid: a thief, thug, hustler, the muscle, for example.

Just some archtypes that could fit into those lifepaths. I my mind only the sky is the limit what To dp with those and possibilities are endless.