Night City from Cyberpunk 2077 is home to people from various backgrounds, who maintain different cultures and languages. A mod aims to make this fact playable and highlight the native languages of the residents. This contributes to more immersion – but does it really?
What kind of mod is this? On the recommendation of the player prossnip42 on Reddit, every fan of Cyberpunk 2077 who values immersion should test the mod “Cosmopolitan Night City” by Nttnnexus on Nexus Mods. This ensures that the residents of Night City speak in their native language, appropriate to their background.
Whenever you interact with a character in Night City, they will respond in their native language, which will still be translated for the player with English subtitles. Takemura will speak Japanese, your buddy Jack will speak Spanish, and the twins from the casino will speak French.
Prossnip42 praises the level of detail from the mod developer, as they do not use AI but the audio track of the corresponding voice output, for which Cyberpunk 2077 received its own dubbing. Additionally, there are suitable lip syncs that further enhance immersion.
No one doubts that the work of the modder is impressive. However, the community is uncertain whether this would really be more realistic within the universe of Cyberpunk 2077 and the culture of Night City.
Here you can see the trailer for Night City, the “City of Dreams,” in Cyberpunk 2077:
Night City has its own language, and it is not “just” English
How is the mod supposed to create more immersion? The mod is supposed to provide a realistic standard of language communication in a futuristic and multicultural metropolis like Night City.
“Night City is, according to the lore, a multicultural, multilingual city,” explains Prossnip42, “People would probably have automatic translation devices implanted in their heads or something, so there would be no need for a ‘universal’ language like today’s English.”
Other players from the community can also agree. They emphasize that especially the built-in translation implants, which are also used in the subtitles for foreign languages in the game, are crucial. For this reason, immigrants do not have to adapt to the local language. The large immigrant communities in Night City would also promote the use of their native languages.
Why then should the mod still miss the meaning of language in Night City? Despite this reasoning, a majority of Cyberpunk fans feel that the use of this mod slightly misses the worldbuilding in Night City. Yes, it is a highly multicultural place, and many NPCs already speak in their native language when they converse.
What the mod pays less attention to is the culture of Night City as a whole. Given all the cultural influences, the various gangs, and the clash that occurs as a result, Night City has developed its own language, namely a jumble of English, inserted native languages, and slang.
The first generations of immigrants may rely on their native languages, but the next generations do not only grow up with their parents but also in Night City. Furthermore, it depends on the characters, their family backgrounds, and personalities, which language they use in interactions:
“I would find it less immersive if each ethnic group spoke their own language instead of the local one. I would suspect that many, if not most, multicultural residents of Night City grew up there,” writes Brandacle, receiving the most upvotes in the thread, even above the original mod recommendation.
Language is constantly evolving, much like our own in Germany. There is a reason that the generations who spend more time on the internet and with international media have a different way of speaking than Generation X or Boomers. This point is also used by AndrewLocksmith to explain the language in Cyberpunk 2077:
“This is the future, of course, Google Translate in your eyes. But when almost all media is in English, and you hear it everywhere, you start subconsciously picking it up.”
Night City has developed its own language that even players can understand after a short time, although it does not exist in reality. So Chooms, what do you think about the idea of the mod? Feel free to let us know in the comments whether you find it more immersive or breaking immersion. That would be preem.
For MeinMMO editor Caro, Cyberpunk 2077, even without the native language mod, is a game that fully captures her and allows her to immerse herself in the world. For her, the game offers such strong immersion that after a long break, she already feels homesick for Night City: Because I didn’t play Cyberpunk 2077 on time for release, I’ve now put in 150 hours and I’m the biggest fan
