My biggest problem with this game, aside from all the bugs and obvious issues, is the really poor way characters are introduced and V's complete lack of agency in the world. It's pretty damn shocking tbh...
I'm now 70 hours in and aside from a few side missions I find myself so uninterested in most of the quests and characters because nothing is grown or developed over time (aside from Silverhand.) I also find characters' behaviour and relationship with V doesn't quite add up, like you meet a character, do a quest or two with them, and then they act like you're best friends or more.
Then there's the randoms that phone you with no ingame introductions, no establishing backstory before contact, zero pacing consideration, lore or relationship building, just out of nowhere: *Phone rings* "V - my name is Blah, I've got work for you, keep in touch." Who the hell are you guy!? This happened so much as soon as the prologue ended, it was really poor. I also found it so weird that a police woman keeps ringing me for jobs all the time, especially considering the game is telling me that V is a wannabe big time criminal.
Even GTA, a game that isn't an RPG, introduces new characters in a far more logical and natural way. Of all the issues with CP2077 I find this to be the most perplexing personally, especially considering these are the guys that made the Witcher games. It just doesn't make sense to me, you'd think this would be the one area of the game they would have nailed.
While pottering around the city doing random things, I couldn't help but feel V would have been a much better protagonist if they actually gave him a purpose. Like made him a special agent presumably sent into Night City to fight the threat of corporate power and corruption to the government, and while following leads he tracks people down, comes face to face with the different gang heads, explores their lore, meets extreme Cyberpunk characters, tackles some horrible crime and corruption, and on the way he discovers more about his past, that he's got deeper ties with Arasaka and comes to second guess his work and who he is. Maybe it leads him to choosing a different path or something.
I know it's a bit Blade Runner'y but at least it would have actually given V agency in Night City, someone the characters could bounce off instead of just some wannabe blank slate whose motivations I can't understand. It would have helped the moral dilemma the game has too (given that V is just another horrible psychopath in the City like everyone else)- His moral dichotomy with the city would have been such a rich angle for the player to explore the world and meet its characters.
I'm fairly certain the idea behind the current V is to "let the player choose" who he is, and that would be fine if the game had a system in place to facilitate it. But there's nothing we can do to stop V getting in Dexter's car...
It's so weird, I expected so much more narratively from this game. It feels like it's been done by a completely different developer.