An observant Cyberpunk 2077 may have just figured out why CD Projekt Red doesn’t allow players’ characters to wear long-sleeved shirts while walking around Night City. While it may have initially been assumed a bug, Cyberpunk 2007 has never allowed V to properly wear a shirt with sleeves that cover their forearms, automatically rolling them up whenever the inventory screen is exited. The community has long believed this to be a glitch since looking at their characters in the game’s menus shows them with their arms covered, suggesting it was simply something that would be patched.
That may not be the case though as Reddit user Purplekush posted their theory that long sleeves and gloves don’t display on V in first-person mode to accommodate for the potential implementation of Mantis Blades.
A combat augment that players can equip to V, these saw-like weapons fold out the forearms so the working hypothesis is that long-sleeved shirts would either restrict their movement or simply end up in sheds whenever the Mantis Blades are unsheated. Fellow users were quick to support the idea, adding that it’s possible that climate change has simply rendered Night City extremely hot at all times.
While some members of the Cyberpunk 2077 community voiced frustration that their V could not walk around with long sleeves, others defended CD Projekt Red by noting the studio had limited options for how the Mantis Blades would interact with players. The use of rolled-up sleeves looks more immersive than simply having them clip through clothing and including an animation that saw V manually pushing back their sleeves to unleash the weapons would have grown tedious over time. Having bare forearms as the default option was likely a design decision made out of necessity.
It’s worth noting that Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t the first game to incorporate some kind of sword that protrudes through a character’s forearm: Deux Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided had a similar feature. That game worked around the restriction of sleeves by simply adding slits to protagonist Adam Jensen’s sleeves so that the swords could slip through without cutting his clothes. It’s an elegant solution to the problem and it’s admittedly strange that CDPR didn’t adopt a similar approach when designing the fashion of Night City.
Whatever the case may be, Mantis Blades are some of the most unique augments available to players in Cyberpunk 2077. While they may not deal as much damage as a trusty katana, the ability to use them in locations that prohibit weapons makes them excellent for stealthy, low-profile operations. They also have the added benefit of allowing V to leap directly toward a nearby enemy and begin slashing away, so the trade-off for never wearing long sleeves seems like an overall benefit.
Source: Purplekush/Reddit