It's been a rough couple of weeks for figuring out what I want to play. On one hand I want to have a very physically competent V, as I feel the main character makes the most sense as a Solo-type, quick, cool, and dangerous. On the other hand, I don't want them to be missing out on a lot of stuff, and I'm concerned that I really should be investing in Intelligence.

TLDR? Skip to this: With the build I present in brief below, do you feel I can still get a great deal of enjoyment out of the story and still feel like V, or am I more of a power gamer extreme build that is too focused and should be more balanced?

Currently I'm considereing a Cyber-Brawler or a Cyber-Samurai Build, with a heavy emphasis on Melee using Fists coupled with Gorilla Arms. There's a fantastic pair of Build Videos on YouTube by a creator called FudgeMuppet that all but perfectly encaptures my intentions (some obvious tweaking for my own personal taste, natch). The basic idea for the Brawler by example would be putting a focus on Body, Cool, and Reflexes, in that order. I'd start with Body 6, Reflexes 4, Tech 3, Cool 6, Intelligence 3. For every 4 points I leveled up Body, I'd put 3 into Cool, until I got Cool to 12, at which point I'd level up Reflexes to 9 or 12. By level 22 I'd have Body 18, Reflexes 9, Cool 12. By level 31 I'd hope to have Body 20, 11 Reflexes, and 14 Cool. I would be running a very heavy completionist game and I ended up last time at level 16 by the end of Act 1 and the start of Act 2 due to completing every Gig, Job, and side mission I could prior to starting the Heist. My excess points once I got to a certain point would all go towards Intelligence (which would be probably 14 by level cap).

The question I have for everyone is how much of the Story do you feel I could truly get and appreciate with this character? Does the game really just more favor a well rounded sort of V? By example, maybe setting up starting stats of Body 5, Reflexes 4, Tech 3, Cool 5, Intelligence 5. Set the priority as Body, Cool, Intelligence, and Reflexes so that by 16th level and the Start of Act 2 I would have: Body 9, Reflexes 7, Tech 3, Cool 9, and Intelligence 9. I like the idea of a Balanced V, but feel it wouldn't have the stats needed to face off with various obstacles equal to the level.

I don't know, as you can see I'm very torn about things. I really like the idea of being more focused on melee but that requires an Ability line up that is very weak on hacking or more clandestine approaches. Any help from people, even just having ideas bounced around, would be super appreciated. Please no spoilers for anything more than super early in Act 2, but definitely give me an idea of how you feel various build approaches work and prove satisfying for both story progression and combat satisfaction.

I've not found anything that's limited by your stats. There's some conversation lines that depend on technical, body or cool but they're the same as the ones that depend on your background; they just result in having a slightly different conversation. Not really. The locking of perks behind attribute levels, and of course skills being limited by their governing attribute, means you're better off specialising. There's always options available to complete any mission, if you're weak in hacking or stealth it just means you'll be taking the direct, all guns blazing approach more often than not. The game will always allow you to finish a mission by focusing on what you're good at. Generalising can lead to an issue where you're not quite strong enough for the frontal approach, but nor are you stealthy or techy enough for the stealth or hacking approach.

There are some gigs that offer bonuses for completing them undetected or similar, but even there they're usually secondary objectives that simply provide a bonus for completing them.

Storywise you won't miss much either way. Some characters will pass comment based on how you tackled a mission, but it's mainly flavour rather than central to the story - a certain character might have some amusing commentary if you decide to Leroy Jenkins your way through a well planned and in theory stealthy heist for example, but it won't affect the outcome.

I'd still put a few attribute points into Intelligence tho, even if you don't plan on being a netrunner. Hacking access points can net you a lot of money, especially if you pick the perk that doubles your reward. Easily over a thousand eddies per hack.