Asking on behalf of about four people who have messaged me the same question.
My understanding is that the mainline games share a universe, some brands, and occasionally a radio host, but no story continuity that would leave you confused. Is there any known connective tissue in this one beyond the Liberty City mention in Lucia's mother's line?
Accepted answer
Nothing required. The games share a universe in the way that adverts and radio hosts and occasional brand names recur, and that is the whole extent of it. You will not miss a single plot point.
The Liberty City line in Lucia's mother's description is flavour. It tells you her family moved south. It does not require you to have played anything set there.
Worth adding that the one thing playing V does give you is control familiarity, which matters more than people think in the first two hours.
Both valid. The answer to the actual question is still no, nothing is required.
And it is nine dollars in a sale roughly every six weeks, so it is a low cost way to find out if you like the genre.
or just play online for free with a friend and you will learn the controls faster than any campaign
i started with 5 having never played one and understood everything, they are not connected stories