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Cyberpunk2077

26 Apr 2025 07:16

Some civs need to get V's justice too
https://redd.it/1k83no0
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Cyberpunk2077

26 Apr 2025 06:16

Things that didn’t work in Phantom Liberty

After a few playthroughs, looking at some of the source materials, and having gone back and read some interviews with the writers about what they were trying to achieve, I find it interesting to ga back and reflect on what did or didn’t work for me in Phantom Liberty before moving on from the game.

Relationship with Reed

The first one is the implied relationship with Reed. From the way the story is told, the choices you’re given, and the dramatic music that often cues when he’s on screen, you get the idea that you’re supposed to empathize with his character. You’re supposed to feel torn about siding against him or, in one ending, flatlining him.

Not me, though. Although I found him interesting and well written, I didn’t connect with him at the personal level at all. Alex, Myers and Songbird all get screen time in which they appealed to me, made me like, admire or empathize with them, but unless I missed a dialogue option in all four playthroughs, Reed is either all business or ruminating on past failures.

Not blaming the story here, more of a commentary on myself. Clearly I wasn’t picking up on what the writers were laying down here, so to speak. V’s cries of dismay after being forced to put Reed down, or Johnny’s great line, “Come on, let’s go find some new chooms you can meet, grow to like..and murder,” all felt completely discordant in tone to me.

Promise of a cure

The second thing was the importance the story seems to place on V being motivated by a desperate need for a cure. Given that literally 5 minutes before Songbird contacts you, you are speaking with an AI goddess who promises you a cure, it seemed odd that V would be motivated by the promise of another one. I mean, options are good, but we’ve already got a plan A, so if plan B falls through, no biggie.

However, at no point in the PL story is Alt even mentioned. Plenty of opportunities for V to mention it, or for Johnny to pop up and remind you that if things get dicey, remember we have Alt, but nope. When Songbird is talking about the Blackwall, it seems totally natural that V would mention having been there, knowing how it feels to gaze out in awe at the depths of cyberspace, etc.

This had to be intentional. The PL writers wanted V to be driven by desperation for a cure; reminding us that he already has one in his back pocket would have weakened the narrative, presumably. But as a player with a memory that goes back longer than 5 minutes before PL starts, I wasn’t at all motivated by Song’s promise of a cure. The promise of adventure and chance of helping someone in need was enough for me.

Themes of betrayal

Tying into the last point, the last big thing that didn’t work for me was the betrayal theme, especially the idea that Songbird “betrays” V. Playing blind, it didn’t even occur to me until afterward when I saw some comments on Reddit to be hurt or surprised at Song’s revelation that her cure would work only once. My first reaction was, well, at this moment you clearly need it more than I do, and anyway, I’ve already got a rogue AI from beyond the Blackwall offering her help, so yours is kind of superfluous.

And on my second run, having played through Cynosure, I still couldn’t blame her for lying. The poor girl has a fucking demon lord from hell devouring her soul. The terror a lot of people feel playing through the Cynosure sequence is her daily reality. You’re her only life line and she can think of no other way to motivate you. If you don’t feel for someone in that situation, better check your pulse man, because you might not actually have a heart.

Moreover, and maybe I just have a different idea of “betrayal” than other people, but as I mentioned in another post, in my view her coming clean at the end absolved her from that accusation. Now, if the story had been written so that she abandons you to fight alone against the NUSA horde while she gets away, and then you found out the truth about the cure much later, well, sure, I might have considered that a kind of betrayal.

But she doesn’t.