(Spoilers) Discussing the endings for Phantom Liberty

[JackiesBasketball]

Spoilers below and in this thread for all of the possible endings for the expansion Phantom Liberty:

ok warning has been given per tradition

Ok so when I 1st played PL I didn't care for many aspects of it, while still loving how I got to send songbird to the moon on a space rocket.

But now I really like Phantom Liberty, including Alex and Reed and their backstories.
1st playthrough of PL I obviously saved So Mi and sent her to the moon (King of Wands ending) because clearly that's the right choice

2nd playthrough from a save point, I betrayed So Mi. And I explored all 3 possible endings from that choice.
King of Pentacles ending = you betrayed Songbird and did not kill her per her request (this seems like the absolute worst ending, made my heart hurt)
As part of this ending, where Songbird lives and you give her to NUSA, the Tower ending where V gets the surgery to remove Johnny, good grief what a terrible outcome for everyone. Glad I played it but I'll never choose this end again.

King of Wands = this is my favorite ending and to me the clear true ending. This is where you betray Alex and Reed instead and help Songbird escape to the moon.
especailly after playing the other plot-paths, knowing more of Songbirds backstory and what she went through, I will always do Wands/Moontrip moving forward. Betraying her is awful and I'd feel bad.

King of Cups = you betray songbird and agree to kill her because that's what she's begging you to do at the end. This one hurt my soul. I'm glad I played it so I can see all the cinematics and learn more backstory, but jeeze. Who cut the onions yo?

Anyhoo just wanted to share my thoughts after going through all PL endings for the first time.
What do you think? Have a favorite ending? Do you choose the ending based on the Loot/rewards? Even though the other endings provide way better Loot/rewards, I cannot do any endings except King of Wands/Moonrocket. Just can't.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

What do you think? Have a favorite ending?

Well, pretty much the same thoughts as you about the endings. Helping So Mi always appeared as the right thing to do for me. But unlike you, I never tried the other endings myself. I never felt I had to

 

[jeancastex]

I prefer to help So Mi too. This ending feels more like an actual ending, more epic.
The other ending mission is great, with interesting dialogues. But no great final fight.

Those choices are designed to make you doubt. In one ending So Mi betrays you, in the other you get more info about her that explain her choice.

My theory is that So Mi should be on the moon with Mr Blue Eyes, and she will be the "hologram friend" in Orion if we play V again.

 

[tavellone]

I think the writers of Phantom Liberty didn't give much of a shit about the main story or how it relates to the expansion and because of that there are some, in my opinion, questionable story choices with some of the endings. I also believe this was done to make writing a sequel easier (I believe the V taking the NUSA treatment ending will be canon) but if you disregard that and take it as a story in itself, it was good.

 

[jeancastex]

I believe the V taking the NUSA treatment ending will be canon

I think the opposite, a lot of people asked for an ending where V find a solution, they made 1 ending but at the cost of V unable to continue being a merc.

And making the expansion exclusive ending canon would be weird, especially since the expansion happens before other endings. That means for a lot of players, those events don't even exist in their story. It's not like some players skipped an episode, they litteraly had a missing part of the story in their game if this ending is canon. This would be OK if the expansion was a sequel.

But you can make Songbird/Reed story canon, for some players, V played a part in that story, for others no.

 

[Bartinga2077]

What do you think? Have a favorite ending? Do you choose the ending based on the Loot/rewards?

The first two times I played Phantom Liberty, I chose to betray Reed and also kill him purely based on my ongoing annoyance of the US governments' behavior towards other certain countries. But the third time I decided to betray Songbird instead, just for once to see how the story would unfold.

And boy do I love that story way better! Seems and feels way longer, way more exciting, no liabilities and most important, V gets fully cured while none of her (former) friends gets killed. Win win.

I'm now playing to see whether the choice in taking the oath or not has any remarkable difference, but other than that, yeah, King of Pentacles all the way.

 

[JackiesBasketball]

Well, pretty much the same thoughts as you about the endings. Helping So Mi always appeared as the right thing to do for me. But unlike you, I never tried the other endings myself. I never felt I had to

your soul is cleaner than my soul then. I feel dirty from having done the other endings. I guess I could have just watched them on youtube, but, i paid for the game so figured I should try them myself

edit: also LeKill3rFou, I hope I did not spoil anything for you? I assume you already knew what those endings were? I hope at least.

onward and upwards! ^^

Post automatically merged: Jan 17, 2025

I think the writers of Phantom Liberty didn't give much of a shit about the main story or how it relates to the expansion and because of that there are some, in my opinion, questionable story choices with some of the endings. I also believe this was done to make writing a sequel easier (I believe the V taking the NUSA treatment ending will be canon) but if you disregard that and take it as a story in itself, it was good.

oh man i hope they don't canonize the betrayal of so mi ending. plus, launching a space rocket would be so cinematic. i'd be super down if thats the case. we shall wait and see. regardless i am sure orion will be awesome.

Post automatically merged: Jan 17, 2025

The first two times I played Phantom Liberty, I chose to betray Reed and also kill him purely based on my ongoing annoyance of the US governments' behavior towards other certain countries. But the third time I decided to betray Songbird instead, just for once to see how the story would unfold.

And boy do I love that story way better! Seems and feels way longer, way more exciting, no liabilities and most important, V gets fully cured while none of her (former) friends gets killed. Win win.

I'm now playing to see whether the choice in taking the oath or not has any remarkable difference, but other than that, yeah, King of Pentacles all the way.

I totally respect your choice. Also I must admit, the sequence where the spider robot is chasing you in the old bunker was riveting and intense. I kept dying of course, but it was like, suddenly I was in Silent Hill/Resident Evil being stalked by a zombie monster. that was great. Just, doing that to songbird made me feel bad. But again I'm glad I played it to see what happened.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

edit: also LeKill3rFou, I hope I did not spoil anything for you? I assume you already knew what those endings were? I hope at least.

onward and upwards! ^^

Oh no, don't worry!
It would be quite difficult to spoil me about something in Cyberpunk 2077, not impossible, but still...

 

[Iferrebee]

This time around I send songbird to the moon. This will probably be my last playthrough

Just continue chasing air drops and stealing cars. But the smart weapon build grew on me

And after turning songbird over to Myers, I'll never do it again

 

[JackiesBasketball]

This time around I send songbird to the moon. This will probably be my last playthrough

Just continue chasing air drops and stealing cars. But the smart weapon build grew on me

And after turning songbird over to Myers, I'll never do it again

maybe just need a breather. play some other games for a few years, come back to visit old friends.

 

[TheKaiser1871]

It seems like there is a sense of hope in the hair once you successfully launched that rocket and secured Songbird’s journey to the moon and the help that awaits her there…right?… Well you may find yourself slightly bewildered when asking her who exactly is providing such an exotic caliber of medical aid to her and what exactly do they expect in return… A certain man possessing a constant glow of Blue Eyes as if in a constant state of data flow who specifically takes a vested interest in those who interact with entities beyond the black wall….

Happy endings are few and far between in Night City… to the same degree of actual people with a willingness to do such acts purely out of charity…

 

[JackiesBasketball]

It seems like there is a sense of hope in the hair once you successfully launched that rocket and secured Songbird’s journey to the moon and the help that awaits her there…right?… Well you may find yourself slightly bewildered when asking her who exactly is providing such an exotic caliber of medical aid to her and what exactly do they expect in return… A certain man possessing a constant glow of Blue Eyes as if in a constant state of data flow who specifically takes a vested interest in those who interact with entities beyond the black wall….

Happy endings are few and far between in Night City… to the same degree of actual people with a willingness to do such acts purely out of charity…

Ah yes you bring up a good point. I sorta wondered, once she gets to the moon, won't she simply be arrested immediately and sent back to earth on the very next flight to earth? right into Nusa's waiting hands? Sometimes the dialogue goes fast and maybe I missed part of that explanation in 1 of songbird's exposition dumps.

Is the moon/space outside the rules of national laws? NUSA has no authority in space?
I am willing to accept that space and the lunar base is hands off and there are no rules or extradition.

 

[jeancastex]

I am willing to accept that space and the lunar base is hands off and there are no rules or extradition.

That's not really her choice to go there, but part of the deal with Mr Blue Eyes, and I think this guy know what he is doing.

 

[JackiesBasketball]

That's not really her choice to go there, but part of the deal with Mr Blue Eyes, and I think this guy know what he is doing.

I am very excited about the idea of Mr. Blue and it has me psyched for Orion.
Kinda has the vibe of that mysterious G-Man from the Halflife franchise

Post automatically merged: Jan 19, 2025

*** New Question about the Main Ending
spoiler warning for the Main game's endings.

I figured instead of creating an entire new thread I could ask this quick question here.
Regarding the main game Japanese ending

ok warnings have been given. proceed at risk.

--

ok. So the arasaka ending. What is happening with the big tv screens in the CEO Yorinobu's room? it shows Paris, Dubai, other places on a world map going RED. What is happening there? I feel like this was very important but was explained poorly...

It is implied that those cities or possibly the entire world are experiencing a catastrophe due to V's actions at the tower. That confuses me. Like, there's a virus? Or Arasaka released bombs everywhere? V says 'Terror'. I have no clue what is happening there. Does anyone know? I mean if you get into that room it means you did NOT use the ALT Cunningham AI, so Arasaka should not be experiencing a system meltdown or damage to Mikoshi..

As reference from my very cursory google search, I found this old reddit post, but found the answers and discussion in that reddit post to be lacking..
old reddit post discussing this topic

 

[jeancastex]

Yorinobu wants the end of Arasaka. I think that's not a coincidence if johnny construct was on the relic. Like Anders Hellman said, what makes this Relic special isn't the construct of Silverhand. I guess Yorinobu deliberately "installed" Johnny on it and that was a part of his plan to help him end Arasaka, and it kinda worked if you choose other endings, but maybe not as he expected.
IMO, it's not the cities that are attacked, but Arasaka buildings in those cities.

 

[northwold]

Yorinobu wants the end of Arasaka. I think that's not a coincidence if johnny construct was on the relic. Like Anders Hellman said, what makes this Relic special isn't the construct of Silverhand. I guess Yorinobu deliberately "installed" Johnny on it and that was a part of his plan to help him end Arasaka, and it kinda worked if you choose other endings, but maybe not as he expected.
IMO, it's not the cities that are attacked, but Arasaka buildings in those cities.

MAIN GAME HELPING HANAKO ENDING SPOILERS

Spoiler: Main game ending spoilers

This. Basically, the Arasaka ending confirms the foreshadowing from so many of the lore shards that Yorinobu is, in effect, trying to save the world and bring down Arasaka and, no, he didn't experience a miraculous change of character from arch rebel to Arasaka fanatic. Oh, and that Hanako is pure evil.

And, whoops, V just made sure poor, sweet innocent little Hanako wins. After holding Yorinobu in her arms, off screen she proceeds to murder her brother by inserting her father's engram into his body. Happy families.

(PS I seem to remember that when the data files on the relic flash before your eyes, I think during the Hellman segment of the main quest, there are some oddities in there that foreshadow what's to come but it happens so fast I've never really taken it all in.)

On PL, in macro terms I think it's pretty clear that helping So Mi is absolutely, 100% the wrong thing to do and by doing so you stand to unleash some sort of AI hell on the world and humanity. The deal she made was to save herself at potentially the cost of literally everything.

On a human level it's nice to help her, though.

I don't think a playthrough of PL really feels complete without playing both endings because they're so different and each fills in different aspects of the lore. Also, seeing Cyberpunk descend into full-blown horror was a trip.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

ok. So the arasaka ending. What is happening with the big tv screens in the CEO Yorinobu's room? it shows Paris, Dubai, other places on a world map going RED. What is happening there? I feel like this was very important but was explained poorly...

It is implied that those cities or possibly the entire world are experiencing a catastrophe due to V's actions at the tower. That confuses me. Like, there's a virus? Or Arasaka released bombs everywhere? V says 'Terror'. I have no clue what is happening there. Does anyone know? I mean if you get into that room it means you did NOT use the ALT Cunningham AI, so Arasaka should not be experiencing a system meltdown or damage to Mikoshi..

As reference from my very cursory google search, I found this old reddit post, but found the answers and discussion in that reddit post to be lacking..

Yep, Yorinobu, like Johnny, seek to put an end to Saburo reign... The red dots on the map are all the Arasaka HQs which start to be "dismantled" or "be set free".
Yorinobu always planned to destroy Arasaka/Saburo. At first, he plan to sap Saburo power by releaving some secrets to other (to Netwatch, the Relic 2.0 which do not work yet, but which could install an engram into a body and possibly making his father immortal) But during the heist, it didn't turn as planned and he killed his father in anger... But he saw it as a new oportunity to achieve his goal (that's why he didn't care that much about V. Likely expecting V to vanish).

Hence his dialogue lines during the Devil ending :
People have a chance today. But they lost it. To forget their fear (of Saburo). I would change that. Only if you didn't appear.
Fifty years ago terrorists blew this building into smoke. And...? What it give us? Nothing! But I learned lesson. If planting bombs not enough, what can you do? You become bomb.

In fact, all other endings than Devil, are endings in which Yorinubo will continue to sabotage Arasaka from the inside, to destroy Saburo's Legacy. That's why he kill his sister in each other endings, because she's entirely devoted to their father and will always try to bring back Saburo to "life".

And about Johnny's engram on the Relic, if you search in Yorinobu computer in the Konkepi during the heist, you can find a message between Yorinobu and a Netwatch agent (most likely Bryce Mosley, the guy you meet in the Grand Imperial Mall to help Voodoo Boys) in which Yorinobu say that he put something special on the Relic as additional gift (gift, which is indeed, Johnny Silverhand engram).

At the end, that's why this ending is named "Devil Ending" because you're siding with Saburo, who is one of the most (if not the most) devilish character in this univers and so, Arasaka become more powerful than ever.

Edit : And you might ask why Johnny Silverhand engram can be considered as a "gift"?
Because it bring some serious evidences that Johnny and his team broadcasted an alert warning people of what will happen, they did not kill thousands people, his nuke didn't blew up City Center but only caused serious damages at the 30th floor of the tower and finally Johnny wasn't killed in the explosion but later on Arasaka's boat (aircraft carrier) by soul killer... unlike what Arasaka/Militech propaganda claimed at time.

 

[JackiesBasketball]

Ok now that is a more satisfying answer about the Devil Ending. Thank you everyone.
I guess the person from that old reddit post was right. But I take your opinions more seriously. Cheers.

 

[Techraider]

I prefer to help So Mi too and the fact that she sends a item to you later in the game, lets you know she did not forget about you and what you did. I would venture to say she is trying to figure out how to help V.