Siding with Songbird is a ripoff

[Vakula]

Siding with Reed is so much more fun and fleshed out. If you side with Song all you do is take her to the airport, fight hordes of dudes, and then get a cutscene. Siding with Reed you get to fight MaxTac, chill more with Reed, fight Hansen and get his weapons, get a whole Cynosure scary section, get Blackwall weapons, and get to say FU to the president, get to actually learn Songs backstory. I decided to replay and its so much better. I wager most people wont bother replaying the missions and will potentially miss out on so much cool content. Wish they put as much effort into the Songbird path.

[Ez Duzit]

After playing thru a few times and doing the various PL endings, I realized how bad a choice Song really is and it's got nothing to do with game content. They make her situation and yours kinda similar so you would have sympathy for her and help her out. But once you have all the info you have to realize how bad a person she is.

People will say it's Reeds fault for recruiting her, and Myers fault for manipulating her into using the blackwall. And they would be correct but So-mi still has to take some responsibility for what she has done and what she has become. You can't put all that on Reed and Myers. Surely Song got a pretty good rush from the power of it all at the beginning. But even when she realized how it was making her sick, she couldn't, or wouldn't stop. Kind of like an addict. At some point SHE sold her soul to keep getting that rush. But to keep doing it, she had to become a seriously damaged individual. She didn't just lose her moral compass, SHE COMPLETELY SMASHED IT. Maybe it was the blackwalls doing, but by the time we meet Song, she was already incredibly evil. Willing to kill hundreds to save herself even after admitting how she doesn't deserve it after all she has done. That's pure evil. I mean she's willing to kill everyone at the stadium to escape. Pure evil.
She manipulated you kind of like Reed originally manipulated her. And most people still don't realize the brutal truth which is, SHE NEVER HAD ANY INTENTION OF HELPING YOU. From the moment you meet her and first go thru Dogtowns gate SHE KNEW you weren't getting the cure. PURE EVIL.
Which is why helping her is a really bad choice.

Also, as already mentioned, it's just more fun to help Reed.

[Vakula]

Originally posted by Ez Duzit:

After playing thru a few times and doing the various PL endings, I realized how bad a choice Song really is and it's got nothing to do with game content. They make her situation and yours kinda similar so you would have sympathy for her and help her out. But once you have all the info you have to realize how bad a person she is.

People will say it's Reeds fault for recruiting her, and Myers fault for manipulating her into using the blackwall. And they would be correct but So-mi still has to take some responsibility for what she has done and what she has become. You can't put all that on Reed and Myers. Surely Song got a pretty good rush from the power of it all at the beginning. But even when she realized how it was making her sick, she couldn't, or wouldn't stop. Kind of like an addict. At some point SHE sold her soul to keep getting that rush. But to keep doing it, she had to become a seriously damaged individual. She didn't just lose her moral compass, SHE COMPLETELY SMASHED IT. Maybe it was the blackwalls doing, but by the time we meet Song, she was already incredibly evil. Willing to kill hundreds to save herself even after admitting how she doesn't deserve it after all she has done. That's pure evil. I mean she's willing to kill everyone at the stadium to escape. Pure evil.
She manipulated you kind of like Reed originally manipulated her. And most people still don't realize the brutal truth which is, SHE NEVER HAD ANY INTENTION OF HELPING YOU. From the moment you meet her and first go thru Dogtowns gate SHE KNEW you weren't getting the cure. PURE EVIL.
Which is why helping her is a really bad choice.

Also, as already mentioned, it's just more fun to help Reed. :lunar2019grinningpig:

I agree with you, but you cant say it doesnt have anything to do with content. Both things are true. Shes a bad person, she isnt fun to help in the end, it doesnt feel good to send her to the moon. She manipulates you and screws you over, and you dont even get a cathartic release cuz she passes out after you find out. ON TOP OF THAT, the game content for helping her is vastly subpar to helping Reid - you dont learn her actual back story, no fight with MaxTac, no fight / weapons from Cole Hansen, no Blackwall tech for you, no cool survival horror segment. All you get is a lame airport level where you fight a few waves of goons and a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ending sequence.

[John Bayes]

Siding with Songbird is not a rip off. It is the best ending for PL. I highly recommend getting all of the endings for the full aspects of the lore. But helping So Mi is best because she is a victim in all of this. Get her to the moon is the phantom liberty she deserves and its the only way for her get some sense of justice in this unjust and abusive world.

Reed is loyal to Myers and stubborn to a fault. He is a good character but his loyalty and principles is protecting Myers and she is the villain all of this. As she is controlling it all and is responsible for it all. She KNEW poking holes in the blackwall was putting the world in danger, but she did it anyway. She KNEW it was hurting So Mi, but she did anyway. She even got So Mi to betray Reed 7 years prior, and at the end, you can do nothing to stop her.

And in the end of it all, who does So Mi blame? Herself.

[Vakula]

Originally posted by John Bayes:

Siding with Songbird is not a rip off. It is the best ending for PL. I highly recommend getting all of the endings for the full aspects of the lore. But helping So Mi is best because she is a victim in all of this. Get her to the moon is the phantom liberty she deserves and its the only way for her get some sense of justice in this unjust and abusive world.

Reed is loyal to Myers and stubborn to a fault. He is a good character but his loyalty and principles is protecting Myers and she is the villain all of this. As she is controlling it all and is responsible for it all. She KNEW poking holes in the blackwall was putting the world in danger, but she did it anyway. She KNEW it was hurting So Mi, but she did anyway. She even got So Mi to betray Reed 7 years prior, and at the end, you can do nothing to stop her.

And in the end of it all, who does So Mi blame? Herself.

Not even close. Song gets herself in over her head with trying to make easy money ripping off corpos. Shes not an innocent victim, she suffers the consequences of her own choices. More over she constantly burns people who try their best to help her, manipulates, lies, and betrays to further her own selfish goals. This ♥♥♥♥♥ was willing to torch a stadium full of people more innocent than herself, make them victims to survive.

By the end, V has no rational cause to feel sorry for her or help her. We dont even know her as the player, we see her for all of 3 minutes, she burns us, and we are supposed to feel bad for her and sacrifice everything for her wellbeing? Nonsense.

On top of it, as I said many times, the content is inferior to siding with Reed.

The only reason people feel bad for her is "muh cute asian grill".

[PraetorXyn]

No it isn't, it's the only way to get the Quantum Tuner, which is by far the best ending reward.

[Vakula]

Originally posted by PraetorXyn:

No it isn't, it's the only way to get the Quantum Tuner, which is by far the best ending reward.

Hardly better than Canto. Plus no cyberware is worth how much quality content you miss out on comparatively - boss fights, tons more unique weapons, a whole unique level with a unique encounter, maxtac setup fight, songbirds whole backstory, etc.

Also why the hell are you necroing a thread from last year?

[Saranghaeyo]

Originally posted by Forblaze:

Originally posted by Vakula:

Yeah selling out Song sucks. You get saved, but you lose your whole identity and profession, become just a victim of corpos or crime in waiting. It also doesnt make sense, cuz why would the friends whose lives you saved multiple times and gone out of your way for all desert you? The devs just wanted to make a depressing ending to be deep.

V is never not a victim of corps. Everyone is a victim by the nature of how they impact society. No matter how strong V is, they can't meaningfully change that.

You dont need a 10 foot vertical leap to enjoy life. I agree that your friends abandon you way too easily, but V has plenty of life left to live to find new purpose. Considering the alternative is just dying, it seems like a pretty easy calculation to me.

Not gonna lie, I just finished the game, and this encapsulates all my thoughts. Sorry for resurrecting such an old thread though.