The *real* star of Phantom Liberty

 Proof that most humans have terrible judgement.

Now that Phantom Liberty is out on the streets and we've already reached the nauseating moment where my fellow 'opinion writers' slither out the ooze to pen such ludicrous nonsense such as 'Cyberpunk was always a Masterpiece'; deftly sliding past the year of genuine non-functional play and the nearly three full years of an absolutely failure to deliver on the basic fantasy of an extra-legal mercenary who commits crimes. ("In Night City- what makes you a criminal?" About three extra years of development and a reported $108 million dollars more of investment.) In this space I think we're far enough along to start talking about brass tacks involving Phantom Liberty, such as the make-up of it's narrative. Although if you are adverse to spoilers, I'd advise giving this blog a little skip. Cheers.

First of, it's pretty obvious going into Phantom Liberty that V is by no means the main character of the narrative. They are strung along on a vague promise of being saved from the life-threatening affliction slowly eating away at their skull, but are swept up in the wave of the true centre of events within the DLC which is, spoiler warning again, revealed to be Song So Mi- better known as Songbird. Songbird, the hacker girl faced opposite Idris Elba's Solomon Reed sets off to orchestrate events in a bid just as desperate as V's. Does this then make her the star of Phantom Liberty? That was a question I had bubbling around my head whilst playing through events and trying to predict exactly how the community would receive the character and player interactions.

Of course if you ask me, the standout character was power-mommy President Rosalind Myers, who blasts her way through her chunk of the narrative equipped with nothing but an assault rifle and a particularly form-fitting pant suit. Because at the end of the day narrative and story standouts are merely the characters we come to like the most and want to see more of. Cyberpunk players tend to be particularly romance starved after being teased Baldur's Gate 3 style partners left right and centre before being relegated to a meagre selection of partners, one each dystopian assigned per gender and orientation like this is 'Brave New World' or something. From the word rip I assumed that people would flock to the DLC hoping for a new victi- I mean romantic conquest, to spruce up the cast; only to be disappointed after CDPR specifically said all they would do is reinforce existing romances throughout Phantom Liberty. (AS if; I'm pretty sure my girl Panam only got four or five new lines in the entire expansion.) Still, at least we get the chance to ask the President on a date.

I figured the Internet would go hungry again without anyone to lay their simp-like devotions upon. I mean sure, we do get Solomon Reed who by the very nature of his actor will elucidate swoons; (even if he does equip that curious American accent instead of his natural British) and then we get a moment of So Mi in that dress. (That thing looked like it had to be soldered onto her body for how low-cut it was. Girl nearly turned a cocktail party in a sleezy club bash by her mere presence.) But boy was I not prepared when the real star appeared, and in doing so stole the hearts of an entire community awash with people who, by my estimations, have never been aggressively flirted at in their entire lives. No shade here, most people are statistically awful at flirting, I am certainly no exception in that regard. Still, Aurore is something else.

A pair of twins you have to schmooze during an infiltration mission in order to... well you have to copy their faces with technology that requires recording their... various moods? (Look, I don't think it makes a lot of sense but it's an excuse to get up close to Aurore and I think we can all forgive that.) Everything changed the second the player sits at that roulette table and realises "Oh god! She's French." That is playing dirty, CDPR! You can't just take your insanely attractive character models and give them one of the most genetically sexy accents on this planet of ours! It makes your fanbase go wild. Don't you remember what happened when you did that with Anna Henrietta, giving her a Spanish accent? Gods, they never learn...

Aurore is perhaps one of the most cleverly placed NPCs I've seen in a CDPR game yet, both in the way she's performed and the role she plays. Firstly, she instantly charms the character by being a playful flirt, which naturally makes the average player feel closer to her despite the fact she and her brother are thieves with aspirations towards becoming arms dealers in the near future. V is intentionally told that the plan will involve first copying their faces, then 'kidnapping' the two of them to get them out of the picture and replace them. Then, spoilers, during the actual hijacking of their Car, Reed brutally kills both of them whilst mounting the very sound arguement of 'Why would we keep them alive? It makes much more sense to keep them out of the way for good'. All of this happens after the player has been introduced to the impending rift between Reed's plans for So-Mi and Songbird's plan to escape and right before the moment of truth where you get to decide.

Before Aurore's introduction and murder, the choice between Reed and So-Mi was based purely on feels and who you were gelling more with. And at the point, honestly, So-Mi was the more deceptive, having lied to the President and essentially you in order to set events into motion in the first place. They spun way out of her planning, but that just makes her look incompetent. Reed, on the otherhand, is just a bit surly. He's otherwise a straight shooter. Until Aurore. Although it's entirely illogical the very fact that an attractive character with a slight bit of chemistry with the player is murdered by surprise is enough to retexture your relationship with Reed and it's done so close to the big decision moment that the player isn't given enough space to come to the conclusion that the killing is ultimately inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, the twins weren't exactly nice people to begin with. The very meat of the moral dilemma between the biggest decision in the DLC is largely built upon one irresponsibly attractive French woman's death, who would've thought?

Of course, there are those who got a little bit too unreasonably attached to a shameless flirt and ask why Aurore isn't a romance option- to which the answer should be painfully obvious. Honestly I never could understand why so many wanted to romance Blue Moon despite her relationship with V being entirely transactional with no real personal rapport beyond that brief three mission exchange. I suppose Cyberpunk fans are so starved for options they've take any slight human interaction, and as superficial and not-serious as Aurore's small scene is- that was enough to get people's hopes up. Me, stepping back and seeing the cold calculated nature of her existence and driving force in the plot is enough to make me clap my hands in bitter resignation. You got us good, CDPR; you got us good...