I was going through the House of Ballads questline today, and took it all the way to the final showdown with the Maid of Windmyre. The whole time, I was as threatening as possible, choosing the "I'm going to kill you" option whenever she showed up. I got in battle with her, and towards the end, activated Reckoning Mode (guitar squeal). I beat her the rest of the way down and prepped for the camera shift that comes with the special kill. What I didn't know was that there was going to be more dialogue at the end. I was already hitting buttons when some options came up. Next thing I know, she's telling me how alike we are, and how she'll prepare things for our future. I chased her around the hall swinging my chakrams, but it didn't matter.

So, yeah. I gave the entire House of Ballads over to the bad guy. I think I'm her lover as well.

I don't think this quest is about good versus evil. In my opinion it's more along the lines of tradition versus revolution. The way they live the same life over and over again seems horrible and I can sympathize with wanting to break free of that cycle. I chose tradition in the end even though I thought her revolutionary thinking paralleled my situation as the Fateless One. She just wanted what I had: the freedom to make your own destiny.

I probably would have caught that, if I hadn't skipped the last bit of text in the effort to kill her. That's the irritating part; I don't know what she said or what my options were. Besides, I don't really thing she had much freedom, being under the influence of that crystal. Plus the fact that I had to mow down the entire court of ballads, who she had brainwashed, doesn't help her case much.

Good points. Maybe she was trying to persuade us to her side simply because she was tired of being defeated by Sagrell. If we choose to let her live and make her own destiny will she continue on as she's portrayed by the House of Ballads or would she truly walk a different path?

I did that on purpose. Bunch of fake heroes living out the same events over and over again ad infinitum. It isn't really courage when you already know how everything's gonna pan out, now is it?

One thing I've noticed about Reckoning is that there aren't any real good vs evil situations. Sure you can find some poor sod getting attacked by Barghest, and choose to help them, but that's just being a decent person. I'm referring to the Houses and sidequests. I've played through Ballads (conceptually one of the best things to come along in RPGs in a long time), Travelers, Warsworn, and am now doing the House of Sorrows. Outside of the Warsworn, which was a pretty standard warrior hero quest line, a lot of the plots and decisions you make wind up being morally grey, at best. Like @sergeantz I chose to break the cycle for the House of Ballads. I did it more for the poor bastards who had to keep reliving their demise over and over again, but it felt like the right thing to do.

I'm 50 hours in and I still keep coming back to the House of Ballads as my favourite quest line. It wasn't balls-out awesome in the obvious sense, but it was really well done.

PRO TIP always make a hard save before any significant battle or quest. in any RPG ever.

Button mashing is your enemy. Also, this seems like bad design.

I just got through with Ballad's, and yeah, it was weird how the dialogue stop was right before you toss her on the spike. I barely saw the responses as I was mashing too, and I got the traditional ending, and that's fine for me as that's what I would've chosen anyway. Excellent questline.

@MikeGosot said:

Button mashing is your enemy. Also, this seems like bad design.

Unless you are in Reckoning Mode (hell, yeah). Then you are supposed to hammer the hell out of those buttons for max experience.

I completed this quest by not killing her too, and it sounded like she would make some space for me or something, like I would get a house at her place maybe, but I didn't get a follow-up quest. Does she return later, does anyone know?

@MikeGosot said:

Button mashing is your enemy. Also, this seems like bad design.

Unless you are in Reckoning Mode (hell, yeah). Then you are supposed to hammer the hell out of those buttons for max experience.

That's funny that fucking dialogue box popped up for me mid combo and I selected a different option which wasn't the one I wanted. I wonder if this is something Big Huge Games will patch if they even do a lot of post launch support for the game because that was damn annoying.

@Flaboere: If you go to the House of Ballads throne room, she's just chilling out there. She says some stuff about regaining glory for the house and beating the Tuatha, but as far as quests or other content, that seems to be it.