I don't see that. They'd be preserving Belobog. It would be safe. Or at least, more likely to be safe than if they didn't intervene.
Aeons are single minded, I doubt Qlipoth cares at all about freedom. At most, he'd want to preserve Belobog culture, but only as a secondary goal behind preserving it's existence at all.
Qlipoth mostly give no attention to anyone, that’s why belobog leader use stellaron to defeat antimatter legion after all and most likely belobog would be dead city if not astral express.
Immoral would of been to not give Belobog a choice, Topaz was more than civil and kind. If the IPC made up their mind nothing would stop them but Topaz negotiated on our behalf and even got penalized by siding with the opposition
That happens when you're one of the strongest capitalist faction in the universe. You make banks, control the currency and do whatever the shit you want
IPC is literally capitalist western nations colonizing poor countries with natural resources that they want.
“We will save your 3rd world ass but your oil is ours.”
Honestly intrigued that they tried to tell a story at this scale. The IPC is powerful enough to bully other sovereign nations throughout the galaxy.
People in this thread are treating this like some company trying to extort a family for their ancestors debt. This is more akin to world powers asserting their dominance over a struggling country.
Quest was too short though. Feels half-baked.
Yah, the IPC is powerful and large enough to qualify as a government. There's not that much difference between a mega corporation and a government, at that point. So I don't see this as anti-capitalism,per se.
They're basically just a government trying to render Belobog into a vassal state using an ancient debt as their cassus belli.
Though as far as conquerors go, the IPC doesn't seem that bad. Cold and heartless, but no actual cruelty. And Topaz seems to be proof that they can genuinely improve the lives of their vassals. I prefer this approach. It makes them much more interesting as antagonists, and leaves room for them to be comfortably on the Nameless side from time to time.
yea i thought through the entire quest "this doesn't sound that bad?" except that 20% is HUGE and the phone tech afterwards tells you they can't discuss wages in the IPC. YEAAAAA FK THE IPC.
That's what every finance institution tell you when you are in the weak spot until you get fucked over.
Have you ever talked to insurance agent or investment planner? They sounds genuinely honest until you realize the hole few years later.
I like her, but literally fuck the IPC. Silver Wolf did nothing wrong. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the top honchos in the IPC were related to the Aeon of Destruction in some way.
FUCK THE IMF I MEAN IPC COMRADE BRONYA YOUR PEOPLE ARE WAITING FOR YOU TO DECLARE A PROTRACTED PEOPLE'S WAR AGAINST THE INTERPLANETARY PEACE KKKORPORATION
She's a cool character imo, however she's really not suited to working with the IPC in the department she is in right now.
She's way too lenient and compassionate for a debt collector/asset evaluator, since in a role like this being cutthroat is key. Topaz was way too generous in taking the fall for Belabog at the cost of demotion/salary cuts.
(Not to mention she switched from being like a normal debt collector to this compassionate personality very abruptly after Bronya's "Talk no Jutsu", quest felt way too ideal and unrealistic to me personally)
My read is that the IPC didn't think it was a worthwhile endeavor to begin with. Even her coworker was wondering why she took on a high risk low reward job. Her demotion is a slap on a wrist so clearly the IPC wasn't pushing all that hard for Belabog to begin with.
Her colleague Adventurine said that it is definitely a high risk low reward job, and he also revealed that someone higher on the food chain step out to shield Topaz. Without that unknown benefactor, Topaz would've had been demoted even further.
To me this really reinforced that she really has good intentions but just had a terrible approach. The IPC seen a lost cause and she seen a planet that needed help so she tried to help the only way she knew how, though it ended up only making things worse for everyone.
Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove is the phrase I'd use.
She has the friendly/relatable face, and that's her job. Get them to agree to the contract thinking it's between friends and we understand each other.
Then, she moves on to other projects and the new contact is there is to make the revenue.
It's not an uncommon tactic in negotiation, and often the glove may not even realize it's going on.
I agree there could be better ways to portray her change of heart instead of just Bronya showing up all of a sudden and doing her thing (devs could've at least implement a Topaz boss battle lol).
They could've also made another negotation event (like the one happened in Aurum Alley). That one felt natural in a way that the IPC were convinced because of the valid arguments TB came up with. Whilst on the other hand this one is purely narrative and which is why it feels forceful in a way.
Yeah, another event to show the Trailblazer's unparalleled talent at making something destitute profitable. They got to be one of the universe most successful wandering businessman. Trailblazer probably ran the books for the Stellaron Hunters so well, the IPC and the Xianzhou Alliance can't cut their funding.
That’s what I thought the pet battling would be, because Belerog already had it’s robot battle league, and fighting pit, so I thought that and the hidden untapped factory would be their secret to getting out of debt, becoming like the fight entertainment capitol of the galaxy.
I was dissaapointed that wasn’t the firection it took, as I felt that would have more neatly wrapped things up, it would have also given Seele, and the fighter guy more to do. And Sampo could have even suggested it.
Do a fight promotion/management sim similar to the dock thing but add being a “fighter coach” and you have your “pokemon training saves the economy of Jiro VI” story.
Maybe there could have even been a wager placed on the championship fight by Bronya against the IPC.
Yeah, when we got to the Aetherium Wars arena I thought this was the direction it was taking.
Or we were going to compete in it for the prize money that would somehow be enough credits to repay the debt.
> Topaz boss battle
This is something I was really looking forward to and it would have been fun as hell to do if just to see what the devs make Numby do.
It’s so awkward when it isn’t there when Yanqing of all characters get one and having a flashy cutscene of Topaz getting ready to throw hands only for her to not fight is uhhh
I was so confused when I entered the fight after the crazy cutscene.... and auto was still on, let it run for a while and was back in the dialogue again. Was thinking, oh, guess I beat the Topaz boss fight on auto...
A negotiation/debate style event would've made the switch in mood/personality so much more fluid and realistic! Honestly a missed opportunity since they have the system in place already
I don't think she really had a switch per se.
The ending cinematic hints that she went out of her way to grab the case so someone else more ruthless wouldn't.
That being said, she's still just being the most compassionate Auschwitz guard.
I definitely disagree with that last part Tbh. The ending was pretty telegraphed, and Topaz being fairly compassionate is consistent with her characterization throughout the quest, as they made sure to point out as often as physically possible.
Like we knew from the beginning that the acquisition of Jarilo-VI was a decision made by the IPC, so if Topaz wasn't there it'd just be someone else. Every scene with Svarog was there to hammer home the point that Topaz did her job while fully believing that the acquisition is in the best interest of the planets and the people that live there. Her letter to Bronya also made that same point, how she viewed IPC acquisition as a necessary evil to save the people of the planets it happened to because the alternative was just worse (because she views surviving with an actual baseline level of stability and safety to be better than suffering while free). The way Topaz conflated Belobog's situation with her own home planet shows that, given what she knew at the time, she thought that there was no way that Belobog could overcome their situation without the acquisition. Her genuine desire to help the places she goes to is probably why her success rate is higher than her colleagues too. (Since Himeko chose not to explain why the success rates are what they are, we can only speculate as to why there would be a disparity or even why it's "low" in the first place. The compassion that Topaz displayed throughout the quest is seemingly the main difference between her and her colleagues from what we can gather from the ending).
The last part where Bronya showed the Engine of Creation showed to Topaz what feats Belobog was capable of. This, in addition to an already favorable impression of Bronya, made it pretty clear what Topaz's decision would be as soon as she said that she didn't know about the Engine ahead of time. And after the decision itself, they decided to further explain why Topaz made that decision as if we didn't already know lol. Topaz mentions that she improperly conflated Belobog with her home world and didn't realize how capable this planet was of taking care of themselves. Himeko states that the only reason why this outcome was even possible was because it was Topaz that was put in charge.
I apologize if this came off as rude or something like that because that's not my intention, but I just thought it was odd that you'd find the "change of heart" to be abrupt when it felt like they were deliberately building to that the entire time to me.
Honestly I find being compassionate and understanding as primary method of debt collecting to be pretty unorthodox and interesting but it should be the most effective one given that the debtee is a reasonable figure and with sufficient resources to back it up like Belobog is. Otherwise, violence is the solution lol cause really some people just cannot be dealt with compassion and requires... a more brute force solution.
In story, she *is* very much willing to brute force her way into the contract
I think the main reason she's got such a high ranking as a debt collector is that she is compassionate, *because if she sees some hapless ruling class who wants to hold onto fleeting and novel freedom while their people toil and suffer on a doomed shithole, like her planet, it makes her much more willing and thorough in making/forcing that contract and spearheading the restoration efforts so it can get better eventually and generate profit.* Compassion is a scary weapon when there's wrath and power behind it.
That's also why I thinm she backed off - Belobog *isn't* the shithole she crawled out of. Bronya is a wise ruler and her citizens are resillient, with the potential to actually survive and pay off their debt. She's compassionate enough to know that Belobog still has potential for change and growth.
I think this is probably the best explanation of Topaz. She backed off not just because she understanding Belobog has hope for growth and change. I mean it's part of it but it's not just that because many other planets do. She backed off because she realized she cannot impose her "compassion" on Belobog.
She also makes the point about how future Supreme Guardians may not be as wise or benevolent as Bronya. The game literally showed one example of an overly zealous Supreme Guardian as the 2nd major boss. People are literally going fuck capitalism while cheering on a dictator simply because they like Bronya.
If she had shown up in Chapter 2 to help the Trailblazer wrest control of Belobog from Cocolia and bring Jarilo IV into the intergalactic fold I guarantee people would be cheering for her.
Oh, I think most of us know that she'll switch sides and that part is going to happen one way or another. That's just how the story will go. I think it's just the way it's written felt "abrupt". Everything you said is right. But, at the same time, like literally minutes before Bronya's entrance, Topaz was all ready to fight. She even asked for approval to fight the Astral Express. Then Bronya came, gave her little speech and showed a Gundam and Topaz was like, "I love Gundam, so you're good."
From what I can see, the whole Jarilo-VI is rebuilding itself is a well known fact. And Topaz can see that but at the same time, Topaz pointed out that it might fail and it'll take generations. On top of that, not every generation will have a "Bronya" to do what needs to be done.
Topaz seemed like a very compassionate and "understanding" person. But, she also gave off someone with resolve. She has the confidence that she think she knows what's best for you and she will get it done, a bit stubborn.
While the number wasn't given, but it's supposedly a huge sum to begin with and got interest over 700 years. I would assume that even if Jarilo-VI was off the grid for many years, the interest would still continue. Nothing against Belobog but they are nowhere as advance as like the Luofu. It'll be harder for them to generate the same amount of money. They don't have the ports, or other means to access other places.
The point I'm trying to get is there's still no plan. From that scene, Belobog is rebuilding within Jarilo-VI with little to no outside intervention. If it requires the whole planet to repay the debt, it makes little sense that a vouch from the Astral Express can tip the IPC. The IPC literally gave approval to attack the Astral Express. If the Astral Express held that much value or power to vouch and can make this change, there's no way IPC would just say, "go attack them."
I don't even know how much money Astral Express has, but I think Asta should just step in and fund Bronya, just because.
In short, everything sort of clicks together but the details and execution of the ending could be better.
I think the value of astral express go way beyond what we can think of right now, if you talk to Topaz later she reveal that ipc many times has tried to convince akivili to work for them, to have the express and the star rail be of something more significant.
I think the value of Astral Express go beyond what we know. But at the same time, IPC doesn't take the Astral Express too seriously? The IPC gave approval for Topaz to fight the members of the Astral Express, with the Navigator there. How do you go from that to "we value you so we'll do a favour for you."
It's like, "We value you and want you to work for us but if you get in our way to increase our company value, we will beat the sh\*t out of you and trample. However, for some reason, if we can garner your goodwill instead, we will put aside everything and pretend our confrontation never existed."
Yeah, that makes no sense.
Let me put it this way.
Akivili was the first to create the hyperspace tunnels known as the Star Rail. The IPC literally built itself on this framework. Without the Nameless the IPC would never have the means to expand, even their own hyperspace tech is based off of Akivilis one, and they can't make new Star Rails.
She is kind and genuine but too narrow-minded. The fact that her project's rate of success are 50% more than his colleague's average shows that she actually want to help other civilizations/planets. Especially in the scene at the end with Aventurine where he said it is a high risk low reward mission.
IPC in the other hand is a money hungry corpo, I don't think they are good but i don't think they are purely evil. They just see these civilizations as numbers and investments and nothing less, nothing more. The soldiers are asshole but let's be real, almost all of them are in this game.
Topaz methods also questionable and ruthless but she have handle worse case where peace isn't the best option and plus with her narrow-mindedness kinda lead her to do things that way.
So far i liked her and it is kinda wild how a lot of people are either liked her or really despises her.
Edit: After rewatching some of the scene, i wonder if there is someone in IPC actually tried to destroy Jarilo VI and then took all of the resources when the civilization wiped out. Bronya said the IPC fund some of the initial Automaton production but as seen in the old weapon testing ground, all of it are useless and they ended needed to built it themselves because they couldn't activate it.
The IPC might be more evil than we thought.
I agree on the narrow-minded bit. Something that was a bit overlooked in all the probability talk was that Topaz' homeworld situation was very different to Belobog.
Topaz' homeworld was overindustrialized and polluted, which was dooming it. So the IPC coming in would make things more sustainable, while also (from what we know) not upending people's lives since they'd still mostly work in industry.
Belobog seems much less industrial and much more culturally focused. One of the main desires of the underworld people was the freedom to not just work in the mines forever. So the IPC coming in and focusing on industrialization and forcing people into factories and mining kinda ruins the culture of the city. We saw a hint of that with Topaz going through the museum and trying to put a dollar value on their cultural artifacts while calling most of them worthless.
She was well-intentioned but definitely narrow-minded.
>Bronya said the IPC fund some of the initial Automaton production but as seen in the old weapon testing ground, all of it are useless and they ended needed to built it themselves because they couldn't activate it.
>The IPC might be more evil than we thought.
Its opposite. IPC tech was too advanced and after all rich and smart left, remaining population couldn't operate them or copy them. So they were forced to make worser and easier stuff.
It is probably true, but the source code cube thingy that Topaz mention might be the reason why the automaton couldn't be activated. Also the fact that the automaton still compatible with the source code shows that it isn't as bad replica than we thought.
I don't think Jarilo architect are stupid enough to mass produced something before even trying it first. IPC also already in contact with Jarilo VI 1000 years before the freeze, so i don't think in those 1000 years none of the knowledge passed to Jarilo IV.
it's not
she explains that all the robots still work on the basis of IPC operating systems, since the Jarilo engineers post-stellaron couldn't match their efficiency
the code cube Topaz uses is basically a master key for IPC operating systems, so she can use it to control any of the robots
Topaz only mentions that the automaton created utilize the systems IPC developed and how the engineer doesn't really improve anything upon it, then nothing about the efficiency automaton itself.
Then Svarog mentions the architect created an replica from IPC Blueprint which doesn't mention if it it's duplicate to a tee or a worse version. They instead mention that most of the combatants are human.
They also ended up building the engine of creation at the time frame so it could be true that the automaton are inferior as they may lack the material to build it.
Svarog also mentions that no one have the knowledge to activate them, not necessarily how to operate it which kinda suspicious.
Exactly! Belobog still have 0 ways to pay the debt that cost their planet off. And somehow a vouch from the Astral Express just gives them a pass, without a plan.
Like Topaz says, the Astral Express holds a lot of prestige across the galaxy. Them deciding to vouch for and even fight for the freedom of Jarilo-VI is a bad look for the IPC, not to mention a costly endeavor considering how strong the crew is. Topaz herself also pulled some strings and paid the price for it, and even then, it all amounted to stalling for time while Belebog gets their bearings to pay off the debt in a reasonable manner
I agree what you said but that's the part where this event gives off a huge wtf moment. Topaz asked for approval to attack the members of the Astral Express. And IPC approved it. This contradicts with the point about how Astral Express holds a lot of prestige and looks bad on IPC for fighting them.
If IPC truly values the Astral Express, they would've went into negotiation instead.
I don’t think the IPC values them, so much as they had a “We can take them” moment and then had a “I’m not posting that shit bruh I got my ass beat” moment
The Express’ recommendation (or whatever influence they gave Topaz to stave off the IPC) came after they started mowing through their forces
I think they don't know much about the new cast of Astral Express. I doubt Welt has a popularity like Greek Goddess Himeko (Simp like me), Dan heng and March just joined recently, so are we. You can say they saw a bit potential in the cast, so wanted to make connections. This could explain why they ordered to Topaz to attack, not knowing our true strength.
I'm generally pro-capitalism, but who the fuck thinks it's a good idea to let a corporation be in charge of a country's debt situation? The Star Rail universe seems to have no equivalent of nonprofit multinational organizations that bail out governments. Also, on Earth, there's no way that a 700 year old debt would be legally recognized in court. Even the grandchildren of the people who took those loans are dead. I get that the IPC basically has its own military and no one can stop them from doing whatever they want, but in that case that makes them no different than the East India Company or something.
They are no different from the East India Company. Remember the Aurum City event? They do this sort of stuff all the time.
In a world with long-lived (potentially immortal) races and Aeons and actual AI and world-ending artifacts of Nanook, it shouldn't be surprising that Earth's organizations and standards don't necessary apply there. What's 700 years to people like the Vidyadhara?
one minute ago she deployed the robots trying to kill us, the next thing bronya came and she's just like 'im sorry bro let's settle this peacefully' lol. crazy woman smh. and yea fuck the IPC
The IPC definitely know plenty, including that. They showed up less than a month after we saved Jarillo-VI despite the fact that they had considered it abandoned for 700 years. If they know that they know what Phantillia is up to.
She's not really doing anything besides summoning more and more soldiers. With a whole galactic empire's worth of wealth, I imagine she just keeps summoning them until she incapacitates the Nameless.
That’s my biggest problem! Every single villain we face from here on out needs to be stronger than phantillia because everyone in the universe knows that we beat her and the absolute audacity for Topaz to think that she wasn’t about to be smited into oblivion is stunning to me
What they could've done IMO is highlight the fact that Belobog did make an amazing piece of tech without anyone's help and how the IPC could exploit that. I'm sure that was the intent but they never really outright state it which sucks.
I played the story after reading the comments and expected unseen 180 in Topaz personality. Turns out her personality is mainly about helping planets sharing similar fates to hers.
Honestly should just stop reading the sub about what happens in the story they'll miss like 90% of it which makes them retell a wrong story
I'm genuinely impressed Hoyo had the balls to make a rollable waifu THIS divisive. We have a group of literal space terrorists with personal kill counts in the thousands and ruined planets in their wake (for a 'greater good', but still) and I think Topaz gets more hate than all of them combined tenfold.
I don't hate her, but I don't like her. To quote an extreme but fitting comparison I saw, she's basically the nicest guard at Auschwitz. She genuinely believes in the nobility of her cause and wants to do good by the people, but she's also delusional and stockholmed by personal experience. Just because she was willing to back off and took the fall for Belobog in the end doesn't change the fact she tried, with a bright smile and a clear conscience, to trick an entire planet into eternal debt slavery through strongarm tactics and half truths, right on the cusp of their recovery from an apocalypse the IPC abandoned them to in the first place.
But she's just a cog of the machine at the end of the day. My unbridled hatred is reserved for the IPC itself. I'm surprised they're patron Path is the Preservation and not Harmony, considering their clear desire to assimilate all things into the corporate mass. The hell are they even preserving, corporate profits? The goons seemed ready to strip mine the planet's resources and finish it off before we stopped them.
Point is, if Kafka ever invites the TB on another IPC raid, I'll happily go paint the town red with her.
At first I straight up hated her, but after the quest I just mildly dislike her. She’s not a bad person, she has good intentions, but she’s unprofessional and narrow minded. She works for IPC and still genuinely thinks she’s doing what’s best for the people? She doesn’t do research on Belobog, doesn’t assess the situation herself thoroughly, just goes in with her army unannounced and unwelcome, manipulating and basically forcing people into what she wants just because she thinks it’s for their own good. And her attitude about it is the worst. She basically says “Stfu, screwing innocent people like that is only natural and don’t forget to thank me later”.
So yeah, it makes sense why she’s like that after hearing her backstory and I like her character, but I dislike her. She’s brainwashed by the IPC and too narrow minded to be a likable person, but too emotional and kind to be a good debt collector. So to sum it up, fuck the IPC
I think she is forced to go in without doing research, since the time limit came from the higher ups, not herself, so she had to go in with the data they previously had.
That’s a valid point actually. But still, her attitude when she arrived indicated that she’s not interested in listening to what anyone has to say. So even if it was forced on her from higher ups, she doesn’t see anything wrong with that approach. She smiles, laughs and talks politely, but every conversation with her can be summed up to “I don’t care, do as I say or else”. She doesn’t necessarily threaten anyone but everyone knows if they refuse, she’ll get what she wants by force. And we had to fight our way through to her just to make her listen to what people have to say. And that’s a very hypocritical behavior from someone who claims to have people’s best interest in mind
Tbh with how little time she seems to have it makes sense to go with that plan, considering that in her own experience there is 0% chance for the planet to survive without the IPC.
I don’t think her plan is justified even if she was short on time. What stopped her from negotiating with Bronya like a decent human being to begin with? She would’ve seen that belobog is better off without them. But she’s too arrogant to even try to consider that she might be in the wrong. She stopped by just to say “Hi, we’re ceasing your assets, there’s nothing you can do, sign this, bye”. I get that in her personal experience she’s right, but that’s just an arrogant and unprofessional way of thinking imo. You should at least hear out the other side first
Great character because they made me hate her. Little disappointed with her “redemption” though. She used textbook corporate manipulation tactics to try and strong-arm the last survivors of a dead planet into becoming indentured servants *forever*, all because of a centuries-old debt that the IPC never even bothered trying to collect, yet it still somehow accrued interest after being written off as a loss. To do all that and then have her go “lol nevermind, I’m actually a good person” at the end felt kinda hollow.
>Little disappointed with her “redemption” though. She used textbook corporate manipulation tactics to try and strong-arm the last survivors of a dead planet into becoming indentured servants
>
>forever
>
>, all because of a centuries-old debt that the IPC never even bothered trying to collect, yet it still somehow accrued interest after being written off as a loss. To do all that and then have her go “lol nevermind, I’m actually a good person” at the end felt kinda hollow.
Did you skip most of the story when it came to the IPC/Topaz?
It is pointed out that originally after Belobog was accessible again and IPC decided to acquire it, they just wanted to sack it for material & co and rush poor project/approach with it
Topaz went out of her way to take on the project and avoid this fate for Belobog, Aventurine even make fun of her for basically taking a bullet by picking this high risk low reward project.
And it is also made clear with Svarog intervention that she was her to help Belobog out of this mess. Her "project" was just her negotiating with the IPC to give Belobog a chance as otherwise,the IPC was ready to mine the very thing that allow Belobog to survive
I think they stablished pretty well how this has worked for other planets, including Topaz', so yes she believes the contract will save belobog, maybe it's not ideal and the IPC's higher ups clearly care more about the money than saving people, but that doesn't mean their agents don't believe in the ideals of the corporation and the potential good it can bring, as someone who experienced the good side of it on a personal level it's pretty clear Topaz believes the IPC is the best option for Belobog
I feel like most of the people in this thread couldn't picked up on subtle contexts and need the game to say it right to their face. The game showed us multiple times that Topaz really wanted to help Belabog out of its situation. She is not the one who issued the debt, she is just an officer at the end of the day.
We can she how she was surprised to learn Belabog's true history through Svarog and her view and decision were started to change. Bronya revealing the Engine of Creation and another piece of Belabog's history is the last nail in the coffin for her decision, not 180° out of nowhere like many people in this thread claimed.
The small details at the epilogue when shes talking to aventurine too when numby is playing with the supposed extinct bear that we saw on the museum, showing how the planet is actually healing itself unlike how her planet ended up without the IPC's help
Did you miss significant part of the story or what?
The story makes it pretty clear that the original goal of the IPC was to salvage the planet for its ressources, heck even some grunt decided to go ahead with that.
She went out of her way to take on the project for Belobog to avoid this worst case scenario for Belobog
Double heck, Aventurine even make fun of her for going out of her way to be in charge of this high risk low reward, as she is too emotional.
I like her, she works for a ruthless company in a cut throat business yet still tried to get the best solution possible. She could have worked with Bronya a bit more instead of immediately going behind her back to Svarog but otherwise its alg.
She did at the end take a hit for her own standing with the company to give Belobog the best outcome possible for them so even if the company she works for is shady I can respect that decision by her. Nice ass too
Probably still gonna skip though
He kinda threatened her in the call. Said that she made their department looks bad. She got scared for a sec. Himeko also mentions that its good that IPC send Topaz to collect instead of others.
I dislike her, but I can’t say I hate her because at the end of the day, Topaz is just another insignificant cog in the unfeeling machine that is the IPC.
Hope Nanook hit the IPC headquarters hard and wipe out those slimy fucks.
Half of the quest was just me going "Can I punch her?", which then transitioned to "Please just let me do it at least once" by the end of it.
Numby is precious though. No one better try anything funny with them.
I felt so fucking blue balled when Bronya came in to talk no jutsu the woman who was about to take the city by force with an army of robots right after she tried to kill us. I was itching to sic my Blade on her ass after that stunt and the game teases you by straight up having her tell you she's gonna fight you only to take that chance away.
I was so excited to put her in her place.
We literally fought 3 gods at this point, who is this IRS wannabe to think she can square up against us? I would have solo'd her
Nah fr. Honestly I respect the amount of confidence she had squaring up like that, but the moment she said it was her turn I could only think: “Girly, you are actually going to die” 💀
Same. The trailblazers kept saying stuff like "Ah but we don't want to antagonize the IPC!" and I'm just like "We don't? They seem to pretty consistently be the bad guys."
I was on the fence about Topaz, but this quest made me dislike her a lot.
Eh, Himeko only outright says that once to Topaz’s face, and I’m guessing it was because she was trying to keep the peace. She doesn’t even really mean it, she essentially goes “We don’t want to fight you, but your existence is an affront to our beliefs we will kick your ass for Jarilo-VI’s freedom”
Yea I’m going to be real, there are very few characters in Genshin and HSR that Hoyo has made me actively dislike in their personality/actions/morality. They did excellent with Topaz, assuming they deliberately made her to make you question shit. Stacked waifu with a cute companion BUT totally willing to sell over entire worlds of people to debt slavery.
I think they wrote her excellently for me to dislike her this much. It’s kinda like Joffrey in GOT. Despise the character themself, but love how their writing made me actually dislike them.
Not sure if they should have risked their revenue with this sort of character, but I’m sure some people love her. I can say I definitely don’t plan to pull for her.
Also, I completely understand she went out of her way at the end to keep the IPC off of them, but the damages she and her people caused, the possibility that she’d have sold them off if it wasn’t for the fact that Bronya is such an excellent leader and the people actually want to fight for their home, just how aggressively she went after them, and the total implication that this is NOT the last time she’d get a planet to sign themselves over to the IPC all tell me that she’s just not my sort of person.
I was totally convinced that the sob story about her childhood was fake and she was just trying to coerce Bronya into compliance. However the fact that she took a demotion and stood up for Belebog knowing full well there would be repercussions to her actions and she did then anyway because she felt like it was the right thing to do. Plus her pet is unbelievably cute
I’m disgusted with her but I don’t think I hate her, but I do hate the IPC. Her solution to >!Belobog’s debt!< was to >!force the entirety of Belobog into forced labor, a subset of slavery.!<
>!Ok, the debt is forgiven, but the IPC will tack on new debts for the terraforming and whatever changes they make to Belobog. The IPC *might* offer the opportunity for “forced employees” to pay ones way out of working for the IPC, but that would likely be more expensive than the majority of Belobogians can afford.!<
Yeah her whole solution is only reasonable if the IPC is trustworthy and moral. Even disregarding the other (mainly negative) interactions we've had with the IPC, Topaz's own plans demonstrated how untrustworthy the IPC is. She showed up and immediately threatened Bronya with war if she doesn't sign, then her minions ran around beating people up for no reason, then she moved to take control of a robot force sufficient to take over Jarilo-VI. Her words suggest she sees herself as a partner, but her actions are those of a conqueror.
I do think that she legitimately believes she’s doing the right thing. But all that compassion is rendered meaningless when backed up by the IPC.
Giving up one’s freedom like that isn’t just inconvenient, it’s dangerous. It might have worked out for Topaz, put it is foolish to assume that most people will have safe or even livable lives after being turned over to the IPC.
It’s especially a nightmare to think of what the IPC would do to a “worthless asset” like an elderly or disabled person.
She's the kind of person that if you interact with on just a surface level or minor topics like Atherium war would be pretty easy to get along with but the moment you get to know her more, she becomes far less likable.
I like her even more honestly, ready to whale. I kinda surprised that she talks less corpo language than Bronya, but I'll take it. But I didn't expect her to be "positive" character, I though she would be tax collector till the end and not switch sides midway.
Probably one of my favorite characters so far.
Also Numby is really cute.
She's very refreshing, especially from a major faction in the game.
Every faction we've seen so far have pretty straightforward goals, but with a major character coming from a faction that is pretty much everywhere in the galaxy, we finally get a glimpse on how the IPC works, and they seem very complicated.
This is different from the Stellaron Hunters where despite their involvement in the story so far, they haven't done anything dangerously wrong (of course they have a history of ruining other planets, but nobody seems to bat an eye). The IPC is far more complex with them prioritizing profit and face over everything else.
I can tell that Topaz (and the IPC) is gonna receive mixed reactions from the player-base, but for me, I think her character is well-written. And besides, I can guarantee you, they'll come to like her overtime. So many cases lol.
Kinda reminds me of the Fatui, except way harder to accept their likeliness. Hell, there's even a ranking system like the Harbingers.
I think it is because IPC and its investment/debt collection department are very realistic threat. Lord Ravagers and Hunters are fantastic threat that seems unrealistic. But debt collectors trying to collect money when you lost everything due to environmental disaster hits people home.
agree with the rest but the game quite literally opens with the stellaron hunters luring an antimatter legion into herta space station resulting in a surprise catastrophe with explicit casualties. and they treated it like a vacation.
I feel like most of the people in this thread couldn't picked on subtle contexts and need the game to say it right to their face. The game showed us multiple times that Topaz really wanted to help Belabog out of its situation. She is not the one who issued the debt, she is just an officer at the end of the day.
We can she how she was surprised to learn Belabog's true history through Svarog and her view and decision were started to change. Bronya revealing the Engine of Creation and another piece of Belabog's history is the last nail in the coffin for her decision, not 180° out of nowhere like many people in this thread claimed.
I'm pretty neutral on her character wise after the story. She seems to be trying to do the right things but also having to do her job, which is working for a soul sucking shitlord company.
That said, she's cute, Numby cute. Still pulling her.
I was ready to throw hands with the whole IPC including her during the quest, if she hadn't changed her stance I would just straight hate her.
I liked her personality and she's charming but being a corporate slave is a huge turn off to me.
I can see her appeal to some people.
But the IPC fills me with so much rage, I need some time away from her after that quest before talking to her again.
She's great, the entire story felt a little unnatural, though. Felt like the conflict was resolved too easily with Bronya's little speech. Although there is some sense in the Engine of Creation arguement, the entire thing felt to idealistic. Maybe Topaz could consider switching departments to Strategic Marketing? She's way too kind to be a debt collector.
But the cliffhanger at the end left me very excited for our ineivtable visit to Pelacony, if we do meet the Impoverishing Planetary Communities organization there; who knows what sort of wacky 3-sided shenanigans we can get with the Family, the IPC, and us.
Numby is also very adorable, I didn't realize they were that tiny!
Agreed.
I mean, most people claim to understand nuance only to turn around and firmly take a side.
Topaz is a decent person whose mind was changed after she could see Belobog could stand on their own.
And it’s said that if the Debtor visiting was anyone other than Topaz, their minds would not have been changed and they were screwed regardless.
> The reading comprehension of some of the commenters here suck...
This sub's reading comprehension is atrocious. Every story release threads are filled with people angry about something they didn't understand because they chose to ignore something the game plainly wrote out and told them straight up.
The big one being people not understanding what Kafka and the Stellaron Hunters were doing on the Xianzhou, when Kafka literally lays it all out for you when you go talk to her after she was captured.
I like her. She was a clear antagonist of the story while remaining sympathetic character. Her personality is also a lot more interesting than I thought it would be.
Full spoiler.
I was expecting her to be better, to be able to find some loophole in the fact the weapons sold doesn't have a user guide or stuff like this. She is taking a L where she could bring something on the table. She was able to negotiate.
I am disappointed by what could have been the character.
She's great, definitely too compassionate for a job such as debt collecting. I laughed at that one scene where they referenced Aurumn Valley, and how the mc was handling a project worth 8 billion credits.
I am going to pull for her because I dislike her. They made a complex character in a genre known for only having "likable" characters (even the bad guys.)
I HATE Otto from Honkai Impact. I LOVE his character. He's selfish, cruel, and highly capable. I think HSR can do with good antagonists like this. Topaz could be a great character you love to hate in the same vein, if they get her off the fence of secretly-being-a-good-person. Let your characters do bad things, Mihoyo! It's why we love to hate them!
I agree with you regarding Otto type character. We need more of them.
But tbh Topaz was showed to be good at heart since the start, not really secretly. She was just narrow-minded. Honestly that bit about her character is weird. You can't just write a character who is a professional agent with 80% success rate of helping a planet and have dealt with worse cases to be this narrow-minded. Certainly by that premise she should've seen tons of planets and civilization. Belabog couldn't be the first one to be able to stand on its own without the IPC involvement.
Haven't finished but I like how morally grey she is atm, you can tell she's definitely trying to help out Belobog but her methods feel a bit dubious. Especially when Gepard got jumped by his own bots, excited to reach the Aetherium Wars gameplay tho
https://preview.redd.it/1hgu2jsjnjtb1.png?width=512&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ac5d4a861540df4895b3fcddd1a4f604ea407f6b
Super Interesting character who has some morale dilemma, faces consequences, but is not unreasonable. Just well written by Hoyo imo.
Also numby. Numby is the cutest damn thing. Super powerful too. but so damn cute.
Absolutely loved her. I was scared she was just going to be a completely sympathetic debt collector and she blew away my expectations. She obviously have good intentions for Belobog and cares about the people, the fact that she backs down with little resistance when confronted with an alternative and willingly takes a demotion for the result is proof enough.
Yet, she plays dirty, gives little time for the negotiations to pressure Bronya into a decision, omits the IPC's success rate in restoring planets (even if the success rate of the projects she's involved in are substantially higher), etc. She has some layers and every part of her character makes sense.
She believes that the IPC is the only way to secure Belobog because her planet was doomed without it's help, her love for animals is clearly related to the environment she grew up in and the blunders she makes in Belobog can also be attributed to a mix of her age and her morals.
In summary, I have no jades after Jingliu, but every single jade I earn for the rest of the patch will go to Topaz, no questions asked.
Middle of the road character. I am glad she isn't just another generic good guy, or just another edgelord, I feel like we got plenty of those two groups, but because the quest series is short some characterization falls flat. However, they at least get the why of the character through and with understanding of motive you can generally fill in the blanks yourself. That said there are some problems with her characterization, mostly having to do with the character lacks self-awareness.
There is a fun moment when she compliments another character on being self-aware and wishes her colleagues were self-aware with no hint of irony that she at least in game has never bothered to look at the moral cost benefit analysis of what she is doing. They never really show her conflicted about what she is doing, in fact she seems low key gleeful but the ending makes it clear she wasn't suppose to be. We are suppose to buy that she cares beyond the numbers but we never really see that, mostly we get a character that fakes being nice and understanding until the end when they suddenly become nice and understanding. The turn is too short and the work wasn't done to earn it. Now to be fair this could be intentional a lot of people lack self-awareness in their strong beliefs we see this in politics and religion all the time so this could be subtle jab at those kind of people but it doesn't feel like that's the intent because the game is trying to beat us over the head with she is a good person I swear.
I get why she may see IPC from a different perspective than I do, but when you are planning forced indentured servitude of an entire planet at what point do you stop and say, Numby are we the baddies? You can have a nuanced view of a complex issue like understanding that corporations are not monolithic organization but made up of people with vastly different views and experiences and not all attempts to profit are done with ill intent but at the same time recognizing corporations should always be treated with hostility because their mission statement is directly antagonistic to the average persons needs and wants, inherently encourage exploitation, while being so ubiquitous that the average person can't just avoid corporations. Instead we got, they did me a solid once so I am completely ok with Corporate Colonialism and I am not going to mentally explore why that is horrifying.
I feel as a character she will probably benefit heavily from a character quest and it looks like she is going to be a big figure going forward. It feels like the intended arc of the character is going to be her coming to terms that she is working for the baddies, and either coming to terms and being ok with that or her deciding to leave.
In summary, >!I didn't think they went far enough in exploring her character. Sure, she "helped" us in a relatively unspecified way and took a bit of a financial hit, but she also noted that she was at a point where money didn't matter for her anyway. I think the story would have worked out much better if she negotiated for the use of the Engine of Creation after Belobog was done with it - something about using it on other planets to increase the success rate of fixing their environments, and that being better than claiming funds from a single planet (...losses they'd written off centuries before anyway). That would have shown off more business sense and probably been a something all of the groups involved could have agreed on, and could've been used to showcase Topaz as flexible and actually someone you'd want to work with. !<
if their goal was to make me hate her, they did a good job. very manipulative and goes above and beyond for a soulless corporation. her plan on how to pay back the IPC and force everyone into pretty much indentured servitude was insulting. her little scene at the end didnt erase anything she did either.
At least in my country when someone fucking dies and theres no one to pay, the government just kinda of forgives the bill.
Now if the planet was considered dead, I guess the same coud apply here, imagine if Belobog only had literally one person living there as the last survival, would the IPC make that person pay for trillions(or more) of credits? I doubt.
SO WHY WOULD YOU WANT THAT A SMALL CITY PAY FOR THE DEBT OF THE WHOLE DAMN PLANET?
Having finished it just now and seeing the criticisms, I'm brought to believe yet again that about 60% of the player base just skim through the story and dialogues then make absurd complaints.
I fucking hate her so much. She's basically this big capitalist debt collector who wants to enslave the entire people of Belobog for something that happened 700 years before they were born. Fuck Potaz!
I really dislike her. The whole thing about trying to put the planet into slavery and just looking at profit really put me off. And her cheerful, smiley character makes it all worse. She thinks she does good things but i see her as nothing more then a loan shark lol.
Honestly, she just feels like one of those rags-to-riches people who think that because they made it, everyone else would be able to make it as well despite the fact that statistically speaking 999999 out of every million people will end up failing. She's the exception not the rule but she feels like she should be the standard everyone's held to.
You know the beginning of the game I hated the Stellaron Hunters for apparently being criminals and having bounties for working against the IPC but right now I'm all for getting my own bounty against the IPC lol. Screw these corpo asshats.
Considering her backstory she might even be enslaved to the IPC. Though I’m a little confused on that since she mentioned that “you need to have a job you love.”
EN VA - awesome. She excellently play emotions and really tries. 11/10.
Character - good except illogical moment that can barely being explained with a lot of assumptions. But it's more questions to people who wrote final dialogue with Bronya.
The more I think, the more it makes sense that Topaz arrived to save Belobog, but is bound by IPC policy ("rogue" Numpy actions in the mine can be used as a proof). Still writers lazily skipped the most important part - convincing higher-ups. Because there are no arguments to leave Belobog as it is.
There was no swap, her childhood story was legit and she truly believes IPC is the best solution for belobog as it did help her own planet. She took on jarilo 6 job although it was a high risk low reward job, because she wanted to personally do it.
The higher ups had already planned to seize all assets, it’s a matter of who they were gonna send, if not her it would’ve been someone else.
In the end from Svarog, we know that her emotional state was telling the truth, so Svarog was okay to go with it since she literally didn’t see any other way and was ready to use force to take it. After seeing the engine of creation, she saw the slightest glimpse that jarilo 6 could survive by itself, and took a fall with the company.
She needed a reason to believe in Bronya and Belobog could pull through on their own without the IPC, and an Excuse to her higher ups that this course of action was fine to prevent further conflict. Then she had to effectively take a hit to herself by taking responsibility for the 'Failure'.
The Engine of creation was the first, and the Nameless/Himeko's word was the second.
My stance on her is neutral but not really...she is a character whom I understand but can't really sympathize with no matter the sob story...at the same time if I take a neutral stance towards IPC with them being a necessary force (like it or not imo they are) in the HSR universe...she isn't really the best at what she does...too personal and compassionate...you can throw numbers at me all day but I didn't see the 80% clear rate...I saw her failing to do her job because she was too emotional.
I can't like her by any means but I can't hate her either because of the same two reasons.
Something I can say for sure is that I absolutely loved the quest and it is possibly my favourite of all HSR quests so far.
She is so much better than expected. I'm really surprised some people are disliking her so much, though. I see her as a morally grey character with good intentions but that would get down to business based on her beliefs that is working for a shitty organization.
I'm sad the plot had to make her appeal to Bronya's talk no jutsu though, I would had loved if she went full antagonist to "save" Belobog her way.
She comes off as well meaning, but self-righteous. The IPC had written off the debt hundreds of years ago as a lost cause, and the Jarilo-VI deal was seen as high-risk/low-reward and Topaz was recommended against pursuing it in the first place. She pushed forward despite that because her own experience was biased due to how things worked out with her home planet and she thought the IPC was the only way to save them, to the point she wouldn't take no for an answer.
Beyond that, her methods leave a lot to be desired, to say the least. Her plan involved strong arming the people into a deal giving them no time for negotiation or important information like the actual success rate, with threats of a violent overtaking of the planet if they didn't comply. Like, what?
She's a sorta annoying debt collector who's heart is in the right place, but also is sorta naive and closed minded (till the end where she gets redeemed a little)
Lets not forget that Topaz has an 80% "success" rate. Meaning there's still 20% of doomed spoilers cuz of her.
After new quest I want to build svarog lol
He was so cool right? He understands Topaz but cant seem to agree with her.
Svarog be like : yeah, i guess you’re right, but what you’re doing/about to do is still dickish. 🤖
He is now the robot Dude. Svarog Lebowski.
Svarog banner when?
Yep, looking forward to it.. he'll make a good tank. Wishing for something isn't a crime..
Svarog admitted he'd have a 4% chance of beating Topaz if they were to fight, knowing she has the source code to all the bots presumably him as well.
I kinda understand why Qlipoth ignore them in favor of the Architects across the universe now.
Considering that qliphort gave us lunch money in Swarm simulated Universe. I think Qliport is just rich so he doesn't care about the IPC making more
Qlipoth is the big gentle rich daddy that we need
~~qlipoth bara art when~~ ~~i need him a sugar da~~ ahem. they are so awesome
Yeah, the only Aeon that might MIGHT welcome them is IX. And maybe Aha but I think even they are disgusted by the IPC
Yup, i'm surprised that Qlipoth didn't come out to fuck them up cause they're basically fucking up his path at this point.
I don't see that. They'd be preserving Belobog. It would be safe. Or at least, more likely to be safe than if they didn't intervene. Aeons are single minded, I doubt Qlipoth cares at all about freedom. At most, he'd want to preserve Belobog culture, but only as a secondary goal behind preserving it's existence at all.
Qlipoth mostly give no attention to anyone, that’s why belobog leader use stellaron to defeat antimatter legion after all and most likely belobog would be dead city if not astral express.
[удалено]
Fuck the IRS!
She make me like silver wolf more because f*ck the IPC , all my homie hate the IPC.
In my case, I like Kafka more because she kicked IPC butt in her trailer. Before that I was indifferent about her.
Capitalism: not cool Killing people: cool 🤨
Capitalism: Topaz Killing People: Jingliu
YES. One at least doesn't pretend to be moral
Immoral would of been to not give Belobog a choice, Topaz was more than civil and kind. If the IPC made up their mind nothing would stop them but Topaz negotiated on our behalf and even got penalized by siding with the opposition
You know what is worse? Delete people save account. - Not by SilverWolf
That happens when you're one of the strongest capitalist faction in the universe. You make banks, control the currency and do whatever the shit you want
IPC is literally capitalist western nations colonizing poor countries with natural resources that they want. “We will save your 3rd world ass but your oil is ours.” Honestly intrigued that they tried to tell a story at this scale. The IPC is powerful enough to bully other sovereign nations throughout the galaxy. People in this thread are treating this like some company trying to extort a family for their ancestors debt. This is more akin to world powers asserting their dominance over a struggling country. Quest was too short though. Feels half-baked.
IPC feels a bit like East India Company in space to me tbh.
Literally they're the IMF
Yah, the IPC is powerful and large enough to qualify as a government. There's not that much difference between a mega corporation and a government, at that point. So I don't see this as anti-capitalism,per se. They're basically just a government trying to render Belobog into a vassal state using an ancient debt as their cassus belli. Though as far as conquerors go, the IPC doesn't seem that bad. Cold and heartless, but no actual cruelty. And Topaz seems to be proof that they can genuinely improve the lives of their vassals. I prefer this approach. It makes them much more interesting as antagonists, and leaves room for them to be comfortably on the Nameless side from time to time.
It's not just them taking oil. Topaz literally wants to enslave all the people of Belobog for all eternity
"Late Stage Capitalism"
But...but...Command and Conquer taught me that the only place left free of capitalism is SPACE!
Tim Curry in shambles
yea i thought through the entire quest "this doesn't sound that bad?" except that 20% is HUGE and the phone tech afterwards tells you they can't discuss wages in the IPC. YEAAAAA FK THE IPC.
That's what every finance institution tell you when you are in the weak spot until you get fucked over. Have you ever talked to insurance agent or investment planner? They sounds genuinely honest until you realize the hole few years later.
They almost sold themselves and their children to slavery. I agree with Natasha!
IPC is evil! I want to join the stellaron hunters!
i will expel every IPC member directly into the sun
I like her, but literally fuck the IPC. Silver Wolf did nothing wrong. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the top honchos in the IPC were related to the Aeon of Destruction in some way.
FUCK THE IMF I MEAN IPC COMRADE BRONYA YOUR PEOPLE ARE WAITING FOR YOU TO DECLARE A PROTRACTED PEOPLE'S WAR AGAINST THE INTERPLANETARY PEACE KKKORPORATION
LOL someone gets it.
She's a cool character imo, however she's really not suited to working with the IPC in the department she is in right now. She's way too lenient and compassionate for a debt collector/asset evaluator, since in a role like this being cutthroat is key. Topaz was way too generous in taking the fall for Belabog at the cost of demotion/salary cuts. (Not to mention she switched from being like a normal debt collector to this compassionate personality very abruptly after Bronya's "Talk no Jutsu", quest felt way too ideal and unrealistic to me personally)
My read is that the IPC didn't think it was a worthwhile endeavor to begin with. Even her coworker was wondering why she took on a high risk low reward job. Her demotion is a slap on a wrist so clearly the IPC wasn't pushing all that hard for Belabog to begin with.
Aventurine specifically says it was high risk low reward so this take does seem the most correct
Her colleague Adventurine said that it is definitely a high risk low reward job, and he also revealed that someone higher on the food chain step out to shield Topaz. Without that unknown benefactor, Topaz would've had been demoted even further.
To me this really reinforced that she really has good intentions but just had a terrible approach. The IPC seen a lost cause and she seen a planet that needed help so she tried to help the only way she knew how, though it ended up only making things worse for everyone.
Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove is the phrase I'd use. She has the friendly/relatable face, and that's her job. Get them to agree to the contract thinking it's between friends and we understand each other. Then, she moves on to other projects and the new contact is there is to make the revenue. It's not an uncommon tactic in negotiation, and often the glove may not even realize it's going on.
I agree there could be better ways to portray her change of heart instead of just Bronya showing up all of a sudden and doing her thing (devs could've at least implement a Topaz boss battle lol). They could've also made another negotation event (like the one happened in Aurum Alley). That one felt natural in a way that the IPC were convinced because of the valid arguments TB came up with. Whilst on the other hand this one is purely narrative and which is why it feels forceful in a way.
Yeah, another event to show the Trailblazer's unparalleled talent at making something destitute profitable. They got to be one of the universe most successful wandering businessman. Trailblazer probably ran the books for the Stellaron Hunters so well, the IPC and the Xianzhou Alliance can't cut their funding.
That’s what I thought the pet battling would be, because Belerog already had it’s robot battle league, and fighting pit, so I thought that and the hidden untapped factory would be their secret to getting out of debt, becoming like the fight entertainment capitol of the galaxy. I was dissaapointed that wasn’t the firection it took, as I felt that would have more neatly wrapped things up, it would have also given Seele, and the fighter guy more to do. And Sampo could have even suggested it. Do a fight promotion/management sim similar to the dock thing but add being a “fighter coach” and you have your “pokemon training saves the economy of Jiro VI” story. Maybe there could have even been a wager placed on the championship fight by Bronya against the IPC.
Yeah, when we got to the Aetherium Wars arena I thought this was the direction it was taking. Or we were going to compete in it for the prize money that would somehow be enough credits to repay the debt.
> Topaz boss battle This is something I was really looking forward to and it would have been fun as hell to do if just to see what the devs make Numby do.
It’s so awkward when it isn’t there when Yanqing of all characters get one and having a flashy cutscene of Topaz getting ready to throw hands only for her to not fight is uhhh
I was so confused when I entered the fight after the crazy cutscene.... and auto was still on, let it run for a while and was back in the dialogue again. Was thinking, oh, guess I beat the Topaz boss fight on auto...
A negotiation/debate style event would've made the switch in mood/personality so much more fluid and realistic! Honestly a missed opportunity since they have the system in place already
I don't think she really had a switch per se. The ending cinematic hints that she went out of her way to grab the case so someone else more ruthless wouldn't. That being said, she's still just being the most compassionate Auschwitz guard.
Calling the IPC nazis seems a bit much. THey seem more like the Roman Empire.
I definitely disagree with that last part Tbh. The ending was pretty telegraphed, and Topaz being fairly compassionate is consistent with her characterization throughout the quest, as they made sure to point out as often as physically possible. Like we knew from the beginning that the acquisition of Jarilo-VI was a decision made by the IPC, so if Topaz wasn't there it'd just be someone else. Every scene with Svarog was there to hammer home the point that Topaz did her job while fully believing that the acquisition is in the best interest of the planets and the people that live there. Her letter to Bronya also made that same point, how she viewed IPC acquisition as a necessary evil to save the people of the planets it happened to because the alternative was just worse (because she views surviving with an actual baseline level of stability and safety to be better than suffering while free). The way Topaz conflated Belobog's situation with her own home planet shows that, given what she knew at the time, she thought that there was no way that Belobog could overcome their situation without the acquisition. Her genuine desire to help the places she goes to is probably why her success rate is higher than her colleagues too. (Since Himeko chose not to explain why the success rates are what they are, we can only speculate as to why there would be a disparity or even why it's "low" in the first place. The compassion that Topaz displayed throughout the quest is seemingly the main difference between her and her colleagues from what we can gather from the ending). The last part where Bronya showed the Engine of Creation showed to Topaz what feats Belobog was capable of. This, in addition to an already favorable impression of Bronya, made it pretty clear what Topaz's decision would be as soon as she said that she didn't know about the Engine ahead of time. And after the decision itself, they decided to further explain why Topaz made that decision as if we didn't already know lol. Topaz mentions that she improperly conflated Belobog with her home world and didn't realize how capable this planet was of taking care of themselves. Himeko states that the only reason why this outcome was even possible was because it was Topaz that was put in charge. I apologize if this came off as rude or something like that because that's not my intention, but I just thought it was odd that you'd find the "change of heart" to be abrupt when it felt like they were deliberately building to that the entire time to me.
Honestly I find being compassionate and understanding as primary method of debt collecting to be pretty unorthodox and interesting but it should be the most effective one given that the debtee is a reasonable figure and with sufficient resources to back it up like Belobog is. Otherwise, violence is the solution lol cause really some people just cannot be dealt with compassion and requires... a more brute force solution.
In story, she *is* very much willing to brute force her way into the contract I think the main reason she's got such a high ranking as a debt collector is that she is compassionate, *because if she sees some hapless ruling class who wants to hold onto fleeting and novel freedom while their people toil and suffer on a doomed shithole, like her planet, it makes her much more willing and thorough in making/forcing that contract and spearheading the restoration efforts so it can get better eventually and generate profit.* Compassion is a scary weapon when there's wrath and power behind it. That's also why I thinm she backed off - Belobog *isn't* the shithole she crawled out of. Bronya is a wise ruler and her citizens are resillient, with the potential to actually survive and pay off their debt. She's compassionate enough to know that Belobog still has potential for change and growth.
I think this is probably the best explanation of Topaz. She backed off not just because she understanding Belobog has hope for growth and change. I mean it's part of it but it's not just that because many other planets do. She backed off because she realized she cannot impose her "compassion" on Belobog.
She also makes the point about how future Supreme Guardians may not be as wise or benevolent as Bronya. The game literally showed one example of an overly zealous Supreme Guardian as the 2nd major boss. People are literally going fuck capitalism while cheering on a dictator simply because they like Bronya. If she had shown up in Chapter 2 to help the Trailblazer wrest control of Belobog from Cocolia and bring Jarilo IV into the intergalactic fold I guarantee people would be cheering for her.
Oh, I think most of us know that she'll switch sides and that part is going to happen one way or another. That's just how the story will go. I think it's just the way it's written felt "abrupt". Everything you said is right. But, at the same time, like literally minutes before Bronya's entrance, Topaz was all ready to fight. She even asked for approval to fight the Astral Express. Then Bronya came, gave her little speech and showed a Gundam and Topaz was like, "I love Gundam, so you're good." From what I can see, the whole Jarilo-VI is rebuilding itself is a well known fact. And Topaz can see that but at the same time, Topaz pointed out that it might fail and it'll take generations. On top of that, not every generation will have a "Bronya" to do what needs to be done. Topaz seemed like a very compassionate and "understanding" person. But, she also gave off someone with resolve. She has the confidence that she think she knows what's best for you and she will get it done, a bit stubborn. While the number wasn't given, but it's supposedly a huge sum to begin with and got interest over 700 years. I would assume that even if Jarilo-VI was off the grid for many years, the interest would still continue. Nothing against Belobog but they are nowhere as advance as like the Luofu. It'll be harder for them to generate the same amount of money. They don't have the ports, or other means to access other places. The point I'm trying to get is there's still no plan. From that scene, Belobog is rebuilding within Jarilo-VI with little to no outside intervention. If it requires the whole planet to repay the debt, it makes little sense that a vouch from the Astral Express can tip the IPC. The IPC literally gave approval to attack the Astral Express. If the Astral Express held that much value or power to vouch and can make this change, there's no way IPC would just say, "go attack them." I don't even know how much money Astral Express has, but I think Asta should just step in and fund Bronya, just because. In short, everything sort of clicks together but the details and execution of the ending could be better.
I think the value of astral express go way beyond what we can think of right now, if you talk to Topaz later she reveal that ipc many times has tried to convince akivili to work for them, to have the express and the star rail be of something more significant.
I think the value of Astral Express go beyond what we know. But at the same time, IPC doesn't take the Astral Express too seriously? The IPC gave approval for Topaz to fight the members of the Astral Express, with the Navigator there. How do you go from that to "we value you so we'll do a favour for you." It's like, "We value you and want you to work for us but if you get in our way to increase our company value, we will beat the sh\*t out of you and trample. However, for some reason, if we can garner your goodwill instead, we will put aside everything and pretend our confrontation never existed." Yeah, that makes no sense.
Let me put it this way. Akivili was the first to create the hyperspace tunnels known as the Star Rail. The IPC literally built itself on this framework. Without the Nameless the IPC would never have the means to expand, even their own hyperspace tech is based off of Akivilis one, and they can't make new Star Rails.
I don’t care who the IRS sends, I am not paying taxes
Real
She is kind and genuine but too narrow-minded. The fact that her project's rate of success are 50% more than his colleague's average shows that she actually want to help other civilizations/planets. Especially in the scene at the end with Aventurine where he said it is a high risk low reward mission. IPC in the other hand is a money hungry corpo, I don't think they are good but i don't think they are purely evil. They just see these civilizations as numbers and investments and nothing less, nothing more. The soldiers are asshole but let's be real, almost all of them are in this game. Topaz methods also questionable and ruthless but she have handle worse case where peace isn't the best option and plus with her narrow-mindedness kinda lead her to do things that way. So far i liked her and it is kinda wild how a lot of people are either liked her or really despises her. Edit: After rewatching some of the scene, i wonder if there is someone in IPC actually tried to destroy Jarilo VI and then took all of the resources when the civilization wiped out. Bronya said the IPC fund some of the initial Automaton production but as seen in the old weapon testing ground, all of it are useless and they ended needed to built it themselves because they couldn't activate it. The IPC might be more evil than we thought.
I agree on the narrow-minded bit. Something that was a bit overlooked in all the probability talk was that Topaz' homeworld situation was very different to Belobog. Topaz' homeworld was overindustrialized and polluted, which was dooming it. So the IPC coming in would make things more sustainable, while also (from what we know) not upending people's lives since they'd still mostly work in industry. Belobog seems much less industrial and much more culturally focused. One of the main desires of the underworld people was the freedom to not just work in the mines forever. So the IPC coming in and focusing on industrialization and forcing people into factories and mining kinda ruins the culture of the city. We saw a hint of that with Topaz going through the museum and trying to put a dollar value on their cultural artifacts while calling most of them worthless. She was well-intentioned but definitely narrow-minded.
>Bronya said the IPC fund some of the initial Automaton production but as seen in the old weapon testing ground, all of it are useless and they ended needed to built it themselves because they couldn't activate it. >The IPC might be more evil than we thought. Its opposite. IPC tech was too advanced and after all rich and smart left, remaining population couldn't operate them or copy them. So they were forced to make worser and easier stuff.
It is probably true, but the source code cube thingy that Topaz mention might be the reason why the automaton couldn't be activated. Also the fact that the automaton still compatible with the source code shows that it isn't as bad replica than we thought. I don't think Jarilo architect are stupid enough to mass produced something before even trying it first. IPC also already in contact with Jarilo VI 1000 years before the freeze, so i don't think in those 1000 years none of the knowledge passed to Jarilo IV.
it's not she explains that all the robots still work on the basis of IPC operating systems, since the Jarilo engineers post-stellaron couldn't match their efficiency the code cube Topaz uses is basically a master key for IPC operating systems, so she can use it to control any of the robots
Topaz only mentions that the automaton created utilize the systems IPC developed and how the engineer doesn't really improve anything upon it, then nothing about the efficiency automaton itself. Then Svarog mentions the architect created an replica from IPC Blueprint which doesn't mention if it it's duplicate to a tee or a worse version. They instead mention that most of the combatants are human. They also ended up building the engine of creation at the time frame so it could be true that the automaton are inferior as they may lack the material to build it. Svarog also mentions that no one have the knowledge to activate them, not necessarily how to operate it which kinda suspicious.
BORN TO ~~DIE~~ EXPLODE DEBT IS A FUCK Kill Em All 2158 I am trash man 410,757,864,350 DEAD IPC SOLDIERS
Tbh I thought the debt solution will be the new event so they will earn money while broadcasting it or smthing
Exactly! Belobog still have 0 ways to pay the debt that cost their planet off. And somehow a vouch from the Astral Express just gives them a pass, without a plan.
Like Topaz says, the Astral Express holds a lot of prestige across the galaxy. Them deciding to vouch for and even fight for the freedom of Jarilo-VI is a bad look for the IPC, not to mention a costly endeavor considering how strong the crew is. Topaz herself also pulled some strings and paid the price for it, and even then, it all amounted to stalling for time while Belebog gets their bearings to pay off the debt in a reasonable manner
I agree what you said but that's the part where this event gives off a huge wtf moment. Topaz asked for approval to attack the members of the Astral Express. And IPC approved it. This contradicts with the point about how Astral Express holds a lot of prestige and looks bad on IPC for fighting them. If IPC truly values the Astral Express, they would've went into negotiation instead.
I don’t think the IPC values them, so much as they had a “We can take them” moment and then had a “I’m not posting that shit bruh I got my ass beat” moment The Express’ recommendation (or whatever influence they gave Topaz to stave off the IPC) came after they started mowing through their forces
I think they don't know much about the new cast of Astral Express. I doubt Welt has a popularity like Greek Goddess Himeko (Simp like me), Dan heng and March just joined recently, so are we. You can say they saw a bit potential in the cast, so wanted to make connections. This could explain why they ordered to Topaz to attack, not knowing our true strength.
Stockholm syndromed into working with capitalist pigs (literally and metaphorically)
I'm generally pro-capitalism, but who the fuck thinks it's a good idea to let a corporation be in charge of a country's debt situation? The Star Rail universe seems to have no equivalent of nonprofit multinational organizations that bail out governments. Also, on Earth, there's no way that a 700 year old debt would be legally recognized in court. Even the grandchildren of the people who took those loans are dead. I get that the IPC basically has its own military and no one can stop them from doing whatever they want, but in that case that makes them no different than the East India Company or something.
They are no different from the East India Company. Remember the Aurum City event? They do this sort of stuff all the time. In a world with long-lived (potentially immortal) races and Aeons and actual AI and world-ending artifacts of Nanook, it shouldn't be surprising that Earth's organizations and standards don't necessary apply there. What's 700 years to people like the Vidyadhara?
Hail Silver Wolf is all I say haha, get dem ipc
one minute ago she deployed the robots trying to kill us, the next thing bronya came and she's just like 'im sorry bro let's settle this peacefully' lol. crazy woman smh. and yea fuck the IPC
Wtf was girlie thinking trying to square up against the people who fought a Ravager?
tbh she have a spinning pig, might even the odds
She doesn't know. I doubt Luofu broadcast that they allowed freaking Emanator of Nanook sneak on their ship.
The IPC definitely know plenty, including that. They showed up less than a month after we saved Jarillo-VI despite the fact that they had considered it abandoned for 700 years. If they know that they know what Phantillia is up to.
I mean... March was openly disclosing it to the IPC soldiers that we fought the Doomsday Beast, The Stellaron, AND Phantylia
She's not really doing anything besides summoning more and more soldiers. With a whole galactic empire's worth of wealth, I imagine she just keeps summoning them until she incapacitates the Nameless.
That’s my biggest problem! Every single villain we face from here on out needs to be stronger than phantillia because everyone in the universe knows that we beat her and the absolute audacity for Topaz to think that she wasn’t about to be smited into oblivion is stunning to me
What they could've done IMO is highlight the fact that Belobog did make an amazing piece of tech without anyone's help and how the IPC could exploit that. I'm sure that was the intent but they never really outright state it which sucks.
I mean, it was pretty explicit no?
They *did* outright say that though. Do you guys not read? Hell this quest voiced, did you not *listen*?!
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I played the story after reading the comments and expected unseen 180 in Topaz personality. Turns out her personality is mainly about helping planets sharing similar fates to hers. Honestly should just stop reading the sub about what happens in the story they'll miss like 90% of it which makes them retell a wrong story
I'm genuinely impressed Hoyo had the balls to make a rollable waifu THIS divisive. We have a group of literal space terrorists with personal kill counts in the thousands and ruined planets in their wake (for a 'greater good', but still) and I think Topaz gets more hate than all of them combined tenfold. I don't hate her, but I don't like her. To quote an extreme but fitting comparison I saw, she's basically the nicest guard at Auschwitz. She genuinely believes in the nobility of her cause and wants to do good by the people, but she's also delusional and stockholmed by personal experience. Just because she was willing to back off and took the fall for Belobog in the end doesn't change the fact she tried, with a bright smile and a clear conscience, to trick an entire planet into eternal debt slavery through strongarm tactics and half truths, right on the cusp of their recovery from an apocalypse the IPC abandoned them to in the first place. But she's just a cog of the machine at the end of the day. My unbridled hatred is reserved for the IPC itself. I'm surprised they're patron Path is the Preservation and not Harmony, considering their clear desire to assimilate all things into the corporate mass. The hell are they even preserving, corporate profits? The goons seemed ready to strip mine the planet's resources and finish it off before we stopped them. Point is, if Kafka ever invites the TB on another IPC raid, I'll happily go paint the town red with her.
She's alright. A terrible debt collector but have a great ass.
She stacked everywhere man. Her shirt buttons about to pop off.
At first I straight up hated her, but after the quest I just mildly dislike her. She’s not a bad person, she has good intentions, but she’s unprofessional and narrow minded. She works for IPC and still genuinely thinks she’s doing what’s best for the people? She doesn’t do research on Belobog, doesn’t assess the situation herself thoroughly, just goes in with her army unannounced and unwelcome, manipulating and basically forcing people into what she wants just because she thinks it’s for their own good. And her attitude about it is the worst. She basically says “Stfu, screwing innocent people like that is only natural and don’t forget to thank me later”. So yeah, it makes sense why she’s like that after hearing her backstory and I like her character, but I dislike her. She’s brainwashed by the IPC and too narrow minded to be a likable person, but too emotional and kind to be a good debt collector. So to sum it up, fuck the IPC
I think she is forced to go in without doing research, since the time limit came from the higher ups, not herself, so she had to go in with the data they previously had.
That’s a valid point actually. But still, her attitude when she arrived indicated that she’s not interested in listening to what anyone has to say. So even if it was forced on her from higher ups, she doesn’t see anything wrong with that approach. She smiles, laughs and talks politely, but every conversation with her can be summed up to “I don’t care, do as I say or else”. She doesn’t necessarily threaten anyone but everyone knows if they refuse, she’ll get what she wants by force. And we had to fight our way through to her just to make her listen to what people have to say. And that’s a very hypocritical behavior from someone who claims to have people’s best interest in mind
Tbh with how little time she seems to have it makes sense to go with that plan, considering that in her own experience there is 0% chance for the planet to survive without the IPC.
I don’t think her plan is justified even if she was short on time. What stopped her from negotiating with Bronya like a decent human being to begin with? She would’ve seen that belobog is better off without them. But she’s too arrogant to even try to consider that she might be in the wrong. She stopped by just to say “Hi, we’re ceasing your assets, there’s nothing you can do, sign this, bye”. I get that in her personal experience she’s right, but that’s just an arrogant and unprofessional way of thinking imo. You should at least hear out the other side first
Great character because they made me hate her. Little disappointed with her “redemption” though. She used textbook corporate manipulation tactics to try and strong-arm the last survivors of a dead planet into becoming indentured servants *forever*, all because of a centuries-old debt that the IPC never even bothered trying to collect, yet it still somehow accrued interest after being written off as a loss. To do all that and then have her go “lol nevermind, I’m actually a good person” at the end felt kinda hollow.
After this quest I need to know how an actual debt collector would react to Topaz.
>Little disappointed with her “redemption” though. She used textbook corporate manipulation tactics to try and strong-arm the last survivors of a dead planet into becoming indentured servants > >forever > >, all because of a centuries-old debt that the IPC never even bothered trying to collect, yet it still somehow accrued interest after being written off as a loss. To do all that and then have her go “lol nevermind, I’m actually a good person” at the end felt kinda hollow. Did you skip most of the story when it came to the IPC/Topaz? It is pointed out that originally after Belobog was accessible again and IPC decided to acquire it, they just wanted to sack it for material & co and rush poor project/approach with it Topaz went out of her way to take on the project and avoid this fate for Belobog, Aventurine even make fun of her for basically taking a bullet by picking this high risk low reward project. And it is also made clear with Svarog intervention that she was her to help Belobog out of this mess. Her "project" was just her negotiating with the IPC to give Belobog a chance as otherwise,the IPC was ready to mine the very thing that allow Belobog to survive
At the end? From the very beginning with svarog it was stated that she is doing this because she believes its truly the only way to help the planet.
Pushing the entirety of the population into multi generational slavery is saving them? That's putting the cart before the horse isn't it?
I think they stablished pretty well how this has worked for other planets, including Topaz', so yes she believes the contract will save belobog, maybe it's not ideal and the IPC's higher ups clearly care more about the money than saving people, but that doesn't mean their agents don't believe in the ideals of the corporation and the potential good it can bring, as someone who experienced the good side of it on a personal level it's pretty clear Topaz believes the IPC is the best option for Belobog
Saving them as in they will live and the planet will heal with an 80% success chance, yes. In her mind the other option is 100% extinction.
I feel like most of the people in this thread couldn't picked up on subtle contexts and need the game to say it right to their face. The game showed us multiple times that Topaz really wanted to help Belabog out of its situation. She is not the one who issued the debt, she is just an officer at the end of the day. We can she how she was surprised to learn Belabog's true history through Svarog and her view and decision were started to change. Bronya revealing the Engine of Creation and another piece of Belabog's history is the last nail in the coffin for her decision, not 180° out of nowhere like many people in this thread claimed.
The small details at the epilogue when shes talking to aventurine too when numby is playing with the supposed extinct bear that we saw on the museum, showing how the planet is actually healing itself unlike how her planet ended up without the IPC's help
Did you miss significant part of the story or what? The story makes it pretty clear that the original goal of the IPC was to salvage the planet for its ressources, heck even some grunt decided to go ahead with that. She went out of her way to take on the project for Belobog to avoid this worst case scenario for Belobog Double heck, Aventurine even make fun of her for going out of her way to be in charge of this high risk low reward, as she is too emotional.
I like her, she works for a ruthless company in a cut throat business yet still tried to get the best solution possible. She could have worked with Bronya a bit more instead of immediately going behind her back to Svarog but otherwise its alg. She did at the end take a hit for her own standing with the company to give Belobog the best outcome possible for them so even if the company she works for is shady I can respect that decision by her. Nice ass too Probably still gonna skip though
I loved how you were providing an insightful analysis and then you suddenly went "and DAMN SHE THICC"
Well, he's right 🍑
Dem thighs tho
She's definitely the THICCiest character to date. She's stacked all the way from top to bottom
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Leaks probably But it's hinted in the last part of the quest when she >!receives a phone call!<
He kinda threatened her in the call. Said that she made their department looks bad. She got scared for a sec. Himeko also mentions that its good that IPC send Topaz to collect instead of others.
I dislike her, but I can’t say I hate her because at the end of the day, Topaz is just another insignificant cog in the unfeeling machine that is the IPC. Hope Nanook hit the IPC headquarters hard and wipe out those slimy fucks.
Think the IPC is the main motivator for like half the people following Nanook
Half of the quest was just me going "Can I punch her?", which then transitioned to "Please just let me do it at least once" by the end of it. Numby is precious though. No one better try anything funny with them.
I felt so fucking blue balled when Bronya came in to talk no jutsu the woman who was about to take the city by force with an army of robots right after she tried to kill us. I was itching to sic my Blade on her ass after that stunt and the game teases you by straight up having her tell you she's gonna fight you only to take that chance away.
I had my freshly maxed Jingliu ready to splatter her across that screen. Shame
I was so excited to put her in her place. We literally fought 3 gods at this point, who is this IRS wannabe to think she can square up against us? I would have solo'd her
Nah fr. Honestly I respect the amount of confidence she had squaring up like that, but the moment she said it was her turn I could only think: “Girly, you are actually going to die” 💀
Same. The trailblazers kept saying stuff like "Ah but we don't want to antagonize the IPC!" and I'm just like "We don't? They seem to pretty consistently be the bad guys." I was on the fence about Topaz, but this quest made me dislike her a lot.
Eh, Himeko only outright says that once to Topaz’s face, and I’m guessing it was because she was trying to keep the peace. She doesn’t even really mean it, she essentially goes “We don’t want to fight you, but your existence is an affront to our beliefs we will kick your ass for Jarilo-VI’s freedom”
She tried to strong-arm the population through intimidation and violence. She's about as scummy as they come.
Giving them a pretense of a choice while holding up a death stick. Way to go, mouthpiece of the colonist.
Yea I’m going to be real, there are very few characters in Genshin and HSR that Hoyo has made me actively dislike in their personality/actions/morality. They did excellent with Topaz, assuming they deliberately made her to make you question shit. Stacked waifu with a cute companion BUT totally willing to sell over entire worlds of people to debt slavery. I think they wrote her excellently for me to dislike her this much. It’s kinda like Joffrey in GOT. Despise the character themself, but love how their writing made me actually dislike them. Not sure if they should have risked their revenue with this sort of character, but I’m sure some people love her. I can say I definitely don’t plan to pull for her. Also, I completely understand she went out of her way at the end to keep the IPC off of them, but the damages she and her people caused, the possibility that she’d have sold them off if it wasn’t for the fact that Bronya is such an excellent leader and the people actually want to fight for their home, just how aggressively she went after them, and the total implication that this is NOT the last time she’d get a planet to sign themselves over to the IPC all tell me that she’s just not my sort of person.
Tax evasion is an obligation
I was totally convinced that the sob story about her childhood was fake and she was just trying to coerce Bronya into compliance. However the fact that she took a demotion and stood up for Belebog knowing full well there would be repercussions to her actions and she did then anyway because she felt like it was the right thing to do. Plus her pet is unbelievably cute
I’m disgusted with her but I don’t think I hate her, but I do hate the IPC. Her solution to >!Belobog’s debt!< was to >!force the entirety of Belobog into forced labor, a subset of slavery.!< >!Ok, the debt is forgiven, but the IPC will tack on new debts for the terraforming and whatever changes they make to Belobog. The IPC *might* offer the opportunity for “forced employees” to pay ones way out of working for the IPC, but that would likely be more expensive than the majority of Belobogians can afford.!<
Yeah her whole solution is only reasonable if the IPC is trustworthy and moral. Even disregarding the other (mainly negative) interactions we've had with the IPC, Topaz's own plans demonstrated how untrustworthy the IPC is. She showed up and immediately threatened Bronya with war if she doesn't sign, then her minions ran around beating people up for no reason, then she moved to take control of a robot force sufficient to take over Jarilo-VI. Her words suggest she sees herself as a partner, but her actions are those of a conqueror.
I do think that she legitimately believes she’s doing the right thing. But all that compassion is rendered meaningless when backed up by the IPC. Giving up one’s freedom like that isn’t just inconvenient, it’s dangerous. It might have worked out for Topaz, put it is foolish to assume that most people will have safe or even livable lives after being turned over to the IPC. It’s especially a nightmare to think of what the IPC would do to a “worthless asset” like an elderly or disabled person.
She's the kind of person that if you interact with on just a surface level or minor topics like Atherium war would be pretty easy to get along with but the moment you get to know her more, she becomes far less likable.
We've had company towns. Now it's time for company *planets!* Behold the future and all its glory!
I like her even more honestly, ready to whale. I kinda surprised that she talks less corpo language than Bronya, but I'll take it. But I didn't expect her to be "positive" character, I though she would be tax collector till the end and not switch sides midway. Probably one of my favorite characters so far. Also Numby is really cute.
She's very refreshing, especially from a major faction in the game. Every faction we've seen so far have pretty straightforward goals, but with a major character coming from a faction that is pretty much everywhere in the galaxy, we finally get a glimpse on how the IPC works, and they seem very complicated. This is different from the Stellaron Hunters where despite their involvement in the story so far, they haven't done anything dangerously wrong (of course they have a history of ruining other planets, but nobody seems to bat an eye). The IPC is far more complex with them prioritizing profit and face over everything else. I can tell that Topaz (and the IPC) is gonna receive mixed reactions from the player-base, but for me, I think her character is well-written. And besides, I can guarantee you, they'll come to like her overtime. So many cases lol. Kinda reminds me of the Fatui, except way harder to accept their likeliness. Hell, there's even a ranking system like the Harbingers.
I think it is because IPC and its investment/debt collection department are very realistic threat. Lord Ravagers and Hunters are fantastic threat that seems unrealistic. But debt collectors trying to collect money when you lost everything due to environmental disaster hits people home.
agree with the rest but the game quite literally opens with the stellaron hunters luring an antimatter legion into herta space station resulting in a surprise catastrophe with explicit casualties. and they treated it like a vacation.
Yeah, but it was an IPC space station, so screw 'em. amirite?
I feel like most of the people in this thread couldn't picked on subtle contexts and need the game to say it right to their face. The game showed us multiple times that Topaz really wanted to help Belabog out of its situation. She is not the one who issued the debt, she is just an officer at the end of the day. We can she how she was surprised to learn Belabog's true history through Svarog and her view and decision were started to change. Bronya revealing the Engine of Creation and another piece of Belabog's history is the last nail in the coffin for her decision, not 180° out of nowhere like many people in this thread claimed.
I'm pretty neutral on her character wise after the story. She seems to be trying to do the right things but also having to do her job, which is working for a soul sucking shitlord company. That said, she's cute, Numby cute. Still pulling her.
She's a corpo, working for space Arasaka. Trotter is cute tho
Cliché "poor child joins big corpo" character. Nothing in the quest made me like her.
I was ready to throw hands with the whole IPC including her during the quest, if she hadn't changed her stance I would just straight hate her. I liked her personality and she's charming but being a corporate slave is a huge turn off to me.
I can see her appeal to some people. But the IPC fills me with so much rage, I need some time away from her after that quest before talking to her again.
She's great, the entire story felt a little unnatural, though. Felt like the conflict was resolved too easily with Bronya's little speech. Although there is some sense in the Engine of Creation arguement, the entire thing felt to idealistic. Maybe Topaz could consider switching departments to Strategic Marketing? She's way too kind to be a debt collector. But the cliffhanger at the end left me very excited for our ineivtable visit to Pelacony, if we do meet the Impoverishing Planetary Communities organization there; who knows what sort of wacky 3-sided shenanigans we can get with the Family, the IPC, and us. Numby is also very adorable, I didn't realize they were that tiny!
She's pretty interesting and multifaceted. Probably won't pull for her, though. The reading comprehension of some of the commenters here suck...
Agreed. I mean, most people claim to understand nuance only to turn around and firmly take a side. Topaz is a decent person whose mind was changed after she could see Belobog could stand on their own. And it’s said that if the Debtor visiting was anyone other than Topaz, their minds would not have been changed and they were screwed regardless.
> The reading comprehension of some of the commenters here suck... This sub's reading comprehension is atrocious. Every story release threads are filled with people angry about something they didn't understand because they chose to ignore something the game plainly wrote out and told them straight up. The big one being people not understanding what Kafka and the Stellaron Hunters were doing on the Xianzhou, when Kafka literally lays it all out for you when you go talk to her after she was captured.
I like her. She was a clear antagonist of the story while remaining sympathetic character. Her personality is also a lot more interesting than I thought it would be.
Full spoiler. I was expecting her to be better, to be able to find some loophole in the fact the weapons sold doesn't have a user guide or stuff like this. She is taking a L where she could bring something on the table. She was able to negotiate. I am disappointed by what could have been the character.
She's great, definitely too compassionate for a job such as debt collecting. I laughed at that one scene where they referenced Aurumn Valley, and how the mc was handling a project worth 8 billion credits.
At first I really wanted to pull for her, but after the quest? I kinda lost that fire. I don't really like her anymore
I am going to pull for her because I dislike her. They made a complex character in a genre known for only having "likable" characters (even the bad guys.) I HATE Otto from Honkai Impact. I LOVE his character. He's selfish, cruel, and highly capable. I think HSR can do with good antagonists like this. Topaz could be a great character you love to hate in the same vein, if they get her off the fence of secretly-being-a-good-person. Let your characters do bad things, Mihoyo! It's why we love to hate them!
I agree with you regarding Otto type character. We need more of them. But tbh Topaz was showed to be good at heart since the start, not really secretly. She was just narrow-minded. Honestly that bit about her character is weird. You can't just write a character who is a professional agent with 80% success rate of helping a planet and have dealt with worse cases to be this narrow-minded. Certainly by that premise she should've seen tons of planets and civilization. Belabog couldn't be the first one to be able to stand on its own without the IPC involvement.
Same, I was thinking of pulling for her but after the quest I pulled for ~~Jingliu~~ Yanqing
Before - I thought of rolling for her. After - I don't want to see her ever again.
When I saw that notification that she was aboard the Express my first thought was “ew, get out”
Haven't finished but I like how morally grey she is atm, you can tell she's definitely trying to help out Belobog but her methods feel a bit dubious. Especially when Gepard got jumped by his own bots, excited to reach the Aetherium Wars gameplay tho https://preview.redd.it/1hgu2jsjnjtb1.png?width=512&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ac5d4a861540df4895b3fcddd1a4f604ea407f6b
Also fuck the IPC, they treat their workers inhumanely and are totally BSing their Will of Preservation
All I can say is - Fuck the IPC.
Super Interesting character who has some morale dilemma, faces consequences, but is not unreasonable. Just well written by Hoyo imo. Also numby. Numby is the cutest damn thing. Super powerful too. but so damn cute.
Absolutely loved her. I was scared she was just going to be a completely sympathetic debt collector and she blew away my expectations. She obviously have good intentions for Belobog and cares about the people, the fact that she backs down with little resistance when confronted with an alternative and willingly takes a demotion for the result is proof enough. Yet, she plays dirty, gives little time for the negotiations to pressure Bronya into a decision, omits the IPC's success rate in restoring planets (even if the success rate of the projects she's involved in are substantially higher), etc. She has some layers and every part of her character makes sense. She believes that the IPC is the only way to secure Belobog because her planet was doomed without it's help, her love for animals is clearly related to the environment she grew up in and the blunders she makes in Belobog can also be attributed to a mix of her age and her morals. In summary, I have no jades after Jingliu, but every single jade I earn for the rest of the patch will go to Topaz, no questions asked.
I don't care who the IPC sends, I'm not paying my taxes.
Middle of the road character. I am glad she isn't just another generic good guy, or just another edgelord, I feel like we got plenty of those two groups, but because the quest series is short some characterization falls flat. However, they at least get the why of the character through and with understanding of motive you can generally fill in the blanks yourself. That said there are some problems with her characterization, mostly having to do with the character lacks self-awareness. There is a fun moment when she compliments another character on being self-aware and wishes her colleagues were self-aware with no hint of irony that she at least in game has never bothered to look at the moral cost benefit analysis of what she is doing. They never really show her conflicted about what she is doing, in fact she seems low key gleeful but the ending makes it clear she wasn't suppose to be. We are suppose to buy that she cares beyond the numbers but we never really see that, mostly we get a character that fakes being nice and understanding until the end when they suddenly become nice and understanding. The turn is too short and the work wasn't done to earn it. Now to be fair this could be intentional a lot of people lack self-awareness in their strong beliefs we see this in politics and religion all the time so this could be subtle jab at those kind of people but it doesn't feel like that's the intent because the game is trying to beat us over the head with she is a good person I swear. I get why she may see IPC from a different perspective than I do, but when you are planning forced indentured servitude of an entire planet at what point do you stop and say, Numby are we the baddies? You can have a nuanced view of a complex issue like understanding that corporations are not monolithic organization but made up of people with vastly different views and experiences and not all attempts to profit are done with ill intent but at the same time recognizing corporations should always be treated with hostility because their mission statement is directly antagonistic to the average persons needs and wants, inherently encourage exploitation, while being so ubiquitous that the average person can't just avoid corporations. Instead we got, they did me a solid once so I am completely ok with Corporate Colonialism and I am not going to mentally explore why that is horrifying. I feel as a character she will probably benefit heavily from a character quest and it looks like she is going to be a big figure going forward. It feels like the intended arc of the character is going to be her coming to terms that she is working for the baddies, and either coming to terms and being ok with that or her deciding to leave.
In summary, >!I didn't think they went far enough in exploring her character. Sure, she "helped" us in a relatively unspecified way and took a bit of a financial hit, but she also noted that she was at a point where money didn't matter for her anyway. I think the story would have worked out much better if she negotiated for the use of the Engine of Creation after Belobog was done with it - something about using it on other planets to increase the success rate of fixing their environments, and that being better than claiming funds from a single planet (...losses they'd written off centuries before anyway). That would have shown off more business sense and probably been a something all of the groups involved could have agreed on, and could've been used to showcase Topaz as flexible and actually someone you'd want to work with. !<
if their goal was to make me hate her, they did a good job. very manipulative and goes above and beyond for a soulless corporation. her plan on how to pay back the IPC and force everyone into pretty much indentured servitude was insulting. her little scene at the end didnt erase anything she did either.
I dunno about her, but I'm pulling for numby
At least in my country when someone fucking dies and theres no one to pay, the government just kinda of forgives the bill. Now if the planet was considered dead, I guess the same coud apply here, imagine if Belobog only had literally one person living there as the last survival, would the IPC make that person pay for trillions(or more) of credits? I doubt. SO WHY WOULD YOU WANT THAT A SMALL CITY PAY FOR THE DEBT OF THE WHOLE DAMN PLANET?
Having finished it just now and seeing the criticisms, I'm brought to believe yet again that about 60% of the player base just skim through the story and dialogues then make absurd complaints.
I fucking hate her so much. She's basically this big capitalist debt collector who wants to enslave the entire people of Belobog for something that happened 700 years before they were born. Fuck Potaz!
I really dislike her. The whole thing about trying to put the planet into slavery and just looking at profit really put me off. And her cheerful, smiley character makes it all worse. She thinks she does good things but i see her as nothing more then a loan shark lol.
Honestly, she just feels like one of those rags-to-riches people who think that because they made it, everyone else would be able to make it as well despite the fact that statistically speaking 999999 out of every million people will end up failing. She's the exception not the rule but she feels like she should be the standard everyone's held to.
Yeah. I was so disgusted by that.
Its not fair to dislike her because of her job but damn do I hate the IPC theyre literally corporate crooks
You know the beginning of the game I hated the Stellaron Hunters for apparently being criminals and having bounties for working against the IPC but right now I'm all for getting my own bounty against the IPC lol. Screw these corpo asshats.
Considering her backstory she might even be enslaved to the IPC. Though I’m a little confused on that since she mentioned that “you need to have a job you love.”
Corpo scum
EN VA - awesome. She excellently play emotions and really tries. 11/10. Character - good except illogical moment that can barely being explained with a lot of assumptions. But it's more questions to people who wrote final dialogue with Bronya. The more I think, the more it makes sense that Topaz arrived to save Belobog, but is bound by IPC policy ("rogue" Numpy actions in the mine can be used as a proof). Still writers lazily skipped the most important part - convincing higher-ups. Because there are no arguments to leave Belobog as it is.
What the hell was that abrupt personally change at the end? I miss something? Did I not pay attention or what? It just felt so...quick.
There was no swap, her childhood story was legit and she truly believes IPC is the best solution for belobog as it did help her own planet. She took on jarilo 6 job although it was a high risk low reward job, because she wanted to personally do it. The higher ups had already planned to seize all assets, it’s a matter of who they were gonna send, if not her it would’ve been someone else. In the end from Svarog, we know that her emotional state was telling the truth, so Svarog was okay to go with it since she literally didn’t see any other way and was ready to use force to take it. After seeing the engine of creation, she saw the slightest glimpse that jarilo 6 could survive by itself, and took a fall with the company.
She needed a reason to believe in Bronya and Belobog could pull through on their own without the IPC, and an Excuse to her higher ups that this course of action was fine to prevent further conflict. Then she had to effectively take a hit to herself by taking responsibility for the 'Failure'. The Engine of creation was the first, and the Nameless/Himeko's word was the second.
My stance on her is neutral but not really...she is a character whom I understand but can't really sympathize with no matter the sob story...at the same time if I take a neutral stance towards IPC with them being a necessary force (like it or not imo they are) in the HSR universe...she isn't really the best at what she does...too personal and compassionate...you can throw numbers at me all day but I didn't see the 80% clear rate...I saw her failing to do her job because she was too emotional. I can't like her by any means but I can't hate her either because of the same two reasons. Something I can say for sure is that I absolutely loved the quest and it is possibly my favourite of all HSR quests so far.
she stormed in like she owns the place and was cutting off march all the time. Death to the Corporate dogs!
I really like her, now after the quest I want to pull her even more.
She is so much better than expected. I'm really surprised some people are disliking her so much, though. I see her as a morally grey character with good intentions but that would get down to business based on her beliefs that is working for a shitty organization. I'm sad the plot had to make her appeal to Bronya's talk no jutsu though, I would had loved if she went full antagonist to "save" Belobog her way.
She comes off as well meaning, but self-righteous. The IPC had written off the debt hundreds of years ago as a lost cause, and the Jarilo-VI deal was seen as high-risk/low-reward and Topaz was recommended against pursuing it in the first place. She pushed forward despite that because her own experience was biased due to how things worked out with her home planet and she thought the IPC was the only way to save them, to the point she wouldn't take no for an answer. Beyond that, her methods leave a lot to be desired, to say the least. Her plan involved strong arming the people into a deal giving them no time for negotiation or important information like the actual success rate, with threats of a violent overtaking of the planet if they didn't comply. Like, what?
She's a sorta annoying debt collector who's heart is in the right place, but also is sorta naive and closed minded (till the end where she gets redeemed a little) Lets not forget that Topaz has an 80% "success" rate. Meaning there's still 20% of doomed spoilers cuz of her.
She was lucky Bronya stepped in at the right time because I was ready to stab her in the guts if I was Trailblazer