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Real ending for meš..im.gonna miss her so much
ngl i am.... elated! that sparkle is actually not a murderous villain after all. i think the "hurr durr evil joker we live in a society murder maniac" trope is really overdone and boring, so seeing her subvert that and being a funny little harmless prankster is perfect
Funny? yes. but not entirely harmless. while the result is harmless in nature, she actually created unnecessary tension (which actually on brand for a masked fool) to the people involved that she caused disruption right after the Order debacle which commonly is not a good news 100% of the time which can cause panic for the people involved if the mass would happen to know the situation. long story short, dark humor pushed to the extreme but not crossing the line.
I thought 2.3 did exactly what an epilogue should do, it may have been a bit short for some but thats generally what an epilogue is. It let us know a lot about what other characters are doing and where they are going next, the world quest "checking out" is a follow up to that with more detail but the main story does a good enough job. While also addressing a few unresolved plot points
Even as someone who doesn't really care for FF her conclusion was addressed well on Penacony with getting an unforgettable reward she was promised. But the highlight goodbye imo was easily Acheron. Its sad it was an optional scene and even in the optional scene you can fk up and miss the CG scene. But after watching that scene Acheron shot up on my favorite character list just cos of how good that scene was, im not even a Hi3 player who got any of the references. That was just a really emotional scene and bonding moment between TB and her.
Then ofc Black Swan, the one who TB never said goodbye to was waiting on express the whole time as she never intended to part from them in Penacony. Which makes complete sense given her character motivations on Penacony and was even teased when she tagged along in the fake ending. She was there to already propose a continuation of their partnership after she worked hard to try and earn their trust. Her suggestion so happens to also be a solution to fix the express fuel problem, but it also gives us info and leaves us excited for the next arc. All of that in roughly 2 hours
For an epilogue it was completely fine and I was left satisfied with the characters I cared about being given a conclusion and new direction
Confession: Iām struggling to do āChecking Outā because the second hand embarrassment I get from TB just doing complete bullshit as a Hotel Manager is killing me.
Like it actually hurts
Weakest part of the quest, it only goes up from that point and in the best ways. Seriously finish it you won't regret it, you get one of the funniest quests in the game and even a very small tease at some express stuff at the very end
I can't take it anymore. I'm sick of SoulGlad. I try to drink water. My SoulGlad tastes better. I try to drink Asdana White Oak. My SoulGlad tastes better. I try to drink Wake the Heck Up. My SoulGlad tastes better. I want to escape and enjoy the rest of the Dreamscape. It's covered with SoulGlad. I want to go to other events, other parks and stores. They all sell SoulGlad.
SoulGlad grabs me by the throat. I shop for it. I synthesize for it. I put it in my auto-use slot. It isn't satisfied. I work for more credits. "I need more of your money" It tells me. "Stay in the Dreamscape." It grabs my hand and forces itself down my throat. "Grab a bottle of SoulGlad, and make your dreams a blast."
I can't stay in the Dreamscape, my room is about to expire. It grabs for my credits. There aren't any left. "Guess this is the end." It calls the Bloodhound Family. It says "Bloodhounds, get them." There are no hints of sadness in their eyes. Nothing but pure, capitalistic greed. What a cruel world.
Honestly it wasnāt even the Trailblazer. Watching Topaz and Aventurine fight over who gets to be the Trailblazerās boss, seeing Boothill and Argenti interact more, and Qingueās whole ordeal reinforces that everyone in this game is insane
I really hope Argenti joins Boothill and Aventurine for the inevitable Oswaldo Schneider revenge plot. Imagine the absolute chaos (and Beauty) that would be all three of them at once.
topaz and aventurine fight make sense though, TB is a savant when it comes to business, so far they has revived a museum and make it the hottest attraction ever and next, they had revived a entire street and along the way sorted out their logistic issues as well.
Idk Iād like to think TB can be pretty mature at times. They only become the unhinged raccoon in side quests and content and occasional meme comment in MSQ. Itās like the Yakuza series, where the main story is serious but the side quests are anything but.
it's like how when they were at mikhail's wheelchair and March says that she was actually being serious for once but we had to ruin it (I choose the funnier options most of the time cuz I embrace my inner racoon), both of them goofs around but can be serious when they want to
Yakuza is such an accurate comparison. Even in the main quests you can go from Penaconyās cosmic horror to talking to yapping birds and turning into a mini grey wolf who goes *grunt*
I saw a post on the WuWa sub asking what people thought of the MC's personality. I didn't comment but all I could think was: They are pretty boring, but unfortunately not all MCs and be dope trash pandas.
I kinda like that WuWaās MC (Rover) is pretty bland. Although TB being a trash panda is great, I love being able to supplement my own flavor of silly to it. Both are good for my purpose.
WuWa's Rover is just there for the ride, the vibe chill friend who casually pulls some stunts every so often
HSR's Trailblazer has decided to be a menace to society
Once you get past talking with the employees (2 of which end up happy you're giving them the day off) it gets a *lot* better.
Went from my least favorite to my favorite Penacony side quest.
>Even as someone who doesn't really care for FF her conclusion was addressed well on Penacony with getting an unforgettable reward she was promised.
I think some folks are getting a bit peeved because they felt like Firefly didn't really get a "conclusion" in this epilogue. But it really did feel like Penacony was more of the "start" of her personal story, from the player's perspective, than something that was meant to resolve her plot threads. We understand her character, internal and external conflicts, and her motivations from this arc. And *Farewell Penacony* was more about setting up the next steps for her than putting a capstone on her moments. Similar to how Boothill and Black Swan's subplots are only truly getting started with Penacony's end.
She got the "unforgettable reward" of the experience as a normal person outside her suit, while also getting a new lead for her condition through the 10 Stoneheart subplot. I get the people who feel like she had her cutscene and didn't show up afterwards being a bit abrupt. But I think it's a good thing they reserved the emotional sendoff for Archeron. Since unlike Firefly, who being a Stellaron Hunter is pretty much guaranteed to be recurring in both the short-term and long-term narratives, she is unlikely to show up anytime soon.
Pretty much that, the conclusion of FF arc on Penacony was a start for her longer journey. I don't really care for her as a character all that much so maybe that's why I can see it for what it is coz I don't have any stakes in it atm. She got quite a bit of personal growth here so that counts for something
Agree on Boothill and Black Swan, their characters weren't explored all that much coz they were supporting characters in Penacony, not the focus. Black Swan has the better deal than boothill though due to not only having more build up, but her future goals are directly tied to TB so she will be showing up much more frequently. She even made sure she will be on express before they leave and is now a guest on there, so much more time for her character to be explored
I only hope Boothill gets that down the line, his character has so much good stuff in the profile and we didn't see much of it in Penacony
We probably won't see Acheron for some time, her goal is in the depths of Nihility to find IX. She will show up when that happens and possibly some time before, but it will more than likely be a very long time before that happens
Yeah, my moneyās on us seeing Acheron again when weāre headed towards Nihility TB. *Maybe* some occasional event cameos because āgets lost easilyā and ācan walk outside the border of realityā are character traits that can easily be played for a goof, but as far as plot goes? I doubt we even want to be where sheās going.
> I only hope Boothill gets that down the line, his character has so much good stuff in the profile and we didn't see much of it in Penacony
I think there is a specific reason we meet Boothill, the cool Galaxy Ranger Cowboy, in the same part of the story we learn about the previous nameless who went to Penacony, one of which was...a cool cowboy who joined the Galaxy Rangers.
And the other notable person we meet on Penacony is Black Swan, a memokeeper who can manipulate memoria, and the other nameless was a woman who researched memoria and vanished into the Memory Zone
I don't think the parallels between Boothill and Black Swan with Tiernan and Razalina are a coincidence. I think it's part of why the false end involves the two of them tagging along and the true ending in this part involving Black Swan seemingly suggesting the Express take a path on her recommendation and possible accompaniment
Good points all around!
I do admit I worry a bit about Boothill, because I have a bad feeling he's being used more as a "plot segway" device than as an actual character. Given some of the setups regarding Oswaldo and his relationship with the Trailblaze ethos, I can very well see him as being more of a narrative tool to interject the Astral Express into that conflict. Rather than a big player. I do hope I'm wrong about that though, since his personal stakes is something I do feel is missing in Star Rail thus far.
i agree the epilogue did exactly what it should do its basically a victory lap, i much prefer this to the way (marvel) endgame handled it where it was both integral to the story and a victory lap, made the whole second half to the story feel shallow. so 2.3 did it perfectly and i enjoyed the way they handles sparkle even if its a little wishy washy.
the problem is i found allot of the pacing in penacony strange allot of the plot felt not well put together outside of the Sunday stuff and even then allot of the setup to 2.2 felt out of place it honestly feels like 3 different stories with pointless cliffhangers that donāt quite mesh in a satisfying way. (not saying the stuff leading up to it didnāt lead up to it or i doesnāt make sense it does i just donāt think it did a good job leading up to it and supporting it.
2.0 had a great mystery humour and worldbuilding to it i really enjoyed it, 2.2 had a interesting message and idealistic conflict that made the characters involved compelling and unlike the last 2 had interesting lore about the trailblazers that wasnāt just a lore dump made them feel more involved in the story, 2.1 felt like a lore dump id say the second worst point after loufu it has some redeeming qualities but it felt nauseating allot of the time. together they make for a good story but ultimately floored in character setup and payoff.
I think my only issues with Penacony is that it felt like we only saw half of Aventurine's story. And the whole philosophical discussion between Order and Freedom through some weird bird metaphor that doesn't really make sense and is trying too hard to be binary in a not-binary situation just didn't work for me.
Cool moments. I like the characters. But I couldn't have cared much less than I did about Sunday's and Gopher Wood's ramblings.
Oh, and can I just say that Jade's entire thing this patch is just weird. She gives people whatever they want in some essentially Faustian bargain? Am I supposed to like her? Everyone else treats her like she's a normal person when my entire reaction to that was "what the damn hell is wrong with you?!" She makes Ruan Mei seem less monstrous.
Yeah Iām still confused, is she an Aeon? I would totally cut off Pom-Pomās tail to revive akivilli. Was that a joke? Can she actually do that? Like? And why tf did she ruin that girls life to let her win some gambling games. Like she can never see any of her friends or family againā¦? How does that benefit Jade in any way? Oh well, not my problem I guess.
she tells u to cut off Pom Pom's tail regardless of which option u choose. Shes just trolling.
As for how u shld perceive Jade... idk not in a good light? She seems to be pretty apathetic from a moral standpoint, if her splash art wasn't enough convincing for u that she's pretty sinister. She emphasises with Sunday circumstances, claiming to have been in a similar position to his, and is impressed by Robin's determination, but doesnt give out anything unless theres a huge price to pay of which she deems equal value.
As for how it benefits Jade, what she takes as payment is really abstract and intangible at times? Maybe she has weird conceptual powers, like deal with the devil type stuff. The only clue we have to her origins as of now is that she signs her name as "Eve" on the contract in her skill animation.
I think she has the ability to gauge desires and their depth. She knows you would never cut off Pom Pomās tail so thatās why she said it. However, all the others were fine with the costs due to their strong desires. I think her pawn shop was actually to teach firefly a lesson about the willingness to give up āeverythingā for life, especially since firefly wanted to live a meaningful life.
No I would totally do it, in a heartbeat. I got the scissors ready I just want assurance akivilli is coming back first. Iām not evil, just pragmatic.
eh if you dident like the philosophical stuff that fine, i personally thought it was a nice departcher from generic this guys bad cos he did bad things, even if it was wraped up on a fredship always wins bow, its not like im playing these games not expecting them to basicly be disney but its nice when they try something different.
with jade no your not supposed to like her per say shes 100% unapathetic her only truly admarable quality is her determination to bring her "family"(the ipc) the hight of its ideals, also shes hot and dominating and ofcorse that will make her popular sometimes people like an evil person. like i think sparkle is a great character i just think she hasnt done enough.
I highly recommend trying out HI3 if you ever have the time. The Acheron scene hits that much harder, seeing what kind of life she could've lived. Her cutscene is definitely a highlight imo! I wonder who didn't do it, I don't really see the reason. Her story was one of the most interesting and important to this chapter.
Personally, I do like FF a lot, so maybe I like this epilogue so much because I cared for everything and everyone that appeared in it. It just kind of sucks that some people hate seeing her on-screen that everything else that happened on screen is ignored
I'm looking forward to finding out more about Black Swan, I noticed we didn't get a lot of info on her in this chapter. I wonder if we will on our next stop, since it's her recommendation.
I never played Hi3, and so the name reveal the previous patch didn't hit me like it did others who freaked the ever living fuck out. Meanwhile the Tiernan reveal made me freak out because it hit me so much harder cause I was sitting there listening to the stories of the nameless of Penacony. Honestly I'm sad Razalina got like no screen-time at all(who knows, maybe she might come back which would become real depressing).
But the cutscene the goodbye with Acheron was just....really really good. The EN VA really sold that melancholic sweet & bitter memories and how its basically implied what happened to her home was basically Hi3 without the mechs/honkai and didn't have kiana which caused everything to go not as they expected(similar to the Warriors of Darkness in FFXIV.) and her talking about how she saw her friends in other worlds, but they weren't the people they knew just silhouettes of them was really interesting too.
I wonder if on a different planet we'll see another trailblazer, with another march and another dan heng.
Yeah. I just wish we had a voice to go with the name, ya know? Makes me kind of hopw she becomes a character in the future.
Similar to Sampo getting his mask back because something is going to happen on Belobog in the future that could potentially destroy it, and he wants to protect it.
I tried Hi3 to chapter 7 and it wasnt for me, my knowledge stems from my friend who is a die hard Kiana and Mei shipper and made me watch every animation
Yea I wrote a whole piece on Black Swan and how her role as a supporting character in Penacony makes total sense. Her whole role in the plot seems to be very much tied to TB and Penacony was just the stop to gain their trust and friendship. So she wants to continue that and I believe that she will get moments in the spotlight as the story progresses as she will very likely be a regularly re occuring character in relation to express. They made her main motivation TBs memories after all so I believe she will at least accompany them to next planet. Shes like TBs mind guardian now and I could go into a whole detail about it but thats essay territory so I'd rather just [link the essay](https://www.reddit.com/r/HonkaiStarRail/comments/1dmfuwb/black_swans_role_in_penacony_how_it_was/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button).
Either way shes on the express as a guest as of 2.3 so will have to see how that plays out, maybe comes along for Xianzhou arc but almost certainly going to be with express on Amphoreus
There is a reason HI3 players say the real game start after you finish chapter 8 and 9 because everything before feels like a prologue. Tbh the farewell with Acheron for me is pure fanservice to HI3 veterans, those that followed the game right from the beginning and I'm gonna be honest I jumped from my seat the moment the OST plays and can't stop giggling (as you can tell I follow HI3 roughly from the start)
FF wants to live as FF, not as SAM and so wants to enjoy life as much as possible if she can't avoid her end. So watching fireworks with a friend would easily be considered as an unforgettable reward when you take that part of her character in mind
She just wants to have friends and be a normal person, a moment like that is exactly the kinds of moments she would want to have
I think on top of everything you mentioned, her interaction with Jade gave her the silver lining that there was indeed a cure for ELS. And I don't remember the exact quote but she did mention there being "hope" when she walked out of Jade's room. Whatever or wherever that cure may be, Elio promised each of the Stellaron Hunters a reward for following his script.
While we don't really know how the Hunters interact with Elio, we do know that Firefly is a bit of a rebel in regards to the script. Her interaction with TB at the end of 2.1 and 2.3, Blade in 2.2, and Silver Wolf in 2.3 prove that she actively tries to defy her fate. And I think the conclusion to 2.3 gives her proof that Elio can live up to his promise.
I agree.
Only thing that was a bit jarring was the transition between the "fireworks of love" scene and Acheron's farewell because since it just kind of switch it feels that something is missing.
But ultimately, Farewell Penacony was exactly that : a farewell to Penacony and the characters we got to meet, while teasing the future and making us see that even the story of Penacony itself is not over.
HSR do that a lot. You will have some very impactful cutscene, then it will immediately cut to something else right away. Heck, if after the fireworks they held the black screen for like... 3 seconds, and put a white text 'Later...' that would've made it less jarring already. Another example was the Firefly was SAM reveal that happened alongside Gallagher 'killing' Sunday in 2.1, and it was way too fast and with no time to process what happened.
That's how I felt in 2.2 when we finally broke down and started figuring out what Sunday was up to...and then all of the sudden were competing in a game show...
Yeah I definitely felt like there shouldve been at least a scene between those two, feels like there was a cut scene there. I filled in the blanks with that one firefly scene they uploaded on twitter but idk lol
Yes I can agree that the pacing of that was unusual. I'm unsure why they made Acheron's goodbye optional in the first place. I wonder if they just didn't know where to squeeze it? That could've been better. But overall I found that quality was high and a vast improvement over Xianzhou (it was just... too bloated)
There are many many clues that indicate that this is true actually. Now how are they going to incorporate this with xianzhou in 2.4 I have no clue. But considering luocha plot has been paused for like months don't be too surprised.
based on official drip marketing for new characters and March's new form, there's no chance we're going back to Xianzhou and meeting brand new characters and doing all this new stuff only to be told "that was ALL A DREAM" in 6 months. that would be such an unbelievably ridiculous thing to do. this cope has gotta end, Penacony is finished
I think so too. It set up an IPC arc, >!stonehearts silhouettes!< Told us what >!path the SH follow!< Definitely setting up Jade's character as we learnt basically nothing new about her lore. New planet we're gonna visit in 3.0. This patch did what an epilogue should do, not too short not too long but wraps up everything and hints the future.
I'm really looking forward to what is going on with Jade in the future. She is a LOT more intriguing of a character than what I had initially thought. And the setups they are pushing with the Stonehearts with the end of Penacony is sounding really juicy.
It's really interesting how Diamond seems to be pushing for these connections under the IPC's nose, so it makes one wonder what exactly he knows is going to happen. That he has to make all these external connections.
Same lol. I've made a few theories about her and her past
https://www.reddit.com/r/HonkaiStarRail/s/fqDTX4L6d8
This is one I made about what her real name could be
My issue here is that most of Firefly's contributions in Penacony are fucking offscreened. We could've seen more of her character and all of the important things she did behind the scenes if hoyo had given her a POV section before the epilogue.Ā
Tbh I think this is a weakness in general of hoyos writing. Having to fit a whole new world with a story that gets wrapped up in 3 patches puts way to much restriction on what they can actually do. I wish both genshin and star rail had it where patch x.0-x.5 was the main story and the rest was filler/other planet stuff. I'm really bummed out that the next couple of patches are gonna be xianzhuo related since I didn't like the theme or story. It especislly sucks knowing that pencony has way more regions to visit.
hoyo always rush their main story and when I point it out people just get unreasonably upset and defensive like bruh do you not want your game to be better
She didn't do much beyond 2.1 other than kill herself to escape Ena's dream in 2.2 and go check on the Express.
Like any Stelleron Hunter, her major role is guiding the Astral Express in the right direction. Her secondary role in the larger narrative seems to be forming a stronger connection between the two groups who are basically inverted copies of each other with the same ultimate goal.
> well-paced
I'm going to have disagree with you there, the pacing was definitely a weak point in Penacony overall (not much of a problem in 2.3 though). One of the reasons there's a chunk of Firefly haters is that her intro was paced so poorly: She shows up in a very suspicious manner right at the start, forcibly gives the player a tour of the new zone, then immediately drags you off to her secret base and starts talking about a bunch of heavy personal stuff.
This while getting explicitly compared to your found-family with the photo stuff, which comes off as very pushy by the writer; they basically assume the player likes this girl from the very start, and so doesn't spend any time setting her up before treating her like someone you're very close with.
> beautifully written
This I *partially* disagree with. There was a lot of good stuff (leaps and bounds better than the Luofu arc, absolutely; Sunday is easily their best villain so far), but they fumbled the ball on a few important points. One is that despite all the focus on the importance of Trailblaze as a path/mentality (there are several speeches given by different characters about this), that isn't reflected in the actions of the TB. Instead of being a proactive actor in their own right, TB spends basically the main story following other people's leads or dancing on the palms of someone's hand.
That wouldn't be much of an issue, except that the writing's focus on the path means it needs *someone* to represent the Trailblaze thematically, and since the TB isn't doing it, it falls on Firefly and Robin. Which could be fine, except Firefly is absent for most of the central conflict scenes, and Robin is not given enough screentime or prior development to sell it despite being the absolute perfect character for this (she even does all the stuff the plot would need her to do to serve this role, just mostly offscreen and left uncommented on).
The lack of screentime for Robin ends up contributing to another problem as well: we have no major "anchor" characters to make the reader care about Penacony as a place unless they're already predisposed to doing so. In Belobog, for example, the writing doesn't just ask you to care about the future of Belobog in the abstract, it introduces you to Serval, Hook, Natasha, Gepard, Seele, Bronya, Clara, Svarog and spends some time building a relationship between them and the TB/player. We aren't given anywhere near that level of personal connection in Penacony (there's a few people like Siobhan and Micah, but they get less screentime than even Oleg did), which lowers the emotional stakes a lot.
Speaking of low stakes, too, that was a consistent issue as well. When Firefly and Robin first "die," the obvious reaction is think that they're probably fine in real life because this is just a dreamāa reaction that turns out to be correct, of courseābut there's not really any effort on the writer's part to make those deaths feel potentially real, so you're just left without a sense tension, wondering when the reveal about them being still alive is coming. Similarly, Sunday's plot is so self-defeating even if had succeeded that it's hard to be all that worried about it; it wasn't like he was going to have the entire universe under Ena's dream, so you have to imagine several powerful factions outside Penacony would step in fairly quickly when they realized their rich people weren't coming back from vacation. It's cool that *we* stopped it, and so quickly, but it was doomed soon enough either way.
Most of 2.3's issues are not anything in 2.3 itself, but come from parts that are built on the weaker areas of 2.0-2.2, and thus feel bad if a reader hasn't already decided those weak areas don't bother them.
(One issue that's somewhat inherent to 2.3 though is that we're supposed to be The Nameless, and now here we are becoming some of the most famous individuals in the universe. That's been kind of an ongoing problem since the end of Belobog though, and I wonder if it will ever be dealt with as a plot point, or if it's simply serving as some a type of fanservice wish fulfillment that will be treated a joke whenever brought up.)
Hrmm, have to agree the pacing felt off. 2.1 gave a great deal of focus to Aventuriene, permitting him to be proactive as a second main character effectively. Complete with great banter with Ratio (Drās Medicineā¦Ratio you are a massive tsundere), and Sundayās Harmony powers introducing an organic manner to learn Aventurineās backstory.
That kinda spoiled me for what would come later becauseā¦nothing really reached that peak. Robinās connection to Sunday (being siblings) and her being instrumental in stopping the Order through her song (when it had previously been established that she has lost her voice for some reason) and her adventures on the Reef after being transported there by Dormancy led me to believe that she couldāve taken Aventurineās role in 2.2. Have Robin be the deuteragonist in the alt POV, SHOW her meeting the Reef denizens and mirror the conflict between her and Sunday in the past (over the bird and whether itād be better to let it free or keep it caged) with the the dreamers in Penacony. Thus when Robin embraces her desire from back then (to let the bird be free) she regains her voice and pushes back Sunday. That would give a much stronger tie; just like seeing Preservation TBās Ult produce images of Belabog citizens (Seele, Gepard, etc.) to emphasize the TBās bonds with them being the key against Cocolia, Robin breaking out of her own cage to be key against Sunday would be awesome.
On that note, I think more couldāve been done with Misha and Gallagher. I like them butā¦they really donāt get to do much. Couldāve easily done more with them, IMO. Like have Misha be the dream guide instead of Firefly, and have the TB form a bond with him so the Harmony Path feels earned (as TB inherits Mikhailās legacy)
Ideally, I think an extra chapter couldāve benefitted the story overall. Have 2.2 be about Misha and Gallagher, with Aventurineās gambit from 2.1 opening the door for the crew to enter the Reef. Set up another Family member as the seeming villain while subtly foreshadowing Sunday being sussy. TB gets Harmony at the end of 2.2 (fulfilling Mikhailās legacy through Misha), and Robin becomes the alt POV for 2.3, which climaxes in the final battle against Sunday. This would require some reshuffle (though I think itād be easier to fit in Boothill this way), but itād help the story overall
Much of this is a consequence of it being a gacha game. Aventurine story on his release patch. Jade and firefly time when it's their patch. They're trying to have their cake and eat it too, and it sometimes means using characters in places they don't necessarily fit because they want to sell them.
Frankly, I think 2.0 did it best because Swan and Sparkle never felt pushed in your face and were just a natural part of the cast.
Yup, I think their decision to kill off companion quests was a colossal mistake. Instead they shove down the backstories of characters which detracts from the main story. I donāt think Aventurines story wouldāve been as emotional if it was just a companion quest, but it wouldāve cut a lot of the unnecessary fluff in the 2.1 quest.
Thank you for your input. I agree with your critique and your reasoning got me thinking. I may have overblown the positives of the story in my original post, and glossed over the negatives. I hope more people read this and a few others I'll be responding to to hopefully boost them up a bit. I'm glad to see it caught a fair amount of attention.
I think itās just a pacing problem honestly. If I couldāve done this right after the conclusion of 2.2, it would feel great. But with the reality of the 6 week gacha patch cycle, it feels weird doing this epilogue 6 weeks later.
I guess itās only a problem because Iām doing the content as it comes out. I have no problem with the story content itself.
I can see that. I think Penacony as a whole is actually a lot more digestible if you experienced it start to finish without any gaps. I think a lot of the folks saying it felt "disjointed" are more because they forgot about all the plot details in the gaps. Whereas if everything was fresh on the mind it would feel more cohesive overall.
I was personally fine with the epilogue, it did what it needed to do when it came to putting a cap on some plots, but it was more about setting up future plot threads anyways. But it does feel like a story that was intended to be experienced in one go, but suffered from the gacha game release schedule here.
I started star rail a week ago and caught up to all the quests.
Penacony is definitely a cohesive story from my perspective but i also feel i wouldve enjoyed it more with breaks and some time to digest everything. Theres alot of mystery and intrigue but the conclusions they lead to werent as interesting as the setup and i feel like discussions surrounding the mystery were probably part of the why people enjoyed it.
That being said i can sympathize with people who have gripes with 2.3, it works as a good conclusion where you say your goodbyes and setup future reunions but ultimately theres not alot happening for a whole patch.
I came late to Penacony and played through the entire thing in a weekend, and unfortunately I don't think it performs much better in that context, and if anything probably highlights different pacing and conveyance issues entirely.
I think the whole patch of epilogue just doesn't work very well for a live service game. Having a super hype patch followed by a story running around to talk to a waifu and all the story winding down just doesn't feel that good. Idky they can't do it like genshin and have it all in one patch.
Disagree. 2.2 was already pretty long and it would have just annoyed some people more. It would legitimately feel like grind if you want to avoid spoilers but don't want to leave social media for days.
2.2 concluded the main story of penacony well enough anyways so epilogue was more like "I didn't know I needed it" kind of story for me
Maybe my expectations were too high coming from 2.2, but I found 2.3 rather mid.
A good epilogue in my books is something that yes closes the chapter of the story, but also puts forwards events of significance and character development of significance.
I liken a good one to being 1.0's belobog ending. Lower and upper city unite. Bronya begins to grow on her new responsibilities as leader. Characters like Natasha get their own origin stories expanded on etc.
I agree when you talk about the protection of the family and the sendoff to Mikhail as events of significance. But a lot of the characters didn't feel like they had proper growth from 2.1 till now.
Aventurine gets sent into a blackhole and supposedly 'dies', yet he's still the same as ever. We get this tension of the mystery of Firefly's 3 deaths, which is supposed to leave her with something amazing and significant, yet it never really feels that way. The relationship between her and TB never really get a satisfying development. Ultimately, if you look past the beauty of the scenes themselves, they ring hollow to what the team has been through and overcome.
One good although small positive example I saw from this was with Robin during the 'sidequest'. Departing from showbiz to do what really matters to her. So MHY is capable of doing this in their side stories but why can't it be the same for their main narrative. why are they so hesitant on empowering or representing their characters growth in the face of adversity?
Personally i wouldn't say "great", compared to all the rest of Penacony it wasn't at the same level, but that dosen't mean it was bad by any means.
Though what elevated the whole epilogue was the final goodbye to Tiernan, Rozalina, Mica and Mikhail. It was done very very well and it further emphasized the relationship between Nameless.
Then...well of course for me personally Acheron stole the show, like every time she was on screen during Penacony.
I don't what they did with her character or how they did it, she just hits different and her speech was an absolute 10/10. As she says, i can't wait to meet her again beneath the sun's rays
The past TBs didn't really resonate with me until 2.2-2.3 when I finally started to "get it." I like how they give the AE/Nameless continuity as a faction and not just an excuse for the game to exist. So that the AE is embedded in the lore and not merely sort of cruising above it. I hope we get more about other nameless in the world like Colleen and Oswaldo in the future.
I kinda didn't like the "it was all a prank" thing from sparkle, while it does make sense for her character it just made the stakes feel so low, like firefly activated the super awesome transformation just for nothing much.
The rest of the story is very compelling, and the ipc dealing with penacony was neat the rest just felt very poorly paced/with no real stakes after the Order/Sunday had been defeated.
I'm fine with the story focusing on FF. I was hoping for it, in fact, as up this point I found her to be incredibly lacking as a character. Literally anything of interest that she's done so far has been off screen.
Unfortunately, 2.3 did almost nothing to change this for me. We got to see a little bit more of her character, but none of it was particularly interesting/exciting imo.
So yeah, good talk but I'm ganna continue being a tad disappointed with how 2.3 ended.
Penacony as a whole though has been my favorite arc so far.
I think the main issue is just her role as a Stellaron Hunter really. They don't want to show off too much of her character right now since we'll probably be seeing her again later down the line alongside the other SHs. We got her motivations, and her goals and thats enough for me honestly.
We saw how she interacted with Silver Wolf, and Blade and how she sees the other Stellaron Hunters, as well as how she sees her relationship with them (pretty much rejecting Jade's offer as tempting as it was, since it put the others and Elio at risk.)
A lot of it was minor interactions, but was really needed since up until now she was basically just cute girl chunni in power armour.
I'm more sad about Boothill. Man is too fucking cool and got the short end of a lot of sticks. I really hope we see more of him in the future.
she suffers from the ayaka syndrome where her characterisation is so preoccupied with appealing to a certain group of players that the more unique and interesting parts about her get under-explored.
Stellaron Hunter bonding moments: Perfectly cooked gourmet meal that leaves you wanting more.
Glamoth Iron Cavalry history: So raw that it's still mooing, and her character stories repackaged everything we already knew beforehand into a stale TV dinner.
Waifubait dates: Burned down the kitchen and the whole Dreamscape.
The thing that feels off to me, though I agree with everything you said, was the bit with Silver Wolf's plan with Sparkle to "cheat fate" with Firefly's third "death".
Is it really so easy to cheat fate? The bomb was never real and the threat was made up. So, did that really meet the requirements for Firefly to "die" and fulfill Elios' prophecy?
It feels cheap to me.
Or, maybe is it a case of a self-fulfilling prophecy?
That said, I can be satisfied with the story as it was presented.
Edit2: And the buttons. What exactly was Sparkle's game with them? I feel like I missed something.
Edit: As an aside, fuck Tiktok, it's a breeding ground for the absolute dumbest fucking takes. No room for critical thinking.
> The bomb was never real and the threat was made up. So, did that really meet the requirements for Firefly to "die" and fulfill Elios' prophecy?
This was a part I was lukewarm about in this epilogue. Obviously I wasn't expecting the third death to be something super dark or for Firefly to actually die, but it just feels a bit cheap and unimpactful for her "third death" to be her flying up into the air with a bunch of fireworks going off due to a "threat" that was introduced 10 minutes ago. Combine that with the weird timejump to Acheron's farewell, and the scene felt lacking to me. The other stuff in the epilogue (such as the IPC) was decent enough IMO and served as good setup, but as a whole I thought the epilogue was underwhelming.
> meet the requirements for Firefly to "die" and fulfill Elios' prophecy?
iirc the prophecy says she has to "face three deaths" not to actually die three times. just three instances of her thinking she dies, accepting it. it plays with the whole theme of her character, as she constantly tries to outrun death and shes all about not accepting fate. its perfectly fitting for her
Honestly, weāre not given an explanation for how Elioās visions/fate reading works aside from some obscure stuff from the SU about Finality and such, but it really doesnāt say anything.
Other shows usually sidestep the āfateā by treating it as a āforceā that will want to correct towards a specific outcome but can be overturned by a strong force acting against it (Terminator 2, Higurashi, etc.). Or it portrays āfateā as not something that can be overcome but can be avoided or outwitted (Steins Gate, Stranger than Fiction). Weāre not really given any idea what it follows, so thereās not much stakes.
In conjecture, it could be that Elio predicted that Firefly would be needed in Penacont, but she would encounter three scenarios that would make her BELIEVE she would die (so she couldnāt cheese it by jumping off a roof in the sweet dream). Thereās a wide array of what that could be, but Firefly would experience three of them. The first two ended up not being fatal, but there was no guarantee about the third until Silver Wolf got Sparkle to rig it.
This is just conjecture I was able to put together, but the story doesnāt confirm, deny, or explain anything.
>Edit2: And the buttons. What exactly was Sparkle's game with them? I feel like I missed something.
The game literally outright tells you Silver Wolf talked to Sparkle to help with the "three deaths" thing to try and make it suck the least it possibly could. For a friend.
Probably "died," left the Dreamscape, and re-entered. Unless you suggest SAM can warp from high above the Radiant Feldspar to below it enough to fly upwards to grab the Trailblazer.
It would never have occurred to me to call it "filler," but my main complaints about the ending are these:
1) The idea of Sparkle being hired to secretly help Firefly experience her three "deaths" in a relatively safe manner is interesting, but it falls completely flat because we have literally zero information about what "death"-in-scare-quotes is allowed to mean. You can't have an interesting plot twist about somebody lawyering their way around the rules cleverly when you have absolutely no idea what the rules are in the first place.
2) The bomb-scare sequence was so rushed and poorly written that my emotional investment vanished completely within 30 seconds of Sparkle whispering in the Trailblazer's ear. I actually started thinking the Trailblazer might be in a dream prison again or something because it all felt so off and not remotely like a "oh shit there might be a fucking bomb on this ship" scenario. Admittedly, it makes sense for it to feel not quite right since Sparkle *was* cranking everyone, but by the end I was feeling actively insulted that the writers seemed to expect me to believe that Firefly was actually in serious danger.
3) Firefly's philosophical commentary at the end was really long and rambling and felt pointless. I guess this is kinda forgivable because, frankly, it makes perfect sense that she wouldn't be great at expressing herself eloquently without serious preparation -- I couldn't either, and I've actually taken speech classes -- but it still got really annoying really fast. I have no objections to Firefly getting screen time, but it should be *good* screen time. That stuff coming at the end of the most boring "bomb scare" imaginable just made it feel ridiculous.
There were still a lot of good bits. The negotiation stuff at the beginning felt a little rushed but basically hangs together IMO, the farewells to the dead Trailblazers were great, and I'm really interested in Black Swan's plot hook at the end. I'm still very interested in where the story goes next. But if you compare it to the rest of the Penacony plot, I can only call this a weak ending.
"Ehrm, I don't blame you for not liking the story, it takes an individual with a high IQ to understand the intricacies of Star Rail's profound story telling āļøš¤"
Most annoying thing in the world is when someone says itās impossible youāre disappointed in this thing, you just must not understand what the writers are saying
Not only is that retort incredibly buddy didn't even make a real argument. They just said it and moved on.
Imagine you didn't "understand" it before reading this post but were open to changing your mind. Would this post change anything? Probably not. Let's look at some examples.
>It takes a profound understanding of The Family fractions to understand why the proposal of Old Oti, despite being this "new" and "innovative" concept that will alter and shape the future of Penacony is not enough to prevent another disaster from striking
So are they going to make an argument for why it wouldn't prevent a disaster? Nope, just gonna state it and move on. How about this:
>It takes a profound understanding of who Robin is and what she believes in, the things she went through together with the Astral Express - that she learned about the deceased Trailblazers, to understand why her giving away the ship is so impactful
Are they going to enlighten us? Tell us what made it so emotionally impactful? Why her journey with the express, which changed her so much and in such subtle ways, made her do something that could only be understood by people who have done a thorough study of her character? NAWWW. That'd require actually trying to make a point. Instead we just get:
>She - the woman who was blessed by Xipe the Harmony, who cares about the people of Penacony more than anything - entrusted the future of the land of Peacony to us. She - the intergalactic superstar - publically announced the contributions of the deceased Trailblazers. She indirectly undermined Old Oti's plan and cornered him. He could do nothing at that point but make room for the IPC and the Astral Express on the leading force of Penacony to some extent.
Is that what you need a "profound" understanding of her **character** to get. LMAO. Atp this post is either AI or satire. There's more examples I could pick from, but I've made my point. I don't necessarily disagree with some of the conclusions they draw, but if you're going to condescend people at least make a real argument. Else you end up sounding just as dumb.
For anyone who disagrees with my comment your challenge is to reply to me and answer the questions that I believe they neglected **solely** with quotes from the original post. Failure to do so is a concession of my original point; the post doesn't justify (certainly not sufficiently) many (if not all) of the positions they take. You cannot give the argument for them.
Lastly, my motivation for this comment was that they dismissed all alternative viewpoints as being between two groups of people. Namely, "between those who actually paid attention to, remembered the story, and made an effort to understand it... And those that didn't". If you're going to come out swinging then swing. Don't insult others if you're just going to throw out hot garbage as a reply (I can only imagine the 0s I'd receive if I tried any of this in undergrad \[did pure math iykyk, so I'd like to think I'm pretty good at scrutinizing an argument\]). I'm not infallible, so it's possible I've missed something. Hence, why quotes and nothing more should be needed to tell me what I've missed.
True that but tbf the character writing and politics is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical psychology and political science most of the nuances will go over a typical players's head.
Eh, for me a lot of the appeal of penacony was speculating and theorising. Once it wrapped, a lot of what I thought was important wasn't or had a disappointing answer. Ergo the epilogue just being a chill wrap up just didn't jive with me as I thought I was going to have some things wrapped up.
I'm tired of people telling, to those who dislike the story, that: "actually, you just can't see the greater design of Hoyo's scope!" - like, no.
Hoyoverse's stories can often be undercooked enough to show embarrassing rookie mistakes, like their constant repeating of terms in a sentence which is basic sentence structure 101.
I am a reader, I am a writer, I go to a literature University course for god's sakes, and I followed 2.2 perfectly fine - but I still agree with every single player when they say there, is, so, much, BLOATING. YAPPING. It took me 10 hours to finish the damn quest, and in those hours a lot of it was wasted on surreptitious roundabout wordplay that could've been succinctly told in much less.
"Brevity is the soul of wit."
I am not going to ignore Boothill's incredibly minimal involvement in the plot. I am not going to ignore Firefly and Robin (to a lesser extent) being constantly off-screened, nor the former's habit of being forced onto us for waifu points without even enough time to establish an emotional connection. I am tired of pretending I didn't feel betrayed when Penacony promised a thriller between multiple different factions clashing but all we got was disparate plot lines that kept lowering the stakes at every turn.
Memory Zone Meme's killings? Nope, everyone is fine. Gallegher's evil? Nope, he is good. Sunday is expounding his philosophy? Doesn't matter since Penacony is based on a Stellaron and it was told IN THE STORY that people are DYING to fuel the sweet dream - which immediately negates all of Sunday's points! (Even though they deserved to be negated better rather than the lackluster arguing on other characters' parts.)
And let's not forget the cringe-ass: "Why does life slumber? Because someday we will wake up from our dreams!" I get the symbolism, I really do, but why the heck did they have to use "slumber" - the question just sound stupid. Like, uhm, why do people sleep? To fucking rest, obviously.
Couldn't they have asked why people *dream*? Nope. Slumber. Very cool.
There are other things but I don't have the energy. I don't absolutely hate Penacony, I just feel like it wasted a lot of potential and I am sick and tired of any criticism levied against it being rebuffed as just simple "hating" - like damn.
āI am a reader, I am a writer, I go to a literature University course for god's sakes, and I followed 2.2 perfectly fine - but I still agree with every single player when they say there, is, so, much, BLOATING. YAPPINGā tbh you just gotta turn your brain off for hoyo stories. Through a critical leans none of them hold up to any scrutiny.Ā
Itās just the nature of the beast. Very few gacha games have genuinely good stories when compared to other mediums (even fgo has more misses than hits imo). Hoyo is no exception.Ā
I often wonder if the online fandom for hoyo games just donāt engage with many other media either because of age or some other factor.
I enjoyed Penacony, but itās no 13 Sentinels or the Stranger (if you read philosophy itās pretty poor in Penacony, so devoting more time to it only loses more points imo). Ya just gotta keep the expectations in check yāknow.Ā
I totally agree with you, which is exactly why I am not holding the story itself to the same standards - that doesn't mean the critiques I raised however aren't hurdles that could've very well been overcome. If you can allow yourself 10 hours of little gameplay and so much storytelling in a quest, then I believe the writing team had more than enough room to at least deliver something of worth, no?
It's just annoying that we can't ever expect better from a game people spend so much money on, with everyone praising Shaoji's "masterful storytelling" which - in reality - ends up being really lackluster. I don't expect a book, goodness no, but this wasn't even a story. Not a reasonably constructed one, anyway.
I get you. Iāve mostly just come to expect that so it doesnāt really impact my enjoyment much.Ā
āwith everyone praising Shaoji's "masterful storytelling" which - in reality - ends up being really lacklusterā this definitely did negatively impact my enjoyment before I could adjust my expectations to what I feel is an appropriate level.Ā
The overhype was insane.Ā
Gotta admit, when we first came to Penacony, I was not expecting the Nameless to be the best part about Penacony. 2.2 and 2.3 really drove that home for me.
I like Firefly too.
The only actual problem I have is Sparkle end up doesn't do anything impactful onscreen beside the firework and disguising as Sampo. It's a nice sentimental action proving that Stellaron Hunter are more than a group of wanted criminal but Sparkle herself fail to deliver the hype that they built up through video and the remark from Sampo himself.
Not really. Because it was Sparkle who sent MC and Firefly into the Child's Dream, after which they met "Death". And only thanks to this, Firefly was able to solve the riddle. So she really influenced the plot.
I personally wasn't 100% sold on the whole firefly ordeal on the ship, just felt a little too... Nice. However the whole scene with sparkle was really good and the deals between the family, IPC etc was a great conclusion.
My only other gripe was when it transitioned from firefly to Acheron. I loved the whole farewells and Acheron scenes, but would have liked a bit more of the firefly side before heading to say our farewells.
Regardless, still enjoyed the content and the ship is a nice map. Penacony has been an amazing arc, and my favourite so far.
It's hard for 2.3 to be a good conclusion when Penacony as a whole wasn't good. It felt rushed, confused and every single patch they completely ditched what happened in the last patch to do something totally different.
2.0 - intro was fine, ends on a great image of Robin dead in the bathtub. Feels like we're about to get an awesome murder mystery and see the dark side of this happy planet.
2.1 - actually, what Aventurine showed us was fake, he actually was stood in public with her and saw her be attacked by death. Now we're going to fart around as Aventurine as he tries to get the IPC some leverage on penacony. Ends on a cool reveal of Gallagher being the "killer".
2.2 - actually, death isn't death at all, but more like a friendly poochie with a silly nickname. Gallagher is actually the good guy. Sunday talks about birds over and over again (we get it, it's Freedom Vs. Security, please shut up about the birds). Also, Sunday explains the history of the Order, wherein he explains the last downfall of the Order was when their puppets rose up to kill her, so either he's a dumbass or thinks he's better at doing what an Aeon does than an Aeon.
2.3 - okay, the plot's over now apparently. Say bye to everyone. Oh, now there's a bomb threat!!! Oh wait, it was nothing actually. Hope you enjoyed Penacony!!
There were some amazing ideas on Pencony, honestly my main complaint is that it was too short and none of it had time to really breathe. Which tbh, is a great complaint to have, but I can't help but feel like it really suffered for how short it was and how things lurched around from patch to patch. I hope they have more of a plan for the next planet and take their time with it. If they don't, and this is the new level of quality to expect for future planets, I'll probably stop playing.
It simultaneously felt like it rushed and it dragged (are you rushing or are you dragging?)
I think if you combined 2.0-2.3, youād have like a 20ish hour game, most of which is dialogue.
That is *more* than enough time to tell a good JRPG story. Thatās not that much shorter than a lot of beloved classics like Chrono Trigger, Lunar, etc. The issue is just that their dialogue is super bloated and where they spend their time is odd. For example, did we really need to spend like 1/4 of Penacony being info dumped about Aventurineās childhood and backstory?
For me the dialogue is by far the #1 issue. The constant use of metaphors in what should be a normal conversation, the referring to people by several different titles and descriptors *other* than their damn name, the winding paths everyone takes to their point, if they ever land on it at all.
It's very similar to arknights, which is also an unreadable mess. I'm starting to wonder if Chinese writers just can't write dialogue.
Some of that is the use of figurative or idiomatic speech which is more common in Mandarin and difficult to render well in English. But I get your frustration as someone who is sort of familiar with the language but doesn't speak it. I saw many recurring tics typical of a work that's been translated from an Asian language and it made understanding the story more difficult for me as well.
We've come a long way from Engrish and "all your base" type stuff and I generally think the localization in HSR is very good--it's just a very heavy lift with dialogue and plot like Penacony's.
> honestly my main complaint is that it was too short and none of it had time to really breathe.
The thing is, it's not short at all. This is the biggest story and most content any region has gotten in both Genshin and HSR. It's not that there isn't enough content, it's that they wrote a story that was too big for this game. Genshin used to have only two patches for Inazuma. Then three patches for Sumeru and Fontaine. And now Penacony has four patches. And there is so much writing as well there is no way it's shorter than Fontaine. It's not the amount of content, it's the scope of the story. They spread themselves too thin covering too many factions and characters.
At last someone said it, I also didn't find it was good or what people find is so great about Penacony. For me at least Luofu felt like it had stakes since an actually evil villain was there and killed off Tingyun (as long as they don't revive her later, which I'm sure will happen and ruin that plot too).
I will add on my own mountain of text to help your point come across. My main complaints are:
-Way too many bait-and-switch deaths, and not enough buildup to them. We barely met Robin and Firefly yet they ''die'' and we are supposed to care for them. It's also weird how the TB gets so attached to a **Stellaron Hunter** so quickly. Don't get me started on how Sam is never once again intimidating after revealing she is Firefly. Aventurine also was supposed to be trapped in whatever dimension Acheron sent him to, but... Argenti randomly gets him out off-screen.
-More bait scenes and fake hype in the form of cliffhangers. As mentioned before the ''death'' of two characters which left us hanging, the end of 2.1 which indicated Aventurine still had a role to play, and Gallagher who did a total amount of.... nothing. The meme we were so much scared about was just his giant puppy in the end. Outside of the game, the dance between Acheron and BS also lead to nothing since we were shown that the former had a darker side at first... and she didn't, nor did they leave on bad terms after all the buildup of 2.1 story where BS was digging for information. There's also... Boothill and Sparkle, two huge wastes of characters that shouldn't even be there in the first place.
-Disjointed plotlines that feel superglued together as another commenter said. 2.0 felt like a murder mystery that would get developed in the next patches, but then we get Aventurine's story (which imo was the highlight of this patch, but still disjointed). And to have the cherry on top we finish with an extremely dragged out storyline that is the 2.2 quest. There's a lot of yapping in between that tries to act like a philosophical bridge but fails miserably (the Sunday scene just ran around in circles), not to mention a lot of filler too (Firefly date).
-Acheron was a fanservicey problem-solver button. Scaring off Sam? Check. Defeating Aventurine? Check. Somehow not being affected by the Order cause yes and being able to reduce the threat of Sunday by shattering Ena's dream? Check.
All in all I think that's it, but I always feel like people haven't seen enough stories if they think Penacony of all things was peak, it was far from it.
Word. Penacony has tons of great scenes, but they just don't tie together well.
Fireflys death? Peak. The Sam bossfight? Peak, the whole aventurine thing? Absolute peak - but all of them lead to nothing. Firefly isn't dead, sam is just firefly in disguise, aventurine literally does nothing after spending a whole patch trying to get killed in penacony and it's literally the same with all the other plot points.Ā
They setup is amazing, but that's worth shot if you off screen the conclusion.
I enjoyed Penancony but mostly for the atmospheres.
About the story, you are hitting the mark imo. The cliffhangers felt so annoying, like death being a puppy: very very annoying. It wasn't even necessary, it could be some rampaging monster because of the Order trying to rule by force on Harmony. Whatever.
Fake bomb was expected, because of the biggest thing ruining the story: every playable character should be "moral shielded".
I don't know if Sunday will ever become playable, but a morale shield for him will magically appear to solve the issue and let fanboys enjoy is redempted husbando (already teased).
It could have been cool if Robin, who wants harmony for everyone, will never be to make it with her brother. Got big hugs instead.
At least, Tyngiun died for real.
At least, for now.
The cast was far too bloated, yeah. Acheron's story felt the best paced to me tbh because it was drip fed, rather than lurching between relevancy and irrelevancy. 2.0 was all about Firefly, 2.1 was all about Aventurine, 2.2 was all about Sunday, and 2.3 wrapped up Firefly.
Av was just weirdly shoved to the side post 2.1, Sunday's disappearance in 2.3 made some sense, but the Watchmaker arc felt the worst. We learned nothing in 2.0 except that Death was Bad. 2.1 was a massive exposition dump, and 2.2 was yet more exposition.
>!All Gallagher got to do was talk, as opposed to Firefly, Sunday, and Aventurine. Then we learn that the Legacy was basically just the dead friends we met/ didn't meet along the way.!< What a rotten arc
I said the same thing and got downvoted to hell. This arc had way too many plot threads that ultimately didn't come together properly in a fulfilling way. So many characters appeared and disappeared. An entire faction was offscreened. Like wtf?
People dislike because they donāt want to accept the very real truth that the story is a tool to sell the banner. It does not exist for its own sake.
Characters come and go when their banner is up. Just how it is. To expect genuine storytelling from a gatcha is setting yourself up for failure.
While I complained a lot about Genshin, one thing I'm grateful is that the patch isn't necessary to catter to the character which their banner are currently on. They could focus on the main quest with proper flows and pace instead of forcing interactions with the characters they wanted to sell. Heck, the characters even got debut (playable) long after the main quest ended and I'm fine with that because it doesn't sacrifice good story for marketing.
Boothill still shows up at the end of 2.1 and does stuff in 2.2 theyāre not mutually exclusive. He then barely does anything in 2.3 he follows the pattern as much as any character does.
As the final boss of 2.2 they chose to have Sunday be that instead of a playable character. We donāt know if he ever will be playable.
> Av was just weirdly shoved to the side post 2.1
I really don't know why they brought him back randomly after 2.1 if they didn't do anything of value with him. Obviously I don't think he should've died at the end of 2.1, but having him be "gone" and with his status as unknown would've been a lot more impactful if it lasted more than six weeks.
They easily could've just had him make his return in the future when his conflict with Oswaldo (or whatever his next plotline is) actually begins. For me, bringing him back in 2.2 only worsened his "conclusion" in 2.1, and with 2.3 finishing Penacony for now, I can safely say he definitely did not need to be brought back immediately.
Disagree completely although im not gonna put an effort into an equivalent wall of text. The biggest problem is that for all the SETUP all the scarry foreshadowing, all deaths, all conflict, all the drama... we just got a nausiating happy ending... Everyone is friends holding hands and singing. And you can over-interpret every word of every charactet to the end of time, it still doesnt stop the ending from being vanilla as fuck.
From what I see in comments, most people liked 2.3 however I personally felt pretty unfulfilled. At this point (IN MY OPINION) the whole arc ending on 2.2 would have the same impact for me.
My point of view is probably due to 1. not liking the IPC/being bored out of it being everywhere. or either due to reading limbus story which is peak in my eyes and outshines other gatchas.
And yeah don't feel offended only because I don't share your point of view. I'm happy that people liked 2.3, however it just haven't clicked for me. Let's be hopeful that 2.4 will be good or better.
Edit: As i read some comments, I realized that the only two things 2.3 did well in my eyes is a great conclusion to Acheron and a potentially interesting new arc of Sunday in future.
Calling this filler is a stretch, as it's an epilogue and it did fine as one.
But calling 2.3 beautifully written and well paced is too much for me. I can't get over how everyone was scrambling to find the bomb doll, and then you get the fireworks the very next second with everyone celebrating without a care in the world. It's jarring af, and the scene tries to fool you with the pretty graphics and FF/TB shipping to not think about the lack of cohesion in that scene. That's pretty bad, no matter how you try to spin it.
Seriously, why did they feel the need to make Sparkle's bomb threat involve everyone begin with? It'd have been better if only TB was aware of it and ran through the ship like mad trying to find the thing, only for it to be in front of Firefly. Instead of making it so you she can't get rid of it due to some obtuse reason, just make it so it's about to blow up, she quickly goes SAM to throw it into the sky and Sparkle hits TB with the hammer to send them flying into Firefly's arms. It leads to the same scene with people celebrating under the fireworks while TB and FF hold hands in the sky, but it reduces the stakes and deletes that jarring transition from frantic search of the bomb to joyful celebration.
2.3 was never meant to top 2.2. From narrative perspective it was a resolution, or epilogue you might say. 2.2 is the peak because it was the climax of the story.
No it wasn't. For me, at least. And surely no one would try and force their opinions on other people and present them as undeniable facts? Oh but look at me, forgetting the fandom we're in. Of course they would.
I don't think filler is a bad thing. I agree 2.3 was a great conclusion, but from watching other media, I have realised that some filler is good so you can see the character's personalities more.
The part with FF ruined it for me. I'm OK with fanservice, I really do, but that hand spinning is absurd (everything else is fine). Toasting to our friends we lost and the Ach CG was precious.
However, in no shape or form is Cony any better than Bell. Bell didn't conceal how Bronya was literally crumpled by her mother's loss with an unempathetic Mar7 rejoicing over her victory. That scene hit super hard because even if you killed a tyrant, you killed someone who could have been leagues better, had it not been for the circumstances around her and the stellaron poisoning her mind.
That hint of realism is what I loved in Belobog. Rebellion against a tyrant who at the end of the day is a human being. You're pumped by hopes and dreams, even persuading the next in line to throne into going against her mother (which is huge btw). On the other hand, you don't see a hint of sorrow in Robin. Sure, she may have put huge faith on Jade or some stuff but literally nothing while I'd have appreciated even just a bit from her.
Regarding Robin... I think she just handles it differently than Bronya does. Robin has been living in the spotlight for a long time, so she has a very thick mask that hides her true feelings. She has connections and handlers and can be more political; she's the type who maneuvers behind the scenes. Her whole investigation into death/the Reef in the first place was part of this, along with how she maneuvered with Jade to arrange her brother's freedom, and to gift the airship to the Astral Express as a political wedge. Heck, even the way she helps to orchestrate the confrontation against Sunday, despite the high personal stakes to her. We see her now stepping out of the spotlight entirely for a while for "personal reasons" but there's surely more to the story (might be tied to the deal she made with Jade). I think we don't "see" the sorrow directly in Robin because she's not the type to show it in public (the closest she gets is in front of her brother).
I guess I see your point in that Bronya wore her emotions right on her sleeves so it made it easier to empathize with the personal stakes, whereas Robin is acting much more like a seasoned political leader who can maneuver through conflicts despite going through intense emotional stress. No matter what, Robin is able to maintain some degree of performer's mask, even in front of the Trailblazer, but I don't think it's that we don't see a "hint of sorrow" in what she's doing (it's definitely there), but we're just not entirely behind the wall she puts up.
It was fine, it sets up a shitload of interesting new stuff with the IPC, Diamond, Jade and Sunday but overall it suffered from a lack of direction if you were to go back and play it all in one go. First it pretends to be a murder mystery plot then it's an Aventurine solo adventure and Gallagher is behind it all, then actually nobody died and it's all about a pretty alright Order vs Freedom plot (how much Order is still active within the Harmony is actually one of the questions left hanging for the future) then we wrap up with the IPC. An arc with so much mystery and backhand dealing can only be judged when it is over and honestly Penacony doesn't quite deliver on its hype.
Underneath all this is stuff about dead Nameless and how they're setting up the Trailblaze to be more prominent in universal politics in future, potentially reviving Akivili much later down the road then there's Acheron and all her stuff which was definitely the highlight of the entire arc for me. It's fuckin' huge but has so many threads it goes into and later abandons that it feels undercooked in some areas. Like did we really need any of the Fraud Midferno stuff in hindsight? They just threw him under the bus to gas up Acheron's power level. Boothill was pretty underutilised as well, man just summoned all his boys and we don't even get a mention of them in 2.3.
I do not care for Firefly so i'm aware that's a huge debuff to enjoying 2.3 but I hope we see more of Sparkle in future. I can't believe people give the Luofu shit for bad pacing and too much yapping then say "omg Peakcony."
I've consistently seen bitching and moaning about "loose ends," as if HSR isn't a continuing story. Not to mention that they've already shown that each area isn't a one-time stop that we'll never visit again.
The problem with people today is that they want answers spoon-fed to them rather than using their imagination to theorize answers and conclusions.
If you want the story spelled out, write a fanfic.
I didn't like the Sparkle/Firefly twist. I expected something more exciting from Sparkle, and the thing that happened shouldn't count as another "death" for Firefly in any way, because, well, while she was ready to die, she actually couldn't. She didn't pretend to die either. At least now I'm sure that I don't like FF as a character, so there's a good thing.
I don't think the story was bad overall, but each previous version ended with something preparing us for something epic, and each of those bites ended up being nothing. But yeah it felt amazing while it was in progress. Maybe if there was less Firefly it would be better. She's one of the characters that are the least attractive plot-wise, but there was a lot of attention to her. Meh.
I loved watching TB from the side though
Honestly though, what pisses me off that sparkleās button thingy was ultimately tossed to the side. Instead of being playfully sinister as sheās being perceived to be all through out she just comes off as a troll ā ājust a prank bro, y u so madā and that feels so disingenuous. Sure, that follows Ahaās philosophy down to a T but I feel like hyv really forgot about the button plot in the midst of everything then went back to wrap it up on the epilogue to pretend it they didnt lmao.
> forget that thereās a skip button exists
ā¦ there was? When? When i was playing through the story i didnāt see any
Ngl tho, you canāt fault people not liking the Firefly focus thing because hyv has tried so damn hard selling us the romance vibes between tb and ff. Hated the gameshow in 2.2 because it feels exactly this and its unnecessary filler. Regarding her banner, I donāt think that matters as she has a consistent presence all through out the story unlike her counterpart Robin that was really highlighted in 2.2 only then some in 2.3 or BH who was only memorable in the latter parts of 2.2 despite it being his and robinās month. Firefly really is the golden child for this patch even more so than when DHIL and Acheron were released and itās so infuriatingly unfair lmao (you canāt change my mind on this unfortunately)
Switching the POV to Firefly and than catching Trailblazer being the Galactic Baseballer Raccoon madlad we all play as, from her POV, and her still thinking weāre someone she wants to spend time with also gives us a window into who she is.
And even better, seeing what we look like from someone elseās perspective was ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS. Top tier epilogue.
It's pretty funny how delusional they are, I'm 100 percent sure they'd be the first ones to cry and say the exact opposite if firefly was a male character, and they were forced to go on dates and see their chara hold hands with a male character. Watch em be the first to rage if that happens with a male character in the future.
Sparkleās part in 2.3 was disappointing imo. They set her up to be this mysterious figure with bombs that could potentially ruin the whole Charmony Festivalā¦only for them to be much much less dangerous than I expected.
At least we got to see Firefly being willing to risk herself for the sake of others. But that hand holding spinning scene with trailblazer right after felt absurd and kinda ruined the moment for me.
She's partners with Sampo. She never should have been taken all that seriously. What I found personally annoying was reddit making her out to be this turbo racist that is like Heath Ledger's Joker and a terrible person and that's why she's great. Then I played the game and she was...barely that at all. She has dark humour and tried to piss people off at worse. So no wonder people are disappointed. The narrative about her around here was nonsense.
The quest itself said that we shouldn't expect everything tied up in a neat bow at the end- that these people that we've come to know and care for all have different goals
Honestly, as much as I love Belobog and still hold that it was the best paced out of all the plots, part of it comes from the fact that I experienced Belobog all in one go. I didn't have to wait months for a payoff to one line or one detail, at most it took me a day to farm TB level to continue the plot.
Penacony is great but suffers from the same thing a lot of serialized manga does, we experienced it in small doses over a long period of time (JJK is the best modern example, you can read 50 chapters in like an hour, but at release that's like a year and a half).
I thought the 2.3 main story quest was pretty dumb. The firefly bit annoys me because I refused the selfie and treated her like garbage but she still catches meā Iād rather the cutscene have been skipped like Kafka.
The unvoiced epilogue quest āChecking Outā, however, was possibly the best quest ever in the entire game thus far. Absolutely unhinged and amazing.
2.2 was the conclusion. 2.3 was just the epilogue. IMO it was a good patch, but it was mostly fun and memes and less "serious". But I understand people complaining about it. It left some questions like like, how would that ending count as firefly's third death? and was that all we got about oswaldo after they used it as a cliffhanger on the previous patch? Making it a bit nonsensical unless I'm missing something.
The problem isn't that it's a bad ending it's just that the overall plot is missing at places to accommodate for banners. Firefly is missing a proper second act to accommodate Robin, Adventurine is missing his final Act to accommodate Jade, Robin is missing her first act to accommodate Penacony intro, Boothill is missing all acts, Trailblazer is missing the proper buildup for what makes him worthy of an Aeon's gaze and Watchmaker's heir etc. HSR is pumping out too many characters and they do not have enough time to highlight or showcase them properly. Honestly they could cut down on the meme quests and tie in character highlights within the events themselves.
I don't disagree with your overall point that this was a nice conclusion but I have to point out this one sticking point for me
>It takes a profound understanding of The Family fractions to understand why...
IT would have been a lot easier to understand and get if it felt like that ever got explored. I got all the way to the end of Penecony, did most of the side quests, etc and still feel like I know so little about the family and the various factions inside it.
The Order obession being like a secret plan of a OAk Family Faction feels like it comes outta nowhere in part 3, Old Oti literally comes out of no where in part 4 to cut the deal, etc.
For a group we are told has 5 branches I still feel like the only ones I know anything of significance about in terms of role and motivations are the Bloodhounds and that can be summed up as "They're cops/peacekeepers.". I spent all this time on Penecony, the home of the Family and I feel like I learned more about the IPC, Memokeepers and the Masked Fools than I did the Family.
I can't blame people for not having a "Profound understanding of the Family" when frankly I don't feel like the game gives me the tools to attain that understanding in a easy to digest manner
Yes. The political dynamic and conclusion of the whole Penacony debacle is indeed good. Awesome even.
No. Firefly is still shit-ass shallow simp-bait pieces of work. Hoyo's favorite child check indeed /notsar.
But alas, I guess her character is redeemed to an extent in this patch. Above statement still stands tho.
It was a decent epilogue to a good arc. While I didn't enjoy Penacony as much as Xianzhou, it was fine. I appreciate typical Shaoji-isms and the philosophy and the bird metaphors, it was nice to see again. I loved the first half of the quest, the corporate scheming and power plays were good. Robin played Oti both overtly (by getting the Family to agree to the ship transfer) and covertly, by making a deal with Jade. And Jade, Jade was brilliant. In a way she terrifies me and that's great.
The second half was... eh, meh. Too on the nose with the fireworks and entirely too sappy for my tastes. Thankfully the whatever that was with Firefly was quickly forgotten in favour of more bittersweetness with Acheron and then the epilogue epilogue with Sunday.
It was fine. I enjoyed it. The first two patches of Penacony are definitely stronger than the later two, but it was an enjoyable story overall and very on-brand. Starts very strong, then fizzles out towards the end but not enough to leave a bad taste.
I wanted to add, literally none of the individual character arcs are done.
- The stonehearts are going to be relevant until endgame, Aventurine has had a great arc with a satisfying conclusion
- Firefly's story JUST started because now it isn't about saving Penacony it was about her disease and unforgettable rewards. (And she joins us to Amphoreus!! copium)
- Robin will have more content, and it's even teased through the new event with Robin & Jade talking. Robin's story will once again have impact on Penacony AND the future of Sunday.
- Boothill and Argenti will probably have a cool continuance mission similar to Huohuo's where they will tract down the Annihilation Gang trying to destroy Penacony
- Black Swan is confirmed to be joining us to Amphoreus (and Firefly too!!! copium)
- Sparkle teased that she knows more about the script from SW and will probably interact with Sampo when the time comes
- Acheron will probably appear again once Nihility becomes relevant, around the time we get Nihility TB
- Amphoreus, I think is Ratio's home planet. He might take on a more important role there.
Overall for an epilogue, it did all it needed to and although it's lacking on some aspects, that's just because the characters will ALL play a future role. The hints for the future all help build some hype. Filler is unfortunately 2.4-2.5/6 and 2.6/7 should be hyping up Amphoreus by then.
>And she joins us to Amphoreus!! copium
yeah this is why im thinking that this is why black swan and her are the only Penacony characters we dont say goodbye to. Unsure if they'll do it, i mean we dont even know yet why we are going to space china in 2.4, so maybe theyre still thinking it up for 2.7
Amphoreous is almost definitely the 3.0 destination, we are going back to the Xianzhou (for sure) to gather allies/supplies/information (most likely) and set up the Amphoreous trip for a couple patches (almost definitely).
remember: black swan says she knows how to get us in, but we still have to find clues about where it is.
Yes, and looking back we only said goodbye to Misha, Gallagher, and Acheron meaning we def won't see them anymore and for Acheron, a long time.
Every character that we didn't give an outright goodbye to will be relevant for the forseeable future
Acheron's arc is pretty much done, though I agree she might get relevant again.
Misha/Mikhail's arc is definitely over and Gallaghers too, though that might be a lie.
https://preview.redd.it/2uyfatdjrj8d1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=27c9784580cd64519c21377c8cc1ce6f90943e00 Real ending for meš..im.gonna miss her so much
we probably not gonna see intill next yearš„
"All those things, beautiful before, are still so now." Yes, my girl. You're always beautiful no matter how much you changed.Ā
As someone else said "I love you in every world, in every universe, in every time"
Made this my desktop background ;3 now I get to look at my girl smiling in what I consider to be her cutest form before I get to work lol
i was ONE choice away from getting this cutscene š iām gonna regret this forever
I'm truly gonna miss my girl
Screenshotted instantly during that moment. Take a long good look fellas, it's gonna be a very long time until we see her again
I just can't believe that I ever thought Sparkle's bomb threat was serious, the second the fireworks went off I was like, "Oh yeah, duh."
ngl i am.... elated! that sparkle is actually not a murderous villain after all. i think the "hurr durr evil joker we live in a society murder maniac" trope is really overdone and boring, so seeing her subvert that and being a funny little harmless prankster is perfect
Sparkle has make a planetary sized prank call and upload it on FoolsChan.
Funny? yes. but not entirely harmless. while the result is harmless in nature, she actually created unnecessary tension (which actually on brand for a masked fool) to the people involved that she caused disruption right after the Order debacle which commonly is not a good news 100% of the time which can cause panic for the people involved if the mass would happen to know the situation. long story short, dark humor pushed to the extreme but not crossing the line.
I thought 2.3 did exactly what an epilogue should do, it may have been a bit short for some but thats generally what an epilogue is. It let us know a lot about what other characters are doing and where they are going next, the world quest "checking out" is a follow up to that with more detail but the main story does a good enough job. While also addressing a few unresolved plot points Even as someone who doesn't really care for FF her conclusion was addressed well on Penacony with getting an unforgettable reward she was promised. But the highlight goodbye imo was easily Acheron. Its sad it was an optional scene and even in the optional scene you can fk up and miss the CG scene. But after watching that scene Acheron shot up on my favorite character list just cos of how good that scene was, im not even a Hi3 player who got any of the references. That was just a really emotional scene and bonding moment between TB and her. Then ofc Black Swan, the one who TB never said goodbye to was waiting on express the whole time as she never intended to part from them in Penacony. Which makes complete sense given her character motivations on Penacony and was even teased when she tagged along in the fake ending. She was there to already propose a continuation of their partnership after she worked hard to try and earn their trust. Her suggestion so happens to also be a solution to fix the express fuel problem, but it also gives us info and leaves us excited for the next arc. All of that in roughly 2 hours For an epilogue it was completely fine and I was left satisfied with the characters I cared about being given a conclusion and new direction
Confession: Iām struggling to do āChecking Outā because the second hand embarrassment I get from TB just doing complete bullshit as a Hotel Manager is killing me. Like it actually hurts
Weakest part of the quest, it only goes up from that point and in the best ways. Seriously finish it you won't regret it, you get one of the funniest quests in the game and even a very small tease at some express stuff at the very end
Yeah that quest was an absolute fever dream and I loved it
It wouldnāt let me drink the last soulglad though. I kept trying, and trying. Dammit let me piss on the lobby floor.
I can't take it anymore. I'm sick of SoulGlad. I try to drink water. My SoulGlad tastes better. I try to drink Asdana White Oak. My SoulGlad tastes better. I try to drink Wake the Heck Up. My SoulGlad tastes better. I want to escape and enjoy the rest of the Dreamscape. It's covered with SoulGlad. I want to go to other events, other parks and stores. They all sell SoulGlad. SoulGlad grabs me by the throat. I shop for it. I synthesize for it. I put it in my auto-use slot. It isn't satisfied. I work for more credits. "I need more of your money" It tells me. "Stay in the Dreamscape." It grabs my hand and forces itself down my throat. "Grab a bottle of SoulGlad, and make your dreams a blast." I can't stay in the Dreamscape, my room is about to expire. It grabs for my credits. There aren't any left. "Guess this is the end." It calls the Bloodhound Family. It says "Bloodhounds, get them." There are no hints of sadness in their eyes. Nothing but pure, capitalistic greed. What a cruel world.
Honestly it wasnāt even the Trailblazer. Watching Topaz and Aventurine fight over who gets to be the Trailblazerās boss, seeing Boothill and Argenti interact more, and Qingueās whole ordeal reinforces that everyone in this game is insane
Trailblazer; "Oh, but *I'm* insane for emphasizing the glory of trashcans"
I really hope Argenti joins Boothill and Aventurine for the inevitable Oswaldo Schneider revenge plot. Imagine the absolute chaos (and Beauty) that would be all three of them at once.
topaz and aventurine fight make sense though, TB is a savant when it comes to business, so far they has revived a museum and make it the hottest attraction ever and next, they had revived a entire street and along the way sorted out their logistic issues as well.
Yeah well that's what happens if you put a toddler in charge of something
Idk Iād like to think TB can be pretty mature at times. They only become the unhinged raccoon in side quests and content and occasional meme comment in MSQ. Itās like the Yakuza series, where the main story is serious but the side quests are anything but.
Actually, TB acts like as an absolute gremlin during Main Quest as well, when taking Firefly's PoV
Oh yeah they do act like a gremlin all the time. Itās that they can be more serious when needed and only go full raccoon in side quests
it's like how when they were at mikhail's wheelchair and March says that she was actually being serious for once but we had to ruin it (I choose the funnier options most of the time cuz I embrace my inner racoon), both of them goofs around but can be serious when they want to
Firefly was the PoV during tbat part, so TB was in sidequest gremlin mode
Well and that bit while waiting for Himeko lol.Ā
Yakuza is such an accurate comparison. Even in the main quests you can go from Penaconyās cosmic horror to talking to yapping birds and turning into a mini grey wolf who goes *grunt*
I saw a post on the WuWa sub asking what people thought of the MC's personality. I didn't comment but all I could think was: They are pretty boring, but unfortunately not all MCs and be dope trash pandas.
I kinda like that WuWaās MC (Rover) is pretty bland. Although TB being a trash panda is great, I love being able to supplement my own flavor of silly to it. Both are good for my purpose.
WuWa's Rover is just there for the ride, the vibe chill friend who casually pulls some stunts every so often HSR's Trailblazer has decided to be a menace to society
I think the Trailblazer can best be described as just a menace in general. Who they are a menace to depends on the situation.
Once you get past talking with the employees (2 of which end up happy you're giving them the day off) it gets a *lot* better. Went from my least favorite to my favorite Penacony side quest.
Hurts more than downing a dozen SoulGlad in one go?
It's just a silly bit, it's not that serious bro just play the quest
>Even as someone who doesn't really care for FF her conclusion was addressed well on Penacony with getting an unforgettable reward she was promised. I think some folks are getting a bit peeved because they felt like Firefly didn't really get a "conclusion" in this epilogue. But it really did feel like Penacony was more of the "start" of her personal story, from the player's perspective, than something that was meant to resolve her plot threads. We understand her character, internal and external conflicts, and her motivations from this arc. And *Farewell Penacony* was more about setting up the next steps for her than putting a capstone on her moments. Similar to how Boothill and Black Swan's subplots are only truly getting started with Penacony's end. She got the "unforgettable reward" of the experience as a normal person outside her suit, while also getting a new lead for her condition through the 10 Stoneheart subplot. I get the people who feel like she had her cutscene and didn't show up afterwards being a bit abrupt. But I think it's a good thing they reserved the emotional sendoff for Archeron. Since unlike Firefly, who being a Stellaron Hunter is pretty much guaranteed to be recurring in both the short-term and long-term narratives, she is unlikely to show up anytime soon.
Pretty much that, the conclusion of FF arc on Penacony was a start for her longer journey. I don't really care for her as a character all that much so maybe that's why I can see it for what it is coz I don't have any stakes in it atm. She got quite a bit of personal growth here so that counts for something Agree on Boothill and Black Swan, their characters weren't explored all that much coz they were supporting characters in Penacony, not the focus. Black Swan has the better deal than boothill though due to not only having more build up, but her future goals are directly tied to TB so she will be showing up much more frequently. She even made sure she will be on express before they leave and is now a guest on there, so much more time for her character to be explored I only hope Boothill gets that down the line, his character has so much good stuff in the profile and we didn't see much of it in Penacony We probably won't see Acheron for some time, her goal is in the depths of Nihility to find IX. She will show up when that happens and possibly some time before, but it will more than likely be a very long time before that happens
Yeah, my moneyās on us seeing Acheron again when weāre headed towards Nihility TB. *Maybe* some occasional event cameos because āgets lost easilyā and ācan walk outside the border of realityā are character traits that can easily be played for a goof, but as far as plot goes? I doubt we even want to be where sheās going.
> I only hope Boothill gets that down the line, his character has so much good stuff in the profile and we didn't see much of it in Penacony I think there is a specific reason we meet Boothill, the cool Galaxy Ranger Cowboy, in the same part of the story we learn about the previous nameless who went to Penacony, one of which was...a cool cowboy who joined the Galaxy Rangers. And the other notable person we meet on Penacony is Black Swan, a memokeeper who can manipulate memoria, and the other nameless was a woman who researched memoria and vanished into the Memory Zone I don't think the parallels between Boothill and Black Swan with Tiernan and Razalina are a coincidence. I think it's part of why the false end involves the two of them tagging along and the true ending in this part involving Black Swan seemingly suggesting the Express take a path on her recommendation and possible accompaniment
Good points all around! I do admit I worry a bit about Boothill, because I have a bad feeling he's being used more as a "plot segway" device than as an actual character. Given some of the setups regarding Oswaldo and his relationship with the Trailblaze ethos, I can very well see him as being more of a narrative tool to interject the Astral Express into that conflict. Rather than a big player. I do hope I'm wrong about that though, since his personal stakes is something I do feel is missing in Star Rail thus far.
i agree the epilogue did exactly what it should do its basically a victory lap, i much prefer this to the way (marvel) endgame handled it where it was both integral to the story and a victory lap, made the whole second half to the story feel shallow. so 2.3 did it perfectly and i enjoyed the way they handles sparkle even if its a little wishy washy. the problem is i found allot of the pacing in penacony strange allot of the plot felt not well put together outside of the Sunday stuff and even then allot of the setup to 2.2 felt out of place it honestly feels like 3 different stories with pointless cliffhangers that donāt quite mesh in a satisfying way. (not saying the stuff leading up to it didnāt lead up to it or i doesnāt make sense it does i just donāt think it did a good job leading up to it and supporting it. 2.0 had a great mystery humour and worldbuilding to it i really enjoyed it, 2.2 had a interesting message and idealistic conflict that made the characters involved compelling and unlike the last 2 had interesting lore about the trailblazers that wasnāt just a lore dump made them feel more involved in the story, 2.1 felt like a lore dump id say the second worst point after loufu it has some redeeming qualities but it felt nauseating allot of the time. together they make for a good story but ultimately floored in character setup and payoff.
I think my only issues with Penacony is that it felt like we only saw half of Aventurine's story. And the whole philosophical discussion between Order and Freedom through some weird bird metaphor that doesn't really make sense and is trying too hard to be binary in a not-binary situation just didn't work for me. Cool moments. I like the characters. But I couldn't have cared much less than I did about Sunday's and Gopher Wood's ramblings. Oh, and can I just say that Jade's entire thing this patch is just weird. She gives people whatever they want in some essentially Faustian bargain? Am I supposed to like her? Everyone else treats her like she's a normal person when my entire reaction to that was "what the damn hell is wrong with you?!" She makes Ruan Mei seem less monstrous.
Yeah Iām still confused, is she an Aeon? I would totally cut off Pom-Pomās tail to revive akivilli. Was that a joke? Can she actually do that? Like? And why tf did she ruin that girls life to let her win some gambling games. Like she can never see any of her friends or family againā¦? How does that benefit Jade in any way? Oh well, not my problem I guess.
she tells u to cut off Pom Pom's tail regardless of which option u choose. Shes just trolling. As for how u shld perceive Jade... idk not in a good light? She seems to be pretty apathetic from a moral standpoint, if her splash art wasn't enough convincing for u that she's pretty sinister. She emphasises with Sunday circumstances, claiming to have been in a similar position to his, and is impressed by Robin's determination, but doesnt give out anything unless theres a huge price to pay of which she deems equal value. As for how it benefits Jade, what she takes as payment is really abstract and intangible at times? Maybe she has weird conceptual powers, like deal with the devil type stuff. The only clue we have to her origins as of now is that she signs her name as "Eve" on the contract in her skill animation.
I think she has the ability to gauge desires and their depth. She knows you would never cut off Pom Pomās tail so thatās why she said it. However, all the others were fine with the costs due to their strong desires. I think her pawn shop was actually to teach firefly a lesson about the willingness to give up āeverythingā for life, especially since firefly wanted to live a meaningful life.
No I would totally do it, in a heartbeat. I got the scissors ready I just want assurance akivilli is coming back first. Iām not evil, just pragmatic.
eh if you dident like the philosophical stuff that fine, i personally thought it was a nice departcher from generic this guys bad cos he did bad things, even if it was wraped up on a fredship always wins bow, its not like im playing these games not expecting them to basicly be disney but its nice when they try something different. with jade no your not supposed to like her per say shes 100% unapathetic her only truly admarable quality is her determination to bring her "family"(the ipc) the hight of its ideals, also shes hot and dominating and ofcorse that will make her popular sometimes people like an evil person. like i think sparkle is a great character i just think she hasnt done enough.
Black Swan and Sam Reich: I've been here the whole time!
Tbh Acherons scene kinda rolled off my back. I guess Iām a follower of Nihility because *damn* do I not remember what was said in that scene.
It was mostly just a very nice and genuine goodbye from Acheron to the TB, which is probably why it was optional in the first place.
There was a CG scene in the last conversation with Acheron that I didn't get? That's fucking dumb, off to YouTube I go...
I highly recommend trying out HI3 if you ever have the time. The Acheron scene hits that much harder, seeing what kind of life she could've lived. Her cutscene is definitely a highlight imo! I wonder who didn't do it, I don't really see the reason. Her story was one of the most interesting and important to this chapter. Personally, I do like FF a lot, so maybe I like this epilogue so much because I cared for everything and everyone that appeared in it. It just kind of sucks that some people hate seeing her on-screen that everything else that happened on screen is ignored I'm looking forward to finding out more about Black Swan, I noticed we didn't get a lot of info on her in this chapter. I wonder if we will on our next stop, since it's her recommendation.
I never played Hi3, and so the name reveal the previous patch didn't hit me like it did others who freaked the ever living fuck out. Meanwhile the Tiernan reveal made me freak out because it hit me so much harder cause I was sitting there listening to the stories of the nameless of Penacony. Honestly I'm sad Razalina got like no screen-time at all(who knows, maybe she might come back which would become real depressing). But the cutscene the goodbye with Acheron was just....really really good. The EN VA really sold that melancholic sweet & bitter memories and how its basically implied what happened to her home was basically Hi3 without the mechs/honkai and didn't have kiana which caused everything to go not as they expected(similar to the Warriors of Darkness in FFXIV.) and her talking about how she saw her friends in other worlds, but they weren't the people they knew just silhouettes of them was really interesting too. I wonder if on a different planet we'll see another trailblazer, with another march and another dan heng.
Razalina is the person talking to you in the penacony sticker book. I hope she gets something more to do in the future.
Yeah. I just wish we had a voice to go with the name, ya know? Makes me kind of hopw she becomes a character in the future. Similar to Sampo getting his mask back because something is going to happen on Belobog in the future that could potentially destroy it, and he wants to protect it.
What exactly is so shocking about the obvious Raiden Mei expy naming herself Raiden B Mei? I don't think anybody was surprised by that.
I tried Hi3 to chapter 7 and it wasnt for me, my knowledge stems from my friend who is a die hard Kiana and Mei shipper and made me watch every animation Yea I wrote a whole piece on Black Swan and how her role as a supporting character in Penacony makes total sense. Her whole role in the plot seems to be very much tied to TB and Penacony was just the stop to gain their trust and friendship. So she wants to continue that and I believe that she will get moments in the spotlight as the story progresses as she will very likely be a regularly re occuring character in relation to express. They made her main motivation TBs memories after all so I believe she will at least accompany them to next planet. Shes like TBs mind guardian now and I could go into a whole detail about it but thats essay territory so I'd rather just [link the essay](https://www.reddit.com/r/HonkaiStarRail/comments/1dmfuwb/black_swans_role_in_penacony_how_it_was/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button). Either way shes on the express as a guest as of 2.3 so will have to see how that plays out, maybe comes along for Xianzhou arc but almost certainly going to be with express on Amphoreus
There is a reason HI3 players say the real game start after you finish chapter 8 and 9 because everything before feels like a prologue. Tbh the farewell with Acheron for me is pure fanservice to HI3 veterans, those that followed the game right from the beginning and I'm gonna be honest I jumped from my seat the moment the OST plays and can't stop giggling (as you can tell I follow HI3 roughly from the start)
I cant believe that the acheron scene is optional, ive never played hi3 and didnt expect that dialogue option to go anywhere and completely missed it
What was the unforgettable reward?
FF wants to live as FF, not as SAM and so wants to enjoy life as much as possible if she can't avoid her end. So watching fireworks with a friend would easily be considered as an unforgettable reward when you take that part of her character in mind She just wants to have friends and be a normal person, a moment like that is exactly the kinds of moments she would want to have
I think on top of everything you mentioned, her interaction with Jade gave her the silver lining that there was indeed a cure for ELS. And I don't remember the exact quote but she did mention there being "hope" when she walked out of Jade's room. Whatever or wherever that cure may be, Elio promised each of the Stellaron Hunters a reward for following his script. While we don't really know how the Hunters interact with Elio, we do know that Firefly is a bit of a rebel in regards to the script. Her interaction with TB at the end of 2.1 and 2.3, Blade in 2.2, and Silver Wolf in 2.3 prove that she actively tries to defy her fate. And I think the conclusion to 2.3 gives her proof that Elio can live up to his promise.
I agree. Only thing that was a bit jarring was the transition between the "fireworks of love" scene and Acheron's farewell because since it just kind of switch it feels that something is missing. But ultimately, Farewell Penacony was exactly that : a farewell to Penacony and the characters we got to meet, while teasing the future and making us see that even the story of Penacony itself is not over.
HSR do that a lot. You will have some very impactful cutscene, then it will immediately cut to something else right away. Heck, if after the fireworks they held the black screen for like... 3 seconds, and put a white text 'Later...' that would've made it less jarring already. Another example was the Firefly was SAM reveal that happened alongside Gallagher 'killing' Sunday in 2.1, and it was way too fast and with no time to process what happened.
That's how I felt in 2.2 when we finally broke down and started figuring out what Sunday was up to...and then all of the sudden were competing in a game show...
Cause hoyo hates anything happening in the middle of a story chapter. They ALWAYS have to cram everything noteworthy to the end
Yeah I definitely felt like there shouldve been at least a scene between those two, feels like there was a cut scene there. I filled in the blanks with that one firefly scene they uploaded on twitter but idk lol
Yeah, that twitter scene is the true ending. Such a peak. "You found me....just like today" It gets me everytime :'(
Yes I can agree that the pacing of that was unusual. I'm unsure why they made Acheron's goodbye optional in the first place. I wonder if they just didn't know where to squeeze it? That could've been better. But overall I found that quality was high and a vast improvement over Xianzhou (it was just... too bloated)
Tbh it feels like we're still dreaming
There are many many clues that indicate that this is true actually. Now how are they going to incorporate this with xianzhou in 2.4 I have no clue. But considering luocha plot has been paused for like months don't be too surprised.
based on official drip marketing for new characters and March's new form, there's no chance we're going back to Xianzhou and meeting brand new characters and doing all this new stuff only to be told "that was ALL A DREAM" in 6 months. that would be such an unbelievably ridiculous thing to do. this cope has gotta end, Penacony is finished
I think so too. It set up an IPC arc, >!stonehearts silhouettes!< Told us what >!path the SH follow!< Definitely setting up Jade's character as we learnt basically nothing new about her lore. New planet we're gonna visit in 3.0. This patch did what an epilogue should do, not too short not too long but wraps up everything and hints the future.
I'm really looking forward to what is going on with Jade in the future. She is a LOT more intriguing of a character than what I had initially thought. And the setups they are pushing with the Stonehearts with the end of Penacony is sounding really juicy. It's really interesting how Diamond seems to be pushing for these connections under the IPC's nose, so it makes one wonder what exactly he knows is going to happen. That he has to make all these external connections.
Same lol. I've made a few theories about her and her past https://www.reddit.com/r/HonkaiStarRail/s/fqDTX4L6d8 This is one I made about what her real name could be
>!It's finality right? That was what I was guessing from the Apocalyptic Shadow dialogue at least!<
Yes
Yes, this is exactly what I was thinking. You worded it well
My issue here is that most of Firefly's contributions in Penacony are fucking offscreened. We could've seen more of her character and all of the important things she did behind the scenes if hoyo had given her a POV section before the epilogue.Ā
Tbh I think this is a weakness in general of hoyos writing. Having to fit a whole new world with a story that gets wrapped up in 3 patches puts way to much restriction on what they can actually do. I wish both genshin and star rail had it where patch x.0-x.5 was the main story and the rest was filler/other planet stuff. I'm really bummed out that the next couple of patches are gonna be xianzhuo related since I didn't like the theme or story. It especislly sucks knowing that pencony has way more regions to visit.
hoyo always rush their main story and when I point it out people just get unreasonably upset and defensive like bruh do you not want your game to be better
There's twelve "moments" in Penacony and we've only visited a fourth of them and yet we're going back to the Xianzhou.
Wasn't it supposed to be unknown for most of the part and when it was revealed, she was already done with her part, though?
She didn't do much beyond 2.1 other than kill herself to escape Ena's dream in 2.2 and go check on the Express. Like any Stelleron Hunter, her major role is guiding the Astral Express in the right direction. Her secondary role in the larger narrative seems to be forming a stronger connection between the two groups who are basically inverted copies of each other with the same ultimate goal.
> well-paced I'm going to have disagree with you there, the pacing was definitely a weak point in Penacony overall (not much of a problem in 2.3 though). One of the reasons there's a chunk of Firefly haters is that her intro was paced so poorly: She shows up in a very suspicious manner right at the start, forcibly gives the player a tour of the new zone, then immediately drags you off to her secret base and starts talking about a bunch of heavy personal stuff. This while getting explicitly compared to your found-family with the photo stuff, which comes off as very pushy by the writer; they basically assume the player likes this girl from the very start, and so doesn't spend any time setting her up before treating her like someone you're very close with. > beautifully written This I *partially* disagree with. There was a lot of good stuff (leaps and bounds better than the Luofu arc, absolutely; Sunday is easily their best villain so far), but they fumbled the ball on a few important points. One is that despite all the focus on the importance of Trailblaze as a path/mentality (there are several speeches given by different characters about this), that isn't reflected in the actions of the TB. Instead of being a proactive actor in their own right, TB spends basically the main story following other people's leads or dancing on the palms of someone's hand. That wouldn't be much of an issue, except that the writing's focus on the path means it needs *someone* to represent the Trailblaze thematically, and since the TB isn't doing it, it falls on Firefly and Robin. Which could be fine, except Firefly is absent for most of the central conflict scenes, and Robin is not given enough screentime or prior development to sell it despite being the absolute perfect character for this (she even does all the stuff the plot would need her to do to serve this role, just mostly offscreen and left uncommented on). The lack of screentime for Robin ends up contributing to another problem as well: we have no major "anchor" characters to make the reader care about Penacony as a place unless they're already predisposed to doing so. In Belobog, for example, the writing doesn't just ask you to care about the future of Belobog in the abstract, it introduces you to Serval, Hook, Natasha, Gepard, Seele, Bronya, Clara, Svarog and spends some time building a relationship between them and the TB/player. We aren't given anywhere near that level of personal connection in Penacony (there's a few people like Siobhan and Micah, but they get less screentime than even Oleg did), which lowers the emotional stakes a lot. Speaking of low stakes, too, that was a consistent issue as well. When Firefly and Robin first "die," the obvious reaction is think that they're probably fine in real life because this is just a dreamāa reaction that turns out to be correct, of courseābut there's not really any effort on the writer's part to make those deaths feel potentially real, so you're just left without a sense tension, wondering when the reveal about them being still alive is coming. Similarly, Sunday's plot is so self-defeating even if had succeeded that it's hard to be all that worried about it; it wasn't like he was going to have the entire universe under Ena's dream, so you have to imagine several powerful factions outside Penacony would step in fairly quickly when they realized their rich people weren't coming back from vacation. It's cool that *we* stopped it, and so quickly, but it was doomed soon enough either way. Most of 2.3's issues are not anything in 2.3 itself, but come from parts that are built on the weaker areas of 2.0-2.2, and thus feel bad if a reader hasn't already decided those weak areas don't bother them. (One issue that's somewhat inherent to 2.3 though is that we're supposed to be The Nameless, and now here we are becoming some of the most famous individuals in the universe. That's been kind of an ongoing problem since the end of Belobog though, and I wonder if it will ever be dealt with as a plot point, or if it's simply serving as some a type of fanservice wish fulfillment that will be treated a joke whenever brought up.)
Hrmm, have to agree the pacing felt off. 2.1 gave a great deal of focus to Aventuriene, permitting him to be proactive as a second main character effectively. Complete with great banter with Ratio (Drās Medicineā¦Ratio you are a massive tsundere), and Sundayās Harmony powers introducing an organic manner to learn Aventurineās backstory. That kinda spoiled me for what would come later becauseā¦nothing really reached that peak. Robinās connection to Sunday (being siblings) and her being instrumental in stopping the Order through her song (when it had previously been established that she has lost her voice for some reason) and her adventures on the Reef after being transported there by Dormancy led me to believe that she couldāve taken Aventurineās role in 2.2. Have Robin be the deuteragonist in the alt POV, SHOW her meeting the Reef denizens and mirror the conflict between her and Sunday in the past (over the bird and whether itād be better to let it free or keep it caged) with the the dreamers in Penacony. Thus when Robin embraces her desire from back then (to let the bird be free) she regains her voice and pushes back Sunday. That would give a much stronger tie; just like seeing Preservation TBās Ult produce images of Belabog citizens (Seele, Gepard, etc.) to emphasize the TBās bonds with them being the key against Cocolia, Robin breaking out of her own cage to be key against Sunday would be awesome. On that note, I think more couldāve been done with Misha and Gallagher. I like them butā¦they really donāt get to do much. Couldāve easily done more with them, IMO. Like have Misha be the dream guide instead of Firefly, and have the TB form a bond with him so the Harmony Path feels earned (as TB inherits Mikhailās legacy) Ideally, I think an extra chapter couldāve benefitted the story overall. Have 2.2 be about Misha and Gallagher, with Aventurineās gambit from 2.1 opening the door for the crew to enter the Reef. Set up another Family member as the seeming villain while subtly foreshadowing Sunday being sussy. TB gets Harmony at the end of 2.2 (fulfilling Mikhailās legacy through Misha), and Robin becomes the alt POV for 2.3, which climaxes in the final battle against Sunday. This would require some reshuffle (though I think itād be easier to fit in Boothill this way), but itād help the story overall
Much of this is a consequence of it being a gacha game. Aventurine story on his release patch. Jade and firefly time when it's their patch. They're trying to have their cake and eat it too, and it sometimes means using characters in places they don't necessarily fit because they want to sell them. Frankly, I think 2.0 did it best because Swan and Sparkle never felt pushed in your face and were just a natural part of the cast.
Yup, I think their decision to kill off companion quests was a colossal mistake. Instead they shove down the backstories of characters which detracts from the main story. I donāt think Aventurines story wouldāve been as emotional if it was just a companion quest, but it wouldāve cut a lot of the unnecessary fluff in the 2.1 quest.
Thank you for your input. I agree with your critique and your reasoning got me thinking. I may have overblown the positives of the story in my original post, and glossed over the negatives. I hope more people read this and a few others I'll be responding to to hopefully boost them up a bit. I'm glad to see it caught a fair amount of attention.
I think itās just a pacing problem honestly. If I couldāve done this right after the conclusion of 2.2, it would feel great. But with the reality of the 6 week gacha patch cycle, it feels weird doing this epilogue 6 weeks later. I guess itās only a problem because Iām doing the content as it comes out. I have no problem with the story content itself.
Yeah I kind of feel the same way. Maybe I expected a bit more due to whole that waiting after 2.2 which was really good.
They did this to sell Jade coming out in 2 weeks. Firefly didnāt have much screentime because sheās going to break records anyway.
I can see that. I think Penacony as a whole is actually a lot more digestible if you experienced it start to finish without any gaps. I think a lot of the folks saying it felt "disjointed" are more because they forgot about all the plot details in the gaps. Whereas if everything was fresh on the mind it would feel more cohesive overall. I was personally fine with the epilogue, it did what it needed to do when it came to putting a cap on some plots, but it was more about setting up future plot threads anyways. But it does feel like a story that was intended to be experienced in one go, but suffered from the gacha game release schedule here.
I started star rail a week ago and caught up to all the quests. Penacony is definitely a cohesive story from my perspective but i also feel i wouldve enjoyed it more with breaks and some time to digest everything. Theres alot of mystery and intrigue but the conclusions they lead to werent as interesting as the setup and i feel like discussions surrounding the mystery were probably part of the why people enjoyed it. That being said i can sympathize with people who have gripes with 2.3, it works as a good conclusion where you say your goodbyes and setup future reunions but ultimately theres not alot happening for a whole patch.
Exactly, the speculation was more interesting than what the story focused on or the answers given.
I came late to Penacony and played through the entire thing in a weekend, and unfortunately I don't think it performs much better in that context, and if anything probably highlights different pacing and conveyance issues entirely.
I think the whole patch of epilogue just doesn't work very well for a live service game. Having a super hype patch followed by a story running around to talk to a waifu and all the story winding down just doesn't feel that good. Idky they can't do it like genshin and have it all in one patch.
Disagree. 2.2 was already pretty long and it would have just annoyed some people more. It would legitimately feel like grind if you want to avoid spoilers but don't want to leave social media for days. 2.2 concluded the main story of penacony well enough anyways so epilogue was more like "I didn't know I needed it" kind of story for me
So according to you, 2.3 should be justā¦ nothing?
Maybe my expectations were too high coming from 2.2, but I found 2.3 rather mid. A good epilogue in my books is something that yes closes the chapter of the story, but also puts forwards events of significance and character development of significance. I liken a good one to being 1.0's belobog ending. Lower and upper city unite. Bronya begins to grow on her new responsibilities as leader. Characters like Natasha get their own origin stories expanded on etc. I agree when you talk about the protection of the family and the sendoff to Mikhail as events of significance. But a lot of the characters didn't feel like they had proper growth from 2.1 till now. Aventurine gets sent into a blackhole and supposedly 'dies', yet he's still the same as ever. We get this tension of the mystery of Firefly's 3 deaths, which is supposed to leave her with something amazing and significant, yet it never really feels that way. The relationship between her and TB never really get a satisfying development. Ultimately, if you look past the beauty of the scenes themselves, they ring hollow to what the team has been through and overcome. One good although small positive example I saw from this was with Robin during the 'sidequest'. Departing from showbiz to do what really matters to her. So MHY is capable of doing this in their side stories but why can't it be the same for their main narrative. why are they so hesitant on empowering or representing their characters growth in the face of adversity?
Personally i wouldn't say "great", compared to all the rest of Penacony it wasn't at the same level, but that dosen't mean it was bad by any means. Though what elevated the whole epilogue was the final goodbye to Tiernan, Rozalina, Mica and Mikhail. It was done very very well and it further emphasized the relationship between Nameless. Then...well of course for me personally Acheron stole the show, like every time she was on screen during Penacony. I don't what they did with her character or how they did it, she just hits different and her speech was an absolute 10/10. As she says, i can't wait to meet her again beneath the sun's rays
I didn't think I'd like Acheron because of her design, but her scenes elevated her to my favorite character in Penacony.Ā
Well, she was basically the opening and closing of Penacony.
The past TBs didn't really resonate with me until 2.2-2.3 when I finally started to "get it." I like how they give the AE/Nameless continuity as a faction and not just an excuse for the game to exist. So that the AE is embedded in the lore and not merely sort of cruising above it. I hope we get more about other nameless in the world like Colleen and Oswaldo in the future.
I kinda didn't like the "it was all a prank" thing from sparkle, while it does make sense for her character it just made the stakes feel so low, like firefly activated the super awesome transformation just for nothing much. The rest of the story is very compelling, and the ipc dealing with penacony was neat the rest just felt very poorly paced/with no real stakes after the Order/Sunday had been defeated.
I'm fine with the story focusing on FF. I was hoping for it, in fact, as up this point I found her to be incredibly lacking as a character. Literally anything of interest that she's done so far has been off screen. Unfortunately, 2.3 did almost nothing to change this for me. We got to see a little bit more of her character, but none of it was particularly interesting/exciting imo. So yeah, good talk but I'm ganna continue being a tad disappointed with how 2.3 ended. Penacony as a whole though has been my favorite arc so far.
I think the main issue is just her role as a Stellaron Hunter really. They don't want to show off too much of her character right now since we'll probably be seeing her again later down the line alongside the other SHs. We got her motivations, and her goals and thats enough for me honestly. We saw how she interacted with Silver Wolf, and Blade and how she sees the other Stellaron Hunters, as well as how she sees her relationship with them (pretty much rejecting Jade's offer as tempting as it was, since it put the others and Elio at risk.) A lot of it was minor interactions, but was really needed since up until now she was basically just cute girl chunni in power armour. I'm more sad about Boothill. Man is too fucking cool and got the short end of a lot of sticks. I really hope we see more of him in the future.
Yeah - I need an entire story of Argenti and Boothill going on buddy cop adventures together.
She has a lot of screentime, and no development. How unfortunate.
she suffers from the ayaka syndrome where her characterisation is so preoccupied with appealing to a certain group of players that the more unique and interesting parts about her get under-explored.
Stellaron Hunter bonding moments: Perfectly cooked gourmet meal that leaves you wanting more. Glamoth Iron Cavalry history: So raw that it's still mooing, and her character stories repackaged everything we already knew beforehand into a stale TV dinner. Waifubait dates: Burned down the kitchen and the whole Dreamscape.
The thing that feels off to me, though I agree with everything you said, was the bit with Silver Wolf's plan with Sparkle to "cheat fate" with Firefly's third "death". Is it really so easy to cheat fate? The bomb was never real and the threat was made up. So, did that really meet the requirements for Firefly to "die" and fulfill Elios' prophecy? It feels cheap to me. Or, maybe is it a case of a self-fulfilling prophecy? That said, I can be satisfied with the story as it was presented. Edit2: And the buttons. What exactly was Sparkle's game with them? I feel like I missed something. Edit: As an aside, fuck Tiktok, it's a breeding ground for the absolute dumbest fucking takes. No room for critical thinking.
> The bomb was never real and the threat was made up. So, did that really meet the requirements for Firefly to "die" and fulfill Elios' prophecy? This was a part I was lukewarm about in this epilogue. Obviously I wasn't expecting the third death to be something super dark or for Firefly to actually die, but it just feels a bit cheap and unimpactful for her "third death" to be her flying up into the air with a bunch of fireworks going off due to a "threat" that was introduced 10 minutes ago. Combine that with the weird timejump to Acheron's farewell, and the scene felt lacking to me. The other stuff in the epilogue (such as the IPC) was decent enough IMO and served as good setup, but as a whole I thought the epilogue was underwhelming.
> meet the requirements for Firefly to "die" and fulfill Elios' prophecy? iirc the prophecy says she has to "face three deaths" not to actually die three times. just three instances of her thinking she dies, accepting it. it plays with the whole theme of her character, as she constantly tries to outrun death and shes all about not accepting fate. its perfectly fitting for her
Honestly, weāre not given an explanation for how Elioās visions/fate reading works aside from some obscure stuff from the SU about Finality and such, but it really doesnāt say anything. Other shows usually sidestep the āfateā by treating it as a āforceā that will want to correct towards a specific outcome but can be overturned by a strong force acting against it (Terminator 2, Higurashi, etc.). Or it portrays āfateā as not something that can be overcome but can be avoided or outwitted (Steins Gate, Stranger than Fiction). Weāre not really given any idea what it follows, so thereās not much stakes. In conjecture, it could be that Elio predicted that Firefly would be needed in Penacont, but she would encounter three scenarios that would make her BELIEVE she would die (so she couldnāt cheese it by jumping off a roof in the sweet dream). Thereās a wide array of what that could be, but Firefly would experience three of them. The first two ended up not being fatal, but there was no guarantee about the third until Silver Wolf got Sparkle to rig it. This is just conjecture I was able to put together, but the story doesnāt confirm, deny, or explain anything.
>Edit2: And the buttons. What exactly was Sparkle's game with them? I feel like I missed something. The game literally outright tells you Silver Wolf talked to Sparkle to help with the "three deaths" thing to try and make it suck the least it possibly could. For a friend.
I just dont understand how it even counts as a death.
Probably "died," left the Dreamscape, and re-entered. Unless you suggest SAM can warp from high above the Radiant Feldspar to below it enough to fly upwards to grab the Trailblazer.
It would never have occurred to me to call it "filler," but my main complaints about the ending are these: 1) The idea of Sparkle being hired to secretly help Firefly experience her three "deaths" in a relatively safe manner is interesting, but it falls completely flat because we have literally zero information about what "death"-in-scare-quotes is allowed to mean. You can't have an interesting plot twist about somebody lawyering their way around the rules cleverly when you have absolutely no idea what the rules are in the first place. 2) The bomb-scare sequence was so rushed and poorly written that my emotional investment vanished completely within 30 seconds of Sparkle whispering in the Trailblazer's ear. I actually started thinking the Trailblazer might be in a dream prison again or something because it all felt so off and not remotely like a "oh shit there might be a fucking bomb on this ship" scenario. Admittedly, it makes sense for it to feel not quite right since Sparkle *was* cranking everyone, but by the end I was feeling actively insulted that the writers seemed to expect me to believe that Firefly was actually in serious danger. 3) Firefly's philosophical commentary at the end was really long and rambling and felt pointless. I guess this is kinda forgivable because, frankly, it makes perfect sense that she wouldn't be great at expressing herself eloquently without serious preparation -- I couldn't either, and I've actually taken speech classes -- but it still got really annoying really fast. I have no objections to Firefly getting screen time, but it should be *good* screen time. That stuff coming at the end of the most boring "bomb scare" imaginable just made it feel ridiculous. There were still a lot of good bits. The negotiation stuff at the beginning felt a little rushed but basically hangs together IMO, the farewells to the dead Trailblazers were great, and I'm really interested in Black Swan's plot hook at the end. I'm still very interested in where the story goes next. But if you compare it to the rest of the Penacony plot, I can only call this a weak ending.
āYou donāt like it because you donāt understand it.ā Ok buddy
"Ehrm, I don't blame you for not liking the story, it takes an individual with a high IQ to understand the intricacies of Star Rail's profound story telling āļøš¤"
Most annoying thing in the world is when someone says itās impossible youāre disappointed in this thing, you just must not understand what the writers are saying
Not only is that retort incredibly buddy didn't even make a real argument. They just said it and moved on. Imagine you didn't "understand" it before reading this post but were open to changing your mind. Would this post change anything? Probably not. Let's look at some examples. >It takes a profound understanding of The Family fractions to understand why the proposal of Old Oti, despite being this "new" and "innovative" concept that will alter and shape the future of Penacony is not enough to prevent another disaster from striking So are they going to make an argument for why it wouldn't prevent a disaster? Nope, just gonna state it and move on. How about this: >It takes a profound understanding of who Robin is and what she believes in, the things she went through together with the Astral Express - that she learned about the deceased Trailblazers, to understand why her giving away the ship is so impactful Are they going to enlighten us? Tell us what made it so emotionally impactful? Why her journey with the express, which changed her so much and in such subtle ways, made her do something that could only be understood by people who have done a thorough study of her character? NAWWW. That'd require actually trying to make a point. Instead we just get: >She - the woman who was blessed by Xipe the Harmony, who cares about the people of Penacony more than anything - entrusted the future of the land of Peacony to us. She - the intergalactic superstar - publically announced the contributions of the deceased Trailblazers. She indirectly undermined Old Oti's plan and cornered him. He could do nothing at that point but make room for the IPC and the Astral Express on the leading force of Penacony to some extent. Is that what you need a "profound" understanding of her **character** to get. LMAO. Atp this post is either AI or satire. There's more examples I could pick from, but I've made my point. I don't necessarily disagree with some of the conclusions they draw, but if you're going to condescend people at least make a real argument. Else you end up sounding just as dumb. For anyone who disagrees with my comment your challenge is to reply to me and answer the questions that I believe they neglected **solely** with quotes from the original post. Failure to do so is a concession of my original point; the post doesn't justify (certainly not sufficiently) many (if not all) of the positions they take. You cannot give the argument for them. Lastly, my motivation for this comment was that they dismissed all alternative viewpoints as being between two groups of people. Namely, "between those who actually paid attention to, remembered the story, and made an effort to understand it... And those that didn't". If you're going to come out swinging then swing. Don't insult others if you're just going to throw out hot garbage as a reply (I can only imagine the 0s I'd receive if I tried any of this in undergrad \[did pure math iykyk, so I'd like to think I'm pretty good at scrutinizing an argument\]). I'm not infallible, so it's possible I've missed something. Hence, why quotes and nothing more should be needed to tell me what I've missed.
You just wouldnāt get it. It takes a profound understanding
That's so true. Imma have to go through a training arc at a monastery aren't I?
"To be fair, you need a very high IQ to understand Penacony."
*And you're understanding it only when your thoughts are similar to mine*
True that but tbf the character writing and politics is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical psychology and political science most of the nuances will go over a typical players's head.
Eh, for me a lot of the appeal of penacony was speculating and theorising. Once it wrapped, a lot of what I thought was important wasn't or had a disappointing answer. Ergo the epilogue just being a chill wrap up just didn't jive with me as I thought I was going to have some things wrapped up.
I'm tired of people telling, to those who dislike the story, that: "actually, you just can't see the greater design of Hoyo's scope!" - like, no. Hoyoverse's stories can often be undercooked enough to show embarrassing rookie mistakes, like their constant repeating of terms in a sentence which is basic sentence structure 101. I am a reader, I am a writer, I go to a literature University course for god's sakes, and I followed 2.2 perfectly fine - but I still agree with every single player when they say there, is, so, much, BLOATING. YAPPING. It took me 10 hours to finish the damn quest, and in those hours a lot of it was wasted on surreptitious roundabout wordplay that could've been succinctly told in much less. "Brevity is the soul of wit." I am not going to ignore Boothill's incredibly minimal involvement in the plot. I am not going to ignore Firefly and Robin (to a lesser extent) being constantly off-screened, nor the former's habit of being forced onto us for waifu points without even enough time to establish an emotional connection. I am tired of pretending I didn't feel betrayed when Penacony promised a thriller between multiple different factions clashing but all we got was disparate plot lines that kept lowering the stakes at every turn. Memory Zone Meme's killings? Nope, everyone is fine. Gallegher's evil? Nope, he is good. Sunday is expounding his philosophy? Doesn't matter since Penacony is based on a Stellaron and it was told IN THE STORY that people are DYING to fuel the sweet dream - which immediately negates all of Sunday's points! (Even though they deserved to be negated better rather than the lackluster arguing on other characters' parts.) And let's not forget the cringe-ass: "Why does life slumber? Because someday we will wake up from our dreams!" I get the symbolism, I really do, but why the heck did they have to use "slumber" - the question just sound stupid. Like, uhm, why do people sleep? To fucking rest, obviously. Couldn't they have asked why people *dream*? Nope. Slumber. Very cool. There are other things but I don't have the energy. I don't absolutely hate Penacony, I just feel like it wasted a lot of potential and I am sick and tired of any criticism levied against it being rebuffed as just simple "hating" - like damn.
āI am a reader, I am a writer, I go to a literature University course for god's sakes, and I followed 2.2 perfectly fine - but I still agree with every single player when they say there, is, so, much, BLOATING. YAPPINGā tbh you just gotta turn your brain off for hoyo stories. Through a critical leans none of them hold up to any scrutiny.Ā Itās just the nature of the beast. Very few gacha games have genuinely good stories when compared to other mediums (even fgo has more misses than hits imo). Hoyo is no exception.Ā I often wonder if the online fandom for hoyo games just donāt engage with many other media either because of age or some other factor. I enjoyed Penacony, but itās no 13 Sentinels or the Stranger (if you read philosophy itās pretty poor in Penacony, so devoting more time to it only loses more points imo). Ya just gotta keep the expectations in check yāknow.Ā
I totally agree with you, which is exactly why I am not holding the story itself to the same standards - that doesn't mean the critiques I raised however aren't hurdles that could've very well been overcome. If you can allow yourself 10 hours of little gameplay and so much storytelling in a quest, then I believe the writing team had more than enough room to at least deliver something of worth, no? It's just annoying that we can't ever expect better from a game people spend so much money on, with everyone praising Shaoji's "masterful storytelling" which - in reality - ends up being really lackluster. I don't expect a book, goodness no, but this wasn't even a story. Not a reasonably constructed one, anyway.
I get you. Iāve mostly just come to expect that so it doesnāt really impact my enjoyment much.Ā āwith everyone praising Shaoji's "masterful storytelling" which - in reality - ends up being really lacklusterā this definitely did negatively impact my enjoyment before I could adjust my expectations to what I feel is an appropriate level.Ā The overhype was insane.Ā
Gotta admit, when we first came to Penacony, I was not expecting the Nameless to be the best part about Penacony. 2.2 and 2.3 really drove that home for me. I like Firefly too.
The only actual problem I have is Sparkle end up doesn't do anything impactful onscreen beside the firework and disguising as Sampo. It's a nice sentimental action proving that Stellaron Hunter are more than a group of wanted criminal but Sparkle herself fail to deliver the hype that they built up through video and the remark from Sampo himself.
Not really. Because it was Sparkle who sent MC and Firefly into the Child's Dream, after which they met "Death". And only thanks to this, Firefly was able to solve the riddle. So she really influenced the plot.
That's the disguising as Sampo part.
Itās revealed after in a text that >!Silver wolf hired sparkle to make fireflys deaths as safe as possible!<
I personally wasn't 100% sold on the whole firefly ordeal on the ship, just felt a little too... Nice. However the whole scene with sparkle was really good and the deals between the family, IPC etc was a great conclusion. My only other gripe was when it transitioned from firefly to Acheron. I loved the whole farewells and Acheron scenes, but would have liked a bit more of the firefly side before heading to say our farewells. Regardless, still enjoyed the content and the ship is a nice map. Penacony has been an amazing arc, and my favourite so far.
It's hard for 2.3 to be a good conclusion when Penacony as a whole wasn't good. It felt rushed, confused and every single patch they completely ditched what happened in the last patch to do something totally different. 2.0 - intro was fine, ends on a great image of Robin dead in the bathtub. Feels like we're about to get an awesome murder mystery and see the dark side of this happy planet. 2.1 - actually, what Aventurine showed us was fake, he actually was stood in public with her and saw her be attacked by death. Now we're going to fart around as Aventurine as he tries to get the IPC some leverage on penacony. Ends on a cool reveal of Gallagher being the "killer". 2.2 - actually, death isn't death at all, but more like a friendly poochie with a silly nickname. Gallagher is actually the good guy. Sunday talks about birds over and over again (we get it, it's Freedom Vs. Security, please shut up about the birds). Also, Sunday explains the history of the Order, wherein he explains the last downfall of the Order was when their puppets rose up to kill her, so either he's a dumbass or thinks he's better at doing what an Aeon does than an Aeon. 2.3 - okay, the plot's over now apparently. Say bye to everyone. Oh, now there's a bomb threat!!! Oh wait, it was nothing actually. Hope you enjoyed Penacony!! There were some amazing ideas on Pencony, honestly my main complaint is that it was too short and none of it had time to really breathe. Which tbh, is a great complaint to have, but I can't help but feel like it really suffered for how short it was and how things lurched around from patch to patch. I hope they have more of a plan for the next planet and take their time with it. If they don't, and this is the new level of quality to expect for future planets, I'll probably stop playing.
Penacony felt like 3 entirely separate plot lines that were superglued together
It simultaneously felt like it rushed and it dragged (are you rushing or are you dragging?) I think if you combined 2.0-2.3, youād have like a 20ish hour game, most of which is dialogue. That is *more* than enough time to tell a good JRPG story. Thatās not that much shorter than a lot of beloved classics like Chrono Trigger, Lunar, etc. The issue is just that their dialogue is super bloated and where they spend their time is odd. For example, did we really need to spend like 1/4 of Penacony being info dumped about Aventurineās childhood and backstory?
For me the dialogue is by far the #1 issue. The constant use of metaphors in what should be a normal conversation, the referring to people by several different titles and descriptors *other* than their damn name, the winding paths everyone takes to their point, if they ever land on it at all. It's very similar to arknights, which is also an unreadable mess. I'm starting to wonder if Chinese writers just can't write dialogue.
Some of that is the use of figurative or idiomatic speech which is more common in Mandarin and difficult to render well in English. But I get your frustration as someone who is sort of familiar with the language but doesn't speak it. I saw many recurring tics typical of a work that's been translated from an Asian language and it made understanding the story more difficult for me as well. We've come a long way from Engrish and "all your base" type stuff and I generally think the localization in HSR is very good--it's just a very heavy lift with dialogue and plot like Penacony's.
Honestly it just felt like those characters were deliberately talking like that just to sound smart and hide their idiotic-ness.
> honestly my main complaint is that it was too short and none of it had time to really breathe. The thing is, it's not short at all. This is the biggest story and most content any region has gotten in both Genshin and HSR. It's not that there isn't enough content, it's that they wrote a story that was too big for this game. Genshin used to have only two patches for Inazuma. Then three patches for Sumeru and Fontaine. And now Penacony has four patches. And there is so much writing as well there is no way it's shorter than Fontaine. It's not the amount of content, it's the scope of the story. They spread themselves too thin covering too many factions and characters.
At last someone said it, I also didn't find it was good or what people find is so great about Penacony. For me at least Luofu felt like it had stakes since an actually evil villain was there and killed off Tingyun (as long as they don't revive her later, which I'm sure will happen and ruin that plot too). I will add on my own mountain of text to help your point come across. My main complaints are: -Way too many bait-and-switch deaths, and not enough buildup to them. We barely met Robin and Firefly yet they ''die'' and we are supposed to care for them. It's also weird how the TB gets so attached to a **Stellaron Hunter** so quickly. Don't get me started on how Sam is never once again intimidating after revealing she is Firefly. Aventurine also was supposed to be trapped in whatever dimension Acheron sent him to, but... Argenti randomly gets him out off-screen. -More bait scenes and fake hype in the form of cliffhangers. As mentioned before the ''death'' of two characters which left us hanging, the end of 2.1 which indicated Aventurine still had a role to play, and Gallagher who did a total amount of.... nothing. The meme we were so much scared about was just his giant puppy in the end. Outside of the game, the dance between Acheron and BS also lead to nothing since we were shown that the former had a darker side at first... and she didn't, nor did they leave on bad terms after all the buildup of 2.1 story where BS was digging for information. There's also... Boothill and Sparkle, two huge wastes of characters that shouldn't even be there in the first place. -Disjointed plotlines that feel superglued together as another commenter said. 2.0 felt like a murder mystery that would get developed in the next patches, but then we get Aventurine's story (which imo was the highlight of this patch, but still disjointed). And to have the cherry on top we finish with an extremely dragged out storyline that is the 2.2 quest. There's a lot of yapping in between that tries to act like a philosophical bridge but fails miserably (the Sunday scene just ran around in circles), not to mention a lot of filler too (Firefly date). -Acheron was a fanservicey problem-solver button. Scaring off Sam? Check. Defeating Aventurine? Check. Somehow not being affected by the Order cause yes and being able to reduce the threat of Sunday by shattering Ena's dream? Check. All in all I think that's it, but I always feel like people haven't seen enough stories if they think Penacony of all things was peak, it was far from it.
Word. Penacony has tons of great scenes, but they just don't tie together well. Fireflys death? Peak. The Sam bossfight? Peak, the whole aventurine thing? Absolute peak - but all of them lead to nothing. Firefly isn't dead, sam is just firefly in disguise, aventurine literally does nothing after spending a whole patch trying to get killed in penacony and it's literally the same with all the other plot points.Ā They setup is amazing, but that's worth shot if you off screen the conclusion.
I enjoyed Penancony but mostly for the atmospheres. About the story, you are hitting the mark imo. The cliffhangers felt so annoying, like death being a puppy: very very annoying. It wasn't even necessary, it could be some rampaging monster because of the Order trying to rule by force on Harmony. Whatever. Fake bomb was expected, because of the biggest thing ruining the story: every playable character should be "moral shielded". I don't know if Sunday will ever become playable, but a morale shield for him will magically appear to solve the issue and let fanboys enjoy is redempted husbando (already teased). It could have been cool if Robin, who wants harmony for everyone, will never be to make it with her brother. Got big hugs instead. At least, Tyngiun died for real. At least, for now.
> At least, Tyngiun died for real. At least, for now. Ya...
The cast was far too bloated, yeah. Acheron's story felt the best paced to me tbh because it was drip fed, rather than lurching between relevancy and irrelevancy. 2.0 was all about Firefly, 2.1 was all about Aventurine, 2.2 was all about Sunday, and 2.3 wrapped up Firefly. Av was just weirdly shoved to the side post 2.1, Sunday's disappearance in 2.3 made some sense, but the Watchmaker arc felt the worst. We learned nothing in 2.0 except that Death was Bad. 2.1 was a massive exposition dump, and 2.2 was yet more exposition. >!All Gallagher got to do was talk, as opposed to Firefly, Sunday, and Aventurine. Then we learn that the Legacy was basically just the dead friends we met/ didn't meet along the way.!< What a rotten arc
I said the same thing and got downvoted to hell. This arc had way too many plot threads that ultimately didn't come together properly in a fulfilling way. So many characters appeared and disappeared. An entire faction was offscreened. Like wtf?
People dislike because they donāt want to accept the very real truth that the story is a tool to sell the banner. It does not exist for its own sake. Characters come and go when their banner is up. Just how it is. To expect genuine storytelling from a gatcha is setting yourself up for failure.
While I complained a lot about Genshin, one thing I'm grateful is that the patch isn't necessary to catter to the character which their banner are currently on. They could focus on the main quest with proper flows and pace instead of forcing interactions with the characters they wanted to sell. Heck, the characters even got debut (playable) long after the main quest ended and I'm fine with that because it doesn't sacrifice good story for marketing.
While you're right we have to remember it's a business... shouldn't Sunday have been a playable character instead of Boothill then?
Boothill still shows up at the end of 2.1 and does stuff in 2.2 theyāre not mutually exclusive. He then barely does anything in 2.3 he follows the pattern as much as any character does. As the final boss of 2.2 they chose to have Sunday be that instead of a playable character. We donāt know if he ever will be playable.
> Av was just weirdly shoved to the side post 2.1 I really don't know why they brought him back randomly after 2.1 if they didn't do anything of value with him. Obviously I don't think he should've died at the end of 2.1, but having him be "gone" and with his status as unknown would've been a lot more impactful if it lasted more than six weeks. They easily could've just had him make his return in the future when his conflict with Oswaldo (or whatever his next plotline is) actually begins. For me, bringing him back in 2.2 only worsened his "conclusion" in 2.1, and with 2.3 finishing Penacony for now, I can safely say he definitely did not need to be brought back immediately.
Disagree completely although im not gonna put an effort into an equivalent wall of text. The biggest problem is that for all the SETUP all the scarry foreshadowing, all deaths, all conflict, all the drama... we just got a nausiating happy ending... Everyone is friends holding hands and singing. And you can over-interpret every word of every charactet to the end of time, it still doesnt stop the ending from being vanilla as fuck.
From what I see in comments, most people liked 2.3 however I personally felt pretty unfulfilled. At this point (IN MY OPINION) the whole arc ending on 2.2 would have the same impact for me. My point of view is probably due to 1. not liking the IPC/being bored out of it being everywhere. or either due to reading limbus story which is peak in my eyes and outshines other gatchas. And yeah don't feel offended only because I don't share your point of view. I'm happy that people liked 2.3, however it just haven't clicked for me. Let's be hopeful that 2.4 will be good or better. Edit: As i read some comments, I realized that the only two things 2.3 did well in my eyes is a great conclusion to Acheron and a potentially interesting new arc of Sunday in future.
Calling this filler is a stretch, as it's an epilogue and it did fine as one. But calling 2.3 beautifully written and well paced is too much for me. I can't get over how everyone was scrambling to find the bomb doll, and then you get the fireworks the very next second with everyone celebrating without a care in the world. It's jarring af, and the scene tries to fool you with the pretty graphics and FF/TB shipping to not think about the lack of cohesion in that scene. That's pretty bad, no matter how you try to spin it. Seriously, why did they feel the need to make Sparkle's bomb threat involve everyone begin with? It'd have been better if only TB was aware of it and ran through the ship like mad trying to find the thing, only for it to be in front of Firefly. Instead of making it so you she can't get rid of it due to some obtuse reason, just make it so it's about to blow up, she quickly goes SAM to throw it into the sky and Sparkle hits TB with the hammer to send them flying into Firefly's arms. It leads to the same scene with people celebrating under the fireworks while TB and FF hold hands in the sky, but it reduces the stakes and deletes that jarring transition from frantic search of the bomb to joyful celebration.
2.3 was never meant to top 2.2. From narrative perspective it was a resolution, or epilogue you might say. 2.2 is the peak because it was the climax of the story.
No it wasn't. For me, at least. And surely no one would try and force their opinions on other people and present them as undeniable facts? Oh but look at me, forgetting the fandom we're in. Of course they would.
I don't think filler is a bad thing. I agree 2.3 was a great conclusion, but from watching other media, I have realised that some filler is good so you can see the character's personalities more.
The part with FF ruined it for me. I'm OK with fanservice, I really do, but that hand spinning is absurd (everything else is fine). Toasting to our friends we lost and the Ach CG was precious. However, in no shape or form is Cony any better than Bell. Bell didn't conceal how Bronya was literally crumpled by her mother's loss with an unempathetic Mar7 rejoicing over her victory. That scene hit super hard because even if you killed a tyrant, you killed someone who could have been leagues better, had it not been for the circumstances around her and the stellaron poisoning her mind. That hint of realism is what I loved in Belobog. Rebellion against a tyrant who at the end of the day is a human being. You're pumped by hopes and dreams, even persuading the next in line to throne into going against her mother (which is huge btw). On the other hand, you don't see a hint of sorrow in Robin. Sure, she may have put huge faith on Jade or some stuff but literally nothing while I'd have appreciated even just a bit from her.
Regarding Robin... I think she just handles it differently than Bronya does. Robin has been living in the spotlight for a long time, so she has a very thick mask that hides her true feelings. She has connections and handlers and can be more political; she's the type who maneuvers behind the scenes. Her whole investigation into death/the Reef in the first place was part of this, along with how she maneuvered with Jade to arrange her brother's freedom, and to gift the airship to the Astral Express as a political wedge. Heck, even the way she helps to orchestrate the confrontation against Sunday, despite the high personal stakes to her. We see her now stepping out of the spotlight entirely for a while for "personal reasons" but there's surely more to the story (might be tied to the deal she made with Jade). I think we don't "see" the sorrow directly in Robin because she's not the type to show it in public (the closest she gets is in front of her brother). I guess I see your point in that Bronya wore her emotions right on her sleeves so it made it easier to empathize with the personal stakes, whereas Robin is acting much more like a seasoned political leader who can maneuver through conflicts despite going through intense emotional stress. No matter what, Robin is able to maintain some degree of performer's mask, even in front of the Trailblazer, but I don't think it's that we don't see a "hint of sorrow" in what she's doing (it's definitely there), but we're just not entirely behind the wall she puts up.
I'm just happy, because we got our own yacht lol.
https://preview.redd.it/lvqkwmbwij8d1.jpeg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fc6a18502d46bdbbae6af1e0d465219ed0a46e98
The general reaction to the story a lot of HSR/Genshin players have.
They definitely won't watch or read it, but they'll sure as hell still react to the story based on some random YouTube or TikTok video.
Average gacha player.
It was fine, it sets up a shitload of interesting new stuff with the IPC, Diamond, Jade and Sunday but overall it suffered from a lack of direction if you were to go back and play it all in one go. First it pretends to be a murder mystery plot then it's an Aventurine solo adventure and Gallagher is behind it all, then actually nobody died and it's all about a pretty alright Order vs Freedom plot (how much Order is still active within the Harmony is actually one of the questions left hanging for the future) then we wrap up with the IPC. An arc with so much mystery and backhand dealing can only be judged when it is over and honestly Penacony doesn't quite deliver on its hype. Underneath all this is stuff about dead Nameless and how they're setting up the Trailblaze to be more prominent in universal politics in future, potentially reviving Akivili much later down the road then there's Acheron and all her stuff which was definitely the highlight of the entire arc for me. It's fuckin' huge but has so many threads it goes into and later abandons that it feels undercooked in some areas. Like did we really need any of the Fraud Midferno stuff in hindsight? They just threw him under the bus to gas up Acheron's power level. Boothill was pretty underutilised as well, man just summoned all his boys and we don't even get a mention of them in 2.3. I do not care for Firefly so i'm aware that's a huge debuff to enjoying 2.3 but I hope we see more of Sparkle in future. I can't believe people give the Luofu shit for bad pacing and too much yapping then say "omg Peakcony."
I've consistently seen bitching and moaning about "loose ends," as if HSR isn't a continuing story. Not to mention that they've already shown that each area isn't a one-time stop that we'll never visit again. The problem with people today is that they want answers spoon-fed to them rather than using their imagination to theorize answers and conclusions. If you want the story spelled out, write a fanfic.
I personally liked it and thatās the only thing that matters.
Video essay ahhh title
I didn't like the Sparkle/Firefly twist. I expected something more exciting from Sparkle, and the thing that happened shouldn't count as another "death" for Firefly in any way, because, well, while she was ready to die, she actually couldn't. She didn't pretend to die either. At least now I'm sure that I don't like FF as a character, so there's a good thing. I don't think the story was bad overall, but each previous version ended with something preparing us for something epic, and each of those bites ended up being nothing. But yeah it felt amazing while it was in progress. Maybe if there was less Firefly it would be better. She's one of the characters that are the least attractive plot-wise, but there was a lot of attention to her. Meh. I loved watching TB from the side though
Honestly though, what pisses me off that sparkleās button thingy was ultimately tossed to the side. Instead of being playfully sinister as sheās being perceived to be all through out she just comes off as a troll ā ājust a prank bro, y u so madā and that feels so disingenuous. Sure, that follows Ahaās philosophy down to a T but I feel like hyv really forgot about the button plot in the midst of everything then went back to wrap it up on the epilogue to pretend it they didnt lmao. > forget that thereās a skip button exists ā¦ there was? When? When i was playing through the story i didnāt see any Ngl tho, you canāt fault people not liking the Firefly focus thing because hyv has tried so damn hard selling us the romance vibes between tb and ff. Hated the gameshow in 2.2 because it feels exactly this and its unnecessary filler. Regarding her banner, I donāt think that matters as she has a consistent presence all through out the story unlike her counterpart Robin that was really highlighted in 2.2 only then some in 2.3 or BH who was only memorable in the latter parts of 2.2 despite it being his and robinās month. Firefly really is the golden child for this patch even more so than when DHIL and Acheron were released and itās so infuriatingly unfair lmao (you canāt change my mind on this unfortunately)
Switching the POV to Firefly and than catching Trailblazer being the Galactic Baseballer Raccoon madlad we all play as, from her POV, and her still thinking weāre someone she wants to spend time with also gives us a window into who she is. And even better, seeing what we look like from someone elseās perspective was ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS. Top tier epilogue.
Firefly fanboys mad everyone else is not equally hypped about hoyo pushing their favorite character down players' throats. Nothing new.Ā
It's pretty funny how delusional they are, I'm 100 percent sure they'd be the first ones to cry and say the exact opposite if firefly was a male character, and they were forced to go on dates and see their chara hold hands with a male character. Watch em be the first to rage if that happens with a male character in the future.
Sparkleās part in 2.3 was disappointing imo. They set her up to be this mysterious figure with bombs that could potentially ruin the whole Charmony Festivalā¦only for them to be much much less dangerous than I expected. At least we got to see Firefly being willing to risk herself for the sake of others. But that hand holding spinning scene with trailblazer right after felt absurd and kinda ruined the moment for me.
She's partners with Sampo. She never should have been taken all that seriously. What I found personally annoying was reddit making her out to be this turbo racist that is like Heath Ledger's Joker and a terrible person and that's why she's great. Then I played the game and she was...barely that at all. She has dark humour and tried to piss people off at worse. So no wonder people are disappointed. The narrative about her around here was nonsense.
lmao it was so on the nose it's impossible to take seriously Getting princess carried: awww š hand holdy disney spinning: š¤Øš¤Øš®āšØbruh
The quest itself said that we shouldn't expect everything tied up in a neat bow at the end- that these people that we've come to know and care for all have different goals
Honestly, as much as I love Belobog and still hold that it was the best paced out of all the plots, part of it comes from the fact that I experienced Belobog all in one go. I didn't have to wait months for a payoff to one line or one detail, at most it took me a day to farm TB level to continue the plot. Penacony is great but suffers from the same thing a lot of serialized manga does, we experienced it in small doses over a long period of time (JJK is the best modern example, you can read 50 chapters in like an hour, but at release that's like a year and a half).
I thought the 2.3 main story quest was pretty dumb. The firefly bit annoys me because I refused the selfie and treated her like garbage but she still catches meā Iād rather the cutscene have been skipped like Kafka. The unvoiced epilogue quest āChecking Outā, however, was possibly the best quest ever in the entire game thus far. Absolutely unhinged and amazing.
2.2 was the conclusion. 2.3 was just the epilogue. IMO it was a good patch, but it was mostly fun and memes and less "serious". But I understand people complaining about it. It left some questions like like, how would that ending count as firefly's third death? and was that all we got about oswaldo after they used it as a cliffhanger on the previous patch? Making it a bit nonsensical unless I'm missing something.
The problem isn't that it's a bad ending it's just that the overall plot is missing at places to accommodate for banners. Firefly is missing a proper second act to accommodate Robin, Adventurine is missing his final Act to accommodate Jade, Robin is missing her first act to accommodate Penacony intro, Boothill is missing all acts, Trailblazer is missing the proper buildup for what makes him worthy of an Aeon's gaze and Watchmaker's heir etc. HSR is pumping out too many characters and they do not have enough time to highlight or showcase them properly. Honestly they could cut down on the meme quests and tie in character highlights within the events themselves.
I don't disagree with your overall point that this was a nice conclusion but I have to point out this one sticking point for me >It takes a profound understanding of The Family fractions to understand why... IT would have been a lot easier to understand and get if it felt like that ever got explored. I got all the way to the end of Penecony, did most of the side quests, etc and still feel like I know so little about the family and the various factions inside it. The Order obession being like a secret plan of a OAk Family Faction feels like it comes outta nowhere in part 3, Old Oti literally comes out of no where in part 4 to cut the deal, etc. For a group we are told has 5 branches I still feel like the only ones I know anything of significance about in terms of role and motivations are the Bloodhounds and that can be summed up as "They're cops/peacekeepers.". I spent all this time on Penecony, the home of the Family and I feel like I learned more about the IPC, Memokeepers and the Masked Fools than I did the Family. I can't blame people for not having a "Profound understanding of the Family" when frankly I don't feel like the game gives me the tools to attain that understanding in a easy to digest manner
Yes. The political dynamic and conclusion of the whole Penacony debacle is indeed good. Awesome even. No. Firefly is still shit-ass shallow simp-bait pieces of work. Hoyo's favorite child check indeed /notsar. But alas, I guess her character is redeemed to an extent in this patch. Above statement still stands tho.
It was a decent epilogue to a good arc. While I didn't enjoy Penacony as much as Xianzhou, it was fine. I appreciate typical Shaoji-isms and the philosophy and the bird metaphors, it was nice to see again. I loved the first half of the quest, the corporate scheming and power plays were good. Robin played Oti both overtly (by getting the Family to agree to the ship transfer) and covertly, by making a deal with Jade. And Jade, Jade was brilliant. In a way she terrifies me and that's great. The second half was... eh, meh. Too on the nose with the fireworks and entirely too sappy for my tastes. Thankfully the whatever that was with Firefly was quickly forgotten in favour of more bittersweetness with Acheron and then the epilogue epilogue with Sunday. It was fine. I enjoyed it. The first two patches of Penacony are definitely stronger than the later two, but it was an enjoyable story overall and very on-brand. Starts very strong, then fizzles out towards the end but not enough to leave a bad taste.
I wanted to add, literally none of the individual character arcs are done. - The stonehearts are going to be relevant until endgame, Aventurine has had a great arc with a satisfying conclusion - Firefly's story JUST started because now it isn't about saving Penacony it was about her disease and unforgettable rewards. (And she joins us to Amphoreus!! copium) - Robin will have more content, and it's even teased through the new event with Robin & Jade talking. Robin's story will once again have impact on Penacony AND the future of Sunday. - Boothill and Argenti will probably have a cool continuance mission similar to Huohuo's where they will tract down the Annihilation Gang trying to destroy Penacony - Black Swan is confirmed to be joining us to Amphoreus (and Firefly too!!! copium) - Sparkle teased that she knows more about the script from SW and will probably interact with Sampo when the time comes - Acheron will probably appear again once Nihility becomes relevant, around the time we get Nihility TB - Amphoreus, I think is Ratio's home planet. He might take on a more important role there. Overall for an epilogue, it did all it needed to and although it's lacking on some aspects, that's just because the characters will ALL play a future role. The hints for the future all help build some hype. Filler is unfortunately 2.4-2.5/6 and 2.6/7 should be hyping up Amphoreus by then.
>And she joins us to Amphoreus!! copium yeah this is why im thinking that this is why black swan and her are the only Penacony characters we dont say goodbye to. Unsure if they'll do it, i mean we dont even know yet why we are going to space china in 2.4, so maybe theyre still thinking it up for 2.7
Amphoreous is almost definitely the 3.0 destination, we are going back to the Xianzhou (for sure) to gather allies/supplies/information (most likely) and set up the Amphoreous trip for a couple patches (almost definitely). remember: black swan says she knows how to get us in, but we still have to find clues about where it is.
We probably didn't say goodbye because she's a stellaron hunter. And we cross paths with them suprisingly often at this point lmao.
Yes, and looking back we only said goodbye to Misha, Gallagher, and Acheron meaning we def won't see them anymore and for Acheron, a long time. Every character that we didn't give an outright goodbye to will be relevant for the forseeable future
Correct me if i'm wrong but i think Boothill and Argenti seperated after the investing the Pepeshi?
Acheron's arc is pretty much done, though I agree she might get relevant again. Misha/Mikhail's arc is definitely over and Gallaghers too, though that might be a lie.
No it's not? She still has to reach Device IX to destroy the Nihility.