Honkai Star Rail

Ena the Order did nothing wrong!

I was initially mad that they went with a lengthy fakeout ending before the actual finale but honestly it made Robin's performance hit harder so I guess it evens out. Pretty satisfied with how everything shook out, since they followed through on all the setup in the last two updates. Misha alone gave me so many feels. Wild how Argenti just randomly wandered in so he could save Aventurine offscreen, which is like the right level of goofy that I cannot be angry about.

I am, however, very sick of hearing about bird

Honestly all they need to complete talking about birds is to just go “Why do birds fly?” and making that a recurring thing.

I actually laughed when Aventurine revealed that, like I thought Argenti being in Penacony was just a nice cameo fight but he actually saved him offscreen.

Argenti mentions 'a peacock man' when he explains what he's been doing during the show, so pre-reveal, I thought Aventurine ran into him before Sunday's mind manipulation deal happened, but nope it was actually foreshadowing the rescue lmao

Now it turns out that Argenti is going to have a major role in 2.3 lol.

Still no reward for collecting all birds or a way to turn in the building blocks... We must be getting a new map next update

2.2 is the climax but 2.3 is the full ending so yeah probably.

I'm pretty satisfied with this arc, it was by far the strongest but also it and Belobog being so strong makes the story decisions in Luofu even more baffling. If I wrote about all I loved this would take an eternity (Misha......) So instead I'll just mention the things I wasn't so hot on:

1. Firefly is such a weird character for me because she's actually well written overall but her tragic waifubait parts are so terrible compared to literally everything else about her narrative I'm still waiting for any sort of reveal for why she's so attached to TB because as is they were wringing it for all its worth even more than Kafka]. Also we sure got over the reveal about who she was fast.

2. SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT THE BIRD

3. Acheron is also a good character when she's not being made into just powerlevels and H I3rd references so it's tragic that that's 80% of her content in this narrative

4. Sunday is like Amakusa (fate/apocrypha) fusion danced with Ceodric (GBF) with a pinch of Arthuria (Arknight) and the result is someone who yaps eternally about an honestly pretty straightforward philosophy. Honestly the more he spoke the more it just felt like he was trying to fill a word count so the fact that the game writes the characters initially being so gobsmacked on how to retort before firefly mentioned "Oh hey this sounds an awful lot like basic escapism that doesn't actually fix anything" was kind of fascinating. Unlike Ceodric he's actually a good character and unlike Amakusa the characters actually have a real argument against his wishes so he's still fine and congrats on beating the very tiresome Cocolia allegations

5. Less negative and more "Okay I guess we're still doing this" but Aventurine really had his whole mini arc about wanting to live and then just immediately came back to betting his life huh

Edited by Mami on May 9th 2024 at 12:08:00 PM

I'm pretty satisfied with this arc, it was by far the strongest but also it and Belobog being so strong makes the story decisions in Luofu even more baffling

I get the impression that the Luofu (and probably the upcoming abundance world) is written by the main writer's assistant

Don't forget the Loufu storyline isn't done by a long shot. We still don't know what the deal is with mara, and Yaoshi and Lans fued is very much missing some key elements.

I'm expecting the abundance world to have direct continuations of many of the Luofu's storylines

even if they're leaving stuff off the table to be resolved later, would it have killed them to at least make Dan Heng's side adventure in the Luofu even half as entertaining as Boothill's side adventure

@ Mami

I also didn't expect to love Misha's part as much as I did, it's a testament how even an obvious idea hinges on execution to be done so well. I don't know what Gallagher is going to do next but I hope he doesn't follow suit so soon.

I can forgive Sunday's hyperfixation on the bird thing because it sold on me how unstable he is behind his serenity facade, like he's constantly convincing himself that he's totally in the right and not trying to chase a futile endeavour. Points to Firefly for telling him off though.

And speaking of her, I guess we'll have to wait until 2.3 for her backstory reveal at full though I have hope that the writers won't drop the ball on her.

@ Nouct

I wouldn't be surprised if the Luofu was the alpha test ground for the pov switches we have now in Penacony as a whole. Dan Heng's sidequest didn't work because the devs made it semi-optional instead of mandatory for story progression and ended up getting the worst of both options.

Must admit I definitely felt there was an answer to this problem that Xipe and Ena have to ignore in order to work: The Abundance. Especially since Long-life species aren’t consumed by emotions the way shorter ones are. Now if only they showed that.

And I had to admit I was amused Sunday also admits Ena’s Dream and her vision rejects Aeons entirely. Ena’s Dream is itself a world where her Path no longer needs her to guide it.

Also doesn’t help that despite constantly saying Strong and Weak, the actual argument is about is luck and misfortune due to things outside of people’s control.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on May 9th 2024 at 2:28:57 AM

The more I listen to "Hope Is the Thing With Feathers", the more I prefer it over "Wildfire". The boss fight was spectacularly done, even if the fakeout was a bit too dragged out.

for me they both do difference things Wildfire stand up and fight Hope Is the Thing With Feathers makes me want to dance.

Letting Hope is the Thing with Feathers entirely play before looping makes it more memorable than Wildfire only using half the song for the second phase.

Okay, finished all of the new stuff

This patch really toned down the most annoying parts of Penacony: Very little clockwork, and the only clockwork mission is short and fun. The dreamwalker stages are distinct from both each other and what came before

Event is... fine. It is the first one where the basic gameplay feels thoroughly explored without going on too long, but I just don't care that much about the details of Penacony's past. Side activities are fun, though

Speaking of side activities, I'm pretty certain that all the pan-Penacony sidequests were supposed to wrap up here, but they changed their mind late in development. The statue and Hanu's adventure are over, the stickers actually cap out at a number that gives jade, and the birds get their backstory... but we've got more stickers and birds on the way, and there's nothing for the tickers

It's interesting that the enemies keep getting less dangerous? Well, this group of minibosses is a bit scarier than last patch's (not that that's saying much), but the regular enemies aren't. And they were already easier than the previous batch...

Septimus might be the single easiest boss in the game relative to the power creep at time of release. Never managed to damage my characters, even after doing my echoes of war grinding on him. This is better than the hell that is Skaracabaz, but going too far in the other direction

Markedly unconventional dungeon design this time around. Last patch was a bit unusual, but the audition venue in particular was a whole other level

The world event with Robin should have been fleshed out into an actual mission. It's both lore-relevant and unintuitive

Edited by Hylarn on May 10th 2024 at 2:30:30 AM

That is an even worse idea what the hell.

70% of Sunday's own explanations for his intent is just him rambling nonsense honestly.

Edited by Mami on May 10th 2024 at 12:15:17 PM

Sorry but Space Chinas story is still bad and it’s arguments against Abundance is still weak as hell.

I’ve made that point clear before on how much I don’t like it and nothings changed.

And I know exactly what he’s going for in his ramblings. That’s why them conflating being lucky in life with = strong and being unlucky = weak is so obvious to me since I’ve seen it done before.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on May 10th 2024 at 4:25:02 AM

Yes

No

And more so than that involving the abundance doesn't actually fix any of the wonks pertaining Penacony it just adds completely new problems.

Edited by Mami on May 10th 2024 at 12:31:21 PM

We’re still going to agree to disagree but Abundance absolutely could fix fundamental issues people have, but like with Space China that also requires humans to not be greedy selfish assholes who refuse to take responsibility for the fact all their issues with the Abundance are their own fault.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on May 10th 2024 at 4:42:32 AM

That’s why them conflating being lucky in life with = strong and being unlucky = weak is so obvious to me since I’ve seen it done before.

While true, this doesn't actually hurt Sunday's argument?

Edited by Hylarn on May 10th 2024 at 4:34:47 AM

It does, mostly because luck is a fundamental factor outside of anyone’s control and it doesn’t matter how powerful or weak you actually are. All it takes is one wrong situation and someone who is considered “Strong” is instantly made “Weak”.

Strong and weak falls too much into the delusional concept of Meritocracy, which is a myth when it’s luck and opportunities others don’t have that benefit some over others. Whether it’s born into status, wealth, etc.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on May 10th 2024 at 4:41:20 AM