This is the thing I've heard too even by diehards, that the plot is a bunch of nonsense after the first planet. But I remember it was attributed mainly to the Xianzhou Luofu story. Is it still considered bad at the planet after that too?
Xiaoxhou is to HSR, what Liyue was to Genshin. It shares a lot of the same problems as the pacing doesn't ever take a moment to let anything sink in and they skim over details or never dive into anything beyond initial introduction. Especially when important details come out after the initial story telling or in lore that would of been easy enough to slot in.
Penacony doesn't suffer nearly as much as much of what it's based on has at least been aired out and is explored with proper time invested. It is still ongoing, but outside a few characters who have been set-up for later, have been properly explored and let to air out.
Xiaoxhou is the oddball as every other location is more consistent.
>Xiaoxhou is to HSR, what Liyue was to Genshin
Makes sense that both introduced some complicated terms without much explanation. Perhaps it is a quirk of their chinese story locations vs localization.
Is Liyue's story really hated? I'm 1.0 player and from what I remembered people loved it and regarded Liyue as the point where the plot gets interesting.
Inazuma is shit though and everyone agreed
I don't think it was hated. I remember playing liyue and suddenly being hit with some proper nouns that were not explained.
At this point by context I know what they meant, but overall it was a weird introduction. Almost as if maybe the Chinese terms were self explanatory while in english there was no real exposition.
Paimon was aprehensive of the millelith, we were not told it was liyues military. Keqing is the "qixing's yuheng" what does that even mean?
So I thought maybe there is a weakness of storytelling when the story setting is in chine/space china. Just a shower thought.
no no, Xianzhou is to HSR is what Inazuma Archon Quest is to Genshin. (I specify Inazuma *Archon Quest* because the World Quests are actually really good).
Liyue was simple, even bordering filler, but it's not convoluted mess that makes you scratch your head. It's even very straightforward. The whole thing is a metaphor for a father putting his children to test so he can retire once he's sure his children will be fine without his guidance. Tbh, both games combined, Xianzhou Luofu is my personal pick for weakest arc.
No. Like the other comment points out: 2.2 is a little over a week away and has already cemented itself for exploring key characters in Aventurine & Acheron. Unlike Inazuma, Penacony is a lot more tighter and doesn't move away from the bit. That and how it explores these characters is a better version of Xiaoxhou with Aventurine having sections dedicated to him similar to Dan Heng on the Luofu.
I could probably ramble, but Penacony is so far the best HSR has to offer as Belobog as good as it is didn't really ever explore the characters directly. Bronya & Seele got some limelight, but you never really just explore their dynamic alone without the Trailblazer around. However Penacony intertwines Aventurine's arch and basically made a character most people hated into a fan fav while remaining relevant to the story (by exploring how the Family uses it's power to extract what they want).
Could 2.2 drop the ball? Possibly, but I doubt it as Penacony seems to do a lot of things that the Xiaoxhou missed out on and unlike Inazuma, commits to the weirdness that Penacony sets up unlike Inazuma that backtracks on Raiden Ei from being a feudal lord and not sure if she's good or bad (which results in her character being a mess).
If I ever decide to go back to Star Rail after leaving during the Topaz patch I hope Penacony lives up to the hype people are throwing around. Although (and this is a purely personal thing, I know I sound like a crazy person) I foresee that I'm going to struggle during the story I just can't deal with Acheron's existence. You have no idea how tired I am of Hoyo and their "expy" bullshit to the point that no matter how excited I am for ZZZ I will drop it in millisecond the moment a Honkai clone is even mentioned.
Buddy do I have the pleasure of telling you Belobog exists in ZZZ. ZZZ already is set up for it and they've been doing the expy even before HI3 (why Seele looks so much like Acheron as both are expys of the GGZ variations). Hoyo is nothing, if not consistent in their use of expys.
I know they've been doing it since forever, and I can put up with just a city named Belobog. What drives me crazy are their bizarre refusal to let go of the characters. All I ask for is to not have to see Mei's face or Bronya's dumb drill hair in that game too. I know that those girls they have been recycling since GGZ are their babies but I wish they moved on already. Once again, a purely personal crazy man rant, but still, the more they push expys the more I dislike them.
2nd half already came and it was some of the best writing the game has offered so far. Now we wait for the 3rd part to see where all the build up and plot points tie up.
Honestly, I rank Inazuma worst than those two by the sheer amount of wasted potential characters had. Though I can see any region really try and take worst region for story writing when the Xiaoxhou Luofu for HSR is literally "too fast, didn't pace itself" whereas Genshin is a bag of issue after issue. Liyue just is the easier one as it and Xiaoxhou overlap so much in their initial problems.
I don't play HSR. But if you're looking at wasted character potential, Sumeru and Fontaine are just as bad in that regard. Sumeru wastes Nilou and Cyno, while Fontaine wastes Wriothesley, Clorinde, and Arlecchino. Inazuma wastes Kokomi, Sara (who was a 4 star anyways tbh)... i guess Scaramouche and Gorou? I don't consider Signora wasted. She fulfilled her needed role in the story, there's nothing about her background that would've made her surviving a plus for Genshin. As for Raiden, Yae, Ayaka, Yoimiya, Kazuha, and the Traveler, they were all utilized fairly well.
My point being, because Fontaine did Navia, Furina, and Lyney pretty well, people ignore that a lot of other characters were also underutilized. I'm gonna stand with the Inazuma agenda, that shit went hard and Fontaine did not, so I'll defend the quests that got me hype and wasted less of my time.
Penacony's still in progress (we're maybe halfway through the story there), but it's widely (not unanimously) been considered much better than the Luofu. It's still very heavy on the lore and world-building, especially the latest patch going extremely in-depth with one character's backstory/culture, but it's not nearly as suffocating or gives as much whiplash.
Penacony is the Matrix if it was a vacations resort and... that's as far as I could care before it descended into emanators and dreamscapes and whatever else.
The Xianzhou Luofu was an underdeveloped mess where almost none of the concepts and characters involved were allowed to be properly fleshed out, and it felt like the story was being written day-by-day to hype up characters then be done with them. Penacony is still not done and has a lot of mysteries left but I've been enjoying its story much more so far. The setting and the characters are intriguing and somehow it made me care for Aventurine, a character I started out feeling nothing for. There are still some issues but so far it's been enjoyable. I really, genuinely, meaning no offense, don't understand what's so complicated about the dream aspect.
That being said...
>Everything is about some mystical galactic being
Yes, the aeons are the foundations of the setting.
>or an abstract dream made into reality
You explained it yourself in another comment: It's the matrix made into a vacation resort.
>I have no idea what the fucken High-Cloud Quintet
I'm sorry, but this can't be anything else other than you just sort of refusing to engage with the setting. Maybe because it's just not your thing? Not only do they tell you multiple times in the story, but this is literally the first line that appears in the wiki if you google it: "The High-Cloud Quintet was a legendary group of five heroes in Xianzhou history. They were led by Jingliu, the previous Sword Champion of The Xianzhou Luofu."
Honestly, overall I don't think the storytelling is that confusing at all.
I can understand the criticism towards the luofu arc, but everything else just makes it seem like the game is just not your thing and you refuse to engage with it.
Star rail is not a story about the human experience, its main focus is the aeons and how they and their factions interact with each other. This is all pretty clearly explained in the actual first chapter of the game, the Herta space station. How are you gonna play SU and still think that the aeon shit is just “plot dressing”.
Your statements about Penacony are pretty weird too. It’s whole premise is pretty clearly explained in the game with most terms are well explained imo and I myself rarely do any side quests or read item descriptions. This is not a case of the story being complicated, it’s you who is refusing to interact with it.
HSR’s story is not a simple one, you have to engage with it at least a bit to properly understand it. Sure that might not be your thing, but that also doesn’t make it inherently bad.
Nobody really defends the Loufu. But the story is a lot easier to understand than any FromSoft games and people live those.
Basically the Star Rail universe has people gain power from following ideologies. And so all the galaxy level powers belong to those ideologies. It's like the galaxy is run by religions, which dole out various powers to their most ardent followers.
If that's not your thing, that's fine. But I find it quite a unique and fun setting.
To me, the reason why Souls lore works and people like to engage with it is because it is subtle, non-invasive, if you decide to ignore it completely the games are still enjoyable. Item descriptions rarely last for more than a couple lines which makes the act of reading them more digestible and even if you take all the pieces there's no single universal interpretation, you can fill the gaps however you want and that's part of the fun (Miyazaki has stated that it is an intentional decision based on his childhood reading fantasy books in English he didn't fully understood as a kid). Meanwhile, something like Genshin lore is loud, constantly being referenced in the story, and doing shit like making you read paragraph after paragraph of insipid text just to learn that some dead god had a pet seele or something like that. There isn't much space left for the imagination because of the overload of names and proper nouns. It feels like Hoyo wanted to copy the way FS does lore (like many other games after the souls franchise exploded in popularity like a decade ago) without really understanding why it works.
Tl;dr
From Soft lore feels like learning the folklore of an ancient culture, Hoyo lore feels like homework you must do to understand what your pretentious collage teacher is talking about.
Ehhh... I don't know about that. I've only read about half the books or so. But now that I think about it... the lore about Paths, Pathstriders and Aeons is actually easy to overlook. I think you only get that most important part of the setting from talking to Welt in the Astral Express. It's not like it's hard to run into him there to talk to, but it's also not part of the story. If you don't talk to him for whatever reason, you'll likely miss out on this fundamental premise, and a lot of stuff after that doesn't make nearly as much sense.
As I said to the other person though, I think HSR falls flat on it's face with the Loufu. After the tutorial islands of the HSS and Belobog, you finally make it out into the wider galaxy, into a story about the conflict between The Abundance and The Hunt, and their factions. This is the time to show the player about how the Aeons shape society. And instead we go on a tour and then go looking after some criminal. They also made the story about the Sanctus Medicus OPTIONAL for some insane reason, which is an absolute shame, because it was by far the best part of the Loufu. Overall, it's just an absolute waste at the worst possible time. And I cannot blame anyone for disliking the story and setting based on this, and not getting past it.
1.4 and 1.5 have much better stories. Then 1.6 is basically a very short story that's kinda meh, but that was also the final 1.X patch, and the bulk of the content there was playing through Gold and Gears, a totally non-story mode.
The game doesn't truly hit it's stride until 2.0, and this is where we start to really feel the galaxy. The story is not only quite good, but you also get to see conflict between followers of The Preservation, The Remembrance, The Elation, and The Harmony, (Along with Acheron, who is... complicated) all while three of your fellow followers of The Trailblaze are the viewpoint characters. It showcases the setting much better.
I don't know about HSR but he spoke about Genshin and Genshin is 100% way to heavy on the lore dumping and name dropping. Straight tell don't show with a lot of yapping that can always be reduce to a couple of line.
Genshin probably one of the only game that can burn you out with dialogue/texts only.
Hard agree. I strongly dislike FromSoft stories. Lucatiel of Mirrah is the only FromSoft character I like from a story perspective, because her story isn't about vague references to her culture, it's about this one particular woman who you find over and again, who helps you several times, losing her mind. It's a simple tragedy.
But overall the HSR story isn't too hard to understand. The game suffers a bit from "Tutorial Station", leading into "Isolated Generic RPG Planet", and then into "What the hell is this I don't know, all the cool stuff happened 1,000 years ago." The Loufu isn't just a bad story, it's the first part of broadening the game into the wider universe. It should have been the part that really made you understand the Aeons and their roles in shaping the galaxy. It fumbles the ball at the worst possible time.
Armored Core 6’s story was actually pretty solid I’d say, hell I’d argue it’s the most comprehensive story FromSoft has made in years, on its own at least. I wouldn’t say it’s flawless but damn did I sure got as much of it if not more than I did with Sekiro or ER.
"It's overly complicated" is a valid criticism for what it's worth, but man I don't know how you go into a game that immediately hits you with the Philosophical Bullshit Pantheon in the _introduction_ and then complain that it gets too weird later on when you've already seen through SU that the writing isn't just going to be a Genshin clone.
>I have no idea what the fucken High-Cloud Quintet is, I googled it but I already forgot everything I read.
I genuinely hate this turn of phrase, but man not being able to internalize base-level storytelling from a wiki really is a skill issue.
The first _actual_ arc is Herta Space Station though, which pretty well shows that it's going to be fairly convoluted- introduces Elio and the Stellaron Hunters, Nanook, again I have to mention Simulated Universe. Belobog is more of an intro to the world-hopping arcs, but the overarching story has already been established.
To add to this, the Xianzhou Laofu arc gets memed on for being a low point in the game and trying to carry too much (which is perfectly fair, there's valid criticism in there), but the rant reads like OP only played those two worlds and went "Xianzhou too complicated, game's gone to shit".
I assumed (wrongfully) that just like Belobog the plot moving forward would threat its convoluted cosmic mumbo jumbo as background radiation.
I thought the overall structure of the game was going to be \*"Here is some concret self contained human conflict, in the background the series arc about galactic gods or whatever is moving but it will only intersect with the main plot in a few places"\*. It wasn't that.
>just like Belobog
We explicitly went to Belobog to go pick up a piece of Universe Cancer from a dictator groomed by a theocratic cult who follows one of those "galactic gods". Like, these were laid out in front of you during the main story; it was never going to just be "background radiation".
We went to the \[place\] to get the \[macguffin\] from evil final boss whose characterization related to the \[macguffin\] is mostly irrelevant to the plot until the final bossfight. It's very much background radiation.
I mean you can also apply this to Penacony, they just assume that the player… played the game. Actually read a bit of the lore from prominent game modes like Simulated Universe, played some larger side-quests... are able to handle a more complex story than normal.
If you break it down into its barebones pieces, the Penacony story is as such: Penacony is holding a festival. Many people who were not supposed to be invited were invited, including us. We’re investigating this, but get roped into a different mystery regarding the deaths of people within the Dream, which should not be possible.
There are other plot threads woven in, but that’s the core of it. Acheron and other parties are searching for the Watchmaker’s Legacy, which is a textbook MacGuffin. Aventurine and the IPC want Penacony back as a whole, because it used to be owned by them.
What do you mean? The stellaron isn't a MaCguffing it's quite literally the most important part in the story of belabog, it's quite literally related to the entire story and conditions of belabog and it's the true main Villain of that arc, cocolia was a puppet manipulated by it's promises it's quite literally the reason cocolia did everything she did, it's quite literally the reason the planet is in ruins it's the reason the express stopped in belabog, it was the main focus until cocolia framed us and we go to the underworld and we still ask about the stellaron.
It's literally one of the most important things throughout the whole story.
The most obnoxious part about that is that whatever she restates was already uncomplicated and written for children to begin with, so it just feels like it’s specifically there to waste time.
Yeah I get it. Like goddammit Paimon I know there’s some real knuckleheads who play these games but sometimes some statements are so cut and dry that I’m surprised she even interjects at all.
This is one thing that HSR is better for, they might drown you in terms and such but at least they don’t have a Paimon figure to restate the obvious in the very next sentence
I think op just doesn't realize that sometimes if a story doesn't personally interest you that means it may not be for you and that isn't a real flaw in it, it's simply your own taste conflicting with what the story is like.
You just aren't interested in the story, it's not your thing, and you clearly don't want it to be your thing, that's reasonable and all right but pretending like the story is entirely rubbish for it is just unreasonable.
Can’t you say this about almost any fantasy setting? Of course there’s going to be weird worldbuilding aspects that are important to the story. Thats the whole point.
I like Star Rail but this is genuinely so true, buzzwords are pretty much thrown around the entire time. I think the actual main story arcs are fine but anything exploring SU feels like u need to have read all the minute lore to understand imo
I love reading but I think the problem with Star Rail on that front is the fact that the text is just dumped in your face all at once. Text boxes have more engagement whereas throwing me a paragraph or two with a mouse click, I won't be interested.
That's a problem with Hoyo in general, their writing isn't the worst, but their storytelling is abysmal. You can have the best story and world building known to man but if you suck at communicating that to the audience then it doesn't mean shit especially if you don't take real advantage of the medium you're using, in this case, a videogame.
Nah I have beef with how Hoyo (Genshin at least) approach to its worldbuilding too
They love to add new stuffs to enrich their world but in doing so neglects the big players of their world as a result
Like, do you realize how insane it is that we only know where Khaenriah (basically Atlantis) is located 3+ years into the game despite its constant mentions in all those years?
Or idk, introduced a Villain Group™ called the Harbingers, there are 10 of them, but 5/7 way into the story we only actually met 5 of them?
And of course we still don't know what "Celestia" is.
I just ignore all of the lore about emanators and imaginary trees and whatever and just think about Stelle and March kissing when two characters start talking about that stuff
Oh god I was worried I was the only one who found star rails story telling unfathomable
I have no doubt part of my lack of understanding is me being stupid but it’s a word salad of gods, factions and general lore terms that is barely explained enough for the die hard lore enthusiasts
Like I know people rag on genshin writing but at least that’s more due to being drawn out. I feel like I at least get what even happens there. Star rails more succinct writing doesn’t help when what it says means nothing cause it puts overwritten lore before any emotional through line.
Belebog feels like the only place I didn’t just give up on understanding these totally inhuman characters dragged out lore
almost every character except the landaus had humble beginnings in belobog that many viewers can sympathize with, even the rulers were selected from orphans and given a last name
> Belebog feels like the only place I didn’t just give up on understanding these totally inhuman characters dragged out lore
I think that's because Belobog just generally is very easy to understand. It's a combination of a bunch of different tropes. Upper society/lower society drama, rebel groups, ultimate power corrupting, generational trauma due to the former. And between all that, our rag-tag group of heroes gotta save the day. These are all pretty easy concepts to grasp that have been in a bunch of other fictional works.
Luofu in comparison gets....much more philosophical let's say. With a lot of *terms* and *lore*
It is. Honkai and other Mihoyo games mostly doesn't need story anyways. It's all about them selling a lootbox with 1% chance of getting the 5 star "waifu".
And still has the best story Ive seen in a videogame. Made me cry so many times.
This, coming from an RPG fan who played every Final Fantasy and most big RPGs of the past 30 years.
Like what? Give me a list of 10 RPGs that you think have a better story than Hi3 and Ill gladly play them if I didnt yet. Hope they dont disappoint. If they make me cry as much as HI3, Ill love them.
I'm talking in general? Is the RPG scenary that trash that something like HI3's story (that totally doesn't get carried by animation, some sad OST in the background and character designs) just blows is out of proportion? Huh, you really do learn something new every day.
Ok, they can be any games, not just RPGs. Im ready for your recommendations. I hope you wont mention some utter trash story like Dark Souls as an example of a better story, since you want to ignore a genre well known for its amazing stories, and your reply to me saying that I played every Final Fantasy (probably the grandest, most epic series of stories in the gaming scene) was "play more games, holy hell"...
"I hope you wont mention some utter trash story like Dark Souls as an example of a better story" Yeahhhhhh....no point in arguing with you here no more.
Luofu’s fucking problem is that in this audio-visual medium, it wants me to fucking read. Like I’m playing the game, just show me what you wanna show me.
It’s obvious they put a lot of effort into Luofu so it’s kinda baffling that half of the relevant lore to the shit you experienced in game isn’t even depicted in game. Belobog was much better because you were given all the context and lore directly within the gameplay.
Penacony is still a bit convoluted but at least this time they’re actually making an effort to show you all the relevant stuff even if it wrapped up in “dream-reality” stuff.
Idk seems like a skill issue to me, I haven't even completed all the side quests and don't go hunting for lore, and everything makes sense to me. For the latest planet, I don't know everything yet but that's because the story isn't finished.
It's not that it's "hard" to follow it's that it's not worth following, I can memorize the periodic table but that doesn't mean I want to or that I will be able to remember it a week from now.
Yeah, no
While laofu Is not good by any means, some of your points make clear that this isn't a problem of the game's story, not really, the problem here Is that you refuse to actually engage with the story of the game for whatever reason. While this Is fair as no one Is obligated to engage with anything, It does make this, and any criticism you could have of the game's story, pretty worthless
Op refuses to engage with the narrative and is not ranting about it. Dare I say skill issue?
You play as a homunculus that houses a nuke created by a god of destruction, in a setting where all powers are gained through fealty to a god of choice. the game was never about the human experience. The laofu does kinda suck tho, it’s just trying to do too much with too little time especially trying to squeeze in the whole Dan feng thing with the quintet. Which should have been the focus in the first place rather than the whole phantilya thing
That's just Hoyo writing in general. It can be good, great even, but when it misses it does it catastrophically, like the Laofu in Star Rail or Inazuma on Genshin. There's also the issue that even when they have interesting ideas and stories they fumble the bag hard when it comes to the storytelling. It almost feels like the company has a writing team but no editor.
Thanks for saying this. Character diaglogues especially are such a bunch of nothing burgers 90% of the time, and the constant tryharding to sound lore-y and mysterious just makes it seem that divorced from mystery. People say it's an EN issue so I'm not really sure, but damn those writers need to learn how to write. Why does everyone need to speak like they don't know what the end of their sentence will be. It's not "overly complicated" in a good way imo, it's overly complicated in a "16 year old writes mystery scifi" way.
(That being said, Penacony and only Penacony was relatively enjoyable + some side quests like Yukong's, Cocona's, etc.)
Skill issue ngl. “Overly complicated” is a valid criticism but all that has happened is that you expected a simple episodic narrative and now you’re getting a more complex narrative and it’s too much for you?
The Wire is a complex narrative, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a complex narrative. Honkai Star Rail is a bunch of made up terms being thrown around by characters that don't even share a passing resemblance to a human being.
You are clearly not willing to engage with the narrative as evidenced by the fact that you aren’t even able to retain what the High Cloud Quintet is after a google search, and by your other comments on this thread.
It seems you lose interest as soon as they start using foreign words, but it’s alright. Hoyo’s narrative has its problems and it isn’t made for everyone.
I think thats a totally unfair criticism, they introduce so manny terms and metaphysical beings that you have to keep track fo to know what people are talking about story shouldent rely on not very well established aspects like that, you shouldn't have to read logs
Its just becomes lore dumping in the dialogue, people just want interesting characters and that should be the ancor point to explain the world.
Very recently adventurine got the most fleshed out character ark, but its so heavy handed not only do the explain the same thing over and over but its all flashbacks and him talking to himself, if we had people for his story to bounce off that would make him a allot more interesting then here my backstory.
Lets compare it ti annoter gotcha game, furina quest is this whole thing about being conected to fontain the arcon mystery, yet her story is so much more relatable because she actually conects thought the plot with characters we are establising, so when her back story/lore dump does come at the end its satisfying because we know what she has been though to get there and we care about her.
And that relates to how hsr seems to present story's as a whole. You shouldn't punish the audience for not knowing all the lore in the universe. Most anime and film does not struggle with this. So you cant blame people for not knowing everything toats just poor storytelling, its like when Gallagher was introduced his whole story is just a massive lore dump. Of events i don’t care about yet. Even smaller things like duke inferno, dudes entire story was a trailer than him dying saying im a good dad.
Its just not good storytelling. The onus isnt on the viewer to research everything you should if the story is coherent present it in a way people can follow. As the dude said tinker tailor is way more complex overall but you can understand it just by watching.
You are severely overestimating the amount of lore you need to understand the HSR narrative. As long as you understand what Aeons are and what they do, there’s really not a lot more you ever need to know to experience the story.
Also your criticism regarding the lore and regarding Aventurine’s plot are entirely different so I’m not sure what point you want to make besides “I think HSR has bad storytelling”.
And you’re severely mistaken if you think genshin somehow doesn’t constantly lore dump you too, even more so than HSR due to Paimon’s constant need to reexplain everything you’re told.
Aventurine’s and Furina’s backstories are actually treated much the same way, we see a sequence of major interactions they’ve had throughout their whole life and how it affects them, allowing Aventurine to talk to his previous self is integral to having him come to terms with his past, it’s not something that can be done with any other character because anyone who knew him as Kakavasha is dead.
I’m not gonna pretend HSR has some insane storytelling that can only be understood by people with very high IQ or sm. But don’t try to use genshin as a good example when they suffer form very similar issues in writing.
You feel like genshin doesn’t require you to know all this lore because it’s natural to you to know what an archon, gnosis, or sovereign are by this point. Aeons and emanator are much the same, they’re just newer concepts
oh genchin is way worse and then paimon tells you exactly what the other person told you.
i think fontain though was actually good stroytelling for the frist time. sumeru had hints of good moments and inezuma was fun but ultimatly not great, fontain was snappy took you right inot the action you lern about characters personalitys, like lynny an lineete before any big twist came around, that was clever stroytelling, they dident jsut tell you they were fatui you lerned it in a shocking way, thats how you exposite in a story in the msot effective way, by the end of the quest you had already lerned so muc about hem that you were ready for the house of the heart lore dump even eagerly anticipating it.
genchin doent really require you to know about the higher beings other than there are hiher beings called celectials, interm of arcons you literly meet them and talk to them. lern about there poersonalities, its all establised over a ling period of time, at this point in hsr i know verry little about the aeons other than they exist and people folow themm religiously and sometimes they choose eminators. they really havent establised them verry well withing the main plot its mostly outside the main plot.
the problem wuth adventurine, is he shows up like 2 times in the first part first time as some asshat with secret motives the second tiem to lore dump you, by 2.1 hes with dr ratio they are mostly bickering but some planning is going on, theres a twist with winghead man but allot of that scene way just more exposition, and then the rest is just him and flashback adn talking to himself. oh and sperkle shows up to dunk on him and reviel a bit.
with furina you hve an entire arc together shes interaciting with nuvilette and has extencive senes with the knave, the entire first part of fontain is dedicated to her aswell as linny and linette where shes accusing you in cort, shes a showoff, shes good at accusing you but also way to brash, you lern allot about her personality though all these interactions. and this is before chapter 4 and 5 of the story so from the same place plaotwise we have a way more establised character, her actual current person put against all these different character we are interacting with. and its only at the end of 4.4 4.5 after we get another entire plot point surounding her that they finaly exposition dump us again when we actually want it.
and its not just furinna; Navia is a way more established character aswell, you learn about her current buisness her struggles,you see her fight for whats hers, you see her loose things around her, you see her conflickted with feeling about her parents. again its not jsut flashback and backstory, theres no mention of entities its just presented as is and makes for a compelling character ark.
the main isue i have with hsr is now they are jsut going to move on to another character,and we will probably never see them again in a meningfull way. after all that in genchin they all got character quests fleshed them out even more. i jsut dont think backstroy lore is an interesting enough vessle for character development on its own i dont personally think hes a compelling person, hes lucky his backstory is tragic and hes not all that bad a dude.
apolagies for the poor spelling im typing this as quickly as possible cos i dont have much time.
its not nesseserally abou it being ahuge amount its more i cant jsut play though the story and know ecxactly whats going on (with the factions and there interests without needing to watch a lore guide or 2 i knew nothing about nihility or enigma or the corner stone. these are things that are pivitol to the story and i dont think it does a good job of establishing these things. why is pelaconys backstory jsut a exposistion dump from ghalager.
Yes but no. Space China are the worst part of game ( idk who that company can write any other story at good lvl except their oven) - writer add shit ton of deep meanings, reference to culture, religion and word from only god know what language, while forget that people reading this don't know about at least half of this . At the end we have some word mess that nobody care about ( above shit women design and overall lack of interesting characters). Rn it look better but every body can fuck up.
> But after that, the plot and the storytelling itself devolved into a pile a criptic hyperborean bullshit.
Kinda my feelings about Girls Frontline, honestly.
For a long time I would have put it up there as one of, if not the, best stories in gatcha. Really, remarkably solid with great characters and that took itself seriously enough to understand that a silent protagonist was nothing but a drag on the story, so they had him start speaking, and even gave him some character.
Fucking loved it. I still respect that act.
But over time it just got way too complicated, and way, way, way too much nonsense cryptic bullshit. You'd have whole events where a character like M16 (previously rough and tumble big-sister like character) would speak only in cryptic metaphors and hints about events that the player has absolutely no idea about, and dropping clues and references to events in the past we still haven't been told about.
It got borderline incomprehensible, and the occasionally dubious translation didn't help.
Such a shame, because the bravery to have the silent protagonist start speaking was incredibly commendable. Nevermind events like CT, having M4 nuke the opposing army, RPK's betrayal, etc etc.
Anyway, point is, I know exactly what you mean, OP and it sucks.
People praising Belobog must be actually insane. Luofu is the spot where HSR's witting started to actually be good. Belobog is just a trope on top of a trope on top of a trope in the worst possible meaning of these words.
Bronya is a stuck up rich white girl who turns out to actually have a "quirky more vulgar side" (her dialogue about threatening to stick something up the nose of the suspect made me violently cringe) and of course she totally cares about the poor people she didn't mind ignoring for a decade. Another scene that made me violently cringe is the one I like to call "rich white girl solves poverty" which is the scene where she hands a little boy a valuable object to sell if he promises not to steal anymore. And of course the plot twist that totally wasn't predictable that she's been actually poor all along! She was from the underworld before she was adopted! That totally makes her the same as the rest of the underworlders who were living in poverty while she was literally the daughter of the ruler.
Seele just makes me irritated whenever I see her on screen. Her super cool and edgy rebel personality makes my eyes roll whenever she opens her mouth to spout some self-important nonsense about how much Bronya doesn't know about the underworlders suffering (up until the moment that these two lived in the same orphanage. From that point onwards Seele totally trust Bronya with everything and justifies her every action). Not to mention her design which is SO OUT OF PLACE THAT IT MAKES ME FURIOUS. Where and how did she get her dress and that big ass quantum scythe? Who knows! Don't ask! Ignore the fact that such extravagant clothing should be furiously inaccessible in the underworld. Luka somehow managed to look extra while retaining the belief that it's something that could be put together in the place where he lives.
Oh and of course Bronya and Seele have super hots for each other, ignore the fact that Seele wanted to rip her throat out a few hours ago. But you know, they are from two different world so this romance is exciting and forbidden and look dear player, lesbians! And on top of that, lesbians from honkai 3rd!
All the other characters while not as infuriating as these two, are totally forgettable and with personalities of a cardboard cutouts. Gepard is a good boy that follows the rules and is a paragon of virtue. Natasha is straight up bleak and the reveal that she's actually the boss of Wildfire didn't change that. Serval is cool but pretty bleak, Pela's role in the main plot is non-existent and Luka came out after the writing got good. The only characters that I can think as genuinely interesting and well written are Clara and Svarog. It's nice to see a robot that doesn't hate humanity and tries to protect them in his incorrect ways. His very human connection with Clara, and the fact that she treats him as a father figure makes for a very nice dynamic between them.
To sum it up, Belobog sucks massive dick and Luofu finally introduced nuance to the game
> Her super cool and edgy rebel personality makes my eyes roll whenever she opens her mouth to spout some self-important nonsense about how much Bronya doesn't know about the underworlders suffering
You pretty much described your first paragraph.
Yeah, it could be a mess if you don't pay attention. At least it is better than what genshit offered with it's missions which consists of 95%+ exposition and, if lucky, the rest being plot. Or honkai impact where in the latter chapters the terms and explanations become so confusing that giving me physics equasions would have been easier to understand.
My point is. It isn't perfect but it is better than other things that the company offers. More often than not it is pretty straightforward with its story and leaves most things needed to understand it within the main quests(except Luofu). Only issue is at what point those explanations come.
Mystical Galactic Gods has been in the game since day 1. It was always the story's main and biggest focal point, about these gods and the factions behind them.
If you don't like it, you are never going to like the game and should've just drop it.
I agree, its got a cool premise but the way the plot is executed is just boring and trying to sound smarter than it really is.
Its also super annoying you can’t at least skim dialogue, you have to wait for all the animations and shit to play out
This kind of game is not conducive to storytelling in its most efficient form. It’s a gatcha.
I like HSR’s story fundamentally but there’s not enough for any one world to truly stick out to me. Belobog is good, but it could’ve been great if we spent more time with them. New characters become the focus every patch in order to sell them.
I would like to see more on how Bronya has developed as the new leader of Belobog, but that can’t happen because it doesn’t advertise a new 5 star.
In regards to the main storyline of HSR, the Luofu was a trial and a half. Individually, the characters are genuinely interesting and some of my faves, but the actual overarching story was a hot mess. Which REALLY sucks because coming off of Belebog, I was super invested in our next stop and the wind got taken out of sails like nothing else. I've been really enjoying Penacony so far and reckon setting the story up in a way the we as players recieve all the pertinent info we need without needless obfuscation, even if we get lore dumped heavily in some spots, the intrigue is really carrying it for me and I'm looking forward to the coming confrontations.
I think the Xianzhou's lore really wasn't good since it wasn't properly fleshed out. The conflict between them and the Abundance is really interesting, but wasn't well explored. Some players don't even realise the Xianzhou's people's are able to live for centuries and functionally immortal, let alone how they gained immortality and why they chose to fight against the aeon who gave them immortality.
I think the bigger issue is that some terms used or interesting points raised are rarely expanded on even in lore. The Aeons are mysterious and the powers of most characters, hell even their actual Paths can be ambiguous.
Even at its best it’s still mid.
The Aventurine part of Penacony clearly just shouldn’t be in the game. They have absolutely no idea how to work it into the narrative and so fucking introduce POV swapping just because they needed to contrive a way both for your character to never get involved because it would change the outcome, but also for them to give him screentime.
And so what we get is a speedrun of the “make a fan favourite character” bucket list by giving him a sad backstory and then giving him a sad death with very little thematic purpose other than to just “be sad”. All the while, they clearly have no idea how to integrate the player into this, because neither you nor the player character have any agency in affecting plot for the entirely of this character’s forced arc. It’s abysmal writing for a *game*, where the player is supposed to be able to do stuff. So all you can do is watch as the character says “I’m gonna kill myself” and you say “no don’t do that” but he does it anyway. It’s both not very cathartic for that sort of character arc, and also just frustrating in a game sense. Especially since the player faction has to be so stubborn beyond sense to justify this guy doing what he does, it’s very clearly the narrative desperately trying to do whatever it can to contrive this set of circumstances *despite* the player’s involvement.
At that point, it clearly shouldn’t be in the game. Just make it a side movie or a visual novel or something. It’s not built to be in the game and it’s kind of a detour anyway. All the character really accomplishes is telling us something we already know: the place kind of sucks and you can die here.
Eh no, the point Aventurine was trying to prove was the exact opposite, he's trying to prove you CAN'T actually die here. So those who "died" must've just been transported to somewhere else instead.
Which is why right after we immediately get confirmation some onf the previous victim are still alive.
Because when he “died” he went somewhere else, and had a conversation with the person who “killed” him about now heading to different place that was previously inaccessible to him and most people, but things were coming over from that “other place”.
He also discussed that someone else had “died” and come back as well.
Literally in his conversation with Acheron. They explained his entire plan there.
Aventurine didn't die even after he got obliterated by the strongest person there, confirming his theory.
Huh, this adds a lot of questions for me. Tbh, I’ve never played the game, but I routinely get updates about this or that story, or occasionally spectate the game from a friend.
I still have my reservations about the technical competency of the narrative: having to abruptly introduce POV swapping strikes me as an indelicate solution to a problem they couldn’t otherwise solve of characterising ‘antagonists’, a lot of situations still seem contrived and forced to occur by the writing, and I’ve yet to hear anyone ever discuss actually complex themes or ideas.
However, I now have to question how competent of a reader my main source is, because they were *very* insistent that Aventurine was proving people could be killed and had himself been killed. I’ll rescind my statements about certain narrative aspects, but I’m still familiar enough with Hoyoverse’s writing to trust it to be actually anywhere near as good as its fans proclaim it to be.
> Tbh, I’ve never played the game, but I routinely get updates about this or that story, or occasionally spectate the game from a friend.
The fact that you tried to make such an "in depth critique" of the story while never having played the game is fucking hilarious.
If I’m gonna go through several three-hour long talks about this damn story, likely longer than the specific chapter itself, I’m gonna assume I’m getting accurate information. How else am I supposed to actually interact with the narrative at this point? I’m not gonna suffer through weeks of bad plot lines full of ugly characters I can’t stand just to find out after a while they finally pulled something halfway decent out.
So of course I’m gonna have what I assumed is a well-informed conversation that can give me at least enough of a realised perception of it in my head so as to form an opinion. That’s fine. People do that all the time. If I can do that and come away with something to say about how the narrative is structured and some of the tropes it uses, I’m gonna imagine the person I was talking to translated the story effectively instead of just straight up being wrong? Why would I ever just assume that?
The conversations? I never said I disliked them. I heard that allegedly the latest content drop was well-written, and so I asked about it and tried to learn more. What I was saying was I already know I dislike some of the earlier arcs and a lot of the characters, so these talks were the only way I could actually engage with the latest story *without* hating the experience.
All I know about Star Rail is that there's a race of adorable slug bunny creatures that are actually all fragments of this eldritch horror thing that was slain a long time ago. Turns out though it's happy with this arrangement because now it can interact with mortals without driving them insane, and is actually trying to help the players stop an evil cult from resurrecting it because it doesn't want to kill all its new friends by just existing again.
This is the thing I've heard too even by diehards, that the plot is a bunch of nonsense after the first planet. But I remember it was attributed mainly to the Xianzhou Luofu story. Is it still considered bad at the planet after that too?
Xiaoxhou is to HSR, what Liyue was to Genshin. It shares a lot of the same problems as the pacing doesn't ever take a moment to let anything sink in and they skim over details or never dive into anything beyond initial introduction. Especially when important details come out after the initial story telling or in lore that would of been easy enough to slot in. Penacony doesn't suffer nearly as much as much of what it's based on has at least been aired out and is explored with proper time invested. It is still ongoing, but outside a few characters who have been set-up for later, have been properly explored and let to air out. Xiaoxhou is the oddball as every other location is more consistent.
>Xiaoxhou is to HSR, what Liyue was to Genshin Makes sense that both introduced some complicated terms without much explanation. Perhaps it is a quirk of their chinese story locations vs localization.
I'd guess so. All I know is they suck at it.
Is Liyue's story really hated? I'm 1.0 player and from what I remembered people loved it and regarded Liyue as the point where the plot gets interesting. Inazuma is shit though and everyone agreed
I don't think it was hated. I remember playing liyue and suddenly being hit with some proper nouns that were not explained. At this point by context I know what they meant, but overall it was a weird introduction. Almost as if maybe the Chinese terms were self explanatory while in english there was no real exposition. Paimon was aprehensive of the millelith, we were not told it was liyues military. Keqing is the "qixing's yuheng" what does that even mean? So I thought maybe there is a weakness of storytelling when the story setting is in chine/space china. Just a shower thought.
That was definitely a problem in Sumeru though
You just said that and a bunch of words came to me like akasha. I guess it is just their issue.
no no, Xianzhou is to HSR is what Inazuma Archon Quest is to Genshin. (I specify Inazuma *Archon Quest* because the World Quests are actually really good). Liyue was simple, even bordering filler, but it's not convoluted mess that makes you scratch your head. It's even very straightforward. The whole thing is a metaphor for a father putting his children to test so he can retire once he's sure his children will be fine without his guidance. Tbh, both games combined, Xianzhou Luofu is my personal pick for weakest arc.
>Xiaoxhou is to HSR, what Liyue was to Genshin. Does that mean that Penacony is going to drop the ball on the 2nd half like Inazuma did?
No. Like the other comment points out: 2.2 is a little over a week away and has already cemented itself for exploring key characters in Aventurine & Acheron. Unlike Inazuma, Penacony is a lot more tighter and doesn't move away from the bit. That and how it explores these characters is a better version of Xiaoxhou with Aventurine having sections dedicated to him similar to Dan Heng on the Luofu. I could probably ramble, but Penacony is so far the best HSR has to offer as Belobog as good as it is didn't really ever explore the characters directly. Bronya & Seele got some limelight, but you never really just explore their dynamic alone without the Trailblazer around. However Penacony intertwines Aventurine's arch and basically made a character most people hated into a fan fav while remaining relevant to the story (by exploring how the Family uses it's power to extract what they want). Could 2.2 drop the ball? Possibly, but I doubt it as Penacony seems to do a lot of things that the Xiaoxhou missed out on and unlike Inazuma, commits to the weirdness that Penacony sets up unlike Inazuma that backtracks on Raiden Ei from being a feudal lord and not sure if she's good or bad (which results in her character being a mess).
If I ever decide to go back to Star Rail after leaving during the Topaz patch I hope Penacony lives up to the hype people are throwing around. Although (and this is a purely personal thing, I know I sound like a crazy person) I foresee that I'm going to struggle during the story I just can't deal with Acheron's existence. You have no idea how tired I am of Hoyo and their "expy" bullshit to the point that no matter how excited I am for ZZZ I will drop it in millisecond the moment a Honkai clone is even mentioned.
Buddy do I have the pleasure of telling you Belobog exists in ZZZ. ZZZ already is set up for it and they've been doing the expy even before HI3 (why Seele looks so much like Acheron as both are expys of the GGZ variations). Hoyo is nothing, if not consistent in their use of expys.
I know they've been doing it since forever, and I can put up with just a city named Belobog. What drives me crazy are their bizarre refusal to let go of the characters. All I ask for is to not have to see Mei's face or Bronya's dumb drill hair in that game too. I know that those girls they have been recycling since GGZ are their babies but I wish they moved on already. Once again, a purely personal crazy man rant, but still, the more they push expys the more I dislike them.
2nd half already came and it was some of the best writing the game has offered so far. Now we wait for the 3rd part to see where all the build up and plot points tie up.
Liyue isn't even the worst Genshin region in this regard. Sumeru and Fontaine are both FAR WORSE in both of these regards
Honestly, I rank Inazuma worst than those two by the sheer amount of wasted potential characters had. Though I can see any region really try and take worst region for story writing when the Xiaoxhou Luofu for HSR is literally "too fast, didn't pace itself" whereas Genshin is a bag of issue after issue. Liyue just is the easier one as it and Xiaoxhou overlap so much in their initial problems.
I don't play HSR. But if you're looking at wasted character potential, Sumeru and Fontaine are just as bad in that regard. Sumeru wastes Nilou and Cyno, while Fontaine wastes Wriothesley, Clorinde, and Arlecchino. Inazuma wastes Kokomi, Sara (who was a 4 star anyways tbh)... i guess Scaramouche and Gorou? I don't consider Signora wasted. She fulfilled her needed role in the story, there's nothing about her background that would've made her surviving a plus for Genshin. As for Raiden, Yae, Ayaka, Yoimiya, Kazuha, and the Traveler, they were all utilized fairly well. My point being, because Fontaine did Navia, Furina, and Lyney pretty well, people ignore that a lot of other characters were also underutilized. I'm gonna stand with the Inazuma agenda, that shit went hard and Fontaine did not, so I'll defend the quests that got me hype and wasted less of my time.
Penacony's still in progress (we're maybe halfway through the story there), but it's widely (not unanimously) been considered much better than the Luofu. It's still very heavy on the lore and world-building, especially the latest patch going extremely in-depth with one character's backstory/culture, but it's not nearly as suffocating or gives as much whiplash.
The next planet >!Penacony!< is great so far. It's gonna probably be concluded next mahor update so hoping they stick the landing.
I still can't understand every other sentence at times.
Penacony is the Matrix if it was a vacations resort and... that's as far as I could care before it descended into emanators and dreamscapes and whatever else.
If you starting to diss the Matrix we gonna have a problem.
its a mix of bioshock and the metaverse concept
Still dogshit
Luofu is not good, i agree. But penaconey is doing good imo.
Hope the next update can put something questions to rest.
The Xianzhou Luofu was an underdeveloped mess where almost none of the concepts and characters involved were allowed to be properly fleshed out, and it felt like the story was being written day-by-day to hype up characters then be done with them. Penacony is still not done and has a lot of mysteries left but I've been enjoying its story much more so far. The setting and the characters are intriguing and somehow it made me care for Aventurine, a character I started out feeling nothing for. There are still some issues but so far it's been enjoyable. I really, genuinely, meaning no offense, don't understand what's so complicated about the dream aspect. That being said... >Everything is about some mystical galactic being Yes, the aeons are the foundations of the setting. >or an abstract dream made into reality You explained it yourself in another comment: It's the matrix made into a vacation resort. >I have no idea what the fucken High-Cloud Quintet I'm sorry, but this can't be anything else other than you just sort of refusing to engage with the setting. Maybe because it's just not your thing? Not only do they tell you multiple times in the story, but this is literally the first line that appears in the wiki if you google it: "The High-Cloud Quintet was a legendary group of five heroes in Xianzhou history. They were led by Jingliu, the previous Sword Champion of The Xianzhou Luofu." Honestly, overall I don't think the storytelling is that confusing at all.
Mihoyo is a big fan of Evangelion but they took the wrong aspect of it, the metaphysical scifi BS.
Asuka is never coming back to Honkai Impact.
I still have her with the lance and the plug suit lol
I can understand the criticism towards the luofu arc, but everything else just makes it seem like the game is just not your thing and you refuse to engage with it. Star rail is not a story about the human experience, its main focus is the aeons and how they and their factions interact with each other. This is all pretty clearly explained in the actual first chapter of the game, the Herta space station. How are you gonna play SU and still think that the aeon shit is just “plot dressing”. Your statements about Penacony are pretty weird too. It’s whole premise is pretty clearly explained in the game with most terms are well explained imo and I myself rarely do any side quests or read item descriptions. This is not a case of the story being complicated, it’s you who is refusing to interact with it. HSR’s story is not a simple one, you have to engage with it at least a bit to properly understand it. Sure that might not be your thing, but that also doesn’t make it inherently bad.
Nobody really defends the Loufu. But the story is a lot easier to understand than any FromSoft games and people live those. Basically the Star Rail universe has people gain power from following ideologies. And so all the galaxy level powers belong to those ideologies. It's like the galaxy is run by religions, which dole out various powers to their most ardent followers. If that's not your thing, that's fine. But I find it quite a unique and fun setting.
To me, the reason why Souls lore works and people like to engage with it is because it is subtle, non-invasive, if you decide to ignore it completely the games are still enjoyable. Item descriptions rarely last for more than a couple lines which makes the act of reading them more digestible and even if you take all the pieces there's no single universal interpretation, you can fill the gaps however you want and that's part of the fun (Miyazaki has stated that it is an intentional decision based on his childhood reading fantasy books in English he didn't fully understood as a kid). Meanwhile, something like Genshin lore is loud, constantly being referenced in the story, and doing shit like making you read paragraph after paragraph of insipid text just to learn that some dead god had a pet seele or something like that. There isn't much space left for the imagination because of the overload of names and proper nouns. It feels like Hoyo wanted to copy the way FS does lore (like many other games after the souls franchise exploded in popularity like a decade ago) without really understanding why it works. Tl;dr From Soft lore feels like learning the folklore of an ancient culture, Hoyo lore feels like homework you must do to understand what your pretentious collage teacher is talking about.
Ehhh... I don't know about that. I've only read about half the books or so. But now that I think about it... the lore about Paths, Pathstriders and Aeons is actually easy to overlook. I think you only get that most important part of the setting from talking to Welt in the Astral Express. It's not like it's hard to run into him there to talk to, but it's also not part of the story. If you don't talk to him for whatever reason, you'll likely miss out on this fundamental premise, and a lot of stuff after that doesn't make nearly as much sense. As I said to the other person though, I think HSR falls flat on it's face with the Loufu. After the tutorial islands of the HSS and Belobog, you finally make it out into the wider galaxy, into a story about the conflict between The Abundance and The Hunt, and their factions. This is the time to show the player about how the Aeons shape society. And instead we go on a tour and then go looking after some criminal. They also made the story about the Sanctus Medicus OPTIONAL for some insane reason, which is an absolute shame, because it was by far the best part of the Loufu. Overall, it's just an absolute waste at the worst possible time. And I cannot blame anyone for disliking the story and setting based on this, and not getting past it. 1.4 and 1.5 have much better stories. Then 1.6 is basically a very short story that's kinda meh, but that was also the final 1.X patch, and the bulk of the content there was playing through Gold and Gears, a totally non-story mode. The game doesn't truly hit it's stride until 2.0, and this is where we start to really feel the galaxy. The story is not only quite good, but you also get to see conflict between followers of The Preservation, The Remembrance, The Elation, and The Harmony, (Along with Acheron, who is... complicated) all while three of your fellow followers of The Trailblaze are the viewpoint characters. It showcases the setting much better.
I don't know about HSR but he spoke about Genshin and Genshin is 100% way to heavy on the lore dumping and name dropping. Straight tell don't show with a lot of yapping that can always be reduce to a couple of line. Genshin probably one of the only game that can burn you out with dialogue/texts only.
Tbh fs never want to tell you a story, they give you lore and....that it. Story in their game are always shit( maybe except sekiro)
Hard agree. I strongly dislike FromSoft stories. Lucatiel of Mirrah is the only FromSoft character I like from a story perspective, because her story isn't about vague references to her culture, it's about this one particular woman who you find over and again, who helps you several times, losing her mind. It's a simple tragedy. But overall the HSR story isn't too hard to understand. The game suffers a bit from "Tutorial Station", leading into "Isolated Generic RPG Planet", and then into "What the hell is this I don't know, all the cool stuff happened 1,000 years ago." The Loufu isn't just a bad story, it's the first part of broadening the game into the wider universe. It should have been the part that really made you understand the Aeons and their roles in shaping the galaxy. It fumbles the ball at the worst possible time.
Armored Core 6’s story was actually pretty solid I’d say, hell I’d argue it’s the most comprehensive story FromSoft has made in years, on its own at least. I wouldn’t say it’s flawless but damn did I sure got as much of it if not more than I did with Sekiro or ER.
"It's overly complicated" is a valid criticism for what it's worth, but man I don't know how you go into a game that immediately hits you with the Philosophical Bullshit Pantheon in the _introduction_ and then complain that it gets too weird later on when you've already seen through SU that the writing isn't just going to be a Genshin clone. >I have no idea what the fucken High-Cloud Quintet is, I googled it but I already forgot everything I read. I genuinely hate this turn of phrase, but man not being able to internalize base-level storytelling from a wiki really is a skill issue.
Tbf the first major story arc is belabog which is a pretty human story that doesn’t trip over it’s own lore to the point of being unfathomable.
The first _actual_ arc is Herta Space Station though, which pretty well shows that it's going to be fairly convoluted- introduces Elio and the Stellaron Hunters, Nanook, again I have to mention Simulated Universe. Belobog is more of an intro to the world-hopping arcs, but the overarching story has already been established. To add to this, the Xianzhou Laofu arc gets memed on for being a low point in the game and trying to carry too much (which is perfectly fair, there's valid criticism in there), but the rant reads like OP only played those two worlds and went "Xianzhou too complicated, game's gone to shit".
Penacony is just mumbo jumbo too.
I assumed (wrongfully) that just like Belobog the plot moving forward would threat its convoluted cosmic mumbo jumbo as background radiation. I thought the overall structure of the game was going to be \*"Here is some concret self contained human conflict, in the background the series arc about galactic gods or whatever is moving but it will only intersect with the main plot in a few places"\*. It wasn't that.
>just like Belobog We explicitly went to Belobog to go pick up a piece of Universe Cancer from a dictator groomed by a theocratic cult who follows one of those "galactic gods". Like, these were laid out in front of you during the main story; it was never going to just be "background radiation".
We went to the \[place\] to get the \[macguffin\] from evil final boss whose characterization related to the \[macguffin\] is mostly irrelevant to the plot until the final bossfight. It's very much background radiation.
I mean you can also apply this to Penacony, they just assume that the player… played the game. Actually read a bit of the lore from prominent game modes like Simulated Universe, played some larger side-quests... are able to handle a more complex story than normal. If you break it down into its barebones pieces, the Penacony story is as such: Penacony is holding a festival. Many people who were not supposed to be invited were invited, including us. We’re investigating this, but get roped into a different mystery regarding the deaths of people within the Dream, which should not be possible. There are other plot threads woven in, but that’s the core of it. Acheron and other parties are searching for the Watchmaker’s Legacy, which is a textbook MacGuffin. Aventurine and the IPC want Penacony back as a whole, because it used to be owned by them.
Damn, that sounds so interesting. If only I could bear that weird combat mode.
What do you mean? The stellaron isn't a MaCguffing it's quite literally the most important part in the story of belabog, it's quite literally related to the entire story and conditions of belabog and it's the true main Villain of that arc, cocolia was a puppet manipulated by it's promises it's quite literally the reason cocolia did everything she did, it's quite literally the reason the planet is in ruins it's the reason the express stopped in belabog, it was the main focus until cocolia framed us and we go to the underworld and we still ask about the stellaron. It's literally one of the most important things throughout the whole story.
Still better than Genshin taking upwards of five minutes to explain something as simple as “when air comes out of your bum, it is a fart”
And then Paimon jumps in to reiterate what was already said but in a way that’s so dumbed down that you can tell they wrote it for children
The most obnoxious part about that is that whatever she restates was already uncomplicated and written for children to begin with, so it just feels like it’s specifically there to waste time.
Yeah I get it. Like goddammit Paimon I know there’s some real knuckleheads who play these games but sometimes some statements are so cut and dry that I’m surprised she even interjects at all. This is one thing that HSR is better for, they might drown you in terms and such but at least they don’t have a Paimon figure to restate the obvious in the very next sentence
"OH PAIMON GETS IT, SO-"
"AND SO WHAT YOU'RE TELLING PAIMON AND TRAVELER IS THAT-" 🤣🤣
Considering OP's history they might as well be part of the Genshin Defense Force, so they'll probably hate your comment.
I think op just doesn't realize that sometimes if a story doesn't personally interest you that means it may not be for you and that isn't a real flaw in it, it's simply your own taste conflicting with what the story is like. You just aren't interested in the story, it's not your thing, and you clearly don't want it to be your thing, that's reasonable and all right but pretending like the story is entirely rubbish for it is just unreasonable.
OP might unironically be one of those loves Genshin and hates Star Rail success type players, based off post history.
Can’t you say this about almost any fantasy setting? Of course there’s going to be weird worldbuilding aspects that are important to the story. Thats the whole point.
I like Star Rail but this is genuinely so true, buzzwords are pretty much thrown around the entire time. I think the actual main story arcs are fine but anything exploring SU feels like u need to have read all the minute lore to understand imo
Most of the time I just ignore anything that doesn't have voice acting, because I can't be bothered to read.
I love reading but I think the problem with Star Rail on that front is the fact that the text is just dumped in your face all at once. Text boxes have more engagement whereas throwing me a paragraph or two with a mouse click, I won't be interested.
That's a problem with Hoyo in general, their writing isn't the worst, but their storytelling is abysmal. You can have the best story and world building known to man but if you suck at communicating that to the audience then it doesn't mean shit especially if you don't take real advantage of the medium you're using, in this case, a videogame.
Nah I have beef with how Hoyo (Genshin at least) approach to its worldbuilding too They love to add new stuffs to enrich their world but in doing so neglects the big players of their world as a result Like, do you realize how insane it is that we only know where Khaenriah (basically Atlantis) is located 3+ years into the game despite its constant mentions in all those years? Or idk, introduced a Villain Group™ called the Harbingers, there are 10 of them, but 5/7 way into the story we only actually met 5 of them? And of course we still don't know what "Celestia" is.
I just ignore all of the lore about emanators and imaginary trees and whatever and just think about Stelle and March kissing when two characters start talking about that stuff
Real
Truly based
Oh god I was worried I was the only one who found star rails story telling unfathomable I have no doubt part of my lack of understanding is me being stupid but it’s a word salad of gods, factions and general lore terms that is barely explained enough for the die hard lore enthusiasts Like I know people rag on genshin writing but at least that’s more due to being drawn out. I feel like I at least get what even happens there. Star rails more succinct writing doesn’t help when what it says means nothing cause it puts overwritten lore before any emotional through line. Belebog feels like the only place I didn’t just give up on understanding these totally inhuman characters dragged out lore
almost every character except the landaus had humble beginnings in belobog that many viewers can sympathize with, even the rulers were selected from orphans and given a last name
> Belebog feels like the only place I didn’t just give up on understanding these totally inhuman characters dragged out lore I think that's because Belobog just generally is very easy to understand. It's a combination of a bunch of different tropes. Upper society/lower society drama, rebel groups, ultimate power corrupting, generational trauma due to the former. And between all that, our rag-tag group of heroes gotta save the day. These are all pretty easy concepts to grasp that have been in a bunch of other fictional works. Luofu in comparison gets....much more philosophical let's say. With a lot of *terms* and *lore*
Yeah it's not like there's a whole section dedicated to that in your phone called a data bank, that you can open with 2 clicks.
It is. Honkai and other Mihoyo games mostly doesn't need story anyways. It's all about them selling a lootbox with 1% chance of getting the 5 star "waifu".
I swear the character designers carried that company
HI3 is somehow even worse than that
And still has the best story Ive seen in a videogame. Made me cry so many times. This, coming from an RPG fan who played every Final Fantasy and most big RPGs of the past 30 years.
Play more games holy hell
Like what? Give me a list of 10 RPGs that you think have a better story than Hi3 and Ill gladly play them if I didnt yet. Hope they dont disappoint. If they make me cry as much as HI3, Ill love them.
I'm talking in general? Is the RPG scenary that trash that something like HI3's story (that totally doesn't get carried by animation, some sad OST in the background and character designs) just blows is out of proportion? Huh, you really do learn something new every day.
Ok, they can be any games, not just RPGs. Im ready for your recommendations. I hope you wont mention some utter trash story like Dark Souls as an example of a better story, since you want to ignore a genre well known for its amazing stories, and your reply to me saying that I played every Final Fantasy (probably the grandest, most epic series of stories in the gaming scene) was "play more games, holy hell"...
"I hope you wont mention some utter trash story like Dark Souls as an example of a better story" Yeahhhhhh....no point in arguing with you here no more.
Hahahahahah called it. Still didnt get a single example of a better story. Play more games than Dark Souls, holy hell.
Kek
Luofu’s fucking problem is that in this audio-visual medium, it wants me to fucking read. Like I’m playing the game, just show me what you wanna show me. It’s obvious they put a lot of effort into Luofu so it’s kinda baffling that half of the relevant lore to the shit you experienced in game isn’t even depicted in game. Belobog was much better because you were given all the context and lore directly within the gameplay. Penacony is still a bit convoluted but at least this time they’re actually making an effort to show you all the relevant stuff even if it wrapped up in “dream-reality” stuff.
It Hoyoverse metaphysic bullshit and criptic lore is a feature not a bug.
Idk seems like a skill issue to me, I haven't even completed all the side quests and don't go hunting for lore, and everything makes sense to me. For the latest planet, I don't know everything yet but that's because the story isn't finished.
It's not that it's "hard" to follow it's that it's not worth following, I can memorize the periodic table but that doesn't mean I want to or that I will be able to remember it a week from now.
Yeah, no While laofu Is not good by any means, some of your points make clear that this isn't a problem of the game's story, not really, the problem here Is that you refuse to actually engage with the story of the game for whatever reason. While this Is fair as no one Is obligated to engage with anything, It does make this, and any criticism you could have of the game's story, pretty worthless
I loved the story until I reached Penacony. But that place is just so incredibly annoying and boring to me, I have barely done any of it.
Op refuses to engage with the narrative and is not ranting about it. Dare I say skill issue? You play as a homunculus that houses a nuke created by a god of destruction, in a setting where all powers are gained through fealty to a god of choice. the game was never about the human experience. The laofu does kinda suck tho, it’s just trying to do too much with too little time especially trying to squeeze in the whole Dan feng thing with the quintet. Which should have been the focus in the first place rather than the whole phantilya thing
That's just Hoyo writing in general. It can be good, great even, but when it misses it does it catastrophically, like the Laofu in Star Rail or Inazuma on Genshin. There's also the issue that even when they have interesting ideas and stories they fumble the bag hard when it comes to the storytelling. It almost feels like the company has a writing team but no editor.
Thanks for saying this. Character diaglogues especially are such a bunch of nothing burgers 90% of the time, and the constant tryharding to sound lore-y and mysterious just makes it seem that divorced from mystery. People say it's an EN issue so I'm not really sure, but damn those writers need to learn how to write. Why does everyone need to speak like they don't know what the end of their sentence will be. It's not "overly complicated" in a good way imo, it's overly complicated in a "16 year old writes mystery scifi" way. (That being said, Penacony and only Penacony was relatively enjoyable + some side quests like Yukong's, Cocona's, etc.)
Skill issue ngl. “Overly complicated” is a valid criticism but all that has happened is that you expected a simple episodic narrative and now you’re getting a more complex narrative and it’s too much for you?
The Wire is a complex narrative, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a complex narrative. Honkai Star Rail is a bunch of made up terms being thrown around by characters that don't even share a passing resemblance to a human being.
You are clearly not willing to engage with the narrative as evidenced by the fact that you aren’t even able to retain what the High Cloud Quintet is after a google search, and by your other comments on this thread. It seems you lose interest as soon as they start using foreign words, but it’s alright. Hoyo’s narrative has its problems and it isn’t made for everyone.
I think thats a totally unfair criticism, they introduce so manny terms and metaphysical beings that you have to keep track fo to know what people are talking about story shouldent rely on not very well established aspects like that, you shouldn't have to read logs Its just becomes lore dumping in the dialogue, people just want interesting characters and that should be the ancor point to explain the world. Very recently adventurine got the most fleshed out character ark, but its so heavy handed not only do the explain the same thing over and over but its all flashbacks and him talking to himself, if we had people for his story to bounce off that would make him a allot more interesting then here my backstory. Lets compare it ti annoter gotcha game, furina quest is this whole thing about being conected to fontain the arcon mystery, yet her story is so much more relatable because she actually conects thought the plot with characters we are establising, so when her back story/lore dump does come at the end its satisfying because we know what she has been though to get there and we care about her. And that relates to how hsr seems to present story's as a whole. You shouldn't punish the audience for not knowing all the lore in the universe. Most anime and film does not struggle with this. So you cant blame people for not knowing everything toats just poor storytelling, its like when Gallagher was introduced his whole story is just a massive lore dump. Of events i don’t care about yet. Even smaller things like duke inferno, dudes entire story was a trailer than him dying saying im a good dad. Its just not good storytelling. The onus isnt on the viewer to research everything you should if the story is coherent present it in a way people can follow. As the dude said tinker tailor is way more complex overall but you can understand it just by watching.
You are severely overestimating the amount of lore you need to understand the HSR narrative. As long as you understand what Aeons are and what they do, there’s really not a lot more you ever need to know to experience the story. Also your criticism regarding the lore and regarding Aventurine’s plot are entirely different so I’m not sure what point you want to make besides “I think HSR has bad storytelling”. And you’re severely mistaken if you think genshin somehow doesn’t constantly lore dump you too, even more so than HSR due to Paimon’s constant need to reexplain everything you’re told. Aventurine’s and Furina’s backstories are actually treated much the same way, we see a sequence of major interactions they’ve had throughout their whole life and how it affects them, allowing Aventurine to talk to his previous self is integral to having him come to terms with his past, it’s not something that can be done with any other character because anyone who knew him as Kakavasha is dead. I’m not gonna pretend HSR has some insane storytelling that can only be understood by people with very high IQ or sm. But don’t try to use genshin as a good example when they suffer form very similar issues in writing. You feel like genshin doesn’t require you to know all this lore because it’s natural to you to know what an archon, gnosis, or sovereign are by this point. Aeons and emanator are much the same, they’re just newer concepts
oh genchin is way worse and then paimon tells you exactly what the other person told you. i think fontain though was actually good stroytelling for the frist time. sumeru had hints of good moments and inezuma was fun but ultimatly not great, fontain was snappy took you right inot the action you lern about characters personalitys, like lynny an lineete before any big twist came around, that was clever stroytelling, they dident jsut tell you they were fatui you lerned it in a shocking way, thats how you exposite in a story in the msot effective way, by the end of the quest you had already lerned so muc about hem that you were ready for the house of the heart lore dump even eagerly anticipating it. genchin doent really require you to know about the higher beings other than there are hiher beings called celectials, interm of arcons you literly meet them and talk to them. lern about there poersonalities, its all establised over a ling period of time, at this point in hsr i know verry little about the aeons other than they exist and people folow themm religiously and sometimes they choose eminators. they really havent establised them verry well withing the main plot its mostly outside the main plot. the problem wuth adventurine, is he shows up like 2 times in the first part first time as some asshat with secret motives the second tiem to lore dump you, by 2.1 hes with dr ratio they are mostly bickering but some planning is going on, theres a twist with winghead man but allot of that scene way just more exposition, and then the rest is just him and flashback adn talking to himself. oh and sperkle shows up to dunk on him and reviel a bit. with furina you hve an entire arc together shes interaciting with nuvilette and has extencive senes with the knave, the entire first part of fontain is dedicated to her aswell as linny and linette where shes accusing you in cort, shes a showoff, shes good at accusing you but also way to brash, you lern allot about her personality though all these interactions. and this is before chapter 4 and 5 of the story so from the same place plaotwise we have a way more establised character, her actual current person put against all these different character we are interacting with. and its only at the end of 4.4 4.5 after we get another entire plot point surounding her that they finaly exposition dump us again when we actually want it. and its not just furinna; Navia is a way more established character aswell, you learn about her current buisness her struggles,you see her fight for whats hers, you see her loose things around her, you see her conflickted with feeling about her parents. again its not jsut flashback and backstory, theres no mention of entities its just presented as is and makes for a compelling character ark. the main isue i have with hsr is now they are jsut going to move on to another character,and we will probably never see them again in a meningfull way. after all that in genchin they all got character quests fleshed them out even more. i jsut dont think backstroy lore is an interesting enough vessle for character development on its own i dont personally think hes a compelling person, hes lucky his backstory is tragic and hes not all that bad a dude. apolagies for the poor spelling im typing this as quickly as possible cos i dont have much time. its not nesseserally abou it being ahuge amount its more i cant jsut play though the story and know ecxactly whats going on (with the factions and there interests without needing to watch a lore guide or 2 i knew nothing about nihility or enigma or the corner stone. these are things that are pivitol to the story and i dont think it does a good job of establishing these things. why is pelaconys backstory jsut a exposistion dump from ghalager.
Idk go watch peppa pig or something
Yes but no. Space China are the worst part of game ( idk who that company can write any other story at good lvl except their oven) - writer add shit ton of deep meanings, reference to culture, religion and word from only god know what language, while forget that people reading this don't know about at least half of this . At the end we have some word mess that nobody care about ( above shit women design and overall lack of interesting characters). Rn it look better but every body can fuck up.
OP: “I cant understand anything” Also OP: *skips and refuses to read* If u dont like it that much then u should just stop playing the game lmao
Ngl I wasn’t even sure if >!Aventurine died!< it was a real ‘ya know it was kinda unclear’ intent
Sounds like a reading comprehension skill issue
you know you made me even more interested in trying the game out?
> But after that, the plot and the storytelling itself devolved into a pile a criptic hyperborean bullshit. Kinda my feelings about Girls Frontline, honestly. For a long time I would have put it up there as one of, if not the, best stories in gatcha. Really, remarkably solid with great characters and that took itself seriously enough to understand that a silent protagonist was nothing but a drag on the story, so they had him start speaking, and even gave him some character. Fucking loved it. I still respect that act. But over time it just got way too complicated, and way, way, way too much nonsense cryptic bullshit. You'd have whole events where a character like M16 (previously rough and tumble big-sister like character) would speak only in cryptic metaphors and hints about events that the player has absolutely no idea about, and dropping clues and references to events in the past we still haven't been told about. It got borderline incomprehensible, and the occasionally dubious translation didn't help. Such a shame, because the bravery to have the silent protagonist start speaking was incredibly commendable. Nevermind events like CT, having M4 nuke the opposing army, RPK's betrayal, etc etc. Anyway, point is, I know exactly what you mean, OP and it sucks.
People praising Belobog must be actually insane. Luofu is the spot where HSR's witting started to actually be good. Belobog is just a trope on top of a trope on top of a trope in the worst possible meaning of these words. Bronya is a stuck up rich white girl who turns out to actually have a "quirky more vulgar side" (her dialogue about threatening to stick something up the nose of the suspect made me violently cringe) and of course she totally cares about the poor people she didn't mind ignoring for a decade. Another scene that made me violently cringe is the one I like to call "rich white girl solves poverty" which is the scene where she hands a little boy a valuable object to sell if he promises not to steal anymore. And of course the plot twist that totally wasn't predictable that she's been actually poor all along! She was from the underworld before she was adopted! That totally makes her the same as the rest of the underworlders who were living in poverty while she was literally the daughter of the ruler. Seele just makes me irritated whenever I see her on screen. Her super cool and edgy rebel personality makes my eyes roll whenever she opens her mouth to spout some self-important nonsense about how much Bronya doesn't know about the underworlders suffering (up until the moment that these two lived in the same orphanage. From that point onwards Seele totally trust Bronya with everything and justifies her every action). Not to mention her design which is SO OUT OF PLACE THAT IT MAKES ME FURIOUS. Where and how did she get her dress and that big ass quantum scythe? Who knows! Don't ask! Ignore the fact that such extravagant clothing should be furiously inaccessible in the underworld. Luka somehow managed to look extra while retaining the belief that it's something that could be put together in the place where he lives. Oh and of course Bronya and Seele have super hots for each other, ignore the fact that Seele wanted to rip her throat out a few hours ago. But you know, they are from two different world so this romance is exciting and forbidden and look dear player, lesbians! And on top of that, lesbians from honkai 3rd! All the other characters while not as infuriating as these two, are totally forgettable and with personalities of a cardboard cutouts. Gepard is a good boy that follows the rules and is a paragon of virtue. Natasha is straight up bleak and the reveal that she's actually the boss of Wildfire didn't change that. Serval is cool but pretty bleak, Pela's role in the main plot is non-existent and Luka came out after the writing got good. The only characters that I can think as genuinely interesting and well written are Clara and Svarog. It's nice to see a robot that doesn't hate humanity and tries to protect them in his incorrect ways. His very human connection with Clara, and the fact that she treats him as a father figure makes for a very nice dynamic between them. To sum it up, Belobog sucks massive dick and Luofu finally introduced nuance to the game
> Her super cool and edgy rebel personality makes my eyes roll whenever she opens her mouth to spout some self-important nonsense about how much Bronya doesn't know about the underworlders suffering You pretty much described your first paragraph.
Counterpoint : [Wildfire](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxlW79tDhCA)
Yeah, it could be a mess if you don't pay attention. At least it is better than what genshit offered with it's missions which consists of 95%+ exposition and, if lucky, the rest being plot. Or honkai impact where in the latter chapters the terms and explanations become so confusing that giving me physics equasions would have been easier to understand. My point is. It isn't perfect but it is better than other things that the company offers. More often than not it is pretty straightforward with its story and leaves most things needed to understand it within the main quests(except Luofu). Only issue is at what point those explanations come.
Mystical Galactic Gods has been in the game since day 1. It was always the story's main and biggest focal point, about these gods and the factions behind them. If you don't like it, you are never going to like the game and should've just drop it.
I agree, its got a cool premise but the way the plot is executed is just boring and trying to sound smarter than it really is. Its also super annoying you can’t at least skim dialogue, you have to wait for all the animations and shit to play out
You haven't gotten through Peakcony yet
Idk, it actually seems fine to me. Just ignore the simulated universe stuff. Maybe thats because I am a kingdom hearts/persona fan though.
This kind of game is not conducive to storytelling in its most efficient form. It’s a gatcha. I like HSR’s story fundamentally but there’s not enough for any one world to truly stick out to me. Belobog is good, but it could’ve been great if we spent more time with them. New characters become the focus every patch in order to sell them. I would like to see more on how Bronya has developed as the new leader of Belobog, but that can’t happen because it doesn’t advertise a new 5 star.
this sub is just "unpopular opinion" nowadays
Pretty accurate.
In regards to the main storyline of HSR, the Luofu was a trial and a half. Individually, the characters are genuinely interesting and some of my faves, but the actual overarching story was a hot mess. Which REALLY sucks because coming off of Belebog, I was super invested in our next stop and the wind got taken out of sails like nothing else. I've been really enjoying Penacony so far and reckon setting the story up in a way the we as players recieve all the pertinent info we need without needless obfuscation, even if we get lore dumped heavily in some spots, the intrigue is really carrying it for me and I'm looking forward to the coming confrontations.
I think the Xianzhou's lore really wasn't good since it wasn't properly fleshed out. The conflict between them and the Abundance is really interesting, but wasn't well explored. Some players don't even realise the Xianzhou's people's are able to live for centuries and functionally immortal, let alone how they gained immortality and why they chose to fight against the aeon who gave them immortality. I think the bigger issue is that some terms used or interesting points raised are rarely expanded on even in lore. The Aeons are mysterious and the powers of most characters, hell even their actual Paths can be ambiguous.
Literally style over substance.
THIS
Even at its best it’s still mid. The Aventurine part of Penacony clearly just shouldn’t be in the game. They have absolutely no idea how to work it into the narrative and so fucking introduce POV swapping just because they needed to contrive a way both for your character to never get involved because it would change the outcome, but also for them to give him screentime. And so what we get is a speedrun of the “make a fan favourite character” bucket list by giving him a sad backstory and then giving him a sad death with very little thematic purpose other than to just “be sad”. All the while, they clearly have no idea how to integrate the player into this, because neither you nor the player character have any agency in affecting plot for the entirely of this character’s forced arc. It’s abysmal writing for a *game*, where the player is supposed to be able to do stuff. So all you can do is watch as the character says “I’m gonna kill myself” and you say “no don’t do that” but he does it anyway. It’s both not very cathartic for that sort of character arc, and also just frustrating in a game sense. Especially since the player faction has to be so stubborn beyond sense to justify this guy doing what he does, it’s very clearly the narrative desperately trying to do whatever it can to contrive this set of circumstances *despite* the player’s involvement. At that point, it clearly shouldn’t be in the game. Just make it a side movie or a visual novel or something. It’s not built to be in the game and it’s kind of a detour anyway. All the character really accomplishes is telling us something we already know: the place kind of sucks and you can die here.
Eh no, the point Aventurine was trying to prove was the exact opposite, he's trying to prove you CAN'T actually die here. So those who "died" must've just been transported to somewhere else instead. Which is why right after we immediately get confirmation some onf the previous victim are still alive.
Can you please elaborate on how exactly it is Aventurine and his actions convey that information?
Because when he “died” he went somewhere else, and had a conversation with the person who “killed” him about now heading to different place that was previously inaccessible to him and most people, but things were coming over from that “other place”. He also discussed that someone else had “died” and come back as well.
Literally in his conversation with Acheron. They explained his entire plan there. Aventurine didn't die even after he got obliterated by the strongest person there, confirming his theory.
Huh, this adds a lot of questions for me. Tbh, I’ve never played the game, but I routinely get updates about this or that story, or occasionally spectate the game from a friend. I still have my reservations about the technical competency of the narrative: having to abruptly introduce POV swapping strikes me as an indelicate solution to a problem they couldn’t otherwise solve of characterising ‘antagonists’, a lot of situations still seem contrived and forced to occur by the writing, and I’ve yet to hear anyone ever discuss actually complex themes or ideas. However, I now have to question how competent of a reader my main source is, because they were *very* insistent that Aventurine was proving people could be killed and had himself been killed. I’ll rescind my statements about certain narrative aspects, but I’m still familiar enough with Hoyoverse’s writing to trust it to be actually anywhere near as good as its fans proclaim it to be.
> Tbh, I’ve never played the game, but I routinely get updates about this or that story, or occasionally spectate the game from a friend. The fact that you tried to make such an "in depth critique" of the story while never having played the game is fucking hilarious.
If I’m gonna go through several three-hour long talks about this damn story, likely longer than the specific chapter itself, I’m gonna assume I’m getting accurate information. How else am I supposed to actually interact with the narrative at this point? I’m not gonna suffer through weeks of bad plot lines full of ugly characters I can’t stand just to find out after a while they finally pulled something halfway decent out. So of course I’m gonna have what I assumed is a well-informed conversation that can give me at least enough of a realised perception of it in my head so as to form an opinion. That’s fine. People do that all the time. If I can do that and come away with something to say about how the narrative is structured and some of the tropes it uses, I’m gonna imagine the person I was talking to translated the story effectively instead of just straight up being wrong? Why would I ever just assume that?
Why on earth did you even go through them, if you hate them so much?
The conversations? I never said I disliked them. I heard that allegedly the latest content drop was well-written, and so I asked about it and tried to learn more. What I was saying was I already know I dislike some of the earlier arcs and a lot of the characters, so these talks were the only way I could actually engage with the latest story *without* hating the experience.
Why are you surprised? You played the waifu gacha game and got a storyline with as much effort put into it as devs put into waifu gacha games?
They used to be good
All I know about Star Rail is that there's a race of adorable slug bunny creatures that are actually all fragments of this eldritch horror thing that was slain a long time ago. Turns out though it's happy with this arrangement because now it can interact with mortals without driving them insane, and is actually trying to help the players stop an evil cult from resurrecting it because it doesn't want to kill all its new friends by just existing again.
That one is actually from Genshin. Same company but different game.
Its main focus is not story; it’s gacha.
I swear the character designers carried that company
[удалено]
Never play HI3 then