Honkai Impact 3rd: Part 1.5 - Dance of Life and Death
released on Apr 06, 2023
An episode of Honkai Impact 3rd
Dance of Life and Death is part 1.5 of HoYoverse's Honkai Impact 3rd. It follows Seele Vollerei and Fu Hua in the aftermath of Project Stigma as a powerful new threat emerges and reveals the fate of a long forgotten Previous Era Project. Dance of Life and Death spans 7 Main Story Chapters.
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Quite underrated, Fu Hua & Seele are the two best possibly characters they could turn into a protagonist.
At the Fingertip of the Sea (Ch. 36-39) was mostly a good run despite its long length, did wonder as a payoff to Seele's character arc that has been built up through From the Deep Ocean & Remaining Flames, the most deeply explored introspective character study the game ever been since Taixuan Dream with the arc centerpiece character and a sublime set up to a new antagonist later on.
Senti stole every scenes she's in, having her forming a connection with Seele to humanizing both of them was also a great decision, the arc was much more engaging throughout with how their chemistry being nicely spot on.
Beyond the Stars (Ch. 40-42) in my opinion, up there among the best in the game with a consistently strong stages and a multitude of suspense going on paced immaculately, the mystery investigations/battle of wits narrative serving as a genuinely fresh approach for the game arc, resolving some unanswered plot points leftover from part 1 and establishing a great interactions between Fu Hua and the supporting cast in such an endearing sibling relationship throughout.
Fu Hua's growth and personality likewise, built upon her part 1 progression impeccably well. Not only there's a nuance in how her personality changed but how the Vitas personifying each of her characteristic trait & simutaneously contributing to reinforced her growth was a great touch. In addiction, the arc improved the side story exquisitely here, they're a delight mini investigations that exploring more of an intimate interactions between the cast which cooperates in unison with the main story substantially. As well as possibly the best boss fight in the game with how they nailed every designs of Sa, the environment, the music and these quirky utilization of all Fu Hua battlesuits. The rainbow road and flying gimmicks just the cherry on the top.
The presentation was better than ever here and I adore how animated everything about the part is as well. The models not only more expressive here but got a fairly minimal of a static standing conversation, instead more of a body language with how they utilizing a new camera angles, jump cuts and fade.
At the Fingertip of the Sea (Ch. 36-39) was mostly a good run despite its long length, did wonder as a payoff to Seele's character arc that has been built up through From the Deep Ocean & Remaining Flames, the most deeply explored introspective character study the game ever been since Taixuan Dream with the arc centerpiece character and a sublime set up to a new antagonist later on.
Senti stole every scenes she's in, having her forming a connection with Seele to humanizing both of them was also a great decision, the arc was much more engaging throughout with how their chemistry being nicely spot on.
Beyond the Stars (Ch. 40-42) in my opinion, up there among the best in the game with a consistently strong stages and a multitude of suspense going on paced immaculately, the mystery investigations/battle of wits narrative serving as a genuinely fresh approach for the game arc, resolving some unanswered plot points leftover from part 1 and establishing a great interactions between Fu Hua and the supporting cast in such an endearing sibling relationship throughout.
Fu Hua's growth and personality likewise, built upon her part 1 progression impeccably well. Not only there's a nuance in how her personality changed but how the Vitas personifying each of her characteristic trait & simutaneously contributing to reinforced her growth was a great touch. In addiction, the arc improved the side story exquisitely here, they're a delight mini investigations that exploring more of an intimate interactions between the cast which cooperates in unison with the main story substantially. As well as possibly the best boss fight in the game with how they nailed every designs of Sa, the environment, the music and these quirky utilization of all Fu Hua battlesuits. The rainbow road and flying gimmicks just the cherry on the top.
The presentation was better than ever here and I adore how animated everything about the part is as well. The models not only more expressive here but got a fairly minimal of a static standing conversation, instead more of a body language with how they utilizing a new camera angles, jump cuts and fade.
I really failed to connect with most of Part 1.5. It definitely pales in comparison to part 1 for many of reasons and with my doubts and concerns of the upcoming part 2, it definitely didn't leave me w/ many reassurances either. Seele's portion of 1.5 was nothing special to me, found it to be a lot of dross with pacing that did not fit me at all. Only really enjoyed the Senti portions, and didn't care much for Seele and Vita and the rest until towards the very end. The Fu Hua portion are marginally better with the first chapter (40) giving a pretty good start in my opinion and giving me something to look towards. Then 41 didn't deliver it for me, some pacing issues and the small vitas, Phosphorus, and Moriarty especially did not peak my interest then. 42 did give me some things I liked tho and enjoyed that part also. Griseo and Fu Hua during that were good, includes probably one of the best bosses in the game, then the epilogue of everyone from part 1 conversing was a nice little touch at the end and kind of sort of felt like a farewell to part 1. 1.5 didn't lead much into part 2 which I found a bit odd but thats whatever as I mentioned earlier, I am not excited about that at all and would like to do anything possible to separate part 1 and 2 as much as I can, but this isn't a doompost review. In summary, 1.5 was a little bit of a story of 2 halves, Seele's not being all that great while Hua's was definitely something that I enjoyed a decent amount
Compared to part 1, i'd say this was bad, but it wasn't ALL bad, as a game it was actually more entertaining, more fighting and less going around doing nothing, but the story left a bit to be desired, not on terms of what it actually told, but on how it was told, i felt like i always got confused over some very minor stuff and had to go back just to understand basic things, and it really dialed down my enjoyment of the second arc, the first arc didn't have those problems, but i simply didn't connect with it as well as i did with part 1 in general, although it was still very good! seele and fu hua are definitely the characters that deserved a whole arc for themselves, and this achieves that rather nicely, and is also in general a good holdover for part 2's release, which is soon!