"If you had grasped the journey’s finale right from its inception, would you still embark on this journey?”
“I would blaze a trail without hesitation.”
It's official. Penacony has the best story arc in Star Rail to date. After a little over a year of updates, the finale to this section showcases some of the game’s best moments. But it also underlines the strain that a genuinely creative story can be put under when it has to exist inside a gacha game with built-in hype cycles to get as much money as possible out of its player base.
But first, the good: as invested as I was in seeing how the story would play out by the time this patch released, everything was so convoluted that I wasn't sure if the writing could stick the landing. That much I didn't need to be concerned about - for all the floating plot threads in this arc, the conclusion is the most satisfying part. A side character I'd wondered about ended up playing a big role in the resolution, my questions about "death" were answered, and the Trailblazer gets to hit the real villain with a giant train. On that note, I liked that the final boss fight had more strategy to take into account - I usually brute force my way through the story fights, so having to replay a few times to figure out the boss gimmick was a nice change of pace. Additionally, as someone who builds teams based around weakness breaks, the new Trailblazer path is a welcome addition to the roster.
Now for the not so great - despite all the hype and marketing surrounding Robin and Boothill, they're barely in the story. Robin's part is more defined by how other characters discuss her than by the actions she takes in the final hour. Boothill comes across as more of a comedy relief character, but I do hope that the last scene of this patch means that he'll have a larger role in the epilogue. I would have loved to see more of both of them, but because of the way the story turned out, that wasn't possible. However, new story patch means new banners, which means they're hyped up in marketing regardless. I know that it's unrealistic to expect what happened with Aventurine's character arc to occur with every new character, but after getting a taste of what this writing team is capable of, is it wrong to feel a little disappointed?
All of this said, I'm more hooked on the promise of Star Rail's story than I've ever been, especially after the disappointing lows of the Xianzhou Luofu’s finale. I'd like to believe that it's all up from here, but time will only tell if Penacony is the start of a new standard or a high bar that the player base can only hope that the team can clear again.
“I would blaze a trail without hesitation.”
It's official. Penacony has the best story arc in Star Rail to date. After a little over a year of updates, the finale to this section showcases some of the game’s best moments. But it also underlines the strain that a genuinely creative story can be put under when it has to exist inside a gacha game with built-in hype cycles to get as much money as possible out of its player base.
But first, the good: as invested as I was in seeing how the story would play out by the time this patch released, everything was so convoluted that I wasn't sure if the writing could stick the landing. That much I didn't need to be concerned about - for all the floating plot threads in this arc, the conclusion is the most satisfying part. A side character I'd wondered about ended up playing a big role in the resolution, my questions about "death" were answered, and the Trailblazer gets to hit the real villain with a giant train. On that note, I liked that the final boss fight had more strategy to take into account - I usually brute force my way through the story fights, so having to replay a few times to figure out the boss gimmick was a nice change of pace. Additionally, as someone who builds teams based around weakness breaks, the new Trailblazer path is a welcome addition to the roster.
Now for the not so great - despite all the hype and marketing surrounding Robin and Boothill, they're barely in the story. Robin's part is more defined by how other characters discuss her than by the actions she takes in the final hour. Boothill comes across as more of a comedy relief character, but I do hope that the last scene of this patch means that he'll have a larger role in the epilogue. I would have loved to see more of both of them, but because of the way the story turned out, that wasn't possible. However, new story patch means new banners, which means they're hyped up in marketing regardless. I know that it's unrealistic to expect what happened with Aventurine's character arc to occur with every new character, but after getting a taste of what this writing team is capable of, is it wrong to feel a little disappointed?
All of this said, I'm more hooked on the promise of Star Rail's story than I've ever been, especially after the disappointing lows of the Xianzhou Luofu’s finale. I'd like to believe that it's all up from here, but time will only tell if Penacony is the start of a new standard or a high bar that the player base can only hope that the team can clear again.
peak
I never thought I'd call a gacha game decent but here we are.......
Close to no gameplay/exploration/fights, just characters yapping nonsense for 90% of the time, underwhelming resolutions to key story points, loose ends, deus ex machina and plot holes. Awful conclusion to the Penacony arc, which started very strong.
every single patch is peak . man i love this game
peak
"If you had grasped the journey’s finale right from its inception, would you still embark on this journey?"
Another great continuance and a good ending to what is my now my favorite arc in HSR. They stretched things out a bit too much in the middle of this one, but the ending was one that gave me the same feelings that I got when I finished Belobog. I love this place.
Another great continuance and a good ending to what is my now my favorite arc in HSR. They stretched things out a bit too much in the middle of this one, but the ending was one that gave me the same feelings that I got when I finished Belobog. I love this place.
This review contains spoilers
With Penacony's main story starting to come to a close, I figured I may as well write down my thoughts since it’s an arc that fumbled almost all its potential (Aventurine, you're too good for this world) in a deeply frustrating way. But before that, let me list some of the things I liked since there are some pretty good ideas and iterations!
First, the environments and music are still absolutely top-notch and really sell me on Penacony being this hyper-capitalist escapist dream with a perfectly manufactured atmosphere. Every battle theme is a hit, and the final boss of the patch is accompanied by another great vocal song to cap off the arc. The puzzles are still solid even if the pacing can be a little off (playing 15 stages of the new Hanu mini-game in a row turned my brain to mush (yes I know I didn't have to play every stage all at once, but as soon as I see a mini-game in front of me, I am compelled to play it all)). And lastly, the set-pieces. For all its faults, the final boss does a really great job of bringing the characters of this patch together, and moments like Firefly's motif playing during her scene are the exact type of thing I love. But that's where my praises end so time to get into my issues!
These two things were detrimental problems to the Xianzhou arc and unfortunately, Penacony hasn't improved much on either: characterization and exposition. Most of the cast is given little-to-no characterization or screentime, only serving as dialogue machines to move the plot along. Sparkle, Black Swan, Acheron, Gallagher, Robin, Boothill, and especially the entire Astral crew are just so empty that it's impossible for me to care about any of them. Contrast Robin to Sunday; you discover the impetus behind his drive and desire to unite everything under Order, and how the outcomes of the decisions to grant a few people freedom have changed him. Then we have Robin, who gets pretty much nothing; nothing that backs her opposition to Sunday and nothing to build up their relationship as anything more than generic orphan siblings who care about each other. There is one scene that gives her some character while delving into her backstory, showing her suffering an injury on a war-ridden planet yet continuing to push on. This could've been an opportunity to really explore what makes Robin walk a different path, but instead, it's second-hand characterization given through Sunday mostly expositing at the player.
And that's my biggest issue with the game: that any interesting idea is immediately cast aside in favor of flavorless exposition. That HSR is so unwilling to engage with its themes and just wants to provide another (admittedly very nice looking) spectacle while most of its cast vomits exposition or dances around irrelevant HI3 references. It's incredibly frustrating because there are so many interesting ideas that don't get the time they need to be fleshed out, which makes its failure to capitalize on them so much more annoying. In the Main Story Quests (thankfully the side quests are better), we only get mere glimpses into why people want to stay there forever. We meet some people who are trying to escape their past, and some who want to build their fortune, but there's one example that stands out to me. Eventually, we meet an old man: one who’s dying of a terminal illness and whose only source of reprieve is the Dreamscape. This idea isn't anything new (and executed far, far better in Caligula Effect 2), but there's at least something interesting to explore here! While Penacony serves as a prison to many, killing all ambition and letting them live their lives away in a city of hedonism, it offers a solution to this man's physical pain in the real world and an opportunity to live his final moments peacefully. But instead of engaging with this in any meaningful capacity, the game simply mentions that maybe there's another solution out there, and then moves on without a second thought. A similar idea is explored through Firefly and her poorly defined/explored Entropy Loss Syndrome, but, again, there's so little depth to any of it., that her defiance against Sunday doesn't have the weight it should.
There's one more issue I have, and it’s one that bothers me even more than the anemic character writing or constant exposition: the dialogue choices. I'd like to imagine that this isn't a problem (or at least not as big of one) in the other languages, but HSR's English dialogue choices during pivotal story moments are so strikingly terrible and show a lack of respect for the game's own story, that I have to wonder how they even made it in. Some times it's inserting cringe modern pop-culture references into every other choice and others it's undercutting the climax of a patch by having your awful half-silent protag say "Mommy look I'm on TV" (yeah this is from 2.1, but the point stands) seconds before fighting the main antagonist of a patch, but the result is a story that can't take itself seriously even in its best moments. I understand that Caelus/Stelle are supposed to be goofballs to an extent, but at least restrain yourself when it actually matters!
Maybe I'm being too hard on Star Rail, but when I think about how FGO managed to put out something like Camelot (which for all its problems is still a chapter that holds up today) almost a decade ago, it's disappointing to see that a gacha of this scale can't even come close. Hell, even Genshin managed to stick its landing with Chasm and (for the most part) Sumeru.
Also why were there like 5 fake out deaths in Penacony
First, the environments and music are still absolutely top-notch and really sell me on Penacony being this hyper-capitalist escapist dream with a perfectly manufactured atmosphere. Every battle theme is a hit, and the final boss of the patch is accompanied by another great vocal song to cap off the arc. The puzzles are still solid even if the pacing can be a little off (playing 15 stages of the new Hanu mini-game in a row turned my brain to mush (yes I know I didn't have to play every stage all at once, but as soon as I see a mini-game in front of me, I am compelled to play it all)). And lastly, the set-pieces. For all its faults, the final boss does a really great job of bringing the characters of this patch together, and moments like Firefly's motif playing during her scene are the exact type of thing I love. But that's where my praises end so time to get into my issues!
These two things were detrimental problems to the Xianzhou arc and unfortunately, Penacony hasn't improved much on either: characterization and exposition. Most of the cast is given little-to-no characterization or screentime, only serving as dialogue machines to move the plot along. Sparkle, Black Swan, Acheron, Gallagher, Robin, Boothill, and especially the entire Astral crew are just so empty that it's impossible for me to care about any of them. Contrast Robin to Sunday; you discover the impetus behind his drive and desire to unite everything under Order, and how the outcomes of the decisions to grant a few people freedom have changed him. Then we have Robin, who gets pretty much nothing; nothing that backs her opposition to Sunday and nothing to build up their relationship as anything more than generic orphan siblings who care about each other. There is one scene that gives her some character while delving into her backstory, showing her suffering an injury on a war-ridden planet yet continuing to push on. This could've been an opportunity to really explore what makes Robin walk a different path, but instead, it's second-hand characterization given through Sunday mostly expositing at the player.
And that's my biggest issue with the game: that any interesting idea is immediately cast aside in favor of flavorless exposition. That HSR is so unwilling to engage with its themes and just wants to provide another (admittedly very nice looking) spectacle while most of its cast vomits exposition or dances around irrelevant HI3 references. It's incredibly frustrating because there are so many interesting ideas that don't get the time they need to be fleshed out, which makes its failure to capitalize on them so much more annoying. In the Main Story Quests (thankfully the side quests are better), we only get mere glimpses into why people want to stay there forever. We meet some people who are trying to escape their past, and some who want to build their fortune, but there's one example that stands out to me. Eventually, we meet an old man: one who’s dying of a terminal illness and whose only source of reprieve is the Dreamscape. This idea isn't anything new (and executed far, far better in Caligula Effect 2), but there's at least something interesting to explore here! While Penacony serves as a prison to many, killing all ambition and letting them live their lives away in a city of hedonism, it offers a solution to this man's physical pain in the real world and an opportunity to live his final moments peacefully. But instead of engaging with this in any meaningful capacity, the game simply mentions that maybe there's another solution out there, and then moves on without a second thought. A similar idea is explored through Firefly and her poorly defined/explored Entropy Loss Syndrome, but, again, there's so little depth to any of it., that her defiance against Sunday doesn't have the weight it should.
There's one more issue I have, and it’s one that bothers me even more than the anemic character writing or constant exposition: the dialogue choices. I'd like to imagine that this isn't a problem (or at least not as big of one) in the other languages, but HSR's English dialogue choices during pivotal story moments are so strikingly terrible and show a lack of respect for the game's own story, that I have to wonder how they even made it in. Some times it's inserting cringe modern pop-culture references into every other choice and others it's undercutting the climax of a patch by having your awful half-silent protag say "Mommy look I'm on TV" (yeah this is from 2.1, but the point stands) seconds before fighting the main antagonist of a patch, but the result is a story that can't take itself seriously even in its best moments. I understand that Caelus/Stelle are supposed to be goofballs to an extent, but at least restrain yourself when it actually matters!
Maybe I'm being too hard on Star Rail, but when I think about how FGO managed to put out something like Camelot (which for all its problems is still a chapter that holds up today) almost a decade ago, it's disappointing to see that a gacha of this scale can't even come close. Hell, even Genshin managed to stick its landing with Chasm and (for the most part) Sumeru.
Also why were there like 5 fake out deaths in Penacony
PENACONY MELHOR PLANETA²
No voy a suspenderlo porque tampoco creo que lo merezca y está mejor que Xianzhou, pero que Penacony haya acabado siendo una historia apresurada y recortada a la vez hace que me frustre y me ponga triste porque muchas ideas están chulísimas pero en mi opinión no están muy bien ejecutadas o hay cosas que me faltan o fallan. Si no la hubieran hecho en tres parches nada más y hubieran metido misiones de personajes a algunos como Robin o Sparkle (la cual la tuvo pero estuvo fusionada con Black Swan y no aportó apenas nada), quizás me hubiera sentido más satisfecha.
No sé, está regular organizada. Por ejemplo, teniendo en cuenta que el parche anterior fue exclusivamente de un personaje, cuya parte de la historia podía haber estado en una tachán misión de personaje y luego aquí lo que este personaje hizo en el anterior parche ha pasado desapercibido o detrás de cámaras... pues... tío, para eso enfócate un poco más en el resto de los personajes en el anterior y no intentes que en el último parche entre todo lo demás que falta, porque se nota y mucho bajo mi punto de vista. Pienso que había mucho más textaco dentro de Penacony pero por fuerza han querido meterlo todo en tres parches, lo cual no se puede siendo una historia con tantos porros, o dicho de otra manera más educada, compleja y con mucho que contar. Dicho esto, tampoco han parado de repetir cosas que ya sabíamos, pero otras las han dejado sin explicar o no las han explicado del todo bien, lo cual hizo más que cuando acabase el parche, me sintiera muy confusa y con una cara de "¿Y ya estaría? ¿Y esto? ¿Y esto otro?"
No sé, está regular organizada. Por ejemplo, teniendo en cuenta que el parche anterior fue exclusivamente de un personaje, cuya parte de la historia podía haber estado en una tachán misión de personaje y luego aquí lo que este personaje hizo en el anterior parche ha pasado desapercibido o detrás de cámaras... pues... tío, para eso enfócate un poco más en el resto de los personajes en el anterior y no intentes que en el último parche entre todo lo demás que falta, porque se nota y mucho bajo mi punto de vista. Pienso que había mucho más textaco dentro de Penacony pero por fuerza han querido meterlo todo en tres parches, lo cual no se puede siendo una historia con tantos porros, o dicho de otra manera más educada, compleja y con mucho que contar. Dicho esto, tampoco han parado de repetir cosas que ya sabíamos, pero otras las han dejado sin explicar o no las han explicado del todo bien, lo cual hizo más que cuando acabase el parche, me sintiera muy confusa y con una cara de "¿Y ya estaría? ¿Y esto? ¿Y esto otro?"
Feels weird to have such a sour aftertaste after loving most of Penacony, but man, 2.2 is the first time since Belobog I've felt like the game just makes no effort to set itself apart from its inspirations in certain regards.
There's only so much they can do with the game's structure and the allotted screentime characters can have, but with how much Robin and Sunday feel like they were just meant to fit moulds necessary for the story, I'd rather they just keep it at that and give its genuinely unique characters more time to shine, because I truly could not care less for the time spent on them here.
Whether intentional or not is hard to say when there's countless examples of settings like Penacony, but especially considering the dynamic of Sunday and Robin, it reminds me a loooooot of Caligula Effect 2.
The problem here is that, Caligula Effect 2 is one of my favorite stories ever that spends approximately 25 hours on being an absolutely fantastic commentary about the pressure of society's expectations (especially through the pedestal idols are unwillingly placed on) and every character uses its premise so incredibly beautifully and uniquely to truly make that emotional core of it hit.
Now ofcourse, Star Rail couldn't and shouldn't have that amount of depth with its structure as I mentioned before - but it's a bit hard to set it apart when it's so similar and yet utterly shallow in comparison. Any character development Robin gets is essentially a switch getting flipped off-screen that makes her go "hm, maybe the Family isn't so pristine actually!" and that's about it - but you can't really expect much more when they've hardly given her an hour of screentime. Her popularity makes it clear I'm definitely in the minority in needing more substance to really appreciate a character though, and that's fine. I'm glad there's still plenty of people who can appreciate her for what she has to offer.
Sunday is.. okay. He's nothing you probably haven't seen before but he's exactly what the story needed so it works. I'm not too well-versed on HI3 but I appreciate how he's intended to parallel Kevin as a nod to Acheron, so there's that atleast.
So yeah, I'm essentially at the crossroads where I wish these characters were more than they are but also can't really see a way for that to be possible, which is a weird feeling. They couldn't ever match up to my expectations and if they did get more screentime without setting themselves apart from their current roles in any unique way it'd probably just lower my appreciation of this arc further so I guess I'm just fated to feel unsatisfied about them, unfortunately.
It's just hard to say I truly love Penacony even though I had a blast with 2.0 and 2.1 when its core at the climax makes me feel.. nothing. Pretty much everything they got in this patch was exactly as I expected it would be and I groaned through whatever screentime they got as a result.
Luckily, it's not all bad though! There's plenty of characters that use the dream world setting really well. Gallagher and.. Misha, of all characters (surprisingly!) were the highlight of the patch for me by tugging at the heartstrings unexpectedly and I love that Firefly of all characters challenges Sunday's nihilistic, haughty perspective of humanity needing Penacony to live the most considering she's just about the prime example of it. But no, despite her circumstances, she's going to use whatever limited time she has to truly live and continues to cement herself as the absolute best Penacony has to offer, and I can't wait for her to continue to carry the absolute fuck out of it when the epilogue drops.
It just sucks to have to look towards the smaller parts of this patch for me to be able to appreciate it, and I can only hope having her in the spotlight makes me feel less conflicted about it all by the time it wraps up.
There's only so much they can do with the game's structure and the allotted screentime characters can have, but with how much Robin and Sunday feel like they were just meant to fit moulds necessary for the story, I'd rather they just keep it at that and give its genuinely unique characters more time to shine, because I truly could not care less for the time spent on them here.
Whether intentional or not is hard to say when there's countless examples of settings like Penacony, but especially considering the dynamic of Sunday and Robin, it reminds me a loooooot of Caligula Effect 2.
The problem here is that, Caligula Effect 2 is one of my favorite stories ever that spends approximately 25 hours on being an absolutely fantastic commentary about the pressure of society's expectations (especially through the pedestal idols are unwillingly placed on) and every character uses its premise so incredibly beautifully and uniquely to truly make that emotional core of it hit.
Now ofcourse, Star Rail couldn't and shouldn't have that amount of depth with its structure as I mentioned before - but it's a bit hard to set it apart when it's so similar and yet utterly shallow in comparison. Any character development Robin gets is essentially a switch getting flipped off-screen that makes her go "hm, maybe the Family isn't so pristine actually!" and that's about it - but you can't really expect much more when they've hardly given her an hour of screentime. Her popularity makes it clear I'm definitely in the minority in needing more substance to really appreciate a character though, and that's fine. I'm glad there's still plenty of people who can appreciate her for what she has to offer.
Sunday is.. okay. He's nothing you probably haven't seen before but he's exactly what the story needed so it works. I'm not too well-versed on HI3 but I appreciate how he's intended to parallel Kevin as a nod to Acheron, so there's that atleast.
So yeah, I'm essentially at the crossroads where I wish these characters were more than they are but also can't really see a way for that to be possible, which is a weird feeling. They couldn't ever match up to my expectations and if they did get more screentime without setting themselves apart from their current roles in any unique way it'd probably just lower my appreciation of this arc further so I guess I'm just fated to feel unsatisfied about them, unfortunately.
It's just hard to say I truly love Penacony even though I had a blast with 2.0 and 2.1 when its core at the climax makes me feel.. nothing. Pretty much everything they got in this patch was exactly as I expected it would be and I groaned through whatever screentime they got as a result.
Luckily, it's not all bad though! There's plenty of characters that use the dream world setting really well. Gallagher and.. Misha, of all characters (surprisingly!) were the highlight of the patch for me by tugging at the heartstrings unexpectedly and I love that Firefly of all characters challenges Sunday's nihilistic, haughty perspective of humanity needing Penacony to live the most considering she's just about the prime example of it. But no, despite her circumstances, she's going to use whatever limited time she has to truly live and continues to cement herself as the absolute best Penacony has to offer, and I can't wait for her to continue to carry the absolute fuck out of it when the epilogue drops.
It just sucks to have to look towards the smaller parts of this patch for me to be able to appreciate it, and I can only hope having her in the spotlight makes me feel less conflicted about it all by the time it wraps up.
How the hell did this game also have the Luofu THIS SHIT ROCKED EVERY SECOND OF THIS WAS COOL AS HELL
Penacony arc is unironically peak, cannot believe it took 4 worlds for the writing to get good.
Penacony arc is unironically peak, cannot believe it took 4 worlds for the writing to get good.
Not gonna properly review this story arc until Penacony has concluded because I don't want to pull the trigger too early, but man... Fucked up how HSR is the most I've enjoyed a game in this style since Dragon Quest XI.
Yeah, gacha game, I know, but I've been playing JRPGs since I was old enough to read and hold a controller and it feels like every big JRPG developer just gave up trying around 2010.
Yet here's HSR with cool boss fights, endlessly engaging iterations on its mechanics, great intersection of gameplay/story, Tingyun and solid writing that isn't rehashing JRPG writing tropes from uh... The 90s.
Penacony rocks, dude. I hope this statement doesn't age like shit.
10/10 I wish Black Swan would call me 'darling'.
Yeah, gacha game, I know, but I've been playing JRPGs since I was old enough to read and hold a controller and it feels like every big JRPG developer just gave up trying around 2010.
Yet here's HSR with cool boss fights, endlessly engaging iterations on its mechanics, great intersection of gameplay/story, Tingyun and solid writing that isn't rehashing JRPG writing tropes from uh... The 90s.
Penacony rocks, dude. I hope this statement doesn't age like shit.
10/10 I wish Black Swan would call me 'darling'.
Just when you think "it can't get more complicated", this story will find a way to get more complicated.
Then Wake to Weep is a satisfying story finale for Penacony with some stunning setpieces - Dreamflux Reef is particularly pretty. It's about twice as long as the previous patch, but that's also because of the increasingly verbose explanations for everything related to the dream world, so if you're interested in all the additional worldbuilding, the storytelling of 2.2 might be right up your alley.
I wish Boothill would have gotten more screentime and relevance, considering the devs teased him playing a big role, but he's mostly a comic relief character here. Maybe he'll get his time to shine in the upcoming epilogue, since that should tie up some loose ends as well. With that out of the way, I still had a great time with the overall narrative and the twists and turns present in Then Wake to Weep, especially since a bunch of characters with overall less screentime in the previous two chapters got their spotlight here. The boss fight at the end was also a great way to wrap everything up and I loved the song that played during the final phase.
Despite some missed potential, it's a fitting end to Penacony with an interesting villain, and lured me in well enough to finish it within just a single day - but I can't say it sticks with me more than Aventurine's story in the previous patch, that one felt special.
Then Wake to Weep is a satisfying story finale for Penacony with some stunning setpieces - Dreamflux Reef is particularly pretty. It's about twice as long as the previous patch, but that's also because of the increasingly verbose explanations for everything related to the dream world, so if you're interested in all the additional worldbuilding, the storytelling of 2.2 might be right up your alley.
I wish Boothill would have gotten more screentime and relevance, considering the devs teased him playing a big role, but he's mostly a comic relief character here. Maybe he'll get his time to shine in the upcoming epilogue, since that should tie up some loose ends as well. With that out of the way, I still had a great time with the overall narrative and the twists and turns present in Then Wake to Weep, especially since a bunch of characters with overall less screentime in the previous two chapters got their spotlight here. The boss fight at the end was also a great way to wrap everything up and I loved the song that played during the final phase.
Despite some missed potential, it's a fitting end to Penacony with an interesting villain, and lured me in well enough to finish it within just a single day - but I can't say it sticks with me more than Aventurine's story in the previous patch, that one felt special.
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Don't know what happened but FIREFLY LET ME HIT THAT ROBOTIC *
Robin
A wonderful world of dreams to explore that deserves a lot more credit and doesn't deserve to be stuck with the prejudice of the gacha genre.
The story throughout penacony, not only is great in its presentation, giving the player a world in a dream full of glamour and incredible creativity and magic, completely different from the other planets but its strength also comes from the fact of how the story is really well written and how it's able to keep track of different characters and factions, giving them meaningful roles, not only having the spotlight to the new but also the old.
I wish not to spoil much and there's still one patch left to finish the story, but if you thought that Xianzhou arc wasn't that good, I would definitely say Penacony is worth your time.
The story throughout penacony, not only is great in its presentation, giving the player a world in a dream full of glamour and incredible creativity and magic, completely different from the other planets but its strength also comes from the fact of how the story is really well written and how it's able to keep track of different characters and factions, giving them meaningful roles, not only having the spotlight to the new but also the old.
I wish not to spoil much and there's still one patch left to finish the story, but if you thought that Xianzhou arc wasn't that good, I would definitely say Penacony is worth your time.
While I think the firsts two acts of Star Rail are mediocre at best.
Penacony is beautifully written with great characters, amazing and engaging story moments, and a beautiful final message that will stick to you for a long time.
Peakcony
Penacony is beautifully written with great characters, amazing and engaging story moments, and a beautiful final message that will stick to you for a long time.
Peakcony
I've been playing this game since launch, played through the Belobog and the Xianzhou arc, and didn't really put much thought into the story as at best they're just "good" and serviceable and at worst (The Xianzhou arc, in particular) a complete mess.
Penacony however, blows them out of the water completely. I actually started to really care deeply about the story and characters (and unironically got addicted to the game). I didn't plan on writing a review of this game ever, since I thought there wouldn't be anything really incredible. I was completely wrong, ever since 2.0 the writing is actually really great?? I didn't expect this after the Xianzhou arc at all. Ever since, they've announced that HI3's writer (that wrote the best arcs in all hoyoverse) would be handling this game, starting from Penacony. You could really feel the jump in writing quality from that point onward.
I really like most of the twists and especially the ending. Though I do see people complain regarding the mystery aspect of Penacony, mentioning that it is too "enshrouded in mystery". I honestly really like that aspect, as they do enforce a "show, not tell" kind of writing from and especially at the beginning, though I do agree that some payoffs of that are quite underwhelming like "Death".
Overall, the Penacony arc as a whole have been nothing short of impressive, there is still 2.3 left as an epilogue to wrap up this arc, but the story itself is honestly up there with HI3 Flamechasers arc for me in the hoyoverse. It may have been convoluted with some pacing issues somewhere along the line, but it managed to pull through and gives justice to all the characters in the end (though some less than others with their lesser screen time), including the MC (TB), with a very peak climax of a final act. I'm glad they actually give the TB a huge moment to shine while showing their worth and not just make them a punching bag for other characters to shine instead.
Penacony however, blows them out of the water completely. I actually started to really care deeply about the story and characters (and unironically got addicted to the game). I didn't plan on writing a review of this game ever, since I thought there wouldn't be anything really incredible. I was completely wrong, ever since 2.0 the writing is actually really great?? I didn't expect this after the Xianzhou arc at all. Ever since, they've announced that HI3's writer (that wrote the best arcs in all hoyoverse) would be handling this game, starting from Penacony. You could really feel the jump in writing quality from that point onward.
I really like most of the twists and especially the ending. Though I do see people complain regarding the mystery aspect of Penacony, mentioning that it is too "enshrouded in mystery". I honestly really like that aspect, as they do enforce a "show, not tell" kind of writing from and especially at the beginning, though I do agree that some payoffs of that are quite underwhelming like "Death".
Overall, the Penacony arc as a whole have been nothing short of impressive, there is still 2.3 left as an epilogue to wrap up this arc, but the story itself is honestly up there with HI3 Flamechasers arc for me in the hoyoverse. It may have been convoluted with some pacing issues somewhere along the line, but it managed to pull through and gives justice to all the characters in the end (though some less than others with their lesser screen time), including the MC (TB), with a very peak climax of a final act. I'm glad they actually give the TB a huge moment to shine while showing their worth and not just make them a punching bag for other characters to shine instead.
It took a year for this game to climb out of the insane hole it fell into after Belobog but holy shit that climb up has been so magnificent. Penacony has just been an absolutely 11/10 experience even while being spoiled on the patches before doing them.
If you wanna swim, you first gotta learn how to sink...
If not a little long winded, a very awesome and ineteresting wrap up to the main story of penacony. Super stoked for more.
Consumed too many truth vs fiction like themes nowadays it must be fated after all.
Interesting themes in terms of the world, my only qualms is that the villain has an important connection to a character who pretty much got focused on a bit too late into the story. (And even then they didnt get the focus THAT much)
Good story though!
Interesting themes in terms of the world, my only qualms is that the villain has an important connection to a character who pretty much got focused on a bit too late into the story. (And even then they didnt get the focus THAT much)
Good story though!
peak
One of the greatest mindfuck tunnel vision into peak climax for penacony
Thank you and I love you Firefly, Acheron, Aventurine, Robin, and Black Swan
Thank you and I love you Firefly, Acheron, Aventurine, Robin, and Black Swan
This update is truly the pinnacle of Penacony's story, and the update that did manage to get me love this arc after how 2.0 and 2.1 did fail in doing so
This update was pretty much everything I had been wanting from early 2.0 and even somewhat before the arc started, and I'm so glad this update managed to deliver without fumbling it
This update was pretty much everything I had been wanting from early 2.0 and even somewhat before the arc started, and I'm so glad this update managed to deliver without fumbling it
Thank you Acheron
They did it again!!!
8 hours of peak.
8 hours of peak.
This truly was our blazed trail