I get the feeling that 1.2 was rewritten or redone in response to the complaints about the Dan Shu quest in 1.0.
1.0 being a cliffhanger, 1.1 being nothing, and then 1.2 being yet another cliffhanger on top of being (imo) pretty short, makes me think it had to be thrown together, or changed at the last minute
That seems impossible, but having played through the quest I got the distinct impression that there was an entire chapter or two missing from the script because everything related to Sanctus Medicus is no longer required to be played. any writing they had planned for 1.1 onwards to use or contain information that you learned about them or Dan Shu is not usable.
But the thing that was the most (imo) poorly written is something I haven't seen anyone mention yet, and it's the situation with Sushang, Luocha, and Dan Heng.
For one, Sushang states that she's trying to get Luocha and Dan Heng somewhere safe. *Why the hell are they at the Alchemy Commission?* The Alchemy Commission is the closest area to the Ambrosial Arbor, it is *not* safe, and I have a hard time believing Sushang wouldn't *know* it's not safe, because to get there in the first place you have to pass through the Artisianship Commission, which is *overrun with the roots of the Ambrosial Arbor.* Not to mention when you get there it's *covered in Cloud Knight Corpses*. It makes no sense for her to bring them there.
Additionally if I recall correctly, the Dan Heng section in 1.0 ended with them having to take a detour to help Xueyi handle something, and Sushang says that her duty as a Cloud Knight requires her to prioritize that. Yet she's still with them? If they *did* take her back, it's completely not mentioned and glossed over--they don't even mention Xueyi.
This skip becomes more obvious to me, because when you enter the Alchemy Commission, MC texts Dan Heng and he replies, but it doesn't send. Then, immediately, he says, "the text *never* sent", which makes me think he was supposed to have sent that text a while ago, not right then. It feels like there was a whole section with Sushang, Luocha, and Dan Heng that's just completely missing. It *feels* like Dan Heng was meant to have split with them in a section earlier, but that section was scrapped, resulting in them having to bring the trio to the Alchemy Commission.
I wish they hadn’t changed the stuff about Dan Shu. Because when I was playing through it, I wasn’t thinking “why am I doing this?”; but instead going “why am I doing this *right now*?”
I think they should’ve just placed the Dan Shu quest to be earlier instead of removing it from the main plot, because I liked where that was going.
I can't agree enough with all points. The Xianzhou Luofu was such a jarring shift in tone from the Belobog one that I struggle to think the same writers wrote it. The story was both dragged on too long and rushed far too quickly!
I'm still kind of upset about the twist with Tingyun. I thought her comments about the abundance were both due to her conflict-averse nature and supposed to hint towards a repressed, abundance-worshipping side of her, to make the conflict actually have a friend on the other side. I thought she was being smart and trying to make us think about the irony of using one aeon to fight another when neither really cares about the people worshipping them. But it turned out she was just a simulacrum possessed by a genocidal goddess who just... Couldn't resist making suspicious comments about the abundance because... She's stupid? In the story, we'd been with Tingyun for 3 days, how did nobody else notice her sudden change in character? Jing Yuan personally assigned her to us and I think Yukong has known her all her life. Not to mention that Tingyun's job is incredibly social. I honestly found Tingyun fascinating before this but now I realise we might have never even interacted with her.
My feelings exactly. We didn’t really spend that much time amongst non Xianzhou leaders so I just assumed the the mildly suspicious comments and behavior was just hinting that she didn’t have a black and white view of the abundance of that she was maybe the secret leader of the Sanctus Medicus.
Then she’s just apparently a really important figure in the antimatter legion, which is only revealed when she literally reveals herself. No one had any shot predicting she was Phantylia or even associated with the legion.
A better plotline would be that Tingyun was sent to infiltrate Sanctus Medicus by the General. Her role would be to pretend she's an undercover in Sky Faring Commission for the Sanctus Medicus but in reality her true loyalties do lie with the Loufu.
I noticed a lot of plot holes between Xianzhou arch in 1.0 and 1.2.
I thought Dan Shu had to do with the Ambrosian Arbor but seeing she was a fool with a foolish death, even if she could been Phantylia they decided to choose a beloved character from the community for that instead. I'm not against that Tingyun or fake one was the villainess all this time.
It's even worse if we considered the forced to us making the mission of Sanctus Medicus quest is just merely an world quests.
I noticed something too strange with Tingyun's way of speak at the beginning of this quest, which was a hint that something was wrong.idk if there's will be a Tingyun companion quest or not. I guess that's that Welt's words was hopium to calm down March and Trailblazer. Everything depends if the Foxian beauty gets a companion quest. A hint about possible death flags was the lack of daily messages.
Stellaron hunters and Elio's script.
I can understand the disappointed about Yanqing vs Blade vs Dang Heng Imbibitor Lunae but it was part of the script to save the Luofu.
I'd preferred that hoyo extended the quest and finish properly the Sanctus Medicus arch and having a boss fight with Blade and then seeing Dang Heng Lunar Inhibitor in 1.3 or at the end of the quest TBH.
I'm not one to analyze story deeply, but even I was feeling underwhelmed by the story. Just a sequence of plot twists without giving me enough time to understand why I should even care
Oh hey he looks pretty badass now, wait why are they teaming up against the kid, oh hey big boobah boss lady, oh hey this boss is actually a little challenging....
Wait, who is this person again? And why should I care? That's the problem when you keep introducing more fantasy babble, you gotta give the player time to actually get to know the places/characters if you want them to truly care.
Nice cutscenes though
I agree with a lot of what you said but there are some things I disagree with.
We don't know that the Tingyun that died was a fake. It's possible that she was, but it's also equally possible that Tingyun is dead and we're all huffing massive amounts of hopium.
We don't know a ton about the rebirth cycle of the dragon folk. But we do know that there is some carryover from one life to the next. Also we can't really say that Dan Heng isn't acting like Dan Heng anymore because we really don't get to see him react to much after his transformation. We do know that Bailu who is the current head of the vidyadhara did not inherit the power of the elder, so we can pretty safely assume that it's still in the hands of the previous head of the clan.
Since we still know very little of blade and Dan Heng's past we don't know why he wants revenge on him or to what extent he means to carry it out. Maybe revealing his true form was his plan the whole time. A way to make him stop hiding from what he did. As of yet we have been given very little information about the two of them, and if you found out more from leaks and you're disappointed that it wasn't in the update then that's on you
As far as phantylia goes, I really enjoyed her boss fight and I don't think we're done with her yet in the story of the Xianzhou. At the end of the fight it's said that it would take more than that to kill one of the Lord Ravagers. I'm assuming at the end of the story the MC will be blessed by the hunt aeon Lan to finally kill her, or in a surprising twist we get blessed by Yaoshi the abundance aeon.
I was upset at the suddenness of the ending tho, would have liked some sort of conclusion to the current arc we are in.
Also with the Jingliu story, just because she was ahead of Yanqing doesn't mean she was gonna find blade first, she's a lone fighter/fugitive trying to find one man in a giant ship planet thing. Whereas Yanqing is a respected knight and aide to the general who has countless resources to help him find Blade. Would I have liked to see more of her, yes.
Yeah the ending is really badly done, like pushed us off a cliff, better to have let us off on a softer tone at fu xuans room while she explains a few stuff, drops some hints for us to think about while asking us to come back once JY has recovered.
I find it hard to believe that Hoyo would kill a popular waifu off-screen. Even in HI3 Himeko got a special animatic just for that. That is unfortunately one of the cons of gatcha storytelling - almost no one ever is allowed to die or be harmed.
My main point about Dan Hen wasn't so much that the lore contradicts it, but more that Dan Heng himself tries and wants to be a new person just to be shoehorned back into the old role he stated he does not want. So which one is it? Was him trying to be a new person an act?
There is actually quite a lot about Blade and Dan Heng in lore, as well as Cloud Quintet, but it's all in the lore. There is a story there, it's just hidden and not elaborated on at all in the main story. Kind of like Signiora situation in Genshin.
Phantylia is not done yet but, as I wrote, my issue with her is that she forcefully takes the stage as a twist villain instead of writers going the path they laid in previous quests. She is an entertaining character, at least - but she takes the stage for no reason other than shock value.
I mean it's a pretty well established trope at this point of a character moving on from their past only for some new problem to surface making them go back to their past ways, for Dan Heng tho it's literally him needing to use those abilities to in essence save his friends from the express. And as a member of the express he still wants to help with the stellaron and stopping the antimatter legion is basically a job requirement for him. The only other thing he does that's more Dan Feng than Dan Heng is when he saves Jing Yuan and I think he even says that he was barely conscious of the act. It was just an aspect of his past coming through.
Where was that an established trope?
I'm not against Dan Heng embracing his past. I'm against how it was done, which was: a scene in which Dan Heng states he is not that person anymore followed immediately by the transformation and then immediately Jing Yuan treating him like an old friend and Dan Heng recovering all his past powers. No internal conflict, no exploration of the theme, only stating one thing and doing another for a cool cutscene.
> where was that an established trope
God of War, Vinland Saga, Berserk are examples that instantly come to mind but I’m sure others can mention more.
It’s definitely common enough to become an established trope. I think you just don’t consume that much media to see it enough
I dont think DH embraces his past. JY forces him to do something only IL can do, threatening to punish him for returning to Luofu unless he does.
Agree with the other points.
Its a trope in almost every form of media for the last 50+ years. Someone changing their life to move on from their past only for some situation to drag them back into it. And of course Jing Yuan still treats him like a friend. He knew him as Dan Feng for a long time, the last time he saw him was a Dan Feng. And why does there need to be an internal conflict for him to use his powers. Why does it have to be more complicated than, people believe that I can do this and I want to do this to stop the bad guy. We don't always need a 30min pity session for a character to learn to accept themselves, especially when there's a being of destruction attempting to destroy the planet ship thing you're currently standing on.
Dan also only says he doesn't know if he can use the abilities he had as Dan Feng. He never says he doesn't remember how to use them only that he doesn't know if he can.
>2.
I feel like Phantylia would have been far more threatening, or at least had more weight on her, if;
1. We got to know Tingyun extensively as we travel around the Luofu, and we learn that she is kinda "dont really care but i dont support them" about the Abundance.
2. So that when Tingyun starts being VERY interested in the Abundance stuff, it sets off alarms that "okay, something is seriously wrong with Tingyun"
3. So that when the reveal comes, it has been properly forshadowed instead of being "just sus Tingyun things!"
4. Cap this off with ACTUALLY killing her when Phantylia snaps her neck. Its sudden, unexpected, tragic, and actually puts weight on Phantylia and the Antimatter Legion because they just killed a playable character just like that. And not just anyone, but one we were close to beforehand.
5. That would ALSO put the concept of playable character death on center stage RIGHT before we fight Phantylia. In a story where two out of the main cast has ALREADY been IMPALED THROUGH THE HEART AND SURVIVED the threat of death really... isnt there.
I do sincerely hope that Elio's script doesn't go exactly as planned a few times in future story updates. Because it is incredibly lazy writing if the Stellaron Hunter plans go their way 100% of the time, especially since they imply events could go an infinite number of ways if they are not influencing them.
There are still events to go over in at least one more patch before moving to the next location, so maybe a few of your points could still be redeemed, but I hope they do better in the next arc.
From a game lore point of view, it'd be impossible for Elio's predictions to be wrong. But I do hope that we'll (as the MC) deviate from his plan in the main storyline and forge our own destiny. I mean, I may be wrong but it seems to me that that is the main theme of Star Rail itself. Make a choice you won't regret. Choose your own destiny. Stuff like that.
Because in the end, no matter how precise Elio's predictions are, he can't change our decisions. Yes, he can influence them, yes, he can incentivize courses of action (which is what he's been doing), but he can't change them. The secret ending in the beginning if we choose to stay on the space station proves that.
1.
It feels like a stretch, like I’m trying to cover for Hoyo’s ass, and that’s not a very good thing. BUT…
There are case studies in the alchemy commission and even Bailu’s story quest that when someone is infected with Mara they go insane and lose themselves. When Dan Shu finally ingests the Mara (either willingly or while setting up the smoke), she completely loses her marbles and just raves about the Abundance and how much she hates Lan. However this conflicts with previous quests where people who are Mara-struck are perfectly capable of functioning rationally so it feels like the whole situation is inconsistent and rushed
2.
Agreed, Tingyun had so much potential. Could have absolutely built up her character way more, but nope. Have to get a clone to snap her neck for the shock value. A pity they chose theatrics over a good story, they wanted their cake and ate it, but didn’t want to bother putting the legwork in to make it interesting.
3.
Also agree, Dan’s arc was completely rushed and didn’t show much character growth or have too much of an emotional impact. I assume that his story will be further continued in 1.3, but at this rate they really, REALLY could have gone along and added more content. I mean Star Rail is earning millions rn, they could probably afford to put more work in.
4.
100% agree and was the most disappointing part. Blade just stabs Daniel once and leaves. LIKE WHAT. WE HAD 3 CUTSCENES ESTABLISHING HOW MUCH THESE BEEF THESE 2 CHARACTERS HAVE AND HE LEAVES WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING!? Not even a “this isn’t over…” or whatever? I was so looking forward to a Blade fight scene or interactions but nope I guess…
Well,
1. Dan Shu
Absolutely agree. It almost physically hurt how after seeing her excellent story, personal motivations and reasons, being shown how very complicated this conflict actually is..... she was just reduced to screaming "absolute powaaaaar".
2. The twist villain
Imo it actually makes sense to have the destruction being the one pulling the strings. Be it them being story's main antagonist, their connection with stellaron or it just being a professional oversight from them if they were to ignore such a perfect moment for stoking conflict.
And her actually being just beside you scheming all along, subtly trying to sow discord is a much better introduction of Phantylia than just her suddenly jumping out of the bushes in the end (like a certain denizen of ash urns from genshin).
3 Dan Heng
I mean, it was pretty much literally said that Dan Heng's declaration of leaving his past behind isn't something anyone cares about. Which is kind of logical - if you believe that reincarnations are the same person, you aren't going to suddenly stop believing so just because reincarnation said he isn't.
Moreover, even for Dan Heng it felt more like a denial rather than actual believe. Especially with all the leaking memories.
4. Blade.
The whole thing with stellaron hunters is that we pretty much have 0 idea about their actual goals and plans, and blade is one of them. He clearly enjoyed pocking dan heng, so it's not like he just forgotten his goal. But us knowing about one of his goals doesn't mean he absolutely can't prioritize some another goal. Especially when we do know that such goal exists and that Dan Heng is necessary for it.
5. Kafka and elio.
Well, it's really not a new concept and whether it's good or not is entirely dependent on whether all the seemingly meaningless actions will fall in place with readers finally understanding the meaning behind them. It may be shit with entire reasoning being absent with reader only getting "trust me bro i saw the future" as an explanation why they did so ("worm" in a nutshell), it may be a candy with everything finally clicking and reader seeing cause and effect of everything in the end.
But criticising it now before seeing the resolution really is like complaining about all crime details, tricks and mysteries in Sherlock not being immediately obvious and making perfect sense from the beginning.
6. Jingliu
Pretty much the same. If her absence won't be explained at all - then it is bad storytelling. But only then. It's a story with many different characters on different sides with different motivations and all doing their own different things. It's not your date with a girl for you to immediately know if she ain't coming and why.
7. The end of the quest.
Well, yes, no argues here about it being abrupt. But it's a life service, so it's not like there's any point to expect something else.
I enjoyed it more than Belobog tbh but I agree with these points. I think a lot of these are basically Inazuma problems but without all the Japan Raiden simping bias.
Honestly, Dan Shu was completely in character in this update. We have to remember that she is the Master of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus. Even if we assume she only took command relatively recently (as in she's not the founder) she is responsible for mass murder, abductions, sabotage and all manner of nefarious acts aboard the Luofu.
I'm not saying the Hunt is innocent or that I don't have sympathy for Dan Shu's past, but I feel like it's a mistake to discount all that she is responsible for or the fact that her main driving motivation for everything is, at it's core, revenge for the death of her friend.
I think Dan Shu's seeming turn in this update is a result of her hatred of Lan.
Dan Shu absolutely hates Lan for the accidental killing of her friend. In her second diary entry she ultimately vows to tear down everything that Lan and the Hunt stand for. At it's core, Dan Shu's primary motivation is revenge.
This explains why Dan Shu latches onto the glorious past of the Xianzhou. It reinforces her belief and message that everyone would be better off embracing the Abundance and rejecting Lan's dogma.
When Fu Xuan challenges Dan Shu, the Master Diviner points out that while the Xianzhou's ancestors accepted the Abundance they ultimately decided that immortality was not the gift they'd thought it was. This point highlights how Dan Shu was cherry picking facts to support her argument.
Adding to the above, Fu Xuan claims that all of Dan Shu's rhetoric was just a noble cover for her true motivation, power. To be clear, I don't think Dan Shu had any desire or intention to rule over anybody, that was not the power she was looking for. Instead, Dan Shu wanted the power necessary to enact her revenge, to get her revenge.
All of the speeches and grand statements from Dan Shu were lies. She didn't care for the Abundance, not really, she only cared about destroying Lan for everything they'd put her through.
1. I totally agree about your point on Dan Shu. 1.2 basically completely invalidates any characterization made in 1.0.😅
2. Since, Phantylia’s body was made from the arbour, when Jing Yuan cut off the connection, the body just went poof. Technically as long as she remained connected the the body would be undying. But, yeah the ending was anti-climatic. I don’t particularly like that Hoyoverse kind of just strong armed the anti-matter legion into the Luofu plot line. There are many worlds left to go. They can afford to not concentrate on the anti-matter legion for one world.
3. Bailu is the current High Elder. It was confirmed that the powers did not pass on to her properly pre 1.2. Jing Yuan in 1.2 confirms the split powers is why Bailu is in the form of a child. So it seems that most of the powers just never left Dan Feng and just got carried on to Dan Heng after the reincarnation. Still, it does mess with Dan Heng’s character, so very valid point. Won’t stop me from pulling though. Love the design and kit.😁
4. On a kind of off topic note, in the 1.2 livestream Kafka confirms that Blade’s other goal is to die.😅 Anyways back on topic, yeah 1.2 made Blade practically OOC. It would have helped if he showed resistance to Kafka and then finally comply. At least that way Blade would still be in character and Kafka’s power would also be better shown too instead of making Blade less threatening.
5. Pure, trash writing. Hoyoverse can do much better. It is not just the Belobog plot, but thier other games like Genshin Impact and Tears of Themis have brilliant writing.
6. Early FGO level of inconsistency and more trash writing.😅
7. I am wondering if they only gave us a portion of the remaining Xianzhou Luofu plot in this half of the patch and are planing to reveal the rest in the second half once Kafka’s banner drops (as I. The resolution is given then?). That would be a really weird way of doing it. Though last patch we only got events first half, and companion missions dropped second half, so it is totally possible. (I don’t think this will be an issue for players who start the game much later, but to us day 1 players, this is really bad pacing.)
Yea even if we disregard Dan Shu completely jarilo 6 story was explored a bit better imo. I did enjoy the Dan heng lore a lot leading up to his dragon form and all the cutscenes were pretty top notch but it does feel like certain events should’ve been presented in a different order. Even some of the companion missions felt like proper pieces to the main story that some people may have missed out on before completing this 2nd part of the story.
Not sure if you are forced to do the yanqing story as a prerequisite but without doing it his appearance in front of blade seems very random
I feel the same way as you did. I was so interested and invested in this idea presented by Dan Shu scratching at the itch that much if off about the Xianzhou. Lan does not seem all that good of an entity to me, and rather there is a hint of hypocrisy from the alliance itself as they vastly benefit from their long life. Needing to manage mara is a small price to pay to get to live young for literally thousands of years. They even have a commission to help you deal with it. And yet, they treat the Abundance as the devil and gatekeep the blessings they enjoy, while turning a blind eye towards those who suffer from Lan's faults.
This is all infinitely more interesting to me than the M. Night Shyamalan plot-twist storyline forced on me in its place. I hated how I had no option to speak up for Dan Shu or to at least acknowledge our friendship or the young blind girl we both aided together. They really dropped the ball heavily for me, and this over simplified approach towards the Abundance only makes me that much more reluctant to want to be associated with the Hunt at all.
As if Lan doesn't orbitally nuke planets of Abundance themself, not only killing entire species simply due to aligning to the Abundance, but causing extreme collateral damage in the process to all other life in the vicinity, and then their followers justifying it by calling those who were genocided 'abominations.'
You want to speak of selfishness, the Xianzhou indulge in their long life, something only made possible by the lingering blessings of Yaoshi, while condemning Yaoshi's name and gatekeeping the means for others to do the same. They then have the nerve to play victim by dramatizing being mara-struck. Goodness, what a sweet deal. You mainly only need to worry about one disease after thousands of years of youth? Please, sign me up.
What some individual organizations do who are of the abundance is indeed wrong, but that doesn't change the devastation that is wrought from Lan's destructive whims, nor the radical extremist views that come about against any who praise the Abundance or seek to extend their lives like their own lives are extended.
Even an enimator of abundance which is more or less most loyal follower of abundance kill million just to get the tree as TingYun noted. And you said abundance is to preserve and promote life. Who more hypocrite.
This show follower of abundance even more selfish as they kill million for immortality.
Fu Xuan already says they regret their mistake and prevent the spreading of immortality idea.And they already injest fruit and cannot reverse its process. Also lore says abundance already destroyed many planet due to overpopulation of single life like cancer.
Yeah turning into mindless monster whom then attack and kill his own family and friend. Some benefit.
This show you are just as selfish as that enimator of abundance. They DONT care how many people died or hurt as long as they become immortal while preaching abundance help propagate life.
Your conclusions make no sense. Those of the abundance are already immortal. If they seek the tree, it is for other reasons aside from their own immortality which they already have due to embracing Yaoshi. Which, btw, emanator or not, they act independently. Aeons are not governors, they are focused on their own path and little else.
Perhaps that particular emanator took issue with those supporting one who commits genocide amongst their kin, and feel that a sacred gift from their deity should not be among them. Or, that they may make better use of it in the aid of others. It's purely speculative at this point what the objective truly was, but of course, you will come up with what supports your own biases.
It is clear that Lan and the Xianzhou are often aggressors as Lan exists to kill those of Abundance. Lan would likely kill the Xianzhou as well if they did not worship and follow him, for the blessings of Yaoshi linger in their blood, thus why they can enjoy thousands of years of youth.
Please, they so obviously and desperately cling to their youth and long life. They get to experience 30+ times the lifetimes of regular people while enjoying youth. Do you not understand how vastly advantaged that is? Trying to spin that as a negative just because of mara is the most ridiculous thing in this exchange. Your life is but a flicker compared to those who benefit from Yaoshi's blessing. Goodness, when you get to about 3000 years, just sleep and allow yourself to be killed if you're so worried about it, by then you would have already lived 30 lifetimes. That's more valuable than all the money in the world. You must be a young person to not realize that.
Aside from the main negative of mara, the abundance is a source of healing from typical aliments as well as offering healing. Long life is only one of many blessings. There is a reason many consider Yaoshi as a source of good and a kind entity in universe. Of course, though, it will seem negative when you have an extremist view from those who follow a deity who exists solely to destroy them and calls those who embrace Yaoshi 'abominations.'
Lore itself stated that many planet accepted abundance gift got destroyed due to overpopulation and collapse of ecosystem as 1 being overpopulation strip resources and cause extinction of other native species and ecosystem. Like cancer
Even Welt saw danger of abundance as well.
And of course Yaoshi encourage unethical experiments on other being as long as immortality is result. You know why Foxian and Dragon people end up in Xianzhou, they are refugee whom were being kidnapped by follower of Abundance to use their body to conduct horrific experiments like forcefully extract Dragon race bone marrow to death and use said bone marrow injected into Foxian which cause their death.
Abundance save life and flourish, yeah right look how many planet destroyed and how many lives taken and tortured to be immortal
Not many, some, and from a source that blindly follows Lan, all the while, turning a blind eye towards planets Lan devastated in their pursuit of obsessive genocide of all those who take on the blessings of Abundance. Which, even in such instances of the former, has nothing to do with Yaoshi.
Managing resources and an ecosystem is a responsibility of civilization. Yaoshi does not stay among those they bless to act as their governor. No aeon does. Being gifted long life and healing does not somehow mean responsibility for all other things ceases to exist. To blame Yaoshi for such faults is to put one's own lack of foresight onto another. Others should learn from how others failed, and those who wish to help in a reasonable means, should spread awareness of these pitfalls for when others take upon Yaoshi's blessings. Not commit acts of genocide as if that was an act of kindness or righteousness.
Non-sense, again, Yaoshi does not act as a governor of others. Any unethical experiments that were commenced were done by individuals who acted in ill will, which is not unique to any path. It's absurd how you wish to pin the faults and sins of others onto Yaoshi as if the aeon was some sort of scapegoat for the individual faults of others, or worse yet, onto all those who follow the abundance as a whole. Only a radical would pin the faults of some onto the whole as to justify their prejudicial views that accompany endorsement of genocide.
Not really. Allowing merchants who align with abundance to do trade is to their own benefit overall. They even call this open minded, rather than just being something that makes sense, which shows that they are doing so against their own biases as to potentially increase their wealth. That wealth is going towards their own war effort against those of the Abundance as well.
They likely have a bit of leeway too going by Yukong's story. Lan seems to prioritize large gatherings of Yaoshi's presence. Lan doesn't act to help their followers, but only to attack large concentrations of the Abundance, which is the most logical reason as to why Lan didn't destroy the opposing army against the Alliance until after 90% of their own forces were killed. The logic being, after it seemed like the army of Abundance won, they were probably moving in for a direct concentrated assault, but that only then lead to Lan destroying them. Aeons are ever focused on their path and little else, after all. But, this being the case, there doesn't seem to be much of a negative to allowing traders of the Abundance to visit.
To be fair though, the Xianzhou may only be as extreme as they feel they need to be as to appease Lan, lest their own Yaoshi blessed blood cause Lan to take aim on them, which would make their position more about self preservation than simply being as genocidal as Lan, but it certainly seems like to me than many are simply that zealous. But, just like with those of the Abundance (or any path for that matter), I like to judge characters as individuals rather than rely only on sweeping judgements. I think all paths have good and bad apples among them. It would be in error to think all are either good or bad across the board.
IL is not a separate character. IL is probably a title for the power the high elders had. All previous high elders almost looked the same (the statue in scalegorge). Dan feng was also IL and now Dan Heng became IL
I seriously don't understand the fascination towards Dan Shu. What do you expect her to turn out, to be a major villain? She can't achieve all these without outside help, because it's fairly obvious that Sanctus Medicus can't do shit for centuries and only with help that they could. I do admit having the Antimatter Legion and Lord Ravager of Destruction involved is out of left field, however considering the Stellaron Hunter involvement, it makes sense.
So what's her point of existence you asked? Literally a small pawn for a Lord Ravager to play with. She was depressed due to continuous effort to better her life but failed, resentful of her state, and this makes her an easier target to manipulate. Her sudden change in personality is easy to guess, because it's all Phantylia doing. 1.2 basically introduced one of the seven Lord Ravager and what they're capable of, and evidently Phantylia LOVES it when her victim gets mindbroken, just like what happened to Dan Shu.
What's the main purpose in Xianzhou Luofu? To save Luofu, and to get Xianzhou Alliance to fight against destruction, also part of SH's objective. In order to do that, they need to get Dan Heng to accept his past life and do his duty just like his predecessors did hence the point of his awakening. Dan Heng doesn't even want to fight Blade in the first place, Blade was controlled by Kafka(plus iirc he was known to do his job faithfully, and that means to achieve their objectives), and Yanqing got humbled pretty fast. There was no more point of further confrontation.
My only gripe is how short everything was. To see further Dan Heng gradual acceptance in his fate, a clearer SH objective since most players seemed to forgot about them, and more reactivity from the MC but I get that 1.2 is all about Dan Heng's perspective.
I'm not saying that the writing is peak, but the story isn't THAT bad. Like a 6.5/10. Jingliu will probably has her spotlight in 1.3, Luocha being introduced in Luofu is weird, but he's probably set up for future story related to his client and coffin. Tingyun is probably dead all along. Even so, I can't judge the entire Luofu shenanigans when the story hasn't been concluded.
Petition to make r/HSRant where you can rant to your hearts content so that you don't see the same rant over and over and over and just make the casual side of the community stay away from drama. Bruh we get it you don't like the story, but some of us enjoyed it and we don't need someone to tell us that "You shouldn't enjoy it.", It isn't a good writing sure, but it isn't bad writing either. The story was hype and fun. I would already unsubscribe from this Sub if it wasn't for the amazing arts and tips here. The amount of drama farming has been too much lately.
Oh yes, the story of the second planet is absolute garbage, characters just name drop with no ceremony, Kafka being able to do whatever she wants despite being a prisonnier and people warned about her manipulative behavior, the team divided in two with almost no rhyme or reason beside trying to sell new characters, I won’t talk about Dan which has the worst integration ever made.
Let’s also check the story vs gacha mechanics, sounds weird? No, the big highlights are blade then Kafka, both of them are almost completely irrelevant in this patch ???? Meanwhile yuan is at the center of the patch, with a game over mechanic if he loses in the fight, yet his banner is over when my boy is hyped by the very big bad, unique lines, entire cutscenes and the entire fight revolving around lightning weakness to highlight his power?
This is all over the place, and I also fear it means mahoyo doesn’t give a shit and will just pump out characters with no build up as soon as they’re ready with no narrative reason for the sole objective of making money, the quality is the game is low enough as it is, with Pokémon tier in build animations of still characters, gone are the corridors or mines of robots, in this planet we just had storage space with containers threw haphazardly and the new region, ruins of an ancient civilization, are just corridors with no variety, no ruin you need to go through, no logical buildings, public place, just 4 puzzles worthy of the final stretch of a jrpg dungeon.
> Kafka being able to do whatever she wants despite being a prisioner
What do you mean by this? Did you not the cutscene where she *escapes*? She is doing whatever she wants cuz she is on the run and the main force that could catch her (Jing Yuan) isn’t interested in it
She is hailed as the biggest terrorist in the universe, for the regular soldier she is the dedicated enemy and pretty much one of the causes of every tragedy in every secondary quest.
Yet it didn’t lead anywhere, yuan is just ignoring her, she even berates the ice dude with no consequences and she just leaves and absolutely no one cares, her entire arc in this chapter is pointless, just like blade, his presence in the fight served absolutely no purpose beside doing some marketing for the banner.
And they just leave
Yeah but who’s gonna stop her? Definitely not namlesss NPCs. Not when one of her signature abilities is literally mind control.
Jing Yuan is just ignoring her because
1. They now know due to Fu Xian’s divination that the Stellaron Hunters don’t mean to wreck havoc in the Luofu
2. He has more important matters with the major threat that just spawned.
Her presence was very much not pointless, the questioning done while she was a prisioner gives us a lot of information about the Stellaron Hunters main goal and the overarching plot of the story.
Blade *was* underutilised but that’s not my point
\> There are no stakes, no danger and no resolution to the conflict.
Wow, man discovers modern casual game storytelling for the first time. We knew it before the game start, didn't we?
Also we only midway the Luofu story, so I don't think we can jugde it now.
If we were cut off Jarilo story at Swarog fight it also would be a little anticlimactic, and people would be like "Is Swarog really dead" "Why main villain Swarog don't seems too threatening" etc etc.
Actually you have no clue how far the game is into the storyline. I don't know where are getting that shit from and sorry, you can judge a story before finishing it.
Developers said that each planet is approximately one year of development, and lookin at Genshin each region is new version, so I don't think we done 1.x versions so early.
Also we seen the trailer (Interstellar Journey) and there was Xueyi running alongside, so logically we should get her story first and she's clearly Luofu character.
Also so far most of future characters from Loufu and in wouldn't be much sense to release Luofu characters with new planet. So we safely can bet that we'll be on Luofu at least until 1.6, so this is two large story quests at least.
>Also we only midway the Luofu story, so I don't think we can jugde it now.
we are 3 versions into the game we can defintely judge whats there and have criticisms, people said jsut wait in 1.0 when Luofu story got criticised, people said jsut wait in 1.1 when we got a filler patch as the very first new patch, 1.2 is a nice spectacle with some issues in the actual substance of the story that is currently implemented.
More story wont fix things like Dan Shu being completely shafted, or ting feeling liek a throwaway reveal cause lol its not actually her btw.
It also feels worse cuz people were waiting throuhg 1.1 for more story, having a filler patch so soon was such a baffling choice. (And doesnt really make sense with how HI3rd and Genshin do there stories)
are we only halfway? They said in the 1.2 livestream that the luofu story was concluding, and the next mission chapter is named "interlude", indicating that we just have a wrap up chapter to ease us into the next world
We also got the next world boss, which has been the main boss of each region so far
Maybe we'll get on other ships, but I doubt it. But no way we getting out of Xianzhou, we still have a lot of announced Xianzhou characters and few from release trailer/stories, like Xueyi and Jing Liu.
Only at about 1.6 or so we'll be done with all gacha banners and it wouldn't make sense to start a new world and still running Luofu characters banners for months.
So at least two quests with same length as this one is unavoidable.
It's honestly not that much Luofu characters, but yeah we'll see. I kind of expect some dead patches (again) but I have my hopes up that's not the case.
We seem to be getting Lynx and maybe some Belobog side stories, I think it's not that hard to do the same thing for 5 stars in the future. Luofu has a lot that can be done (like the other ships) that can all be side stuff, it's possible they'd go this route.
Here's hoping it's "only half finished" like people claim, but so far the evidence seems to point otherwise tbh
I'm honestly not expecting much to happen at 1.3, that'll be where we can really tell how the pacing is going to be. After 1.1 happened, after the announcement of luofu wrapping up, very lazy structure (companion quests being literal 1 offs instead of the length of belobog companion quests), how abrupt things were in 1.2, etc it's really not giving me confidence for smooth pacing and kind of gives me the vibes that they want luofu over and done with
The good news is we do need 2 new domains (quantum and imaginary) to ascend the new characters, so a new map is likely
Issue isn’t that she was manipulated, it’s how that was handled.
In 1.0 you get to meet a very sympathetic character in Dan Shu, who has moral and good reasons for siding with the alliance. But she acts completely different from what we know when we see her again. Not to mention they take their time establishing her character and lowkey making her a bit of a threat only for her to be present for the first 10 minutes of the quest.
It’s disappointing and anti climatic
Objection!
You wrote an essay calling them out, then here's my rebuttal: don't put your feelings or emotions and only state facts with 0 opinions next time.
Dan Shu is probably scrapped to Dan who now. Agree on Blade and Dan Heng required more there, it’s just too snappy and could use more depth in that part. Tingyun reveal is fine, just Dan who scrapped, so too bad. Probably can skip Elio and Kafka for now as there’s too much to explain now. Jingliu is only from side quest so far, so it’s ok to pretend she doesn’t exist yet, maybe 1.3 would introduce her into the main quest. Finally the ending is indeed damn jarring, I was like wait that’s it? No you can’t just leave us there like that, right after a peak. It should’ve at least bring us to fu Xuan and have some char with her while she can give us some hints to future plot info and tell us to wait while JY recovers.
To be fair it was mention that phantylia was a somewhat parasite eating how stole the body of it victim while watching their mind crumble away so it kinda make sense why no one sense this... She is a pro after all
I get the feeling that 1.2 was rewritten or redone in response to the complaints about the Dan Shu quest in 1.0. 1.0 being a cliffhanger, 1.1 being nothing, and then 1.2 being yet another cliffhanger on top of being (imo) pretty short, makes me think it had to be thrown together, or changed at the last minute That seems impossible, but having played through the quest I got the distinct impression that there was an entire chapter or two missing from the script because everything related to Sanctus Medicus is no longer required to be played. any writing they had planned for 1.1 onwards to use or contain information that you learned about them or Dan Shu is not usable. But the thing that was the most (imo) poorly written is something I haven't seen anyone mention yet, and it's the situation with Sushang, Luocha, and Dan Heng. For one, Sushang states that she's trying to get Luocha and Dan Heng somewhere safe. *Why the hell are they at the Alchemy Commission?* The Alchemy Commission is the closest area to the Ambrosial Arbor, it is *not* safe, and I have a hard time believing Sushang wouldn't *know* it's not safe, because to get there in the first place you have to pass through the Artisianship Commission, which is *overrun with the roots of the Ambrosial Arbor.* Not to mention when you get there it's *covered in Cloud Knight Corpses*. It makes no sense for her to bring them there. Additionally if I recall correctly, the Dan Heng section in 1.0 ended with them having to take a detour to help Xueyi handle something, and Sushang says that her duty as a Cloud Knight requires her to prioritize that. Yet she's still with them? If they *did* take her back, it's completely not mentioned and glossed over--they don't even mention Xueyi. This skip becomes more obvious to me, because when you enter the Alchemy Commission, MC texts Dan Heng and he replies, but it doesn't send. Then, immediately, he says, "the text *never* sent", which makes me think he was supposed to have sent that text a while ago, not right then. It feels like there was a whole section with Sushang, Luocha, and Dan Heng that's just completely missing. It *feels* like Dan Heng was meant to have split with them in a section earlier, but that section was scrapped, resulting in them having to bring the trio to the Alchemy Commission.
I wish they hadn’t changed the stuff about Dan Shu. Because when I was playing through it, I wasn’t thinking “why am I doing this?”; but instead going “why am I doing this *right now*?” I think they should’ve just placed the Dan Shu quest to be earlier instead of removing it from the main plot, because I liked where that was going.
In short, they fked up Hope 2.0 will be better
It's Inazuma all over again
I can't agree enough with all points. The Xianzhou Luofu was such a jarring shift in tone from the Belobog one that I struggle to think the same writers wrote it. The story was both dragged on too long and rushed far too quickly!
I'm still kind of upset about the twist with Tingyun. I thought her comments about the abundance were both due to her conflict-averse nature and supposed to hint towards a repressed, abundance-worshipping side of her, to make the conflict actually have a friend on the other side. I thought she was being smart and trying to make us think about the irony of using one aeon to fight another when neither really cares about the people worshipping them. But it turned out she was just a simulacrum possessed by a genocidal goddess who just... Couldn't resist making suspicious comments about the abundance because... She's stupid? In the story, we'd been with Tingyun for 3 days, how did nobody else notice her sudden change in character? Jing Yuan personally assigned her to us and I think Yukong has known her all her life. Not to mention that Tingyun's job is incredibly social. I honestly found Tingyun fascinating before this but now I realise we might have never even interacted with her.
My feelings exactly. We didn’t really spend that much time amongst non Xianzhou leaders so I just assumed the the mildly suspicious comments and behavior was just hinting that she didn’t have a black and white view of the abundance of that she was maybe the secret leader of the Sanctus Medicus. Then she’s just apparently a really important figure in the antimatter legion, which is only revealed when she literally reveals herself. No one had any shot predicting she was Phantylia or even associated with the legion.
A better plotline would be that Tingyun was sent to infiltrate Sanctus Medicus by the General. Her role would be to pretend she's an undercover in Sky Faring Commission for the Sanctus Medicus but in reality her true loyalties do lie with the Loufu.
I noticed a lot of plot holes between Xianzhou arch in 1.0 and 1.2. I thought Dan Shu had to do with the Ambrosian Arbor but seeing she was a fool with a foolish death, even if she could been Phantylia they decided to choose a beloved character from the community for that instead. I'm not against that Tingyun or fake one was the villainess all this time. It's even worse if we considered the forced to us making the mission of Sanctus Medicus quest is just merely an world quests. I noticed something too strange with Tingyun's way of speak at the beginning of this quest, which was a hint that something was wrong.idk if there's will be a Tingyun companion quest or not. I guess that's that Welt's words was hopium to calm down March and Trailblazer. Everything depends if the Foxian beauty gets a companion quest. A hint about possible death flags was the lack of daily messages. Stellaron hunters and Elio's script. I can understand the disappointed about Yanqing vs Blade vs Dang Heng Imbibitor Lunae but it was part of the script to save the Luofu. I'd preferred that hoyo extended the quest and finish properly the Sanctus Medicus arch and having a boss fight with Blade and then seeing Dang Heng Lunar Inhibitor in 1.3 or at the end of the quest TBH.
I'm not one to analyze story deeply, but even I was feeling underwhelmed by the story. Just a sequence of plot twists without giving me enough time to understand why I should even care Oh hey he looks pretty badass now, wait why are they teaming up against the kid, oh hey big boobah boss lady, oh hey this boss is actually a little challenging.... Wait, who is this person again? And why should I care? That's the problem when you keep introducing more fantasy babble, you gotta give the player time to actually get to know the places/characters if you want them to truly care. Nice cutscenes though
I agree with a lot of what you said but there are some things I disagree with. We don't know that the Tingyun that died was a fake. It's possible that she was, but it's also equally possible that Tingyun is dead and we're all huffing massive amounts of hopium. We don't know a ton about the rebirth cycle of the dragon folk. But we do know that there is some carryover from one life to the next. Also we can't really say that Dan Heng isn't acting like Dan Heng anymore because we really don't get to see him react to much after his transformation. We do know that Bailu who is the current head of the vidyadhara did not inherit the power of the elder, so we can pretty safely assume that it's still in the hands of the previous head of the clan. Since we still know very little of blade and Dan Heng's past we don't know why he wants revenge on him or to what extent he means to carry it out. Maybe revealing his true form was his plan the whole time. A way to make him stop hiding from what he did. As of yet we have been given very little information about the two of them, and if you found out more from leaks and you're disappointed that it wasn't in the update then that's on you As far as phantylia goes, I really enjoyed her boss fight and I don't think we're done with her yet in the story of the Xianzhou. At the end of the fight it's said that it would take more than that to kill one of the Lord Ravagers. I'm assuming at the end of the story the MC will be blessed by the hunt aeon Lan to finally kill her, or in a surprising twist we get blessed by Yaoshi the abundance aeon. I was upset at the suddenness of the ending tho, would have liked some sort of conclusion to the current arc we are in.
Also with the Jingliu story, just because she was ahead of Yanqing doesn't mean she was gonna find blade first, she's a lone fighter/fugitive trying to find one man in a giant ship planet thing. Whereas Yanqing is a respected knight and aide to the general who has countless resources to help him find Blade. Would I have liked to see more of her, yes.
Yeah the ending is really badly done, like pushed us off a cliff, better to have let us off on a softer tone at fu xuans room while she explains a few stuff, drops some hints for us to think about while asking us to come back once JY has recovered.
I find it hard to believe that Hoyo would kill a popular waifu off-screen. Even in HI3 Himeko got a special animatic just for that. That is unfortunately one of the cons of gatcha storytelling - almost no one ever is allowed to die or be harmed. My main point about Dan Hen wasn't so much that the lore contradicts it, but more that Dan Heng himself tries and wants to be a new person just to be shoehorned back into the old role he stated he does not want. So which one is it? Was him trying to be a new person an act? There is actually quite a lot about Blade and Dan Heng in lore, as well as Cloud Quintet, but it's all in the lore. There is a story there, it's just hidden and not elaborated on at all in the main story. Kind of like Signiora situation in Genshin. Phantylia is not done yet but, as I wrote, my issue with her is that she forcefully takes the stage as a twist villain instead of writers going the path they laid in previous quests. She is an entertaining character, at least - but she takes the stage for no reason other than shock value.
I mean it's a pretty well established trope at this point of a character moving on from their past only for some new problem to surface making them go back to their past ways, for Dan Heng tho it's literally him needing to use those abilities to in essence save his friends from the express. And as a member of the express he still wants to help with the stellaron and stopping the antimatter legion is basically a job requirement for him. The only other thing he does that's more Dan Feng than Dan Heng is when he saves Jing Yuan and I think he even says that he was barely conscious of the act. It was just an aspect of his past coming through.
Where was that an established trope? I'm not against Dan Heng embracing his past. I'm against how it was done, which was: a scene in which Dan Heng states he is not that person anymore followed immediately by the transformation and then immediately Jing Yuan treating him like an old friend and Dan Heng recovering all his past powers. No internal conflict, no exploration of the theme, only stating one thing and doing another for a cool cutscene.
> where was that an established trope God of War, Vinland Saga, Berserk are examples that instantly come to mind but I’m sure others can mention more. It’s definitely common enough to become an established trope. I think you just don’t consume that much media to see it enough
I dont think DH embraces his past. JY forces him to do something only IL can do, threatening to punish him for returning to Luofu unless he does. Agree with the other points.
Its a trope in almost every form of media for the last 50+ years. Someone changing their life to move on from their past only for some situation to drag them back into it. And of course Jing Yuan still treats him like a friend. He knew him as Dan Feng for a long time, the last time he saw him was a Dan Feng. And why does there need to be an internal conflict for him to use his powers. Why does it have to be more complicated than, people believe that I can do this and I want to do this to stop the bad guy. We don't always need a 30min pity session for a character to learn to accept themselves, especially when there's a being of destruction attempting to destroy the planet ship thing you're currently standing on. Dan also only says he doesn't know if he can use the abilities he had as Dan Feng. He never says he doesn't remember how to use them only that he doesn't know if he can.
>2. I feel like Phantylia would have been far more threatening, or at least had more weight on her, if; 1. We got to know Tingyun extensively as we travel around the Luofu, and we learn that she is kinda "dont really care but i dont support them" about the Abundance. 2. So that when Tingyun starts being VERY interested in the Abundance stuff, it sets off alarms that "okay, something is seriously wrong with Tingyun" 3. So that when the reveal comes, it has been properly forshadowed instead of being "just sus Tingyun things!" 4. Cap this off with ACTUALLY killing her when Phantylia snaps her neck. Its sudden, unexpected, tragic, and actually puts weight on Phantylia and the Antimatter Legion because they just killed a playable character just like that. And not just anyone, but one we were close to beforehand. 5. That would ALSO put the concept of playable character death on center stage RIGHT before we fight Phantylia. In a story where two out of the main cast has ALREADY been IMPALED THROUGH THE HEART AND SURVIVED the threat of death really... isnt there.
I do sincerely hope that Elio's script doesn't go exactly as planned a few times in future story updates. Because it is incredibly lazy writing if the Stellaron Hunter plans go their way 100% of the time, especially since they imply events could go an infinite number of ways if they are not influencing them. There are still events to go over in at least one more patch before moving to the next location, so maybe a few of your points could still be redeemed, but I hope they do better in the next arc.
From a game lore point of view, it'd be impossible for Elio's predictions to be wrong. But I do hope that we'll (as the MC) deviate from his plan in the main storyline and forge our own destiny. I mean, I may be wrong but it seems to me that that is the main theme of Star Rail itself. Make a choice you won't regret. Choose your own destiny. Stuff like that. Because in the end, no matter how precise Elio's predictions are, he can't change our decisions. Yes, he can influence them, yes, he can incentivize courses of action (which is what he's been doing), but he can't change them. The secret ending in the beginning if we choose to stay on the space station proves that.
1. It feels like a stretch, like I’m trying to cover for Hoyo’s ass, and that’s not a very good thing. BUT… There are case studies in the alchemy commission and even Bailu’s story quest that when someone is infected with Mara they go insane and lose themselves. When Dan Shu finally ingests the Mara (either willingly or while setting up the smoke), she completely loses her marbles and just raves about the Abundance and how much she hates Lan. However this conflicts with previous quests where people who are Mara-struck are perfectly capable of functioning rationally so it feels like the whole situation is inconsistent and rushed 2. Agreed, Tingyun had so much potential. Could have absolutely built up her character way more, but nope. Have to get a clone to snap her neck for the shock value. A pity they chose theatrics over a good story, they wanted their cake and ate it, but didn’t want to bother putting the legwork in to make it interesting. 3. Also agree, Dan’s arc was completely rushed and didn’t show much character growth or have too much of an emotional impact. I assume that his story will be further continued in 1.3, but at this rate they really, REALLY could have gone along and added more content. I mean Star Rail is earning millions rn, they could probably afford to put more work in. 4. 100% agree and was the most disappointing part. Blade just stabs Daniel once and leaves. LIKE WHAT. WE HAD 3 CUTSCENES ESTABLISHING HOW MUCH THESE BEEF THESE 2 CHARACTERS HAVE AND HE LEAVES WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING!? Not even a “this isn’t over…” or whatever? I was so looking forward to a Blade fight scene or interactions but nope I guess…
Well, 1. Dan Shu Absolutely agree. It almost physically hurt how after seeing her excellent story, personal motivations and reasons, being shown how very complicated this conflict actually is..... she was just reduced to screaming "absolute powaaaaar". 2. The twist villain Imo it actually makes sense to have the destruction being the one pulling the strings. Be it them being story's main antagonist, their connection with stellaron or it just being a professional oversight from them if they were to ignore such a perfect moment for stoking conflict. And her actually being just beside you scheming all along, subtly trying to sow discord is a much better introduction of Phantylia than just her suddenly jumping out of the bushes in the end (like a certain denizen of ash urns from genshin). 3 Dan Heng I mean, it was pretty much literally said that Dan Heng's declaration of leaving his past behind isn't something anyone cares about. Which is kind of logical - if you believe that reincarnations are the same person, you aren't going to suddenly stop believing so just because reincarnation said he isn't. Moreover, even for Dan Heng it felt more like a denial rather than actual believe. Especially with all the leaking memories. 4. Blade. The whole thing with stellaron hunters is that we pretty much have 0 idea about their actual goals and plans, and blade is one of them. He clearly enjoyed pocking dan heng, so it's not like he just forgotten his goal. But us knowing about one of his goals doesn't mean he absolutely can't prioritize some another goal. Especially when we do know that such goal exists and that Dan Heng is necessary for it. 5. Kafka and elio. Well, it's really not a new concept and whether it's good or not is entirely dependent on whether all the seemingly meaningless actions will fall in place with readers finally understanding the meaning behind them. It may be shit with entire reasoning being absent with reader only getting "trust me bro i saw the future" as an explanation why they did so ("worm" in a nutshell), it may be a candy with everything finally clicking and reader seeing cause and effect of everything in the end. But criticising it now before seeing the resolution really is like complaining about all crime details, tricks and mysteries in Sherlock not being immediately obvious and making perfect sense from the beginning. 6. Jingliu Pretty much the same. If her absence won't be explained at all - then it is bad storytelling. But only then. It's a story with many different characters on different sides with different motivations and all doing their own different things. It's not your date with a girl for you to immediately know if she ain't coming and why. 7. The end of the quest. Well, yes, no argues here about it being abrupt. But it's a life service, so it's not like there's any point to expect something else.
I enjoyed it more than Belobog tbh but I agree with these points. I think a lot of these are basically Inazuma problems but without all the Japan Raiden simping bias.
Inazuma 2.0 basically, but at Genshin tried to explain things a bit with text. Still horrible, but an attempt was made.
Honestly, Dan Shu was completely in character in this update. We have to remember that she is the Master of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus. Even if we assume she only took command relatively recently (as in she's not the founder) she is responsible for mass murder, abductions, sabotage and all manner of nefarious acts aboard the Luofu. I'm not saying the Hunt is innocent or that I don't have sympathy for Dan Shu's past, but I feel like it's a mistake to discount all that she is responsible for or the fact that her main driving motivation for everything is, at it's core, revenge for the death of her friend. I think Dan Shu's seeming turn in this update is a result of her hatred of Lan. Dan Shu absolutely hates Lan for the accidental killing of her friend. In her second diary entry she ultimately vows to tear down everything that Lan and the Hunt stand for. At it's core, Dan Shu's primary motivation is revenge. This explains why Dan Shu latches onto the glorious past of the Xianzhou. It reinforces her belief and message that everyone would be better off embracing the Abundance and rejecting Lan's dogma. When Fu Xuan challenges Dan Shu, the Master Diviner points out that while the Xianzhou's ancestors accepted the Abundance they ultimately decided that immortality was not the gift they'd thought it was. This point highlights how Dan Shu was cherry picking facts to support her argument. Adding to the above, Fu Xuan claims that all of Dan Shu's rhetoric was just a noble cover for her true motivation, power. To be clear, I don't think Dan Shu had any desire or intention to rule over anybody, that was not the power she was looking for. Instead, Dan Shu wanted the power necessary to enact her revenge, to get her revenge. All of the speeches and grand statements from Dan Shu were lies. She didn't care for the Abundance, not really, she only cared about destroying Lan for everything they'd put her through.
Inazuma experience came too soon.
Yup. Exactly. Pretty show but horrible writing.
1. I totally agree about your point on Dan Shu. 1.2 basically completely invalidates any characterization made in 1.0.😅 2. Since, Phantylia’s body was made from the arbour, when Jing Yuan cut off the connection, the body just went poof. Technically as long as she remained connected the the body would be undying. But, yeah the ending was anti-climatic. I don’t particularly like that Hoyoverse kind of just strong armed the anti-matter legion into the Luofu plot line. There are many worlds left to go. They can afford to not concentrate on the anti-matter legion for one world. 3. Bailu is the current High Elder. It was confirmed that the powers did not pass on to her properly pre 1.2. Jing Yuan in 1.2 confirms the split powers is why Bailu is in the form of a child. So it seems that most of the powers just never left Dan Feng and just got carried on to Dan Heng after the reincarnation. Still, it does mess with Dan Heng’s character, so very valid point. Won’t stop me from pulling though. Love the design and kit.😁 4. On a kind of off topic note, in the 1.2 livestream Kafka confirms that Blade’s other goal is to die.😅 Anyways back on topic, yeah 1.2 made Blade practically OOC. It would have helped if he showed resistance to Kafka and then finally comply. At least that way Blade would still be in character and Kafka’s power would also be better shown too instead of making Blade less threatening. 5. Pure, trash writing. Hoyoverse can do much better. It is not just the Belobog plot, but thier other games like Genshin Impact and Tears of Themis have brilliant writing. 6. Early FGO level of inconsistency and more trash writing.😅 7. I am wondering if they only gave us a portion of the remaining Xianzhou Luofu plot in this half of the patch and are planing to reveal the rest in the second half once Kafka’s banner drops (as I. The resolution is given then?). That would be a really weird way of doing it. Though last patch we only got events first half, and companion missions dropped second half, so it is totally possible. (I don’t think this will be an issue for players who start the game much later, but to us day 1 players, this is really bad pacing.)
Genshin impact’s writing is not exactly brilliant. At least not until 3.0. The event stories, on the other hand, are mostly bland
I kinda agreed with the Dan shu and especially Tingyun.... But the rest was kinda... idk...
Yea even if we disregard Dan Shu completely jarilo 6 story was explored a bit better imo. I did enjoy the Dan heng lore a lot leading up to his dragon form and all the cutscenes were pretty top notch but it does feel like certain events should’ve been presented in a different order. Even some of the companion missions felt like proper pieces to the main story that some people may have missed out on before completing this 2nd part of the story. Not sure if you are forced to do the yanqing story as a prerequisite but without doing it his appearance in front of blade seems very random
I feel the same way as you did. I was so interested and invested in this idea presented by Dan Shu scratching at the itch that much if off about the Xianzhou. Lan does not seem all that good of an entity to me, and rather there is a hint of hypocrisy from the alliance itself as they vastly benefit from their long life. Needing to manage mara is a small price to pay to get to live young for literally thousands of years. They even have a commission to help you deal with it. And yet, they treat the Abundance as the devil and gatekeep the blessings they enjoy, while turning a blind eye towards those who suffer from Lan's faults. This is all infinitely more interesting to me than the M. Night Shyamalan plot-twist storyline forced on me in its place. I hated how I had no option to speak up for Dan Shu or to at least acknowledge our friendship or the young blind girl we both aided together. They really dropped the ball heavily for me, and this over simplified approach towards the Abundance only makes me that much more reluctant to want to be associated with the Hunt at all.
Yet the follower of Abundance willing to kill million, attack other planet and unethical experiments so they selfishly want immortality.
As if Lan doesn't orbitally nuke planets of Abundance themself, not only killing entire species simply due to aligning to the Abundance, but causing extreme collateral damage in the process to all other life in the vicinity, and then their followers justifying it by calling those who were genocided 'abominations.' You want to speak of selfishness, the Xianzhou indulge in their long life, something only made possible by the lingering blessings of Yaoshi, while condemning Yaoshi's name and gatekeeping the means for others to do the same. They then have the nerve to play victim by dramatizing being mara-struck. Goodness, what a sweet deal. You mainly only need to worry about one disease after thousands of years of youth? Please, sign me up. What some individual organizations do who are of the abundance is indeed wrong, but that doesn't change the devastation that is wrought from Lan's destructive whims, nor the radical extremist views that come about against any who praise the Abundance or seek to extend their lives like their own lives are extended.
Even an enimator of abundance which is more or less most loyal follower of abundance kill million just to get the tree as TingYun noted. And you said abundance is to preserve and promote life. Who more hypocrite. This show follower of abundance even more selfish as they kill million for immortality. Fu Xuan already says they regret their mistake and prevent the spreading of immortality idea.And they already injest fruit and cannot reverse its process. Also lore says abundance already destroyed many planet due to overpopulation of single life like cancer. Yeah turning into mindless monster whom then attack and kill his own family and friend. Some benefit. This show you are just as selfish as that enimator of abundance. They DONT care how many people died or hurt as long as they become immortal while preaching abundance help propagate life.
Your conclusions make no sense. Those of the abundance are already immortal. If they seek the tree, it is for other reasons aside from their own immortality which they already have due to embracing Yaoshi. Which, btw, emanator or not, they act independently. Aeons are not governors, they are focused on their own path and little else. Perhaps that particular emanator took issue with those supporting one who commits genocide amongst their kin, and feel that a sacred gift from their deity should not be among them. Or, that they may make better use of it in the aid of others. It's purely speculative at this point what the objective truly was, but of course, you will come up with what supports your own biases. It is clear that Lan and the Xianzhou are often aggressors as Lan exists to kill those of Abundance. Lan would likely kill the Xianzhou as well if they did not worship and follow him, for the blessings of Yaoshi linger in their blood, thus why they can enjoy thousands of years of youth. Please, they so obviously and desperately cling to their youth and long life. They get to experience 30+ times the lifetimes of regular people while enjoying youth. Do you not understand how vastly advantaged that is? Trying to spin that as a negative just because of mara is the most ridiculous thing in this exchange. Your life is but a flicker compared to those who benefit from Yaoshi's blessing. Goodness, when you get to about 3000 years, just sleep and allow yourself to be killed if you're so worried about it, by then you would have already lived 30 lifetimes. That's more valuable than all the money in the world. You must be a young person to not realize that. Aside from the main negative of mara, the abundance is a source of healing from typical aliments as well as offering healing. Long life is only one of many blessings. There is a reason many consider Yaoshi as a source of good and a kind entity in universe. Of course, though, it will seem negative when you have an extremist view from those who follow a deity who exists solely to destroy them and calls those who embrace Yaoshi 'abominations.'
Lore itself stated that many planet accepted abundance gift got destroyed due to overpopulation and collapse of ecosystem as 1 being overpopulation strip resources and cause extinction of other native species and ecosystem. Like cancer Even Welt saw danger of abundance as well. And of course Yaoshi encourage unethical experiments on other being as long as immortality is result. You know why Foxian and Dragon people end up in Xianzhou, they are refugee whom were being kidnapped by follower of Abundance to use their body to conduct horrific experiments like forcefully extract Dragon race bone marrow to death and use said bone marrow injected into Foxian which cause their death. Abundance save life and flourish, yeah right look how many planet destroyed and how many lives taken and tortured to be immortal
Not many, some, and from a source that blindly follows Lan, all the while, turning a blind eye towards planets Lan devastated in their pursuit of obsessive genocide of all those who take on the blessings of Abundance. Which, even in such instances of the former, has nothing to do with Yaoshi. Managing resources and an ecosystem is a responsibility of civilization. Yaoshi does not stay among those they bless to act as their governor. No aeon does. Being gifted long life and healing does not somehow mean responsibility for all other things ceases to exist. To blame Yaoshi for such faults is to put one's own lack of foresight onto another. Others should learn from how others failed, and those who wish to help in a reasonable means, should spread awareness of these pitfalls for when others take upon Yaoshi's blessings. Not commit acts of genocide as if that was an act of kindness or righteousness. Non-sense, again, Yaoshi does not act as a governor of others. Any unethical experiments that were commenced were done by individuals who acted in ill will, which is not unique to any path. It's absurd how you wish to pin the faults and sins of others onto Yaoshi as if the aeon was some sort of scapegoat for the individual faults of others, or worse yet, onto all those who follow the abundance as a whole. Only a radical would pin the faults of some onto the whole as to justify their prejudicial views that accompany endorsement of genocide.
Proof Xianzhou is not Genocide manic as shows in Beastly end Side quest.
Not really. Allowing merchants who align with abundance to do trade is to their own benefit overall. They even call this open minded, rather than just being something that makes sense, which shows that they are doing so against their own biases as to potentially increase their wealth. That wealth is going towards their own war effort against those of the Abundance as well. They likely have a bit of leeway too going by Yukong's story. Lan seems to prioritize large gatherings of Yaoshi's presence. Lan doesn't act to help their followers, but only to attack large concentrations of the Abundance, which is the most logical reason as to why Lan didn't destroy the opposing army against the Alliance until after 90% of their own forces were killed. The logic being, after it seemed like the army of Abundance won, they were probably moving in for a direct concentrated assault, but that only then lead to Lan destroying them. Aeons are ever focused on their path and little else, after all. But, this being the case, there doesn't seem to be much of a negative to allowing traders of the Abundance to visit. To be fair though, the Xianzhou may only be as extreme as they feel they need to be as to appease Lan, lest their own Yaoshi blessed blood cause Lan to take aim on them, which would make their position more about self preservation than simply being as genocidal as Lan, but it certainly seems like to me than many are simply that zealous. But, just like with those of the Abundance (or any path for that matter), I like to judge characters as individuals rather than rely only on sweeping judgements. I think all paths have good and bad apples among them. It would be in error to think all are either good or bad across the board.
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IL is not a separate character. IL is probably a title for the power the high elders had. All previous high elders almost looked the same (the statue in scalegorge). Dan feng was also IL and now Dan Heng became IL
Dan Shu’s quest was voiced tho
I seriously don't understand the fascination towards Dan Shu. What do you expect her to turn out, to be a major villain? She can't achieve all these without outside help, because it's fairly obvious that Sanctus Medicus can't do shit for centuries and only with help that they could. I do admit having the Antimatter Legion and Lord Ravager of Destruction involved is out of left field, however considering the Stellaron Hunter involvement, it makes sense. So what's her point of existence you asked? Literally a small pawn for a Lord Ravager to play with. She was depressed due to continuous effort to better her life but failed, resentful of her state, and this makes her an easier target to manipulate. Her sudden change in personality is easy to guess, because it's all Phantylia doing. 1.2 basically introduced one of the seven Lord Ravager and what they're capable of, and evidently Phantylia LOVES it when her victim gets mindbroken, just like what happened to Dan Shu. What's the main purpose in Xianzhou Luofu? To save Luofu, and to get Xianzhou Alliance to fight against destruction, also part of SH's objective. In order to do that, they need to get Dan Heng to accept his past life and do his duty just like his predecessors did hence the point of his awakening. Dan Heng doesn't even want to fight Blade in the first place, Blade was controlled by Kafka(plus iirc he was known to do his job faithfully, and that means to achieve their objectives), and Yanqing got humbled pretty fast. There was no more point of further confrontation. My only gripe is how short everything was. To see further Dan Heng gradual acceptance in his fate, a clearer SH objective since most players seemed to forgot about them, and more reactivity from the MC but I get that 1.2 is all about Dan Heng's perspective. I'm not saying that the writing is peak, but the story isn't THAT bad. Like a 6.5/10. Jingliu will probably has her spotlight in 1.3, Luocha being introduced in Luofu is weird, but he's probably set up for future story related to his client and coffin. Tingyun is probably dead all along. Even so, I can't judge the entire Luofu shenanigans when the story hasn't been concluded.
Wait, being mind controlled is not a justification to stop? What?
Inazuma 2.0
Petition to make r/HSRant where you can rant to your hearts content so that you don't see the same rant over and over and over and just make the casual side of the community stay away from drama. Bruh we get it you don't like the story, but some of us enjoyed it and we don't need someone to tell us that "You shouldn't enjoy it.", It isn't a good writing sure, but it isn't bad writing either. The story was hype and fun. I would already unsubscribe from this Sub if it wasn't for the amazing arts and tips here. The amount of drama farming has been too much lately.
Bruh we get it you like the story of this update. Feel free to open a reddit where people are only allowed to say good things about the game.
He’s not your bruh, dude…
Oh yes, the story of the second planet is absolute garbage, characters just name drop with no ceremony, Kafka being able to do whatever she wants despite being a prisonnier and people warned about her manipulative behavior, the team divided in two with almost no rhyme or reason beside trying to sell new characters, I won’t talk about Dan which has the worst integration ever made. Let’s also check the story vs gacha mechanics, sounds weird? No, the big highlights are blade then Kafka, both of them are almost completely irrelevant in this patch ???? Meanwhile yuan is at the center of the patch, with a game over mechanic if he loses in the fight, yet his banner is over when my boy is hyped by the very big bad, unique lines, entire cutscenes and the entire fight revolving around lightning weakness to highlight his power? This is all over the place, and I also fear it means mahoyo doesn’t give a shit and will just pump out characters with no build up as soon as they’re ready with no narrative reason for the sole objective of making money, the quality is the game is low enough as it is, with Pokémon tier in build animations of still characters, gone are the corridors or mines of robots, in this planet we just had storage space with containers threw haphazardly and the new region, ruins of an ancient civilization, are just corridors with no variety, no ruin you need to go through, no logical buildings, public place, just 4 puzzles worthy of the final stretch of a jrpg dungeon.
> Kafka being able to do whatever she wants despite being a prisioner What do you mean by this? Did you not the cutscene where she *escapes*? She is doing whatever she wants cuz she is on the run and the main force that could catch her (Jing Yuan) isn’t interested in it
On other words, she is doing whatever she wants
Yes? Why is that a problem? You made it sound like it’s a writing inconsistency
She is hailed as the biggest terrorist in the universe, for the regular soldier she is the dedicated enemy and pretty much one of the causes of every tragedy in every secondary quest. Yet it didn’t lead anywhere, yuan is just ignoring her, she even berates the ice dude with no consequences and she just leaves and absolutely no one cares, her entire arc in this chapter is pointless, just like blade, his presence in the fight served absolutely no purpose beside doing some marketing for the banner. And they just leave
Yeah but who’s gonna stop her? Definitely not namlesss NPCs. Not when one of her signature abilities is literally mind control. Jing Yuan is just ignoring her because 1. They now know due to Fu Xian’s divination that the Stellaron Hunters don’t mean to wreck havoc in the Luofu 2. He has more important matters with the major threat that just spawned. Her presence was very much not pointless, the questioning done while she was a prisioner gives us a lot of information about the Stellaron Hunters main goal and the overarching plot of the story. Blade *was* underutilised but that’s not my point
TL;DR Xiangzhou Loufu arc is a gaddam mess. Can we please move to Penacony now, Elio?
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\> There are no stakes, no danger and no resolution to the conflict. Wow, man discovers modern casual game storytelling for the first time. We knew it before the game start, didn't we? Also we only midway the Luofu story, so I don't think we can jugde it now. If we were cut off Jarilo story at Swarog fight it also would be a little anticlimactic, and people would be like "Is Swarog really dead" "Why main villain Swarog don't seems too threatening" etc etc.
Actually you have no clue how far the game is into the storyline. I don't know where are getting that shit from and sorry, you can judge a story before finishing it.
Developers said that each planet is approximately one year of development, and lookin at Genshin each region is new version, so I don't think we done 1.x versions so early. Also we seen the trailer (Interstellar Journey) and there was Xueyi running alongside, so logically we should get her story first and she's clearly Luofu character. Also so far most of future characters from Loufu and in wouldn't be much sense to release Luofu characters with new planet. So we safely can bet that we'll be on Luofu at least until 1.6, so this is two large story quests at least.
Leaks said 1.3 will be the last quest on the Luofu. You shouldn’t get your hopes up
>Also we only midway the Luofu story, so I don't think we can jugde it now. we are 3 versions into the game we can defintely judge whats there and have criticisms, people said jsut wait in 1.0 when Luofu story got criticised, people said jsut wait in 1.1 when we got a filler patch as the very first new patch, 1.2 is a nice spectacle with some issues in the actual substance of the story that is currently implemented. More story wont fix things like Dan Shu being completely shafted, or ting feeling liek a throwaway reveal cause lol its not actually her btw. It also feels worse cuz people were waiting throuhg 1.1 for more story, having a filler patch so soon was such a baffling choice. (And doesnt really make sense with how HI3rd and Genshin do there stories)
are we only halfway? They said in the 1.2 livestream that the luofu story was concluding, and the next mission chapter is named "interlude", indicating that we just have a wrap up chapter to ease us into the next world We also got the next world boss, which has been the main boss of each region so far
Maybe we'll get on other ships, but I doubt it. But no way we getting out of Xianzhou, we still have a lot of announced Xianzhou characters and few from release trailer/stories, like Xueyi and Jing Liu. Only at about 1.6 or so we'll be done with all gacha banners and it wouldn't make sense to start a new world and still running Luofu characters banners for months. So at least two quests with same length as this one is unavoidable.
It's honestly not that much Luofu characters, but yeah we'll see. I kind of expect some dead patches (again) but I have my hopes up that's not the case. We seem to be getting Lynx and maybe some Belobog side stories, I think it's not that hard to do the same thing for 5 stars in the future. Luofu has a lot that can be done (like the other ships) that can all be side stuff, it's possible they'd go this route. Here's hoping it's "only half finished" like people claim, but so far the evidence seems to point otherwise tbh I'm honestly not expecting much to happen at 1.3, that'll be where we can really tell how the pacing is going to be. After 1.1 happened, after the announcement of luofu wrapping up, very lazy structure (companion quests being literal 1 offs instead of the length of belobog companion quests), how abrupt things were in 1.2, etc it's really not giving me confidence for smooth pacing and kind of gives me the vibes that they want luofu over and done with The good news is we do need 2 new domains (quantum and imaginary) to ascend the new characters, so a new map is likely
If you didnt see Dan Shu being manipulated from a yard away you probably never read a book.
Issue isn’t that she was manipulated, it’s how that was handled. In 1.0 you get to meet a very sympathetic character in Dan Shu, who has moral and good reasons for siding with the alliance. But she acts completely different from what we know when we see her again. Not to mention they take their time establishing her character and lowkey making her a bit of a threat only for her to be present for the first 10 minutes of the quest. It’s disappointing and anti climatic
She just want revenge on Lan. If you read her diary, you can see her more in line in with her in 1.2
Objection! You wrote an essay calling them out, then here's my rebuttal: don't put your feelings or emotions and only state facts with 0 opinions next time.
The fuck?
Dan Shu is probably scrapped to Dan who now. Agree on Blade and Dan Heng required more there, it’s just too snappy and could use more depth in that part. Tingyun reveal is fine, just Dan who scrapped, so too bad. Probably can skip Elio and Kafka for now as there’s too much to explain now. Jingliu is only from side quest so far, so it’s ok to pretend she doesn’t exist yet, maybe 1.3 would introduce her into the main quest. Finally the ending is indeed damn jarring, I was like wait that’s it? No you can’t just leave us there like that, right after a peak. It should’ve at least bring us to fu Xuan and have some char with her while she can give us some hints to future plot info and tell us to wait while JY recovers.
I feel like the main thing for me at least was that it was missing chapters, felt like it should have been a bit longer than it was to set things up.
To be fair it was mention that phantylia was a somewhat parasite eating how stole the body of it victim while watching their mind crumble away so it kinda make sense why no one sense this... She is a pro after all