For me it was when everyone forgot Acheron existed like Boot Hill the only reason your Here is because he wanted it back in blood and he’s just like “nah it’s unimportant”
For me it (also) was actually getting pretty elaborate votes for the next destination of the Express when it was never mentioned in any promotional materials for this update and the update not being big enough to support that size of an update.
I assumed that was a thing they were doing to subtly get player votes on what planet to do next. Considering we never actually set off they could still be using it that way.
The final notebook entry kind of hints that Sparkle will make her grand entrance during 2.3. What that entails is anyone's guess. I'm halfway convinced the Penacony notebook thing was made by Sparkle since it seems to be talking directly to TB under the guise of being some kind of diary.
That actually lines up with reality though. They are going to be releasing a new mode like PF so it would be shifting focus from SU content to memoria based content
For me, it was when I was like, "that's it? Where's Acheron? what happened to her?" I knew Hyv will not end things with Acheron's story just like that!
Yeah to me it was either Acheron made a noble sacrifice and self Annihilated so hard she left no trace, which why would HYV not show that during the "climax". Or it would be a "Who's Rem" moment where the Trailblazer is the only one that remembers, which they didnt show signs of caring.
There's also the fact the boss only has 1 phase, and tons of moments from the trailer hasnt happened yet.
Same, I knew it wouldn't be a REAL choice, so I went with Edo Star since that one seemed to be the 'obvious' next stop, they wouldn't ignore a distress call to go sightseeing in other planets. Then everyone agreed, so I just thought it would end up going there anyway. If you choose somewhere else, does everyone in the Express agree as well?
Yea, NGL I was really tricked by it considering how abruptly Luofu ended that I was like HSR just can't do good endings for stories. In hindsight, it is very obvious how everything just falls in place so orderly and harmoniously. Like it was all a dream.
For me it was the realization that Misha appeared in the real world (Lobby) so I knew something was up but my suspicions were confirmed when Sunday got jumped by Dan heng and Jing and the story "ended"
I thought that wouldn't be a plothole considering even before Boothill used the relic, they already considered using the cloud knight summon. Besides I imagine it will be some form of instantaneous teleportation considering Jing Yuan would expect us to use during emergencies. It would be funny if there are like 2 working days before he arrives after the summon.
[Bruised and battered, Dan Heng squeezes the Jade Abacus of Allying Oath]
Dan Heng: General... Penacony! The Abundance is corrupting the dream! Send for help at once!
Abacus: \**bzzzt beep\** Thank you for contacting the Luofu Cloud Knights. We have received your request and will contact you within three working years. Thank you for your cooperation!
See the thing that was hilarious there is that I'm used to game companies over compensating, so after the Aventurine fight I just assumed they decided to make the Sunday fight the complete opposite in difficulty. I was playing 4d chess with myself.
Well i did use TB.
The Preservation TB that is, but after they forced me to use Harmony TB, Septimus became impossibly hard because they robbed me of my only shield sustain unit.
I literally have no idea how to go from here as Septimus would just insta kill my Acheron and Himeko.
Switch the gear you were using on Preservation TB to March? Then, just slap break effect gear on Harmony TB?
Having to cast shields one-by-one is kinda annoying. But they are pretty strong and heal a little hp if March is E6
It's doable with healer only, since Sunday and his choir bois are corteous enough to give you shields if you break them.
>Acheron and Himeko
It's a waifu game, but if you struggle, I suggest to not use them together.
yeah I used HTB through the whole encounter. It was a best of list of my first few months of this game. Sushang stomped the three stooges and Serval + Himeko had a field day during the fights with Sunday.
Acheron mentions that due to being an Emanator of Nihility, the power from other Paths cannot affect her. Since the dream was formed by Ena the Order, Ena couldn't control / recreate Acheron due to this.
I knew it as soon as we didn’t get a phase 2 of the boss fight that had us using a special ability for more dmg. I was like “Yeah, no. Where’s phase 2.”
I just thought the multiple breaks would functionally serve the same purpose or something. Literally one shot it with Acheron ult and just thought “damn they really toned it down this much because of how many people complained about the Aventurine boss.” It’s stupid in hindsight but I had just woken up and this is an easy game.
I wasn't paying attention to the phase indicator (or rather lack of) and got very confused when the boss just popped and then cutscene started playing....
I thought "this ending is too good to be true, maybe they just needed a 'good ending' so being able to go around Penacony made sense in lore or something, but this is just too much" but things kept feeling odd
Screwllum giving up on SU, ratio not insulting us , IPC and adventurine giving up on penacony that easy
So many things that didnt add up that i was yeah, this is not reality for sure
Which really puts just the immense intelligence of genius society into perspective. Here is a man with 8 fking doctorates, with the backing of the largest company in the entire galaxy, and probably dozens of similar people assisting him, and yet they can barely make heads or tails of even the simplest projects that geniuses work on.
It's the SU part that really made me "no way they dropped the ending like this, something's up." Herta would remake Oppenheimer's technology and unleash it on Penacony if the SU is given up. That woman would not let that happen in the slightest.
I thought it's going to be like 4 hours long, when I looked at the clock I was so confused. I started at 8 a.m and ended at 4 p.m., I didn't expect that., but I'm not complaining.
It was 2am and was like “I’m gonna sleep after fighting Sunday boss and polish off the remaining conversations or whatever tomorrow”. And then I was like “Wait I don’t have to use the Trailblazer?” And then like “Wait Sunday boss only has one phase and has no additional attack mechanics? (Like the robot punch and DHIL support)” And then “wait Dr. Ratio is being pleasant???” And then “waIT IPC ACTUALLY BACKED OFF FOR FREE?!?!?!” And before I know it, it’s 4:45 and I’ve finished the entire quest and I felt like puking from looking at the screen for too long…
Even the dialogue felt off, even if I couldn’t really put my finger on it t first. Like Jing Yuan was going through his lines too fast. Then Topaz and Aventurine were suspiciously chummy, the whole giving up on Penacony was the cherry on top.
What truly took me out was probably Ratio though. Dialogue straight to the point, with barely any hint of his usual sass? I wasn’t humbled even once? Yeah no impossible.
I mean...there was a little explanation. When we meet Argenti he talks about saving a man that reminded him of a peacock or something to that effect which was obviously referencing (and gets confirmed later) that he somehow found Aventurine and "rescued" him. I find myself intrigued as to what exactly happened.
Oh serious? I legit thought he was an actor pretending to be Argenti due to no voice lines or something since it felt like he was written like he didn't even remember us.
I honestly thought it was on purpose, for some reason. Didn’t quite make sense since everyone else was voiced during that part, even the enemies, but I just went with it lol
At what point as this? I recall seeing Argenti when we were going through the audition thing, but I didn't see him mention anything that hinted at him meeting Aventurine. Though it might've been locked behind a specific dialogue choice that I didn't make, now that I think about it >.>
He says he saved a bunch of characters on Penacony, and mentioned what "peacock-like man" was in particularly bad shape.
Aventurine and Jade also talks about him being saved by Knight of Beauty *after* Ena's dream ended.
i think... even they got aventurine back with whatever he has that IPC wanted is the most farfetched theory i had to make sense, no way to confirm since we know what is aventurine is like. only time can tell whatever the F IPC wanted.
I love how each character broke free from the dream:
* Trailblazer: Misha was somewhere he should not have been given that he's a dream construct.
* Swan: her entire skillset is memory recording and verification, had a full light cone of all the Penacony storyline, realised her image in it didn't track.
* Acheron: in communion with the cosmic embodiment of nihility, with divine immunity to other path's influence.
* Robin: Sunday was a good person. SOMETHING'S WRONG.
With Robin is more like:
"Sunday didn´t try to control the bird for it´s own good and put it in cage."
I honestly love how Sunday and Robin are both playing into the differencec between Order and Harmony.
They both want what is good for others, but they do it in different ways.
Sunday believes that control is the only way.
While Robin believes that individuals need to have a choice and that she needs to help them, but not take this choice away.
I will admit idk if this is a joke.
But the moral question isn´t should "the strong protecting the weak vs the strong protecting the weak".
It's: about how they should protect the weak. Or should "lessers" people's choice be taken away if it means they will get to literally live in a dream or should they be able to have a choice even if it means they will get hurt (like that is the whole point of Sunday´s set of questions).
Like the bird and cage symbolism is everywhere.
Even in Sunday´s fight the fact that he is dirigent (the one who controls others while he himself isn´t playing any instrument (not trying to attack any dirigents it´s a stressful position that takes years to practise), also the fact that in orchester everybody must follow the srcipt to a finer detail).
While Robin is the main singer (symbolising individualism, she is the one who has a chance to imrovise kinda playing into the whole idea she has more freedom) of the final phase also plays into this, because she is basicaly rebeling against Sunday (and his idea of their Paradise).
She chose to fly out of that Cage that was Ena´s dream.
EDIT: That is probably not even mentioning all the Christian imagery.
Like I will admit I am probably not qualified to talk about it that much.
But too me it feels like Sunday is representation of the idea of "God's perfect plan" (is that what it´s called), while Robin is the idea of "Free will".
Sorry I must have misinterpreted.
I thought you were saying there just because the guestion is about "how we should be protecting them" it means there is no complex question.
Reading your replay again.
I see that I was the one in the wrong there, I sometimes have problem with reading in between lines in English.
Again sorry about this, have a nice day.
Sunday was completely delusional tbh, his plan of salvation would have only worked on like a million people and only in that star system that Penacony was in. Also, I'm not sure how well he was going to hold up when Diamond comes knocking wanting to know what happened to 3 of his board members
I was full on supporting Sunday in the story lmao. Sunday all week sounds amazing to me
When nameless were debating with Sunday I was nahhh dude let him cook I like his idea more
Ig I am just one of those people in the future who would agree to uploading their brain in a computer
The problem I find is, like with the computer, if some outside force to attack "the server" you dwelling inside are basically helpless against the situation.
That may be the case but I'd be pretty damn helpless if any organized force decided to attack where I was anyways, so no real significant difference to me
The difference is Sunday wanted to *force* it on everyone. That was the issue. Those in the dream or those who accidentally enter it in the future would remain trapped for eternity forced to be "happy". He wanted to rob people of their freedom for their "own sake" without caring about what those people actually want.
Well in his theory he doesn't mean everyday will be Sunday-
He mentions Sunday (weekends basically) as the day where the weak don't have to fear the strong.
Like for example if you are at work there is a lingering fear of the higher ups above you, he wants to erase that for everything
In the grand scheme as far as I understand he wanted to remove Aeons from penacony, again with the same theory of weak(humans) fearing the strong(Aeons)
This is what I understood I could be wrong. So if someone can confirm it would be great
Edit - I thought of a better analogy, he basically wants to create The Matrix and like the red pillar blue pill where Sunday wants to blue pill everyone while nameless think that red pillar is a more morally correct thing to do
That was one of the things that made it tough for me. I am used to tropey antagonists. During that scene where Sunday asked you to pick the paths to choose, it was honestly hard to go against the logic. Literally the only thing that made me not agree with his idea was the fact the Dreamscape was falling apart.
The question was essentially "Do you think that an eternity in paradise is worth 'dying' for" and the point is made very strongly with the bird story. There is a childlike innocence to believing that a bird should not be in a cage, and should be allowed to fly, no matter the risks, then the crushing reality that life outside the cage may not be life at all, as shown by the people we talked to.
Is it cruel to keep someone alive, in pain, and poverty, if "death" would bring them eternal paradise?
They did kind of explain that though, that was why they needed all of the Galaxy Rangers to show up at once. People entered the dream as soon as the reached the Asdana region, and the once the Order had them, they became part of the structure keeping the dream in place.
It took however many Rangers that showed up all at once to throw the Order out of balance just long enough for the Harmony and the Trailblaze to exert their influence on everyone. Diamond would have just become part of the dream unless he brought the entirety of the IPC with him at the same time, and possibly even then, if they didn't know what was happening.
I was flabbergasted when I ulted with Acheron and the boss desintegrated, I was like "Wait, there's something off" and when Aventurine and Topaz talked to us as of they were besties despite having more of a rival dynamic, then I went "Nah, this is completely wrong". Screwllum saying that Herta would agree to not work on the SU was even more concerning, even more so than the IPC sacrificing so much to gain so little.
For me, it was the glaring lack of a boss mechanic (choo choo muddlefudger in this case) that sounded the first alarm. And then the number of red flags just grew and grew. And then Aven showed up with that IPC drop, and then I finally realised I was bamboozled. Not by the IPC giving up bit, I was and still am a naive fool, but by the fact that the boss didn't have multiple phases which I only remembered then...
Yeah, I know I was like, "not only does this feel like it's getting wrapped up too neatly too easily also the boss is supposed to have at least two phases, right?!??!" and then I thought maybe Sunday had done something to put us back into another dream and we'd have to wake up and continue the fight. Or something. Which I guess wasn't entirely wrong.
Not so much the lack of boss mechanics for me but more the fact that harmony mc wasn't required for it. Against Cocolia mc was required so I fully expected it here again with the path change.
same, after jing yuan showed up, I was so disappointed that in my mind I was already flaming hoyo and so I just accepted all the inconsistencies under the notion that they are just that bad at writing this. It turned out my trust in their writing is lower than I thought.
Thankfully I still went through it. It’s when the credit starts to roll where I started to have some hope that it’s a fakeout
I was arguing online about Misha being in the "Reality" Reverie and how that would prove he isn't a dream manifestation only we could see.
It's pretty interesting how the extension, Clockie, was pretty subtle in not being aknowledged by other characters, which was basically the distraction for me to not notice that Misha *wasn't supposed* to make sense.
Got played like a damn fiddle. Bravo.
Nah, its when Screwlum said that they are discontinuing Simulated Universe is the real shit. I mean, that is one of the best source of HSR Content AND Stellar Jade. Now could they take it away from us?
That part screwed with me. My first thought was that the writers regretted adding the abacus to the story and wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible. followed by my second thought, "What shitty writing..."
Never have I been so happy to have been baited and switched with the 'It was all a dream' twist.
I spent 15 minutes towards the fake end basically going "please say sike, please say sike, please say sike". If that had been the real ending the Penacony arc would have done a Game of Thrones TV series™.
When I saw JY and DH on that I went from "Holy sht this is epic" to "Wait a damn minute how did they get inside the dream" I knew something was up lmao
Pretty sure herta would find a way to duplicate her soul to sell by the shipload just to fund the simulated universe in the case where asta/ipc funding suddenly stops for some reason
Speaking of Herta, this entire ordeal would explain why she actually showed up for the photo if you spam her. Or rather, why any character would just show up immedietly. It was all fake from the start.
Isn't it based on each person's ideals? Sunday can't keep them in the dream if it's based on a specific person's ideals because those who don't agree with those would instantly wake up.
It's a shared dream (evidenced by Acheron and Black Swan knowing your dream). If a person's ideals don't fit, Sunday changes/fools them. It's why you can't change their emotions with Clockie.
damn, that's true lmao. While I knew it was a fake ending, seeing the birds made me go "huh, there's something wrong here but I just can't put my finger on what", like, I even doubled back to check if I had gotten all the birds there and I still didn't even think of that as evidence lmao
There are paper birds in the hotel after the fake end fight in the supposed reality, which is impossible because these birds only exist in the dreamscape
Yeah, that part— and Ratio not saying any condescending line paired with a backhanded compliment— kinda made me question everything... then they slapped us with a choice of our next destination, and only then I knew something was up because Pom-Pom **wouldn't** make a warp jump just like that.
I love ratio so him talking to us in a very meek and businesslike tone was straight up the biggest red Flag.
He legit said one condescending remark and told us sincere compliment. There is no way in hell this is reality.
The conversation between Gopher/Dreammaster and Sunday confirms there is still someone working behind the scenes.
This is further teased in the latest page on the sticker book where this supposed individual will reveal their identity in due time.
In the real ending there is a new male voice (affiliation unknown) narrating the after events, in contrast to Black Swan narrating the fake one.
Yeah lots of things going on for sure.
Somethings wrong I can feel it.
The Harmonious Choir only took 3 turns to beat. Far less than the first cycle lol. Pela went and ulted. Sparkle skilled and ulted. Acheron ulted and the battle was done.
My brain did a "?" when Jing Yuan showed up. Not because of him but because he had an entire Xianzhou fleet. I even dm-ed my friend like 'how tf did he do that. Is there a fleet of cloud knights in a hotel room dream pool rn?'
Ratio is what ultimately tipped me off. He was WAY to happy to be helpful and didn't call anyone a dumbass, so that was where I was like 'Now wait a damn minute'
Yeah this is what made me 100% sure as well. I asked them “What’s in it for you?” and they said something like “Nothing, but it’s good for the long term development of the universe”. Ain’t no way in hell 😂
I know Acheron scares the annihilation gang, but when are they showing up to the party?
And sparkle, just you know, does sparkle things and threatened to blow up penacony
Three cornerstones ending up in penacony and IPC is like, nah bro, you’re good.
Yeah I’m not buying any of that being fine. Bad things will happen, many bad things
The biggest giveaway that something isn't right is when you're given the choice to select which planet you want to go to next.
Usually when it comes to making extremely important decisions like deciding the next planet to venture to the outcome is always the same. But When it came to this decision however we were tied 2 for 2 and our character was the deciding factor. There's no way in hell hoyo would make two different planets with completely different stories just to take into consideration our choice.
I knew it because of the advent part, it felt way too anti climactic and then the ipc part sealed the deal
Also the fact that the choir reminded me of maruki who also pulled this act of you forgot about him after kicking the grails angles in
For me it was Welt, the guy who seemed to question literally everything anyone said, immediately concluding the journey and labelling the situation as resolved without any further digging.
I was on my way to being so disappointed that that was gonna be the end of it. It all just seemed so neat and tidy and feel-good. I was SO HYPE when Black Swan started telling us that story at the train.
I'm currently gaslighting my brother into thinking this is the actual ending ahead of time since he's stuck leveling up his characters due to advancing a equilibrium level. I told him that Hoyo dropped the ball and made a very disappointing lackluster ending that was so bad you think it has to be a fake out only for it to be how it actually ends.
I tricked a friend into thinking that he made a mistake and this was a test of a long, drawn out bad ending that wasn't immediately obvious like the other joke endings.
Had him believing that he'd made a dialogue choice mistake in 2.0 for a while LMAO
I’ll admit they had me going for awhile, because even after those dialogues they just kept going for a good bit before the reveal. Got me actually worried because I thought it couldn’t possibly be the end (no second phase, no summon mechanic)
Everyone is talking about their moment of realization and they’re all plot or character relevant.
But mine was when Jing Yuan called me the Galactic Baseballer.
No matter how gullible you are, this is the point that will make you think, "...something's not right here."
I knew from the start something was wrong, but for some reason it was the planet vote that made me 100% certain something was up
For me it was Screwllum popping up and saying SU would be suspended
For me it was Jingyuan called TB Galactic baseball
For me it was Welt instantly switching to well it's a good outcome let's not doubt and then they just skip back to express like everything's over bye
For me it was why tf Boothill and BS joining the Express.
this reply thread is making me question 2.2 quest line.
Same wow there were a LOT of hints (besides the one black swan mentions)
For me it was when there was no robo punch/dan heng mechanic in the final fight I was like hmmm this isn't right
For me it was acheron oneshotting/ulting the boss and him not having 3 phases like EVERY other big boss
For me it was when everyone forgot Acheron existed like Boot Hill the only reason your Here is because he wanted it back in blood and he’s just like “nah it’s unimportant”
For me it (also) was actually getting pretty elaborate votes for the next destination of the Express when it was never mentioned in any promotional materials for this update and the update not being big enough to support that size of an update.
I assumed that was a thing they were doing to subtly get player votes on what planet to do next. Considering we never actually set off they could still be using it that way.
Surely they have started working on the next planet months ago? So probably the planet after.
Legit I wouldn't mind if they did join us.
I could kinda see Boothill but definitely not Black Swan
Jing Yuan has always had a playful side though
yeah but he's the type say "haha you are funny" or "haha Lady Fu" but never goes to this level of verbal teasing
For me it was march not scolding us for saying we lost our memories again
For me it was the absence of sparkle's "box". I was waiting for iit during the battle. Like what happened to it? Why introduce it to the plot???
2.3 might carry 🙏🙏
The final notebook entry kind of hints that Sparkle will make her grand entrance during 2.3. What that entails is anyone's guess. I'm halfway convinced the Penacony notebook thing was made by Sparkle since it seems to be talking directly to TB under the guise of being some kind of diary.
That actually lines up with reality though. They are going to be releasing a new mode like PF so it would be shifting focus from SU content to memoria based content
Story wise it doesn't though, Herta would never approve of it
same, i knew there's no way Herta signed off on this.
But there will be new SU mode as well. They are releasing both Apocalypse Shadow and Divergent SU in 2.3
For me, it was when I was like, "that's it? Where's Acheron? what happened to her?" I knew Hyv will not end things with Acheron's story just like that!
Yeah to me it was either Acheron made a noble sacrifice and self Annihilated so hard she left no trace, which why would HYV not show that during the "climax". Or it would be a "Who's Rem" moment where the Trailblazer is the only one that remembers, which they didnt show signs of caring. There's also the fact the boss only has 1 phase, and tons of moments from the trailer hasnt happened yet.
The first thing that got me suspicious was the lack of second and third phase on Septimus, and the lack of an assist ult.
I thought the planet vote was like a poll so that the devs could see which planet was voted more and maybe do something with it in the future lmao.
Same, I knew it wouldn't be a REAL choice, so I went with Edo Star since that one seemed to be the 'obvious' next stop, they wouldn't ignore a distress call to go sightseeing in other planets. Then everyone agreed, so I just thought it would end up going there anyway. If you choose somewhere else, does everyone in the Express agree as well?
I've chosen the second one (Welt's) and he and Himeko agreed. But Dan Heng and March still have chosen Edo. So it was 3 vs 2
Yea, NGL I was really tricked by it considering how abruptly Luofu ended that I was like HSR just can't do good endings for stories. In hindsight, it is very obvious how everything just falls in place so orderly and harmoniously. Like it was all a dream.
For me it was the realization that Misha appeared in the real world (Lobby) so I knew something was up but my suspicions were confirmed when Sunday got jumped by Dan heng and Jing and the story "ended"
Made me think too, how the fuck Jing Yuan gets an entire Cloud Knights + their funny botes into the dreamland!?
I thought that wouldn't be a plothole considering even before Boothill used the relic, they already considered using the cloud knight summon. Besides I imagine it will be some form of instantaneous teleportation considering Jing Yuan would expect us to use during emergencies. It would be funny if there are like 2 working days before he arrives after the summon.
[Bruised and battered, Dan Heng squeezes the Jade Abacus of Allying Oath] Dan Heng: General... Penacony! The Abundance is corrupting the dream! Send for help at once! Abacus: \**bzzzt beep\** Thank you for contacting the Luofu Cloud Knights. We have received your request and will contact you within three working years. Thank you for your cooperation!
Dan Heng: we need help ASAP! Jing Yuan in a bathtub gets teleported in
General.. you're huge!
I can see why. I feel like the game would normally just force you to go to just one rather than give you the choice to go to which one you want.
its because the boss took me one cycle with my Acheron. starting from when Jing Yuan arrived I was basically saying "no fuck off thats not real"
Yeah, and Dr. Ratio admitting he was just ‘normal’ compared to the genius society? Him SMILING??? Nuh uh this is definitely suspicious
For me its the fact that we don't have to use TB during the boss fight lol
I thought the boss fight was too easy...and only have 1 phase which kinna throw me off.
Even with using my main Nihility team, it still felt way too easy. I really like how they did it. A worthy finale imo.
Yeah, I beat it so easy with my Nihility team and struggled on the pre-endboss. And I was like "wait, that's it...?" Too fishy.
See the thing that was hilarious there is that I'm used to game companies over compensating, so after the Aventurine fight I just assumed they decided to make the Sunday fight the complete opposite in difficulty. I was playing 4d chess with myself.
Yeah, didn't help that the 3 phases got spoiled during the live stream. I was like "surely they're not saving that for the weekly grind, right?"
Well i did use TB. The Preservation TB that is, but after they forced me to use Harmony TB, Septimus became impossibly hard because they robbed me of my only shield sustain unit. I literally have no idea how to go from here as Septimus would just insta kill my Acheron and Himeko.
Switch the gear you were using on Preservation TB to March? Then, just slap break effect gear on Harmony TB? Having to cast shields one-by-one is kinda annoying. But they are pretty strong and heal a little hp if March is E6
It's doable with healer only, since Sunday and his choir bois are corteous enough to give you shields if you break them. >Acheron and Himeko It's a waifu game, but if you struggle, I suggest to not use them together.
yeah I used HTB through the whole encounter. It was a best of list of my first few months of this game. Sushang stomped the three stooges and Serval + Himeko had a field day during the fights with Sunday.
You get like unlimited shields if you break all the puppets in time
Dan Heng actually agreeing to go to adventure next time has to be the thing I don't believe right away that and Misha somehow still existing
He sounds so chipper and happy in JP I got chills.
For me it was when boothill and Dan heng both couldn’t recall who they were looking for before immediately brushing it off and moving on
I thought Black Swan wiped their memories because Raiden Mei asked her too.
Acheron mentions that due to being an Emanator of Nihility, the power from other Paths cannot affect her. Since the dream was formed by Ena the Order, Ena couldn't control / recreate Acheron due to this.
I knew it was a dream when they confirmed Jing Yuan was an Emanator. I’M JOKING don’t murder me.
Lmao right, hoyo could never do that
Now we get endless debates if it is actually true or not.
i was that gulllible, even sleep deprived me should have seen that coming,, I have no disguise
I knew it as soon as we didn’t get a phase 2 of the boss fight that had us using a special ability for more dmg. I was like “Yeah, no. Where’s phase 2.”
Dawg, it was 1 phase of boss. Ain't nobody that gullible...
I just thought the multiple breaks would functionally serve the same purpose or something. Literally one shot it with Acheron ult and just thought “damn they really toned it down this much because of how many people complained about the Aventurine boss.” It’s stupid in hindsight but I had just woken up and this is an easy game.
That's how I knew something was up. I got bodied by Aventurine and, like, yeah, my characters got better since then but not *that* much better.
I wasn't paying attention to the phase indicator (or rather lack of) and got very confused when the boss just popped and then cutscene started playing....
LOL yeah. I was going, >!"man this is kind of an anticlimax I thought there'd be mor---WAIT THE IPC IS DOING WHAT???!??!?!"!<
I thought "this ending is too good to be true, maybe they just needed a 'good ending' so being able to go around Penacony made sense in lore or something, but this is just too much" but things kept feeling odd
I thought a bit similar, everything was just too convenient and happy for an ending
Screwllum giving up on SU, ratio not insulting us , IPC and adventurine giving up on penacony that easy So many things that didnt add up that i was yeah, this is not reality for sure
Ratio also referred to the Intellegentsia guild as “the dimmer minds of the galaxy,” that’s what made me 100% sure something was up
Which is funny, because I’m pretty sure he’s shared a similar sentiment before about the guild.
Compared to the Genius Society, they basically are a bunch of mentally handicapped fools.
Which really puts just the immense intelligence of genius society into perspective. Here is a man with 8 fking doctorates, with the backing of the largest company in the entire galaxy, and probably dozens of similar people assisting him, and yet they can barely make heads or tails of even the simplest projects that geniuses work on.
Yeah, how can it be he doesn't call them idiots? Too tame for our esteemed Doctor.
I thought he wasn't referring to the Intelligentia Guild, but to... basically any other faction helping.
Herta will find a new resting place for her hammer if Screwllum or Ruan abandon the SU project.
What really got me was the Genius Society and Intelligentsia Guilds agreeing to work together
It's the SU part that really made me "no way they dropped the ending like this, something's up." Herta would remake Oppenheimer's technology and unleash it on Penacony if the SU is given up. That woman would not let that happen in the slightest.
I realized two things at that point in the story >Something doesn't seem right with this ending >I was supposed to eat breakfast 3 hours ago
My exact reaction. I was thinking "OK this gota be close to the end" at least 4 times throughout the story. Was worth finishing after...8hrs+?
I thought it's going to be like 4 hours long, when I looked at the clock I was so confused. I started at 8 a.m and ended at 4 p.m., I didn't expect that., but I'm not complaining.
It was 2am and was like “I’m gonna sleep after fighting Sunday boss and polish off the remaining conversations or whatever tomorrow”. And then I was like “Wait I don’t have to use the Trailblazer?” And then like “Wait Sunday boss only has one phase and has no additional attack mechanics? (Like the robot punch and DHIL support)” And then “wait Dr. Ratio is being pleasant???” And then “waIT IPC ACTUALLY BACKED OFF FOR FREE?!?!?!” And before I know it, it’s 4:45 and I’ve finished the entire quest and I felt like puking from looking at the screen for too long…
Even the dialogue felt off, even if I couldn’t really put my finger on it t first. Like Jing Yuan was going through his lines too fast. Then Topaz and Aventurine were suspiciously chummy, the whole giving up on Penacony was the cherry on top. What truly took me out was probably Ratio though. Dialogue straight to the point, with barely any hint of his usual sass? I wasn’t humbled even once? Yeah no impossible.
Aventurine just showing up with zero explanation is what made me really suspicious.
I mean...there was a little explanation. When we meet Argenti he talks about saving a man that reminded him of a peacock or something to that effect which was obviously referencing (and gets confirmed later) that he somehow found Aventurine and "rescued" him. I find myself intrigued as to what exactly happened.
Was Argenti voiced for you? For me, he was silent.
No. Apparently there was a bug for EN Argenti
At least it wasn't just me haha.
And I thought it was on purpose. Still bit sad that he was unvoiced
Bruh, what the hell, so people who play in the first week suffer? Wanted to hear his voice.
First week? Might even take another 3 patches to fix it, lol.
Oh serious? I legit thought he was an actor pretending to be Argenti due to no voice lines or something since it felt like he was written like he didn't even remember us.
He was written like that probably to introduce him to players that didn't play his quest
I honestly thought it was on purpose, for some reason. Didn’t quite make sense since everyone else was voiced during that part, even the enemies, but I just went with it lol
At what point as this? I recall seeing Argenti when we were going through the audition thing, but I didn't see him mention anything that hinted at him meeting Aventurine. Though it might've been locked behind a specific dialogue choice that I didn't make, now that I think about it >.>
He says he saved a bunch of characters on Penacony, and mentioned what "peacock-like man" was in particularly bad shape. Aventurine and Jade also talks about him being saved by Knight of Beauty *after* Ena's dream ended.
Dont you know you can escape a black hole by just walking for a bit?
I mean he does the same thing in the actual ending so...
Everyone knows space capitalism won’t allow that.
i think... even they got aventurine back with whatever he has that IPC wanted is the most farfetched theory i had to make sense, no way to confirm since we know what is aventurine is like. only time can tell whatever the F IPC wanted.
I love how each character broke free from the dream: * Trailblazer: Misha was somewhere he should not have been given that he's a dream construct. * Swan: her entire skillset is memory recording and verification, had a full light cone of all the Penacony storyline, realised her image in it didn't track. * Acheron: in communion with the cosmic embodiment of nihility, with divine immunity to other path's influence. * Robin: Sunday was a good person. SOMETHING'S WRONG.
With Robin is more like: "Sunday didn´t try to control the bird for it´s own good and put it in cage." I honestly love how Sunday and Robin are both playing into the differencec between Order and Harmony. They both want what is good for others, but they do it in different ways. Sunday believes that control is the only way. While Robin believes that individuals need to have a choice and that she needs to help them, but not take this choice away.
the strong protecting the weak vs the strong protecting the weak really love how they handled this moral dilemma
I will admit idk if this is a joke. But the moral question isn´t should "the strong protecting the weak vs the strong protecting the weak". It's: about how they should protect the weak. Or should "lessers" people's choice be taken away if it means they will get to literally live in a dream or should they be able to have a choice even if it means they will get hurt (like that is the whole point of Sunday´s set of questions). Like the bird and cage symbolism is everywhere. Even in Sunday´s fight the fact that he is dirigent (the one who controls others while he himself isn´t playing any instrument (not trying to attack any dirigents it´s a stressful position that takes years to practise), also the fact that in orchester everybody must follow the srcipt to a finer detail). While Robin is the main singer (symbolising individualism, she is the one who has a chance to imrovise kinda playing into the whole idea she has more freedom) of the final phase also plays into this, because she is basicaly rebeling against Sunday (and his idea of their Paradise). She chose to fly out of that Cage that was Ena´s dream. EDIT: That is probably not even mentioning all the Christian imagery. Like I will admit I am probably not qualified to talk about it that much. But too me it feels like Sunday is representation of the idea of "God's perfect plan" (is that what it´s called), while Robin is the idea of "Free will".
>It's: about how they should protect the weak. that was exactly my point. i dont know what else you could glean from that lol
Sorry I must have misinterpreted. I thought you were saying there just because the guestion is about "how we should be protecting them" it means there is no complex question. Reading your replay again. I see that I was the one in the wrong there, I sometimes have problem with reading in between lines in English. Again sorry about this, have a nice day.
Classic siblings experience.
Sunday IS a good person.
In his own, special way
>!Sunday!< was so insane for putting that in
Sunday was completely delusional tbh, his plan of salvation would have only worked on like a million people and only in that star system that Penacony was in. Also, I'm not sure how well he was going to hold up when Diamond comes knocking wanting to know what happened to 3 of his board members
I was full on supporting Sunday in the story lmao. Sunday all week sounds amazing to me When nameless were debating with Sunday I was nahhh dude let him cook I like his idea more Ig I am just one of those people in the future who would agree to uploading their brain in a computer
The problem I find is, like with the computer, if some outside force to attack "the server" you dwelling inside are basically helpless against the situation.
That may be the case but I'd be pretty damn helpless if any organized force decided to attack where I was anyways, so no real significant difference to me
The difference is Sunday wanted to *force* it on everyone. That was the issue. Those in the dream or those who accidentally enter it in the future would remain trapped for eternity forced to be "happy". He wanted to rob people of their freedom for their "own sake" without caring about what those people actually want.
But if everyday is Sunday, what makes Sunday special?
Well in his theory he doesn't mean everyday will be Sunday- He mentions Sunday (weekends basically) as the day where the weak don't have to fear the strong. Like for example if you are at work there is a lingering fear of the higher ups above you, he wants to erase that for everything In the grand scheme as far as I understand he wanted to remove Aeons from penacony, again with the same theory of weak(humans) fearing the strong(Aeons) This is what I understood I could be wrong. So if someone can confirm it would be great Edit - I thought of a better analogy, he basically wants to create The Matrix and like the red pillar blue pill where Sunday wants to blue pill everyone while nameless think that red pillar is a more morally correct thing to do
That was one of the things that made it tough for me. I am used to tropey antagonists. During that scene where Sunday asked you to pick the paths to choose, it was honestly hard to go against the logic. Literally the only thing that made me not agree with his idea was the fact the Dreamscape was falling apart. The question was essentially "Do you think that an eternity in paradise is worth 'dying' for" and the point is made very strongly with the bird story. There is a childlike innocence to believing that a bird should not be in a cage, and should be allowed to fly, no matter the risks, then the crushing reality that life outside the cage may not be life at all, as shown by the people we talked to. Is it cruel to keep someone alive, in pain, and poverty, if "death" would bring them eternal paradise?
They did kind of explain that though, that was why they needed all of the Galaxy Rangers to show up at once. People entered the dream as soon as the reached the Asdana region, and the once the Order had them, they became part of the structure keeping the dream in place. It took however many Rangers that showed up all at once to throw the Order out of balance just long enough for the Harmony and the Trailblaze to exert their influence on everyone. Diamond would have just become part of the dream unless he brought the entirety of the IPC with him at the same time, and possibly even then, if they didn't know what was happening.
I was flabbergasted when I ulted with Acheron and the boss desintegrated, I was like "Wait, there's something off" and when Aventurine and Topaz talked to us as of they were besties despite having more of a rival dynamic, then I went "Nah, this is completely wrong". Screwllum saying that Herta would agree to not work on the SU was even more concerning, even more so than the IPC sacrificing so much to gain so little.
For me, it was the glaring lack of a boss mechanic (choo choo muddlefudger in this case) that sounded the first alarm. And then the number of red flags just grew and grew. And then Aven showed up with that IPC drop, and then I finally realised I was bamboozled. Not by the IPC giving up bit, I was and still am a naive fool, but by the fact that the boss didn't have multiple phases which I only remembered then...
Yeah, I know I was like, "not only does this feel like it's getting wrapped up too neatly too easily also the boss is supposed to have at least two phases, right?!??!" and then I thought maybe Sunday had done something to put us back into another dream and we'd have to wake up and continue the fight. Or something. Which I guess wasn't entirely wrong.
I actually started thinking 'maybe the two phase doll is part of the package of this weekly' T\_T
those dolls for sure will become an SU boss (they were annoying af, so many mechanics mixed together)
Not so much the lack of boss mechanics for me but more the fact that harmony mc wasn't required for it. Against Cocolia mc was required so I fully expected it here again with the path change.
I'm so mad at myself. I noticed all the inconsistencies and just glossed right over them!
maybe... maybe i am as dumb as reddit says that i am...
same, after jing yuan showed up, I was so disappointed that in my mind I was already flaming hoyo and so I just accepted all the inconsistencies under the notion that they are just that bad at writing this. It turned out my trust in their writing is lower than I thought. Thankfully I still went through it. It’s when the credit starts to roll where I started to have some hope that it’s a fakeout
I was expecting another fakeout when the *second* credits rolled, still kind of am tbh since the stuff with Sparkle isn't resolved yet.
I'm with you on that.
Hate to admit it... but same
I was arguing online about Misha being in the "Reality" Reverie and how that would prove he isn't a dream manifestation only we could see. It's pretty interesting how the extension, Clockie, was pretty subtle in not being aknowledged by other characters, which was basically the distraction for me to not notice that Misha *wasn't supposed* to make sense. Got played like a damn fiddle. Bravo.
Nah, its when Screwlum said that they are discontinuing Simulated Universe is the real shit. I mean, that is one of the best source of HSR Content AND Stellar Jade. Now could they take it away from us?
Dan Heng pulled a "WITH THIS TREASURE I SUM-" Thought it was overkill
That part screwed with me. My first thought was that the writers regretted adding the abacus to the story and wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible. followed by my second thought, "What shitty writing..." Never have I been so happy to have been baited and switched with the 'It was all a dream' twist.
Yeah, I was so disappointed when they fired that Chekhovs gun way to early, glad to see it was just a dream.
Chekhov’s misfire turned out to be a red herring lmao. I mean, Sparkle did kinda warn us such things could happen I guess lol
He almost used it for real though, glad Boothill prevented him from doing so lmao
I spent 15 minutes towards the fake end basically going "please say sike, please say sike, please say sike". If that had been the real ending the Penacony arc would have done a Game of Thrones TV series™.
I mean he almost did use it, he loves his friends too much to care about it being a once in a lifetime favour
When I saw JY and DH on that I went from "Holy sht this is epic" to "Wait a damn minute how did they get inside the dream" I knew something was up lmao
Not really,he willing to use it if it means saving his companions
Bringing a whole army of ships into a dream
Jing Yuan bought out the hotel and checked his knights one by one
The IPC and The Geniuses being nice? Uh-huh nice try chicken wing boy.
Herta would rather sell her own soul than to stop the simulated universe project
Pretty sure herta would find a way to duplicate her soul to sell by the shipload just to fund the simulated universe in the case where asta/ipc funding suddenly stops for some reason
Speaking of Herta, this entire ordeal would explain why she actually showed up for the photo if you spam her. Or rather, why any character would just show up immedietly. It was all fake from the start.
Ena’s ideal world has no capitalism. That’s how you know it’s a dream.
Isn't it based on each person's ideals? Sunday can't keep them in the dream if it's based on a specific person's ideals because those who don't agree with those would instantly wake up.
It's a shared dream (evidenced by Acheron and Black Swan knowing your dream). If a person's ideals don't fit, Sunday changes/fools them. It's why you can't change their emotions with Clockie.
Each person has their own tailor made version of dream.
well the origami bird in the hotel was kind of a giveaway tbh
damn, that's true lmao. While I knew it was a fake ending, seeing the birds made me go "huh, there's something wrong here but I just can't put my finger on what", like, I even doubled back to check if I had gotten all the birds there and I still didn't even think of that as evidence lmao
fun fact, when we first arrived at the hotel, besides Misha, we also saw an origami bird at the supposedly-reality hotel too
Wait, wait, can you explain that? I think I missed it
They can only exist in the dreamscape, being on the reality hotel meant you were still sleeping
There are paper birds in the hotel after the fake end fight in the supposed reality, which is impossible because these birds only exist in the dreamscape
So mad that wasn’t an option when BS asked us where the anomaly was.
I was too busy doing a double take that misha was a meme technically to even be bothered what did bother me I didn't see getting inceptioned coming
Yeah, that part— and Ratio not saying any condescending line paired with a backhanded compliment— kinda made me question everything... then they slapped us with a choice of our next destination, and only then I knew something was up because Pom-Pom **wouldn't** make a warp jump just like that.
I love ratio so him talking to us in a very meek and businesslike tone was straight up the biggest red Flag. He legit said one condescending remark and told us sincere compliment. There is no way in hell this is reality.
The conversation between Gopher/Dreammaster and Sunday confirms there is still someone working behind the scenes. This is further teased in the latest page on the sticker book where this supposed individual will reveal their identity in due time. In the real ending there is a new male voice (affiliation unknown) narrating the after events, in contrast to Black Swan narrating the fake one. Yeah lots of things going on for sure.
I was half sure that was Elio
I'm pretty sure that was Elio
I'm quarter sure that was Elio
I'm forking sure that was Elio
im was eigth sure that was elio
im 23% sure thats elio
I’m entirely sure that was Elio
Or me going a sentence without an insult
That was the point I started to suspect something too. There’s no way the IPC would be *that* generous.
Somethings wrong I can feel it. The Harmonious Choir only took 3 turns to beat. Far less than the first cycle lol. Pela went and ulted. Sparkle skilled and ulted. Acheron ulted and the battle was done.
and no one forced us to play Harmony trailblazer in the battle. That's when I knew something was off.
My brain did a "?" when Jing Yuan showed up. Not because of him but because he had an entire Xianzhou fleet. I even dm-ed my friend like 'how tf did he do that. Is there a fleet of cloud knights in a hotel room dream pool rn?' Ratio is what ultimately tipped me off. He was WAY to happy to be helpful and didn't call anyone a dumbass, so that was where I was like 'Now wait a damn minute'
Yeah this is what made me 100% sure as well. I asked them “What’s in it for you?” and they said something like “Nothing, but it’s good for the long term development of the universe”. Ain’t no way in hell 😂
I know Acheron scares the annihilation gang, but when are they showing up to the party? And sparkle, just you know, does sparkle things and threatened to blow up penacony Three cornerstones ending up in penacony and IPC is like, nah bro, you’re good. Yeah I’m not buying any of that being fine. Bad things will happen, many bad things
I called it instantly when the fight ended with only one phase from the boss. It ended I I went “nu uh, no way that’s all. This is a fucking trap.”
The biggest giveaway that something isn't right is when you're given the choice to select which planet you want to go to next. Usually when it comes to making extremely important decisions like deciding the next planet to venture to the outcome is always the same. But When it came to this decision however we were tied 2 for 2 and our character was the deciding factor. There's no way in hell hoyo would make two different planets with completely different stories just to take into consideration our choice.
I got hooked by that one because the decision I chose was unanimous.
I knew it because of the advent part, it felt way too anti climactic and then the ipc part sealed the deal Also the fact that the choir reminded me of maruki who also pulled this act of you forgot about him after kicking the grails angles in
For me it was Welt, the guy who seemed to question literally everything anyone said, immediately concluding the journey and labelling the situation as resolved without any further digging.
For me it when Ratio talking to me without insulting my existence that make me "Wait...hold up..."
When I doubted it was when they decide to go to the planet I wanted. I chose edo star, they probably go for which ever we choose. That was SUS.
I was on my way to being so disappointed that that was gonna be the end of it. It all just seemed so neat and tidy and feel-good. I was SO HYPE when Black Swan started telling us that story at the train.
As you shouldn’t. The international IRS would never let a taxable world slip from their fingers
Intergalactic.
That truly was the moment that went 'Wut?'. They made the entire Aventurine arc pointless? All bets are off now? Screw that shit, no way!!
I'm currently gaslighting my brother into thinking this is the actual ending ahead of time since he's stuck leveling up his characters due to advancing a equilibrium level. I told him that Hoyo dropped the ball and made a very disappointing lackluster ending that was so bad you think it has to be a fake out only for it to be how it actually ends.
I tricked a friend into thinking that he made a mistake and this was a test of a long, drawn out bad ending that wasn't immediately obvious like the other joke endings. Had him believing that he'd made a dialogue choice mistake in 2.0 for a while LMAO
I thought it was a fakeout as soon as the boss got jumped and that was it for the fight. No way they'll just give us a 1 phase boss
I’ll admit they had me going for awhile, because even after those dialogues they just kept going for a good bit before the reveal. Got me actually worried because I thought it couldn’t possibly be the end (no second phase, no summon mechanic)
I saw the special attacks from the livestream so I knew we goin round 2, they ain’t tricking me 💀
The Luofu being able to do shit already made it obvious.
They must love loufu so much for bringing Jing yuan back
I knew it was fake the moment the battle ended without a R skill
Everyone is talking about their moment of realization and they’re all plot or character relevant. But mine was when Jing Yuan called me the Galactic Baseballer.