Star Rail's Writers Are Crazy

Make sure to check out Honkai: Star Rail and start your own adventure with twists and turns! hoyo.link/cK4iFBAL
How many Stellar Jades do you have saved for Robin? Use my Promo Code VAJEGY4MNMDK for 50 Stellar Jades! #HonkaiStarRail #Robin
Join in to get unique emotes, badge and spoilers for future videos:
/ @necrit
MERCH:
► www.designbyhumans.com/shop/N...
Links:
► / necrit94
► / necrit94
► / necrit94
► / discord
► / necrit94

[@Necrit]

Penacony Awaits You in Honkai: Star Rail! hoyo.link/cK4iFBAL

[@TarrDan]

The only acceptable kind of KZbin sponsor

[@wiktor9673]

Are you going to make a vid to speculate about the future stops?(The ones mentioned in the fake ending before the first credits of penacony). All of the options mentioned there seemed pretty interesting. I wonder If stats of player choices here are going to influence it somehow.

[@treasure9342]

Ya ngl......i pretty much stop listenting when i saw this was an ad

[@legendaryswordsman653]

I totally have the same theory. I think they have correlated all player answers out of the five locations to go next and the one that gets the most will be 3.0. I think they can get away with this if this goes on to 2.8 instead of 2.6 giving them enough time. They are always months ahead so all that content in continuance missions with Bellabog (sampo hint at end of black swan quest), loufu (hint from developers heart rate questions), I also think they've done up penacony continuance.

[@looiyuanjieyuanjie1451]

can you do wuthering waves ?

[@muhammadilyas8107]

"Robin stance as the main positive character whose have major impact" I hate to say this but "SERAPHINE COULD NEVER!"

[@liqiye3611]

i didnt read seraphine lore, but comparing seraphine story to to a charcater in a story based game is kinda lame

[@oshimachka]

​@@liqiye3611 tbh seraphine is the one that has been released more than 3 years ago, not robin like i get what you mean, but having Bad and inconsistent lore for 3 years is a crime (and she came out pretty much literally saying "skarner, wanna hear your dead relatives sing?")

[@misxfitx]

i usually call robin "the honkai seraphine" lmao

[@anhduyvo8819]

Fun Fact: Seraphine VA is Robin VA but but sing a better song and have a amazing Final Stage Song🤣🤣🤣

[@bangzub]

​@@anhduyvo8819oh no.. now I have to use Robin.. 😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨

[@Hououin818]

Sparkle quest actually spoiled the entirety of Penacony story if you really think about it

[@Masterzahar]

How is it spoiling the twist with the true antagonists? It's a shame we can't replay quests, I want to replay all penacony now. It's the kind of story you need to go through twice once you finished it.

[@keitokarl]

yea that's why shes calling us dumb, she had it figured out, but when dreaming, its best to let the host realize it themselves to wake themselves up themself

[@user-pi8pi3wj7h]

Sparkle (and the masked fools) probably had the whole situation figured out from the start. Tho i wonder how much Aha actually cares

[@kitnal4143]

it does make me wonder what she is up to, we know there is more to Penacony and we still have no idea why she was handing out buttons in the most recent patch. Like.... what.

[@zenixvampirchik652]

@@kitnal4143 She is up to having fun... What exactly she considers as fun this time around though...

Penacony story unironically clears the vast majority of AAA titles' story and it's not even close.

[@byleth0726]

This is so very true.

[@ZephyrK_]

Is Hoyoverse not AAA? It costs them hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a title (Genshin cost 250M BEFORE launch) and they make billions yearly.

[@dexterlallo397]

current AAA titles got nothing on hsr now, i mean the heck is going on.

[@user-pi8pi3wj7h]

Okay now yall are glazing (and I loved penacony)

[@blindspotj]

This hurts but i have to agree

[@najwan6419]

I think the introduced switching POV mechanic in penacony trailblaze mission should be given more praise. It allows the story buildup, char background and interaction between chars more immersive while controlling and maintaining the pace which luofu story lack off.

[@joshbrosh6626]

Btw The switching pov was ingame way before By that i mean belobog and loofu also had it just not on a scale this big

[@jrlabanza]

Shaoji loves doing that especially the Elysian Everlasting Arc. Even the Antagonist on the arc have her POV which was brutal to experience (Kosma and Griseo Part)

[@iglesianifuhuaw4228]

​@@jrlabanzayou don't have to remind me of that😭

[@animo358]

I just wonder if it means Companion quests are done...

[@bunbun283]

SHAOJI BE COOKING 🗣️🔥 Anyone who know Elysian Realm know that this isn't even his full power

[@tristanventer4274]

Brother, you are speaking trutha

[@raystoner1250]

I am scared of 2.3 honestly. Shaoji hasn't finished cooking yet. We still can't trust him😂

[@MagnusArchitectOfFate]

@@raystoner1250nah, I trust him to deliver something magnificent(heartwarming and heartbreaking simultaneously)

[@tuna3873]

Shaoji just ripped off the finale of part 1 and slapped it into Penacony though?

[@MUSASHIINUNU]

Exactly, Im so sussed out by everything ever since I heard it was SHAOJI.

[@rakuzalupus9011]

The Mask Fools are summarized as the "Side Character helping the Main character quest but on how they do it well it depends on the Mask Fool in Question" but in the end is still helps the Main character achieve the goal so those buttons will do something at what well who knows at this point.

[@antiquorumaugustus8200]

out-topic but The Mask Fools seem to be a nod reference to the Lord of the Mysteries novel which is popular in China

[@forslos8756]

There is still a lot of stuff unclear yet so 2.3 might be a long story as well. Sparkle button, IPC take over, boothill looking for the IPC marketing head (possibly involve boothill backstory too), firefly third dead.

[@twovillages7168]

​@antiquorumaugustus8200 I also thought that may be the case. Not to mention, Black Swan has some really strong LoTM vibes, too. I mean, her ult, tarrot cards, outfit, and dream traversing ability are so LoTM.

[@Nowaylarry]

That tracks as it was also Sampo's role in Belabog.

[@kyoken8691]

Sparkle is low key probably one of the first ones to realize the truth of Penacony, she's just not really interested in the outcome hence why she went about helping all sides with her sending us the child's dream, giving Aventurine pointers, the whole Sparkle quest, and helping Sunday by masquerading as Robin. Her actions were all about moving the plot forwards as if she was reminding everyone what role they had to play and where they had to be in the story.

[@babyplum2837]

Also bombs

[@LAHDL]

She's so silly!

[@MikeOuttaphone]

Penacony definitely had the soul of the story from Honkai Impact 3rd. You cant find your way out of the maze without hitting a few dead ends, but the beauty and marvel of it is how well everything came together in the end. I believe what really made Penacony was its complexity. If it were spoon-fed to us, I don't think it would have been as rewarding to PLAY alongside the story with all of the twists and revelations. About Sparkle- I am certain we have not seen the last of her. I remember telling my friend (way before Penacony was even announced) that I'm certain we will eventually head back to Belobog, and he didn't believe me. Sparkle and Sampo's interactions really laid some breadcrumbs to what is to come.

[@pututunik8748]

to be fair, Belobog isn't the only one where we must return there, seems like we may also return to the luofu with all the jingliu/luocha judgement. those 2 places has plenty of 'breadcrumbs' both from official releases and leaks imho

[@worldiefeard8396]

I suspect the entire point of Sparkle is (sadly or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) to set up whenever the team returns to Belobog and a ipotetical "5* Sampo" appearance. In the end she was in Penacoly mostly for her own fun (or so it looks) and didn't actually care much of the events, just wanted to see how the twists would go and if people would have caught on her hints or not.

[@TheBooke]

Fun fact the writer of Penacony introduced 13 characters in Impact 3rd and made everyone care about them in a few patches

[@joshbrosh6626]

And then thus spoke shaoji (if you know you know)

[@MrcreeperDXD777]

and then….

[@Duong-dc6cm]

See you the next world

[@nyoom5618]

coming from hi3 i can say the writer for penacony (shaoji) is insanely talented as a writer

[@keitokarl]

yea literally insanely insane

[@HotaruExtori]

talented and insane

[@deidryt9944]

Time to pull up "Because of You" again

[@Duong-dc6cm]

Meanwhile , gun girls z writer

[@Duong-dc6cm]

Meanwhile, gun girls z writer: see you in the next world

[@nebsoficial6148]

The devs said on the livestream that they had been working on Penacony story since 2022

[@blazingstorm9351]

Damn so they've been cookin.

[@lolosh99]

I mean, Sparkle’s skill is literally called Red Herring so I’m not surprised if nothing happens

[@mikonyx7712]

Which would result in her segment of the 2.2 story to cause nothing more than adding even more time to an already long af chapter.... Welp! let's hope it's not that!

[@jonglopez5400]

​@@mikonyx7712but that is how red herring works. You already fell for it the moment you believed that something significant to story will happen when sparkle does something.

[@user-wd7dh3bs3o]

@@jonglopez5400 There's a difference between a red herring and a segment added to just waste the player's time

[@GGABueno]

Would feel pretty cheap if it that is the case. The writers would be tapping themselves in the back meanwhile the players just feel cheated.

[@madlifeelements4254]

shaoji and his writing team really cooked so good and it turns out into a buffet FUN FACT Shaoji, The story writer of Honkai: Star Rail Penacony is also the writer of Honkai Impact 3rd (Hi3 veterans know this) The Arcs he wrote in Honkai Impact 3rd are: Final Lesson🔥 (St. Freya) Seele🦋 (Sea of Quanta) Lament of The Fallen🌃 (Nagazora) Everlasting Flames🔥 (HoD Domain) Because of You🌸 (Elysian Realm)

[@missycho_2424]

The Lament of the Fallen is in Nagazora City😅

[@asdfkisawa]

i heard that Lingyi actually is the writer behind all the plots and Shaoji continued after she left

[@madlifeelements4254]

@@asdfkisawa lingyi is the writer for ggz, iirc lingyi didn't wrote the early hi3 story since she was busy writing ggz at that time

[@asdfkisawa]

@@madlifeelements4254 uhm...i thought it was like that, because the plots are similar and a lot of GGZ story continued in HI3 as a sequel excepting in the GGZ ending ofc

[@madlifeelements4254]

@@asdfkisawa There were similarities between ggz and hi3, but not a lot. Shaoji, the Hi3 VN writer, and their writing team were the ones behind the storywriting of Hi3. Theres already a documentary for it. you should watch it.

[@Taunt_1NG_U]

Sunday is THE BEST name they could have chosen, it's PERFECT!!!

[@lucustwyatt1960]

"And then it's Monday" achievement made my laughed lolz

[@terrycornelius4]

Honestly part of me believes that this story serves as a way to "wake us up" because Monday will eventually come regardless if you wished every day is Sunday.

[@shaark1tsune]

my favorite part of the story was the part Acheron grabbed TB's hand mid-air, awesome reference from HI3

[@miorioff]

Sadly, it's a reference only players of that game could understand

[@keitokarl]

i screamed that they used Hi3 ost during the talk with acheron before she breaks enas dream

[@crow3769]

​​@@miorioff I don't think there's anything to be sad about. If you don't know the reference, you would still enjoy it cuz it looks epic and when you find out about it later, you can't help but think "Oh wow! That's so cool!" And if you did get the reference, that would be even more awesome cuz it would feel like as a HI3 fan/player, not only did to get to see the awesome reference, but it also left you feeling joy cuz you can tell they care about HI3 and the community as well! Btw, I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm nagging! If it does, I didn't mean to do that! I'm just writing this comment reply in a really hyped mood lol

[@skylight6575]

@@miorioffyou can enjoy it through the story and not with reference, I got shocked when Tiernan was introduced since I only got it when Acheron said “Place a bouquet of flowers”

[@K3Vz0]

​@miorioff it's almost like references do that🤯

[@broccolidiego2053]

There are a possibility that Sparkle part was there just to distract us the player from the real plot. In her story quest, she led us around to solve a bunch of mystery just like the Penacony story arc and throughout the story quest there are some red herring along the way that has nothing to do with each mystery. This might be a hint that her purpose of being in Penacony is just to be a red herring to distract the player because only the player knew what she does. It really fit her character too if that were the case.

[@anagramhound]

Just Masked Fools doing Masked Fools thing.

[@odintakerprime6595]

well, she said it herself:"Red herring" y'know, cuz she's wearing red.

[@ShadowDweller_YT]

​@@odintakerprime6595 And her whole theme/kit is red herring centered.

[@alexanderpokatilo6432]

Her main color is even red. So is a trully red herring

[@lucustwyatt1960]

Her ult line even says so itself "a thousand faces in a thousand places, can you find the answer?"

[@barny541]

When I saw the Firefly gameplay leaks I was like: "Man, Necrit is gonna love this!"

[@GGABueno]

I was worried he wasn't going to like the twist, but I'm glad he did

[@hqhuy931]

Necrit can you do a video just explaining all the story with spoilers kind of like what you did for League? I think some of us just turned off our brains at some point and forgot. Or maybe one where you talk about cool side quests

[@MrShamus22]

I'll agree that Penacony was a heavy story. Honestly unless you were glued to every single sentence and every single scene like I was, there's a VERY HIGH CHANCE that you missed something important

[@runelt99]

I don't have problem with main story, but my brain just shuts down when its not voice acted side quests. I will just spam click to have it out of the way asap.

[@hqhuy931]

the sad thing is some of the side quests were legit amazing writing and much more understandable than main quest - there's the cocolia's ancestor quest, and the recent A Good Person (queen tissot) which were amazing and tragic

[@runelt99]

@@hqhuy931 Even by skipping most, i ended up reading a little bit from the quest from girl in penacony who was forced to give up her dreams by her parents and by end of quest if you do not hold her hand, she just dies. The quest was that compelling.

[@hqhuy931]

@@runelt99 that quest ending was quite sad if you think about it. She didn't die, yes, and sang the song but still remained as a store clerk that sells bad products, not really escaping from the mundane - ultimately accepting that imprisonment. Lesser of evils, that's all

[@ChaosRampant666]

Duke inferno and his children are probably gonna be antagonist in a future arc or maybe a continuation of Penacony's story

[@patrickcarter2829]

Duke Inferno is dead (though he is an energy being, so copium). His children, however, will definitely show up eventually: Constance made a voice debut in Penacony (talking to Black Swan and giving her info on Acheron).

[@mikonyx7712]

​@@patrickcarter2829 She didn't really give BS any info about Acheron, SHE ACTUALLY HID IT FROM HER BECAUSE SHE CAN MESS WITH MOMORIES

[@lstinside8688]

@@mikonyx7712 I believe she has something to do with Mythus and we're definitely gonna meet followers of Enigmata at some point in the story

[@animo358]

Doesn't Duke Inferno have 7 kids? There are 7 playable paths. So I imagine that means He himself, will not be playable.

[@ieatice]

My only big gripe with the story was the inclusion of the bartending scene with Gallagher and Siobhan (2.1) and the part where we need to go through some gameshow to reach Sunday (2.2). Those parts didnt really add much to the story and only felt like were added to promote the new 2.1 event and a 2.2 map. It just really came off as the company telling the writer(s) to include it for the sake of including it.

[@RomnilWater]

I agree that the game show was pure padding since it didn't really add much of anything to the story (more time with Firefly was nice but we got a lot of that in 2.0 and the reintroduction of Argenti which feels out of place). The Bartending scene does make a bit more sense since it gave us information about Mikhail and did give setup for the bartender event. Did we need that setup? Probably not but it wasn't too long of a sequence.

[@rowanmales3430]

@@RomnilWater I think the gameshow stuff was also included because there was basically no fighting in the 2.2 story. Some people complain about too much story and too little action, and that is "with" the gameshow mini-games/fights they put in half way.

[@rikthhumayun8101]

I think it was required, the 2.2 gameshow part is needed just to pace you and like, not immediately drop the god sequence that was the whole final boss

[@javalidecristal9891]

12:05 Duke Inferno was actually set up just for that, with the stelleron hunters destroying Jepela, making an opening for the everflame mansion to take place so that they would eventually get invited to penacony, just so that Acheron would have a way to get into penacony by stealing the invitation from the bad guys. There's also the fact that Duke Inferno died as a martyr for his children who still have their missions to destroy each other faction that was assigned to them by their father. So while his death felt a little cheap, there's actually a lot of ramifications that lead to that point and a lot of consequences that came and are still coming after the fact.

[@acoolnameemm]

Honestly I love that Sparkle could just truly be here to fuck around and troll everyone -including the players.

[@ZennikoCallisto12]

lots of people that actually calling penacony a PEAKACONY, cuz the story is really at peak rn

[@keitokarl]

its either Peakacony and Painagony

[@honguyenhoaibao3676]

I prefer Pinnacleny

[@georgidimitrov1686]

"They offered me a window to show you something other games could learn from" Throwing shade at Rito again, I see :D LOVE IT! :D

[@_Johnny_GG]

Honestly couldn't agree more with the "princess and another Castle" analogy. Firefly and Robin are dead, drip marketing. Glaze of Xipe, happened in a dream. Fight against Ena, you need Nihility instead of Harmony on the planet of Harmony.

[@keitokarl]

yea, the ideals really clash out during sunday and robin backstory with the bird oak head shows them the bird was shown nihility then robin showed her side which leans to harmony but then you can see sunday wanted harmony but to keep everything safe, he needed order

[@_Johnny_GG]

@@keitokarl 100% but that part lost a lot of significance when you findout it was all a controlled dream. The whole story really strips the player of any urgency, We just do what we're told and watch the npcs make all the moves. Correct me if i'm wrong, but i feel like you could remove the MC and nothing changes, at no point did we make any impact in the final results

[@patrickcarter2829]

​@@_Johnny_GG on the contrary, the Watchmaker's Legacy would not have been uncovered without us. We were the first people to notice Misha and Clockie: the others wouldnt until Dreamflux Reef. The other Nameless would not make it to Dreamflux Reef if they hadnt known about "Dormancy," which we found out in A Child's Dream. We were also the only one to resonate with the Harmony, which subtly swayed Sunday to action. Pretty much, The Trailblazer is an interesting interpretation of a main character: they affect the overall plot in minor, incremental ways that hold significance; rather than being the star of the show, they are moreso a guiding light.

[@yubaa]

@@patrickcarter2829 to add to that, Black Swan couldn't have figured out that they were in a dream without the TB's memories. She made a point of it too; the TB was the only one who encountered the "full course" of events in Penacony.

[@mikonyx7712]

But those examples of MC being "relevant" stem from a coincidences, that other characters take notes of. Rather than actual actions taken by the MC

[@OPGMitaki]

14 minutes of straight facts. Unlike all these impulsive complainers, Necrit really knows how to understand and point out bad parts of a story and give it advice for improvement, as well as point out and expand the reasoning behind the amazing/good parts Love people like this Even more amazing when someone influential mentions things you've thought about yourself for a long time

[@Sero4]

12:35 see the issue here is that in a piece of throwaway dialogue, Acheron (or Black Swan, can't remember well enough) mentions that Sunday didn't trap us in a dream. Rather, he used the power of the Stellaron to blend reality with the dream world, which in my opinion is even more confusing lol

[@diaglan]

Acheron said with the stellaron dreams can manifest in reality, thats why you were able to see Misha in the lobby. Black Swan thinks that everything you did was real except for seeing Misha in the lobby which was a flaw. Ena's power was able to twist reality with dreams so that it appears you've already won and you can go on to the next trailblazing expedition, except Acheron was there who wasn't affected by Ena's power to wake you and the others up, kinda like lucid dreaming but in reality.

[@AkuFexin]

Necrit: I want to branch out and talk about other games Also Necrit: Well this is a League Channel I could never talk about it unless its under the guise of a sponsorship! (Love you necrit tho, just do what you think is best!)

[@curiouscommand5916]

For all we know, Sparkle could just have been a Red Herring this entire time. Something to drive the theorists mad; Even moreso considering the various references to the concept in both her quest and her abilities. I can just imagine Aha the Elation laughing at us as we all go through our "Pepe Silvia" moments trying to piece together what shes up to. "What was she hinting at in her quest and dream? Why are there explosions in one of her trailers? Why did she send us into the childs dream? Why did she tell acheron to find robin? Why is she playing multiple sides with the factions? What are all the damn buttons for!? Who hired her in the end? Was it Gallagher or somebody else? Etc...

[@keitokarl]

i mean, sparkle found out the truth faster than we do, thats why shes giving hints theres only something shes planning to do on

[@Eurasian_]

Also, it was Misha who led us into the Child's Dream. If it weren't for Misha, Sparkle likely would've sent us to either Dreamscape Reverie or Dreamflux Reef.

[@kuroh0241]

She will have a short scene ala Sampo at the end of Penacony. That's all that will happen and I will laugh at all the people who did not get it.

[@acoolnameemm]

2:08 Hoyo USED to have a really good solution for this - and they have used this solution scarcely lately - its really simple. You release new version of old characters to designate character growth. They did this a lot in HI3 up to chapter 28. The cast was really small but we went through several character arcs at the same time and their growth was reflected in the gameplay in terms of new battlesuits for them to use.

[@zlash1148]

They still do, take cold dragon young for example, but now its need story reason for them to get a new suit, not just randomly get it since the story is the main focal focus. Also new character probably sell better lol

[@zlash1148]

They still do, take cold dragon young for example, but now its need story reason for them to get a new suit, not just randomly get it since the story is the main focal focus. Also new character probably sell better lol

[@DamagedTube]

So far, we have DHIL, and soon March for "new version " of the existing cast.

[@acoolnameemm]

@@DamagedTube yeah but Dan didnt stay as DHIL. And it didnt really change his character as he already knew it, and we didnt know him long enough for us to get to know him before we got to learn the entire backstory of him and his whole race. Yeah its a new battlesuit, but its not here to stay and it didnt change his character.

[@Confirmed105]

one of the great things about HSR is that the story don't even feel close to being done. This just feels like a great arc and i hope this quality of writing persists in future arcs.

[@insignia4321]

For now, I can only imagine the plot points of Sparkle, at least when referring to the button detonator, was a red herring to keep us distracted from other key moments even if just momentarily as if to keep us expecting something else.

[@gio87vr]

I loove, LOOVE overcomplex stories, Penacony was really right up my alley. I loved the multiple layers of realities and the beautiful exploring experience in the 3D rooms too.

[@Trololoc]

I really like the direction star rail is going. 1. was kind of tame (and lame) but 2. Seems to be going the right direction. Still not at the level of HI3rd's otto and elysian realm arcs but getting pretty close

[@keitokarl]

i mean it kinda does, but the story is spread out to the environment unlike hi3, that that depends more on texts more than the gameplay in hsr its kinda mixed

[@coldbread8313]

​@@keitokarlit kinda obvious you can't compete with visual novel story that focus more indepth of character . But penacony story is kinda peak like Elysia realm imo.

[@joshbrosh6626]

I mean you gotta remember To get to otto, elysia, fu hua kinda level story First we need to go trough a good set up and build up They didnt get there in 1 year, it took them years

[@rikthhumayun8101]

I basically played the whole story in 1 setting (as in, over a few days) and also as a lover of Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere books I just loved the whole story It just felt like this damn story was Cosmere if you played as the interstellar character in that book

[@Arthur_url]

Penacony truly surprised me with its narrative. While I've always expected great stories from Mihoyo based on my years as a Genshin veteran, they went above and beyond with Penacony. Insane conclusion.

[@kiddyoshi]

glad to see u covering this, i love ur lore coverage for league and i love the lore for star rail.

[@TheRyukeshi]

I started playing Star Rail because of Necrit and have been hooked in most of the story arcs since. Man, he needs to upload more edited reactions to Star Rail content into his 2nd channel, as watching full on 3 hour stream VODs can be difficult.

[@maxttk97]

This story became amazing only after I finished it and started thinking about it.

[@nemasisdemarini8339]

They explained about Ena's dream, when we learned that we were in it. They explicitly say that, up until the fight with Sunday, pretty much everything went the way that we saw. It's just, after the fight began, our memory of the events was altered slightly. Meaning, at most, if something was different, it would generally be something relatively inconsequential. Which would make sense, since having our memories effected to too high of a degree would obviously just lead to us waking up. That's literally why Robin woke up, after all. Something was different enough, that she pretty much immediately started to think something was off.

[@drpaimon2369]

2:40 but they also do that with Genshin right? At least for the past two patches. In the Fontaine teaser 10 new characters were announced all at once. And beside them Tartaglia and Skirk technically also played a part in the story.

[@effortlessfury]

Honestly, I don't really take Necrit's Star Rail vs. Genshin comparisons seriously given that he doesn't really pay attention to Genshin's story.

[@tuba1452]

yeah, thats precisely why fontaine is considered the best arc until now, but its still not even close to penacony. before fontaine genshin's story was such a mess, things started to get good around act 2 of sumeru, and it still wasnt *that* good. good to know they're improving tho, hoyoverse knows how to create a great story for genshin, they just dont know how to tell it.

[@effortlessfury]

@@tuba1452 your opinion, but I vastly preferred Fontaine to Penacony. Genshin’s storytelling method is predominantly a niche that rarely is catered to, one that I love, but one that requires effort to consume. Star Rail is a much better story for those seeking to sit back and more passively consume; it is a very experiential story.

[@VamVami]

I feel Sparkle is literally Red Herring, that we need to focus on her expecting something, but actually she does nothing much?

[@adamanthart8127]

The story in the game focus on Aeons (godlike higher-dimensional beings) and Stellerons (lifeform with a special property that tethers them to a certain Path or Aeon's power)

[@halcy7557]

I would love to see more HSR videos specifically about character lore and other background lore pleaseeee Necrit

[@MommyLucifer]

As someone who consumed the entire thing in one go, I can say that it landed very well and i didnt find myself lost

[@forsakenwolfshadow]

are you going to do more videos on the lore of star rail? I personally dont like gatcha games but the art is beautiful and would love to know the story since a lot of my friends love it ♥

[@worldeater2414]

I know it doesn't mean much coming from a completely random person you don't know and who doesn't know you, but I am immensely proud of you Necrit for how successful you are and how far you have come from your days as just another KZbin channel.

[@infinitykiyen6270]

This kind of story has been inspired by Fate Universe story. You can read the interview between Head Story writer of HSR/Honkai Impact with Nasu head writer of of Fate Universe. You can see so many influence too. AEON = The Type (Avatar of the planet) or Cosmic God with infinite energy in Fate lore Eminator = The gods as they pretty much born from the Types or Cosmic God "Source of the AEON" = The root of the universe. Oh yeah those two are great friends now. Both of them are a hardcore games of one another's games. Nasu played HSR every single days and the same goes with head writer for HSR who love FGO.

[@infinitykiyen6270]

TBH FGO is a good franchise but seriously it's a mis opportunity... They release FGO as Arcade only in Japan... Like DAFUQ??? They have the money and technology to make games like Genshin Impact... Like the clear evidence has been shown with how the Fate Samurai world looks... It's beautiful! They have good story but mobile game is dated as fk lol It aged like milk

[@ironheadedDoF]

Congrats on gaining a sponsorship, Necrit !!!! You need back pay, for your reaction to seeing the train and hearing the music.

[@heytgp]

Necrit with the most logical and constructive criticism as always. Penacony is indeed PEAK writing.

[@Mastersafal3360]

Yeah I saw the cinematic when my sister was playing it it looked amazing, I played star rail for a bit when it first came out, defo gonna play it when my exams are over

[@gryphonconnor8233]

They call out that most of what happens in Ena's dream is "real" because the illusion needs to survive people entering and exiting the system, it falls apart if people realize they fell asleep upon entering Asdana. It just adds an extra layer that can be exploited by the grand forces at work and provides the mechanation for the end goal.

[@sanane5902]

First of all I'm in love with the fact they used absolutely everything what I mean by everything They even used the card that we were the part of almost everything happened and played with it Second of all Genshin realized that doesn't work in inazuma(even tho they also kinda used it because yae miko come out like 6 versions later after we see her in story) since everyone hated it and story gets better in sumeru and Fontaine which they did the same thing Third of all yes hoyo works on things a lot earlier than release for example they started working on shneznaya when inazuma released when release dates gets closer theyll do things faster etc And on their characters probably like more than a year From leaks we understand their rough kits their role etc is decided EXTREMELY early on like we got sparkles aventurines kit etc in 1.1 or maybe even earlier and every character has a ton of concept arts like nahidas concept arts leaked last year along with every Fontaine character and one special character I won't even name and you guys get the point I guess

[@drpaimon2369]

How I would rank Hoyo game arcs: 1. Fontaine 2. Belobog 3. Penacony 4. Sumeru 5. Space station 6. Mondstadt 7. Liyue 8. Luofu 9. Inazuma. (Reason for Fontaine and Belobog being higher than Penacony is mainly that, even though Penacony had amazing writing and philosophical discussions, the dialogue bloating was sometimes worse than even Genshin. Fontaine and Belobog had a good mix of both good writing, interesting themes and good presentation as well as player involvement.)

[@blaze_burn]

My Rankings: 1. Fontaine 2. Penacony 3. Belobog 4. Sumeru 5. Space Station 6. Liyue 7. Luofu 8. Inazuma 9. Mondstadt I just feel like Mondstadt doesn’t hold up too well and it’s very basic Top 4 are insanely good though

[@drpaimon2369]

@@blaze_burn Yeah I can also see that. Very valid.

[@tuba1452]

yeah, if it wasnt for the pacing of penacony it wouldve been the best story hoyoverse cooked

[@velionya]

i would love to see a several hour long rundown of penacony's entire story after 2.3 drops, theres so much i feel like im missing

[@LoneWolfOtaku]

The Elysian Realm arc from HI3 also introduces a large cast of characters that you grow to love

[@gustavohunter7483]

My guess about Duke Inferno is that he was set up as a huge enemy to set up Acheron's badassery

[@Tanktaco]

Did 2.1 and 2.2 back to back this week. What a ride.

[@goustwonderz3303]

Sparkle's placement was mostly to exposition the idea of a "Retired Masked Fool who's preparing for something big", and if ya guys missed it...ooh boy... Shaoji is a god at writing stories, its no understatement that the whole hype for the Honkai-verse is singlehandedly carried by him. The day Necrit dives deep enough might never come, but I can assure you that if you are loving Penacony, everywhere miHoYo has made waves, Shaoji is involved: Because Of You and Final Lesson to name a few.

[@thefrozensoul181]

One thing that has not been mentioned is the music that accompanies while the story develops and its amaizing. It happened to us the first time we fought Cocolia with "Wildfire" and we just got served again with the boss fight of the version with "Hope is the thing with feathers". It acompanies whats happening on the screen at every moment and its not something every game succeeds in.

[@danha3107]

NO SPOILERS HERE, tbh my biggest gripes with this story were just that: - you can't replay cutscenes, and - the lead-up to the final boss where you have CRUCIAL character backstory being delivered while you walk around looking for treasures and dealing with enemies has no way to scroll back if you're a slightly slow reader or not paying attention. This isn't a complex story issue, this is a "the auto-scrolling text scrolled too fast with no way to replay or stop it issue"

[@hikkun_ch]

We know that 2.3 is gonna focus on the IPC and will involve those without much spotlight until now: Sparkle, Boothill, Ratio, Aventurine, Topaz and Jade. Sparkle was hired by someone, so she has some sort of mission in Penacony. The buttons could really be explosives, but my guess is that it will be used as a misdirection! So Sparkle can rob one of the cornerstones, an item that was heavily showed during this arc! Maybe the contractor even being part of Oswaldo's faction to disrupt Diamond´s in a internal conflict.

[@Zolrain]

Sparkle wasn't confused, she was waking up from the dream that Sunday locked everyone in. Remember, Sunday had an entire solar system under the dream... the whole plan was to wake everyone up at the SAME time so you could defeat him. Sparkle was fully aware of what was going on and was most likely passing those buttons as a "Plan B" if all else failed. Also, it could be a plan she has ready for when the IPC comes charging in.

[@akimotomiharu3415]

Not just the main story is PEAK, the side quests are just as good and I’m honestly surprised! Like wow they really did amazing with the stories in Penacony!

[@Liatin1]

They literally said “it was all a dream” and it didnt feel like bs

[@FinalHarps]

Bro, you had a bug at 00:46. The second mark went up on your screen on the top left, which freaked me out, and I thought the bug went in my phone case

[@6Jx1chi]

Please make more Star Rail lore videos; it's sometimes hard to grasp for me so a summary by you would be so good tbh!

[@Hadeshi.]

The Origami Bird just outside the VIP Lounge is no longer there, that means we're actually awake this time, no longer trapped on the Stellaron's dream.

[@angelvu]

The head writer for Penacony is the same writer who wrote the Elysian Realm storyline in Honkai Impact 3rd, and that storyline is by far the most bittersweet yet satisfying stories I’ve ever read in my life. Hell, I’m naming my future child Elysia because of it. For the first time in a gacha game I read every single text box of dialogue because the characters and story were so intriguing and interesting. Gameplay not so much though… After he left to work on Penacony after finishing Elysian Realm… the story had a major drop in quality… Now in Star Rail he has more freedom to tell his stories with more modern/loose gameplay/more cutscenes/more funding. This man is basically a writing legend.

[@daniel336600]

Never thought of it like that it did make it interesting and we knew what we was getting with new ones popping in

[@ViolentEuthymia]

I love star rail and this channel. hope this video does well and you cover it more :3

[@welie2082]

You have no clue how much I want to see you cover the lore:))))

[@stephankalnin3464]

The fact that we sill have two more patches to progress the story of Penacony is awesome

[@weertangel7231]

The writer who did Penacony also wrote the best parts of the Honkai impact 3rd story(they showed this in the livestream) so we already knew it would be good, but this even outdoes all his previous work and i love it! The upcoming conclusion of this story is something i really look forward to becouse after how definitive 2.2's story was i wonder what else is gonna happen. It also makes me wonder how they are going to outdo this in the future couse this is quite the high bar they set for themselves.

[@samuel30853s]

nope elysian realm still his best work

[@Nabbitman]

13:37 - 13:53 most likely the HOTTEST take from the Star Rail community ever, but this is also how I feel towards Robin. Yeah she mostly tried to discover what’s up with the deaths as confirmed in 2.1 with her note to Sunday, but she just kinda was….there….and was still given this gigantic spotlight. We meet her at the hotel, learn she has a sore throat, helps us get used to the dream world, and then the next time we see her, she’s a “corpse”. She isn’t in 2.1, granted she was meant to be “dead” but in 2.2, we see she’s helping kids brighten up by singing to them, and tried to help Sunday see how horrible a dreamlike reality is, only to fail when out of nowhere, Sunday is revealed to be an agent of Order (yes I know it was a destiny thing but we don’t get any kind of closure or reason as to WHY Sunday chose to walk this path as far as I’m aware). And then she gets captured, AGAIN, and then reappears in the TRUE final boss during the second phase to help the heroes wake everyone up. Again, I could be missing on some things but I genuinely think Robin had a gigantic spotlight on her despite the fact she didn’t earn it compared to people like Acheron or Black Swan or Gallagher. Compare that to Misha, a character who was more or less just in the background throughout the story, only to be revealed that Misha is the Watchmaker himself, Mikhail Char Legwork as a memory zone meme. It was so well because of the subtle hints from the Child’s Dream section along with the multiple mentions of this Mikhail person who we know only by name. I feel like Misha knocked it out of the park as a background character compared to Robin. And this is all my opinion along with my memory of what happened so I could be wrong about some things. Feel free to roast me about how your Waifu did in fact do something during Penacony. Looking at you Tectone.

[@egregar]

The whole bit about sunday choosing the order instead of the harmony was because of robin. He was stuck between the two dangled ideas of harmony and order as they are quite similar. He eventually chose the order because of robin’s excursion to the war-torn planet. Freedom gave her the very real possibility to kill herself so sunday went the route of less freedom for safety.

[@Nabbitman]

@@egregar ok. But when did that happen? What flash back or conversation did I somehow just not pay attention too?

[@meihara9415]

Also if you played HI3rd, you get some additional kicks out of the story. Acheron's alternative was a main actor in that story too, and you got a small flashback (picture with horns) which here is merely a backstory piece. Yet if you know her.. other version I guess, then it hurt you so bad, because you knew the full story that happened there. And how that could have turned out in this universe. BTW remember when there was this "the legendary writer of honkai impact wrote penacony story" thing.. This is why he is legendary.

[@OfficialNeonScratch]

I DID NOT KNOW you talk about HSR, I enjoyed your League / Runeterra lore talks but didn't expect you to talk about HSR.

[@alexdroptin7940]

Siobhan mentioned, stanning protocols online. On a more serious note, I really wish Siobhan were one of the playable characters or becomes one down the line. Also... We did not even touch one the fucking side quests, some of which are absolutely completely insane and show a level of planning that is nothing short of incredible.

[@ethel7368]

my fav part was pom pom say's "muddle fudger?"

[@maydarichoybonov170]

the approach of dropping 10 characters in X.0 and then slowly releasing them in later versions wasnt invented by hsr team wtf

[@postivision]

imma be back once i finish 2.0 and 2.2 story , 1 min in and im already excited as a pleyr who left for idk how long now

[@obscureglitch1815]

The new story was great in star rail

[@MrDrobotor]

Waiting now for lore videos from Necrit

[@Tent316]

Thats what got me too. Like I love the story but the way the Annihilation gang was introduced then discarded was pain for me. Those characters were one of the best designed Ive seen in a long time. I hope they return in the future in a meaningful way.

[@mrdeafter]

Sparkle knows everything from the beginning. that's why she gave everyone a button to detonate a bomb when the festival start just in case the trailblazer failed to take down Sunday, by blowing up Edna dream. but the plot twist is the festival is actually start 1 hour early and Acheron is the one that destroy the dream not the bomb as she has planed.

[@gerberboy22]

My Gosh ! I'm waiting for when Necrit recognizes the Penacony Story!!

[@Klmreyes0947]

I believed the story of penacony will be concluded (or not) at "pier point" , the place was already hinted from topaz's character quest when she got demoted and was asked by aventurine to "help" him at penacony, solidifying aventurine's cunning mind and intuition, predicting possible outcomes that can help him get what he want. At this point i even think they're using Jade as a cover-up for Diamond in the future as a possible character in the future chapters. After this I feel like were going back to belobog (at one point), because of sampo's twisted dream of what's happening to belobog. The HSR Team is still cooking penacony and i'm here for it!

[@Xophien]

I think Sparkle has been introduced here for future stories and was never going to play a huge part in Penacony. More than the buttons, it's her shapeshifting abilities that have been unexploited and have HUGE potential for the future. Introducing her early in a story where she doesn't actually have any active role to play will pay off down the line, when there's an arc with the spotlight on the Masked Fools. That, or she's just trolling. At this point, we can expect anything, but I think she's never gonna give us up.

[@FictionalRen]

Sparkle seemed to be preparing a Plan B in case the Trailblazer and co didn't manage to defeat Sunday

[@nikx]

I‘m sad that about duke Inferno, too, but it was a great pre story twist setup. I really thought Everflame mansion would be the antagonist, but then none of them even showed up. The dukes children are at least set up as potential antagonists in the future.

[@Yuki_Ika7]

given that one of the main writers for this arc is the very mastermind of Honkai impact 3rd's, it makes total sense!

[@jadedanielgallemit6320]

Can someone send this to people who don’t consider 2.2 peak? I feel like necrit found the reason some people got confused. They didn’t pay attention to parts of 2.0 and 2.1 and even in 2.2 and it came to bite in the ass in the end and they are projecting that as their hate for the story

[@feyukaidesu3239]

Just to share, I saw a video in shorts while scrolling (ctto). As said in one of the comments, the Masked Fool are summarized as the side characters helping the main mc but varies on how they do it. The buttons Sparkle was distributing were actually a way to wake up everyone from Ena's dream if the charmony festival continued incase the Trailblazer failed to stop Sunday. Idk how much of this is true but it could be a possibilty that she was just enjoying the fun of everything going into chaos before doing something. Aha move I say

[@scav7020]

SPOILERS : - - - - - From my understandings and what i imagined for the endgame of sparkle story in penacony is that her giving all these "explosives to random people" was the way out of the dream, she was saving everyone from sunday's grip by putting explosives everywhere. All the set up with sparkle would have been great if it ended up with a big explosion

[@zardon_zane1630]

12:00 I liked that to be honest XD, I thought we were getting the cliche enemy team, he got setup with a full quest and they disappeared since Nihility Emanator is a beast!!

[@4ainik4aevarov50]

My biggest problem with the 2.2 story is that there is "too much" of it. Until the middle of it, there was only one fight, which also was very short. There is more action in the latter half, thankfully. Maybe that was a bit exaggerated by me playing through 2.2 in one sitting, but still, it felt like there was almost no downtime for the majority of the story. Especially because it was the end of the main story of Penacony, so there were many important revelations basically coming one after another

[@4stryx]

I agree. I'm still waiting for Sparkle to ... 'go with a bang' for the next patch. Not to mention, there are still mysteries that need to be solved. Like Gopher Wood still has something big, right? And also the sub plot with the Boothill and Aventurine.

[@bustercallPrime]

Great summary of the new story :)

[@F4keOfficial]

1.0 was amazing, Wilfire will always be unique because that's the first time every new player experience how cool HSR can be but Penacony managed to make the best story of all the game