Star Rail 2.4 patch thoughts
Aug. 1st, 2024 06:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanithryudoThe Good: The storytelling has improved. It's like they took all the feedback players had against the old 1.0-1.3 patches to heart, and learned from them to make the Penacony and now the new Xianzhou update. The storytelling is tight, with the relevant information directly presented to us instead of hidden in separate side quests or readables/item descriptions.
The political tension lurking beneath the surface of the Xianzhou is also well done, laid out clear enough for us to get the basics of, but still leaving room for complexity as if we're just looking at the tip of the iceberg. The fact that the upcoming crisis we're gonna deal with appears to be a xanatos gambit/conspiracy mashup from at least 3 factions (or more?) gives a good sense of suspense (at least for me), and balances out the fact that 3 arbiter generals + protagonist party which really takes the suspense out of any direct combat scenario (we've curb-stomped grander boss-fights).
Also, I hear the new Hunt-class March 7 is pretty buff, and has at least 2 ways she can be built, as either normal sub-DPS or in a break build. That's pretty awesome, and I am looking forward to slowly building mine (probably as sub-DPS since I have more leftover gear for that build).
The two major side quests that came with the patch was also well done. The story behind March's sword training is hilarious: Skott of the IPC is...well, hard to put into words to describe him, but definitely hilarious for the player. The companion quest for Yunli was quite moving, though not for anything related to Yunli, but the story told by the magic sword was well told and a gold mine of lore info.
The Meh: The characterization we've seen of Yunli so far does not make me want to pull for her. I don't feel she's outright bratty as some haters see her on various forums, but she's definitely... a kid. Like, the way she thinks and acts is immature and what I would expect of a kid. Which is fine, and IC. But... I don't play this game to raise kids. So.
Also, I am conflicted about Yanqing. The characterization in the story is pretty good, and he's clearly matured since we saw in the 1.2 patch. We see the officer side of him who has learned to reign in his temper and deal with politics and diplomacy. But... He still sucks for gameplay, and I ended up pulling his 3rd eidolon from the standard banner, when any other character would've been strictly better. -_- *sigh*
Undecided: Feixiao looks fine and her characterization is ok, but doesn't blow me out of the water or anything. She is a wind element main-DPS to fill the hole in my teams...but I hear mixed reviews of her kit online. Some say she's great, some say she sucks, some say you have to get E2 be decent... I dunno. It's possible her kit hasn't even been finalized yet, so I can wait and see.
Ling Sha's visual design looked really nice on the preview art, but in character, she looks...like a clone of Sparkle with a neater haircut. Also reminds me of Yuuko from xxxHolic. I dunno, will hold off until I learn more about her kit and how her bunny pet will show up in combat before making any pull plans.
The Bad: The updated killed any inclinations I had of pulling Jiaoqiu in the second half of the banner. Just... this dude has nothing resembling Zhuge Liang except for his fan. His characterization is barely above that of a NPC and his attitude... eh. Doesn't feel like he's got the "excellence" to be a 5 star, honestly.
His fellow emissary from the Yaoqing, Moze, is somewhat similar. Though at least this guy is only a 4 star. I don't see what people like about this guy though, since his performance in the story so far is...somewhat lacking. Talks big but doesn't really back any of it up. I'm thinking it's more due to the design being from Impact 3rd?
Storyline Lore:
Before I start, I found the CN wiki page where the missions & quests are transcribed. Here's the part for the current patch. Though, this only includes the main dialogue chain.
The Xianzhou Yaoqing seems to be predominantly populated by Foxians. Since they have the shortest lifespans of the various long life species in the Alliance, it explains why it's the most modernized ship, and possibly also why it's the most militaristic. Also, from previous lore bits, we know that Fanghu is predominantly populated by Vidyadhara. (I have to wonder if they also got an robotic AI Arbiter General on one of them ships... :p)
While running around and talking to random tourists and tour guides on the Xianzhou, there was one tidbit I overheard, where it seems like the Luofu's main power generation "extracts the heat from the core of the planet the ship is dragging". It seems to make more sense that the ship itself should be closer to world sized to be able to drag a planet along, IMO, though it's not direct proof. It is a pretty impressive feat compared to other sci fi genres.
Jing Yuan is pretty obviously wearing his politician mask the entire duration of this patch. We also see the part of him that is imperfect. He's known for a strategic mind, but he's not an outright fortune teller (even Fu Xuan can't predict future crisis that well). It's clear all 3 generals knew there was trouble brewing, but they chose to wait, undoubtedly knowing there will be losses when it finally kicks off.
There's multiple enemy forces in play. The ones that are aren't hiding themselves are Phantylia and the Borisin clans she's rallied to her cause. The ones that are hidden are the remnants of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus who rose to betray the Luofu during the 1.3 arc, and the Vidyadhara faction who have thrown in with the Abundance. Though, we later see that this time, the participants from the Vidyadhara seems to be from the Yaoqing, using wind magic instead of the Luofu Vidyadhara's cloud-hymn magic.
That's 4 factions in this conspiracy right there. We're also not sure if the IPC and Intelligensia Guild are also in cahoots, given that weaponized mechs they brought onto the ship is based on Borisin neural system. And the conspirators obviously expected these mechs to be shipped to the Shackling Prison, where they would reactivate them and use them for jailbreaking of Hoolay... I'm thinking the IPC may not be knowingly conspiring, since the Destruction and the Abundance really have nothing to offer them. But unscrupulous elements in the Intelligensia Guild may well be culpable, because it's really hard to explain the biological source in those mechs otherwise...
In the political make up of the Xianzhou Alliance, it does seem like the Arbiter-Generals and the Marshals are somewhat united and have trust in each other. The political accusations that Jing Yuan currently faces are mostly coming from (1) the Vidyadhara Preceptors (who are eye-rolling salty about Dan Heng, BTW: "说他放任流徙在外的饮月龙尊重返罗浮，打开鳞渊境古海，干扰持明守望建木的责任". I just... yeah, these are either people who were in cahoots with Phantylia/Sanctus Medicus, or they're the kind of people who would rather have everyone die to Phantylia than having their "sovereignty" impugned upon.)
...and (2) the Ten-Lords Commission ("怀炎：天击将军，这是你的意思…还是「十王」的意思？"), which seems to have political power parallel to that of the Marshal and Arbiter-Generals? Though at least it does seem the Marshal has the final say over appointing Generals.
Anyway, this time we are more clearly given a time frame for our protagonist Trio being on the Luofu for several weeks before the tournament kicks off. (Per March: "短短几周的时间里，我的剑术突飞猛进。")
Events on the day before the tournament (when the crisis kicks off), is a little harder to parse. But it seems to go like this:
- Yanqing takes Yunli, March, and Jiaoqiu to the star port to see the ship where the tournament is going to take place.
- Around the same time, our MC and Dan Heng are interrogated by General Feixiao about the events of the previous Luofu arc.
- Still at the starport, Jiaoqiu makes vague comments about spotting suspicious people, and then leaves.
- Yanqing and co. follow the suspicious people at the port and find out they are Borisin disguised as Foxians with fake ids belonging to multiple Xianzhou organizations (Cloud Knights, Artisan Commission, Sky-faring Commission...). This entire process probably took some time since it includes them hiding in some crates that the conspirators moved around to another location...
- Jiaoqiu and Moze are sent to the Shackling Prison to check on the status of Hoolay.
- MC and Dan Heng arrive at the Shackling Prison to record testimony under truth detector. We waited a bit for Hanya to get to us, but never got around to recording testimony because we discovered that...
- The disguised conspirators go into action and free Hoolay. Xueyi's body is destroyed and she transfers herself into a cycrane.
- MC and co detects something wrong in the prison, fights off some confiscated IPC mechs, rushes down to Hoolay's prison a bit too late. Finds and sends off Xueyi to bring news to the government past the lockdown, then chases Hoolay's group.
- Hoolay escapes the prison, closing the doors right before our MC's group could get close enough to engage combat.
- Around the same time, Jing Yuan and the other generals receive word from Xueyi about the prison break.
- (Seems like Yanqing's group didn't get their investigation results back to the generals before this point...)
Other lore tidbits from the main story...
- We get a partial listing of Jing Yuan's accomplishments after becoming General: "挫败塔拉萨的孽物，解去玉阙仙舟之围，摧毁丰饶民所唤来的妖星..."
- Ruan Mei got to (the real) Tingyun's remains. It's clear that she's gonna get brought back to life. I'm not trilled about cheapening death for another major character, but the fandom seems to mostly love it.
- From a versus perspective, it seems Hoolay himself doesn't think his odds of escape from the Luofu are high. And this is not knowing there's 2 visiting Generals on board. When given the chance, he'd rather take the Foxian disguise pill than brute force his way out. This implies that his combat threat level is not the highest our protagonist group has come up against, let's just say. The main challenge next patch is going to be finding this guy and preventing collateral damage, not defeating him.
Side quest lore:
It's hard to tell what ages Xianzhou people are, and they even make fun of this in the dialogue. Yunli supposedly has had over 300 life-threatening adventures to collect magic swords for destruction. So she definitely is not in her pre-teens or teens like her appearance suggests. This then suggests that Xianzhou Celestials age slower to maturity.
Also, as side evidence, there's a throwaway comment among the tourists which mentions that a semester in Xianzhou universities consists of like 18 years. Hm. I have to wonder if their middle school terms are also similarly extended...
The companion quest for Yunli includes a story told by a magic sword, which used to belong to a Cloud Knight who was stranded on a primitive planet infested by Borisin. He spends the rest of his immortal life killing Borisin, inspiring the people on that planet to rebellion. Then at the end of his lifespan, he lies to the people to have them use the magic sword to kill (seal?) the mara-struck monster that he's gonna turn into.
Anyway, it's a moving story, but let's get to the lore important bits...
First of all, the implication seems to be this is an average mook Cloud Knight, as he uses the NPC model and isn't even given a name the whole way. His combat prowess mostly comes from his magic sword, so he's not even like a talented fighter or anything.
Then he says this:
"I remember my first death. The borisin... cut off my head.
But I also remember that if it weren't for a brave youngster who risked his neck to reattach my head and give me a proper burial, I would've disappeared completely."
Just, yikes. That's some ridiculous level of regen. Also, implies that the head can remain "alive" for a pretty long period of time absent the rest of the body (enough for the Borisins to leave, and some kid to come sew it up...at least a few hours minimum seems to be reasonable). Highlander would be jealous. The Blessing of Abundance is no joke.
Also, this is his instructions for dealing with his mara-struck remains once "killed" by the magic sword:
"I need you to construct a stone monument for me. It must be large and sturdy enough to seal the remains of that demon forever."
Then, in the words of the descendants of the keepers of that memorial:
"Over the centuries, a golden tree sprouted from under the monument, and its branches have never withered."
I just... so do dead Xianzhou Celestials turn into plants after "death"? Is that where all the ginko themes for the Luofu comes from? =O
Or, is the mara-struck monster version of this dude still sealed "alive" under that monument? Bit of a horrific thought. But then again, no one is organizing a party to go to that planet to investigate or move back the remains of this dude, it sounds like, so it seems the Xianzhou doesn't consider it an active threat, I guess.
Anyway, given this jacked up healing factor, and looking back at Jing Yuan's convalescence after the Phantylia fight, I have trouble believing that any physical wound would've remained to trouble him for long. It is more likely his recovery mostly consisted of dealing with the over-spill from channeling too much power during the final strike against Phantylia, and probably clearing out any Destruction power that Phantylia was trying to infuse into him. I'm guessing Bailu's medical advice would be more on the order of try not to use powers (like Lightning Lord maybe?) rather than not engaging in any physical fight.
Side Quest Timeline:
There are a surprising number of people online who fail reading comprehension and can't figure out the timeline that's pretty clearly stated in-game. Mostly, these are people who think March's sword training quest and then Yunli's companion quest takes place after Hoolay's prison break, just because those quests don't unlock until you finish the main story quest. They just totally ignore the gigantic blurb at the start of March's quest that says we're rolling time back to when she first accepted being a sword apprentice under Yanqing and Yunli, and that took place pretty much the first day we arrived on the Luofu. -_-
Now, the timeline bit I'm more interested in is how Argenti gets around. So here's the timeline I put together:
1. In one of the last quests we had on Penacony, we helped a bunch of people check out of the hotel, including Argenti. In other words, Argenti left Penacony some unknown time before the Astral Express did.
2. Astral Express drops our protag trio off at the Luofu. We go visit Jing Yuan and meet Huaiyan. While talking about the tournament, Huaiyan mentions that the grand prize will be a special sword, but it's still on its way to be delivered.
2b. Later that day, March gets volunteered to be Yanqing & Yunli's student.
3. The next morning, our group runs across Skott from the IPC bullying a shopkeeper. Words are had and a bet is made between March and Skott to duel sword vs mech in 15 days.
4. Two weeks later, March and Skott have their duel. After that completes, Yunli's companion quest unlocks. Near the end of this quest, March also writes a letter to Himeko and Welt on the Express, so at this point, they're still off delivering stuff to Ruan Mei.
5. At the start of her companion quest, Yunli and MC are looking for March, who has skipped out on her lesson that day. This obviously takes place after March's quest, because during the training management quest, we were in full charge of March's schedule and gains. (Also, we make a short trip to the Express while looking for March, so not sure if the Express had returned to Luofu at this point, or if we should ignore that bit.)
5b. In the companion quest, Argenti arrives with the delegation from Kalevala, which just joined space society, and they brought with them the magic sword that used to belong to a Luofu Cloud Knight who had gotten stranded on the planet a long time (at least over a thousand years) ago.
6. Some unknown amount of time later (I think it was at least another 2 weeks?), the Hoolay jailbreak event happens.
We learn that Argenti was the one who discovered (and bespoke) the sword in question and discovered it was Xianzhou in origin, and presumably contacted the Xianzhou to arrange for delivery back. And this all took place between #1 and #2.
Unless the Express stayed for quite a while in between Argenti checking out and us leaving for the Luofu, it sounds like Argenti came across the sword very shortly after leaving Penacony. And this on a planet that just newly joined the interstellar community and ought to have been out of the way.
Let's just say that Argenti gets around a lot, doesn't he? He's always at the right place at the right time for Plot. It's the same as when he shows up out of nowhere *on* Penacony to announce he saved Aventurine after his Nihility encounter. XD
Some further musings...
A criticism I've seen strictly among some CN fans for this patch is that they think the successful jailbreak makes Jing Yuan's claim to master strategist to be false advertising.
Another faction criticizes all of the Generals as "masterminding" or at least predicting the whole thing beforehand, and callously using our protagonist as a pawn against the jailbreakers.
I think these people are reading too much into the title of "strategist". Like, being smart at strategy doesn't mean you can outright tell the future. Jing Yuan isn't an Emanator of Finality; back during the previous Luofu arc, he didn't even suspect the Anti-matter Legion was involved until it was too late. Nor did Fu Xuan, who was the actual fortune teller, pick up that info either.
So, yeah. Being a renowned strategist doesn't make you perfect. Sometimes your opponents are intelligent "strategists" too. Sometimes you have to wait for the opponent to make a move first before you can react.
Did the Generals know that *something* was going to go down for the tournament? Definitely. Did they suspect a jail break attempt on Hoolay? Most likely, since Feixiao brought news that Phantylia is now leading the Borisin renmants, it's an obvious conclusion to reach, and hence why she suggested moving Hoolay to the Yaoqing.
Did they suspect it will happen at that specific time and sent our protagonists there on purpose? Eh... I don't think this is the case.
IMO, I think they probably expected a jailbreak on the actual day of the tournament, with the conspirators causing some ruckus at the tournament as distraction. That would be a genre convention, after all. Maybe, their plan was to have Feixiao actually being a surprise presence at Shackling Prison when the jailbreak kicks off, all the better to capture and smack down the conspirators in question.
I mean, the original plan of the conspirators was to pull things off at the day of the tournament, after all. The trigger in their change of plans was after they found out about Hoolay getting moved to the Yaoqing.
If you look at the timeline I listed above, Feixiao didn't even bring up the matter of moving Hoolay with Jing Yuan until that actual day (after questioning our protagonists). Essentially, the preparations for moving Hoolay (by sending Jiaoqiu and Moze to check on his status) was started at the same time our protagonists were told to go record testimony at the Shackling Prison. And the actual prisoner transfer was slated for the very next day, with Feixiao herself in attendance (and would've been able to squash any jailbreakers).
You'd think that with such a small time window, there's no time for the conspirators to alter their obviously long planned conspiracy? I think this may have been something that the Generals believed as well. But, as it turned out, the unlikely event happened. In an incredibly short time frame, traitors in the Luofu government system got news of the upcoming prisoner transfer, sent it to the lead conspirator for the Borisin, and that guy immediately made a completely last minute change of plans.
Just the same, I doubt the Generals planned for our protagonist party to get involved with any jailbreak. I mean, if they were masterminding this and using us as pawns, we wouldn't have ended up not even seeing hide or hair of Hoolay the whole time. -_-
Ah, and that is another criticism I've seen about the sequence of events. Our protagonists were only a little bit behind Hoolay's group, and we had Hanya giving us special access to the short-range teleporters inside the Shackling Prison, but we still end up being unable to catch up to them.
To which I say... I suspect they had access to short cuts and teleporters too. I mean, it's clear that the jailbreak group consisted of a lot of deep cover agents, including many who worked within the Shackling Prison itself. So would it be too surprising they had either the right codes or ways to override?
Or for that matter, we're told the Shackling Prison (or at least the part we were in) were co-designed by the Luofu Vidyadhara. And we know there are Luofu Preceptors who have thrown in with the forces of Abundance. We even encountered a bunch of invisible Vidyadhara assassins in the prison while chasing Hoolay. So, yeah. One can draw the obvious conclusion there...
JY x DH slash: Eh... other people have collected the evidence and made the analysis. I don't feel like repeating this work. So will just link some stuff I've found here...
https://2532355088.lofter.com/post/1e22df10_2bc6bf7e2
https://xieshi83733.lofter.com/post/4cbe9fa7_2bc6bf1c5
https://heisuigui.lofter.com/post/30cdc103_2bc6bc152
https://shinian00807.lofter.com/post/31908c0e_2bc6cd04e
Addendum: Misc stuff
Found this post which shows proof that less than 5 months passed between the Stellaron Crisis on the Luofu, and the start of this patch (Lingsha just recently arrived).
We also know that the main quest of Penacony took place within 48 hours. In other words, our various filler missions and side quests in between chapters took up the majority of time, looks like. =P
The political tension lurking beneath the surface of the Xianzhou is also well done, laid out clear enough for us to get the basics of, but still leaving room for complexity as if we're just looking at the tip of the iceberg. The fact that the upcoming crisis we're gonna deal with appears to be a xanatos gambit/conspiracy mashup from at least 3 factions (or more?) gives a good sense of suspense (at least for me), and balances out the fact that 3 arbiter generals + protagonist party which really takes the suspense out of any direct combat scenario (we've curb-stomped grander boss-fights).
Also, I hear the new Hunt-class March 7 is pretty buff, and has at least 2 ways she can be built, as either normal sub-DPS or in a break build. That's pretty awesome, and I am looking forward to slowly building mine (probably as sub-DPS since I have more leftover gear for that build).
The two major side quests that came with the patch was also well done. The story behind March's sword training is hilarious: Skott of the IPC is...well, hard to put into words to describe him, but definitely hilarious for the player. The companion quest for Yunli was quite moving, though not for anything related to Yunli, but the story told by the magic sword was well told and a gold mine of lore info.
The Meh: The characterization we've seen of Yunli so far does not make me want to pull for her. I don't feel she's outright bratty as some haters see her on various forums, but she's definitely... a kid. Like, the way she thinks and acts is immature and what I would expect of a kid. Which is fine, and IC. But... I don't play this game to raise kids. So.
Also, I am conflicted about Yanqing. The characterization in the story is pretty good, and he's clearly matured since we saw in the 1.2 patch. We see the officer side of him who has learned to reign in his temper and deal with politics and diplomacy. But... He still sucks for gameplay, and I ended up pulling his 3rd eidolon from the standard banner, when any other character would've been strictly better. -_- *sigh*
Undecided: Feixiao looks fine and her characterization is ok, but doesn't blow me out of the water or anything. She is a wind element main-DPS to fill the hole in my teams...but I hear mixed reviews of her kit online. Some say she's great, some say she sucks, some say you have to get E2 be decent... I dunno. It's possible her kit hasn't even been finalized yet, so I can wait and see.
Ling Sha's visual design looked really nice on the preview art, but in character, she looks...like a clone of Sparkle with a neater haircut. Also reminds me of Yuuko from xxxHolic. I dunno, will hold off until I learn more about her kit and how her bunny pet will show up in combat before making any pull plans.
The Bad: The updated killed any inclinations I had of pulling Jiaoqiu in the second half of the banner. Just... this dude has nothing resembling Zhuge Liang except for his fan. His characterization is barely above that of a NPC and his attitude... eh. Doesn't feel like he's got the "excellence" to be a 5 star, honestly.
His fellow emissary from the Yaoqing, Moze, is somewhat similar. Though at least this guy is only a 4 star. I don't see what people like about this guy though, since his performance in the story so far is...somewhat lacking. Talks big but doesn't really back any of it up. I'm thinking it's more due to the design being from Impact 3rd?
Storyline Lore:
Before I start, I found the CN wiki page where the missions & quests are transcribed. Here's the part for the current patch. Though, this only includes the main dialogue chain.
The Xianzhou Yaoqing seems to be predominantly populated by Foxians. Since they have the shortest lifespans of the various long life species in the Alliance, it explains why it's the most modernized ship, and possibly also why it's the most militaristic. Also, from previous lore bits, we know that Fanghu is predominantly populated by Vidyadhara. (I have to wonder if they also got an robotic AI Arbiter General on one of them ships... :p)
While running around and talking to random tourists and tour guides on the Xianzhou, there was one tidbit I overheard, where it seems like the Luofu's main power generation "extracts the heat from the core of the planet the ship is dragging". It seems to make more sense that the ship itself should be closer to world sized to be able to drag a planet along, IMO, though it's not direct proof. It is a pretty impressive feat compared to other sci fi genres.
Jing Yuan is pretty obviously wearing his politician mask the entire duration of this patch. We also see the part of him that is imperfect. He's known for a strategic mind, but he's not an outright fortune teller (even Fu Xuan can't predict future crisis that well). It's clear all 3 generals knew there was trouble brewing, but they chose to wait, undoubtedly knowing there will be losses when it finally kicks off.
There's multiple enemy forces in play. The ones that are aren't hiding themselves are Phantylia and the Borisin clans she's rallied to her cause. The ones that are hidden are the remnants of the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus who rose to betray the Luofu during the 1.3 arc, and the Vidyadhara faction who have thrown in with the Abundance. Though, we later see that this time, the participants from the Vidyadhara seems to be from the Yaoqing, using wind magic instead of the Luofu Vidyadhara's cloud-hymn magic.
That's 4 factions in this conspiracy right there. We're also not sure if the IPC and Intelligensia Guild are also in cahoots, given that weaponized mechs they brought onto the ship is based on Borisin neural system. And the conspirators obviously expected these mechs to be shipped to the Shackling Prison, where they would reactivate them and use them for jailbreaking of Hoolay... I'm thinking the IPC may not be knowingly conspiring, since the Destruction and the Abundance really have nothing to offer them. But unscrupulous elements in the Intelligensia Guild may well be culpable, because it's really hard to explain the biological source in those mechs otherwise...
In the political make up of the Xianzhou Alliance, it does seem like the Arbiter-Generals and the Marshals are somewhat united and have trust in each other. The political accusations that Jing Yuan currently faces are mostly coming from (1) the Vidyadhara Preceptors (who are eye-rolling salty about Dan Heng, BTW: "说他放任流徙在外的饮月龙尊重返罗浮，打开鳞渊境古海，干扰持明守望建木的责任". I just... yeah, these are either people who were in cahoots with Phantylia/Sanctus Medicus, or they're the kind of people who would rather have everyone die to Phantylia than having their "sovereignty" impugned upon.)
...and (2) the Ten-Lords Commission ("怀炎：天击将军，这是你的意思…还是「十王」的意思？"), which seems to have political power parallel to that of the Marshal and Arbiter-Generals? Though at least it does seem the Marshal has the final say over appointing Generals.
Anyway, this time we are more clearly given a time frame for our protagonist Trio being on the Luofu for several weeks before the tournament kicks off. (Per March: "短短几周的时间里，我的剑术突飞猛进。")
Events on the day before the tournament (when the crisis kicks off), is a little harder to parse. But it seems to go like this:
- Yanqing takes Yunli, March, and Jiaoqiu to the star port to see the ship where the tournament is going to take place.
- Around the same time, our MC and Dan Heng are interrogated by General Feixiao about the events of the previous Luofu arc.
- Still at the starport, Jiaoqiu makes vague comments about spotting suspicious people, and then leaves.
- Yanqing and co. follow the suspicious people at the port and find out they are Borisin disguised as Foxians with fake ids belonging to multiple Xianzhou organizations (Cloud Knights, Artisan Commission, Sky-faring Commission...). This entire process probably took some time since it includes them hiding in some crates that the conspirators moved around to another location...
- Jiaoqiu and Moze are sent to the Shackling Prison to check on the status of Hoolay.
- MC and Dan Heng arrive at the Shackling Prison to record testimony under truth detector. We waited a bit for Hanya to get to us, but never got around to recording testimony because we discovered that...
- The disguised conspirators go into action and free Hoolay. Xueyi's body is destroyed and she transfers herself into a cycrane.
- MC and co detects something wrong in the prison, fights off some confiscated IPC mechs, rushes down to Hoolay's prison a bit too late. Finds and sends off Xueyi to bring news to the government past the lockdown, then chases Hoolay's group.
- Hoolay escapes the prison, closing the doors right before our MC's group could get close enough to engage combat.
- Around the same time, Jing Yuan and the other generals receive word from Xueyi about the prison break.
- (Seems like Yanqing's group didn't get their investigation results back to the generals before this point...)
Other lore tidbits from the main story...
- We get a partial listing of Jing Yuan's accomplishments after becoming General: "挫败塔拉萨的孽物，解去玉阙仙舟之围，摧毁丰饶民所唤来的妖星..."
- Ruan Mei got to (the real) Tingyun's remains. It's clear that she's gonna get brought back to life. I'm not trilled about cheapening death for another major character, but the fandom seems to mostly love it.
- From a versus perspective, it seems Hoolay himself doesn't think his odds of escape from the Luofu are high. And this is not knowing there's 2 visiting Generals on board. When given the chance, he'd rather take the Foxian disguise pill than brute force his way out. This implies that his combat threat level is not the highest our protagonist group has come up against, let's just say. The main challenge next patch is going to be finding this guy and preventing collateral damage, not defeating him.
Side quest lore:
It's hard to tell what ages Xianzhou people are, and they even make fun of this in the dialogue. Yunli supposedly has had over 300 life-threatening adventures to collect magic swords for destruction. So she definitely is not in her pre-teens or teens like her appearance suggests. This then suggests that Xianzhou Celestials age slower to maturity.
Also, as side evidence, there's a throwaway comment among the tourists which mentions that a semester in Xianzhou universities consists of like 18 years. Hm. I have to wonder if their middle school terms are also similarly extended...
The companion quest for Yunli includes a story told by a magic sword, which used to belong to a Cloud Knight who was stranded on a primitive planet infested by Borisin. He spends the rest of his immortal life killing Borisin, inspiring the people on that planet to rebellion. Then at the end of his lifespan, he lies to the people to have them use the magic sword to kill (seal?) the mara-struck monster that he's gonna turn into.
Anyway, it's a moving story, but let's get to the lore important bits...
First of all, the implication seems to be this is an average mook Cloud Knight, as he uses the NPC model and isn't even given a name the whole way. His combat prowess mostly comes from his magic sword, so he's not even like a talented fighter or anything.
Then he says this:
"I remember my first death. The borisin... cut off my head.
But I also remember that if it weren't for a brave youngster who risked his neck to reattach my head and give me a proper burial, I would've disappeared completely."
Just, yikes. That's some ridiculous level of regen. Also, implies that the head can remain "alive" for a pretty long period of time absent the rest of the body (enough for the Borisins to leave, and some kid to come sew it up...at least a few hours minimum seems to be reasonable). Highlander would be jealous. The Blessing of Abundance is no joke.
Also, this is his instructions for dealing with his mara-struck remains once "killed" by the magic sword:
"I need you to construct a stone monument for me. It must be large and sturdy enough to seal the remains of that demon forever."
Then, in the words of the descendants of the keepers of that memorial:
"Over the centuries, a golden tree sprouted from under the monument, and its branches have never withered."
I just... so do dead Xianzhou Celestials turn into plants after "death"? Is that where all the ginko themes for the Luofu comes from? =O
Or, is the mara-struck monster version of this dude still sealed "alive" under that monument? Bit of a horrific thought. But then again, no one is organizing a party to go to that planet to investigate or move back the remains of this dude, it sounds like, so it seems the Xianzhou doesn't consider it an active threat, I guess.
Anyway, given this jacked up healing factor, and looking back at Jing Yuan's convalescence after the Phantylia fight, I have trouble believing that any physical wound would've remained to trouble him for long. It is more likely his recovery mostly consisted of dealing with the over-spill from channeling too much power during the final strike against Phantylia, and probably clearing out any Destruction power that Phantylia was trying to infuse into him. I'm guessing Bailu's medical advice would be more on the order of try not to use powers (like Lightning Lord maybe?) rather than not engaging in any physical fight.
Side Quest Timeline:
There are a surprising number of people online who fail reading comprehension and can't figure out the timeline that's pretty clearly stated in-game. Mostly, these are people who think March's sword training quest and then Yunli's companion quest takes place after Hoolay's prison break, just because those quests don't unlock until you finish the main story quest. They just totally ignore the gigantic blurb at the start of March's quest that says we're rolling time back to when she first accepted being a sword apprentice under Yanqing and Yunli, and that took place pretty much the first day we arrived on the Luofu. -_-
Now, the timeline bit I'm more interested in is how Argenti gets around. So here's the timeline I put together:
1. In one of the last quests we had on Penacony, we helped a bunch of people check out of the hotel, including Argenti. In other words, Argenti left Penacony some unknown time before the Astral Express did.
2. Astral Express drops our protag trio off at the Luofu. We go visit Jing Yuan and meet Huaiyan. While talking about the tournament, Huaiyan mentions that the grand prize will be a special sword, but it's still on its way to be delivered.
2b. Later that day, March gets volunteered to be Yanqing & Yunli's student.
3. The next morning, our group runs across Skott from the IPC bullying a shopkeeper. Words are had and a bet is made between March and Skott to duel sword vs mech in 15 days.
4. Two weeks later, March and Skott have their duel. After that completes, Yunli's companion quest unlocks. Near the end of this quest, March also writes a letter to Himeko and Welt on the Express, so at this point, they're still off delivering stuff to Ruan Mei.
5. At the start of her companion quest, Yunli and MC are looking for March, who has skipped out on her lesson that day. This obviously takes place after March's quest, because during the training management quest, we were in full charge of March's schedule and gains. (Also, we make a short trip to the Express while looking for March, so not sure if the Express had returned to Luofu at this point, or if we should ignore that bit.)
5b. In the companion quest, Argenti arrives with the delegation from Kalevala, which just joined space society, and they brought with them the magic sword that used to belong to a Luofu Cloud Knight who had gotten stranded on the planet a long time (at least over a thousand years) ago.
6. Some unknown amount of time later (I think it was at least another 2 weeks?), the Hoolay jailbreak event happens.
We learn that Argenti was the one who discovered (and bespoke) the sword in question and discovered it was Xianzhou in origin, and presumably contacted the Xianzhou to arrange for delivery back. And this all took place between #1 and #2.
Unless the Express stayed for quite a while in between Argenti checking out and us leaving for the Luofu, it sounds like Argenti came across the sword very shortly after leaving Penacony. And this on a planet that just newly joined the interstellar community and ought to have been out of the way.
Let's just say that Argenti gets around a lot, doesn't he? He's always at the right place at the right time for Plot. It's the same as when he shows up out of nowhere *on* Penacony to announce he saved Aventurine after his Nihility encounter. XD
Some further musings...
A criticism I've seen strictly among some CN fans for this patch is that they think the successful jailbreak makes Jing Yuan's claim to master strategist to be false advertising.
Another faction criticizes all of the Generals as "masterminding" or at least predicting the whole thing beforehand, and callously using our protagonist as a pawn against the jailbreakers.
I think these people are reading too much into the title of "strategist". Like, being smart at strategy doesn't mean you can outright tell the future. Jing Yuan isn't an Emanator of Finality; back during the previous Luofu arc, he didn't even suspect the Anti-matter Legion was involved until it was too late. Nor did Fu Xuan, who was the actual fortune teller, pick up that info either.
So, yeah. Being a renowned strategist doesn't make you perfect. Sometimes your opponents are intelligent "strategists" too. Sometimes you have to wait for the opponent to make a move first before you can react.
Did the Generals know that *something* was going to go down for the tournament? Definitely. Did they suspect a jail break attempt on Hoolay? Most likely, since Feixiao brought news that Phantylia is now leading the Borisin renmants, it's an obvious conclusion to reach, and hence why she suggested moving Hoolay to the Yaoqing.
Did they suspect it will happen at that specific time and sent our protagonists there on purpose? Eh... I don't think this is the case.
IMO, I think they probably expected a jailbreak on the actual day of the tournament, with the conspirators causing some ruckus at the tournament as distraction. That would be a genre convention, after all. Maybe, their plan was to have Feixiao actually being a surprise presence at Shackling Prison when the jailbreak kicks off, all the better to capture and smack down the conspirators in question.
I mean, the original plan of the conspirators was to pull things off at the day of the tournament, after all. The trigger in their change of plans was after they found out about Hoolay getting moved to the Yaoqing.
If you look at the timeline I listed above, Feixiao didn't even bring up the matter of moving Hoolay with Jing Yuan until that actual day (after questioning our protagonists). Essentially, the preparations for moving Hoolay (by sending Jiaoqiu and Moze to check on his status) was started at the same time our protagonists were told to go record testimony at the Shackling Prison. And the actual prisoner transfer was slated for the very next day, with Feixiao herself in attendance (and would've been able to squash any jailbreakers).
You'd think that with such a small time window, there's no time for the conspirators to alter their obviously long planned conspiracy? I think this may have been something that the Generals believed as well. But, as it turned out, the unlikely event happened. In an incredibly short time frame, traitors in the Luofu government system got news of the upcoming prisoner transfer, sent it to the lead conspirator for the Borisin, and that guy immediately made a completely last minute change of plans.
Just the same, I doubt the Generals planned for our protagonist party to get involved with any jailbreak. I mean, if they were masterminding this and using us as pawns, we wouldn't have ended up not even seeing hide or hair of Hoolay the whole time. -_-
Ah, and that is another criticism I've seen about the sequence of events. Our protagonists were only a little bit behind Hoolay's group, and we had Hanya giving us special access to the short-range teleporters inside the Shackling Prison, but we still end up being unable to catch up to them.
To which I say... I suspect they had access to short cuts and teleporters too. I mean, it's clear that the jailbreak group consisted of a lot of deep cover agents, including many who worked within the Shackling Prison itself. So would it be too surprising they had either the right codes or ways to override?
Or for that matter, we're told the Shackling Prison (or at least the part we were in) were co-designed by the Luofu Vidyadhara. And we know there are Luofu Preceptors who have thrown in with the forces of Abundance. We even encountered a bunch of invisible Vidyadhara assassins in the prison while chasing Hoolay. So, yeah. One can draw the obvious conclusion there...
JY x DH slash: Eh... other people have collected the evidence and made the analysis. I don't feel like repeating this work. So will just link some stuff I've found here...
https://2532355088.lofter.com/post/1e22df10_2bc6bf7e2
https://xieshi83733.lofter.com/post/4cbe9fa7_2bc6bf1c5
https://heisuigui.lofter.com/post/30cdc103_2bc6bc152
https://shinian00807.lofter.com/post/31908c0e_2bc6cd04e
Addendum: Misc stuff
Found this post which shows proof that less than 5 months passed between the Stellaron Crisis on the Luofu, and the start of this patch (Lingsha just recently arrived).
We also know that the main quest of Penacony took place within 48 hours. In other words, our various filler missions and side quests in between chapters took up the majority of time, looks like. =P
(no subject)
Date: 2024-08-06 04:13 pm (UTC)I mean, Hoolay, the boss of the Borisins, remained alive for over 700 years despite being given no food/water and being constantly impaled on a forest of spikes. Whereas normal joe shmoe Borisins usually don't last more than a few days in the same condition. But he's not an Emanator. *shrug*
I'm also guessing that having an active "plaguemark" such as the Ambrosial Arbor would also make a difference, which is why Jing Yuan is being questioned by the alliance higher ups for letting the Arbor get activated.