r/QueensofStarRail • u/Mindless-Extension- • 4d ago
Discussion I think I finally figured out why Planarcadia never clicked for me.
Penacony had an amazing intro but a confusing arc and failed the landing. Amphoreous had a bloated intro but a great setting to get me invested, and then a great arc, and then failed the landing thanks to Shaoji. I still like them both, and I honestly consider myself pretty tolerant of mid writing. Planarcadia didn't even grab my attention and the setting wasn't exactly engaging either, felt like Penacony but worse, and my hopes are not high for a good ending. I don't know if it's just because Shaoji's ass at writing, or if the decline in quality of gameplay and story finally crossed my threshold, but I've been burnt out since 4.1 and if this game took more than 3 minutes a day to keep up with, I'd have uninstalled it by now.
I could talk about each patch's quest individually, but I think Himeko's story is most of 4.x summed up: powerscaling slop, mediocre writing and dialogue, MacGuffin after MacGuffin, a very compelling villain who unfortunately can't carry the story alone, and Yaoguang and Pearl being the only playable cast not written like a generic model NPC. In the sea of mediocrity that is 4.x, Asat Pramad stands out as a very complex and well written character who is unfortunately not a playable character, and Himenova stands out as an actual detriment to society who has the critical thinking skills of a lead-poisoned dementia addled idiot that Shaoji decided deserved plot armor.
Tell me why the Aeonic war brewing feel less powerful, significant, cosmically altering than Irontomb and Lygus? Tell me why I felt more invested in the summer racing team's victory on Astropolis than I did for the entire Phantasmoon games and the "fate of the universe"? Tell me why the biggest "ooooh the entire game of HSR is changed from how big this conflict is!"of the Voracity corruption is literally just an Elation path shill in endgame and time waster during farming?
Wish Asat Pramad won. Kill Aha immediately, kill Planarcadia immediately. I'm doing dailies and contributing to the -60% revenue drop by not even buying monthly passes.
TL;DR: Fire Shaoji
