#(I still think it is better than Mondstat in genshin send tweet but that's kind of a low bar imo)

[shallliveoninsong]

◇ Alright, I keep putting this off and I know I'll keep doing so until I force myself so here we are my thoughts and criticisms of Penacony as a whole. Spoilers for content from 2.0 to now are below.

Overall I enjoyed playing it. It was not by any means a bad part of the game. The new puzzles were interesting even if some of them frustrated me, they were something new and neat. The theming and setting were great, (hello hospitality industry rep thank you). The maps were far more varied and bigger yet didn't feel empty, there were tons of things to explore in each but not to the point of it being tedious padding. It felt like there was love and interesting details in every set piece. The trippy dreamscape parts of the were very neat too.

But overall I'm just kinda left... feeling like Penacony didn't live up to it's own potential. 2.0 and 2.1 set up so many things, they introduced a shit ton of new characters and it was great, it felt like it was creating this elaborate chess game between all the different factions that were there- the Express, the different branches of the Family, Sparkle/the Masked Fools, Acheron, the IPC, Firefly/the Stelleron hunters, and the mystery of the old Nameless.

And yet in the end, barely any of this was explored past a relatively surface level for some and just a few cutscenes for others telling us stuff but in an exposition dump.

It feels frustrating because I know how great it could have been if everything was given more time to breathe and we actually got to know the characters and grow to care about them in their debut. What confounds me is that they really did this well for the most part with Aventurine, 2.1 was honestly the Aventurine Update ™ and while I have some criticisms that it got a bit exposition-dumpy at parts and didn't loop back together to the main plot and with what the rest of the characters were doing at least it made me care? I got to know him beyond just a few things? So with how much time they put into that I don't think I'm wrong in having expected them to have done that with everyone?? Especially with the new POV change segments. It gives us an opportunity to explore characters deeper without the Express crew being involved. But sans Aventurine whenever we did a POV switch was mostly to just walk around and talk to some people and not any actual gameplay (combat OR puzzles).

There are so many more questions about Acheron, Gallager, Misha, Sunday, Robin, and the rest of the family and yet? We just don't really get much that's not vague or only lightly explored.

And sure, there is also the extended content (animated shorts, character trailers etc) and while I DO watch those and follow the star rail socials you shouldn't have to in order to care about the characters. They should make their splash in their debut of the game, not a word of god making you care about them only post-mortem.

I DO like the message and themes it seems like it was trying to say, how yes life is imperfect and full of pain but blindly existing in a sweet dream isn't the answer, people need freedom to truly experience life. And that it's not that nothing we do matters, it's the meaning we make from it even if we are all going to die one day/get engulfed by the nihility. The trailblazing journey never-ending is also was a nice theme.

But again both of these are moreso just told to us after the fact. The 3 Trailblazers are only brought up again in the update before the last one and aside from Mikhal we really didn't get to know what they were like all that much. At least the guard guy Acheron was doing the favor for we got a bit more of but the lady researcher we only got that one NPC who looked up to her talking about her and that's it. So it lessens the impact of seeing Misha pass on and Gallager's goodbye too. Because we never got to truly know these people before their stories were being wrapped up in a bow real quick.

Obligatory I'm sure the game industry has a lot to do with why the final product came out the way it did so of course I'm not going to just say I think the story ended up like this because of laziness or anything, but it just makes me sad for what could have been. The sad goodbyes could have hit so much harder, the hopeful message of the future however imperfect it may be could have been more uplifting, I could have been really worried for everyone making it out alive but for me anyway, it was lacking a lot.

This isn't to say Belebog or Luofu arc was perfect of course, they had their own issues too but they felt like they had far more cohesion and steadiness throughout than Penacony did.

If Penacony had been treated more as a fun romp through the Dreamscape I think I wouldn't have as much disappointment, but it wasn't? It was treated as this big event that could impact the whole universe? It really seemed like Black Swan and Acheron were going to have pivotal roles in shattering the utopia the Family were trying to keep but we really don't even see most of the Family?

Again, a lot of this could have been fixed by just... letting things breathe more? Giving more time to characters and fewer exposition dumps. Like I felt more emotions during the Drinkmaker event story with Sioban even though that plotline was far more straightforward it gave time to all the monsters and Sioban to get to really connect with them.

But ye, I have other gripes but also other praises but I need to stop this ramble at some point so here it is.