#I was actually looking stuff up because of another Sampo post I saw and there is actually a recipe description that maybe lends credit-

[feroluce]

So I mentioned in the tags of this post about Sampo's character design the other day that looking at his splash art made me realize something sneaky about the bg and oh my god I thought I already couldn't possibly love him any more than I already do but this might just prove me wrong JAKSLFJKDLASJFK

So this is maybe? old news by now but I remember when Sampo was first leaked to be in Penacony, some fans were excited saying that it must be Penacony shown in his splash art, and not Belobog. And tbh I was trying to avoid story leaks, so I just kinda ignored it and didn't think about it any further...until I was looking at it to look at his chains.

But I think it IS Belobog shown here because if you look closely, you can see what looks to be a pile of snow in the bg, and even some on the rooftop! And snow isn't present on Penacony.

There's also the huge moon shown behind Sampo. And we never get to see the Belobogian night sky, but even in the hours that are locked in permanent nighttime, Penacony noticably lacks a moon. The buildings all look like they match Belobog architecture, too.

This one is a bit more questionable tbh, but. There's also this long horizontal structure in the bg-

-which I'm not 100% sure what it even is, but it doesn't look like any specific part of Penacony. But it DOES look like the official art of Belobog (everyone say thank you to @the-astral-express-archive for these pics; dude you're a lifesaver orz)

And if you will notice. The only place up high enough to look down on those structures,

the only thing taller than all the rest of the buildings in Belobog,

is the one establishment set dead center; Qlipoth Fort.

Which means this little asshole is shamelessly, gleefully breaking into the most important government building on the whole planet right in his splash art KFJLJSADKLFJKLDSJ

[teyvats-worst-hero]

My final thoughts on Penacony Part 1:

I think they did really well conveying the resort aspect of it at the very beginning, it literally reminded me of the terrible tourist culture where I live. I think I would’ve appreciated more love given to the lobby instead of… a really long hallway…

In the Golden Hour, I like how gilded age it looks! Morally dubious stuff everywhere: Dreamphones, billboards that chase you, SoulGlad at every corner, everything. Really sells how consumerist Penacony is, how corrupt.

But I also wish the billboards didn’t chase you every time you walked by. It raises my anxiety by 21%.

The notes I’m finding around the map are super disturbing, and this kind of worldbuilding really suits Penacony. Everything is so bright and perfect that you pay no mind to the danger in plain sight.

The enemies are really well done, it’s all so toy-like, so theoretically non threatening. And the battle theme fucking SLAPS, I love it. The TV enemy scares me shitless though. Too human-like in an uncanny valley way, but really too monkey-like. Don’t ask me. I don’t know. My primitive brain keeps screaming “MONKEY! RUN! DANGER!”

They did a really good job with not making any one person seem entirely on our side, everyone seems to have their own motivations without them being overwritten by someone they just met. They have some secrets and I like that. I also like that they interact with each other. Makes it feel so much more real and like things are happening outside of the protagonist, and we’re a faction of our own. Not some impossibly perfect neutral entity that NEVER has allegiances no siree (Cough cough Genshin Impact)

I like how things are mostly left to the player to think about. There’s no “I knew you weren’t Robin because your singing voice was weird!” to spell out earlier foreshadowing. God I hate when stories spell out foreshadowing. No one is telling me to be weirded out by things aside from the game’s INSISTENCE that Sampo is EVIL and NOT TO BE TRUSTED.

Some things I don’t like?

Black Swan.

I really dislike how she’s written overall. She just shows up and starts dommy-mommying the story and has a little “betrayal” moment that happens too fast for any importance to be attached. She’s like. Budget Kafka. I’m annoyed by how often she talks down to the player without ever actually feeling like a person who’d do that, like Sparkle or Aventurine, so it just sounds… Forced. Out of place. Obligatory. Her entire character is being a sexy plot device. Maybe she’ll get a personality, but as it stands, she doesn’t have one. Fight me.

This mission also has a problem with assuming you care deeply about characters you’ve strolled around with for 30 minutes. Now I’m not saying it’s bad to treat the characters like they have emotional weight regardless, that’s a good thing, but when your big plot beats rely on that weight to throw punches, it falls flat.

You run around with Firefly for a little bit. Cute. But very surface level.

You have a beautiful moment with her talking about her chronic illness. That’s great, if you saw my previous posts you know I got very introspective over it.

You go into the dream world and ALMOST die.

You go into the dream world again two minutes later and she ACTUALLY dies, and you immediately move onto the plot and another death that fully overshadows any plot or emotional significance of Firefly.

But NO my friends, she isn’t ACTUALLY dead, she’s something something Sam?

It just feels cheap. If they’re using Black Swan as the catch-all mysterious plot device, they’re using Firefly like tears in a can. Legitimately what would change if Firefly just… didn’t die there? If we just saw Sam and the shadows of Firefly, but couldn’t find her after? Is the point to make it seem like she isn’t Sam? Cause that’s a super cheap and unnecessary trick.

Back to the ending though. I really like the reveal of Robin’s death, it feels super weighty for the plot and the setup and payoff of Sparkle is excellent. I have no idea what’s going on with Misha. Probably some kind of descendant of the Watchmaker, maybe he’s split in two. One in the real world one in the dream. Misha and Mikhail perhaps?

Overall, really interested in this story. Good job Hoyoverse.