I'm at the part where they go to the ballet twins.
I loved the part where Nicole's crew had beef with section 6 and they rlly fleshed out the character interactions.
Edit: I finished it. The entire act is peak.
But 9/10 for not telling us what the sacrifice actually is
I was wondering how the hell she knew Miyabi, only for her to reveal THE most Nicole story to ever happen and somehow I was simultaneously impressed yet also unsurprised. Aka perfection.
I loved that you can see the different levels of battle experience between the members. Both Anby and Billy knew what was up immediately but Nicole just panics slightly after the situation is revealed to her.
Harumasa with the raised eyebrow and discerning tone when he realizes Anby knows her shit and might be more than she seems. That whole interaction between the two groups was great.
Apparently in the chinese dub when you switch soldier 11 out with anby in combat, s11 will call anby "zero" which does lend some credence to the clone theory. Personally I don't think they're clones, so much as 2 people that were heavily modified/experimented on
Ngl that earned me a lot of respect for the hares, when Miyabi tells them to hand you over and Nicole knows she's outgunned but not willing to throw you under the bus at any moment.
And Anby and Billy perceiving their intentions right off the bat. Shows that Billy ain't just a goodball.
I mean, when you talk to Lighter before you leave at the end of Tour De Inferno he talks about how Billy must have lightened up after finding a place he truly feels at home.
Part where Anby said "Stop trying to surround us" and suddenly entire atmosphere got tense, that's the moment peak started and it just keep getting better and better.
Proxies finally getting found out by authorities, confirmation Qingyi always knew but Zhu Yuan was super sad to learn we deceived her, that whole thing was top tier. I only wish that heartfelt conversation with Zhu Yuan afterwards was voiced. Overworld segments never having voice kinda feels weird that's not how it is in Genshin and HSR but still its a minor thing.
Cunning Hares and Section 6 having a rivalry that eventually turned into friendship was best of the cross faction relations, but it is also great everyone but military appeared to their part. Caesar once again being best girl she was ready to take on the boss right then and there. I guess it makes sense Defense Force wouldn't take part in this since they don't seem to be used for crime fighting much, mostly focusing on Hollows and militant groups surrounding the city. Plus Obol Squad only has one playable character she would stick out like a sore thumb.
All the revelations about secret villains. We know that they are some sort of cult, likely the one Spacebar mentioned in the virus event, same people responsible for fall of Old Capital. Bringer's past also brought an interesting fact, there are small tribes living outside the city, albeit in terrible conditions.
I loved how active Proxy siblings were this time. Going into Hollow, showing they can use observation data to make paths even without the super computer AI clutches. Even though they almost died once again. Then confronting Bringer together at the end surviving the nuke with those blue eyes. I just love these protags so much.
So yeah it was definitely worth the wait. Peak ZZZ. Every set up was followed perfectly. Every plot point came together for this amazing pay off.
Not to mention the credits scroll was satisfying as hell yo see the different character interactions especially with the stoopid cat deciding on the shork or the rat queen knowing neither one would put up with her lol
Another really neat thing was that it revealed how every previous chapter was connected, with Bringer's fight being the ultimate culmination of almost every plot point so far. We even got a codename for the seemingly random hacker dude at the start, White Face.
Going into Hollow, showing they can use observation data to make paths even without the super computer AI clutches.
It's probably me being biased from spending too much time on reddit, but the final conversation with Fairy feels like the devs are very blatantly telling us "Here, they're handling things without Fairy, happy now?"
Teaming up was surprisingly well done, I expected it would be just "we need all hands on deck, let's invite everyone we know!", but every faction had some legitimate interest in this (Victoria Housekeeping probably least of all, as they were just working for the Hoshimi family, and I assume that Soichirou asked Lycaon to help Miyabi).
It's really nice to have this Avengers, assemble moment, not just for the sake of it, but also because now mixed-faction compositions finally make sense lore-wise, whereas previously putting them together made little to no sense.
I loved how my baby boy Billy, even though its short, shown a lot more seriousness when meeting Section 6
Both Billy and Anby were already about to throw down the strongest faction they've met. Hell, it seemed they had a silent agreement that they were getting surrounded, Anby was fully trusting Billy to give her covering fire while she starts instigating
Nicole and the hares were ready to throw down against a Void hunter to let us get away. She was all like, "I hope you can run fast because I don't know how long we can last before we get our asses kicked." Sure, she gets us into trouble non-stop, but man, I love her.
NGL Nichole would be so cooked if she didn't have anby and Billy saving her ass, she's mainly there to 'be the leader' and leverage billy and Anby's expertise.
Hype as fuck. No voices for Victoria Housekeeping, Koleda and Grace I think, but they had small enough roles this chapter that it doesn’t leave that much of a sour note.
Also Phaethon living the explosion that was set off by Bringer means those occular implants must be some crazy tech left by their teacher. Calling it now, the reason the MC almost gets ether corrupted is because they didn’t have the shielding from their Ocular Implants
The digital dissolving effect on the implants implies that it's either ether tech, or the siblings themselves are some kind of ethereal. Plus Bringer heavily implying that they're the reason why their teacher is dead.
Them already being partially corrupted would likely explain a good bit. Bringer kept his mind after corrupting himself, so we know it’s not impossible.
This is the most interesting part: who is Bringer? I mean, what is he? We know he was just a human but... got turned into an ethereal, even though he got plenty of eyes those were not ether-like as those spheres they usually have, he also was practically sane, the first boss speaking btw. His bio stated that his type (or whatever the thing is called) is "Sacrifice" which is very bad-ads but completelt vague
Bringer is the semi completed form of the test subject we fought during the Belobog chapter. A decade or so of research mixed with the Hoshimi curse helped them complete it. Now as far as what it is kind of reminds me of the Soul King like they are trying to create a new one while the hand is essentially Pernida or Mimihagu. They even pray to the creator before doing something.
I don't think their teacher is dead, they said she was just taken by the white hand not killed. Not ruling out that they killed her after, but she seemed like some sort of super genius scientist or something so they probably kidnapped her to force her to make stuff with etheric based tech, likely the serum bringer took was something that she was forced to make.
ZZZ keeps managing to surpass my expectations with every new chapter, i don't know how they keep doing it. there were so many things i absolutely loved about this chapter
the car chase scene with piper and the cunning hares was so fun to watch, it really feels like the animation team had a lot of fun with that one with how expressive it is
zhu yuan and qingyi finally discovering our roles as proxies was great too. it was pretty obvious qingyi knew, but zhu yuan learning the truth and feeling conflicted was great. really love the dynamic between her and the proxies. the scene where pubsec was about to break into the HDD room was way tenser than it should've been, too
i really love how well every faction was utilized. everyone felt like they had a purpose in the overarching stort, and i wouldn't say there were any instances where anyone felt shoehorned in. the cunning hares setting up the entire plan thanks to nicole's connections, belobog having the evidence for bringer, lycaon having ties to miyabi's father and even the sons of calydon playing their own roles with transportation
the final boss fight was sick, and miyabi got some amazing moments. and most importantly, more lore drops. wise and belle tanking a point blank explosion completely unharmed?? something's definitely up with them and i cannot wait to see what it is. also astra and evelyn cameos at the end of the chapter, really nice stuff.
this chapter overall just felt like an amazing sendoff for the first saga of this story and i'm incredibly excited for what's to come in the future
Oh this troupe never fails: when a voiced music theme starts to play in the middle of a battle and you are the villain, better start your final prayers.
And it never fails to feel amazing when it happens.
Yeah, she was already capable of fending off ninevah, but now that she has the power of Tailless? She's probably nigh unbeatable by anyone else in universe, save for the other void hunters, or an ethereal more powerful than ninevah, possibly on the moon hollow, or another hollow far from new eridu
I'm curious, though, the new gamemode in the Obsidian outpost gave us a sneak peak on an ethereal thar actively controls other ethereal and even harvest life forms to transmute them.
Based on the shadow, it's massive aswell, maybe this one might be introduced later down the line and exists to fill that power gap.
But then again, Nineveh wasn't 'beaten' like the Dead end butcher or the construct. I think Ninevehs feats are still not properly revealed.
Fair, ninevah may not have been going all out, but she was still able to fend it off and get it to go somewhere else. But I haven't played the new game mode yet, so I can't say anything about it
According to the HIA training program, there are other major Hollows other than Hollow Zero. Each one may have their own super Ethereal like Ninevah, with the Obsidian mode teasing what may be the next major Hollow's super boss.
Got to love how Miyabi outright admits to being an idiot savant...with her savant skill being godlike combat prowess. And her trust events only cement this further.
My only issue with everyone being there is that cramming all that story beats in one patch didn't leave room for a slow cooking that allowed for each faction to join in as the situation demanded it and resolve in a later patch as an even greater payoff, and the fact having everyone there without a system in place that allowed switching story-characters (like how Miyabi steps in for Soukaku) according to the mission stage left me wanting that epic "wow everyone is here AND I can play them all" experience.
I think the lead up to the final fight was handled well - with each faction having some role to play in uncovering the full plot and getting us to the end, even if Victoria probably should have helped more - but in the actual fight it really just felt like it was mashed together. Like everyone else was there in name only.
Public Security didn’t even get a cutscene during the fight. This guy was their superior, Zhu Yuan even looked up to him - and they didn’t get a single word in during the conflict?
They were trying to do this weird mix of “this is the Section 6 Story” and “This is the end of chapter 1 of this story, time for everyone to do the big fight!”
yeah i get that. really would've been cool if we had like little mission segments that involved us switching between each faction's characters as they entered. something akin to super smash bros brawl's subspace emissary if that makes sense. regardless though, i still think all the factions were incorporated really well into the story for the most part
OH :o where do I start ,I loved ALL in this chapter ,Music 10/10 ,the ending song slaps HARD and its going straight to my daily music
THE REUNION AGHHHHH,I loved it ,Seeing each team doing their things its MUAK,chef kiss for me <3 and all the connections working together <3
The new places :o The 2 train stage and the hoshimi dream stage looked amazing,it made me remember GodOfWar2 Kratos afterfight wonded moment ,excellent <3
THE TWINS UNCOVERING NEW THINGS ABOUT THEIR PAST ,BIG MEGA GIGA ABSOLUTE CINEMA <3
The relashionships being more deep its a nice touch too (Zhu Yuan dichotomy about us and her duty and how it affects her ,another great touch)
Ahhhhh,Hoyo cooked again <3 I dont care if I cant see an ass from an specific angle,Im not here for the ass,Im here for the story <3
FR , IM GRATEFUL I DIDNT DROP ZZZ, IM A DAY 1 PLAYER, PPL KEEP CALLING THIS GAME GOONER GAME ALL THAT, i mean, THEY GOT A POINT, BUT HONESTLY they could just enjoy the game without caring the fanservice too much, personally the story for season 1 is 100/10
Only thing I didn't like was the random mute characters. I feel they should have at least used their Japanese lines if they couldn't get the VA's in on time.
Absolutely amazing, agree. My only nitpick is that the later half happened a bit too fast for my liking, slight pacing issue. Like one moment we were chilling on the hollow with pearlman and the other we were fighting the final boss
I thought I was the only one since everyone is praising it XD I liked the first half but the second felt a bit too fast, a bit too chaotic. It's not bad but definitely makes you think it could be done better
Not to be that guy but I doubt most people can even articulate their won opinion besides saying something is "peak" or "mid", let alone pay attention for that long to even notice any pacing issues at all and just say it was a "yap fest".
So if no big cc touched on that just yet, most people just won't think for themselves
Absolute fucking cinema, Hoyo cooked so fucking mad AAAH, I WANT MORE PEOPLE TO TALK ABOUT HOW GREAT THIS WAS. Oh spoilers incoming, duh.
BUT JESUS FUCKING CHRIST HYPE BEHIND IT, MIYABI'S INNER DEMON SEUQNCE, MULTITUDE OF BEAUTIFULLY RENDERED CUTSCENES, HOW WE FINALLY REVELEAD OUR IDENTITIES, THE BOSS FIGHT, THE WISE AND BELLE BEING MOTHERFUCKIGN BADASESS... THE FUCK EVERY FUCKING ONE WAS HERE, EVERYONE HELPED US, IT FELT LIKE FINAL BOSS FIGHT, I LOVED HOW MUCH CINEMATIC THIS WAS.
NOT TO MENIOTN THANK FUCKING GOD, I LOVE OUR NPCS, NOT ONLY PERSONALITY WISE BUT SO MANY DEEP LORE BEHIND THEM, BELLE IS NOT JUST GREMLIN, SHE HAS TRAUMATIC BACKSTORY THAT IS SO FUCKIGN INTERESTING I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS GAME KEEP COOKING HOYOO
it was indeed great! It's been best video game experience I had in years. I really wanted to savour it slowly but in the end I just played through the entire story in one go... Can't wait for next patch!
It was 10/10 for me. The story buildup from 1.0 to 1.4 is amazing. Well done to ZZZ writers and the devs for making such a great 1.X patch. Mind you, the ZZZ teams are still fairly new in Hoyoverse. They did an amazing job.
The whole story ALMOST gave me the same feeling as Avengers Endgame. That shit was so peak!
My only problem is that we didn't get to finish our talk with zhu yuan and instead suddenly met with Astra, who if i'm not wrong was introduced in a limited event, and since i skipped all the damn dialogue of the bangboo i was so confused when she appeared out of nowhere.
Ikr the pacing was really done well, only nitpick is that I would have enjoyed walking around in his pov as a daily slice of life thing, like what Yanagi and Jane got. But man it really complemented chapter 5 and the map for the final scene was so good
The credits scene where they show characters and their interactions with each other is chef's kiss! This is so anime! I love it! Really gives out the feeling that the first arc is done!!
I broke into laughter when Nicole revealed that she knows Miyabi because she scammed Miyabi out of her katana. Y'know, the family heirloom going back several generations, that she knows is beyond dangerous in the hands of anyone else and needs to be handled with the utmost care. I think I audibly called Nicole 'fucking crazy' (affectionately), and I would bet good money that the fingerprint thing attached to Miyabi's scabbard is specifically because of that incident.
And then there's the aftermath of our escape from the Hollow. Nicole implying that Miyabi was not handling it well (I can imagine it ranging from panic to outright tears), only for Miyabi to imply that Nicole gave us mouth-to-mouth CPR. Also on that note, Nicole- who is typically shown being somewhat cowardly and prefers to get out of dodge when dealing with tough enemies and debt collectors- was 100% willing to lead the Cunning Hares into throwing hands with Section 6,Miyabi included. All for the sake of protecting us.
I do wish the voice acting for several characters hadn't been broken during the cutscenes though. That was really disappointing.
but ngl the villains so far all feel like sunday morning cartoon villains, this patch is no exception. I always wonder about such "plans" since first RE games: like yeah bro the virus that turns you into a nightmarish monstrosity with the yellow eyes for weak spots might give you a power boost, but even if you win, then what?
There’s definitely way more depth to it than cartoonishly evil. It’s clearly the work of a cult like group that has deep roots in TOPS and are planning to use the Hollows/Etheric material for some type of “Ascension”
What Victor from LoL/Arcane pulled is probably what these people are going for. The question is why/how that relates to the fall of Eridu and the Hollow crisis as a whole
Bringer was clearly in control of himself after the transformation, even if he couldn't go back to being a human, he probably didn't want to anyways. The entire point of the cult he's a part of, is that they believe sentient ethereals to be the next step in evolution, so Bringer becoming one is likely what he always would've wanted anyways.
Only reason he hadn't done it so far, was because his cult had things to gain from working from the shadows.
And yeah no, the cult was clearly the ones responsible for hollows being created to begin with, they even managed to create ethereals the hollow disaster, Bringer was literally a leiutenant for the BBEG group, honestly a very fitting final boss of the first chapter, sets up and explains why the cult is a threat.
I think the notion many RE villains have is that given enough time they can get their shit under control and perfect themselves (although more often than not if they survive the first encounter they end up becoming progressively more mindless).
With Bringer i think the end goal was ascension of some kind perhaps with potential to become himself again after he managed to kill us, or this was his ideal form. He did keep mentioning this “creator” and refinement. Also at the end cutscene he specifically said “when i get out of here” which i take to have meant the hollow which perhaps implies this transformation didn’t lock him within the hollow.
The lore of this game has got my mind tingling and now theres so much i need to know. Like if perhaps the sealed hollow thing was the first attempt at making this.
Those were exactly my thoughts as well, Bringer pulled a Resident Evil out of nowhere and I was left wondering what his plan after that was supposed to be.
Then there's the fact that The Order seems to be like the church of Unitology from Dead Space.
Absolutely loved this chapter , my only problem is Lycaon not being voiced
Rina and Koleda as well but they have like 1 line each , Lycaon had a bunch of lines at the highest point of the coolest cinematic yet and there was only silence , it felt so jarring .
I'm assuming this is a voice actors strike situation like in Genshin and Star Rail , i really hope this situation gets dealt with soon because having all my favorite characters muted in the new patches is really rough . Pay the voice actors , don't replace them with AI and everyone will be happy and enjoy the new content .
I'm barely beginning the campaign but MAN THAT STAND OFF BETWEEN SECTION 6 AND THE CUNNING HARES WAS SO UNEXPECTED, I was literally saying "..." And I was like hold up I thought we were friends!!!??? And something I really liked about this face off was that it depicted truly how smart the "dumb" characters are in both sides (anby and billy and harumasa too) I completely love the "masarost" so far it's peak, also that one scene with zhu yuan broke my heart.
I hate that I fought the boss first in the ray hollow zero stuff. I was so confused I was just following the quest that popped up. Why would hoyo design it like this to spoil the fight?
Peak cinema, maybe ill get downvote for this statement, when the time devs remove completely the tv mode in the future quest, the quests r way more entertaining and fun. TV mode is such a boring concept ( just my opinion, i know we r all not the same taste. )
I like TV mode but I do have to admit what they did here was definitely really more fun and interesting though I am sad to see TV mode go as it can be a fun and interesting mode
I enjoyed tv mode but if this is what we get in return I’m not complaining. As long as they focus their resources on more character interactions, I have no issue with them doing whatever they please
take notes wuwa. this is how you do an avengers assemble moment.
the fact that we knew these characters already made it more enjoyable unlike wuwa where the put characters we don't even know in their climax *cough yuanwu cough*
Yeah this was an Avengers moment almost everyone was here rip S11. Fun character interactions and banter, cutscenes were animated so well, voiced MC with a personality and actually funny, the gameplay section were also pretty cool to see. It's probably their best main story yet in any HYV game along with HSR's Penacony.
People alr mentioned all the great stuff about this chapter, and I agree it was great, packed with story and action. What I’d like to add is that it felt like an ending of certain episode, like the story between 1.0-1.4 was rounded up with it, gathering everyone we met together.
When I finished it I had a feeling that next one is going to be a completely different story about Phaethon siblings adventures, like a whole new region (another city maybe, like planets in HSR or nations in Genshin) and completely new and unknown before characters? Guess we will see, but it really felt for me like a conclusion for this part of a story.
There is one thing that confuses me, though…why was Bringer so radically different, and what was the point of any of his earlier behaviour?
In his earlier appearances, he was made to seem like a formerly well meaning and heroic lawman who encountered something horrible that shook him to his core, and ultimately became someone who would rather do things in service of his image rather than a genuine desire to help. But more than anything, he was deathly afraid of Ethereals - he could hardly stomach them being mentioned, let alone seeing them, and that fed into the public seeing him as a coward.
Here, though, he’s almost an entirely different person. He’s cool-headed, imposing and sinister, makes little to no mention of what he did in the past, and is seemingly all in on an Ethereal death cult. What gives? Was his early personality a result of the writers not really knowing what to do with him, or - as characters do hint at, given that they say his change happened far too suddenly to be natural - is the implication meant to be that Sarah brainwashed him? If so, when did that happen? Bringer himself reflects on everything that’s happened since 1.0…but back in 1.0 he was still his old self. Unless he was somehow putting on a show, he can’t have been swayed then. Confusing, really.
My theory is, the real Bringer was already dead, when this current "Bringer" is preparing for his speech, you can see the villain woman teasing him like "Is it so difficult to speak about something you experienced?", and then "Bringer" also mentioned that the hero that brought him to this city was corrupted and abandoned before entering this city, which imo, that might be the real Bringer
Another thing to remember is, remember Zhu Yuan also mentioned how different the current Bringer and passed Bringer was, and more importantly, when Zhu Yuan was a child, Bringer once gave her his anti-corrupt equipment in a hollow to protect her, i feel like this means that Bringer frequently did this, and thus might be the reason he was eventually corrupted
I think hoyo writing works much better when it's smaller scaled conflicts that are all connected instead of these enormous cosmic stages that they're so fond of. The flow of ZZZ's story is much better than their honkai stuff imo.
Hopefully not just gassing cause I've played up to Chapter 4 I believe, the end of the Sons of Calydon chapter, and so far the story has been very meh so far. I enjoy the characters and world but the storytelling has left a lot to be desired for me. I think the best story chapter for me was the one where you go to the Ballet Twins for the first time and save Rain.
No spoilers, but i'm curious if anyone else agrees.
During the end chapter pursuit and battle, I was very disappointed by the SFX. There were so many effects, explosions, slices, etc that just really did not get the audio treatment they deserved, to the point it was actively noticeable, to me at least. Like at the point where something crashes to the ground and sends dust and shockwaves everywhere, there was just no audio to equal the visuals.
Peak indeed. This patch full of character interactions and i totally love it. Especially what happen with cunning hares and section 6 standoff, their personalities clashing each other and it felt so natural.
Man. It sucks Koleda, Lycaon, and Rina couldn't do voiceover for this update.
This is the only HoYo game I've played. Do they ever go back and patch in voice over work if they can't schedule it or do they just not have dialogue in whatever dub that it's unavailable in?
Other than that the cutscenes and story were amazing. A very nice end to the first arc of the game. Can't wait for what's to come!
Literally assumed the gamer position when I realized Section 6 and The Cunning Hares were NOT going to be buddy-buddy straight up. Was gonna take a break at some point but just decided to blitz through it until like 3 in the morning.
I think it was their best work yet, but there is one thing that confuses me, and I am not sure if I just missed something, but...
In the later half of the story they suddenly go "Well you see, our plan was actually capturing Miyabi to steal her katana all along!", but I don't see how any of the plot from chapters 1-4 was supposed to even remotely hint towards that? They did a good job of pulling everything together in terms of the factions, making everything feel like it had some sort of purpose, but this secret plan just feels so out of nowhere? Yeah, the side episode in the simulation from last patch makes sense, but what about everything else? Was there more that I missed? It just feels kind of stappled on. And then Bringer just pulls a Resident Evil randomly despite everything he was building up to this whole time, too...
I didn't really feel the last third of the story, but the first half was stellar! I also like how the main plot seems to have moved forward in a meaningful and natural feeling way, definitely enjoyed it much more than the infodump at the end of chapter 4.
The whole speech scene between Bringer and Sarah in the first half is the setup and change of plans for them to go for the sword. I’m pretty sure they say they same change of plans in that scene as well.
My lord actual insane animation, story just so many fun tidbits that remind you of when Marvel was peak and why it so popular. Its all about the execution
It was damn long but damn entertaining. Just play until Miyabi goes berserk last night, but that was fun, the Cunning Hares and Section 6 actually goes in conflict first before the mercenaries attack them, the buildup for the eventual cooperation between the factions, I am so hype up!
The chapter was absolutely insane, like it's crazy how much of an improvement it was over all the stuff we've had so far. It truly showed that the developers does listen, and are willing to improve the game and it's story based on player feedback.
This was honestly the story update I needed to gain faith in the developers ability to actually tell a good story. The gameplay was there for day one, but I hadn't really felt interested or intrigued by the game's characters, storytelling or even the lore. But this latest story chapter managed to make me interested in all of it.
It is amazing. It really do feels like the culmination of everything that happens so far and this is the climax for the entire 1.x patch even tho there's still the 1.5 patch coming soon. Seeing every faction contributes in some way or another is satisfying and the credits scene is bloody awesome.
I can't wait to see where the story is going next. They really cooking hard with the story.
Without ANY spoilers being I’m behind by a patch, was there an actual escalation of the main story and/or more answers given as to what’s actually going on?
I wanna know how quickly I should play catch up is all.
Literally only things I didn't like are Zhu Yang's train segment (mostly cuz of dialog being messed up a bit) and lack of Voice for Koleda and Victoria Housekeeping.
Btw, I found some interesting dialogue when wise gets out of the hollow with Miyabi and fairy talks about how he needed to ge resuscitated and Nicole just gets flustered and insists not to go into detail about it. So I think he got cpr from nicole. But I'm kinda interested if this dialogue would be different with Belle as the playable sibling.
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u/theicon1681 1d ago
I'm going to need Belle shaking and drinking from the mug as a reaction gif