Honkai: Star Rail Version 4.2: So Laughed the Masses brings the conclusion to the story of the new Herald of Death, although some questions remain and the Phantasmoon Games press onward.
The events of the new story chapter begin exactly the moment the previous one ended: the Phantasmoon’s announcement that the winner of the Games will acquire the authority of the Aeon of Elation for good, no takebacksies. Naturally, that whips the already Elated crowd into frenzy, but Himeko and the Express crew are left more somber and anxious.
Any change in the Paths and Aeons beforehand meant unrest for dozens of Amber Eras to follow. Let alone when someone of unknown morals, principals and goals can snatch the literally cosmic power and do… whatever they have their mind set on.
Is the announcement true? Could Aha have learned of the Trailblazer’s wish to make Them the leader of the Anti-Destruction Alliance and decided to pack the bags and bail? Or is someone behind the curtains trying to raise the stakes and the unpredictability of the Phantasmoon Games? Regardless, this twist makes the Nameless only more set on dealing with Fulwish as soon as possible.
To figure out the connection between the Happiness Surgery and the Abundance, the Express crew decides to dig into her past. Meanwhile, Yao Guang and Evanescia have a lengthy discussion on the nature of the Abundance, the Elation and trying to find and treasure meaning in every single moment. During this talk, Evanescia presents herself as a mischievous and cunning, but also ancient and wise creature.
She agrees to judge Fulwish’s actions as the ex-Arbiter of the Games but runs into a conundrum: Fulwish is not a Supplicant, and cannot be judged by her powers. Just as it seemed like the investigation ran into a dead end, the answer was provided by none other than Blade: the real Supplicant is Shuhu, the immortal tree and the Emanator of Abundance, a piece of which is sealed inside Blade himself.
Somehow, Fulwish managed to get her hands on its cells – and as long as even one cell is alive, Shuhu can come back to life. The Happiness Surgery embeds these cells into members of the Research Society like parasites into hosts, who from the technical standpoint are then all treated as parts of Shuhu and Supplicants as well. All 200,000+ of them, pawns and hostages at the same time. Despite a healthy level of scepticism and suspicion towards Blade, Yao Guang, the Stellaron Hunter and the rest manage to come to a swift agreement to avoid Shuhu using the power of the Elation as a catalyst to awaken.
From her side, Fulwish is masterfully using her status as a local near-saint and media mogul with her own TV station, spreading half-truths and believable lies to sow suspicion of the Express and the IPC (as if you need any more reasons) among the people of Planarcadia. She also announced that she’s officially entering the Phantasmoon Games as a Supplicant, which was met with an uproarious support.
To me, this was the most interesting part of the patch. To see our company of Generals, ancient Abundance divine creatures, Galaxy Rangers, Nameless, and more, almost be brought down not by Aeons, not by a virus of Destruction, not even by Emanators, but by the good old social media manipulation. Even if there is an Emanator who is the ultimate puppeteer in the end, as proven by Sparxie and later Silver Wolf.
That, and the fact that followers of Lan, including Yao Guang and Ashveil, prefer to keep away from the gaze of their Aeon. After all, Lan is not concerned with the collateral of Their Lux Arrow.
Away from prying eyes, Evanescia reveals her real story: as the leader of her people and a young Seeker of Elixir, she went on the search for Yaoshi a millennia ago. During her travels, she’d only lost once – to the Phoenix of Xianzhou, likely Marshal Hua – before fulfilling her goal and becoming another immortal tree in the garden of Abundance.
Only to be unceremoniously plucked out by Aha and moved to Ahatopia with the promise of learning the meaning of the Elation, and also to serve as the Arbiter of the eternal Phantasmoon games that work as the seals on the remains of Oroboros, the Aeon of Voracity, with the Wishpower feeding this seal.
As Fulwish has not stepped over the line based on pure technicality, Evanescia decides to become the sinner herself to awaken the Arbiter, the cold and uncaring “real her”, the way she was before she painstakingly crafted this familiar witty persona we know as Evanescia over the long years. It is surprising how much character development can be fit into a couple of lengthy conversations.
Meanwhile, as the rest of the Supplicants are pursuing Fulwish, Pearl and Silver Wolf make a deal to figure out the vector of mutations and their nature. This is the first time that we see Silver Wolf not only act serious, but also use her new form, Level 999, as she clashes with the actual puppeteer behind the whole ordeal.
The game went out of its way to create a sense of mystery around his persona… except we could not only see, but also hear Lord Ravager Asat Pramad in the very first Planarcadia trailer that was also partially narrated by him. That fact made the big reveal fall flat when you compare it to, for example, finding out Lygus’ true identity in Amphoreus.
On the other hand, seeing the inner workings of the Stellaron Hunters through Silver Wolf, Blade and Kafka had been quite interesting. Even when Elio’s “Script” is unable to predict the events in their entirety, the group manages to find workarounds, like Kafka’s call during Wolfie’s and Pearl’s little chat.
The version ends with everyone pitching in to defeat Fulwish at the top of her TV tower. Before transforming into her boss form, the media mogul reveals the truth of her past and the ugly reality of Planarcadia. No one cared for her pain and suffering as the survivor of the Bloodstained Games, people wanted a show instead. And the remaining wounds got filled by malice and hatred, perhaps with the help of the certain Emanator of Destruction.
I feel that the impact of the scene would have been stronger if Fulwish’s story didn’t repeat that of the adventure mission “A Bouquet for the Blessed” and Bequea almost word-to-word, with the exception of the outcome. Still, there being two victims abused for clicks and hype proves that it wasn’t a one-off, but rather the way things go in Planarcadia. In search of momentary scraps of Elation, the Ahatopians have grown numb to suffering – literally so after the Happiness Surgery.
However, defeating Fulwish is just one step on the way to victory since two hundred thousands people are still suffering from mutations. This is where Blade steps in. As the only person able to keep his sanity intact after fusing with Shuhu, he will become the vessel that will absorb all the tainted flesh of Shuhu from the infected. Sunday will help him through the process by using his Tuning powers.
Before Shuhu wakes up completely, Silver Wolf compresses the Emanator and seals it inside Blade’s body, which turns him into a Supplicant on the same technicality as the rest of the infected. Yao Guang then offers a daring plan: using the sealed Aeon of Voracity to eradicate Shuhu once and for all, the plot that will lead us into the next Version.
That, and searching for the legendary paintress Graphia that slumbers somewhere within the scroll. Evanescia asks the Trailblazer to find her and inform that the demon lord that led the Antimatter Legion before, Asat Pramad, is back.
With the exception of the first couple of hours that were spent largely meandering around and about, the update had been filled with exciting lore reveals, interesting character interactions and hints for the future. However, it was still far from perfect in certain regards. Let’s quickly go over the good and the bad before wrapping up.
The greatest strength of Planarcadia is the fact that characters continue actively participating in the plot after the end of their banner. While the first half of Amphoreus played into the same strength as well, it fell off in the second: Hysilens, Cerydra and Evernight (as a separate character) stopped existing within their own patches.
Additionally, characters partner up and interact among themselves, sometimes forming incredibly interesting duos such as Dan Heng reuniting with Blade or the General of the Xianzhou joining forces with embodiment of the Ambrosial Arbor, or an Intellitron hiring a hacker to do her bidding.
Of course, all of the loretubers have lost their minds from the reveals about the Elation, the Voracity, the Abundance and Shuhu in particular – an entity that existed since 1.0 and kickstarted the tragedy of the High-Cloud Quintet. Perhaps Yingxing will finally get his revenge for Baiheng in Version 4.3.
But not all characters are made equal: March, Himeko and Welt might as well not exist in the update. Welt especially, at this point it feels like the developers are focused on keeping him away from action at all costs. With the main cost being his character development, of course.
Secondly, it felt like there were a few scenes that were cut out. In particular, Evanescia revealing the information about the remains of Oroboros and thus committing the sin to call forth the Arbiter. The entire scene, just like her using the power of the Abundance to heal the citizens in need, has happened off-screen. Similarly, Yao Guang and Dan Heng mention the amulet from 4.0, the one created by Yingxing, used to calm Blade down when the surrounding Abundance almost made him lose control.
Hopefully, at least one of these scenes will be shown in flashbacks going forward. It is obvious that Silver Wolf, Blade and Evanescia will have more involvement going forward, especially if Asat Pramad decides to act directly now that Fulwish and the Abundance failed.
And so, the story has answered two questions: who is the new Herald of Death, and what’s up with the Research Society of Happy Smiles. However, some mysteries remain unexplained. For once, how did Fulwish get her hands on Shuhu’s cells and the tech required to use them? How come Marcus Antalli, the first Herald of Death, had suspicious connections to Shuhu as well? Was she really the one to bring them to Planarcadia, or could it be someone else – someone who has the connection to the Intelligentsia Guild, the Abundance, the experience traveling the cosmos and the resolution that the end justifies the means? (Like Ryusuke, who’d do anything to heal Himeko, I still don’t trust that man).
On the other hand, more questions arise. What is Asat Pramad doing on Planarcadia? Is he going to try for the authority of Elation, or are his plans more dastardly? After all, having Ahatopia be destroyed by Lan’s vengeful arrow after transforming it into the hellscape of Abudance would have been just the kind of joke he’d love to play. Now that it didn’t work with the Hunt, is the Voracity next on the list of targets?
The remains of Oroboros, the Aeon of Voracity, being sealed within Planarcadia is honestly relatively expected, especially after we’d seen the hungering maw in Version 4.1. Aha, Qlipoth and Oroboros go way back, according to the new DU lore, so much so that Aha could have been infected by Voracity while bringing Oroboros down. But the question remains, what next, and how is Kuchiba related to it. Will we learn more about Ruan Mei’s and Stephen Lloyd’s Leviathan research in the process since Oroboros is an ascended Leviathan? Quite possible.
That is not even counting in the questions raised by the previous patches – the winner of the Phantansmoon Games, the Anti-Destruction Alliance, Himeko’s past and the curse of the Graphia family, Ryusuke being incredibly suspicious, and more. Or, the previous season – what’s going on within the Garden of Recollection and Black Swan after Amphoreus, how is the Xianzhou Alliance going to use the Golden Blood of Nanook, did Acheron find Device IX, etc.
One thing is certain, it is an exciting time for Honkai: Star Rail, and I hope HoYoverse doesn’t slow down.
P.S. Kuchiba playable when
