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[Agent_4Seven]

We've known this from the start.

Well, I sure didn't, probably cuz they haven't made it very clear and explained it well before these two videos were released. She even bare the same surname as Nicole, so how could you tell? And that's not to mention the whole thing in these two videos, which will be explored more tomorrow and when trigger will be out as well.

 

[Wonko_C]

So-o-o-o, what an interesting turn of events, ma dudes...



Anby is actually not Nicole's sister by blood, she just found her body while exploring one of the Hollows and Anby is replicant of who knows who, as well as S11 and that means Trigger is two since she's from the same squad.

Here's the thing though, these 3 ladies are far more advanced than intelligent constructs like Qqingyi for example, who needs to recharge from time to time, not to mention that there's no visible limb connections etc. My guess is that they were made to replace regular people to fight the Hollows and ethereal threats cuz they're more disposable in case something happens and there's always another copy. This is just straight up Girls Frontline, except that in ZZZ replicants are treated like disposable and replaceable trash.

There's so much potential here to tell the great stories like in Girls Frontline but I just don't think that HoYo can and will do it on the same level, most likely not. I mean, just to set up a thing with great MV is not good enough, but we'll see.

Aaaand we're back to what miHoYo does best: making people depressed.

I think they actually are genetically enhanced, brainwashed human clones. They saying "a machine without absolute loyalty is worthless" is probably just to dehumanize them, and treat them as disposable.

 

[Agent_4Seven]

Aaaand we're back to what miHoYo does best: making people depressed.

All that is left is to kill Wise or Belle (depending on who you play), they sure can't do that with agents.

I think they actually are genetically enhanced, brainwashed human clones. They saying "a machine without absolute loyalty is worthless" is probably just to dehumanize them, and treat them as disposable.

Like I said, they treat them like disposable trash which is so bad on so many levels. I can see it explored well by people who made Replicant and Automata, but HoYo... they'll just rush the fuck out of it, I'm sure, and with how they set up character interactions during conversations practically made it impossible to tell a great and emotional story in game which'll be drilled into your brain forever.

Btw, check Girls Frontline 2 if you haven't already, this game exploring the theme HoYo trying to set up on a whole other level and miles better - https://www.neogaf.com/threads/girl...e-groza-in-early-may-⛈.1678119/post-269867693

 

[Wonko_C]

All that is left is to kill Wise or Belle (depending on who you play), they sure can't do that with agents.


Like I said, they treat them like disposable trash which is so bad on so many levels. I can see it explored well by people who made Replicant and Automata, but HoYo... they'll just rush the fuck out of it, I'm sure, and with how they set up character interactions during conversations practically made it impossible to tell a great and emotional story in game which'll be drilled into your brain forever.

They killed off Himeko in Honkai Impact 3rd, which is the equivalent of a playable Agent in that universe. And that game is full of great and emotional story moments IMO. But it's also overflowing with hours and hours of confusing philosophical/esoterical/sci-fi exposition that might turn most people off.

 

[Agent_4Seven]

They killed off Himeko in Honkai Impact 3rd, which is the equivalent of a playable Agent in that universe. And that game is full of great and emotional story moments IMO. But it's also overflowing with hours and hours of confusing philosophical/esoterical/sci-fi exposition that might turn most people off.

I haven't played HI3, but I watched a video about the whole thing. Didn't they made this decision to sort of relaunch the game with a new character later? Or maybe I remember it wrong. In any case... they shot themselves in the foot and created a bunch of restrictions to make it impossible to tell great and emotional stories in ZZZ unfortunately. The only way they can do something even remotely similar is via cut-scenes which cost a lot to make both money, human hours and sanity-wise, so they can't afford to have a shit ton of them in the game and long ones too, not to mention a one month schedule. I so wish they could've gone for at least Girls Frontline 2 with a lot better writing and character development, if we're not talking about something similar to how WuWa devs did it.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

She even bare the same surname as Nicole, so how could you tell?

It's explained in-game on anby's character page, and anby has talked about meeting billy/nicole often as well.

 

[Agent_4Seven]

It's explained in-game on anby's character page, and anby has talked about meeting billy/nicole often as well.

Well that explanes the Anby and Nicole thing, but nothing is there to suggest anything they showed in these MVs (I haven't even started S11 personal quest cuz I knew it wasn't finished, so if there's any info on it there, Idk).
Also, why would you leave such important information on a page barely anyone will even check? What a wasted opportunity. But no matter, we'll find out soon enough what really happened in just a few hours.

 

[Pejo]

Also, why would you leave such important information on a page barely anyone will even check? What a wasted opportunity. But no matter, we'll find out soon enough what really happened in just a few hours.

One of my biggest complaints with current HoYo. They make all of this interesting lore and high quality animated stuff and then don't interweave it in the game. They should absolutely at the very least have an embedded youtube player in the game that you can view the character story/demo videos in game. With character lore, Instead of us talking about what flavor of coffee that Mr. Panda doll wants in Anby's friendship event, why don't we talk about how Nicole found her and saved her? That kind of stuff that's actually interesting and builds the world.

In Genshin, they hide like 80% of the world/history lore in just the most boring and dry text log dumps buried 8 levels deep in a menu, or even worse - on statues or monuments scattered around the world that you physically have to visit to read (if you can even remember where they are since no map locators/hints to where they were).

 

[Wonko_C]

Maybe I should rip the videos from Youtube into my hard drive in case they go offline one day.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

but nothing is there to suggest anything they showed in these MVs

Well no, but I also didn't say otherwise, just that we know nicole adopted anby.
The rest has been hinted at and had people speculating from the start as well; the military background was known as was the fact that she trained 11 and that she's supposed to be really strong but is just holding back now, 11 has also always called her "zero" if you use them on the same team, they use the same gear/fighting style etc.
When it was discovered that anby and 11 use the exact same head/face model, them being clones seemed like the most reasonable explanation.

It's fine for things to have a bit of mystery to them, especially since the hints were all there out in the open this whole time.

 

[Agent_4Seven]

One of my biggest complaints with current HoYo. They make all of this interesting lore and high quality animated stuff and then don't interweave it in the game. They should absolutely at the very least have an embedded youtube player in the game that you can view the character story/demo videos in game. With character lore, Instead of us talking about what flavor of coffee that Mr. Panda doll wants in Anby's friendship event, why don't we talk about how Nicole found her and saved her? That kind of stuff that's actually interesting and builds the world.

I wrote them a bunch of stuff via survey in regards how they do things for character stories and such. Now I know that it was just a waste of time.

In Genshin, they hide like 80% of the world/history lore in just the most boring and dry text log dumps buried 8 levels deep in a menu, or even worse - on statues or monuments scattered around the world that you physically have to visit to read (if you can even remember where they are since no map locators/hints to where they were).

Absolutely and utterly terrible storytelling approach. I mean, it's no CRPG for sure, but imho the game like ZZZ should be heavily focused on character developmemt, interactions, dialogues and long conversations with stakes, emotional moments and such similar to Gilrs Frontline 2 at the very least if not Persona games (without needless exposions each time you'll meet a new character), but a lot of the text and writing is just bad, boring or adds absolutely nothing interesting to the story or characters you talking too.

Not to meniton that they're wasting a lot of work time on stupid events and shit (like the last idiotic banbgoo competition event, ugh), instead of making long and better character stories and main story as well. I just don't fuckin't get it, man.

The rest has been hinted at and had people speculating from the start as well; the military background was known as was the fact that she trained 11 and that she's supposed to be really strong but is just holding back now, 11 has also always called her "zero" if you use them on the same team, they use the same gear/fighting style etc.
When it was discovered that anby and 11 use the exact same head/face model, them being clones seemed like the most reasonable explanation.

Can you imagine all this made into a long and multi-part character story instead of stupid and time gated events for the whole month or basically everything you mentioned? How cool and more memorable could it've been? God-effin'-damn it.

It's fine for things to have a bit of mystery to them, especially since the hints were all there out in the open this whole time.

Oh for sure, but they did it in the most bad way you could've imagined. I guess I'm just not into this kind of terrible story-telling with hints and shit you supposed to find all over the place and in very particular situations.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Can you imagine all this made into a long and multi-part character story instead of stupid and time gated events for the whole month or basically everything you mentioned? How cool and more memorable could it've been? God-effin'-damnit.

There's no need for that, this isn't the cunning hares game, or the victoria housekeeping game, all characters live their lives while the proxies story is the one that's followed, while intersecting with others at some points; exposition therapy sessions where characters explain everything about themselves sounds idiotic, especially if you want to establish a bit of mystery, like with billy as well, we still don't know many things about him, but we do know that he was a stone cold badass completely unlike how he's presenting himself now, obviously one day they'll explore that as well, but for now the seeds have been planted, that's the point of using foreshadowing instead of telling a focused story immediately, all mystery is completely pointless and superfluous in that case.
And nothing about anby's past was a time gated event or anything, all of mentioned was known at 1.0 already

Oh for sure, but they did it in the most bad way you could've imagined. I guess I'm just not into this kind of terrible story-telling.

There's nothing bad about it, nor is it terrible storytelling, it sounds like it's simply not the kind of storytelling you want, which is fine, but that doesn't make it terrible.
You don't need an entire story event so you can have people keep harping on how strong anby really is, when her telling billy through natural conversation that not even he can stop her if she goes all out works just as well or even better because then you can infer yourself instead of being told and it keeps foreshadowing intact.

 

[Agent_4Seven]

There's no need for that, this isn't the cunning hares game, or the victoria housekeeping game, all characters live their lives while the proxies story is the one that's followed, while intersecting with others at some points; exposition therapy sessions where characters explain everything about themselves sounds idiotic, especially if you want to establish a bit of mystery, like with billy as well, we still don't know many things about him, but we do know that he was a stone cold badass completely unlike how he's presenting himself now, obviously one day they'll explore that as well, but for now the seeds have been planted, that's the point of using foreshadowing instead of telling a focused story immediately, all mystery is completely pointless and superfluous in that case.

It doesn't matter how they do things, cuz it's bad piecemeal storytelling and they're not doing a great job telling great stories either cuz of this as well. There's plenty of examples where it was done better in the same exact genre even, and somehow here it could be considered idiotic? Give me a break, dude

It's a giant wasted opportunity is what it is, not only for the characters, but also for the whole story and the world itself they created. Nothing leaves a sour taste in your mouth like HoYo trying to tell a story in ZZZ and before you even start it, it's already over in a blink of an eye. Do I even need to say that you have to wait two months for this? Obviously I'm excluding filler updates.

There's nothing bad about it, nor is it terrible storytelling, it sounds like it's simply not the kind of storytelling you want, which is fine, but that doesn't make it terrible.

That's just complete nonsense. It's terrible cuz it is, not good because it's different. I've seen some shit in WuWa and the way they turned things around for why better. HoYo is standing in one place in regards to storytelling since the game was launched and to this day they changed nothing in regards to it and how it works even dispite numerous examples when their competition did and doing it a lot better. They rush things all the time, barely telling and showing anything, not developing characters well beyond MVs and even more shorter filler updates.

You don't need an entire story event so you can have people keep harping on how strong anby really is, when her telling billy through natural conversation that not even he can stop her if she goes all out works just as well or even better because then you can infer yourself instead of being told and it keeps foreshadowing intact.

Well then, how about we all think of better stories in our minds then for the whole thing ZZZ is trying to set up as well and free HoYo from doing it and throw millions at marketing to sell us barely developed characters and their stories instead? Sounds good? Not to me in the slightest, cuz I've seen better shit in the same genre made by much better storytellers and writers who're not hiding bits and pieces under menus, random conversations etc. They decided to take stuff from a bunch of games story and design wise and still haven't managed to come even close to those from whom they borrowed stuff. Like, when you borrow stuff from someone, be it similar design approach or something else, you need to do better or at least on the same level, but they didn't. They're spending a shit ton of money on marketing (~400+ mil now iirc) and MVs which they could've instead thrown at the game to make it better. But it is clear as day where their priorities truly are.

Anyway, you and I have completely different tastes when it comes to storytelling it seems. You like it more than I do, probably way too much to see the obvious flaws and consider them as something positive, so there's no point in arguing about this any longer cuz we're not going to find a common ground here unfortunately. But that's okay, different people, different views.

 

[Icymanipulator]

When’s the banner go live?

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Anyway, you and I have completely different tastes when it comes to storytelling it seems. You like it more than I do, probably way too much to see the obvious flaws and consider them as something positive

It's not about taste, I never said I particularly liked it either, but there's nothing terrible about it, if you prefer everything to be in elaborate expositioned cutscenes because you can't be bothered to read or pay attention then that's fine, but that doesn't make it intrinsically better or worse.

 

[Wonko_C]

When’s the banner go live?

About 2-3 hours from this post. (America server)

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

One of my biggest complaints with current HoYo. They make all of this interesting lore and high quality animated stuff and then don't interweave it in the game. They should absolutely at the very least have an embedded youtube player in the game that you can view the character story/demo videos in game. With character lore, Instead of us talking about what flavor of coffee that Mr. Panda doll wants in Anby's friendship event, why don't we talk about how Nicole found her and saved her? That kind of stuff that's actually interesting and builds the world.

In Genshin, they hide like 80% of the world/history lore in just the most boring and dry text log dumps buried 8 levels deep in a menu, or even worse - on statues or monuments scattered around the world that you physically have to visit to read (if you can even remember where they are since no map locators/hints to where they were).

I've been playing Infinity Nikki since its launch, and I'm finding a big narrative contrast between it and the likes of Hoyo and Kuro. It also has a very complex lore, but they do it so much better, in small bits rather than neverending exposition.

I'd enforce sharper dialogues, never exceeding 10 exchanges, and more contextual storytelling through exploration or mini-events.

 

[Agent_4Seven]

It's not about taste, I never said I particularly liked it either, but there's nothing terrible about it, if you prefer everything to be in elaborate expositioned cutscenes because you can't be bothered to read or pay attention then that's fine, but that doesn't make it intrinsically better or worse.

Dooooooooode, I don't need exposition! I don't like this shit in Persona where they do it for the 100th time in each game each time you meet a new character and have to explain everything - that's just plain bad and ATLUS keep doing it (maybe in Metaphor it's not like this, I haven't played it).

I'm talking about better character development, better and longer stories, more character stories for each character / faction instead of just one and done, better trust events, better writing, less stupid and time wasting events, better presentation of conversation to heighten the emotional aspects similar to what WuWa is doing and make you care about characters more and about the story as well. Put more money into the game and stop throwing hundreds of millions into marketing! You can make 2 huge AAA games with that amount of money jfc or at the very least one giant AAA game for ages.

They borrowed a lot of stuff from games and didn't make them better and on the same level, that's my problem and they're doing nothing to address it and improve the game in key areas where it needs it the most right now. I can think of only a few exceptions. but that's it. I mean, ugh, I probably... no, most definitely was too harsh by saying "terrible", cuz what terrible truly is is WuWa's launch version from top to bottom, so I'm taking my words back. But what HoYo is doing is 100% not good storytelling and I end it at that.

 

[Icymanipulator]

Got silver Anby in 50 pulls, still have so much saved, I’m very happy right now

Also got 2 copies of Pulchra along the way

 

[Pejo]

Got silver Anby in 50 pulls, still have so much saved, I’m very happy right now

Also got 2 copies of Pulchra along the way

Pass some of that luck to me, if you don't mind, but congrats!

I forgot today was the update. Hopefully the gacha is kind. I'm going to roll Anby regardless, but if she's my cup of tea in the demo, I might go for the Engine too. Need some positive RNG though.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

They added 40 levels of rewards to hollow zero.

 

[Agent_4Seven]

Didn't go all the way to 70+ pulls this time, took me like 40+ pulls to get SAnby with 35 pulls left by the time I got her, another 35 got me a bunch of bs Bens, a few standard Anbys and just 1 copy of Pulchra - 75/25 for her HoYo? More like 25/75 to me

In other news, they added 40 more levels to the HZ BP.

 

[Pejo]

Well, went to soft pity and got Lycaon and 4 copies of Pulchra. Furry patch for me I guess.

Luckily the next roll afterwards gave me Anby, so it wasn't all bad.

Tried her in the demo for a bit, not loving her gimmick with the stack building and then a single dinky lightning bolt as the "payoff". They could have at least made it look cooler. Her gameplay is a bit too warpy-aroundy for my tastes too, so I won't be going for her Engine. The animations themselves look cool, but they really focused on making her aesthetically pleasing but kinda mashy and simple to play. I'm guessing, numbers wise, she's probably similar to Evelyn, so it's not like she's bad, just not my favorite style of gameplay.

Pulchra feels strong and useful, and I love that she's an off field stunner. Not sure which team I want to put her in, but I like her kit a lot. I expect Trigger will be similarly useful.

Which 4* engine are we thinking for Anby, Anton's signature, the event one with crit %, or the BP one?

 

[Icymanipulator]

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Which 4* engine are we thinking for Anby, Anton's signature, the event one with crit %, or the BP one?

All 5 relevant ones seem good.
Anton's give her a 50% increase on all her attacks after using energy, with only 5 seconds of downtime, because she only does electric damage, no physical, this sounds like it can offset the lower crit damage
Starlight engine would pretty much give her a permanent 37% (~45%) increase to attack, which honestly sounds like it might out dps anton's
Guilded blossom reaches ~35% and additional increase to EX, this might be the weakest option.
Desire gives her 20% crit rate, anby gets a natural +10 on her team up, so that's 35% crit without making any effort; it also has a nice 20% increase to attack, but this is situational and might be harder to keep up.
BP rotor is the same as desire, but it has a more consistent extra 7.5% attack that's up at all times, so I believe rotor slightly edges out desire in longer encounters.

The reason why blossom seems like the weakest, is because anby actually has pretty low multipliers, so the increase to EX attack isn't really that impactful, and certainly loses to starlight engine if you have that one maxed out.
Anby also actually wants as much crit damage you can give her, since her passive scales off it, but of course to proc it you'd also need some crit rate; anywhere between 30-40% crit rate should work great if you can get her crit damage above 100%, this means that canon rotor is probably the best option, since you get the crit rate required plus a little bit of extra attack on top without any effort, and then you can just pile on crit damage stats on her discs (and hope you get some attack as well).

If you have harumasa's w-engine and you plan on replacing him with anby, just use his, it's pretty much her second best option.

 

[Agent_4Seven]

Tried her in the demo for a bit, not loving her gimmick with the stack building and then a single dinky lightning bolt as the "payoff". They could have at least made it look cooler.

Same, but I bet they saving cool stuff for HZ rogue-lite mode. Pulchra is a lot worse though visually and her Ultimate looks very bad in comparison to what Billy does.

I like the mechanic with other characters participating while they're off-filed if you trigger certain combat moves during fights. At least it makes you feel that you're not alone (bangboo kinda not counting) and they're helping you out.

They could have at least made it look cooler. Her gameplay is a bit too warpy-aroundy for my tastes too, so I won't be going for her Engine. The animations themselves look cool, but they really focused on making her aesthetically pleasing but kinda mashy and simple to play. I'm guessing, numbers wise, she's probably similar to Evelyn, so it's not like she's bad, just not my favorite style of gameplay.

I think she's somewhat of a middle ground between Miyabi and Yanagi, meaning that she's very agile, can do a lot of attacks very fast and has good I-frames when doing stuff which is great considering how terrible huge Robots are in the game.

Which 4* engine are we thinking for Anby, Anton's signature, the event one with crit %, or the BP one?

If you have Evelyn's signature, just give it to SAnby when needed and it'll be only 10% worse than her signature, it's the best 2nd option for her.