Which moment would you visit?

ah yes the Pepsi race

Seeing these minute details that many don't pay attention to makes Penacony's an excellent analogue horror story. The first feeling I had when playing Penacony's was the vibe I saw in games from the Bioshock series, not just because of the visuals but also the way they start to introduce the city, you already notice that there is something wrong with the city that uses some type of illusion in the form of fantasy to hide what really happens in the real Penacony's

Some of the best NPC sidequests in Hoyo history on this planet. So good

On a meta level, we know for certain that neither Firefly nor Robin are dead by any definition of the word, and indeed will be perfectly well enough to generate millions of dollars for Mihoyo within the span of not an Amber era, but just a patch. In game, we also know from the conversation between Robin's brother and Hanabi that more people have been "killed" by memetic death, more than just these two future playable characters. We also know from in game lore item text that many guests have been disappearing for some time now, and that La Famiglia in response has been memory wiping anyone who witnessed the events or would wonder about what happened to their missing friends/family. In the deepest dream memory zone, within the room of CRT TVs, we hear many voices coming from the TVs saying that they are essentially trapped and in need of help to escape. With 99% certainty, these are the people who were "killed" by memetic death. And from a game mechanics perspective, we have already proven that we can rescue the departed simply by killing death itself. On an even more telling meta level, the motif of trapping and killing people inside the world of TVs is a smoking gun lifted from Persona 4. And just like the Penacony arc, Persona 4 is a murder mystery. Persona itself was directly mentioned in Mihoyo's original Penacony reveal as an inspiration. Many Persona voice actors also voice Honkai Star Rail characters, including Sawashiro Miyuki, whose first big break in the industry was to voice Elizabeth in Persona 3 -- someone who lives within the realm of dreams. Sawashiro later went on to voice roles such as Raiden Mei and Acheron. Aside, are you going to ever talk about the similarities between the games? Like how Fu Xuan, who is one of the few known to be able to predict the future, says in her ultimate: "Constellations are human creations." Or that Raiden Ei sealed herself within her sword, and Acheron has said that someone/something is sealed within her sword. Raiden Ei wanted eternity, and we know that Acheron has the ability to manipulate time, e.g. you can see her being in several places simultaneously in her skill animations, and in the first Penacony trailer, you can see her moving backwards in time. Raiden's black hole imagery is a direct reference to Interstellar -- not simply because the movie first popularized that accretion disk image representation of black holes, but because of that movie's solely fictional take of black holes as a navigable vehicle to traverse the dimension of time. And within Acheron's new relic set, we learn that Acheron lost a girl dear to her named Frebass, who puts on a space suit to dive into a black hole. Acheron loses Frebass, Ei loses Makoto, and both can't get over it. I don't know enough HI3/GGZ lore, but with what was mentioned in today's broadcast, it's clear Mihoyo is planning on using Acheron to further coalesce the Hoyoverse.

Rubert's Machine Empire seems like a homage or a reference to the war of Cybertron

Just watched the 2.1 live stream and I guess you are right about Sparkle being the most trustworthy person in Penacony... Shaoji said it himself lol

5:13 ngl I laughed way harder than i should've

The connection to Misteln battlesuit was a really nice find! Great video Homu!

False Homu, I trust Mei-sempai with all my trust since I meet her XD

This aged like wine given Welt makes the same comparison 7:53

I think that “Something unto Death” is an Imaginary Construct like the Husk.

"But human is boring so i gotta move on " Based

Asking all the Pepeshi to touch their floofball will get you an achievement. Also, from the way they react, it makes me think those floofballs are very... "personal" parts of their bodies, if you catch my drift... Goddammit, pepeshians! At least cover them properly!! How indecent...

Oh thank god you are alive, i tough for sure that sparkle would have kept you in that basement forever😂 Also, whats your thought on the 2.1 livestream?

We can't trust to anybody except Sparkle - you wanted to say in the end!

the not trusting anybody part feels a lot like the elysian realm

Oh, this is excellent! The connection with Stigma Space is also most interesting. Thank you, Homu!

for me the weirdest and mysterious thing is, trailblazer can see others Emotions from begining and I guess even she/he don't know yet. also red Speeches mean the person who talks feel anger and killing intant towards they mention in their speech, White is calm, yellow is happy and blue is sad. if you explore the penacony you can find a voice record that give our mc the anger and we can see the emotions of our thoughts too for me, that's so weird

Wow, I reasoned out stigma space, but didn't go all the way to connect misteln to it, great work mr. homu. I also like it when you mention small world-building details like the different moments. Thought I was the only one noting down the names of the moments whenever I saw them.

5:13 :(

Thanks HomuLabs, now I sort of understand Penal Colony

I don't know why, but the sodas remind me of Nuka Cola from Fallout

I disagree at the end where you say we don't trust anybody! I completely trust sparkle... on the fact that she'll probably screw us over for fun XD

I wonder will the Star Rail visit the HI3 universe one day lol Or maybe Evangelion universe lol

Is it just me or are the other two heads/faces of Xipe not smiling benevolently? One looks rather somber, the other kinda angry. Pretty sure, that's a hint towards the "dark side" of "The Harmony".

4:40 When you got Black Swan/Sparkle/Acheron or any combination of the 3.😅 I also remind to the Plot Trust. If you can get a character as playable, they probably good, and you can trust in them, because so far there were no realy bad character playable. (Heck, even HoV is became a good character, or you can look at her as one of many variants of Kiana and bang, she's good)

What do you make of the mark on Senadina's chest looking just like Robin's wound?

One argument for Firefly and Robin being Only Mostly Dead is the boss fight with SUD...how it "kills" your party members, but merely holds their "spirits" until you get them back again...

Dream Architect's dream is a Dream Engineer's nightmare

that thumbnail reminded me of a certain TeRiRi

Wait I can't find any info on "Moment of subscribe and smash the like button" in the game 🤨

i might continue to watch ur vids cuz i really wanna play the game but cant cuz my phone is gonna explode 😒 also helps me make some info on my self insert😼

i hope we learn about the effed up fact you need CBDC (credits) to buy stuff IN A DREAM, instead of just having it FREELY from the eternal, and it even hints at how effed up it is if try to goto some the roads the cars go down eta "even the dreamscape has to end, afterall the dreamweavers are only in it for the MONEY"

Hi homulabs will you be making a video on acherons lore? I feel like its such an interesting and tragic take on raiden meis dilemma and story.

I do really need this one, the lore feels just too confusing for whatever reason for it being an introduction to their first planet since release

Wait, Me-Moria? IT’S A MINE!!!

Oh right the positive and wholesome story right?

A comment for the algorithm since you deserve way more viewers than you get.

Hi Homu Labs, my friend who loved playing Honkai Impact recently passed away. I've been feeling really upset these days, so I got Honkai Impact as a way to still feel connected to her (she loved the Herrscher of Sentience and the character Fu Hua). She would always talk about the characters to me, but there was always so much that I kind of zoned out and didn't listen to what she said, which I really regret now, as she seemed to love the characters and the lore. All I really know about the lore is that it is split into 2 parts, but one of the last things I remember her telling me was that she liked part 1 more than part 2. I don't really know how to start or where to go when it comes to learning lore, so could you make a video summarizing all of part 1 please? I would really appreciate it.

6:39 correction, humans are awesome

When legend of saha recap bro ?

It's obvious that the spiritual death refers to the meme enemy game mechanic where it 'kills' one of your characters and keeps it as a pet. And you have to break it out. TBH, if Firefly was the only person killed, then I could believe it. But kill her AND Robin? Naah that's bait.

SPOILER Something Unto Death... but not Death itself, or herself, in Sirin's, Veliona's, and Seele's cases. And of course, Kiana herself possesses all the Herrscher Authorities. Anyway, the fight against SUD quickly introduces is to a mechanics concept that those felled by SUD end up in a capsule somewhere. In the case of the combat, it was right in front of us, and destroying the capsule restored the fallen character to our side. I choose to believe, until evidence is presented otherwise, that those defeated in an unusual manner by SUD will likewise be held captive inside such a capsule. That SUD is likely siphoning off their energy to get stronger so it can breach further up a layer of dreams in order to invade the populated Dreamscapes. This would also mean that if we're fast enough, we could potentially rescue Firefly and Robin. So I'll hold onto that hope as long as I can. That could potentially explain the vision of Firefly in the 2.1 program with her face cracked: we go in and rescue her, and some of her life's energy has been leached, so she needs to rest and recover or her mentality will literally shatter.

I'm confused about this game's setting, does it take place on a branch, or the whole imaginary tree?

If I don't get Acheron you're done for...just so you know 🙃

I trust Aventurine bcs i know Ratio will doing something if Aven doing something stupid... like easily take his own life. They are partner, and maybe this collaboration mission will make their relationship more... well, grow to good way. They are need communication actually. Also maybe they get development chara, who knows?

Behold, soda world