#apho2

Mmmmm.

On its own, I think APHO is fine, it has a range of good points and interesting possibilities, especially APHO2's combat system over APHO's. It's trying something new! I think that's cool! Love breaking into places I'm not supposed to sneak into! Love platforming! (yes really).

But it also has big flaws. Having no self-insert character in the story really allowed Honkai's characters to shine in their own story because they only have relationships with EACH OTHER, and I don't think MHY really understands this given the shift to birthday letters and events like AI-chan's. Adam was incredibly flat and boring in APHO and stole the show away from beloved characters, which I believe got pretty bad backlash, and while APHO2 partly fixed this, I'm not certain they've learned their lesson...

APHO also basically locks the main story into ending a certain way, since they decided to state it was canon. Which isn't great, it kills the suspense on certain main characters' fates, we KNOW they manage to deal with Kevin and project STIGMA probably failed entirely given the state of the world we're told about.

This weakens spotlight characters' struggles and increases worry for others who haven't appeared yet in APHO, despite them not being in danger at the current moment in the main story.

Nobody's worried about Mei or Bronya, but Kiana, oh boy. Implying something bad happened to her was a meaningful choice when the story was years behind the ending of part 1, when they thrived off players' tears, but now that we're THERE, it's throwing the stakes off their course... especially since they've largely refused to let alive characters be permanently offed for like, a dozen chapters. (Not counting the sims; they were already doomed from mhy not wanting to keep ER around for the endgame, and they KEEP SHOWING UP ANYWAY.)

So yes, it affects the main story, and not really for the better, MHY basically wrote itself into a corner with it, and now they have to follow through even if the story's changed somewhat. (Stories always do.) It also basically spoils the story/suspense for players, thus throwing off the story's effect and making the players focus on the wrong place uncontrollably...

A POST-HONKAI ODYSSEY 2 | Lyle Collodi’s Introduction

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you're telling me this is lyle?? from apho omg 😭😭