(The plots of Stacked Armor, Collapse 2 and Dragon Back 3 are cloudy. Nier played two rounds of Automata (referring to playing from scratch). The following content contains spoilers for the above works)
As we all know, the Honkai series has always had the title of large-scale EVA fan works. Although the story of the collapse of the spiritual core can be said to not have so many similarities with eva, the production team often can’t hold back the hand they want to pay tribute to in terms of expression.
From the old theatrical version to the live-action shooting of the auditorium, to the new theatrical version where the father and son fight and fight out of the studio, to the final scene at the station, and even the “goodbye, all Evangelion” throughout the last part, the creators sometimes want to In a more direct way, convey your feelings to the audience as if you are shouting. Although there is sometimes a corresponding lack of so-called “rigor”.
And this is not the first time that the Honkai series has directly communicated with players in this way in the main line. As early as the end of the Honkai 2 Moth of Fire Chaser DLC, there was a plot where the player’s will went online to fight. So it didn’t surprise me to see another direct dialogue in Honkai 3.
In terms of expression, the ending of Honkai 3 is somewhat similar to the combination of Nier Automata and Dragon Back 3. The observers of Dragon Back 3 have a similar identity to Da Ai-chan, and they all developed feelings for this “story” while observing. As for the core key message and the gathering of players’ strength to break the shield, there is quite a message to other players at the e ending of the mechanical era, “borrowing” other players’ archives to replace the loss of life.
Of course, the similarity in the form of expression does not mean that the background color of the emotion is the same. Yoko Taro, the supervisor of Longbei and Neil, is also a fan of Eva himself. (Now it’s eva, the origin of all things, laughing) In my opinion, his plot has the awkward twisted emotional side of eva, and even more, but the Honkai series has always been a story full of hope. If we say that the unlocking methods of Nier Automata and the final ending of Dragon Back 3 all have the meaning of “reversing despair” by external forces (the awakening of observers/pods), but they all show a strong tendency to communicate with players. The dragon back may not be so straightforward, but the continuous option in the ending of Nier can be said to directly ask the player questions.
If the “observer” of the dragon back still has some “mechanical” awakening of human nature, then the reversal of Neil’s ending and the production team’s list fight are completely out of the setting performances.
In an interview with Yoko Taro, Yoko Taro answered the question about breaking the fourth wall like this.
——There are a lot of Meta elements in “Neil Robot Legion”. The characters in the game will “break the fourth wall”. It seems that the producer directly communicates with the players through the characters. May I ask Mr. Yokoo what is the idea of doing this? With such a design?
Yoko: I think video games have many possibilities, but many games today tend to be formulaic. And the game made out of this “formula” will give people a fresh and exciting feeling, just like what I felt when I was a child. So I will continue to explore new possibilities of video games.
The production team of Honkai 3 may have similar ideas.
Going back to the ending of Honkai 3, the part of the core key setting of Honkai 3 turned out to be exclusive to the previous “activity plot”. This means that this performance is essentially a gift for old players of Honkai 3. After all, Honkai 3 is also an “old” game that has been in operation for more than 6 years. I would like to believe that the production team really wanted to express their gratitude to the player “Captain” in this performance.
Immediately after the core key is the plot of Huberian, it is better to say that we have officially become a veritable captain.
Players gather to help break the shield, in addition to giving players a sense of participation, it also coincides with the theme of gathering the power of all mankind.
It is true that from another perspective, this way of performance also has a “destruction story”, or the so-called “mechanical descent”. Even Neil’s e ending is still evaluated as a “mechanical descendant”.
But there is also what I think is the charm of games as the ninth art. Games are an interactive art, which is an important feature different from other art forms. In some places where the plot and the game are separated, for example, the player actually beats the enemy cg but is hanged in a turn, often there will be such complaints, “Don’t confuse the gameplay with the setting”.
The performance of Honkai 3 this time, in my opinion, is not an example of this kind of separation. If you play all the way down, as long as you really like this game and agree with its core that has always been there, I believe it is not difficult to notice that the player’s desire to see a “better” world at the end is the same as the characters in the game. At this time, we participated in it, saw the original message, and then operated Huberian with the “core key” is the response to this emotion.
To sum up, I agree with the emotions of this performance. And the production team also worked hard to grasp the point of not letting Da Ai-chan take the key turning point, so as not to really become a “mechanical descendant”. It should be regarded as an easter egg gift to the player, not the core of the plot.
Finally, I will end so many nagging with my own message.
I always love Honkai 3!
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