"If you had grasped the journey’s finale right from its inception, would you still embark on this journey?”


“I would blaze a trail without hesitation.”

It's official. Penacony has the best story arc in Star Rail to date. After a little over a year of updates, the finale to this section showcases some of the game’s best moments. But it also underlines the strain that a genuinely creative story can be put under when it has to exist inside a gacha game with built-in hype cycles to get as much money as possible out of its player base.

But first, the good: as invested as I was in seeing how the story would play out by the time this patch released, everything was so convoluted that I wasn't sure if the writing could stick the landing. That much I didn't need to be concerned about - for all the floating plot threads in this arc, the conclusion is the most satisfying part. A side character I'd wondered about ended up playing a big role in the resolution, my questions about "death" were answered, and the Trailblazer gets to hit the real villain with a giant train. On that note, I liked that the final boss fight had more strategy to take into account - I usually brute force my way through the story fights, so having to replay a few times to figure out the boss gimmick was a nice change of pace. Additionally, as someone who builds teams based around weakness breaks, the new Trailblazer path is a welcome addition to the roster.

Now for the not so great - despite all the hype and marketing surrounding Robin and Boothill, they're barely in the story. Robin's part is more defined by how other characters discuss her than by the actions she takes in the final hour. Boothill comes across as more of a comedy relief character, but I do hope that the last scene of this patch means that he'll have a larger role in the epilogue. I would have loved to see more of both of them, but because of the way the story turned out, that wasn't possible. However, new story patch means new banners, which means they're hyped up in marketing regardless. I know that it's unrealistic to expect what happened with Aventurine's character arc to occur with every new character, but after getting a taste of what this writing team is capable of, is it wrong to feel a little disappointed?

All of this said, I'm more hooked on the promise of Star Rail's story than I've ever been, especially after the disappointing lows of the Xianzhou Luofu’s finale. I'd like to believe that it's all up from here, but time will only tell if Penacony is the start of a new standard or a high bar that the player base can only hope that the team can clear again.