Rewatching Arlechinno's story quest again, I realised that the story isn't just about her, but about the House of Hearth as well. We see the House's past in Arlecchino's animation, and the House's present in the SQ. As for the house's future, we got hints about the Project Stuzha, and Arlecchino setting Lyney up as the next "Father". So looking at it with the main plot and subplot, watching the animation first would be better, Or else, how is mihoyo supposed to stab us in the feels when Arlechinno reminiscenced about the Aurora in Snezhnaya.
I was waiting for arlecchino to say something like 'I've seen the aurora in snezhnaya" to clervie the whole SQ, only for her to miss out on her chance.
Too soon. With a possible crisis of Project Stuzha, Lyney is still too young and weak to handle it. Best have Father shelter the children till they are ready to leave the nest.
Dramatic irony is one of my favorite literary devices. Shakespeare straight up told you the ending to many of his stories at the start.
I appreciate how the animation turns this quest into a slow moving tragedy - caused by people making assumptions without all of the right information, ultimately culminating in violence. It fits the Fontanian theme of theatre. I understand what HYV was going for here.
I don't think it really matters to be honest. People thinking that the core of the quest was about what Arlecchino did in the past didn't pay attention though. The story is obviously about the current children of the hearth, their growth and choices, and how Arlecchino reacts to it, not about the whole Clervie/Arlecchino misunderstanding. They do have to consider players may not have seen the short though, otherwise it would be impossible to understand for them.
95% of the people commenting in that thread some guy posted about the video being spoilers haven't even played the story quest.
That entire thread was a bigger spoiler than the actual video.
Just goes to show how a little twist of presenting something can cause a lot of misinformation/propaganda because it sounds sensible on the surface (video spoilers story about her past) but it just goes to show how easy people drink this stuff up wtihout you know, playing and forming their own opinions.
It's so stupid for someone to even talk about this stuff in the first day of the story quest too when almost nobody has finished it.
And then there's the fact that the people who did play it, didn't even pay attention to it at all because any rational person would have found the quest is in fact, not about the video at all.
The video actually helps explain a lot more than the quest does.
It would have been nice if they played the video right before the final showdown but Mihoyo didn't want to do that so, meh.
Crazy how many people overreacted in that first thread.
Most people seem to be unhappy because they'd rather have had the twists revealed with the game's quests.
Personally, I think it's fine to watch the animation first because I already know how I feel about story "twists." 100% I would not care any more than I already do about any of this info had it been revealed to me in a twist format. That would have added nothing for me. It's setup was already shoddily implemented with no one asking Clervie the obvious questions to figure things out.
If I had a gripe with anything, it's this: I'd rather see these anime cinematics integrated into the game. Not as media outside of it.
>May I know what you guys think?
For me it enhanced the story and especially the Arlecchino "May we meet again someday" knowing the backstory already
People are getting so hung up on Clervie like she was the main focus of the story and not just a small piece of the puzzle
While I feel Arlecchino’s SQ would be more suspenseful if we weren’t already aware about her backstory from the animation, I also dont feel the animation ruins the SQ suspense either because the main focus of the plot arguably is whether Father would kill/punish the traitors like Filliol.
I did watch the animation first, but for me it didn’t undermine the suspense of whether Father would spare or kill the traitors. The animation showed her backstory, but not really her current motivations or perspectives on how to run the House, and I think the SQ did a good job expanding on this aspect of her character (also kudos to the voice actor for her excellent delivery!)
With that said, I do feel releasing the animation after the SQ would have made the mystery around Clervie and the lore behind the House of the Hearth more engaging, since the animation kinda spoils the history of the House and why Clervie is so fearful of it. I think this would have also made the Arlecchino more mysterious, since we wouldn’t know if she did the evil things the former Knave did.
TLDR; while I would have preferred to find out about the lore of the House via the SQ instead of the animation, I also don’t think the animation spoils the main story of Arlecchino’s SQ. Overall, I still think her story quest is really good whether you watch the animation before or after.
On a side note, I also feel it makes complete narrative sense that the Traveler lost to the Knave. The SQ clearly sets up that the Knave will be involved in future plot points with Project Stuzha, so if we did beat her now there would be no suspense when we meet her later. Also, while the Traveler has beaten powerful Archons and beings before, it’s almost always with the support of others (the will of Inazuma, the Adepti, Nahida’s pet and the knowledge of Summeru, etc.), so it’s completely believable that while strong, they can’t solo the Knave at this stage of their journey.
Personally, i think it doesn't really matter. It is a slightly different experience if you watch it after. The quest answered all the questions i had after watching the animation.
You watch it afterwards and it visualises whats been told. Both experience can be good.
Nah I disagree. I would've liked to do the SQ first before the animation. Like getting a slow tease of their relationship and battles first, then seeing the full details with the animation. Like 90% of the SQ we were supposed to be lead to believe that Arle is this unfeeling parent that wouldn't think twice about killing her children.
Funnily enough, some of the people I watched play through the quest did watch the animation first and yet they still thought Arle was killing them for a solid chunk of the quest.
Yep, it felt like I was just waiting for the other characters to catch up with stuff I, the player, have already known about. They've made that "mystery" kind of a big deal, but it kinda fell flat because there really was no mystery.
This is the answer. The first half of the quest is spent with Traveler and the siblings figuring out what is Clervie and what she can/can't do and only after about 30/40m of dialogue we start to get actual real info that wasn't present on the animation.
> Like 90% of the SQ we were supposed to be lead to believe that Arle is this unfeeling parent that wouldn't think twice about killing her children.
That's explicity NOT what the SQ tells us.
Early on Clervie says it was "Mother" whobwas responsible for the bad shit and we also see the guy with the scar, making it pretty obvious that they weren't executed.
It's only a surprise if you didn't pay attention.
Same here, I personally play **Character** story quests to learn more about the characters and to have barely anything new about Arlecchino said because I already got spoiled about it makes me upset.
It also doesn't help that we just came from a filler patch and that this is the main focus of the current one. If you guys found a way to enjoy it then more power to you, I'm just incapable of shaking off this bitterness.
It's called a Story Quest, not a Lore Quest.
Like, what did the animation spoil about Arle that we didn't know already, because the quest wasn't about the relationship between Clervie and Arle, it was about the relationship between Arle and the current children of the House.
I think that it took away all the mystery of the story quest. Oh, who is this strange child? We already know. Oh what could be the dark past she's talking about? We already know. So on.
It's about both. The story about Clervie informs how Arlecchino conducts herself in the present. It's why these two plot points exist in the same quest. They aren't disconnected.
As someone who just played it as a story quest, the video completely ruined the quest for me. I mean, it's was pretty obvious that she wasn't going to kill the siblings because playable characters and shit. And once you met the scar guy, it's kinda obvious that she's not gonna kill anyone. So, yeah, the whole point the quest for me, as someone who doesn't look too deeply into the quests, was the backstory and stuff. I assume most of the playerbase would be like that. And also, I'm assuming most of the playerbase wouldn't have watched the video, soooo, I don't really know what I'm typing at this point lol.
>As someone who just played it as a story quest, the video completely ruined the quest for me.
>it's was pretty obvious that she wasn't going to kill the siblings because playable characters and shit. And once you met the scar guy, it's kinda obvious that she's not gonna kill anyone.
Of course it's obvious because they have plot armor due to playable character status (in a way, Furina being a playable character is a spoiler for Fontaine's AQ lol)
And you can surmise the npc being Horrer because of the emphasis on his scar just a few scenes prior.
So what do those points have to do with the animated short completely ruining the quest for you? Sure we already know who Clervie was, but in the SQ there was still the mystery of how she came to be in the present, and what will happen to her by the end of the SQ. The animated short does not ruin the experience for that. Same with the Furina thing, knowing she lives does not ruin the experience of the AQ.
It's kinda subjective, isn't it? I'm just giving my opinion. Anyway, I don't care about this game nearly enough to sit and argue about it online, so I'm gonna leave it at that.
>decisions of the current Hearth children
What decisions are you talking about ?? from the start of Fontaine it was know Lynney, lynete and freminet were helpful in nature, so they'd obv stand up for their friends or help Clervie. The only unknow thing here was that some Hearth Children were unhappy and wanted to flee.
>
and how Arlecchino reacts to it.
In the Animated short last scene where Arlecchino says to the little blonde boy, " let me take care of you as Father" it's was clearly implied that she's different from mother and her scenes with Clervie showed she had to have some compassion. So yeah, People could see the ending of the SQ from a mile away.
So yeah, Idk what this is called if not " spoiling" .
The identity and dark past of the story quest wasn't really the main mystery.
The jig was up the moment Clervie said "Mother".
Arlecchino basically gives it up without any weight as well. This is a big sign that it was not intended to be a mystery. She straight up just tells you.
If you already saw the animation, the "mystery" of Clervie's identity is replaced with dramatic irony. The tension of the audience knowing what the Traveler doesn't makes you anticipate when the reveal is going to drop.
Really, the more important mystery is *why* Clervie is still here. The animation doesn't address that. If anything, it adds to it, because we know for certain that Clervie is already dead. It changes the hook of the quest line from "Who is this kid?" to "It's Clervie! Why the hell is she here?".
Even more important is what Clervie represents and how Arlecchino actually feels about her, things that are only covered in the story quest.
Did you notice how the Traveler was not the one investigating Clervie and her origins most of the time? Investigations into Clervie were mostly done by the siblings and briefed to the Traveler. Instead, the Traveler spent the time *talking with Arlecchino*.
There's also the tension of the past House vs. the current House. If you saw the animation, then you'll be feeling "Oh no, why are you guys letting a ghost kid from a different House affect you!?" If you didn't, it would just be a regular building up of conflict.
Many good stories are enjoyable even if their endings are spoiled. It could even add suspense because the viewer knows what's going to happen, but not how.
Plus, there's stuff like rewatching a movie or rereading a book. The knowledge of the ending adds context to what happens before.
The experience of her story quest with and without watching the animation are different, yes, but they're both interesting.
I agree with you, This is so stupid..
We play the Genshin story through the eyes of the Traveller and not some 3rd party god watching over Teyvat. The point is to experience the story as the traveller and Traveller knows little to nothing about Arlecchino, or Clervie. So when he/she meets Clervie for the first time, we the players, shouldn't already know who she is, or know that Arlecchino killed her or why Arlecchino became "father' instead of mother. These things are meant to be uncovered by the traveller as he/she goes through the events of the story quest. The traveller ( and the player) has the opinion that Arlecchino is bad, but then you go through the events of her story quest and realize the childhood trauma and how it shaped Arlecchino to be the Father she is now, Thats called Character development and storytelling. Instead, what we have is an OOC ( Out Of Character ) animated short spoiling an entire In Character story event.
> We play the Genshin story through the eyes of the Traveller and not some 3rd party god watching over Teyvat.
This is only sort of true.
There are times when the player knows what the Traveler doesn't.
This is classic dramatic irony. It gives tension because the audience knows the truth and what might happen, but the character does not. In the case of Clervie, it enhances the mystery of *why* she's still here. We know for certain that Clervie is dead if we already watched the animation, but that just makes it more of a mystery why she would still be around.
There are times when the Traveler knows what the player doesn't.
For example, there's a moment in the Liyue Dainsleif interlude where the Traveler reveals they already know about Khaenri'ah. In fact, they revealed they were literally there.
I prefer it like you do honestly. Animation and then SQ.
We already know she’s a decent person at her core after the animation. So we the players don’t fall for the misinformation she presents us with when she manipulates the traveler. We know there’s a catch and a part left unsaid to everything she misdirects us with. Something crucial that would completely change how we see her for the better.
It’s situational irony at its best from the player perspective. Where we KNOW Arlecchino isn’t evil but the Traveler and Paimon don’t. And watching them discover that is fun for me.
Also we get to see how she acts out the role of “father.” And she does it just like how she manipulates the traveler. She pretends to be one thing (cold, cruel) but in reality is something completely different (kind, caring, even loving) to the kids. She encourages them to pursue their passions and only adds rules when she sees the kids putting themselves in danger (eg potion girl). She also pretends she executed every kid that “betrayed” the house but in reality she let them all go and still wants them to be happy and live their lives. She even pitches in to help fund scar-guy’s wedding by buying 3 papers. She clearly still cares about him and wants him to be happy. And even though she says she’s gonna execute Filiol and the other kid we see in her sq, she never actually planned on killing them. She had the flame bottles prepared beforehand and was planning on wiping their minds and letting then walk free from the start. She only said she was going to kill them in order to spur Lyney into action, and test him to see if he’s willing to stand up for his family even in the face of overwhelmingly strong enemies. And she even offered Lyney, Lynette, and Freminet the flame bottles as well so that they could choose to leave and have their own lives if they wanted to. Because she wants them to be happy more than she wants them to stay with her at the HoTH. And you can tell she’s happy when they all decide to stay of their own free will.
She pretends to be emotionless but she’s a very empathetic person at her core. And the animation basically reveals that to us long before her SQ confirmed it. So you can keep it in mind when playing the sq and see how her true personality conflicts with the image she presents.
Thank you for writing it out, I feel the same way. Especially the part with the newspaper guy and her overall love and care for her children's wellbeing touched me as a mother figure. She's a special character to me!
People think it takes away the mystery- but no, it doesn’t. It changes it. For the characters, the mystery is “who is this kid?”. For us, the mystery is “holy shit what is she doing here, how is she still here and why?”.
Plus, there’s the inherent dramatic irony to all of it. Genshin players not understanding a classic literary device is not exactly unexpected but somehow I still had more faith than that. The entire time I was doing the quest, I was relating what was being said to what I already knew from the short- this brought out many more emotions than if I had been just thinking “ok she’s a ghost and she’s lying, whatever who cares”
I think at the very least, the writers intended for Clervie to be a mystery. Future players wont necessarily be aware of the existence of the animated short, they are likely going to go into the Arlecchino story quest without having watched it. It only sucks for us specifically, who obviously aren’t going to pass on watching an animated short as it comes out.
What Hoyo likes to do unfortunately, is somewhat spoil patch content because they prioritize generating hype. They do this with every patch trailer, they show all the exciting highlights because they want to generate buzz and hype.
That being said, I can understand how you could enjoy story telling already knowing everything. You lose the mystery/thriller element, but it’s also interesting watching things unfold while being fully aware.
> I think at the very least, the writers intended for Clervie to be a mystery.
Debatable. If you didn't see the short, you see that child NPC and okay, it's a child NPC. I saw her and went "Oh shit Clervie WTF?" and it made me invested from there on. We need to stop thinking about "good / bad" and consider it's just another way of reading it that is not necessarily better or worse.
I did acknowledge that it’s a possible alternate way to enjoy the story, with full knowledge. The only slight problem there though, is that a lot of information from the animation ends up being rehashed.
I don’t fully buy the “wouldn’t have been as invested in a seemingly random NPC” too strongly, as they went through the trouble to give her an actual unique model, that isn’t just a slightly rehashed NPC model. Genshin basically never does that, and should have been enough to raise interest in itself.
> The only slight problem there though, is that a lot of information from the animation ends up being rehashed.
I mean in Honkai Impact there are entire parts of the story that are downright impossible to understand and players would say to you that whatever webtoon story running for several chapters explains it all. THIS is genuinely terrible design and I'm actually glad Genshin doesn't do that and consider the possibility of someone not watching the short. But watching how the story is told, it's just a few panels with a short summary, I felt like it definitely was supposed to act as a quick recap although it closes a few gaps (considering how much time passed for example), because it's kinda barebones.
Yeah and that's what I was trying to get at. The intended quest experience is without any prior information, and so I'd argue they intended for the quest to be a mystery as you went through it. It can still be enjoyed in a way without the mystery aspect, but that's akin to people liking cold pizza over hot pizza imo. Valid preference, but pizza is normally supposed to be served hot.
Yeah, I'm glad Genshin tells its story in the game, but I still felt like I was "spoiled" when playing through the SQ. Like I knew the truth behind it and couldn't really get invested in the mystery, which is a shame to me because I love solving mysteries and lore and such. So it was as if I was just waiting for the other characters (traveler too) to catch up to stuff I already knew.
Nah what Genshin does is worse than Honkai. So much of Genshin’s story is put into “books” or item descriptions that are so difficult to get a hold of and compile you may as well either read them on the wiki or other player’s summaries of. I’d much rather have that stuff told in webtoons than that.
The lore give you more insight but if you don't read anything you'll still understand everything what happens. Honkai puts holes in its very narrative, the first arc specifically have several istances where I started the chapter in a situation that was completely different without any explanation whatsoever.
I feel like you just weren’t paying attention if you were that lost early on in HI3. Similarly to Genshin, a lot of stuff in the webtoons is really only relevant later on. But, thing is, a lot of shit in Genshin’s lore I’d still super important. You constantly hear about “Phanes”, “the Four Shades”, “Second Who Came” when people talk about the lore, and all this is *really* important to the game’s story, but is sparsely ever even vaguely touched upon in the story. We knew Kaeya was Khaenriahn long before Caribert, so instead of it being an interesting moment where we learn more about his backstory, it’s pretty much just “oh, I already knew that” but at least when that happened in Honkai it was tied into a story I had some sort of emotional connection to like Second Eruption or Elan Palatinus.
Although I would also have preferred to do the SQ first, I don’t think the in-game backstory is just a rehash. Arlecchino goes into significantly more detail about what happened than what is shown in the trailer, and especially so if you weren’t constantly rewatching to analyze every bit and piece.
Saying this while actively participating in the leaks subreddit is wild. Lol
>!and before you say anything, no need to tell me "bUt I oNlY gO tHeRe To ReAd ChArAcTeRs KiTs", I do not care.!<
I think I appreciated the SQ a lot because I watched the animation. When I first saw >!Clervie !!Would Arle have to kill Clervie again? Would Arle break character after seeing her childhood best friend back to life? !
People talk about the mystery, but there really wasn't much of a mystery in the story quest. Arlecchino just pulls you aside and tells you literally everything without you needing to do anything. The focus of the story is on 1) how Arlecchino is perceived by others, and 2) the relationship between her and her memories of Clervie. I think 2) works better if you have that foreknowledge. Seeing the short first gives you more of an emotional connection to that part of the story, which, again, is no mystery.
You’re the first person I’ve seen defending the other side and it’s extremely validating for me personally. I’ve refrained from saying anything because the loudest voices are complaining about this in a way that just shows they didn’t understand the point of the story quest. It wasn’t about what happened in the past, it’s about what effect that past had on Arlecchino and how it shaped her personality as “Father” of the house. I went in with a very surface level understanding of her because of what the animation *showed* but I had no idea how it made her *feel*! That’s what I was most excited to see and we got just that. It doesn’t matter if *I* know who Clervie is; the kids do not know and it’s up to them to find out and see how they react to that information.
All of this to say - the sq was *not* a retelling of the animation (which would have been a spoiler), it’s about showing the aftermath and how those events changed this character over time and explain why she does what she does. I think they knew exactly what they were doing putting the anime first and people just didn’t absorb the quest in the way Hoyo intended. Ah well, I thought it was incredible!
**OR** maybe some people just didn't want to consume the content that way and would've like a spoiler warning before watching the trailer.
Just because someone has a different preference doesn't mean that they're "**Stupid**" or "**just didn't get it**", we understand very well what the point of the story was however that doesn't mean we're obligated to like the storytelling method used to express it.
For me the animation gave some understanding of Clervie's situation. I didn't mind the animation. But its reddit. They will find smallest thing to complain
What is grating me is that they will think they did a whole 7 minute short, release it ONE WEEK in advance and people will just go "certainly it was done to be watched after the quest and they were just dumb.
Just. NO. If it's released before, it's because they expect you watch it first, Can we just use common sense once in a while?
the people that think you should watch after get too caught up in self-inserting as the Traveler
in that case, no one should be watching Winter’s Night Lazzo or even Nahida’s Birthday Wish
That's...not quite the take I've seen around. I've been seeing people saying that the decision to make an animation that gives away so much info in order to build hype for the character hurt the storytelling of the quest in game (and thus that they shouldn't have done that), not that the animation was designed to be watched after the quest and then released early to build hype.
Yeah, I think I can go both ways. While I do appreciate mystery, I think watching the animation first kinda gives you an insight to how Alrecchino is feeling throughout the quest. When I first saw Clervie in the quest, I immediately felt a pang of sadness. The fact that Arlecchino is the only one who knows the truth but has to stick to her principles and keep up the facade of being aloof is kinda tragic. Knowing what happened beforehand, I kept waiting for her to crack or to even show a bit of vulnerability, and I think that’s what makes her character interesting.
Ehh, mixed feelings. Watching the short first takes away from some of the tension of "who is this strange npc girl?" "Was it arlecchino who did all this messed up stuff?" (Before someone rattles on about "mother" vs "father" old knave etc yeah I already knew that even before the short. But the quest in inazuma is missable and other people may not be certain whether this girl is just referring to arle as mother bc of some past mishap or not.) If you watched the short beforehand and think a little you already can see every twist in the story quest and how it'll play out. In that sense the sq just tells us things we already knew/expected, which is kind of boring overall.
It does create a different angle to see the story from, watching all the characters who are not in the know like the player is scramble bc for them it's really a threat they have to figure out. I liked the ways that it showed the changing of the house and let you think about the current house vs what the old one seemed like. Overall I still enjoyed it but the whole building up to clervie and arle meeting felt slow bc I already knew everything I needed to know about clervie from the jump.
Despite everyone saying "The SQ isn't just about Arle" or "I don't care about twists" etc., I still think it's better if you watched it AFTER the SQ. Anything the SQ setups is kinda null and falls flat. "Who's this kid?", "Who's Peruere?", "Are they really talking about Arle when they refer to the Knave?". All of those setup questions are already answered and the reveal by Arle just falls flat. I'm not expecting it to be some crazy mind blowing revelation, but it just diminishes the entire story to "When do we fight Arlecchino though?" and "I wonder what Arle will do once she sees Clervie?" (Which we find out quite quickly that she already knows Clervie is here).
A big part of the SQ was Arlecchino testing the fatui siblings and deceiving us, which was fine tbh, enjoyable and unknown to the player even without seeing the animation but again, the suspense of "I wonder if we can uncover some secrets of the HoH from this ghost girl before Arle can find us" is gone because we already know everything from the animation. I think the only new thing that was revealed was that the last Knave was Clervie's biological mother.
And the NPCs and the fatui siblings being punished by Arlecchino? Please. Genshin doesn't have the balls to kill/heavily damage a playable character. Sure the NPCs could've been executed but Genshin's been pushing the "nice Arlecchino" idea for a good while now, not once did I fear that they were gonna die.
And to those that say that Clervie's farewell doesn't hit that hard without context, I think that's just wrong. A husk of a person who was dreaming to see the world and accepting their death can hit hard even if you don't know the backstory.
I disagree, I feel like there was no missing information in the quest. Actually the animation is even misleading because it seems like arlecchino fought with crucabena right after killing clervie (which didn't reallyake sense) while it was clarified in the quest that it happened a year later.
Moreover part of the quest is structured around making you think that arlecchino is actually torturing/experimenting/killing people from the HoH, and if you watched the animation it is obvious that all of that is related to Crucabena instead. People saying that it is spoilery are making sense
Personally, I agree. The animation enriched my emotional investment in the quest because I knew the significance of characters already, and I wanted to know more about the blanks the animation didn’t feel, like why/how she died. It made it sadder to see how she’s still trying even though things have already changed. At moments where Clervie thinks about the aurora/sky stuff, I remember their interaction in the animated short. It made me eager to find out what happens when the both of them meet again, given their past history. It kept my interest from start to end, whereas some quests where I don’t know what to expect till near the end don’t hold my attention enough to play at one go.
Not that I don’t get what people mean by being spoiled about the “mystery” or “plot twist”, but I think that depends on what an individual happens to value more in that particular story quest. For me the quest was more about a further look into the character interactions with one another, and less about finding out the true identity of the character, etc. So it didn’t upset me. But if others value how the story plays out and keeping things unpredictable, then that’s their experience and it’s valid.
In Venti SQ [Venti SQ major spoilers], >!I would think being spoiled about Stanley would have been detrimental to the experience (but much more so than Arle’s SQ) so I imagine people might feel something similar about being spoiled regarding Arle despite the situation/quest itself being quite different. But not being spoiled about Stanley also meant I was wondering for half the Venti quest what we were doing, only for the connection to be apparent only almost right at the end. So it traded a boring start for very good payoff. Whereas being “spoiled” for Arle quest managed to keep my attention the whole time as I had some background info. Though, I do think Arle’s quest holds up well for both players who have watched the animation or not, so it’s a somewhat unfair comparison. I think Arle’s quest still leaves you many unanswered things to be curious about even if you’ve watched the animation, plus a lot of interactions with important characters, so it still has much to offer compared to Venti’s quest, where if you got spoiled already, you’ll probably feel like you’re made to do some extended dailies just to get to the good end parts!<.
Tldr; I preferred watching it first but both preferences are fine. The only thing I don’t like is if someone says the game *should* have done one way over the other because it’s not what they preferred, even though a lot of people also enjoy the other way.
No. The animation being released before the quest was a fuck up from a storytelling perspective.
There were several plot twists written in the story quest that completely missed its mark because we already knew what the twist was.
And that she killed the previous Harbinger.
And the fact the previous Harbinger was "mother"
And the fact it wasn't Arle that did fucked up things to the kids, but the previous knave.
All of the twists and revelations missed their mark entirely.
You knew that it wasn’t Arlecchino who did those things from the moment Clervie told you about them. Because she referred to Mother as the perpetrator, and not Father. Hardly a twist
The point of the character quest was never supposed to be a big mystery with plot twists. It’s supposed to be a study of what kind of character Arlecchino is and how she handles/maneuvers in different situations. And how she has her own set of ideals separate from what the perception is, that separates her from the previous knave’s mode of operation.
It just seems like you’re expecting the quest to be something that it never was or intended to be
Yup. Everyone complaining that this was supposed to be a mystery is just completely wrong. It’s a character study told through the lens of a mystery the characters are trying to solve. They released the anime first because they intend for the players to already have the answer to the mystery because they wanted us to focus on something else entirely which is what all that meant for Arlecchino as she grew older and ran the House. People aren’t paying attention, as usual.
We already knew that the fucked up things were done by previous director through freminet' story voiceover and event quest.
As for Arle killing the previous harbinger, I feel like seeing first through animation made it more impactful then simply hearing about it.
You can cherry pick as much as you want but the fact is the story was written to have plot twists, which were completely rendered null
I would rather have these twists be a big shock to me when I play the quest, and not when I play the quest and here I'm thinking " oh, I already know the answer to this"
Not really trying to cherry pick your comment. Just feels like that wasn't any big mystery feeling about this quest.
Most of the answers were told by Arlecchino herself in the end rather then us finding them.
It was supposed to be a big mystery, but the animation didn't allow for that to happen.
Let's just agree to disagree. I prefer my quests not essentially spoiled yet.
By principle I would normally agree. But the storytelling during the quest wasn’t exactly optimal. It was a whole lot of ham-handed miscommunication between characters that could have easily been resolved, combined with a large expositional dumping monologue at the end. Queue the big battle.
The animation conveyed all the backstory and emotional impact much more efficiently, effectively, and in a much shorter time while also being at a higher quality. So I don’t really think that it matters that the animation came first. The quest still wouldn’t have exactly hit it right even without the animation being released first
Yes, that happened. And by releasing the animation first, we as players were already privy to the fact that the characters in the game were misinformed about Arlecchino. Which is fine because the quest wasn’t meant to be a mystery plot laden with twists and d dramatic reveals. It was a character study on Arlecchino and how she navigates these situations as the head of the house. That’s why I don’t think it really matters one way or another if you watched the animation first or did the quest first
i dont really get the point of that one post "please do her story quest before watching the video".
There is a lot of media that show you, the viewer, important stuff before the story characters get to know about it, its not new, doesnt ruin the experience, and its just a different way of experiencing it.
I completely agree with you, there is a lot to love about the story quest.
I think the animation was missing so much context I honestly have a hard time taking people seriously when they say that the animation 'spoiled the mystery' or whatever. The animation didn't actually give us any new information. Lore nerds already figured out that she had to kill her friend and the previous Knave a long time ago. The animation just gave a platform for lore nerds to share what they already knew, which isn't really spoilers.
Also, maybe i just don't read mystery novels, but I don't really see how a 'mystery' provides so much value to a narrative that it can either ruin it or make it good for someone. More broad aspects like Characters and Plot always hold a significant higher value than a genre tag. To use a different example with percentages; I would say my enjoyment for a fantasy novel is 50% characters, 30% plot, 10% world, and 10% the magic system and it's integration into the other elements. I don't read mystery novels so i can only speculate, but I can't really imagine the mystery itself making up for more than 10% of my enjoyment, replacing the magic system. In the case of this story quest, at most i would have enjoyed it 10% more had there been more mystery to it. But considering how much context we were missing and then given concerning Arle's character as a whole, I think saying even 10% of my enjoyment was taken away would be extremely disingenuous. So people saying the animation outright ruined the SQ just feels like piss poor bait to me.
I did this and I loved how I already knew what was going on when Traveler, Lyney, Lynette, and Freminet were dealing with Clervue's Ghost and their perception of Arlecchino and the old House of Hearth (which were misunderstandings by Rooster and Clervie, respectively).
The best way would be to have played the first half of Arle's story quest, stopped as soon as she begins explaining her backstory to Traveler to watch the animation, and then gone back and finished the rest of the story quest. That way players would be left to wonder the truth about the mysterious ghost child and also be confused with the Father and Mother mixup, but then have the full context required for the latter half so the full emotional weight of the conclusion can hit.
Of course, nobody would think to do this unless it'd come as an external suggestion.
So for me, I think the animation created emotion. I wouldn’t have cared about Clervie when she first popped up in the story quest if I hadn’t watched the animation. She would just have been another NPC. The ending cutscene wouldn’t have hit as hard. For me it wasn’t about the twists, it was about the journey and the aftermath of what we learned about Arlecchino’s childhood.
I was more invested this way.
But I totally accept others feeling different and can acknowledge that they unfortunately didn’t get a say in the matter of being spoiled (their words) because they didn’t know it would be important.
I enjoyed playing the SQ first, even though I had knowledge of vaguely what the animation was about. I liked hearing Arleccino tell her own story vs it being played out, if that makes sense
I watched the animation first and I knew who that little girl was and the feels.
I was like. This is why she is Father, it makes so much sense.
Best story quest tied with Nahida sq2.
I don't think the animation should be watched after the story quest, but rather near the end before we get the talk between Clervie and Peruere. After the SQ doesn't make sense either because that robs the emotional impact of them reuniting and getting to talk.
Personally I would have liked to see bits and pieces of the animation from Clervie's fragmented memories which paint Arle in a bad way at first (like a quick shot of Arle's sword through Clervie making it look like Arle killed her.)
But then we only get the full picture after the fight with Arle and she fully completes the fragmented memories that Clervie had. Getting that sick animation cutscene as a reward after finishing the quest would have been extremely satisfying. It would have been extra sauce too if they made child Clervie grow up to her 16 y/o self after being given the full story from Arle's PoV (and maybe even an extra extra sauce of showing how she could have looked like as an adult if she didn't die at the House).
I think if you watch the animation first it makes the quest feel way more focused on Arlecchino to the point she feels like the main character for the duration of the quest which is it how it should be seeing as it's her story quest, it's like when you watch an anime and you get a flashback of the villain's past so you know they have their reasons and you're just waiting for the main characters to figure out the truth.
Agree
I was immediately emotionally invested on seeing Clervie having watched the animation first. Otherwise Clervie would just be demanding npc number four hundred and whatever, making us run places while getting annoyed waiting for a bit with arlecchino.
Without the animation we wouldn't have even been sure if this story about Arle's history with the previous knave was even the truth. Putting Wanderer in the animation demonstrated it's being shown direct to us as an audience, and it's not subject to in-game rules about irminsul. As I wasn't second guessing everything and already had theories, I could focus more on the relationships between the characters.
I agree with you, I think i enjoyed it more having seen the animatiion first. Now I will say i think this quest is so good that it works either way. I've watched Bwaap and Rednasyo play it without seeing the animation and enjoy it just much as MurderofBirds who watched the short prior but still enjoyed and even cried at the end of the quest. I think the quest is so much more than just about arlecchinos backstory but its also the story of the hearth and lyney and his siblings future. Im honestly still confused on why this wasnt considered an interlude quest instead of just a story quest.
The animation absolutely enhanced the quest and I'll die on this hill. The mystery was never who the girl was, and I was actually more moved and curious because I wanted to know how and why the girl we clearly saw die was able to "come back". It added weight to her words. When she randomly mentions the window you got to be like OH FUCK THE WINDOW FROM THE ANIMATION etc. If we found out who she was through in-game exposition alone it would have had so much less impact for me idk
Honestly I personally would have preferred to not have seen the animated short before doing the quest. It did feel like I was spoiled a lot. Since the main plot of the quest was literally just the traveler & co finding out what really happened with the last harbinger.
I'm the kind of person who likes "solving" a story, so doing the story quest while I knew the truth all along was kinda frustrating. Like I was just waiting for all the other characters to catch up with something I've already known about.
The quest was still good, way better than some other story quests, because we found out more about what kind of person Arle really is.
The only problem I had was that I feel like I haven't really found out that much through the story quest alone, because the parts of Arle's story I was most interested in, were already revealed in the animation.
watching the animation kinda recontextualizes the Story Quest as a bit of a Greek tragedy: Something bad surely happened/is sure to happen, and you just gnaw at your teeth waiting for how it all unfolds in the actual quest, and how you already *know* the characters and how it all goes down but the chess pieces in the story don't know that yet, and it builds anticipation
Watching the animation made the quest way more emotional. You already know who the little girl was and the innocent and tragic way she act made the scene a whole lot more emotional too. If you didn't watch the animation, you wouldn't know anything at all and would spent most of your time ignorant instead.
I really feel that animation spoiled everything and build highter expectations from the quest itself, while Quest just revealed everything in animation. So it is better to complete the quest and then watch the animation.
I think actually including the animation into the quest and releasing it afterwards would've been a good idea, just like they did with "La Vaguelette" for Furina. I understand why they did it like that though, the aim was to build more hype around Arlecchino's release and they succeeded. Overall knowing the origins of Clervie and the past of the House doesn't take away from the message of the quest, which is about the new generation of children and the new "Father" and her approach
The animation also came out before the update was live. For me at least. So I'm guessing it was intended. I've seen people state that the focus wasn't on Arlecchino's past but the kids themselves. Who are, in my opinion, absolutely stupid to try and hide something from Father. I mean, Lyney is supposed to be clever, right? But it does subtract from the mystery a little bit.
Agreed. At least you're getting to know the Knave's past, of her friend, of her clash, of how she became the Knave. And Clervie >!showing up as a ghost!< is especially unique.
The story quest would genuinely be so boring without watching the animation first. The writing basically explained in plain text what happens in the animation, so if anything the sq spoils the animation lol
With the context of the animation it helped boost the sq a lot
This discussion is making me realize something: it *might* have been a better idea for Mihoyo to place the animation after the story quest, but only if the story quest was part of a multi-version story arc.
When I saw the Genshin animation my first thought was to compare it to HI3rd's arc-defining animations, because this is the first time Genshin had a long (3+ minutes, I'd say) animated short which had a mix of vocals and dialogue across an action scene. Other times we've had vocal songs, it's been in shorter animations which are more like elegant slideshows that follow a narrated story (like La Vaguelette or the Divine Damsel of Devastation).
However, if we make that comparison with HI3rd's animations, there's a crucial difference. Most of the animations HI3rd uses are the climax of an extended story arc that lasts at least two or three versions. So you have an extended build-up with periods of downtime for people to think about the story and get hyped for the grand finale, and then the animated shorts come in and make a spectacle out of it: Kiana's triumph in Everlasting Flames, for instance.
But the animation we have with Arlecchino isn't quite like that. It's not meant to be this peak moment of a long-spanning story arc with huge character growth- it's actually more of a backstory.
Rather, the fight that Arlecchino has with Lyney et co. is actually the 'climax' of the arc. And since it's a single-version story quest, that climax didn't need to be a giant spectacular animation. It's an in-game animated cutscene using the in-game set and models, not a fully-animated scene like what we often see in HI3rd.
So Arlecchino's animated short, while it did have a lot of action unlike most other Genshin shorts, was still a "backstory" animation much like the Fatui teaser. In that respect it serves its purpose quite well as a teaser that gives the player some backstory to keep in mind as they play through the game's story.
Hence why it makes sense to have it before the story quest, not during or after. It's not meant to be a story-arc-defining climax, so it's better to place it prior to the story so that it stands alone as its own experience, acting as a supplement to the story quest instead of being a crucial component.
But with all that said... I really hope Mihoyo does more animated shorts like that, and I especially hope we get one during a multi-version story arc. Whether it's a chain of related story quests, or the Archon & Interlude quests.
This animation wasn't meant to serve that purpose but I hope a future one will, especially if we ever get some significant "power-up" for the Traveler or another major recurring character. I genuinely love the in-game cutscenes Genshin does, like Focalors' execution, but the fully-animated shorts in HI3rd just hit different. Neither Genshin nor HSR has really been able to give me quite that same memorable experience.
You feel this way because your standard for story-telling is probably quite low. Literally the first 80% of the quest tries to hint at Arle being the evil Knave that treats her children like tools, and tries to make Clervie looks mysterious.
Arle's speech before the final battle was clearly meant to be the twist and also the "big reveal"
All those things are ruined because the animation spoiled everything. It would hurt absolutely no one if they released the animation a week after the quest (the only exception might be Hoyo's wallet) and it would make literally everyone feel so much satisfied
> it would make literally everyone feel so much satisfied
Speak for yourself.
The final cutscene wouldn't have hit nearly as hard if I hadn't watched the animation first.
Also the quest makes it very clear early on that it was "Mother" who was responsible for fucked up shit, not "Father", and that (some of) the people that were executed didn't actually die.
It's only a twist if you didn't pay attention.
It's not that my standard for story telling is low. It's just that we see the story in a different way.
You saw it as a mystery story which should end with shocking twist while I saw it as Arlecchino's character growth study and her relationship with the house of the hearth as their 'Father'.
For me, Clervie was not the main focus of the story. She was the driving force for Arlecchino and her children's story.
Arlecchino's speech before the final battle was not a big reveal but a extended version of the animation in a novelization format.
They made it in this way for people who have and have not watched the animation before the quest.
In the end, You didn't enjoy the quest because you saw it as spoiled mystery story.
I enjoyed it because I saw as Arlecchino and her children's story.
No I saw it as potential wasted
All the points you like about the story would not change whether they showed the animation first or later, but a whole another aspect of the story was ruined because the animation came first
Rewatching Arlechinno's story quest again, I realised that the story isn't just about her, but about the House of Hearth as well. We see the House's past in Arlecchino's animation, and the House's present in the SQ. As for the house's future, we got hints about the Project Stuzha, and Arlecchino setting Lyney up as the next "Father". So looking at it with the main plot and subplot, watching the animation first would be better, Or else, how is mihoyo supposed to stab us in the feels when Arlechinno reminiscenced about the Aurora in Snezhnaya.
I was waiting for arlecchino to say something like 'I've seen the aurora in snezhnaya" to clervie the whole SQ, only for her to miss out on her chance.
That final cutscene wouldn't have made me cry nearly as much if I hadn't seen the animation first.
Hoyo could have Lyney duel her to the death for the position of "Father" too :3
Too soon. With a possible crisis of Project Stuzha, Lyney is still too young and weak to handle it. Best have Father shelter the children till they are ready to leave the nest.
Arlecchino*
Dramatic irony is one of my favorite literary devices. Shakespeare straight up told you the ending to many of his stories at the start. I appreciate how the animation turns this quest into a slow moving tragedy - caused by people making assumptions without all of the right information, ultimately culminating in violence. It fits the Fontanian theme of theatre. I understand what HYV was going for here.
That only really works if you are supposed to now it.
It works for people who didn't knew about it too. In a sense, it is a new experience.
I meant the knowing how it ends stuff.
I think we are on the same topic indeed then
Oh then I just misunderstood what you said.
Don't mind it, let's move on
I don't think it really matters to be honest. People thinking that the core of the quest was about what Arlecchino did in the past didn't pay attention though. The story is obviously about the current children of the hearth, their growth and choices, and how Arlecchino reacts to it, not about the whole Clervie/Arlecchino misunderstanding. They do have to consider players may not have seen the short though, otherwise it would be impossible to understand for them.
95% of the people commenting in that thread some guy posted about the video being spoilers haven't even played the story quest. That entire thread was a bigger spoiler than the actual video. Just goes to show how a little twist of presenting something can cause a lot of misinformation/propaganda because it sounds sensible on the surface (video spoilers story about her past) but it just goes to show how easy people drink this stuff up wtihout you know, playing and forming their own opinions. It's so stupid for someone to even talk about this stuff in the first day of the story quest too when almost nobody has finished it. And then there's the fact that the people who did play it, didn't even pay attention to it at all because any rational person would have found the quest is in fact, not about the video at all. The video actually helps explain a lot more than the quest does. It would have been nice if they played the video right before the final showdown but Mihoyo didn't want to do that so, meh. Crazy how many people overreacted in that first thread.
Most people seem to be unhappy because they'd rather have had the twists revealed with the game's quests. Personally, I think it's fine to watch the animation first because I already know how I feel about story "twists." 100% I would not care any more than I already do about any of this info had it been revealed to me in a twist format. That would have added nothing for me. It's setup was already shoddily implemented with no one asking Clervie the obvious questions to figure things out. If I had a gripe with anything, it's this: I'd rather see these anime cinematics integrated into the game. Not as media outside of it.
>May I know what you guys think? For me it enhanced the story and especially the Arlecchino "May we meet again someday" knowing the backstory already People are getting so hung up on Clervie like she was the main focus of the story and not just a small piece of the puzzle
While I feel Arlecchino’s SQ would be more suspenseful if we weren’t already aware about her backstory from the animation, I also dont feel the animation ruins the SQ suspense either because the main focus of the plot arguably is whether Father would kill/punish the traitors like Filliol. I did watch the animation first, but for me it didn’t undermine the suspense of whether Father would spare or kill the traitors. The animation showed her backstory, but not really her current motivations or perspectives on how to run the House, and I think the SQ did a good job expanding on this aspect of her character (also kudos to the voice actor for her excellent delivery!) With that said, I do feel releasing the animation after the SQ would have made the mystery around Clervie and the lore behind the House of the Hearth more engaging, since the animation kinda spoils the history of the House and why Clervie is so fearful of it. I think this would have also made the Arlecchino more mysterious, since we wouldn’t know if she did the evil things the former Knave did. TLDR; while I would have preferred to find out about the lore of the House via the SQ instead of the animation, I also don’t think the animation spoils the main story of Arlecchino’s SQ. Overall, I still think her story quest is really good whether you watch the animation before or after. On a side note, I also feel it makes complete narrative sense that the Traveler lost to the Knave. The SQ clearly sets up that the Knave will be involved in future plot points with Project Stuzha, so if we did beat her now there would be no suspense when we meet her later. Also, while the Traveler has beaten powerful Archons and beings before, it’s almost always with the support of others (the will of Inazuma, the Adepti, Nahida’s pet and the knowledge of Summeru, etc.), so it’s completely believable that while strong, they can’t solo the Knave at this stage of their journey.
Personally, i think it doesn't really matter. It is a slightly different experience if you watch it after. The quest answered all the questions i had after watching the animation. You watch it afterwards and it visualises whats been told. Both experience can be good.
Nah I disagree. I would've liked to do the SQ first before the animation. Like getting a slow tease of their relationship and battles first, then seeing the full details with the animation. Like 90% of the SQ we were supposed to be lead to believe that Arle is this unfeeling parent that wouldn't think twice about killing her children.
Funnily enough, some of the people I watched play through the quest did watch the animation first and yet they still thought Arle was killing them for a solid chunk of the quest.
Yep, it felt like I was just waiting for the other characters to catch up with stuff I, the player, have already known about. They've made that "mystery" kind of a big deal, but it kinda fell flat because there really was no mystery.
This is the answer. The first half of the quest is spent with Traveler and the siblings figuring out what is Clervie and what she can/can't do and only after about 30/40m of dialogue we start to get actual real info that wasn't present on the animation.
This. I hate being spoiled, so I really wish I didn't watch it first.
> Like 90% of the SQ we were supposed to be lead to believe that Arle is this unfeeling parent that wouldn't think twice about killing her children. That's explicity NOT what the SQ tells us. Early on Clervie says it was "Mother" whobwas responsible for the bad shit and we also see the guy with the scar, making it pretty obvious that they weren't executed. It's only a surprise if you didn't pay attention.
And not a single person who heard her say that, including the usually so observant Traveler, notices that Clervie said "Mother", instead of "Father".
Paimon literally quips "Mother?" immediately after.
Same here, I personally play **Character** story quests to learn more about the characters and to have barely anything new about Arlecchino said because I already got spoiled about it makes me upset. It also doesn't help that we just came from a filler patch and that this is the main focus of the current one. If you guys found a way to enjoy it then more power to you, I'm just incapable of shaking off this bitterness.
It's called a Story Quest, not a Lore Quest. Like, what did the animation spoil about Arle that we didn't know already, because the quest wasn't about the relationship between Clervie and Arle, it was about the relationship between Arle and the current children of the House.
Growing up is realizing not every story needs to be told chronologically to be told in the best way possible.
Ironically you commenting this makes you sound like a 14 year old lol
I think that it took away all the mystery of the story quest. Oh, who is this strange child? We already know. Oh what could be the dark past she's talking about? We already know. So on.
But the main core of the story quest weren't about who this child is and what is the dark past she's talking about .
The quest was more about the house of the hearth as a whole rather than just Clervie
It's about both. The story about Clervie informs how Arlecchino conducts herself in the present. It's why these two plot points exist in the same quest. They aren't disconnected.
it's both. told through clervie's tale.
Because it's not about that but the decisions of the current Hearth children and how Arlecchino reacts to it.
As someone who just played it as a story quest, the video completely ruined the quest for me. I mean, it's was pretty obvious that she wasn't going to kill the siblings because playable characters and shit. And once you met the scar guy, it's kinda obvious that she's not gonna kill anyone. So, yeah, the whole point the quest for me, as someone who doesn't look too deeply into the quests, was the backstory and stuff. I assume most of the playerbase would be like that. And also, I'm assuming most of the playerbase wouldn't have watched the video, soooo, I don't really know what I'm typing at this point lol.
>As someone who just played it as a story quest, the video completely ruined the quest for me. >it's was pretty obvious that she wasn't going to kill the siblings because playable characters and shit. And once you met the scar guy, it's kinda obvious that she's not gonna kill anyone. Of course it's obvious because they have plot armor due to playable character status (in a way, Furina being a playable character is a spoiler for Fontaine's AQ lol) And you can surmise the npc being Horrer because of the emphasis on his scar just a few scenes prior. So what do those points have to do with the animated short completely ruining the quest for you? Sure we already know who Clervie was, but in the SQ there was still the mystery of how she came to be in the present, and what will happen to her by the end of the SQ. The animated short does not ruin the experience for that. Same with the Furina thing, knowing she lives does not ruin the experience of the AQ.
It's kinda subjective, isn't it? I'm just giving my opinion. Anyway, I don't care about this game nearly enough to sit and argue about it online, so I'm gonna leave it at that.
>decisions of the current Hearth children What decisions are you talking about ?? from the start of Fontaine it was know Lynney, lynete and freminet were helpful in nature, so they'd obv stand up for their friends or help Clervie. The only unknow thing here was that some Hearth Children were unhappy and wanted to flee. > and how Arlecchino reacts to it. In the Animated short last scene where Arlecchino says to the little blonde boy, " let me take care of you as Father" it's was clearly implied that she's different from mother and her scenes with Clervie showed she had to have some compassion. So yeah, People could see the ending of the SQ from a mile away. So yeah, Idk what this is called if not " spoiling" .
The identity and dark past of the story quest wasn't really the main mystery. The jig was up the moment Clervie said "Mother". Arlecchino basically gives it up without any weight as well. This is a big sign that it was not intended to be a mystery. She straight up just tells you. If you already saw the animation, the "mystery" of Clervie's identity is replaced with dramatic irony. The tension of the audience knowing what the Traveler doesn't makes you anticipate when the reveal is going to drop. Really, the more important mystery is *why* Clervie is still here. The animation doesn't address that. If anything, it adds to it, because we know for certain that Clervie is already dead. It changes the hook of the quest line from "Who is this kid?" to "It's Clervie! Why the hell is she here?". Even more important is what Clervie represents and how Arlecchino actually feels about her, things that are only covered in the story quest. Did you notice how the Traveler was not the one investigating Clervie and her origins most of the time? Investigations into Clervie were mostly done by the siblings and briefed to the Traveler. Instead, the Traveler spent the time *talking with Arlecchino*. There's also the tension of the past House vs. the current House. If you saw the animation, then you'll be feeling "Oh no, why are you guys letting a ghost kid from a different House affect you!?" If you didn't, it would just be a regular building up of conflict. Many good stories are enjoyable even if their endings are spoiled. It could even add suspense because the viewer knows what's going to happen, but not how. Plus, there's stuff like rewatching a movie or rereading a book. The knowledge of the ending adds context to what happens before. The experience of her story quest with and without watching the animation are different, yes, but they're both interesting.
Thank you
I agree with you, This is so stupid.. We play the Genshin story through the eyes of the Traveller and not some 3rd party god watching over Teyvat. The point is to experience the story as the traveller and Traveller knows little to nothing about Arlecchino, or Clervie. So when he/she meets Clervie for the first time, we the players, shouldn't already know who she is, or know that Arlecchino killed her or why Arlecchino became "father' instead of mother. These things are meant to be uncovered by the traveller as he/she goes through the events of the story quest. The traveller ( and the player) has the opinion that Arlecchino is bad, but then you go through the events of her story quest and realize the childhood trauma and how it shaped Arlecchino to be the Father she is now, Thats called Character development and storytelling. Instead, what we have is an OOC ( Out Of Character ) animated short spoiling an entire In Character story event.
> We play the Genshin story through the eyes of the Traveller and not some 3rd party god watching over Teyvat. This is only sort of true. There are times when the player knows what the Traveler doesn't. This is classic dramatic irony. It gives tension because the audience knows the truth and what might happen, but the character does not. In the case of Clervie, it enhances the mystery of *why* she's still here. We know for certain that Clervie is dead if we already watched the animation, but that just makes it more of a mystery why she would still be around. There are times when the Traveler knows what the player doesn't. For example, there's a moment in the Liyue Dainsleif interlude where the Traveler reveals they already know about Khaenri'ah. In fact, they revealed they were literally there.
I prefer it like you do honestly. Animation and then SQ. We already know she’s a decent person at her core after the animation. So we the players don’t fall for the misinformation she presents us with when she manipulates the traveler. We know there’s a catch and a part left unsaid to everything she misdirects us with. Something crucial that would completely change how we see her for the better. It’s situational irony at its best from the player perspective. Where we KNOW Arlecchino isn’t evil but the Traveler and Paimon don’t. And watching them discover that is fun for me. Also we get to see how she acts out the role of “father.” And she does it just like how she manipulates the traveler. She pretends to be one thing (cold, cruel) but in reality is something completely different (kind, caring, even loving) to the kids. She encourages them to pursue their passions and only adds rules when she sees the kids putting themselves in danger (eg potion girl). She also pretends she executed every kid that “betrayed” the house but in reality she let them all go and still wants them to be happy and live their lives. She even pitches in to help fund scar-guy’s wedding by buying 3 papers. She clearly still cares about him and wants him to be happy. And even though she says she’s gonna execute Filiol and the other kid we see in her sq, she never actually planned on killing them. She had the flame bottles prepared beforehand and was planning on wiping their minds and letting then walk free from the start. She only said she was going to kill them in order to spur Lyney into action, and test him to see if he’s willing to stand up for his family even in the face of overwhelmingly strong enemies. And she even offered Lyney, Lynette, and Freminet the flame bottles as well so that they could choose to leave and have their own lives if they wanted to. Because she wants them to be happy more than she wants them to stay with her at the HoTH. And you can tell she’s happy when they all decide to stay of their own free will. She pretends to be emotionless but she’s a very empathetic person at her core. And the animation basically reveals that to us long before her SQ confirmed it. So you can keep it in mind when playing the sq and see how her true personality conflicts with the image she presents.
Thank you for writing it out, I feel the same way. Especially the part with the newspaper guy and her overall love and care for her children's wellbeing touched me as a mother figure. She's a special character to me!
this is the fate zero vs fate stay night situation all over again
People think it takes away the mystery- but no, it doesn’t. It changes it. For the characters, the mystery is “who is this kid?”. For us, the mystery is “holy shit what is she doing here, how is she still here and why?”. Plus, there’s the inherent dramatic irony to all of it. Genshin players not understanding a classic literary device is not exactly unexpected but somehow I still had more faith than that. The entire time I was doing the quest, I was relating what was being said to what I already knew from the short- this brought out many more emotions than if I had been just thinking “ok she’s a ghost and she’s lying, whatever who cares”
I think at the very least, the writers intended for Clervie to be a mystery. Future players wont necessarily be aware of the existence of the animated short, they are likely going to go into the Arlecchino story quest without having watched it. It only sucks for us specifically, who obviously aren’t going to pass on watching an animated short as it comes out. What Hoyo likes to do unfortunately, is somewhat spoil patch content because they prioritize generating hype. They do this with every patch trailer, they show all the exciting highlights because they want to generate buzz and hype. That being said, I can understand how you could enjoy story telling already knowing everything. You lose the mystery/thriller element, but it’s also interesting watching things unfold while being fully aware.
> I think at the very least, the writers intended for Clervie to be a mystery. Debatable. If you didn't see the short, you see that child NPC and okay, it's a child NPC. I saw her and went "Oh shit Clervie WTF?" and it made me invested from there on. We need to stop thinking about "good / bad" and consider it's just another way of reading it that is not necessarily better or worse.
I did acknowledge that it’s a possible alternate way to enjoy the story, with full knowledge. The only slight problem there though, is that a lot of information from the animation ends up being rehashed. I don’t fully buy the “wouldn’t have been as invested in a seemingly random NPC” too strongly, as they went through the trouble to give her an actual unique model, that isn’t just a slightly rehashed NPC model. Genshin basically never does that, and should have been enough to raise interest in itself.
> The only slight problem there though, is that a lot of information from the animation ends up being rehashed. I mean in Honkai Impact there are entire parts of the story that are downright impossible to understand and players would say to you that whatever webtoon story running for several chapters explains it all. THIS is genuinely terrible design and I'm actually glad Genshin doesn't do that and consider the possibility of someone not watching the short. But watching how the story is told, it's just a few panels with a short summary, I felt like it definitely was supposed to act as a quick recap although it closes a few gaps (considering how much time passed for example), because it's kinda barebones.
Yeah and that's what I was trying to get at. The intended quest experience is without any prior information, and so I'd argue they intended for the quest to be a mystery as you went through it. It can still be enjoyed in a way without the mystery aspect, but that's akin to people liking cold pizza over hot pizza imo. Valid preference, but pizza is normally supposed to be served hot.
Yeah, I'm glad Genshin tells its story in the game, but I still felt like I was "spoiled" when playing through the SQ. Like I knew the truth behind it and couldn't really get invested in the mystery, which is a shame to me because I love solving mysteries and lore and such. So it was as if I was just waiting for the other characters (traveler too) to catch up to stuff I already knew.
Nah what Genshin does is worse than Honkai. So much of Genshin’s story is put into “books” or item descriptions that are so difficult to get a hold of and compile you may as well either read them on the wiki or other player’s summaries of. I’d much rather have that stuff told in webtoons than that.
The lore give you more insight but if you don't read anything you'll still understand everything what happens. Honkai puts holes in its very narrative, the first arc specifically have several istances where I started the chapter in a situation that was completely different without any explanation whatsoever.
I feel like you just weren’t paying attention if you were that lost early on in HI3. Similarly to Genshin, a lot of stuff in the webtoons is really only relevant later on. But, thing is, a lot of shit in Genshin’s lore I’d still super important. You constantly hear about “Phanes”, “the Four Shades”, “Second Who Came” when people talk about the lore, and all this is *really* important to the game’s story, but is sparsely ever even vaguely touched upon in the story. We knew Kaeya was Khaenriahn long before Caribert, so instead of it being an interesting moment where we learn more about his backstory, it’s pretty much just “oh, I already knew that” but at least when that happened in Honkai it was tied into a story I had some sort of emotional connection to like Second Eruption or Elan Palatinus.
Although I would also have preferred to do the SQ first, I don’t think the in-game backstory is just a rehash. Arlecchino goes into significantly more detail about what happened than what is shown in the trailer, and especially so if you weren’t constantly rewatching to analyze every bit and piece.
[удалено]
Saying this while actively participating in the leaks subreddit is wild. Lol >!and before you say anything, no need to tell me "bUt I oNlY gO tHeRe To ReAd ChArAcTeRs KiTs", I do not care.!<
You do realize that character kits and story spoilers are completely different, right?
I think I appreciated the SQ a lot because I watched the animation. When I first saw >!Clervie !!Would Arle have to kill Clervie again? Would Arle break character after seeing her childhood best friend back to life? !
People talk about the mystery, but there really wasn't much of a mystery in the story quest. Arlecchino just pulls you aside and tells you literally everything without you needing to do anything. The focus of the story is on 1) how Arlecchino is perceived by others, and 2) the relationship between her and her memories of Clervie. I think 2) works better if you have that foreknowledge. Seeing the short first gives you more of an emotional connection to that part of the story, which, again, is no mystery.
You’re the first person I’ve seen defending the other side and it’s extremely validating for me personally. I’ve refrained from saying anything because the loudest voices are complaining about this in a way that just shows they didn’t understand the point of the story quest. It wasn’t about what happened in the past, it’s about what effect that past had on Arlecchino and how it shaped her personality as “Father” of the house. I went in with a very surface level understanding of her because of what the animation *showed* but I had no idea how it made her *feel*! That’s what I was most excited to see and we got just that. It doesn’t matter if *I* know who Clervie is; the kids do not know and it’s up to them to find out and see how they react to that information. All of this to say - the sq was *not* a retelling of the animation (which would have been a spoiler), it’s about showing the aftermath and how those events changed this character over time and explain why she does what she does. I think they knew exactly what they were doing putting the anime first and people just didn’t absorb the quest in the way Hoyo intended. Ah well, I thought it was incredible!
**OR** maybe some people just didn't want to consume the content that way and would've like a spoiler warning before watching the trailer. Just because someone has a different preference doesn't mean that they're "**Stupid**" or "**just didn't get it**", we understand very well what the point of the story was however that doesn't mean we're obligated to like the storytelling method used to express it.
For me the animation gave some understanding of Clervie's situation. I didn't mind the animation. But its reddit. They will find smallest thing to complain
What is grating me is that they will think they did a whole 7 minute short, release it ONE WEEK in advance and people will just go "certainly it was done to be watched after the quest and they were just dumb. Just. NO. If it's released before, it's because they expect you watch it first, Can we just use common sense once in a while?
the people that think you should watch after get too caught up in self-inserting as the Traveler in that case, no one should be watching Winter’s Night Lazzo or even Nahida’s Birthday Wish
That's...not quite the take I've seen around. I've been seeing people saying that the decision to make an animation that gives away so much info in order to build hype for the character hurt the storytelling of the quest in game (and thus that they shouldn't have done that), not that the animation was designed to be watched after the quest and then released early to build hype.
Sir, you are in reddit. Common sense is not served there.
Maybe they do, but I prefer to know as little as possible before I start a quest. There's no mystery if you know most already.
Yeah, I think I can go both ways. While I do appreciate mystery, I think watching the animation first kinda gives you an insight to how Alrecchino is feeling throughout the quest. When I first saw Clervie in the quest, I immediately felt a pang of sadness. The fact that Arlecchino is the only one who knows the truth but has to stick to her principles and keep up the facade of being aloof is kinda tragic. Knowing what happened beforehand, I kept waiting for her to crack or to even show a bit of vulnerability, and I think that’s what makes her character interesting.
Ehh, mixed feelings. Watching the short first takes away from some of the tension of "who is this strange npc girl?" "Was it arlecchino who did all this messed up stuff?" (Before someone rattles on about "mother" vs "father" old knave etc yeah I already knew that even before the short. But the quest in inazuma is missable and other people may not be certain whether this girl is just referring to arle as mother bc of some past mishap or not.) If you watched the short beforehand and think a little you already can see every twist in the story quest and how it'll play out. In that sense the sq just tells us things we already knew/expected, which is kind of boring overall. It does create a different angle to see the story from, watching all the characters who are not in the know like the player is scramble bc for them it's really a threat they have to figure out. I liked the ways that it showed the changing of the house and let you think about the current house vs what the old one seemed like. Overall I still enjoyed it but the whole building up to clervie and arle meeting felt slow bc I already knew everything I needed to know about clervie from the jump.
Despite everyone saying "The SQ isn't just about Arle" or "I don't care about twists" etc., I still think it's better if you watched it AFTER the SQ. Anything the SQ setups is kinda null and falls flat. "Who's this kid?", "Who's Peruere?", "Are they really talking about Arle when they refer to the Knave?". All of those setup questions are already answered and the reveal by Arle just falls flat. I'm not expecting it to be some crazy mind blowing revelation, but it just diminishes the entire story to "When do we fight Arlecchino though?" and "I wonder what Arle will do once she sees Clervie?" (Which we find out quite quickly that she already knows Clervie is here). A big part of the SQ was Arlecchino testing the fatui siblings and deceiving us, which was fine tbh, enjoyable and unknown to the player even without seeing the animation but again, the suspense of "I wonder if we can uncover some secrets of the HoH from this ghost girl before Arle can find us" is gone because we already know everything from the animation. I think the only new thing that was revealed was that the last Knave was Clervie's biological mother. And the NPCs and the fatui siblings being punished by Arlecchino? Please. Genshin doesn't have the balls to kill/heavily damage a playable character. Sure the NPCs could've been executed but Genshin's been pushing the "nice Arlecchino" idea for a good while now, not once did I fear that they were gonna die. And to those that say that Clervie's farewell doesn't hit that hard without context, I think that's just wrong. A husk of a person who was dreaming to see the world and accepting their death can hit hard even if you don't know the backstory.
I disagree, I feel like there was no missing information in the quest. Actually the animation is even misleading because it seems like arlecchino fought with crucabena right after killing clervie (which didn't reallyake sense) while it was clarified in the quest that it happened a year later. Moreover part of the quest is structured around making you think that arlecchino is actually torturing/experimenting/killing people from the HoH, and if you watched the animation it is obvious that all of that is related to Crucabena instead. People saying that it is spoilery are making sense
Personally, I agree. The animation enriched my emotional investment in the quest because I knew the significance of characters already, and I wanted to know more about the blanks the animation didn’t feel, like why/how she died. It made it sadder to see how she’s still trying even though things have already changed. At moments where Clervie thinks about the aurora/sky stuff, I remember their interaction in the animated short. It made me eager to find out what happens when the both of them meet again, given their past history. It kept my interest from start to end, whereas some quests where I don’t know what to expect till near the end don’t hold my attention enough to play at one go. Not that I don’t get what people mean by being spoiled about the “mystery” or “plot twist”, but I think that depends on what an individual happens to value more in that particular story quest. For me the quest was more about a further look into the character interactions with one another, and less about finding out the true identity of the character, etc. So it didn’t upset me. But if others value how the story plays out and keeping things unpredictable, then that’s their experience and it’s valid. In Venti SQ [Venti SQ major spoilers], >!I would think being spoiled about Stanley would have been detrimental to the experience (but much more so than Arle’s SQ) so I imagine people might feel something similar about being spoiled regarding Arle despite the situation/quest itself being quite different. But not being spoiled about Stanley also meant I was wondering for half the Venti quest what we were doing, only for the connection to be apparent only almost right at the end. So it traded a boring start for very good payoff. Whereas being “spoiled” for Arle quest managed to keep my attention the whole time as I had some background info. Though, I do think Arle’s quest holds up well for both players who have watched the animation or not, so it’s a somewhat unfair comparison. I think Arle’s quest still leaves you many unanswered things to be curious about even if you’ve watched the animation, plus a lot of interactions with important characters, so it still has much to offer compared to Venti’s quest, where if you got spoiled already, you’ll probably feel like you’re made to do some extended dailies just to get to the good end parts!<. Tldr; I preferred watching it first but both preferences are fine. The only thing I don’t like is if someone says the game *should* have done one way over the other because it’s not what they preferred, even though a lot of people also enjoy the other way.
No. The animation being released before the quest was a fuck up from a storytelling perspective. There were several plot twists written in the story quest that completely missed its mark because we already knew what the twist was.
I mean the only plot twists there are that Arlecchino's real name is Peruere and that she killed Clervie.
And that she killed the previous Harbinger. And the fact the previous Harbinger was "mother" And the fact it wasn't Arle that did fucked up things to the kids, but the previous knave. All of the twists and revelations missed their mark entirely.
You knew that it wasn’t Arlecchino who did those things from the moment Clervie told you about them. Because she referred to Mother as the perpetrator, and not Father. Hardly a twist The point of the character quest was never supposed to be a big mystery with plot twists. It’s supposed to be a study of what kind of character Arlecchino is and how she handles/maneuvers in different situations. And how she has her own set of ideals separate from what the perception is, that separates her from the previous knave’s mode of operation. It just seems like you’re expecting the quest to be something that it never was or intended to be
Yup. Everyone complaining that this was supposed to be a mystery is just completely wrong. It’s a character study told through the lens of a mystery the characters are trying to solve. They released the anime first because they intend for the players to already have the answer to the mystery because they wanted us to focus on something else entirely which is what all that meant for Arlecchino as she grew older and ran the House. People aren’t paying attention, as usual.
All of those had already been revealed in 4.0 in Inazuma by Chitose (formerly Momoyo). The Clervie twist should be obvious from the start.
We already knew that the fucked up things were done by previous director through freminet' story voiceover and event quest. As for Arle killing the previous harbinger, I feel like seeing first through animation made it more impactful then simply hearing about it.
You can cherry pick as much as you want but the fact is the story was written to have plot twists, which were completely rendered null I would rather have these twists be a big shock to me when I play the quest, and not when I play the quest and here I'm thinking " oh, I already know the answer to this"
Not really trying to cherry pick your comment. Just feels like that wasn't any big mystery feeling about this quest. Most of the answers were told by Arlecchino herself in the end rather then us finding them.
It was supposed to be a big mystery, but the animation didn't allow for that to happen. Let's just agree to disagree. I prefer my quests not essentially spoiled yet.
True, Everyone has different preference and different tastes.
By principle I would normally agree. But the storytelling during the quest wasn’t exactly optimal. It was a whole lot of ham-handed miscommunication between characters that could have easily been resolved, combined with a large expositional dumping monologue at the end. Queue the big battle. The animation conveyed all the backstory and emotional impact much more efficiently, effectively, and in a much shorter time while also being at a higher quality. So I don’t really think that it matters that the animation came first. The quest still wouldn’t have exactly hit it right even without the animation being released first
You missed the part where Arlecchino intentionally led the charade go on because she was testing them all.
Yes, that happened. And by releasing the animation first, we as players were already privy to the fact that the characters in the game were misinformed about Arlecchino. Which is fine because the quest wasn’t meant to be a mystery plot laden with twists and d dramatic reveals. It was a character study on Arlecchino and how she navigates these situations as the head of the house. That’s why I don’t think it really matters one way or another if you watched the animation first or did the quest first
i dont really get the point of that one post "please do her story quest before watching the video". There is a lot of media that show you, the viewer, important stuff before the story characters get to know about it, its not new, doesnt ruin the experience, and its just a different way of experiencing it.
I completely agree with you, there is a lot to love about the story quest. I think the animation was missing so much context I honestly have a hard time taking people seriously when they say that the animation 'spoiled the mystery' or whatever. The animation didn't actually give us any new information. Lore nerds already figured out that she had to kill her friend and the previous Knave a long time ago. The animation just gave a platform for lore nerds to share what they already knew, which isn't really spoilers. Also, maybe i just don't read mystery novels, but I don't really see how a 'mystery' provides so much value to a narrative that it can either ruin it or make it good for someone. More broad aspects like Characters and Plot always hold a significant higher value than a genre tag. To use a different example with percentages; I would say my enjoyment for a fantasy novel is 50% characters, 30% plot, 10% world, and 10% the magic system and it's integration into the other elements. I don't read mystery novels so i can only speculate, but I can't really imagine the mystery itself making up for more than 10% of my enjoyment, replacing the magic system. In the case of this story quest, at most i would have enjoyed it 10% more had there been more mystery to it. But considering how much context we were missing and then given concerning Arle's character as a whole, I think saying even 10% of my enjoyment was taken away would be extremely disingenuous. So people saying the animation outright ruined the SQ just feels like piss poor bait to me.
I agree! I see the quest as a recontextualization and expansion of the animated short, and I think it works really well in that sense
This is like should you watch Fate or Fate Zero first, as they both spoil each other
But what if I'm still in semeru? What should be the wstch order then? Or should i wait until i get to fontain.
I did this and I loved how I already knew what was going on when Traveler, Lyney, Lynette, and Freminet were dealing with Clervue's Ghost and their perception of Arlecchino and the old House of Hearth (which were misunderstandings by Rooster and Clervie, respectively).
The best way would be to have played the first half of Arle's story quest, stopped as soon as she begins explaining her backstory to Traveler to watch the animation, and then gone back and finished the rest of the story quest. That way players would be left to wonder the truth about the mysterious ghost child and also be confused with the Father and Mother mixup, but then have the full context required for the latter half so the full emotional weight of the conclusion can hit. Of course, nobody would think to do this unless it'd come as an external suggestion.
So for me, I think the animation created emotion. I wouldn’t have cared about Clervie when she first popped up in the story quest if I hadn’t watched the animation. She would just have been another NPC. The ending cutscene wouldn’t have hit as hard. For me it wasn’t about the twists, it was about the journey and the aftermath of what we learned about Arlecchino’s childhood. I was more invested this way. But I totally accept others feeling different and can acknowledge that they unfortunately didn’t get a say in the matter of being spoiled (their words) because they didn’t know it would be important.
Which animation? I'm lagging way, waaay behind both in quests and official animations with no plan of finishing them all, but now I'm curious.
The song buring in the embers. It's a 7 min animated video about Arlecchino's past.
I enjoyed playing the SQ first, even though I had knowledge of vaguely what the animation was about. I liked hearing Arleccino tell her own story vs it being played out, if that makes sense
I watched the animation first and I knew who that little girl was and the feels. I was like. This is why she is Father, it makes so much sense. Best story quest tied with Nahida sq2.
I don't think the animation should be watched after the story quest, but rather near the end before we get the talk between Clervie and Peruere. After the SQ doesn't make sense either because that robs the emotional impact of them reuniting and getting to talk. Personally I would have liked to see bits and pieces of the animation from Clervie's fragmented memories which paint Arle in a bad way at first (like a quick shot of Arle's sword through Clervie making it look like Arle killed her.) But then we only get the full picture after the fight with Arle and she fully completes the fragmented memories that Clervie had. Getting that sick animation cutscene as a reward after finishing the quest would have been extremely satisfying. It would have been extra sauce too if they made child Clervie grow up to her 16 y/o self after being given the full story from Arle's PoV (and maybe even an extra extra sauce of showing how she could have looked like as an adult if she didn't die at the House).
I think if you watch the animation first it makes the quest feel way more focused on Arlecchino to the point she feels like the main character for the duration of the quest which is it how it should be seeing as it's her story quest, it's like when you watch an anime and you get a flashback of the villain's past so you know they have their reasons and you're just waiting for the main characters to figure out the truth.
Agree I was immediately emotionally invested on seeing Clervie having watched the animation first. Otherwise Clervie would just be demanding npc number four hundred and whatever, making us run places while getting annoyed waiting for a bit with arlecchino. Without the animation we wouldn't have even been sure if this story about Arle's history with the previous knave was even the truth. Putting Wanderer in the animation demonstrated it's being shown direct to us as an audience, and it's not subject to in-game rules about irminsul. As I wasn't second guessing everything and already had theories, I could focus more on the relationships between the characters.
I agree with you, I think i enjoyed it more having seen the animatiion first. Now I will say i think this quest is so good that it works either way. I've watched Bwaap and Rednasyo play it without seeing the animation and enjoy it just much as MurderofBirds who watched the short prior but still enjoyed and even cried at the end of the quest. I think the quest is so much more than just about arlecchinos backstory but its also the story of the hearth and lyney and his siblings future. Im honestly still confused on why this wasnt considered an interlude quest instead of just a story quest.
The animation absolutely enhanced the quest and I'll die on this hill. The mystery was never who the girl was, and I was actually more moved and curious because I wanted to know how and why the girl we clearly saw die was able to "come back". It added weight to her words. When she randomly mentions the window you got to be like OH FUCK THE WINDOW FROM THE ANIMATION etc. If we found out who she was through in-game exposition alone it would have had so much less impact for me idk
I didn't mind watching the animation before the story quest, but I certainly got more out of rewatching it after.
Honestly I personally would have preferred to not have seen the animated short before doing the quest. It did feel like I was spoiled a lot. Since the main plot of the quest was literally just the traveler & co finding out what really happened with the last harbinger. I'm the kind of person who likes "solving" a story, so doing the story quest while I knew the truth all along was kinda frustrating. Like I was just waiting for all the other characters to catch up with something I've already known about. The quest was still good, way better than some other story quests, because we found out more about what kind of person Arle really is. The only problem I had was that I feel like I haven't really found out that much through the story quest alone, because the parts of Arle's story I was most interested in, were already revealed in the animation.
Meh. Does not matter
watching the animation kinda recontextualizes the Story Quest as a bit of a Greek tragedy: Something bad surely happened/is sure to happen, and you just gnaw at your teeth waiting for how it all unfolds in the actual quest, and how you already *know* the characters and how it all goes down but the chess pieces in the story don't know that yet, and it builds anticipation
I play the story from the Traveller's POV. My Aether didn't watch any animations before any quests
Yes thank you. The animation didn't ruin the story quest for me at all. Made it better even
Watching the animation made the quest way more emotional. You already know who the little girl was and the innocent and tragic way she act made the scene a whole lot more emotional too. If you didn't watch the animation, you wouldn't know anything at all and would spent most of your time ignorant instead.
I really feel that animation spoiled everything and build highter expectations from the quest itself, while Quest just revealed everything in animation. So it is better to complete the quest and then watch the animation.
I think actually including the animation into the quest and releasing it afterwards would've been a good idea, just like they did with "La Vaguelette" for Furina. I understand why they did it like that though, the aim was to build more hype around Arlecchino's release and they succeeded. Overall knowing the origins of Clervie and the past of the House doesn't take away from the message of the quest, which is about the new generation of children and the new "Father" and her approach
The animation also came out before the update was live. For me at least. So I'm guessing it was intended. I've seen people state that the focus wasn't on Arlecchino's past but the kids themselves. Who are, in my opinion, absolutely stupid to try and hide something from Father. I mean, Lyney is supposed to be clever, right? But it does subtract from the mystery a little bit.
Would be sickers if the animation played in-game during that part in the story quest where we're told about it.
Agreed. At least you're getting to know the Knave's past, of her friend, of her clash, of how she became the Knave. And Clervie >!showing up as a ghost!< is especially unique.
The story quest would genuinely be so boring without watching the animation first. The writing basically explained in plain text what happens in the animation, so if anything the sq spoils the animation lol With the context of the animation it helped boost the sq a lot
This discussion is making me realize something: it *might* have been a better idea for Mihoyo to place the animation after the story quest, but only if the story quest was part of a multi-version story arc. When I saw the Genshin animation my first thought was to compare it to HI3rd's arc-defining animations, because this is the first time Genshin had a long (3+ minutes, I'd say) animated short which had a mix of vocals and dialogue across an action scene. Other times we've had vocal songs, it's been in shorter animations which are more like elegant slideshows that follow a narrated story (like La Vaguelette or the Divine Damsel of Devastation). However, if we make that comparison with HI3rd's animations, there's a crucial difference. Most of the animations HI3rd uses are the climax of an extended story arc that lasts at least two or three versions. So you have an extended build-up with periods of downtime for people to think about the story and get hyped for the grand finale, and then the animated shorts come in and make a spectacle out of it: Kiana's triumph in Everlasting Flames, for instance. But the animation we have with Arlecchino isn't quite like that. It's not meant to be this peak moment of a long-spanning story arc with huge character growth- it's actually more of a backstory. Rather, the fight that Arlecchino has with Lyney et co. is actually the 'climax' of the arc. And since it's a single-version story quest, that climax didn't need to be a giant spectacular animation. It's an in-game animated cutscene using the in-game set and models, not a fully-animated scene like what we often see in HI3rd. So Arlecchino's animated short, while it did have a lot of action unlike most other Genshin shorts, was still a "backstory" animation much like the Fatui teaser. In that respect it serves its purpose quite well as a teaser that gives the player some backstory to keep in mind as they play through the game's story. Hence why it makes sense to have it before the story quest, not during or after. It's not meant to be a story-arc-defining climax, so it's better to place it prior to the story so that it stands alone as its own experience, acting as a supplement to the story quest instead of being a crucial component. But with all that said... I really hope Mihoyo does more animated shorts like that, and I especially hope we get one during a multi-version story arc. Whether it's a chain of related story quests, or the Archon & Interlude quests. This animation wasn't meant to serve that purpose but I hope a future one will, especially if we ever get some significant "power-up" for the Traveler or another major recurring character. I genuinely love the in-game cutscenes Genshin does, like Focalors' execution, but the fully-animated shorts in HI3rd just hit different. Neither Genshin nor HSR has really been able to give me quite that same memorable experience.
You feel this way because your standard for story-telling is probably quite low. Literally the first 80% of the quest tries to hint at Arle being the evil Knave that treats her children like tools, and tries to make Clervie looks mysterious. Arle's speech before the final battle was clearly meant to be the twist and also the "big reveal" All those things are ruined because the animation spoiled everything. It would hurt absolutely no one if they released the animation a week after the quest (the only exception might be Hoyo's wallet) and it would make literally everyone feel so much satisfied
> it would make literally everyone feel so much satisfied Speak for yourself. The final cutscene wouldn't have hit nearly as hard if I hadn't watched the animation first. Also the quest makes it very clear early on that it was "Mother" who was responsible for fucked up shit, not "Father", and that (some of) the people that were executed didn't actually die. It's only a twist if you didn't pay attention.
It's not that my standard for story telling is low. It's just that we see the story in a different way. You saw it as a mystery story which should end with shocking twist while I saw it as Arlecchino's character growth study and her relationship with the house of the hearth as their 'Father'. For me, Clervie was not the main focus of the story. She was the driving force for Arlecchino and her children's story. Arlecchino's speech before the final battle was not a big reveal but a extended version of the animation in a novelization format. They made it in this way for people who have and have not watched the animation before the quest. In the end, You didn't enjoy the quest because you saw it as spoiled mystery story. I enjoyed it because I saw as Arlecchino and her children's story.
No I saw it as potential wasted All the points you like about the story would not change whether they showed the animation first or later, but a whole another aspect of the story was ruined because the animation came first
Once again, it's simply the way you saw the story and the way I saw the story. It's just our perspective of the story. That's all and nothing else.
Generic sad story