The express has been reinvited to Penacony to take part in the opening ceremony of Penacony’s Paperfold University. Yet danger lurks in the shadows as a mysterious galaxy ranger makes an appearance at the monkey filled university.
In 2.6 we finally make our way back to Penacony for a story with a (mostly) lighter tone from the previous quest that we were presented in 2.5. 2.6 is what you could consider a filer patch as it doesn’t continue where 2.3 left off but that doesn’t mean it is something that should be skipped as it adds some pretty important context to possible future events as well as introducing us to another memokeeper by name of Mr Reca. The mission is definitely something that shouldn’t be skipped, not only due to future story implications but also because it embodies the goofiness of Star Rail and has some really great emotional moments as well.
A major complaint I have seen about the quest is about how long it is and how much of the brain rot aspect there is within it when that time could have been used for other characters. This is a 100% valid complaint for the story and my overall opinion would have been completely different if I sat down and played this story uninterrupted. But I actually think that this story is better played in multiple different sittings because of this aspect. The critique the story is trying to present is about how brain rot is ruining our minds and also how trends play into that. It’s just in this case it is an actual virus instead of just being solely based off of the media we consume.
The marketing for this patch made it pretty clear what it was going to be like in the story. I think the main problem is that a lot of people play these story quests in one sitting, so around 5 hours of hearing this would be even more annoying than it already is. Holoverse quests are well known for being long and there are multiple points within the quest where you can pause and walk away. In my opinion the brain rot works really well for the story and message, but I 100% acknowledge the only reason I currently think like this is because I had long breaks in between.
The story of this mission I think is really interesting and did its job of introducing Rappa and her lore pretty well. It introduces her personality and quirks pretty well, she’s brash, speaks in rhymes and is overall just a goofball. She kind of reminds me of an overtop theater kid with her speech patterns and mannerisms. I love how she used different nicknames for other characters, it was kind of funny to hear all the different ones and how characters reacted to them. Her backstory was sad to watch as the environment around her got darker and darker. It was also interesting to learn how she became the way she is and how she became a galaxy ranger.
The other new character introduced, Mr Reca, was also done really well and was another fun part of the quest. For all of the story he is treating his surroundings like they are a movie set and he is the director. He has an over the top character that really bounces off Rappa’s when they are interacting with each other. Along with that it interacts with the main trio’s personalities pretty well also.
But the most well known aspect of the mission is the slumbernana which when revealed made people question how sane the developers are. These are memetic viruses developed by a member of the genius society, #64 and an emanator of Erudition, Dr. Primitive, an enemy of the galaxy rangers. While Dr. Primitive does not show up in Penacony, he has sent one of his underlings, Profnana, to carry out his sick experiments. The quest does a good job in its latter half to build up the threat of Dr Primitive who to most is a new character. Although for those who have read through some of the lore in books and item descriptions he is a familiar name.
The quest also does a good job at handling returning characters Robin and Boothill. They participate in moving the story along and end up helping with defeating Profnana, so they aren’t sidelined throughout the quest. I’ve seen some complaints about how little there was of them in the quest. But the thing is this quest had to introduce three major characters for its story, a good amount of side characters, a new location, and some new lore. The quest is obviously about Rappa and thus also has to allocate time to her. The returning characters will always play a secondary role to the characters who are being introduced. Robin had a lot of focus throughout the Penacony quest especially in the latter half of the quests, so while there was some focus on her more was put on Boothill. I think that the quest did a good job at handling her. I love how she’s still teaching kids how to sing in Dreamflux Reef, and it was also really interesting to see how some of her powers of harmony worked. I also liked how she realized that harmony is not everyone conforming to one tune but instead people coming together as a group, working together to form a melody.
Boothill, while he was introduced in Penacony didn’t get a lot of attention in those quests and has shown up a few times since and due to his relationship with Rappa he got more screen time during this quest. I really enjoyed him in this quest and especially his interaction with Robin while they were investigating the Slumbernana Association. His past being shown was something that was pretty interesting, I really like how the EN voice actor portrayed the moment where he was mentally his younger self. Boothill usually speaks with a rough voice, is a bit loud, and has a bit of a harsh tone, but here he speaks softly and quietly. His once rambunctious personality more subdued, the man he became a stark contrast to the boy he used to be. It really adds depth to his character, and makes his eventual fate even more tragic. A soft gentle and loving man forced to watch as his entire life is destroyed. I think the quest did a really good job at building Boothill’s character.
Overall I think that the mission was pretty good and did its main job of introducing Rappa pretty well. It also kept up what I love most about HSR, which is its goofiness and the mission has it in spades. I personally can not wait to see more of these characters in the future.
