I made all these, and then the writers of Daiyan event just dropkicked me and ignored everything I said in the video… Well, at least this video still applies to the first 8 chapters. I don’t know what’s wrong with Daiyan event though. It’s like a completely different writer entirely, or it has been rewritten many times to condense everything. Music Used: - Anno Domini Beats - Shadows - Girls Frontline 2 - 404 - Arknights - Past - Girls Frontline - Shattered Connexion - Girls Frontline 2 - Camp Rest - Arknights - Contingency Contract Ashring Menu - RAGE - Book the Rental Wit It
Daiyan event was rewritten 2 times and is the reason why GFL2 was doing so bad in China, Imagine what happen to Wawa but worse, I don´t know the number of events that got the same treatment but but the Maid, Lenna, and Daiyan sister event got effected too, so they bring GF1 and NPC writers back to savage the situation
Well, it was rewritten 2 times. Maybe it seems confusing because of sudden chance of the way they write the story. But trust me, it was the writing used in gfl 1 (chapter 10 onwards). You will feel how powerful the writing of gfl 1 style. I suggest that you also play reverse collapse bakery girl. Btw, subbed, waiting for your next content. Keep it up!
@@KPMaraujo Ah, that does explain it! Though, I still don't like how they just lore-dump everyone. And somehow the story just ramped up way too quickly.
@@nezhahualphilli294 Thank you! GFL 1 so far has been such a drag... I think Chapter 1-9 could be shortened. The plot barely moves. I don't mind if they send me into a mindfrick, but they need to really care for the new players. The amount of references to GFL 1 they added to that chapter is a bit too much for my liking. It could be handled better.
@@FeyHuntothers already giving the answer so I'm not going to reiterate. Some would say that the Daiyan event is the 8.5/8.75 main story chapter so it is very heavy on the story. Nevertheless, I also getting caught off guard too because [AFAIK] this never happened before, both in the GFL and the PNC (they mostly had clear label for major campaign event and seasonal event). Unfortunate that we wouldn't able to see the pre-rework story but I'd hope that this is a one time thing.
6:20 yeah but the fact that the commander don't like to have his dolls killed are still there, because if I am not mistaken some memories and even personality traits of the dolls can be lost forever specially if the dolls hasn't back up her Neural cloud in a while, so for the commander to make his dolls killed is like take away a part of their "souls". And Groza is aware of this so she tries to keep her squad mates "alive" as much as possible.
Yeah. I remember they elaborated on that during during the fight at the port with Colphine wanting to retreat while Groza wants to get Krolic and the box during the collapse storm. As well as after the fight
That is one thing I can't get around with. I get that they tried to show it with Groza bugging out, but how is that supposed to be true? These are supposed to be just data.
@@FeyHunt I'm pretty sure the issue with Groza glitching out has nothing to do with her being transferred to a new body, but some plot point that we've yet to see. As for backups, Doll back ups need to be done manually, so if a Doll is destroyed she will lose all the memories that were not backed up beforehand. Some Dolls care more about these memories than others, but the Commander simply doesn't like to see them die since they treat Doll as people rather than just tools.
@ Because dolls personalities and memories are complex information that can be easily damaged, I mean if a normal archive like an excel or word file can just be damaged for many random reasons, from harware problems like a failure in the ram memory to software bugs or even f@cking cosmic rays (that time that valuable Excel table or word file just broke by itself for no reason? now you know why XD), something as complex as dolls memories and personalities are much more susceptible to get damaged in a data transfer... This coming from the assumtion that dolls store their current personalities and memories in their current frames and not that they are just controlled remotely by an AI in a server as GFL initially tried to imply, however if this was the case it would not make sense why dolls can operated without constant conection in isolated areas so I assume dolls have cibernetic brains in their own frames, so to back up their consciousness they need to update their memories in their servers or something constantly (at least first and second gen dolls, third "gen" dolls are more unique).
@@animeturnMMD I don't remember GFL ever implying that Dolls controlled their frames from a server, that was only the case for their Dummies (sort of, since it was still the Main Frame controlling them) which is a mechanic no longer used in GFL2. Everything else is as you say tho, their Neural Clouds are stored in their core, and backups need to be uploaded to a server or anything else capable of storing data. Since this is a manual process, any data not saved will be lost, on top of the possible loss of data that comes from constantly uploading a neural cloud to a frame that can happen to Dolls that change frames often or anything else that could damage the data itself
rather than storytelling, I think it is more accurate to say that gfl2 succeeded in making a standalone sequel because you don't have to play gfl1 to enjoy gfl2 (3:42) I really love the moment when something happens, new player reaction be like "that was cool" and then gfl1 veteran be like "YOO IT MENTIONED!"
Haha, yeah! I already knew some of the lore, so when they mentioned Collapse Epiphyllum and immune individual... Oh, I already know what's waiting in later chapters. Still don't know how Girard Group is involved though, but that's a mystery that everyone is in together!
As a player who played the first game for 6 years the lore of the girls frontline was large and great but its not a requirement to know the story like there is a world building lore that is good but its not really needed to play through the story then as i play GFL2 with a friend who didn't know GFL1 its just good that I can explain things to him without giving out major spoilers from the other gfl2 content
As a player that doesn't have any prior knowledge about the prequel game. At first I didn't even know that the UMP sisters has a third sister that is already dead. Up until I dipped a little bit on GFL 1 lore (I'm just scratching the surface), then boom one of the soo called Major Events is where UMP 40 died. I'm now sad about her death. I still lowkey wanna know more about some Major Events in the First game, but the one thing that is holding me back is the amount of Lore that I would need to read or watch.
@@KahelRaito Glad to hear more people are interested! Do be careful about what you told them though. If you explained what Paradeus is before Chapter 8, you would somewhat ruin that surprise. We just don't know which lore thing would become a plot point later. I think basic world history like the Beilan incident and major organizations should be fine though.
I would trust mica for any story telling job ever. In gfl1, most of the the major events were focused on the same group of characters and it made them iconic and I dare say they made gfl1, gfl1. But then suddenly on one major event, there were no old characters at all. It was wierd at first and I was waiting for them would show up. But boy I was wrong, the special cast on that event was written perfectly I forgot that I was reading gfl story. The main cast were only shown at the end of the event and I didn't feel like I miss them at all
@@maulaahmad2542 Oh wow... Do they have a Halo ODST episode? That would be interesting to read! I'm still in Chapter 8 though, so it's probably gonna take me long to get to that.
im a veteran of the game, i just want to add the VA really pulls their weight as well to make the story feels better. And by god chapter 8 with Colphne broken down is just so good, her VA really give it all and that makes Colphne sadness feels genuine and we can relate to her pain, its also a good reflection to the commander that instead of taking action like Colphne even though she doesnt know what she doing is right or not, he choose to runaway. I do have to say the current event story is a bit underwhelming, but it does rewritten 3 times after an incident regarding CN Player dissatisfaction, so it kinda understandable, but i really hope that scene of Colphne, Helena, Dandelion, and Commander on the drone written much better.
@@cardiv5zuikaku944 Yep, yep! That is something I gotta talk about in the next video! You just CAN'T have that moment in a game with a self-insert protagonist. That paralel is just chef's kiss! That Dandelion scene should have been a good opportunity if the writers want to yap a bit about Commander's struggles in the past. Heck, they could start with continuing that Colphne's conversation. "You know how you lost Anfiya, Colphne? Yeah, I lost someone I care for... A lot of them... Even now, I still don't have the answer for you. And now, with Paradeus returning, I'm afraid all of those sacrifices are for nothing. Had I been with Kalin these past 10 years, would they be destroyed for good?"
honestly thats why i stoped playing arknights, the game is fun and the characters great but holy shit no one shuts up, they just go on and on and on, so i got sick of reading the story and stoped
Yep, same here. I still play Arknights for the gameplay. But knowing that each event has 6 hours VN with the combined 200+ hours VN... Yeah, I don't think I'll ever read Arknights in its entirety.
@@Neutral_1zed I find those pretentious. There's a reason why popular modern novels don't use Shakespearean speech. You can't connect with the audience if they don't understand it.
At first, i worried that gf2 story will flopped since its too generic and family friendly and focused on relationships on elmo members But i take back my word, starting from colphne arc (chapter 6 and on) really shocked me. I felt gfl level of storytelling are coming back, and mica gives the commander great level of character developments. Also ch 8.5 really brings gfl level of vibes and tension, while also mentioning some non spoiler PTSD moments from the first game
Colphne's arc had already started from Chapter 2 with the Boojum, how she fleed and then returned out of guilt. But yeah, it's a pretty chill way to ease new players into the story. However, I don't like the abrupt phase-shift in Daiyan's event. Namedropping unnecessary characters is not the best way to do it if they want to keep new players around.
@@FeyHunt yeah ik, i just point out the core of her arc (which is ch 6-8) Daiyan event got rewritten twice, and mica a bit rushed her event, but its still pretty good imo. All character present in her already introduced in earlier story (directly and indirectly), the main problem is sometimes there's some events/terms that referencing to the first game event. For example there's a scene where dandelion mentions that StateSec is used for experimenting human x elid hybrid to create a new elid lifeforms, for gfl player's they're already know who is StateSec is, but for new players they're wondering who tf is StateSec is
Subbed! Can't wait for more bite-sized story analysis, your ZZZ videos are my favorite so far :D Also, I'd love to see videos and/or shorts about the best, good, bad, and worst stories in Genshin (and how it can be improved of course) Keep it up!
@@BeatrixBeatrixEverywhere Thank you for the support and kind words! Genshin would be tough and unfair since I haven't played it in almost 3 years. In general, I don't like making negative criticism videos since it's so exhausting to write for. But I do have one thing in mind, which is a retrospect video on one of Inazuma's storytelling.
in the place of Navegation screen/Elmo server room/Traceback/remastered record/Dusty Memories you can find stories of what the T-Dolls(some of them) do between gfl1 and gfl2.
I second this! But Dusty Memories are more about a single moment in their life, which is very easy to consume. If you want more detailed journey between those, I recommend the written logs. Colphne's Twisted Smile really detailed her history with Anfiya and Lotta's Mark of Friendship told a lot about her journey before forming Doll Community.
I agree absolutelly and kinda hate how much many players complain, game doesn't serve you everything on silver plate. I mean I am veteran player, but it's not like there is not lot of new things that I knew nothing about that game told me only through implications.
By far my biggest takeaway from reading a huge chunk of Girls Frontline 1 (up to 15.3 now) is that the lore is really important, but this is a game where the character writing always takes center stage
And that SHOULD BE how gacha game writing works. You can have as many lore and worldbuilding as you'd like. But at the end of the day, we gacha for the characters. Show us how they grow throughout the story. A LOT of gacha games forget about this.
New player here. I completely agree with you-the writing is amazing. When I played the beta, I really felt lost because there were many obvious callbacks to the first game, and it seemed like I had to know the lore of GF. But now my opinion has changed completely. I don't want to know everything. I love that the game provides just enough information and keeps me guessing. It's intriguing and fun. It also makes the story more digestible. I really hope other gacha games will adopt this approach and not bombard players with lore in the first five minutes.
Hey, thank you for the kind words! Like you, I'm also tired with yapping in the intro. I hope more developers saw this and follow their examples. "Restrain! Practice restrain! No, Bob! We don't need to explain the HISTORY of the world in the intro right now... Hey, Jacob! STOP! We don't need to tell them about our previous game!"
Haha, thank you! I'm glad we have our little corner on the internet where we can discuss great writings in gacha games. I haven't found much channel that does the same. I'm excited to see you around! I'll have 2 more videos at least for GFL 2.
Even when talking about GFL1, one thing they did well is they do not have "throwaway characters" or just trash characters whose duty is to fill up the empty squad slots early on in the game, which its predecessor, Kantai Collection, is very much guilty of. Even the low rarity characters are unique and interesting like when M3 took it personally when Judge called her "Grease Gun".
Oh I have to verify your claim first before I can cheer for it. But yeah, a lot of night missions are to explore these low rarity characters. By predecessor, do you mean Kancolle is developed by the same company? I didn't know that!
@@FeyHunt No, different company. Kancolle was by DMM while GFL is by Mica. However a lot of GFL's mechanics are based on KC. Many VAs also voiced characters of both games so maybe that counts. The construction, map design, the old repair system, event model, and some others are being pulled straight from KC though also being improved upon.
I only agree with part of this video. They did a great job of not needing to understanding the first game with anti-yapping, but they filled the conversation and bantering with other types of yapping. When reading the dialogues between the mc and the dolls, I felt like reading some sort of scripts between multiple NASA scientists, a bunch of acronyms and tech jargons being thrown around, or the dolls explaining the situation with too much details. Also, there were too much bantering between Krolik and Nemesis, I got so annoyed when they just had to argue in almost every scene. I don't mind them spreading out the story bit by bit, however, it was too slow for me. That combined with the awkward moments kept happening when the mc bumped into his previous dolls, everything just felt weird. I finally enjoyed the story at the end of chapter 8, but it took way too much yapping and round-a-bout to get there.
There are some scenes where it just drags a bit too long. Vepley is the biggest cause of it on most cases. Though, I have nothing instantly in mind with the "NASA Scientists" conversation. Can you share one of the examples?
I guess sometimes characters talk about more technical stuff, like when Groza talk about "terrain map data" or Elmo engine status. Other characters like Mayling and Dandelion may go on about signal and security tech jargon, which I do find to be a bit confusing at times. There are technologies like the "Remolding Pattern" that is not very well visualised and since you don't ever interact or hear about these technologies outside of stories, I think they are a bit unnecessary.
@@memebender5626 Huh... Personally, I'm not affected by that because it's just some random passing phrases. It's not like they keep going over and over it again. Remolding Pattern is one jargon that I immediately associate to "magic power". I'm curious how many people are having problems with these jargons.
You can really immerse yourself with the story, I dont' think I've seen any of the chapter currently that left wanting besides the cliffhangers. Its crazy how good you can still feel the emotion from the characters even when its only 2d pictures, really reminds me of top tier visual novels back then. Also I like how well they explained how neural cloud works on this game, gfl1 sort of did that too but it wasn't as clear or it was somewhat vague.
Yep, yep! It's the voice acting. Really top-notch! The localization kinda adds some words at times, but it's really good! GFL 1 keeps contradicting itself with the explanation of Neural Cloud. Sometimes they said it's just a memory bank, and then they said it's personality core. Then there's a weird quirk of AR Team being unable to be backed up... And how M4A1 felt bad at commanding Dolls to die, even though they are robots... I'm confused. And that's not even mentioning that ELIDS and different Zones are mentioned WAYYYYYYY later in the story. I'm in Chapter 9 right now, and there's no one mentioning that the world itself is fricked from Beilan Incident!
@@FeyHunt Yeah, really vague back then hahah, I think I left after Isomer or when that ELIDs outbreak break through a wall and we had to protect a VP, I can't remember. I'm just glad that they're finally smoothening out the lore for gfl, even to the point that they even have different doll body models which makes perfect sense since they've been developing them for quite sometime now even before gfl1, and oh also including fire control modules for dolls was also cleared in the current story which was neat.
@@unloyal4847 Yep! I like their explanation so far with Dolls worldbuilding, like the FCC and Neural Cloud, or that all Dolls don't have gustatory senses. But overall, very restrained and focused. Except for after Boojum encounter where Groza chose to save Krolik instead of retreating. The explanation to Colphne is a bit... eh. She said something like "you can still lose memories", which is kinda odd.
@ I think cuz theres anomalies that may affect neural cloud upload, specially since I think Collapse storms are kind of super high radiation storms which even dolls aren't safe from most of the time judging by how during Suomi/Ulrid's quest they said they'd have trouble entering red zones since they don't have suits even if they were dolls. That said I guess theres really factors on what affects NC's, giving them rings for example says something about etching this moment in their NC so theres that too, I'll need to dig around more to be sure haha.
@@FeyHunt My guess is that you can't be sure how much data is going to be lost in the next Neuro Cloud uploud. Think of it like transfering game/programm data from one hard disc to another. You can't be sure that application will run without problems
The chaotic start of GFL2 is so similar to the chaotic start of GFL1 that they both have the same problem of mediocre quality. The new Daiyan plot is indeed short and abrupt, it is a tragic victim, due to the reversal of the plot order, now it has to be the first character event to continue EP8. Sunborn overestimated its own production capacity. The original plan was to guarantee one character event per month, and to update one chapter in 1-2 months. EP9 -10(Klukai event) is expected to be online soon, and it takes place at the same time as the events of Daiyan and G36, returning to the complex narrative structure of GFL1 and the brutal war scenes.
Oh, let me tell you about Machlian, comrade... But yeah, I hope the writings could slowly explore the Commander's burning hatred to new players in a Dusty Memories type of content. Maybe some of the past characters could come back. Heck, I want some of the assimilated units from Paradeus to join us. Tareus would be awesome!
No wonder why I still enjoy the story even though it has a bad translation in my language (ภาษาไท). IMO what makes GFL2 stand out from other gacha is the vibe of "maturity". Rather than using mysterious amnesia or virgin newcomer strategist or isekai bro protagonist. (for the sake of having room for self-insert) GFL2 dares to use a full-blown veteran protagonist. (which is a bit controversial when compared to the prequel kancolle-clone game fanbase. Well, it's a sequel after all ...) I don't mean other types of writing or protagonist suck. It's just so refreshing to see this take in the gacha-anime game.
Oh definitely! And that allows for some of the greatest scenes in the game so far, namely Kalin's reunion and Colphne's breaking down. Those just CAN'T exist in a story with a weak protagonist. That's the topic for the next video!
Long-time GFL1 fan here. You hit the nail on the head for why GFL2 is (was?) doing so well globally. I think that their biggest challenge at the moment is placating "the old guard", who were expecting a more complex political thriller-esque story, like GFL1 is in its later stages. Chapters 6-8 (8.5) of GFL2 seem to be centered around this, at the expense of the new players. I hope they can find a balance.
Yeah, I hope they can balance it well too. I don't mind Daiyan's event if they had handled it better. I think Dandelion should be used more to let Colphne knew more about the Commander's past, just like how the commander promised her she could ask about their past.
4:00 As someone who started with GFL2 I actually went back and read all the main story events and some mod stories for characters I liked and I think it was actually way more for the better than worse. I got to enjoy an entire game story that took years to craft in the span of a few weeks and it allowed me to appreciate everything in the 2nd game more. The lore, world building, geopolitics, factions, etc. All of it became enhanced because I felt like I had gone through everything the Commander did 10 years ago and after reading everything they went through I 100% understand why Commander would wish to go into exile. The one downside is that one of my favourite characters is likely never returning due to a big climatic event they were unfortunately apart of in GFL1 lol.
Haha, great! Of course old players got to have their fun too! i just hope that RO635 would make an appearance. I really love her. But if any of AR team showed up, the writers need to do a lot of work to prep the new players for it. I don't think that will happen, personally.
@@Pine2142 I don't think she'll return at all, tbh. She probably would be an NPC at best, considering her current status. But having her as an adjutant in Elmo would be a very interesting plot decision.
I'm really enjoying GFL2 now that it's released in EN. It's really great that they did the show don't tell approach to some story beats! I'm sort of a veteran of the game. I've played the first game up to the point that we could use Heavy Ordinance teams, but had to stop because of the devices I was using to play it was slow even for GFL1 and there was too much reading that I could handle so I kind of felt bad for the writers and translators. So I've been watching summary videos for some context.
I'm a new GFL2 player but I'm watching the story summary of GFL1 by Heromystic, currently on episode 3 to get a feel of the lore. GFL2 as a new player is great as they keep the players guessing and there are overarching mystery but I just like to know some of their relationship before diving more into GFL2 and not only know them as mere old friend. Daiyan event left on the cliffhanger in a middle of battle feels weird tho. 🤨
Daiyan's event will be continued later. They keep doing this to regular chapters as well. Some of them have a tiny timeskip like the start and end of Chapter 8. Personally, I don't think knowing their relationship matters all that much since most of the cast are new characters. Groza lost her memories, which leaves only Kalin, Lenna, and Dandelion. It just adds context to the legacy characters, which is a good plus.
@@FeyHunt Let me explain, based on the quality of CGI animation, EP1-6 was probably finalized in 2021, EP7-EP8 was updated after release, which is why 7-8 looks so much better than 1-6.Because they're probably new to the story that was written in 2023. Daiyan's plot was originally finalized in 2022 because Daiyan's sister used a defunct name, Yinzhu. GFL2 was originally scheduled to be released in October in China, and Daiyan's plot was obviously prepared for the Spring Festival in February, which means that the first character scheduled to be UMP9 or G36. In 2023, Daiyan's sister was renamed Jiangyu in GFL2 and Project Neural Cloud, so we can know that the leaked plot that caused great controversy is actually an abandoned case. Ironically, due to the confusion caused by the controversy, Sunborn had to modify the old plot slightly for Daiyan's plot, while writing new plots for the first few characters. Sunborn did this not because some NTR or maid service rich kids bullshit, but because they have realized that the character story is not related to the main story chapter and some players are disappointed. The new Daiyan plot and the new G36 (the maid, it's hard to spell that German name) are closely linked, just like the two chapters of Glass Island, very much like the GFL1 story.
1:13 it's like The Matrix scene where Neo taking red pill or blue pill, living a peaceful life with Kalina in the green zone or keep pursuing the brave new world from the the first game.. we take the red pill.
That's cool and I already know that, but let's not talk about the first game's plot in this comment section. Otherwise, the comment section would be an antithesis to the video itself.
I tried to play GFL years ago I still have my original account, however the game arrived at a time in my life that I just didn't have time to complete the story so I just have completed 3 chapters of the fist game's story, so I know who is the commmander and some of the basic lore of the world includying why the world is a post apocaliptic nightmare (because it has been like this since the first game) thanks to some GFL lore masters in youtube. But while I have my suspicions of why the commander left griffing, I really want to know what make him leave behind his friends and well.. all the dolls that used to be under his command and even were really loyal to him like M4, if I am not mistaken GFL (the OG) hasn't ended yet, so even if you arrive to the end of GFL today the commander is still more or less a griffin commader. So the while veteran players may have a better guess of why the commander left, no one has really see that moment, so you can say that both veteran and new players don't not with 100% certainty the exact moment that the commander decides to leave everything behind.
If you are a lore enthusiast, you would already know the end of GFL 1 back in early-mid December. The story is done and the game has been closed in CN. Everything is explained in there, as far as I'm told. But yeah, if you only read EN global version, there will be some gaps in the lore, as well as the lingering questions of what happened in-between that 10 years. That's the big question that keeps us all reading the lore, newbie and veterans alike.
Reading the comments here, Daiyan's event story is apparently chapter 8.5 or something? That sets a really bad precedent. It was a bit jarring for me since I was expecting it to be a self-contained story, but it very clearly ties into events from the main plot. To make things worse, I had only done up to chapter 5 when I did it, and I really don't like the idea of a time-limited event being a part of the main story, since future players will end up with a weird disconnect in the main plot. Up until Daiyan's event, I would have said that GFL2 had the best writing in gacha that I've experienced. It still might, but now that's more of a condemnation of gacha writing than it is praise of GFL2. Still the best early chapters though; hopefully things end up in a better structure than I'm expecting.
Yep! That's my take as well. They were doing very well, up until that dropkick to the face. It feels very jarring to new players, and a massive letdown if you want to know who Daiyan is. She barely even introduce herself. Granted, there will be a permanent archive to past events later on. I just hope they labeled it correctly. Back in GFL 1, events that ties into the main story are clearly labeled Episode 8.5 or even 8.75 to let the players know the exact canonical orders.
As an AK player I know their storytelling isn't the best but my god, when the writers cook they fkn deliver! The best examples of AK events I can give are Lone Trail and Babel. The reading can be tought for many but it pays off. I could easily say those two events are some of the best stories in fiction I've ever read.
@@MauguiltysparkWell, from my little experience with Arknights, their writings are never satisfying to me. There's always a big catch, or something that makes me icky. Lone Trail for example, is icky in terms of its internal morality. They let the bad guy win and glorify her without acknowledging any bits of nuance. I read through some events, and so far, none of them wow-ed me in terms of writing. Something like what I described in my videos about GFL or ZZZ.
I am a veteran player but only dabbled in the lore. There was a lot of it and keeping up was difficult for me, so this new formula in 2 has been a breath of fresh air
I'm a bit torn on this. Generally, I like GFL 2 implementation better since it's told in a story format through the lens of the characters. I don't really like Star Rail's approach of having an in game wiki. By revealing those information, you already know that there won't be a story revolving around that particular worldbuilding concept to explain what it is. You won't have that Groza got shot scene to explain Dolls are immortals.
I love GFL2. You explained really well why I enjoy the story so much. The world building, character's personalities and general flow of the story just feels right. Also the background music and SFX during dialogue add *a lot* to the atmosphere and are masterfully implemented. Great video!
And don't forget the music, if you play the story while having the sound muted, you are missing quite a bit. A music youtuber explained the prologue in detail some time ago.
I also find it funny that Arknights was basically made by some of the original writers of GFL1 that were responsible for its beginning being a bit of a slog with the commander being a presenceless self insert set of eyes. Basically they left because there was a disagreement about wanting the game to become more fantasy based when it was already a well established science fiction route. So low and behold like not two years after GFL2 releases in CN, the Arknights people announce Arknights Enfield. They really saw GFL2 and decided they needed to make their own game transcend to the 3rd dimension and cg graphics like it was a threat. Also funny that the original Arknights took the common role of making the gacha more mihoyo coded for the game with 2d avatars while GFL2 pretty much made that switch only because it became a much bigger budgeted CG game and Yuzhongs own wallet can only support so much. Weird how even with the modern Hoyo standard of Gacha, GFL2 and even Neural Cloud is still so goddamn generous with all its rewards that spending at this point is more of a courtesy then a necessity unless you just absolutely want to go crazy and get everything like a complete madman.
GFL1 's initial bad storyline came from lowlight in 2016, and in 2019 AK's storyline also had the same problem. I agree with you, if you look at Endfield's character renderings it's so close to GFL2, and that's because GFL2 launched in 2023 while Endfield was doing public testing, and then they chose to delay Endfield for almost a year.
Eh, I think you're looking too much into the drama between these two games. GFL 2 and Endfield exist more like an answer to Mihoyo's Genshin Impact. Times are changing. People are less likely to play a 2D gacha game nowadays. Lore and writing wise, both games suck in different ways. I really don't like Arknights verbose writing, or how their events are 6 hours unvoiced VN. GFL 1 Chapter 1-8 really suck and slow so far. Though, I think that speaks more about Lowlight than GFL team. In any case, I think it's best not to stir up an unneeded controversy. We play what we like, and ignore what we don't like.
@5:09 Oi... You know good damn well, that it's not that "if its ANY other gacha" You know damn well, that ZZZ would do it the same way as GF2. If not better in some points... or worse in others. But generally, the same way.
Yep yep! ZZZ and GFL are my top pick for the best writing so far. Their "show, don't tell" is on point! Though, ZZZ has been using "white text on black background" too often for my liking these days. It's a little nitpick, but can be rather annoying.
@@FeyHunt Yeah. They do. Less than Genshin and most caretainly HSR... But still they use it a lot recently. However I do think that it is given with life service games with such frequent updates. There is not much time, so you just can't animate or draw anything. ZZZ doesn't have that big budget... Yeah Hoyo is rich company and they have tons of money, but ZZZ has the lowest budget out of their big 3. Still pumping the best content tho' Lack of funds is compensated with their best team. Idk in which version GF2 currently is, but I think it will come to the point where they start using it more as well, when they start to lack a time to get everything ready. Untill they'll give the game bigger budget and hire some more ppl. No matter how great team game has... no matter how passionate it is... If they are pressured by time and don't have enough ppl, they cant do anything about it and have to use some easy and at the same time bad solutions that let them fill in that lack of staff and time. So in the end it all depends on how much higherups are willing to spend for the game development. Team size is dependend on budget as well, hired ppl have to get their paycheck after all... That's a sad reality to it.
@@Devilish132 Yeahh! And that's the thing I often find weird about gacha games. They write half-assed stories as if that doesn't affect their income. Did they not realize that people would be more likely to pull if they knew the character well? You can tell which gacha games just write stories to fill in quotas.
@@FeyHunt Exactly. Sometimes You can feel that they just don't have good writer in team. sometimes it is a thing as well. Or when they have amazing director. Like ZZZ's director is the same guy that directed HI3rd, I mean cinematics... He did amazing over there and continues doing even better in here. Since He has an amazing (even better than before) animators backing him up now.
Oh, you really should! The gameplay is a bit of DPS check, but it does scratch my itch of a tactical turn-based gameplay. If you want to get a nice taste of the story, I recommend going to Elmo's Database and choose one of the Dusty Memories, which are small 15-30 minutes character stories. They're pretty good and fun to read!
I agree with the points you raised, however, being a new player to this franchise myself, I can honestly appreciate if there's some kind of summary / information to make me understand the world better, like: - what's going on with the world? About the collapse storm, Elid etc, would be nice to get more information about them rather than simply only able to draw conclusion of 'generic monster enemies' - what's up with those dolls? In the first event, there's a mention about civilian and combat dolls? My impression is the dolls is made for combat so why is there a civilian version? - what is the current balance of power in the world? There's URNC, Varjaeger and other groups that simply only makes me wondering about them A rather short explanation that detailed them would actually be nice, perhaps even tied to the story progression so as you progress further, you'll unlock more information about them so in the end you can have better understanding about the game world
@@Rayfireful Hello! They did. A lot of your questions are explained in the stories as you go along. Check out the Dusty Memories as well to learn more about Dolls, and check out the loading screens. I would only mention things explained in GFL 2 here, in case some you may have missed. It does take time to go through all stories and descriptions to form a complete picture. I will also include as many sources as I can. The world is something you can infer from mostly loading screens. We already see a lot of the world is divided in "zones" depending on their radiation level. We can infer that most of the world is a barren wasteland. One of the loading screen tips did mention "Beilan Island incident", which is a huge event. Hopefully we'll get to explore that origin later in GFL 2. As for Dolls, yes, we do have mentions in Glass Island events that there are two types of Dolls: civilians (C-Dolls) and tactical combat dolls (T-Dolls). Their main difference is just Fire Control Module. We did see how Colphne, a medic, turn from C-Doll to T-Dolls in the main story. Tololo's Dusty Memories, do tell us that civilian dolls can still use guns, but their accuracy will be diminished. In Krolik's Dusty Memories, it was revealed that she is originally a civilian doll. Centaureisi memories also mentioned that she is originally a civilian doll. Glass Island does tell us about Wolfiin, a civilian Doll that is specifically made for planting agriculture. So yeah, Dolls are just robots made for different reasons. URNC and power balance is mostly in loading screen and some descriptions. URNC is basically the dominant power right now governing all nations. While Varjager are just bandits. That's all we have so far.
@FeyHunt would be nice if there's a glossary, or terminal you can access for that info as you discovered it, I honestly thought that's what the Elmo server cloud is for, a data bank for the game world info or a brief recap of what happened in the first game Honestly I enjoy the world building and the story so much but it seems that new players might be missing something even more basic like "how the world even got to this stage?", other than that, everything is great
@@Rayfireful A summary book would be very nice to have! It does remind of the old Bioware games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age where new topics are added as you go along the story. But I haven't seen any gacha games that did this correctly. Honkai Star Rail sort of give it a try with its in-game wiki, but it ends up being a yapping bonanza.
Have you played GFL: project neural cloud? I really think you should, me, and my friend, agree that the way the story of NC is written, despite the lack of voice acting and just purely VN style, is better than GFL2. One of the major complains I have about GFL2, is their heavy reliance on cinematic cutscenes mid way through the story to prevent players getting too bored of its story, not necessarily a bad thing, but that is something not every gacha games studio can afford, while the quality of their VN stories are.....not as good, so, those cutscenes are what I'm waiting for most when reading it story, and the missing of it really highlights how not as good, their VN storytelling is. The problems with GFL2 storytelling now, despite without all the exposition dump yapping, is a lot of unnecessary jargons and cordinates yap (we're in this position in this region, estimate time until full speed, time of arrival, etc...), I can't remember half the location names they threw at me, that still counts as yapping, they also use a lot of cliche, in important plot moment, like how Krolik keep getting into arguments with Nemesis, which needs her interpretation to understand, she blew up 2 stealth mission bc of this, that is not professional for a T-doll. I like chapter 8 the most, by far, since they're finally picking up the pace, the previous 7 chapters really feel like they are in a wild goose chase, unnecessary dragged out story sections, and a bunch of cliff-hangers, which is another thing I despise in GFL2: too much cliff-hangers, both the story in chapter 8 and Daiyan event now end in cliff-hanger. That's not great. You might praise their show, no tell story telling technique, but what about their actual plots and characters? I will tell you, it is average, I don't know if this is their intentions or not, but every villains before paradeus was a cliche joke, I don't feel the slightest bit intimidated by them, since their sheer incompetent turns them into nothing more than laughing stocks, even at serious moments, and all I feel is that we're wasting too much time dealing with these fools, despite the reputation of the commander they're constantly hyping it up to be. The story of Daiyan event is better than the Ullrid and Makiatto event, despite the fact that it has no voice acting and no cutscenes, probably due to it literally being a main story chapter. All in all, GFL2 stories still has a lot it can improve upon.
Oof, if Project Neural Cloud has no voiced VN, it's gonna be a hard skip for me. I already have Arknights in that slot, and it's really hard to read through their 200+ hours of unvoiced VN. Usually, I don't defend any game's writings... nor do I have any particular attachment to any games. But I'm going to make an exception this time to genuinely discuss how you arrive at these conclusions. Keep in mind, I'm doing this on a genuinely good faith discussion. I'm not trying to insult your opinions. I respectfully hard disagree with your takes here, particularly because you haven't explained what makes NC writing better than GFL 2. What does an "average" character and plot mean if I don't have a way to compare it? But I don't get how you think coordinates count as yapping. They're never important in the plot, as established very early on. Those are just to showcase how professional Groza is, while at the same time helping lore enthusiasts to map out the events in the game. There's never a moment in the story where you're expected to know where you are. The enemies are NEVER the point of the story, they're just plot devices. The story is always about the characters and the mysteries, like how the Boojum is just Colphne's arc with Groza. The same goes for Ullrid and Makiatto's events. They're just introductions to the characters and their problems. In this regard, I think you're looking at the story from the wrong lens. You're expecting bombastic lore drop every single moment, instead of a more character-focussed story. That's not here yet, until Daiyan's event. In short, is it possible that you're expecting GFL 2 to be Neural Cloud 2.0, and then that somehow gives you a biased look to it? Which is totally fine! It's a matter of preference. But personally, I tried not to criticize a game because of what it's not meant to be. For example, I don't try to justify my arguments that Limbus Company has terrible writing because it used grimdark tropes. I just outright said that I don't like it because of its tropes.
@@FeyHunt May I suggest you should read on one main story chapter or character events of NC because unlike arknights, it is actually very short and easy to jump in, you don't need 200+h, just about 30 min, then you can decide how good they handle it. If I have to explain, it would be "focused", NC stories tended to focused on the actual plot happening around it rather than using unnecessary words and meaningless jargon (words that you have to use google to search its meaning with no ways of guessing it), it focused on the emotions of each characters and development rather than using technical terms to lengthen its time, because most of its stories is focused on C-dolls, civilian dolls, and even at crucial main story chapters, they keep a lot of technical terms to the minimum. Each characters there also feel unique, with clear and believable motivations, and logical actions that despite you may not agree with their methods, you can't help but sympathize with them. You said it yourself, those coordinates and many more technical terms like how fast the Elmo speed is, is irrelevant to the plot, and just here to showcase how professional they are, but at the same time, they take up way too much time, this is not like movies when they intentionally speed through these segments or talking in high speed, this is a repeated occurrence in any main story chapters, to the point of unnecessary, and it is fully voice acted, so you can't just skip all those without feeling that you did not go through the intended experience. You may say that the enemies are NEVER the point of the story, and just plot devices, and I have to disagree with that, if the only saving grace about the lackluster villain that take up a lot of screen time, is that they're just there to push the character arc, then it is an excuse for lackluster writing, the Vagjager leader we first met, the client, in the plot, was shown to be a formidable threat yet somehow everytime they appear on screen, you can't help but feel like they're a bunch of clowns that purely arrived in this position by sheer luck since they're too incompetent, how can I feel that the dolls are the commander are that capable when they struggles this much against such insanely incompetent villains? I like how you put the Boojum here, since the Boojum is actually one of the better enemy of the early chapters, it was built up to be this unstoppable threat that we cannot beat, and it stays that way, which is good, until it got anticlimactically killed off-screen, it also hinted on Helena's future connection to the ELIDs. Ullrid's event main villain, is the strange doll, that serves nothing more than a massive wall, only later killed off in a cutscenes by sheer plot convenience, judging by how strong she was described in the events, but that's ok, cause suddenly now she's the only threat there and everyone can live happily ever after there, you can't help but feel a bit too convenient that things ended up this way, while the relation of both that strange doll and her former owner can be much better developed upon instead of reading through all the logs that she conveniently hold in the arm they severed. Makiatto's event villain is a smuggler built up to be this menacingly scheming and insidious individual that slipped through the hands of the authorities all these times, and yet when we met him, he is nothing more than a pathetic and paranoid individual, that rather blame his loyal henchmen than taking into accounts that the authorities might be on to him, and pathetically pulled out a massive dinergate that the dolls conveniently destroyed it rather easily, when it is stated that it is a far stronger upgrade than the small dinergate they're using (that small dinergate feels more like a threat than the final boss ever did). Almost every villain thus far is far more disappointing than they built it up to be, arknights does not suffer from these thing even in the early chapters, while still keeping the character development intact. I was expecting, the quality of writing of NC to be in GFL2, its sequel, since each story chapters of NC has such impressive balance between the villains built up and execution, while still retaining good characters development, each villains there feel threatening, with understandable motivations and goals, that also serve a good part in the development of each characters in it, you can watch Lind (the anniversary event) event story, or Clukay's event story in NC, and you can feel the emotions and the desperate situations they're in, without needing to resort to plot conveniences nor compromising the quality of its villains, that is what GFL2 is missing, which is carried heavily by its voice over dialogues and cutscenes segments.
Here’s what I do with event and character stories (no stamina needed): I skip through them as fast as I can, autoplay the fights, complete the supply missions, and start farming on day one to maximize rewards. Later, at my leisure, I go back and read the story. On a personal level, I do kind of disagree with you. The story in GF2 is fine so far, but there are too many moments where I get aggravated because the characters won’t stop bringing up one topic after another to yap about. Sometimes, it just won’t end. On top of that, there’s all this, for me, useless overly immersifying information about the world and its elements. I wish they would focus more on getting through the plot, sprinkling in interesting inter-doll interactions/drama ;) ... this is what keeps me reading.
There are grating moments, like any scenes with Vepley. She's cute and all, but her yapping is practically useless. Some people also find Krolik-Nemesis banters aggravating, but to me, it's just funny, except for when they are in the middle of the plot. But overall, I don't get too annoyed with that in my own personal taste.
@@FeyHunt Idk, I have not encountered it. It like wise has the same setup of having lots of lore, but since Endfield is largely standalone it doesn't force feed you anything. Stuff from your past is only brought up as context when needed
NO WONDER IT FEELS SO GOOD! I am new player, though i have friends who played the original, so i got curious. I always hated excessive yapping, they always overtelling and sometimes they dont even go back to explain what they tell. Especially genshin.
Haha, if you're talking about Paimon... God, I hate how stupid the writers think the players are. Hope you enjoy your stay in GFL 2, Commander. Welcome aboard Elmo express!
ESPECIALLY WITH PAIMON. Someone yap, and then Paimon yap to summarize it for you. That's just not how you do exposition, writers! How stupid do you think your players are?!
I made all these, and then the writers of Daiyan event just dropkicked me and ignored everything I said in the video… Well, at least this video still applies to the first 8 chapters.
I don’t know what’s wrong with Daiyan event though. It’s like a completely different writer entirely, or it has been rewritten many times to condense everything.
Music Used:
- Anno Domini Beats - Shadows
- Girls Frontline 2 - 404
- Arknights - Past
- Girls Frontline - Shattered Connexion
- Girls Frontline 2 - Camp Rest
- Arknights - Contingency Contract Ashring Menu
- RAGE - Book the Rental Wit It
Daiyan event was rewritten 2 times and is the reason why GFL2 was doing so bad in China, Imagine what happen to Wawa but worse, I don´t know the number of events that got the same treatment but but the Maid, Lenna, and Daiyan sister event got effected too, so they bring GF1 and NPC writers back to savage the situation
Well, it was rewritten 2 times. Maybe it seems confusing because of sudden chance of the way they write the story. But trust me, it was the writing used in gfl 1 (chapter 10 onwards). You will feel how powerful the writing of gfl 1 style. I suggest that you also play reverse collapse bakery girl.
Btw, subbed, waiting for your next content. Keep it up!
@@KPMaraujo Ah, that does explain it! Though, I still don't like how they just lore-dump everyone. And somehow the story just ramped up way too quickly.
@@nezhahualphilli294 Thank you! GFL 1 so far has been such a drag... I think Chapter 1-9 could be shortened. The plot barely moves.
I don't mind if they send me into a mindfrick, but they need to really care for the new players. The amount of references to GFL 1 they added to that chapter is a bit too much for my liking. It could be handled better.
@@FeyHuntothers already giving the answer so I'm not going to reiterate. Some would say that the Daiyan event is the 8.5/8.75 main story chapter so it is very heavy on the story. Nevertheless, I also getting caught off guard too because [AFAIK] this never happened before, both in the GFL and the PNC (they mostly had clear label for major campaign event and seasonal event). Unfortunate that we wouldn't able to see the pre-rework story but I'd hope that this is a one time thing.
6:20 yeah but the fact that the commander don't like to have his dolls killed are still there, because if I am not mistaken some memories and even personality traits of the dolls can be lost forever specially if the dolls hasn't back up her Neural cloud in a while, so for the commander to make his dolls killed is like take away a part of their "souls". And Groza is aware of this so she tries to keep her squad mates "alive" as much as possible.
Yeah. I remember they elaborated on that during during the fight at the port with Colphine wanting to retreat while Groza wants to get Krolic and the box during the collapse storm. As well as after the fight
That is one thing I can't get around with. I get that they tried to show it with Groza bugging out, but how is that supposed to be true? These are supposed to be just data.
@@FeyHunt I'm pretty sure the issue with Groza glitching out has nothing to do with her being transferred to a new body, but some plot point that we've yet to see. As for backups, Doll back ups need to be done manually, so if a Doll is destroyed she will lose all the memories that were not backed up beforehand. Some Dolls care more about these memories than others, but the Commander simply doesn't like to see them die since they treat Doll as people rather than just tools.
@ Because dolls personalities and memories are complex information that can be easily damaged, I mean if a normal archive like an excel or word file can just be damaged for many random reasons, from harware problems like a failure in the ram memory to software bugs or even f@cking cosmic rays (that time that valuable Excel table or word file just broke by itself for no reason? now you know why XD), something as complex as dolls memories and personalities are much more susceptible to get damaged in a data transfer...
This coming from the assumtion that dolls store their current personalities and memories in their current frames and not that they are just controlled remotely by an AI in a server as GFL initially tried to imply, however if this was the case it would not make sense why dolls can operated without constant conection in isolated areas so I assume dolls have cibernetic brains in their own frames, so to back up their consciousness they need to update their memories in their servers or something constantly (at least first and second gen dolls, third "gen" dolls are more unique).
@@animeturnMMD I don't remember GFL ever implying that Dolls controlled their frames from a server, that was only the case for their Dummies (sort of, since it was still the Main Frame controlling them) which is a mechanic no longer used in GFL2. Everything else is as you say tho, their Neural Clouds are stored in their core, and backups need to be uploaded to a server or anything else capable of storing data. Since this is a manual process, any data not saved will be lost, on top of the possible loss of data that comes from constantly uploading a neural cloud to a frame that can happen to Dolls that change frames often or anything else that could damage the data itself
rather than storytelling, I think it is more accurate to say that gfl2 succeeded in making a standalone sequel because you don't have to play gfl1 to enjoy gfl2 (3:42)
I really love the moment when something happens, new player reaction be like "that was cool" and then gfl1 veteran be like "YOO IT MENTIONED!"
Haha, yeah! I already knew some of the lore, so when they mentioned Collapse Epiphyllum and immune individual... Oh, I already know what's waiting in later chapters. Still don't know how Girard Group is involved though, but that's a mystery that everyone is in together!
As a player who played the first game for 6 years
the lore of the girls frontline was large and great but its not a requirement to know the story
like there is a world building lore that is good but its not really needed to play through the story
then as i play GFL2 with a friend who didn't know GFL1 its just good that I can explain things to him without giving out major spoilers from the other gfl2 content
As a player that doesn't have any prior knowledge about the prequel game. At first I didn't even know that the UMP sisters has a third sister that is already dead. Up until I dipped a little bit on GFL 1 lore (I'm just scratching the surface), then boom one of the soo called Major Events is where UMP 40 died. I'm now sad about her death.
I still lowkey wanna know more about some Major Events in the First game, but the one thing that is holding me back is the amount of Lore that I would need to read or watch.
@@KahelRaito Glad to hear more people are interested! Do be careful about what you told them though. If you explained what Paradeus is before Chapter 8, you would somewhat ruin that surprise.
We just don't know which lore thing would become a plot point later. I think basic world history like the Beilan incident and major organizations should be fine though.
I would trust mica for any story telling job ever. In gfl1, most of the the major events were focused on the same group of characters and it made them iconic and I dare say they made gfl1, gfl1. But then suddenly on one major event, there were no old characters at all. It was wierd at first and I was waiting for them would show up. But boy I was wrong, the special cast on that event was written perfectly I forgot that I was reading gfl story. The main cast were only shown at the end of the event and I didn't feel like I miss them at all
@@maulaahmad2542 Oh wow... Do they have a Halo ODST episode? That would be interesting to read! I'm still in Chapter 8 though, so it's probably gonna take me long to get to that.
im a veteran of the game, i just want to add the VA really pulls their weight as well to make the story feels better.
And by god chapter 8 with Colphne broken down is just so good, her VA really give it all and that makes Colphne sadness feels genuine and we can relate to her pain, its also a good reflection to the commander that instead of taking action like Colphne even though she doesnt know what she doing is right or not, he choose to runaway.
I do have to say the current event story is a bit underwhelming, but it does rewritten 3 times after an incident regarding CN Player dissatisfaction, so it kinda understandable, but i really hope that scene of Colphne, Helena, Dandelion, and Commander on the drone written much better.
SKK's voice acting in their reaction to Paradeus coming out again was so good.
@@cardiv5zuikaku944 Yep, yep! That is something I gotta talk about in the next video!
You just CAN'T have that moment in a game with a self-insert protagonist. That paralel is just chef's kiss!
That Dandelion scene should have been a good opportunity if the writers want to yap a bit about Commander's struggles in the past.
Heck, they could start with continuing that Colphne's conversation.
"You know how you lost Anfiya, Colphne? Yeah, I lost someone I care for... A lot of them... Even now, I still don't have the answer for you. And now, with Paradeus returning, I'm afraid all of those sacrifices are for nothing. Had I been with Kalin these past 10 years, would they be destroyed for good?"
honestly thats why i stoped playing arknights, the game is fun and the characters great but holy shit no one shuts up, they just go on and on and on, so i got sick of reading the story and stoped
Yep, same here. I still play Arknights for the gameplay. But knowing that each event has 6 hours VN with the combined 200+ hours VN... Yeah, I don't think I'll ever read Arknights in its entirety.
Only after I played BA do I realize that you don’t necessarily need lovecraft, archaic level of language for shit to be good.
@@Neutral_1zed I find those pretentious. There's a reason why popular modern novels don't use Shakespearean speech. You can't connect with the audience if they don't understand it.
At first, i worried that gf2 story will flopped since its too generic and family friendly and focused on relationships on elmo members
But i take back my word, starting from colphne arc (chapter 6 and on) really shocked me. I felt gfl level of storytelling are coming back, and mica gives the commander great level of character developments. Also ch 8.5 really brings gfl level of vibes and tension, while also mentioning some non spoiler PTSD moments from the first game
Colphne's arc had already started from Chapter 2 with the Boojum, how she fleed and then returned out of guilt. But yeah, it's a pretty chill way to ease new players into the story. However, I don't like the abrupt phase-shift in Daiyan's event. Namedropping unnecessary characters is not the best way to do it if they want to keep new players around.
@@FeyHunt yeah ik, i just point out the core of her arc (which is ch 6-8)
Daiyan event got rewritten twice, and mica a bit rushed her event, but its still pretty good imo. All character present in her already introduced in earlier story (directly and indirectly), the main problem is sometimes there's some events/terms that referencing to the first game event. For example there's a scene where dandelion mentions that StateSec is used for experimenting human x elid hybrid to create a new elid lifeforms, for gfl player's they're already know who is StateSec is, but for new players they're wondering who tf is StateSec is
Great video I look forward to the next one
Thank you for the kind words!
Subbed! Can't wait for more bite-sized story analysis, your ZZZ videos are my favorite so far :D
Also, I'd love to see videos and/or shorts about the best, good, bad, and worst stories in Genshin (and how it can be improved of course)
Keep it up!
@@BeatrixBeatrixEverywhere Thank you for the support and kind words!
Genshin would be tough and unfair since I haven't played it in almost 3 years. In general, I don't like making negative criticism videos since it's so exhausting to write for.
But I do have one thing in mind, which is a retrospect video on one of Inazuma's storytelling.
in the place of
Navegation screen/Elmo server room/Traceback/remastered record/Dusty Memories
you can find stories of what the T-Dolls(some of them) do between gfl1 and gfl2.
I second this! But Dusty Memories are more about a single moment in their life, which is very easy to consume.
If you want more detailed journey between those, I recommend the written logs. Colphne's Twisted Smile really detailed her history with Anfiya and Lotta's Mark of Friendship told a lot about her journey before forming Doll Community.
I agree absolutelly and kinda hate how much many players complain, game doesn't serve you everything on silver plate. I mean I am veteran player, but it's not like there is not lot of new things that I knew nothing about that game told me only through implications.
This! I honestly can't talk to players who don't take time to connect the dots and complain the game has no lore...
By far my biggest takeaway from reading a huge chunk of Girls Frontline 1 (up to 15.3 now) is that the lore is really important, but this is a game where the character writing always takes center stage
And that SHOULD BE how gacha game writing works. You can have as many lore and worldbuilding as you'd like. But at the end of the day, we gacha for the characters. Show us how they grow throughout the story. A LOT of gacha games forget about this.
Great video, mate! I really enjoy the GF2 story too.
@@grazaria9721 Thank you for the kind words! Here's hoping for more GFL stories in the future!
New player here. I completely agree with you-the writing is amazing. When I played the beta, I really felt lost because there were many obvious callbacks to the first game, and it seemed like I had to know the lore of GF. But now my opinion has changed completely. I don't want to know everything. I love that the game provides just enough information and keeps me guessing. It's intriguing and fun. It also makes the story more digestible. I really hope other gacha games will adopt this approach and not bombard players with lore in the first five minutes.
Hey, thank you for the kind words! Like you, I'm also tired with yapping in the intro. I hope more developers saw this and follow their examples.
"Restrain! Practice restrain! No, Bob! We don't need to explain the HISTORY of the world in the intro right now... Hey, Jacob! STOP! We don't need to tell them about our previous game!"
I love watching your videos, they always make me say "Ooooh that's so cool!"
I will watch GF2 videos too, even though I don't play it.
Haha, thank you! I'm glad we have our little corner on the internet where we can discuss great writings in gacha games. I haven't found much channel that does the same.
I'm excited to see you around! I'll have 2 more videos at least for GFL 2.
Even when talking about GFL1, one thing they did well is they do not have "throwaway characters" or just trash characters whose duty is to fill up the empty squad slots early on in the game, which its predecessor, Kantai Collection, is very much guilty of. Even the low rarity characters are unique and interesting like when M3 took it personally when Judge called her "Grease Gun".
Oh I have to verify your claim first before I can cheer for it. But yeah, a lot of night missions are to explore these low rarity characters.
By predecessor, do you mean Kancolle is developed by the same company? I didn't know that!
@@FeyHunt No, different company. Kancolle was by DMM while GFL is by Mica. However a lot of GFL's mechanics are based on KC. Many VAs also voiced characters of both games so maybe that counts. The construction, map design, the old repair system, event model, and some others are being pulled straight from KC though also being improved upon.
I only agree with part of this video. They did a great job of not needing to understanding the first game with anti-yapping, but they filled the conversation and bantering with other types of yapping. When reading the dialogues between the mc and the dolls, I felt like reading some sort of scripts between multiple NASA scientists, a bunch of acronyms and tech jargons being thrown around, or the dolls explaining the situation with too much details. Also, there were too much bantering between Krolik and Nemesis, I got so annoyed when they just had to argue in almost every scene.
I don't mind them spreading out the story bit by bit, however, it was too slow for me. That combined with the awkward moments kept happening when the mc bumped into his previous dolls, everything just felt weird. I finally enjoyed the story at the end of chapter 8, but it took way too much yapping and round-a-bout to get there.
There are some scenes where it just drags a bit too long. Vepley is the biggest cause of it on most cases.
Though, I have nothing instantly in mind with the "NASA Scientists" conversation. Can you share one of the examples?
I guess sometimes characters talk about more technical stuff, like when Groza talk about "terrain map data" or Elmo engine status. Other characters like Mayling and Dandelion may go on about signal and security tech jargon, which I do find to be a bit confusing at times. There are technologies like the "Remolding Pattern" that is not very well visualised and since you don't ever interact or hear about these technologies outside of stories, I think they are a bit unnecessary.
@@memebender5626 Huh... Personally, I'm not affected by that because it's just some random passing phrases. It's not like they keep going over and over it again. Remolding Pattern is one jargon that I immediately associate to "magic power". I'm curious how many people are having problems with these jargons.
So glad GFL is getting more of the love it deserve. This game, series, it just so goooood
My fellow commanders, we are on a golden era. Lets enjoy🎉
@@kakansitokun I'm ready to show the world how good GFL 2 stories are, and where it lacks. Comrade, I salute you o7
genshin after the aranara questline: WE JUST SUCCESSFULLY WASTED 6HOURS OF PLAYERS TIME FOR NOTHING
For a white text on a black background about the FIRST PERSON WE SEE TO GET A VISION
You can really immerse yourself with the story, I dont' think I've seen any of the chapter currently that left wanting besides the cliffhangers. Its crazy how good you can still feel the emotion from the characters even when its only 2d pictures, really reminds me of top tier visual novels back then.
Also I like how well they explained how neural cloud works on this game, gfl1 sort of did that too but it wasn't as clear or it was somewhat vague.
Yep, yep! It's the voice acting. Really top-notch! The localization kinda adds some words at times, but it's really good!
GFL 1 keeps contradicting itself with the explanation of Neural Cloud. Sometimes they said it's just a memory bank, and then they said it's personality core. Then there's a weird quirk of AR Team being unable to be backed up... And how M4A1 felt bad at commanding Dolls to die, even though they are robots... I'm confused.
And that's not even mentioning that ELIDS and different Zones are mentioned WAYYYYYYY later in the story. I'm in Chapter 9 right now, and there's no one mentioning that the world itself is fricked from Beilan Incident!
@@FeyHunt Yeah, really vague back then hahah, I think I left after Isomer or when that ELIDs outbreak break through a wall and we had to protect a VP, I can't remember.
I'm just glad that they're finally smoothening out the lore for gfl, even to the point that they even have different doll body models which makes perfect sense since they've been developing them for quite sometime now even before gfl1, and oh also including fire control modules for dolls was also cleared in the current story which was neat.
@@unloyal4847 Yep! I like their explanation so far with Dolls worldbuilding, like the FCC and Neural Cloud, or that all Dolls don't have gustatory senses. But overall, very restrained and focused.
Except for after Boojum encounter where Groza chose to save Krolik instead of retreating. The explanation to Colphne is a bit... eh. She said something like "you can still lose memories", which is kinda odd.
@ I think cuz theres anomalies that may affect neural cloud upload, specially since I think Collapse storms are kind of super high radiation storms which even dolls aren't safe from most of the time judging by how during Suomi/Ulrid's quest they said they'd have trouble entering red zones since they don't have suits even if they were dolls.
That said I guess theres really factors on what affects NC's, giving them rings for example says something about etching this moment in their NC so theres that too, I'll need to dig around more to be sure haha.
@@FeyHunt My guess is that you can't be sure how much data is going to be lost in the next Neuro Cloud uploud. Think of it like transfering game/programm data from one hard disc to another. You can't be sure that application will run without problems
Wait for the next event. The Daiyan event is actually the first half, and the latter is twice as long as the former.
Oh boyyy... I hope they did better next time. That Daiyan event is a doozy for new players. So many unnecessary references to the OG.
The chaotic start of GFL2 is so similar to the chaotic start of GFL1 that they both have the same problem of mediocre quality.
The new Daiyan plot is indeed short and abrupt, it is a tragic victim, due to the reversal of the plot order, now it has to be the first character event to continue EP8.
Sunborn overestimated its own production capacity. The original plan was to guarantee one character event per month, and to update one chapter in 1-2 months.
EP9 -10(Klukai event) is expected to be online soon, and it takes place at the same time as the events of Daiyan and G36, returning to the complex narrative structure of GFL1 and the brutal war scenes.
new commander : what is paradeus?
veteran commander : "ptsd intensified"
Oh, let me tell you about Machlian, comrade...
But yeah, I hope the writings could slowly explore the Commander's burning hatred to new players in a Dusty Memories type of content. Maybe some of the past characters could come back. Heck, I want some of the assimilated units from Paradeus to join us. Tareus would be awesome!
I never noticed the paradeus symbol on Nemesis's alt skin. Fuck.
Haha, same! I was looking through her skin and then I realized I have to include this in the video!
No wonder why I still enjoy the story even though it has a bad translation in my language (ภาษาไท).
IMO what makes GFL2 stand out from other gacha is the vibe of "maturity".
Rather than using mysterious amnesia or virgin newcomer strategist or isekai bro protagonist. (for the sake of having room for self-insert)
GFL2 dares to use a full-blown veteran protagonist.
(which is a bit controversial when compared to the prequel kancolle-clone game fanbase. Well, it's a sequel after all ...)
I don't mean other types of writing or protagonist suck.
It's just so refreshing to see this take in the gacha-anime game.
Oh definitely! And that allows for some of the greatest scenes in the game so far, namely Kalin's reunion and Colphne's breaking down. Those just CAN'T exist in a story with a weak protagonist. That's the topic for the next video!
Long-time GFL1 fan here. You hit the nail on the head for why GFL2 is (was?) doing so well globally. I think that their biggest challenge at the moment is placating "the old guard", who were expecting a more complex political thriller-esque story, like GFL1 is in its later stages. Chapters 6-8 (8.5) of GFL2 seem to be centered around this, at the expense of the new players. I hope they can find a balance.
Yeah, I hope they can balance it well too. I don't mind Daiyan's event if they had handled it better. I think Dandelion should be used more to let Colphne knew more about the Commander's past, just like how the commander promised her she could ask about their past.
4:00 As someone who started with GFL2 I actually went back and read all the main story events and some mod stories for characters I liked and I think it was actually way more for the better than worse. I got to enjoy an entire game story that took years to craft in the span of a few weeks and it allowed me to appreciate everything in the 2nd game more. The lore, world building, geopolitics, factions, etc. All of it became enhanced because I felt like I had gone through everything the Commander did 10 years ago and after reading everything they went through I 100% understand why Commander would wish to go into exile. The one downside is that one of my favourite characters is likely never returning due to a big climatic event they were unfortunately apart of in GFL1 lol.
Haha, great! Of course old players got to have their fun too!
i just hope that RO635 would make an appearance. I really love her. But if any of AR team showed up, the writers need to do a lot of work to prep the new players for it. I don't think that will happen, personally.
@@FeyHunt I'm praying for the return of M4A1 but that's probably the last doll to return lol
@@Pine2142 I don't think she'll return at all, tbh. She probably would be an NPC at best, considering her current status. But having her as an adjutant in Elmo would be a very interesting plot decision.
I'm really enjoying GFL2 now that it's released in EN. It's really great that they did the show don't tell approach to some story beats! I'm sort of a veteran of the game. I've played the first game up to the point that we could use Heavy Ordinance teams, but had to stop because of the devices I was using to play it was slow even for GFL1 and there was too much reading that I could handle so I kind of felt bad for the writers and translators. So I've been watching summary videos for some context.
Haha, yeah! I'm sort of on your last played level as well. That's exactly when the plot starts to shift into high gear. Here's to more GFL 2!
I'm a new GFL2 player but I'm watching the story summary of GFL1 by Heromystic, currently on episode 3 to get a feel of the lore.
GFL2 as a new player is great as they keep the players guessing and there are overarching mystery but I just like to know some of their relationship before diving more into GFL2 and not only know them as mere old friend.
Daiyan event left on the cliffhanger in a middle of battle feels weird tho. 🤨
Daiyan's event will be continued later. They keep doing this to regular chapters as well. Some of them have a tiny timeskip like the start and end of Chapter 8.
Personally, I don't think knowing their relationship matters all that much since most of the cast are new characters. Groza lost her memories, which leaves only Kalin, Lenna, and Dandelion. It just adds context to the legacy characters, which is a good plus.
And the everything changed when Mr. Raymond appeared.
i assume this is a reference to the original draft for Daiyan's event, yes?
@@FeyHunt Let me explain, based on the quality of CGI animation, EP1-6 was probably finalized in 2021, EP7-EP8 was updated after release, which is why 7-8 looks so much better than 1-6.Because they're probably new to the story that was written in 2023.
Daiyan's plot was originally finalized in 2022 because Daiyan's sister used a defunct name, Yinzhu.
GFL2 was originally scheduled to be released in October in China, and Daiyan's plot was obviously prepared for the Spring Festival in February, which means that the first character scheduled to be UMP9 or G36.
In 2023, Daiyan's sister was renamed Jiangyu in GFL2 and Project Neural Cloud, so we can know that the leaked plot that caused great controversy is actually an abandoned case.
Ironically, due to the confusion caused by the controversy, Sunborn had to modify the old plot slightly for Daiyan's plot, while writing new plots for the first few characters.
Sunborn did this not because some NTR or maid service rich kids bullshit, but because they have realized that the character story is not related to the main story chapter and some players are disappointed.
The new Daiyan plot and the new G36 (the maid, it's hard to spell that German name) are closely linked, just like the two chapters of Glass Island, very much like the GFL1 story.
1:13 it's like The Matrix scene where Neo taking red pill or blue pill, living a peaceful life with Kalina in the green zone or keep pursuing the brave new world from the the first game.. we take the red pill.
That's cool and I already know that, but let's not talk about the first game's plot in this comment section. Otherwise, the comment section would be an antithesis to the video itself.
I tried to play GFL years ago I still have my original account, however the game arrived at a time in my life that I just didn't have time to complete the story so I just have completed 3 chapters of the fist game's story, so I know who is the commmander and some of the basic lore of the world includying why the world is a post apocaliptic nightmare (because it has been like this since the first game) thanks to some GFL lore masters in youtube.
But while I have my suspicions of why the commander left griffing, I really want to know what make him leave behind his friends and well.. all the dolls that used to be under his command and even were really loyal to him like M4, if I am not mistaken GFL (the OG) hasn't ended yet, so even if you arrive to the end of GFL today the commander is still more or less a griffin commader.
So the while veteran players may have a better guess of why the commander left, no one has really see that moment, so you can say that both veteran and new players don't not with 100% certainty the exact moment that the commander decides to leave everything behind.
If you are a lore enthusiast, you would already know the end of GFL 1 back in early-mid December. The story is done and the game has been closed in CN. Everything is explained in there, as far as I'm told.
But yeah, if you only read EN global version, there will be some gaps in the lore, as well as the lingering questions of what happened in-between that 10 years. That's the big question that keeps us all reading the lore, newbie and veterans alike.
Reading the comments here, Daiyan's event story is apparently chapter 8.5 or something? That sets a really bad precedent. It was a bit jarring for me since I was expecting it to be a self-contained story, but it very clearly ties into events from the main plot. To make things worse, I had only done up to chapter 5 when I did it, and I really don't like the idea of a time-limited event being a part of the main story, since future players will end up with a weird disconnect in the main plot.
Up until Daiyan's event, I would have said that GFL2 had the best writing in gacha that I've experienced. It still might, but now that's more of a condemnation of gacha writing than it is praise of GFL2. Still the best early chapters though; hopefully things end up in a better structure than I'm expecting.
Yep! That's my take as well. They were doing very well, up until that dropkick to the face. It feels very jarring to new players, and a massive letdown if you want to know who Daiyan is. She barely even introduce herself.
Granted, there will be a permanent archive to past events later on. I just hope they labeled it correctly. Back in GFL 1, events that ties into the main story are clearly labeled Episode 8.5 or even 8.75 to let the players know the exact canonical orders.
As an AK player I know their storytelling isn't the best but my god, when the writers cook they fkn deliver!
The best examples of AK events I can give are Lone Trail and Babel. The reading can be tought for many but it pays off.
I could easily say those two events are some of the best stories in fiction I've ever read.
@@MauguiltysparkWell, from my little experience with Arknights, their writings are never satisfying to me. There's always a big catch, or something that makes me icky.
Lone Trail for example, is icky in terms of its internal morality. They let the bad guy win and glorify her without acknowledging any bits of nuance.
I read through some events, and so far, none of them wow-ed me in terms of writing. Something like what I described in my videos about GFL or ZZZ.
I TOTALLY HAVENT BEEN SKIPPING EVERYTHING CUZ GIRLS AND COOL IRL GUNS
@@imjustxtra7256 How could you... 😭😭
Hehe, enjoy the game however you like! It's not like those stories will go anywhere! 😄😄
@@FeyHunt i'll probably wiat for those recaps and stuff videos
I am a veteran player but only dabbled in the lore. There was a lot of it and keeping up was difficult for me, so this new formula in 2 has been a breath of fresh air
Haha, yeah! I hope they don't start to ruin it with Daiyan's event. That writing is just horrible when compared to the previous ones.
min 3:26 ayoo wtf?
i never saw that in the skin
Haha, yep! I noticed that and I immediately knew I had to put it in the video!
is like dark souls all yapping is in the elmo cloud and item description
I'm a bit torn on this. Generally, I like GFL 2 implementation better since it's told in a story format through the lens of the characters. I don't really like Star Rail's approach of having an in game wiki. By revealing those information, you already know that there won't be a story revolving around that particular worldbuilding concept to explain what it is. You won't have that Groza got shot scene to explain Dolls are immortals.
I love GFL2. You explained really well why I enjoy the story so much. The world building, character's personalities and general flow of the story just feels right. Also the background music and SFX during dialogue add *a lot* to the atmosphere and are masterfully implemented. Great video!
Thank you! I'm excited for future events as well! Characterization is just top notch!
Hopefully the writings will get better and better.
And don't forget the music, if you play the story while having the sound muted, you are missing quite a bit. A music youtuber explained the prologue in detail some time ago.
@@rps215 Who the frick play a game with muted sound?! Blasphemous!
I also find it funny that Arknights was basically made by some of the original writers of GFL1 that were responsible for its beginning being a bit of a slog with the commander being a presenceless self insert set of eyes. Basically they left because there was a disagreement about wanting the game to become more fantasy based when it was already a well established science fiction route.
So low and behold like not two years after GFL2 releases in CN, the Arknights people announce Arknights Enfield. They really saw GFL2 and decided they needed to make their own game transcend to the 3rd dimension and cg graphics like it was a threat.
Also funny that the original Arknights took the common role of making the gacha more mihoyo coded for the game with 2d avatars while GFL2 pretty much made that switch only because it became a much bigger budgeted CG game and Yuzhongs own wallet can only support so much.
Weird how even with the modern Hoyo standard of Gacha, GFL2 and even Neural Cloud is still so goddamn generous with all its rewards that spending at this point is more of a courtesy then a necessity unless you just absolutely want to go crazy and get everything like a complete madman.
GFL1 's initial bad storyline came from lowlight in 2016, and in 2019 AK's storyline also had the same problem.
I agree with you, if you look at Endfield's character renderings it's so close to GFL2, and that's because GFL2 launched in 2023 while Endfield was doing public testing, and then they chose to delay Endfield for almost a year.
Eh, I think you're looking too much into the drama between these two games.
GFL 2 and Endfield exist more like an answer to Mihoyo's Genshin Impact. Times are changing. People are less likely to play a 2D gacha game nowadays.
Lore and writing wise, both games suck in different ways. I really don't like Arknights verbose writing, or how their events are 6 hours unvoiced VN. GFL 1 Chapter 1-8 really suck and slow so far. Though, I think that speaks more about Lowlight than GFL team.
In any case, I think it's best not to stir up an unneeded controversy. We play what we like, and ignore what we don't like.
I'm not sure about events story.
What if I missed some of them, Is there anywhere in the game where I can re-read them?
Not right now. But later on there will be an archive menu to replay past events.
@5:09 Oi... You know good damn well, that it's not that "if its ANY other gacha" You know damn well, that ZZZ would do it the same way as GF2. If not better in some points... or worse in others. But generally, the same way.
Yep yep! ZZZ and GFL are my top pick for the best writing so far. Their "show, don't tell" is on point!
Though, ZZZ has been using "white text on black background" too often for my liking these days. It's a little nitpick, but can be rather annoying.
@@FeyHunt Yeah. They do. Less than Genshin and most caretainly HSR... But still they use it a lot recently. However I do think that it is given with life service games with such frequent updates. There is not much time, so you just can't animate or draw anything. ZZZ doesn't have that big budget... Yeah Hoyo is rich company and they have tons of money, but ZZZ has the lowest budget out of their big 3. Still pumping the best content tho' Lack of funds is compensated with their best team.
Idk in which version GF2 currently is, but I think it will come to the point where they start using it more as well, when they start to lack a time to get everything ready. Untill they'll give the game bigger budget and hire some more ppl.
No matter how great team game has... no matter how passionate it is... If they are pressured by time and don't have enough ppl, they cant do anything about it and have to use some easy and at the same time bad solutions that let them fill in that lack of staff and time. So in the end it all depends on how much higherups are willing to spend for the game development. Team size is dependend on budget as well, hired ppl have to get their paycheck after all... That's a sad reality to it.
@@Devilish132 Yeahh! And that's the thing I often find weird about gacha games. They write half-assed stories as if that doesn't affect their income. Did they not realize that people would be more likely to pull if they knew the character well? You can tell which gacha games just write stories to fill in quotas.
@@FeyHunt Exactly. Sometimes You can feel that they just don't have good writer in team. sometimes it is a thing as well.
Or when they have amazing director. Like ZZZ's director is the same guy that directed HI3rd, I mean cinematics... He did amazing over there and continues doing even better in here. Since He has an amazing (even better than before) animators backing him up now.
tbh, i skip all of them because I like the gameplay.
maybe I'll watch some GFL2 playthrough after this.
Oh, you really should! The gameplay is a bit of DPS check, but it does scratch my itch of a tactical turn-based gameplay.
If you want to get a nice taste of the story, I recommend going to Elmo's Database and choose one of the Dusty Memories, which are small 15-30 minutes character stories. They're pretty good and fun to read!
I agree with the points you raised, however, being a new player to this franchise myself, I can honestly appreciate if there's some kind of summary / information to make me understand the world better, like:
- what's going on with the world? About the collapse storm, Elid etc, would be nice to get more information about them rather than simply only able to draw conclusion of 'generic monster enemies'
- what's up with those dolls? In the first event, there's a mention about civilian and combat dolls? My impression is the dolls is made for combat so why is there a civilian version?
- what is the current balance of power in the world? There's URNC, Varjaeger and other groups that simply only makes me wondering about them
A rather short explanation that detailed them would actually be nice, perhaps even tied to the story progression so as you progress further, you'll unlock more information about them so in the end you can have better understanding about the game world
@@Rayfireful Hello! They did. A lot of your questions are explained in the stories as you go along. Check out the Dusty Memories as well to learn more about Dolls, and check out the loading screens.
I would only mention things explained in GFL 2 here, in case some you may have missed. It does take time to go through all stories and descriptions to form a complete picture. I will also include as many sources as I can.
The world is something you can infer from mostly loading screens. We already see a lot of the world is divided in "zones" depending on their radiation level. We can infer that most of the world is a barren wasteland. One of the loading screen tips did mention "Beilan Island incident", which is a huge event. Hopefully we'll get to explore that origin later in GFL 2.
As for Dolls, yes, we do have mentions in Glass Island events that there are two types of Dolls: civilians (C-Dolls) and tactical combat dolls (T-Dolls). Their main difference is just Fire Control Module. We did see how Colphne, a medic, turn from C-Doll to T-Dolls in the main story. Tololo's Dusty Memories, do tell us that civilian dolls can still use guns, but their accuracy will be diminished. In Krolik's Dusty Memories, it was revealed that she is originally a civilian doll. Centaureisi memories also mentioned that she is originally a civilian doll. Glass Island does tell us about Wolfiin, a civilian Doll that is specifically made for planting agriculture. So yeah, Dolls are just robots made for different reasons.
URNC and power balance is mostly in loading screen and some descriptions. URNC is basically the dominant power right now governing all nations. While Varjager are just bandits. That's all we have so far.
@FeyHunt would be nice if there's a glossary, or terminal you can access for that info as you discovered it, I honestly thought that's what the Elmo server cloud is for, a data bank for the game world info or a brief recap of what happened in the first game
Honestly I enjoy the world building and the story so much but it seems that new players might be missing something even more basic like "how the world even got to this stage?", other than that, everything is great
@@Rayfireful A summary book would be very nice to have! It does remind of the old Bioware games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age where new topics are added as you go along the story. But I haven't seen any gacha games that did this correctly. Honkai Star Rail sort of give it a try with its in-game wiki, but it ends up being a yapping bonanza.
Have you played GFL: project neural cloud? I really think you should, me, and my friend, agree that the way the story of NC is written, despite the lack of voice acting and just purely VN style, is better than GFL2.
One of the major complains I have about GFL2, is their heavy reliance on cinematic cutscenes mid way through the story to prevent players getting too bored of its story, not necessarily a bad thing, but that is something not every gacha games studio can afford, while the quality of their VN stories are.....not as good, so, those cutscenes are what I'm waiting for most when reading it story, and the missing of it really highlights how not as good, their VN storytelling is.
The problems with GFL2 storytelling now, despite without all the exposition dump yapping, is a lot of unnecessary jargons and cordinates yap (we're in this position in this region, estimate time until full speed, time of arrival, etc...), I can't remember half the location names they threw at me, that still counts as yapping, they also use a lot of cliche, in important plot moment, like how Krolik keep getting into arguments with Nemesis, which needs her interpretation to understand, she blew up 2 stealth mission bc of this, that is not professional for a T-doll.
I like chapter 8 the most, by far, since they're finally picking up the pace, the previous 7 chapters really feel like they are in a wild goose chase, unnecessary dragged out story sections, and a bunch of cliff-hangers, which is another thing I despise in GFL2: too much cliff-hangers, both the story in chapter 8 and Daiyan event now end in cliff-hanger. That's not great.
You might praise their show, no tell story telling technique, but what about their actual plots and characters? I will tell you, it is average, I don't know if this is their intentions or not, but every villains before paradeus was a cliche joke, I don't feel the slightest bit intimidated by them, since their sheer incompetent turns them into nothing more than laughing stocks, even at serious moments, and all I feel is that we're wasting too much time dealing with these fools, despite the reputation of the commander they're constantly hyping it up to be. The story of Daiyan event is better than the Ullrid and Makiatto event, despite the fact that it has no voice acting and no cutscenes, probably due to it literally being a main story chapter. All in all, GFL2 stories still has a lot it can improve upon.
Oof, if Project Neural Cloud has no voiced VN, it's gonna be a hard skip for me. I already have Arknights in that slot, and it's really hard to read through their 200+ hours of unvoiced VN.
Usually, I don't defend any game's writings... nor do I have any particular attachment to any games. But I'm going to make an exception this time to genuinely discuss how you arrive at these conclusions. Keep in mind, I'm doing this on a genuinely good faith discussion. I'm not trying to insult your opinions.
I respectfully hard disagree with your takes here, particularly because you haven't explained what makes NC writing better than GFL 2. What does an "average" character and plot mean if I don't have a way to compare it?
But I don't get how you think coordinates count as yapping. They're never important in the plot, as established very early on. Those are just to showcase how professional Groza is, while at the same time helping lore enthusiasts to map out the events in the game. There's never a moment in the story where you're expected to know where you are.
The enemies are NEVER the point of the story, they're just plot devices. The story is always about the characters and the mysteries, like how the Boojum is just Colphne's arc with Groza. The same goes for Ullrid and Makiatto's events. They're just introductions to the characters and their problems. In this regard, I think you're looking at the story from the wrong lens. You're expecting bombastic lore drop every single moment, instead of a more character-focussed story. That's not here yet, until Daiyan's event.
In short, is it possible that you're expecting GFL 2 to be Neural Cloud 2.0, and then that somehow gives you a biased look to it? Which is totally fine! It's a matter of preference. But personally, I tried not to criticize a game because of what it's not meant to be. For example, I don't try to justify my arguments that Limbus Company has terrible writing because it used grimdark tropes. I just outright said that I don't like it because of its tropes.
@@FeyHunt May I suggest you should read on one main story chapter or character events of NC because unlike arknights, it is actually very short and easy to jump in, you don't need 200+h, just about 30 min, then you can decide how good they handle it.
If I have to explain, it would be "focused", NC stories tended to focused on the actual plot happening around it rather than using unnecessary words and meaningless jargon (words that you have to use google to search its meaning with no ways of guessing it), it focused on the emotions of each characters and development rather than using technical terms to lengthen its time, because most of its stories is focused on C-dolls, civilian dolls, and even at crucial main story chapters, they keep a lot of technical terms to the minimum. Each characters there also feel unique, with clear and believable motivations, and logical actions that despite you may not agree with their methods, you can't help but sympathize with them.
You said it yourself, those coordinates and many more technical terms like how fast the Elmo speed is, is irrelevant to the plot, and just here to showcase how professional they are, but at the same time, they take up way too much time, this is not like movies when they intentionally speed through these segments or talking in high speed, this is a repeated occurrence in any main story chapters, to the point of unnecessary, and it is fully voice acted, so you can't just skip all those without feeling that you did not go through the intended experience.
You may say that the enemies are NEVER the point of the story, and just plot devices, and I have to disagree with that, if the only saving grace about the lackluster villain that take up a lot of screen time, is that they're just there to push the character arc, then it is an excuse for lackluster writing, the Vagjager leader we first met, the client, in the plot, was shown to be a formidable threat yet somehow everytime they appear on screen, you can't help but feel like they're a bunch of clowns that purely arrived in this position by sheer luck since they're too incompetent, how can I feel that the dolls are the commander are that capable when they struggles this much against such insanely incompetent villains?
I like how you put the Boojum here, since the Boojum is actually one of the better enemy of the early chapters, it was built up to be this unstoppable threat that we cannot beat, and it stays that way, which is good, until it got anticlimactically killed off-screen, it also hinted on Helena's future connection to the ELIDs. Ullrid's event main villain, is the strange doll, that serves nothing more than a massive wall, only later killed off in a cutscenes by sheer plot convenience, judging by how strong she was described in the events, but that's ok, cause suddenly now she's the only threat there and everyone can live happily ever after there, you can't help but feel a bit too convenient that things ended up this way, while the relation of both that strange doll and her former owner can be much better developed upon instead of reading through all the logs that she conveniently hold in the arm they severed. Makiatto's event villain is a smuggler built up to be this menacingly scheming and insidious individual that slipped through the hands of the authorities all these times, and yet when we met him, he is nothing more than a pathetic and paranoid individual, that rather blame his loyal henchmen than taking into accounts that the authorities might be on to him, and pathetically pulled out a massive dinergate that the dolls conveniently destroyed it rather easily, when it is stated that it is a far stronger upgrade than the small dinergate they're using (that small dinergate feels more like a threat than the final boss ever did). Almost every villain thus far is far more disappointing than they built it up to be, arknights does not suffer from these thing even in the early chapters, while still keeping the character development intact.
I was expecting, the quality of writing of NC to be in GFL2, its sequel, since each story chapters of NC has such impressive balance between the villains built up and execution, while still retaining good characters development, each villains there feel threatening, with understandable motivations and goals, that also serve a good part in the development of each characters in it, you can watch Lind (the anniversary event) event story, or Clukay's event story in NC, and you can feel the emotions and the desperate situations they're in, without needing to resort to plot conveniences nor compromising the quality of its villains, that is what GFL2 is missing, which is carried heavily by its voice over dialogues and cutscenes segments.
Here’s what I do with event and character stories (no stamina needed): I skip through them as fast as I can, autoplay the fights, complete the supply missions, and start farming on day one to maximize rewards. Later, at my leisure, I go back and read the story. On a personal level, I do kind of disagree with you. The story in GF2 is fine so far, but there are too many moments where I get aggravated because the characters won’t stop bringing up one topic after another to yap about. Sometimes, it just won’t end. On top of that, there’s all this, for me, useless overly immersifying information about the world and its elements. I wish they would focus more on getting through the plot, sprinkling in interesting inter-doll interactions/drama ;) ... this is what keeps me reading.
There are grating moments, like any scenes with Vepley. She's cute and all, but her yapping is practically useless. Some people also find Krolik-Nemesis banters aggravating, but to me, it's just funny, except for when they are in the middle of the plot. But overall, I don't get too annoyed with that in my own personal taste.
Arkknights Endfield also doesnt have this useless yapping, such bliss
Haha, that's good to hear! Though @IsKandar-v6v in this comment section said otherwise, saying that Endfield has too much yap.
@@FeyHunt Idk, I have not encountered it.
It like wise has the same setup of having lots of lore, but since Endfield is largely standalone it doesn't force feed you anything. Stuff from your past is only brought up as context when needed
NO WONDER IT FEELS SO GOOD!
I am new player, though i have friends who played the original, so i got curious.
I always hated excessive yapping, they always overtelling and sometimes they dont even go back to explain what they tell. Especially genshin.
Haha, if you're talking about Paimon... God, I hate how stupid the writers think the players are.
Hope you enjoy your stay in GFL 2, Commander. Welcome aboard Elmo express!
Nuuu arknights endfield is yap😢😢
Oh no... I have to see this myself when it launches. I swear, if they turn everyone in little Kal'tsit...
Genshin more yapping than game 🤣 I wish it has skip button to skip months or year quest 🤣
ESPECIALLY WITH PAIMON. Someone yap, and then Paimon yap to summarize it for you. That's just not how you do exposition, writers! How stupid do you think your players are?!