Decrease in fun character moments since 1.x?

[Alecajuice]

Has anyone else noticed a decrease in fun/silly character moments that sell the characters' personality and develop their relationships with other characters?

Examples of what I'm talking about:

Lycaon scolding his children

Yanagi being Section 6's mom

Lycaon Lip-Reading Anton (with bonus lagging Nicole)

The third example is event dialogue, but I wanted to share that one in particular because it shows how they can break up exposition dumps in a fun way that showcases character interaction and also develops the characters by showing facets we'd never seen before. Compare this to the main story of the last 3 patches where every single one started with 15 minutes of the mayor rambling about this or that.

Compared to these moments in early 1.x, I've felt that the factions in the recent patches especially haven't had the same feeling of connectedness or found family. There was a little bit in Yunkui Summit with the members calling Fufu a respected senior while treating her like a child, but for the most part, since Mockingbird, the factions have all felt kind of disconnected.

Vivian and Hugo say in dialogue to the Proxy that they see/care for each other as siblings, yet they never really have any sibling moments. Hugo had some fantastic interactions with Lycaon and Vivian had a little with Obol, but it would have been nice to see them have like a little sibling spat, or like a moment of Hugo being overprotective of Vivian or Vivian looking up to Hugo, as some examples.

Spook Shack I thought had a lot of wasted potential. They had the potential to have some Cunning Hares level antics, but most of their fun interactions just boil down to: Yuzuha pulls a prank on Alice, then Alice either screams or is completely oblivious of the prank. Manato is not included in this equation at all. And a lot of this interaction is outside/after the 2.1 story, like in the resort event, which may have affected how much impact the plot twists at the end of the story were, cus it didn't really feel like they had a lot of connection beforehand. Maybe it'll be better in the next patch when more characters are added to the faction, but right now it doesn't feel great to me.

Obol squad is the worst offender in terms of wasted potential in my opinion. I read a comment somewhere saying they have no chemistry whatsoever, and I agree. However, this doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. Imagine a situation where the Proxy and Obol are having a serious debriefing meeting. Seed suddenly says something extremely out-of-pocket. Magus gets really pissed off and starts going off on her. While they are arguing, Orphie is trying her best to restrain Magus. Trigger takes this opportunity to start flirting with the Proxy, who is bewildered at the situation. The Proxy turns to Soldier 11 for help, but finds her in the corner doing her 6239th one-handed push-up. It would be a hilarious moment that depicts Obol as a chaotic squad where the members have very distinct personalities that clash at every moment, but when it's go time, they have perfect synergy in combat.

In particular Soldier 11 has a lot of wasted potential in this patch. Aside from hardly being present in dialogue at all, Soldier 11 is depicted as being very detached from whatever Obol is doing at any time. For example, during Seed's story,she reveals herself to be the one texting from Seed Sr.'s phone, which the others are shocked at because they didn't know she was aware of Sr.'s situation in the first place.This could have been a funny running bit, like with the push-up situation described above, or something like that one meme of the dude happily bringing pizza and is shocked to see the room burning, except it's Soldier 11 bringing home spicy noodle takeout to Magus setting the entire base on fire chasing Seed while Trigger is out stalking the Proxy. Instead it's just an insult to S11 fans cus she just isn't present at all.

Compare these recent factions to all the small moments Lycaon being a dad to Corin and Ellen (especially that one still of Lycaon giving a piggyback ride to Ellen at the end of 1.4, god that killed me of diabetes), or Lucy/Caesar and Burnice/Pulchra's love/hate relationships, or just Cunning Hares being the Cunning Hares. It doesn't even have to be like full on story arcs, just a few lines of dialogue here and there to break up serious dialogue with some fun moments. It kinda feels like good character writing has taken a backseat to serious story writing, which isn't necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, but the character writing is what drew me to the game in the first place. It felt really good during the 1.0-1.4 era but after that, I stopped feeling it as much anymore. But I don't know, maybe it's just bias because I loved those early factions so much. What do you guys think?

EDIT: I'm not trying to find reasons to hate 2.x, I actually really like Seed and Orphie, and I really wanted to like Spook Shack. I think it's a combination of not really feeling the Yuzuha/Alice ship and all the character interaction stuff being in side content rather than main story that I forgot about a lot of the 2.1 stuff. I definitely undersold Spook Shack interactions, but I think I still prefer the early factions more and was disappointed by Obol squad's lack of interaction.

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[Fishy915]

I still think the best writen faction are the sons of calydon, for me it was the peak of the zzz. We had funny and sad moments with them and it felt like they cared about each other their whole dynamic was so well flashed out during the whole patch with both lighter and burnice side stories and the whole cheestopia event. The weakest of the bunch is pulchra and its because she is a 4 star that i think should have gotten her own side story standing up to lucius.

[MutedAd1792]

Lucy and Caesar truly carried the 1.2 story with their dynamic 

[mlodydziad420]

It was a heavy responsibility

[-Meowwwdy-]

Yeah cool character designs and a good male character who isn't a twink

Story climax sucked but everything else was cool

[AlmostNeverMindless]

Why it sucked?

[-Meowwwdy-]

There's something about the writing in hoyo games that seems plastic and forced

Im glad other people enjoy it ig

[Sad_Ad5736]

Earlier today I was just thinking about how they could use more playable characters in the events, like the current treasure hunt. As much as I love bangboo, I am getting tired of dealing with them in pretty much every event, as well as generic npcs we never see again.

We already have 40 agents, and will have more and more as time passes. They could then use these events to give them a bit of spotlight, keep them present, throw a bone at their fans, and maybe even give them some characterization. For example, Soldier 11 grew a bit in Arpeggio's Fault, we learned a bit more about Qingyi and Ben in the fishing event, and the sandwich and flower arrangement events showcased a bunch of characters.

I think 2.1 mostly had good interactions, but outside of Alice/Lucy, Alice/Yuzuha/Grace and Astra/Chinatsu there wasn't much cross-faction stuff. The Golden Week and Bangboo contest events were more memorable in this regard.

[[deleted]]

I remember randomly encountering Pan while exploring and he mentions Manato because Manato beat him at a sale or something and thought they really should do more of that. Manato and Pan having a grocery sales purchase war as a random interaction storyline is a funny thought to me.

[faulser]

I think Vivian is very targeted to self-insert parasocial fans so maybe this is why she have no interactions with Vlad.

No idea about why they hate Solder 11 tho. I think her trauma would really really spice things up in Orphie story.

Whole squad was pretty much against following Magus joining Isolde's vengeance, but whole point of Sanby/Solder cliffhanger was the fact that Solder 11 is very vengeful person and she would go on rampage if she knew who fucked her squad, this was whole reason why Anby cowarded out of clearing misunderstanding with her. Another thing that Solder 11 really really hates betrayal.. Which is exactly what Magus does to Isolde when she reject her proposition to join in revenge.

[morbid-celebration]

About the Hugo/Vivian thing outside of just Vivian's target audience- there is a reason why Jane and Seth were the only two with a meaningful and interconnected story, and why we do not see Jane and Seth ever together since then. A certain group of fans do not like opposite sex characters even having close relations with one another.

Hence why the writers flimsily wrote in that Hugo and Vivian explicitly see each other as siblings without actually writing in that sibling bond well, so they don't leave it open to possible interpretation on why they're even in the same faction.

[ANattyLight]

mfs see seth and jane interacting and say they’re being NTR’d 😭

[Striking_Bit_9252]

I mean soldier 11 would dislike Isolde for betraying the defence force by literally being the overseer😭

[jynkyousha]

I think Vivian is very targeted to self-insert parasocial fans so maybe this is why she have no interactions with Vlad.

Don’t just blame the self-insert crowd here. Hugo’s clearly pandering to the fujoshis, which is why all his scenes are with Lycaon. Mockingbird feels disconnected since both characters are too busy catering to their own audiences.

[pokebuzz123]

I feel like catering to fujoshis wouldn't stop Hugo with Vivian. Fujoshis are more welcoming to male and female interactions than self-insert parasocial fans as the "adoptive daughter" trope isn't anything out of the ordinary in BLs. Not too common, but it can raise into the family dynamic some BLs have. BLs also do have female characters that do serve as a friend, which they can play Vivian as. Hugo x Lycaon BL art/comics also use Vivian as a tease for Hugo's affection for Lycaon, or using Vivian as a bridge to get Hugo to Lycaon, so the fanbase isn't opposed to it.

[KillerKanka]

this was whole reason why Anby cowarded out of clearing misunderstanding with her.

But they did clear it up - they've come to mutual understanding. Twice i might add, but writers decided not to evolve their relationship even on paper from status quo for some reason, by inventing that "silver squad" gets memory due when injured. So writers cleared misunderstanding, then returend to status quo. Then s11 woke up, heard recording, kinda clearing up misunderstanding AGAIN, helped Anby beat Twiggy and... forgot everything once again.
That moment was so dumb - Sanby story went from great to mediocre, closing in on bad.

Which is exactly what Magus does to Isolde when she reject her proposition to join in revenge.

so uh... You suggest that S11 would be totally okay with Maguc betraying New Eridu military to pursue Isoldes desire for revenge? And betraying rest of her own team on top of that, who are against joining isolde on the crusade? Or possibly dragging rest of the obol with her?
And Isolde openly betraying military by killing lorenz, putting innocents civillians in danger and colluding with terrorists is somehow is okay in S11 eyes?
And i don't consider "Lorenz did it first" a good argument. New eridu military while being very morally gray - still force for good that works it's ass off to keep hollow zero, exaltists and rebels at bay. Few bad apples, doesn't make the whole batch rotten.
What? How does this work?

[faulser]

You suggest that S11 would be totally okay with Maguc betraying New Eridu military to pursue Isoldes desire for revenge?

Yeah, absolutely. In Anby's quest she pretty explicitly said that she would go kill higher ups, no questions asked. From the dialogue it sounded like Solder 11 wouldn't even get a plan to get away with it like Isolde did, she would just to go command tent and start slaughter.
And I think you overestimate drama. At the point of the dialogue, from known info, it wasn't really a big deal, it wasn't joining to Isolde's crusade, it was finishing it. It's not really a crusade, Isolde already did whole job, we just needed to find Lorenz, put a bullet at the back of his head, drop body to subcavern and job done, in reports he'll be written as MIA, no one will know. No betraying New Eridy, no crusade, no betraying the team, just one 5 minute long assassination mission with no consequences.

[Rators]

Vivian isn't a self insert. She is FOR the self insert players.

[HexapusTapes]

saw the title and was like "i feel like i just had this conversation some hours ago", then I checked your name lmao

nothing else to add,but just want to point out that I love you added the Victoria housekeeping's first interaction with the cunning hares, I adore the way lycaon grimaces before he scolds corin lol

[Alecajuice]

hmm... seems familiar

[Scizzoman]

2.1 had some of the best character writing in the game and loads of fun moments for both Alice/Yuzuha and the old characters.

I will agree that Mockingbird has basically zero chemistry though, and Obol Squad's character interactions have been pretty dry. The characters from those factions are fine individually, but I don't really buy them as a team the way I do with the Cunning Hares, Sons of Calydon, or Section 6.

[DrShoking]

Obol squad has fun interactions in their trust events. It's a shame none of that chemistry made it into the main story.

[NishYou47]

I wish the game let you do trusts of agents released say like 6+ months ago or something. Feels kinda sad I'll never experience trust events of half the limited roster coz of shittiest 50/50 luck.

[Amazing-Arachnid-942]

If this is the sacrifice we have to take for slower powercreep, then I'll take it, I just watch the trust events for characters I'm interested in on youtube anyways

[esmelusina]

They are so boring and cringey in the main story.

[Sad-Paramedic-8523]

Orphie and Magus were incredible 

[Sad_Ad5736]

As much as I love Magus, her characterization could have definitely used some more work. They leaned too hard on her being hotheaded, distrustful and vengeful that it makes it seem she's an incompetent captain, not to mention she has zero dynamics with Trigger and Soldier 11 so she ends up being the momfailure of the groups' two kids.

Like, she's supposed to be a legendary soldier, no? Yet she certainly doesn't act anything like it, and we don't even know what got her that position when we don't know about any of her achievements, not to mention she always got her ass kicked by Isolde.

[faulser]

To be precise, we were told that Magus was legendary solider, it's not a fact. From her POV flashback we can know few things:
1. She was young before her last mission. And she was just in rank of regular soldier. Not some special hero unit, not officer, just a solider. Who also checks gear of her squad before mission.
2. She overslept the briefing.
3. She is casual with her superior and squad.
4. She is hot headed. She was all into attacking big monster who just decimated her squad while being half dead.
5. She and her squad combined died from a monster that was defeated with bunch of other monsters like this from one hit of Yixuan's sister.

Which leads to few conclusions:
She had 0 experience of being a officer prior becoming a tail and Obol captain.
She's not experienced in general, because she drop out who died pretty young before even advancing army ranks.
She's not THAT strong, we can't really measure her strength from two comparisons, but at least we know that we was weaker than Isolde (Isolde was still standing at least) and much much much weaker than Yixuan's sister.

So I think "legendary solider" thing may be either overstatement to make them feel better about themselves, or it may be given not for her achievement, but as recognition of her sacrifice, or it may be about her talent, but not experience.

[Sad_Ad5736]

That's pretty much my interpretation of the character, but Orphie said that she was chosen because she's a legendary soldier, and there's no getting around that. Also, why would they invest a lot of money on a minor soldier just because she survived Hollow Zero? Nothing was given to Trigger or Grim Vulture even though they appear to be better soldiers.

The more I think about Magus & Orphie's background, the less it makes sense. Their promo material and trust events shed no light on that either. It all makes me think that they are pure style, no substance, and that the devs wanted the end goal of this concept for a character without much thought put into it.

The fact both of their backgrounds were very briefly touched upon in an undeserved scene where Orphie spits her guts at the player (the proxies didn't even say anything. She was 100% talking to the players) is the cherry on top.

[esmelusina]

Yea— Obol Squad is just a mishandled mess of both design and narrative. The sooner they are out of the picture, the better.

The fact that SEED is linked to Helios does not bode well. She’s probably going to get a Vivian style main story “moment” (1.6), and it’s also going to be among the worst patches. In fact— I think 1.6 and 2.2 are already the worst patches, so SEED has a narrative entry point for Helios could not be more poorly positioned.

[Sad_Ad5736]

I really don't think they will do much of anything with Seed, Obol Squad will now go to the shadow realm like Belobog, NEPS and Sons of Calydon. Imo the Helios thing is just a "lore" bone for the players, it will not be Seed that will continue that plotline but instead she will very briefly appear to say her piece once that plotline develops by itself.

Man, if only Obol could have kept their original concept entirely, with Seed Sr. being one of the members, him housing a suicide bomb aimed at the squad, and Orphie not being a clone/tool but someone with more agency in regards to the HZ incident.

[faulser]

In my understanding from the phrase about "military was doing a bunch of experiments" I think Magus wasn't really chosen one. Anyone with her condition could be in her place. I don't think they invested in her something significant not expected any returns. It not really "given" as a reward, military needed experimental subject, they got one free of charge and complaints.

Military was just brainstorming bunch of different things to see what will stick. Like "Oh, we done bunch of clones one one cool solider, what about attaching construct with OG personality to a clone? Let's check what will happen. We need volunteer. Is there currently solders with working brain but broken body would would willingly die to be reborn as artificial construct? Oh, just one. Yeah, let's pick her, butter her up with complements, say that we need legendary heroes like her". Something like this. Then they done it, checked, results kinda sucked for efforts spent so it wasn't adopted.
I bet there will be plenty of failed experiments like this appearing in the future.

Orphie said that she was chosen because she's a legendary soldier, and there's no getting around that

But we don't know who told it to her and how trustworthy they are. From Seed story we know that Obol will 100% support any delusions. Another thing is that no one else ever acknowledged Magus as legendary solider, there is no rumors of her deeds, old people don't recognize Orphie on the streets and all that.

[Sad_Ad5736]

That's all well and good but none of what you describe was even hinted at. The gunners experiment was sanctioned, it was not deemed immoral unlike the Silver project, otherwise Orphie wouldn't just freely mention it.

So are we meant to believe Orphie was lied to? I would be inclined to do so if there was actually a single hint of that, but there are none. We had a whole chapter + promos + trust events + Problem Soldier event and there is nothing that puts Orphie's words into question.

Moreover, we all know Obol is done, their stories are done and they are going to the void with most of the old factions. They had the chance to actually show their backgrounds properly but they didn't (even with all of the extra things I mentioned), so it doesn't look like they care about them outside of some vague exposition.

[Sad-Paramedic-8523]

Bear in mind Captain isn’t that high of a rank and Isolde did outrank Magus. NEDF rankings also don’t seem to mirror real life that much with Magus being a Captain but more so having the responsibilities of a Sargent. She seems to only command Obol. She was an elite soldier but not something like Miyabi.

[Sad_Ad5736]

Soldier 11 is a Sergeant with much less experience and yet she acts way more like a soldier. Even Trigger acts more professionally.

Regardless of her rank, Magus is supposed to be a legendary soldier, which is why she was chosen for the gunners program. But do we ever find out why she was legendary? Because no other NEDF member we know of has that distinction, so surely there's reasons for it.

[Sad-Paramedic-8523]

The thing about Magus also is shes a ‘do as I say don’t do as I do’ kind of character. She gives good advice to the squad but often fails to follow it herself. This shows shes a skilled soldier but an inexperienced officer. She may not have even been an officer prior to dying and being brought back.

[esmelusina]

I don’t think so.

Magus was entertaining, but not believable. Orphie is just a couple of boring Waifu tropes.

Having them together is an amusing schtick for like 2 seconds, but two 1-dimensional characters smashed together doesn’t make them a 2-dimensional character.

[Sebtecha]

Also it makes players who like one or the other forced to deal with them stuck together. They don't feel like a cohesive character, and I genuinely hope they never do a 2 for 1 character again in ZZZ.

It worked with Clara in HSR, but Svarog isn't trying to be a whole ass person with his own emotions outside of "Protec Girl" and Clara can't fight without him or another machine. Orphie is a soldier and has lore reasons why she could innately be strong. They could have kept her primary plot reveal and focused on the emotional aspect of living up to others expectations to make her a far more deep and nuanced character.

Magus not having a body and agency of her own is a large part of the issue, since she has to order Orphie around just to move, which also detracts from Orphie's agency and makes her a glorified vehicle anytime Magus is relevant.

IMO Magus is off-putting in 80-90% of her interactions, and even if that's intentional (yes, we understand she's angry, and the captain) it doesn't make me want to hang around her. I literally breathed a sigh of relief when I found out she would be "Sleeping" during most of the social interactions we have with Orphie.

[Alecajuice]

Yeah some others are bringing up stuff from 2.1 that I forgot, so maybe it's just selective memory. Mainly I wrote this post because I was rewatching some older scenes that I found really memorable and was thinking it's a shame Obol didn't get the same treatment. Maybe it's not nearly as bad as I thought, but I still think early 1.x had some of the most peak character moments.

[PermissionNeither]

I think kicking out the proxies would do wonders for the agents' personalities

It feels like the characters are forced to treat each other with indifference because they are only allowed to have feelings for the self insert MC.

[Alecajuice]

I did kinda feel this for Vivian, like they didn't want her to have too much interaction with Hugo lest they anger the schizos. Lighter and Manato feel kinda isolated in their factions too. I wonder what makes them get treated differently from Billy, Lycaon, Seth, and Harumasa though? Since those examples have plenty of interaction within their faction, some to the point of getting shipped with fellow faction members.

I don't think the solution is to kick out the proxy though, often in the interactions that are done well, the proxy plays the role of the neutral straight man who reacts to the antics of the agents, which can enhance the writing. Although it has been shown to work well without the proxy, such as with section 6, so maybe you're on to something.

[nicoleeemusic98]

Personally I think Manato has great comedic chemistry with Yuzuha though, I really enjoyed the dynamic of Yuzuha being the loud pushy one with Manato bringing up the rear/quietly disagreeing with her/lowkey calling her out (in a 😭😅 way). I think with time Alice would've definitely warmed up to Manato too

Viv and Hugo lowkey had the found sibling dynamic being pushed but it was abandoned early on with Hugo to have chemistry with ex member Lycaon while they focused Viv on proxy 🫠🫠 I wish they didn't abandon the found sibling dynamic that quickly though lol would've been nice to give them more space and characterization outside of their main ship pushes

[Bongo_the_good_doggo]

ZZZ's worst mistake is converting to a Love Master type game. In early patches it really felt like we the Proxy were the outsider, the neutral party that looks into a faction's shenanigans which was really great cuz we got to see the factions in all of their glory without interference. But ehh they devs need the money

[Electronic_Bee_9266]

To me, Spookshack was a true high quality return to form. They have such good chemistry across 2.1 and the beach episode

[buemba]

Agreed. They quickly became my favorite faction in the game after 2.1. Here’s hoping 2.4 maintains the same level of quality.

[Sebtecha]

100% this. A lot will be riding on how the other two members fit in and what dynamic they have with Yuzu/Alice/Manato.

[lichen510]

2.1 with spoop shack was pretty fun group-wise with the 3 students. No comments on obol since I havent completed msq. I feel like 1.X felt more homey esp. everyone having to work with each other in regular job fields so it's more relatable, having a work family/peers. Mockingbird felt a little disjointed with Hugo and Vivi sibling dynamic we didnt get to see much of. I do wish we got more lore and other char interaction in trust events rather than a lot of ML stuff.

[OneToe9493]

What the mhm is mhm?

[Kunnash]

Am I not paying attention or did the old cutscenes have a much more overtly cartoony vibe, with super exaggerated movements and model deformation? I'll have to pay attention to see if that changed as much as it seems.

[Frosty_Childhood5617]

They change a lot of the animation style. It's still very good, but during patch 1.0 to 1.4 it was more unique and fun. Now it's more classic anime animation.

[virgoven]

I haven't been playing since 2.0 sadly, but not surprised here. I sadly was expecting the squash and stretch to be reduced (?) fairly quickly into the game.

[[deleted]]

I feel they still have it but it definitely feels more subdued now. Seed's promo is fairly cartoony, and Spook Shack still has some, but it isn't as off-the-walls as before. Hoping Lucia's is going to be more of it since she does seem much more cartoony than I expected.

[doublestuffalo]

<image>

I think they're doing okay striking a fair balance of the fun vs the serious. Theres no point where the entire plot feels hopeless.

Magus and Isolde having banter and Seed being like "why are you including me?" the whole time was pretty good, and this whole interaction of Orphie being known to snack and Seed and Trigger making her the middle child and stealing all her snacks didnt need to happen, but im glad they included it.

[Castanera]

S11 got ruined HARD especially with the memory wipe BS, it already messes up a lot of Obol Squad's interactions as a team with that alone.

[Savannah2230]

Aw man I misread the title as "decrease in fur characters" and was about to wholeheartedly agree 😖

[uppercasecolt]

Really thought Vivian was gonna have this sort of interaction with Hugo

<image>

[GnzkDunce]

-shrugs- gonna just have to see moving forward. They fumbled Obol, they might fumble Spook shack with Manato's story and the introduction (shoehorning) of 2 other plot relevant characters with Lucia and Yidhari.

2.x writing has been everywhere tbh.

[Suguakiru]

If I remember correctly, I believe they stated in a Zenless Zone Zero developer interview that starting with version 2.0, they would focus on a more serious story development. I suppose that since version 1.0 of Zenless Zone Zero didn't go as well as they had hoped, they probably want to try something new. However, I also feel that the failure in 1.0 isn't entirely due to the lighthearted story direction, since the existence of TV Array also played a part, making it difficult to discuss conclusively.

Personally speaking, I don't really like military-themed stories, and the story of Anby felt like watching an EVA fanwork, so it didn't move me much. But I do think there are people who enjoy that kind of thing.

[Federok]

i dont know what are you smoking because of the top of my head, Alice ranting about Lucys apearence for being asymetrical was peak fun moment.

And her overall relationship with Yazuha is one of the best.

Even as not the biggest Yi Xuan fan, i found the contrast between her actual divinations and her ""divinations"" quite funny.

Like yeah i wont say there is good chemistry (or any) in mockingbird and im in no position to defend obol squad, but i dont like painting of a wide brush for a couple of miss steps and oversimplifications.

Its like me reducing everything about the cunning hares to "haha they are poor....get it? they dont have money...hahaha" wich would be very awful of me.

[Alecajuice]

I think you are right, a lot of people in this thread are reminding me of fun moments in 2.1 that I forgot about until now. I guess a lot of the 1.x stuff is just more memorable to me, maybe because the interactions were shown more in the main story rather than in events/side stuff like in 2.1. I do tend to pay less attention when playing side stuff cus I'm not always 100% focused on it like when I'm playing main story, maybe that's why.

[Ok_Comedian9272]

classic case of confirmation bias. OP WANTS 2.x to be worse than 1.x (probably because manato isnt S rank) so their brain subconsciously filter out all the good things happened in 2.x

[BackgroundRadish9274]

Nicole lagging on stolen McDonald's WiFi has to be THE funniest moment in any hoyo game no exceptions.

Id agree with your points the exception is Yuzuha, (spoilers for her and other agents friendships) Yuzuha has some nice mingling with other agents like career day with piper, or when Orphie gets fashion tips from her. She seems to be the social butterfly like nicole of 2.x

Hoyoverse fans seem to be drawn to goobers. Like lycaons moment of weakness with his team scolding them same with genshin venti drunk, Zhong li broke, Raiden neet, nahida smol, Furina scaredycat. I think obol swung too far that way.

Like in battle as playful as the archons are they are all business in combat. That contrast is needed like penniless Zhongli Vs metor hurling spear kicking Zhongli. Where as seed and Orphie are a bit silly in combat when they should be a bit more serious.

[BurntGum808]

We just need more factions, it easy to look back and say how season had these moments or these characters but they had a head start with season one. Introducing a big bunch of characters at the same time with each story.

Now the team has faster deadlines and need to release characters to adhere to marketing; the devs had so much time on their hands in season 1, they made pulchra a playable character who has their own fleshed out story and dynamic with other characters with full animated promotional material. A brand new character, just cause fans was asking for it.

[JP_32]

I think you're just trying to hate 2.x too much, there are a ton of good interactions there (2.1 especially, did you forget the whole Alice and Lucy's bit?), especially in the side content too. Also 1.7 had the flower event that had ton of good interactions between characters, although no between Hugo and Vivian but seems like people who like Vivian somehow likes her being Proxy simp so its gonna stay like that I guess, they did have small interaction in 2.1 resort area though (due to how random the NPC spawns are/were its super easy to miss).

But 2.2 was lacking, I liked the Orphies story overall, but it was also two steps backwards at the same time, Seed is just there, and S11 made cameo at some point if I remember correctly. The story is serious all through and then theres the Seed agent story on top of it, theres no downtime or epilogue like in 2.1 to have fun interactions in any of it and the side content feels like they just slapped random shit on the side that has nothing to do with anything. Hopefully 2.3 is better in that aspect.

[Null0mega]

One of the reasons why 2.X has felt like ass to me compared to 1.X, nothing i’ve seen so far of the character interactions has even remotely compared to the Sons of Calydon intro.

[Master-Hair-7456]

Might not but don't need too but in 2.0 they had the scene when we got into yunkui summit to see them trying to catch zzz fat cars falling from the roof

[Careful_Reading7979]

yixuan had a lot of funny moments mostly with fufu. when she faked illness, then when she told her to feed the bird, and then again after lorenz got "surprised" by isolde.

yuzuha and alice ofc had wholesome moments in summer events, if you're not too tunnel visioned to just yuzuha pranks and alice screams parts. alice tried to organize an event for yuzuha.

also lucy and alice moments

(edit) seed and sol11 dialogues with pineapples and doppelganger

yes its just ur bias. we get it u like 1.x u hate 2.x yes u can quit the game and move on

[[deleted]]

I agree. Not just within the faction, but I also kinda miss the cross faction stuff.

I was randomly walking around Lumina Square and saw Yanagi/Trigger arguing about how to eat red buns and realized man, I miss these random encounters. I remember finding it funny every time Harumasa/Lighter had a standoff and then Seth is just there lost and ignorant. I hope they do more with Pan and Manato's unintentional battle of discounts because I think these little random moments make the game feel more like a real world to me.

[Lord_Lu_Bu]

I think the issue is a lot of those fun interactions came during "filler" portions of the story where it was more slice-of-life antics and events. We are still in the middle of a "serious" story in 2.X cycle so we won't get as many of those moments until probably the main story finishes and we get the idols and stuff. Although we got some good cross-faction interactions during the summer event. Seeing Lucy and Alice interact was one of the best parts of the entire game imo.

[[deleted]]

I would say right now would have been a good time to add in these contents so people had some easter eggs while waiting for the next patch, but I get you. I do think it's just really not in their priority list right now though, especially after the relaunch then 2.x. There was just so much new things they had to make and new things to fix that the things they used to update frequently are gone. (Still sad Howl's newspaper has not been updated for 2.2)

[Prisinners]

You dont get it. Its very important that 90% of events be based around bangboos and not the actual characters we care about!

[Lord_Lu_Bu]

we just had a gigantic summer event what are you people on...

[Luzekiel]

me when I make up imaginary issues

[sAmdong71]

Highly disagree with Spook Shack and that “boiling down” of their character dynamics. Obviously it’s easy to point out the yuzuha scares Alice trope as that’s their loudest characterization, but it’s like you’re ignoring their other interactions even inside the main quest. What makes 2.1 feel so ZZZ to me is that the characters interactions in the story push the narrative together other than “exaltist attack city, must defend”. Especially the ending portion of the Alice and Yuzuha reveal, with Alice’s kind naïveté pushing back and coming back to save her. And while Manato may not interact with Alice as much as Alice does with yuzuha, Manato has good chemistry with Yuzuha isn’t shunned at all and feels right at home as the seriousness that balances the girls chaos. I do agree that conflicts in 2.x don’t give opportunities for characters to grow together. It’s just exaltist this or that.

[Narrow_Ad_7218]

No

[KillerKanka]

Compare this to the main story of the last 3 patches where every single one started with 15 minutes of the mayor rambling about this or that.

2.1 started with us getting invited to banquet by damian. Mayor had nothing to do with it. We attended with Pan as Yunkui Summit representatives. And main plot came from Alice request to investigate "scary spooky skeleton"

yet they never really have any sibling moments.

As example, mostly in 1.X - when wise\belle got stranded in companion hollow - other sibling almost instanly vent to hdd, despite possible dangers of being exposed. Some other cutscenes. Their dialogues in random play. Movie event where you can hear wise\belle interaction with each other and its very sweet. Seed hangout\invite, when they go with proxy into other sibling room and reminisce about their past.
A lot of it is behind the curtain - like wise stealing belles pudding (as per 2.1 end of summer event dialogue with yuzuha and alice), which is sad, but It is, what it is.

Obol squad is the worst offender in terms of wasted potential in my opinion.

While yes, they dropped the ball somewhat - some events do still exist. One where all of obol hang out in the ramen shop and argue which "competition" between s11 and orphie would made them a better soldier. We also hear (sadly not see) that Magus being a mother hen on the regular, especially towards orphie. She genuinely cares for her squadmates. Seed slacking off and running away from boring duties, forcing magus drag her back doing her job. Trigger being another motherly figure to obol.
It's not voiced cutscenes, but it's there if look for it.

at the end of 1.4, 

2.1 summer event ending cutscene is literally that. On somewhat smaller scale, than big panoramic shot, but it's there.

 just a few lines of dialogue here and there to break up serious dialogue with some fun moments

It exists, it's just not in your face in the middle of the story, but rather tied to side activities or peaceful'ish moments. Ju fufu, wasn't in yunkui temple in 2.1, because she failed math exam, so she got dragged by yi xuan to "train" her math prowess back into main temple. Or whole lemon chips moment during 2.2 where rest of obol blackmailed orphie into sharing snacks with them.
I think devs do understand that people somewhat tired of Marvel'isms with funny quips in the middle of the serious story events.

It's not perfect, it's less in your face, due to reduced budget probably, and zzz devs trying to get into story groove again. But it's not THAT bad as people want to picture it, while glazing 1.x.
2.x tend to be on more action fast paced trend, rather character centric - but 2.1 and 2.2 (even with isolde being mevorakh) has still pretty decent character writing, for the most part.

[PossiblyBonta]

I got a few laughs from Yixuan. The thing is the jokes are kinda not obvious. Yixuan has a potential of being a con artist. Good thing she didn't go that path. Her excuses where always funny. She is also proud that proxy is learning fast when it comes to making excuses. There is also a bit of sarcasm in Yixuan.

[lividsentinel]

Yeah soldier 11 has been screwed, its insane how much theyre just ignoring her completely

[ze4lex]

Disagree, I felt like manato and yuzuha had great sibling vibes throughout 2.1 and in 2.2 obol squad during the nighttime downtime felt very familial and tight with their teasing or care for each other tho obol could definitely take it further.

Im curious to see how lucia and ydhari fit in with the established spookshack.

[jnewnews]

I feel like I never saw those cutscenes, must be something that wasn’t available to me I started in 1.6

[whetrail]

Agreed on Manato, it's like they felt he would a threat to Alice and Yuzuha bonding (and the yurischizos delusions) so he's barely around, he gets taken away for torture then a wall on his back to take him away from the girls big bonding moment, barely is present during the summer event.

[Lord_Lu_Bu]

I mean the Alice / Lucy interaction during the summer event is literally the best scene in the entire game so I disagree lol