The quality of this game's writing is incredibly sporadic. [Spoilers]

First of all this is not just a complaint. I'm really curious if others have felt the same way about the game as me. I'm marking this post as a spoiler because I want to specifically talk about story elements and the game's writing.

I came into HSR with really low expectations for the writing. I played a fair bit of Genshin, and I wasn't expecting them to do things too much differently for this game. However, at several points, HSR has actually surprised me with some really engaging stories.

Jarillo-IV especially had a lot of examples for me where there were stories that really went above and beyond. Even the main plot on Jarillo was honestly pretty engaging for me. It was still predictable, and nothing spectacular, but the build up to the Cocolia fight was satisfying, and the boss fight was everything I could ask for in an arc's climax.

But directly after that climax, the resolution is just... so bad. If you support Bronya lying to the people after the fight, good for you. I hate it. I hate being complicit with it. The best defense the game gives Bronya for perpetuating the lies of her mother is Seele giving a, "BUT WE TELL CHILDREN EVERYTHING IS OKAY!". That was infuriating, and just a really lazy way to resolve the story arc of Jarillo IV.

For a smaller story, the story of Cyrille had some real punch to it. The gameplay of the quest was very divorced from the story being told, but all the same, the story of Cyrille felt sad in a real way.

Or the story of Pascal. It wasn't exactly subtle in it's theme, but it showed a lot more of Claras character, that we didn't get to see in the main story. HUGE props to whichever dev advocated to actually giving the player an actual choice with different outcomes here.

And for the most recent update, "For I have already touched the sky" was *incredibly* engaging. All the characters involved really popped. It helped that March was nowhere in sight to ruin the good moments.

I really hope the writers in charge of these story beats get more control over the game. Because these good stories are surrounding by mediocrity in my honest opinion.

What does everyone else think? Have you been engaged by any story beats? What are your favorite story beats?