Honkai Star Rail's Penacony Arc Is Literally The Sleeper Hit I Never Saw Coming
I never thought I'd be pondering deep life questions in a mobile gacha game - yet for Honkai Star Rail's partially-Inception-inspired Penacony arc, that's exactly what I was doing.
NOTE: This contains spoilers for Honkai Star Rail's Penacony Story Arc.
As someone who's primarily a PC gamer, mobile games that I play on my phone are mostly an afterthought. They're things I can play for a few hours here and there when I don't have a current game I'm working on or if my Switch is charging.
As a result, for the most part on mobile I'm more of a dabbler - kind of like that person at the all-you-can-eat buffet that can't decide what to put on their plate so it ends up being a bit of everything. That means I've got a bunch of half-nibbled-on bits strewn about on my plate, from trendy games that I got bored of within 10 minutes to a couple titles that captured my attention but which got repetitive and not-so-captivating. The handful of mobile games that do make the cut are titles I can count on one hand, and they're mostly anime-style gacha games.
Now I know what you might be thinking, and before you go waggling your finger at me digitally about the dangers of the microtransaction-heavy, gambling siren call that these games represent, know that I am for the most part, with very little shame, a dirty freeloader. I'm an "F2P" player, which means my wallet stays tightly closed unless I know I can guarantee something of high rarity in the few instances where these games toss you such bones.
The two games that I play with any regularity on mobile are probably two of the most temptation-heavy moneyspenders in the biz - Fate: Grand Order and Honkai Star Rail. They scratch that anime itch that I still have from the time I was able to actually keep up with that medium and are just trope-y enough that I know what I'm getting into. So it should come as no surprise when I tell you that I'm not expecting much when it comes to story for either title, and certainly not anything terribly deep.
That meant I was pretty surprised when, after I stopped slacking off in Honkai Star Rail and decided to actually advance my story missions that I got to the Penacony arc, released over a year ago as of this writing. The mission involves investigating the titular place, which is an expensive vacation spot designed to entertain its guests by means of submerging them in a deep sleep and into a dream world where they can engage in almost anything they fancy without consequences, even death (or so you think).
The mission takes the characters deep into the place's secrets, with intrigue across multiple factions including the one running Penacony. Before you know it, you're investigating murders, diving into childhoods that are both tragic and traumatic, and ultimately, triumphing with the kind of rah-rah friends-and-goodness-triumph over evil battle that only a multi-stage boss fight can give you.
Does this plot crib from Inception with its blurring reality dreamscape and dream within a dream layering? Sure. Is it ham-fisted and deux ex machina in only the way that an anime-style story can be? Absolutely. Does it get caught up in its own (multiple) plotlines at times due to the theme? Of course. But the depth and complexity of the questions being asked made it more insightful than I thought possible. The debate over what is better - blissful, ignorant/fake utopia with no hope of change or the harsh, unfair, but truly free/higher ceiling world of reality is core to the storyline, and dealing with certain moral and ethical dilemmas made me see saw a bit between both schools of thought. That's pretty impressive when often times games like Honkai Star Rail paint things black and a white most of the time.
The question of why we struggle, why we sleep and dream, what importance we place on dreams and idealism, and why we decide to persevere (or not) is the other reason why I found myself unexpectedly enjoying the Penacony storyline. The game brings you to an answer about this question that is fitting for the cast of the heroes of the Astral Express that you count yourself among, and which eventually allows them to come out victorious (complete with fun and catchy OST and literally the power of song to help you).
And yet, it's probably not the only answer. You're meant in some way to ponder the question yourself (heck, it's something I'm still kind of thinking about a couple days removed from finishing this arc). Don't get me wrong - Honkai Star Rail is probably far from the place where you might find profound answers to life's questions. But the fact that it constructs a narrative where a question like that is asked in the first place is something I hope to see in more games.
