Talks about otome games, drama cds, and occasionally provides advice? Running away endlessly from my backlog of hobbies.

Ilinox

Aw, you're welcome and I'm glad you're enjoying the game! Yes and no to your question about the main story. Light and Night does its best so that, if you only go through the main story, you won't be lost because all the necessary information is given to you there; however, there are also many parts where the writers are counting on emotional callbacks to make a scene land harder.

For example, in Season 2 Chapter 7, the heroine tells General Qi to be careful of the winter on one of his expeditions. At this point in time, if you read his cards, you know she's referring to the siege and cannibalism in Sariel's Chapter 18 card. In Season 2 Chapter 4, Charlie is said to have talked about his past to the heroine, but this is only mentioned as a passing line. In reality, you can know what he told the heroine by reading his chapter card. I'm pretty sure Light and Night arranged the story like this so that solo stans have the choice of ignoring these scenes because, again, they won't be lost in the main story and they don't care for anyone except for their bias.

But I don't want people to think the chapter cards or the date cards are just "extra details" and that having them is just a nice bonus that adds an extra layer. If we used a sandwich as an analogy, then the main story is the bread, the chapter cards are the meat, and the date cards are the lettuce LOL. Each one provides 1/3 to the overall enjoyment of the game. Look, Light and Night has to justify the expense of their gacha cards and that's why the majority of cards aren't insignificant, otherwise why would people want to pull for them?

In regard to big events, kind of! So far, there were two 5-man banners where the event story itself was tied very importantly to the cards, Unknown Paradise and Stranger Party. These two 5-man banners will feel weird if you don't play the event story alongside the card stories, or vice versa. However, after these two 5-man banners, Light and Night has seemed to shift more into using the event stories as lighthearted advertisement for the cards (because they're pre- or post-card stories), so you're right in the sense that you won't get the "main story" of big events unless you have the cards. You might not even get a sense of the whole AU world unless you have all the cards too, because each card usually extrapolates on a part of the setting.

Unfortunately, we still haven't seen a single re-run of an event story for a 5-man banner. We've seen re-runs of event stories for free 5* cards and birthday cards, but that's all for now. I'm sure Light and Night will re-run event stories for 5-man banners somehow, they're probably just thinking about how to do it still LOL.

I hope this answers your questions and that you're having a good start to the new year!

Aw, you're welcome and I'm glad you're enjoying the game! Yes and no to your question about the main story. Light and Night does its best so that, if you only go through the main story, you won't be lost because all the necessary information is given to you there; however, there are also many parts where the writers are counting on emotional callbacks to make a scene land harder.

For example, in Season 2 Chapter 7, the heroine tells General Qi to be careful of the winter on one of his expeditions. At this point in time, if you read his cards, you know she's referring to the siege and cannibalism in Sariel's Chapter 18 card. In Season 2 Chapter 4, Charlie is said to have talked about his past to the heroine, but this is only mentioned as a passing line. In reality, you can know what he told the heroine by reading his chapter card. I'm pretty sure Light and Night arranged the story like this so that solo stans have the choice of ignoring these scenes because, again, they won't be lost in the main story and they don't care for anyone except for their bias.

But I don't want people to think the chapter cards or the date cards are just "extra details" and that having them is just a nice bonus that adds an extra layer. If we used a sandwich as an analogy, then the main story is the bread, the chapter cards are the meat, and the date cards are the lettuce LOL. Each one provides 1/3 to the overall enjoyment of the game. Look, Light and Night has to justify the expense of their gacha cards and that's why the majority of cards aren't insignificant, otherwise why would people want to pull for them?

In regard to big events, kind of! So far, there were two 5-man banners where the event story itself was tied very importantly to the cards, Unknown Paradise and Stranger Party. These two 5-man banners will feel weird if you don't play the event story alongside the card stories, or vice versa. However, after these two 5-man banners, Light and Night has seemed to shift more into using the event stories as lighthearted advertisement for the cards (because they're pre- or post-card stories), so you're right in the sense that you won't get the "main story" of big events unless you have the cards. You might not even get a sense of the whole AU world unless you have all the cards too, because each card usually extrapolates on a part of the setting.

Unfortunately, we still haven't seen a single re-run of an event story for a 5-man banner. We've seen re-runs of event stories for free 5* cards and birthday cards, but that's all for now. I'm sure Light and Night will re-run event stories for 5-man banners somehow, they're probably just thinking about how to do it still LOL.

I hope this answers your questions and that you're having a good start to the new year!

Firstly, thank you very much for providing us with such a comprehensive L&N treasure trove - truly such a bonus for me especially in understanding the lore and world building. For me, the richness, detail and poetry of the writing in the game, the depth of characterisations, the mesmerising soundtrack (4th anni's remain on repeat on my playlist!) are just among the many things that keep me captivated in this universe.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but the main story on the whole is quite sufficient in laying the groundwork in introducing the characters and their backstories. For the most part, the cards are a complement to the story and provide that extra layer of detail and depth that just draws me in (in many cases, even break my heart) even more. 

Still, am I mistaken or it would appear that this is only true for the main story per se, but not so much for the big events with AU, including anniversaries? As a F2P player who, for the first time ever, was very fortunate to be able to get all 5 cards from the 4th anniversary banner, I noticed that while the【来者之路 】event itself was moving and brought me to tears, especially at the end during the final roll call at 常青, the full, heartbreaking story for each character is only available by reading the individual cards. Is this true for every main event? 

Also, I understand that the anniversary banners are re-run. However, has there ever been a situation where these major events are re-run, or at least provided as a DLC similar to TOT? I would love to be able to replay the events again - some of which I regrettably had to rush through at the time.

Thank you very much for your time and wishing you an awesome rest of the week!

Ilinox

L&N main event stories and possibility of reruns