Extinguished Starlight and Rekindled Fire is the newest Part of Honkai Impact 3rd it takes place 7 years after The Moon's Origin and Finality aka Part 1, 6 years after Dance of Life and Death aka Part 1.5 and 2 years before A Post Honkai Odyssey, Unlike in most parts in the Honkai Impact 3rd franchise where they take place on Earth, Part 2 takes place on Mars where A-Rank Valkyrie, Erdős Helia, and Anti-Entropy enforcer Coralie 6626 Planck are tasked with going to Mars to investigate the civilization there, where they ended up embarking on an adventure with characters from Mars, Senadina the Goddess of Mars, Songque the Shu of Deception, and Dreamseeker. Now when first going into Part 2 I was intentionally worried and concerned but after playing the first 3 chapters I was utterly surprised that Part 2 exceeded my expectations so for today's discussion I'm going to be giving you guys my thoughts on Part 2 so far but before I do I just like to point out there will be MAJOR SPOILERS for Part 2 so please proceed with caution you have been warned. Anyways without further ado let's get started.

Let's start things off with the characters like Dreamseeker. When first finding out that Dreamseeker is the new main protagonist of Part 2 I was excited however then it's revealed to be basically another self insert MC. A lot of people myself included were completely shocked and disappointed that this was just yet another self insert rather than an actual character because what made Kiana great in Part 1 was due to the fact that she was not a self insert but rather her own character with actual personality that's not dependent on player's choice and has actual dialogue and does speak whenever she does not when the plot wants her too and actually has character development. If you guys saw my chapters on why I said Honkai Impact 3rd was better than Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail you would know one of the reasons why is because Kiana has the best MC because the problem with Traveler and Trailblazer is that they are literally silent most of the time, don't talk unless the plot demands them to, have no unique personality besides player's choice, and have no showings of character development. All of these issues I never had with Kiana so seeing that Hoyo was making another self insert with Honkai Part 2 was really disappointing I know some people might argue Adam is a self insert but at least he's one gender, has dialogue not mostly limited to player's choice and has character development. But then when I played Part 2 for the first time they actually surprised me. For starters Dreamseeker can actually talk, not just talk but has dialogue not limited to player's choice and they have a unique personality too. From what we gathered so far Dreamseeker appears caring, claim, chill, intelligent, and pretty helpful. This is a massive improvement from the problems I had with Traveler and Trailblazer that I honestly never expected to be approved upon and I was honestly happy about it. Another Dreamseeker has over Traveler and Trailblazer is the fact that you can actually switch between male and female this is a massive game changer because that means if you really wanted to you can actually play the game in the perspective of both genders and change them whenever you want unlike the other two where in order to do that you'd have to make an entirely separate account to do that. It makes sense for Traveler because Aether and Lumine are brother and sister but for Trailblazer Stelle and Caelus are literally the same fucking person just in different genders so I don't see why they didn't include that mechanic there. Another thing I like about Dreamseeker is the fact that regardless of gender their official name is Entorpy, yes I know a strange name but it's still unique nonetheless. Again Aether and Lumine are siblings so it makes sense why they have different names but the fact that Stelle and Caelus have different names despite being the same person is beyond me. As for their backstory we don't know much about Dreamseeker all we know is that they are local resident of Oxia City on Mars and is engineering student of Data Research Institute researching the Sea of Data which is basically a virtual multiverse of some sorts they may appear normal but in reality they are actually one of the legendary chosen ones who possess the ability to travel back in time through dreams as we saw in Part 2 chapter 3 and they used this power to observe everything in history, other than that it's pretty much about it I'm very interested to see what they do with Dreamseeker in the future hopefully we get some lore about who they are and hopefully we get some character development like with Kiana and Adam. My only issue her is that they've reduced Dreamseeker into being a support character rather than a playable character. Other than that I do appreciate that Dreamseeker improved upon some of the problems I had with Traveler and Trailblazer and I'm looking forward to see their character in the future. 

Moving to not self insert characters we have Songque. Going into this I initially thought she was going to be a villain based on the fact she's one of the Seven Shus, from what we saw in the trailers, and from when we saw her she came off to me as pretty sus. However as time went on that turned out to be not the case as Songque definitely lives up to her title as Shu of Deception cause she deceived me into thinking she was a villain when in reality I should've taken the lessons from Naruto which is that a ninja must see through deception. Anyways we learned that Songque going by the name Maria grew up in an orphanage and was isolated and all alone with no friends she was just basically alone and had no place in life due to bullying she has experienced as a child that was until she met the rest of the Shus when things started to change but as we all know in Honkai having friendships did not last long as going by the first chapter of Part 2 it was clear she had experienced nothing but loneliness after the rest of the Shus were either dead or in a slumber however she eventually found comfort in her new companions Dreamseeker, Senadina, Helia, and Coralie. She really went through a character arc I think one of my favorite scenes of her character was the moment she was taking to a leaf she found, this was her reflecting on her past because at this moment she thought she was going to die for the sake of Langqiu it was really sad and emotional the moment where she talked with Baiji was equally as emotional it really shows how much her friends and comrades mean to her. I honestly haven't felt this type of emotion towards a Honkai character ever sine Part 1 where we have Fu Hua. In both cases it features a character who has lived far longer than they should've and have lost almost everything due to the cruelty of the life they live in. I also loved the animated short where she defeats Perception it was truly an awesome moment. I love it. For those who are wondering no she's not dead as sources of confirmed that in Chapter 3 EX she's alive and well with that knowledge I can definitely hope that in the future we get more moments of her character arc and development. Songque is definitely the best character in Part 2 so far and I can't wait to learn more about her in the future arcs.

Next up we have Senadina. I really love Senadina not just because she gives Kiana and Elysia vibes but I just love how the fact that she's so mysterious. We were first introduced to her in the prequel chapter in Part 2 where she introduces herself as Kiana in her Goddess form and we see her as a Goddess again when she meets Dreamseeker, but when we see her in her base form she doesn't have any recollection of ever meeting Dreamseeker or any memories of her as the Goddess of Mars. This is where things get interesting because as of the release of Act 2 of Chapter 3 EX, Helia and Coralie have no memories of Senadina which makes her all the more interesting Hoyo is clearly building something major for her character that we don't know about. I can't wait to learn more about her, her backstory, how she became a goddess, and how the portray her character in the future.

As for the rest of the characters they are pretty interesting to say the least I think Helia and Coralie the two characters that were mentioned in Part 1 are pretty interesting I hope we learn more about their backstories as well as give us moments of character development. Chenxue is a pretty interesting case as she serves as the mentor to Dreamseeker she's pretty mysterious as well. Now the Seven Shus I intentionally thought that they were villains at first especially Baiji who is the leader but like with Songque from what I can tell we're proven wrong which shocked me because in Chapter 2 Lantern was chasing the heroes with the clear intent to snipe off their heads but in the she looks like she's our ally, Litost is dead which means he got what he wanted, Thelema is scary but I think she's okay, I also thought Serapeum was kinda cute which means the true villain of the story so far is Ajita. I was completely shocked of how villainous she is, just when we thought she was dead in reality she actually split her soul into 5 gadgets one of whom is Perception, then as Perception she pulled a Black Zetsu and stabbed Baiji in the back. It's insane. Hoyoverse did such a good job with the twist that almost nobody knew Perception was the villain the entire time.

Which leads to my biggest question: Will Ajita be the main antagonist in Part 2? From what I can tell Hoyoverse is clearly setting Ajita up as the villain or at least one of the villains of Part 2. My only hope is that she's as good as Sirin, Otto, and Kevin in Part 1 because what made the 3 biggest villains in Part 1 so great is they're both formidable and understandable. I've already discussed this in previous chapters but as far formidable goes we've seen these 3 do some insane shit, Sirin destroying St. Freya without breaking a sweat, Otto started entire Honkai Eruptions and became False God, and Kevin was violating people left and right like it's nothing and understandable angle is the reasons why they did what they did, Sirin it's because she wanted vengeance against humanity for her suffering when she was inhumanely experimented on by Schicksal as well as the loss of her friends, Otto is because he lost Kallen Kaslana and was desperate to revive her by any means necessary even if it meant causing the suffering of other people, and Kevin because he not only lost Dr. MEI, and his comrades but the pressure of fighting for so long got to him which got even worse after the Final Herrscher defeated humanity and destroyed the Previous Era forcing humanity to survive and rebuild. If Ajita is indeed the new main villain of Part 2 or at least one of the big bads they have to make her formidable and understandable, as for formidable they've clearly shown that when as Perception she stabbed Baiji in the back and almost won against the main characters but we need to see more of that so that we as players can know how dangerous Ajita is and is more than willing to go through anyone to achieve whatever goals she has in mind because that's what made Sirin, Otto, and Kevin so great is because they have goals and ambitions they want to accomplish and they will stop at nothing to achieve this which means they will go through anyone to get there, I hope they do the same hear with Ajita because she's looking like she's extremely dangerous, as for understandable I just hope that we get some backstory and details that helps the players understand why she did what she did, what Ajita's motives are and help us completely understand her. Villains are more than just antagonistic forces that need to be stopped but people we can find understanding on what made them who they are and why they did what they did as the world is not black and white but shades of grey because what made Sirin, Otto, and Kevin so great is because they were understandable they had backstories that made them victims of circumstances weather it'd be inhumanely experimented on and watching your friends die in the case of Sirin, or it's losing the woman you love who was essentially the only light guiding you through this dark and cruel world even if she doesn't love you back you still care about her and would do anything to save her but instead you watch her die in the case of Otto, or it's spending over 50,000 years at war as an immortal solider having 1000 times the
PTSD due to having watched your friends, comrades, and the love of your life die being unable to save them, and ultimately losing the war and humanity was force to rebuild to survive extinction in the case of Kevin and it was said circumstances that drove them to becoming the villains we saw during the events of Part 1 and those are my hopes for Ajita I want her to have a backstory that tells us her motives that are completely understandable and shows she's just as grey as Sirin, Otto, and Kevin and not some raging psychopath with zero understanding as to why they are doing what they did which was the case with Sa which don't get me wrong Sa is decent but she lacked most of the understanding that made Sirin, Otto, and Kevin so great.

Now let's move on to gameplay. Most of the gameplay is much the same as Part 1 however I do like new mechanics such as jumping and grappling hooks, the jumping part was especially helpful as it kinda reminded me of APHO it's really great I really do like it a lot. As for exploration being similar to Genshin and Star Rail I know some people had a problem with that but in all honesty I never had any problem at all we had that as far back as Part 1 in the Thus Spoke Apocalypse arc and it was not a big deal and the same can be said for some of the collectables and I love how the biggest difference is that Part 2 doesn't force you to go on filler ass side quests that don't add up to the story I mean sure some of the side quests in Genshin and Star Rail weren't that bad but many of them were so boring I would rather watch Boruto filler episodes. And I also like how you can use Astral Rings to call for support for other characters. So overall I enjoyed some of the new stuff they added to the gameplay it's pretty good.

As for the world building I think it's still to early to judge that I think we need at least 2 or 3 more arcs to judge the world building in Part 2 so I have no opinion in that regard.

Overall I liked Part 2 so far. I love how the improved on some of the problems I had with Genshin and Star Rail as far as Dreamseeker goes, I love how they're setting up the story to be great so far as well as the setups and I'm so excited for what the future has in store for Honkai Part 2. Will it be better than Part 1, 1.5, and APHO? Maybe better than Part 1.5 and APHO, but definitely not better than Part 1 but it does have some great potential to be peak. If I had to give this a grade I'd give it a 7.1 out of 10. It's still in its infancy but still has potential to be just as great as the rest of the Honkai parts not including Star Rail because even Part 2 was better than Star Rail.

But let me know in the comments below what are your thoughts on Honkai Part 2 and I will see you all next time. Peace.