I got lured back into Arknights again, by the news from Arknights CN's new update. Just in time for Virtuosa's event. By some string of fate, I managed to catch nearly every event to do with Leithanien, even though I take long breaks from the game.
This time round, the story of the Zwillingstürme im Herbst (Twin Towers in autumn) event caught me in an iron grip. In the past few events I would speed the story up by 32X, pray I didn't overshoot and reach the end, then read the script generated in one go. But I didn't for the majority of this event, I couldn't.
One major gripe I had with Arknights' storytelling was with how much they built the world and back-story through lengthy rants and soliloquy of no-name NPCs, and characters talking AT each other instead of holding proper conversations. I understand why it's necessary, but it often went on for way too long for my patience, thus why I use the fast-forward feature.
There is much lesser of all that in this event. I think it helps that Ebenholz, Executor and Viviana all have significant existing history in the game and it wasn't necessary to spend too much time introducing them. All other characters are pretty interesting too and don't ramble unnecessarily for too long.
The twist and turns, the mysteries, the regrets, the pain, the determination of the characters weaved beautifully into a dark tale to tell the story of Leithanien, of its beauty and its darkness, much like their Twin Empresses.
I'm glad I decided to read the story for this event after all.
PS. Once again, Arknights tops the list for my 'I DO NOT want to get isekai'd into this world, tyvm'.