Arknights Endfield Liino Side Story - Being an idol isn't easy, is it?

The Arknights Endfield 1.4 patch is halfway through with the release of Liino as a playable operator, a popular idol who seems to be about to perform at Valley IV. Of course, our Endministrator gets involved for various reasons, delivering a special story all centered around her.

Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of idols in general, and the plot seemed to rely on some of the most classic tropes: the runaway idol being helped to do something by the protagonist while avoiding the agency managing her. Add to that the fact that the agency is absolutely corrupt, and you have the side story.

This stare was the best shot I got in the story, Liino looks stunning here, way better than other scenes.

Liino's smile is nice too, but unfortunately once you disable her eyes the rest is just your run of the mill idol so...

The song itself that they played at the end was nice, but honestly, it's hard to feel attached to Liino when the story was short, formulaic, and never made you feel much about her or her plight. The entire thing from start to finish took well under two hours, even taking it slow and having a few detours on the way.

Sure, there were a few fun moments during the escapade, like the hiding minigame, but even those were very simple and never really tried to act as a gameplay segment so much as a distraction from the fact that there wasn't really a plot that they wanted to share.

Here you can see the proud and powerful Endministrator being carried like a sack of potatoes by a random idol!

I find extremely cute how Liino is handling her phone with both hands. It gives off that energy...

I think these side stories are way too half-baked, and Hypergryph should review the entire process if this is the best they can come up with. The main story seemed a bit better this patch, so I was hoping, but here we are back to zero with this. I know we're still going through the stock they had from release, but waiting for the next zone to see something decent is killing me...

Patch 1.5 seems to have three characters being released, and considering the current direction, it's pretty much confirmed that they're all SSR. I'm likely skipping the dude in between as I don't really have the rolls to be able to keep up with this incredible pace.

Liino trucks show her with such a plain resting face that they don't seem advertising to be honest, but more like a wanted sign?

This is one of the most advanced tech that I've seen in this game, why does not everyone goes around in these? They seem ultra convenient...

Honestly, while the overall ceiling is lower, it feels way harder to gather rolls in Endfield compared to other games in the genre, though I haven't run the numbers to be absolutely certain about it. Both Wuthering Waves and even Genshin Impact feel smoother in this regard.