Feeling is an extremely subjective thing.
Yet the moment OP: Nameless Faces began, it forcefully delivered that very sensation to the audience.
After the many Chrysos Heirs appeared one after another, the music entered its interlude....
At the center of the screen. A pink, unidentified creature floated in the sky.
The next second.
The image changed, intricate circular patterns formed from geometric shapes replaced the pink creature at the center of the frame.
The Chrysos Heirs appeared on both sides.
The image in the center first shifted from a blazing sun to a waning crescent, and was then ignited by raging flames.
The fire burned the image to nothing. Stelle reached out, trying to touch it, but grasped only emptiness....
[Days blur into nights of dreadful silence, oh.]
[You let me see thy heart,]
[Lost beacon in the dark,]
[Our lonely souls that spark,]
[We break apart.]
The audience stared unblinking at the screen, the lyrics echoing in their ears.
After Stelle's grasp fell short. The following image revealed a dimly lit scene.
Black shadows spread everywhere, with only a single beam of light falling at the center.
All around lay Chrysos Heirs, half-kneeling or collapsed on the ground, only Stelle struggled to stand beneath the light.
That pink creature appeared once more. The camera followed its flying silhouette, its body framed at an angle....
The pink creature transformed into a feather pen in Stelle's hand, and Stelle swung it down with all her strength.
In an instant. Black-and-white impact frames flooded the entire screen.
The arena-like structure around Stelle, reminiscent of an ancient Greek colosseum, was crushed and shattered in a blink!
As the singer dragged out the final syllable of "We break apart," the note stretched long, interwoven with post-processed stuttering effects.
Musically. This marked the complete end of both the prelude and the interlude.
And on screen. The Chrysos Heirs previously revealed, the environments, the architecture, all were annihilated along with the black-and-white impact frames.
At this very moment, sound and image achieved perfect synchronization!
In the brief, silent stillness...
A pink-haired girl with an indistinct face emerged from behind Stelle and tightly embraced her form.
Boom, The music surged once again.
Through the emotional buildup formed by the musical lead-in and the destruction on screen, everything was released at this moment with the singer's explosive vocals!
[We find,]
[We strive,]
[Our journey of Eternity.]
The visuals followed the music.
A colossal golden light beam, radiating overwhelming visual weight, descended from the sky and tore through the sky.
It slammed straight into the massive sphere borne upon Kephale's back.
The towering titan spread its arms wide, the enormous sphere behind it emitting a golden glow like dusk itself.
Aglaea stood near the lower center of the screen, staring directly at this scene.
Between the two formed an intensely tense visual composition. This was the literal definition of "feels amazing just to watch."
Immediately after. A blade of light cut across the frame, obscuring the scene, and a rapid sequence of combat shots unfolded.
First, Phainon wielded a great sword, clashing with a mysterious man in a mask and cloak.
Then Mydeimos roared and hurled a punch forward.
Phainon descended from the sky in a leaping cleave.
The masked figure raised his blade to block.
At the instant their weapons collided. The second part of the climactic chorus began....
[Desire, in mind,]
A massive drumbeat and the lyric rang out at the exact moment the weapons struck.
What does truly high-level timing look like? This is it.
A seamless sequence, fluid, rhythmic, and perfectly synchronized with the music, naturally locked onto this beat, rather than forcing the visuals to chase the sound.
At the same time, as the music surged into a more intense rhythm....
Three mini Tribios unfolded their barriers simultaneously.
Stelle stood her ground, watching phantom-like monsters sweep across the battlefield, unstoppable.
[To set our spirits free,]
The singing grew ever more impassioned, the melody gripping the ears.
Stelle looked back. As she turned her head, Stelle on screen was replaced by Aglaea with the same look, eyes tightly shut amid a sea of flames.
[Echoes fade to oblivion,]
The scene changed.
Before a colossal stone bridge connecting to an even bigger stone wall, uncertain whether it was a sheer cliff or an impassable abyss,
Mydeimos crushed an unknown object in his hand, calmly and decisively stepping onto the massive suspension bridge.
At this moment, the camera froze his back at the center of the frame, then rapidly pulled away, synchronizing with the suddenly moving bridge, achieving a perfect balance between motion and stillness!
As static objects, the bridge and the architecture should have appeared more magnificent and overwhelming than any person.
Yet through Mydeimos' fearless, composed movements, they became mere backdrop.
Using stillness to accent motion, subduing objects to elevate the subject. Mydeimos' figure was distilled into a single sensation, cool.
So cool it made the audience's scalp tingle.
After Mydeimos, Castorice descended from the sky and embraced Stelle.
As the two held each other, a colossal dragon roared in the sky behind them, stirring up towering waves that swallowed the entire screen.
[Freedom to make our own.]
At the final line of the climax. The image shifted to a long staircase.
The camera rushed upward from the very bottom toward the top.
Along the way, the Nameless standing on the steps turned their heads in unison with the camera.
When the camera reached the top of the staircase. Stelle standing there turned back, only to be replaced by Phainon.
The musical climax ended here. The rhythm and melody gradually softened.
Phainon held his great sword stuck in the ground, gazing at twelve glowing symbols, his garments fluttering in the wind.
The image returned once more to the opening scene. Only now, it was completely empty.
Within the majestic and vast room of countless stone pillars, the great basin that once received the golden waterfall remained, yet Phainon was nowhere to be found.
No longer did liquid gold pour like a cascade, nor did mighty stone giants kneel in solemn reverence.
Only Stelle stood alone before the basin, cradling a golden spark.
The camera continued to pull back, revealing the full expanse of the stone-pillared hall.
Until it became nothing more than a point of light within March 7th's camera lens.
The view kept expanding finally being reflected of a camera's lens.
March 7th's camera.
March 7th held her camera with both hands, clutching it tightly to her chest, as though holding herself.
Countless shards of ice surged in from all directions, sealing March 7th and the camera in her arms within a frozen sculpture.
Suddenly.
A pair of hands seemingly extended from beyond the screen, as if scrambling the scene.
Herta lay against the surface of her magic mirror, lips pursed, eyes lowered, quietly watching the mirror showing March 7th.
As if thinking of something, the seriousness in her expression softened slightly, and the corners of her mouth gently curved upward.
OP: Nameless Faces.
Ends here.
[Paean of Era Nova, Coming Soon.]
On the screen, only this single line of text remained.
Whether it was the audience or Aglaea and the others who were watching the PV in the conference room at this very moment, everyone had fallen into deep shock.
Some people were completely at a loss for words.
There was only one thought in their minds: this PV is insanely good.
....
: Holy shit, holy shit, was this really just a trailer?!
: After watching it, I only have one thing to say: MiHoYo is amazing!
: Completely different from the previous trailers, this is an mind blowing!
: Top-tier, cinematic-level editing, music, and visual effects!
: They really manage to surprise us every single time! Whether it was the Space Station, Penacony, or now Amphoreus, my sense of awe just keeps getting refreshed!
: Another bold innovation in style!
: The atmosphere and visuals throughout the entire trailer perfectly fulfill all my imagination!
: The characters, the architecture, everything is top-tier!
: Now I'm finally relieved! No one should dare question the value of Amphoreus anymore, right?!
...
The audience was incredibly excited.
And it wasn't without reason, this PV was packed with details.
In terms of depth, it could be said to be among the very best.
It operated on two layers.
One layer was content. The other was pure visual presentation.
Since the audience didn't yet understand Amphoreus' story, what left the deepest impression on them was the viewing experience itself.
First of all, the overall tone presented in this PV was much more delicate.
Every cut transitioned from one character to another.
The same applied to scene changes. For example, when battle scenes flashed by, they were all shown from different perspectives at the same moment.
Scene transitions, meanwhile, were carried out through the actions of characters within the scene.
Such as Phainon descending from the sky. Or when Stelle turns her head, and the shot seamlessly becomes Phainon turning his head.
This approach greatly enhanced the continuity of the visuals. In a PV that needs to synchronize closely with music, it allowed the imagery to fully support the sense of narrative progression.
And that sense of storytelling made the audience feel that the work was more serious, more formal. This, too, was in service of Amphoreus' overall epic tone.
Moreover, the PV had a clear beginning and end.
The opening and the ending both took place in the same location.
So after watching the entire PV, everyone felt as though it was hiding many layers of meaning.
For instance, the symphony-like chanting at the beginning doesn't actually blend naturally with the main melody that follows.
Yet MiHoYo chose to do exactly that.
And during that opening, accompanied by the impassioned chanting, the one standing within the stone-pillar hall is Phainon.
When the OP ends, and the music winds down, becoming gentle, tinged with sorrow and lingering melancholy, the person standing in that same place is Stelle.
Precisely because the PV presents a complete, self-contained story from start to finish, every single frame invites viewers to carefully chew over its hidden implications.
There were many similar moments.
Aglaea stopping before Kephale.
Castorice embracing Stelle, while the dragon in the sky behind them.
These were all scenes where the visual effects were pushed to the extreme, all to emphasize a sense of formality, gravity, and epic scale.
Grand spectacles appeared one after another. Compared to previous PVs, this was something entirely different.
·····
: It was genuinely thrilling to watch.
: Of course, the previous PVs were great too, fun and good-looking! But Amphoreus is beautiful in a completely different way.
: MiHoYo really knows how to push every style to its absolute limit!
: When it's time for indulgence and revelry, they go all-out with. When it's time to be serious and formal, they choose epic, and they nail the essence every single time!
: The sheer amount of content packed into this PV is incredible!
: I really hope some big brain analysts will break it down in detail!
: I can't wait to see the story behind this epic, my anticipation is completely maxed out!
: I'm reading everyone's discussions while obsessively rewatching the PV details, every rewatch makes me like it more. It has so much staying power!
: The scale, the combat, it all feels more refined and more impactful than ever!
: It really has to be MiHoYo!
...
And beyond all of that. There was also the content itself.
Most important of all was the art style on display. The architecture in every scene. The clothing worn by each character.
All of it thoroughly embodied the essence of classical Greek artistic aesthetics. Even the most nitpicky old scholars would have a hard time finding fault in this regard.
And every single frame could be casually screenshotted and used as a wallpaper (a really good one, at that).
This alone was enough to finally put many previously worried fans at ease. Many Greek fans began sharing screenshots on social media to promote it.
Passersby who had been skeptical, after seeing those stunning images, also set aside the bias planted by the media and started paying attention to Amphoreus.
These people had never seen system-generated visuals like this before, this was truly top-tier imagery.
Scenes crafted through these special effects were breathtaking frame by frame.
When they saw their own culture presented on screen in this way it was almost impossible not to develop goodwill toward MiHoYo.
And this kind of silent, gradual shift in perception was the most powerful thing of all.
In the end, they would slowly come to feel that having a company narrate their own culture was only natural, and something to be proud of.
This was cultural narrative power. And it was MiHoYo's core competitive strength.
...
As the influence continued to expand, it could be said, this OP: Nameless Faces PV perfectly fulfilled its mission.
It completely shattered the schemes of skeptics and ill-intentioned critics alike.
At the same time, it drew in a large number of new audience, people interested, turning them into fans.
Across all kinds of forums, everyone was discussing this PV.
Aside from the usual praise for visual innovation, the most talked-about topic turned out to be the contrast between the opening and the ending.
Placing two different characters in the same scene, in different states, and putting them at the very beginning and the very end, made it impossible for the audience not to overthink it.
Everyone began wildly speculating. What exactly was MiHoYo trying to imply with Phainon at the beginning, and Stelle at the end?