Honkai: Star Rail

I will start with the positive, the story is .. fine, the gfx is ok. Combat is RTS which already makes it abit tougher on a gatcha since you cannot just say like in genshin "well i might not have the right character for this fight, but i can stall and win over time", here if you don't have what the game wants you to use (at the highest difficulty in some - echo of war , Simulated Universa and Memory of Chaos fights), you are screwed. Let me just put this in perspective .. you go in with 4 lvl 80 (max) characters with lvl 13 - 15 relics , lvl 80 cone and.around 7 7 7 in talents , it says "team underpowered" when you join in. That is absolutely ridicoulus for a Game that is less than 4 months on the market. Unlike Genshin were there is fun in the open world, this feels like purely running chores because you are so far behind if you don't have the "correct" character for certain fights, the game punishes you badly. I get the premise is to get you to spend money to pull for characters, but unlike in genshin , where you never felt forced to to "need" a specific character, this game does exactly that. And that to me kills every fun part of this game. The Power Creep they use to push people to pay for characters is too drastic , too quick and too steep. My decision was to play this for a little while longer and see if it evens out again , but probably drop it for Reverse 1999 as soon as this will come out.

Yet another gacha game enters the mobile game scene, and it is from a familiar company, Just with a different name.

HoYoverse, earned their renown with their massive success title, Genshin Impact, is looking to expand the business still with their next game. As their new title suggests, this game is aiming to start a genuine universe of their own.

It is true that Honkai: Star Rail hands us the same poison all the other mobile games nowadays do.

Pulling a character is their major content, and there is no such thing as "full game." It is definitely not complete on release, and it'll go on and on, as long as it can reach your wallet. The game is only about a month old, and yet the content will dry out quick if you really go at it.

But there is also a good news. Coming from a major company with quite a few successes under their belt, the game offers a delightful presentation. The visuals are pretty enough to let you get attatched to the character without much reason, and the sounds have weight to appreciate.

Story itself is more or less redundant. It won't leave any impression on you, and it being added with a time gap doesn't help either.

Interesting things about this title is that they don't really urge you to spend money on it, which is rather refreshing, coming from a big name like HoYoverse. There are lots of decent characters within reach, and there is virtually no content that makes you wrestle with the others. No ranking system, no guild stuff, nothing. If that is your thing, this game will be very blend.

Gameplay is standard business. You go through story stuff, along with the side quests, and you farm everyday for 10 minutes and try to find anything to keep yourself entertaining until the next update comes through.

It runs pretty well on my 2-year-old iphone 12 pro max, but I won't recommend playing it for a long time, let alone while charging. I can definitely feel the heat.

Just like any other gacha game, you won't miss out anything if you look past this one. But if you had to choose your poison, this game could be up there on my recommendation list.

In the beginning of the game, you think "omg the game is so generous" "wow there's so many rewards!" "The story is so fun!" And that's exactly what they want you to think. The beginning is fun but as you progress, the game gets less and less fun and feels more like a chore than a game you play in your free time to have a break from reality. With the story being filled with black text and white lettering in newer Trailblazer missions. But as you get closer to the end game you start to see just a glimpse of the HP inflation if you attempt to complete MOC or APOC shadows. As everyone knows, power creep and HP inflation in this game well basically every HoYoverse game is ridiculous. Characters are rendered useless or are completely powercrept in like 3 patches. For example, all of 2.x was about super break and how OP it is. Now super break has already been falling off since Amorpheus has been introduced in 3.0. With true damage being able to make some DPS characters who aren't that good, *somewhat* viable (damage wise) and AOE characters being more prominent. The game also has been getting more greedy. With Eidolons that are SUPER OP so that it makes people want to spend. Example, Tribbie has one of if not the best E1 in the entire game. On estimate, how much Is that gonna cost you? Lets go with the worst case scenario, you would need about 180 pulls just to guarantee a E0 Tribbie. If you've never spent on a top-up before or the double top-up was reset for that patch, that would be about 400USD to get E0 TRIBBIE and that's with the double top-up. So, it could cost you around 900$ just to get a guaranteed E1 Tribbie (without the double top-up). This is straight up greedy and manipulating. HoYoverse in general have been getting more greedy. Some of y'all will say "WeLl yOu DoN't NeEd To SpEnD mOnEy" "ThEy ArEn'T fOrCiNg YoU." First off all, that's such a immature statement considering this is a MULTI-BILLION dollar company. Second of all, it doesn't change the fact that they're greedy and manipulating. Don't you ever realize how with every MOC or APOC, it's specifically catered to the newest limited character? "Oh look, Tribbie is on the banner! Well looks like we need to make the newest MOC and APOC need frequent AOE attacks!" With rapid power creep and greedy practices. To making some limited characters basically need their signature LightCone or Eidolon(s) or a specific character to be viable (yes, I'm talking about Aglaea and Acheron). The game has already been going into a downward spiral only a year (almost two years) after its release.

It's great!

To make it short: The combat system is really fun but might take some time to fully understand every rule and effect. The same goes for the character kits.

But the reason I actually got so much into it is the Penacony arc. The cast of characters and the story is probably the best I've experienced in a while regarding video games where the main focus is not ONLY the story. The world building and its surrounding lore also is really engaging. Furthermore it is not necessary to own a single five star character to have fun (you gain stellar jade over time so you will definitely own one at some point anyway). Meaning it is really f2p friendly as well and doesn't require you to actually spend money on anything ( stellar jade ).

So: Interesting characters, story and worldbuilding, cool combat system, really nice graphic design and animation.

The story in this game offers unique and interesting story with lots of variety. The world view introduces concepts like aeons and paths which are the focus of the whole story. These concepts diverge into even wider fields each with their own ideologies and stories. Which is part of the reason why the lore is so deep and captivating. Apart from the main story, side quests are also given a lot of attention and are the hidden gems of this game. To name a few like the penacony hotel front desk quest and the polka sim universe story.

With the introduction of Amphoreus in 3.0 there is bound to be story that tops all the arcs from before, and I am so hype for it. It is 8 patches of story after all, way longer than the penacony arc.

The humorous aspects of this game are also worthy of mention. From the extra context on their social media channels, the character interactions and the memes they incorporate into the game. The devs do keep up with the internet culture and are willing to listen to players to improve the game. Making the daily experience stress free and smooth. The game's GUI and QoL have improved a lot from release. But there still exists some things they are reluctant to add like relic presets. Oh yeah and also the rewards of this game are also nice always giving free pulls each patch and sometimes even more at special times. And also the devs really know how to hype the players up with the new 500k jades lottery event. Prayge 🙏

About the gameplay The game offers various styles of gameplay with the introduction of modes including Sim universe & its expansions, apocalyptic shadow, memory of chaos... These modes are all unique and have the potential to multiply the strength of a maybe forgotten character and also the fun you have while playing them. Especially in sim and divergent universe where the buffs and equations allow for brand new playstyles not available elsewhere. It is just really satisfying to see big numbers to be honest.

With the arrival of new characters and with them new playstyles there is always something new to discover within them. Looking forwards to the summoning meta in 3.0.

About power creep in the game, it is a inevitable process and the way they make money by selling new characters. It is a common occurrence that after the first banner of a character they aren't good/ can't keep up with the meta anymore. For example jingliu in 1.4 after the 2.0 patch released they quickly fell off along with the disappearance of the ice weaknesses in many content. Characters like Acheron were released who could deal way more damage while have better mechanics. This isn't like in some other Sacha games where a character is always valuable for their unique mechanics that cannot be replaced or the power creep is just much slower. It is a trend in which turn based games have faster power creep and there isn't much that could be done it is more or less necessary.

Perhaps the 10/10 is exaggerating it a bit but I do think the game deserves a higher score than what it has right now.