Considering I've always preferred fantasy to sci-fi and real-time combat to turn-based, you'd think I'd be a Genshin person more than a Star Rail person, but now that I've played this going back to Genshin means I'm spending my entire time thinking Man, I wish this was more like Star Rail.
The QoL improvements are genuinely and massively appreciated - off the top of my head, the dailies are so much faster to get through and have actual mini storylines rather than just "Go here and kill 10 hilichurls", you got more Trailblaze Power right off the bat than you ever did Resin (AND this just recently updated to be even more and to give you a reserve amount so you don't have to deplete it daily), you get far more free currency for events and missions (going back to Genshin makes this discrepancy very obvious, I'm usually pulling teeth to get 20 primogems at the end of a longass questline vs. Star Rail where I'm getting 60 jades for every part of one), grinding is so much easier because you can get exactly the material you need from everywhere whenever you want unlike Genshin's "this domain is only open on Wednesdays and you might get some random other item instead" shtick, the pity is much more generous and the Standard banner lets you manually choose a character you want after a certain number of pulls, etc.
On top of that, you can absolutely play this completely free with the characters you get from the beginning. The characters you get for free just from the early storyline are the Trailblazer (Physical damage, later optional Fire support/shield), March (Ice shield), Dan Heng (Wind DPS), Natasha (Physical healer), Asta (Fire buff support), Qingque (Quantum damage), Yukong (Imaginary damage/support), Serval (Electric damage), and Herta (Ice damage). On top of that, so far off the top of my head events have freely given you Sushang (Physical damage) as well as additional instances of Yukong and Qingque.
I've been playing for several months now, and Trailblazer and March are still absolutely mainstays in my team and very rarely leave it. They've carried me through most fights. Asta is also my go-to Fire element despite me having pulled several others by now, and Dan Heng was always in my team until recently too. I still use Yukong pretty regularly. You can absolutely build a core team of purely F2P characters and get through the current storyline just fine.
I personally don't play daily anymore, I don't feel pressured to grind for currencies unless there's a specific upcoming character I want to pull for, and I don't feel a need to grind for levelling/ascension resources unless I have a particular goal in mind for a character which only takes a few days to complete, if that. This helps me avoid burnout so I'd recommend doing the same if you're prone to that.
I'd agree with other people who say the Jarilo VI/Belobog storyline is more engaging than the Xianxhou one so far - when I was playing through Belobog I found myself actively and constantly wanting to play to progress the story, while with Xianxhou I'm enjoying it but I can easily go weeks without feeling the urge to continue - but I still like the writing and the storyline so far.
The characters are varied and pretty engaging, and the game still being relatively new means it hasn't yet fallen into the Genshin trap of a ton of the new characters looking the same as pre-existing ones because they're just recycling the same generic cute girl designs. My personal favourite characters so far are Sampo and his hilarious mischief (and I really hope some of the theories about him are right because that'd be fascinating), Gepard and his sense of duty, Welt and his witty intelligence, Blade and his mental struggle, and Luocha and the mysteries he got goin' on. I actually also really enjoy the main character, Caelus/Stelle - both their design and colour scheme, and their personality. They're not a silent protagonist like Genshin's Aether/Lumine, and I love that - they have some genuinely hilarious dialogue and moments.
I honestly look forward to seeing where this story is going.
Shoutout to the music, too - the Belobog final boss fight theme is now on repeat in the Astral Express.
Favourite Male Character: Blade, Sampo, Welt, Gepard
Favourite Female Character: March 7th
First Character I Liked: Dan Heng
Favourite Character Design: Tingyun
Favourite OST: Wildfire, Take the Journey
Favourite Scene: Trailblazer running up the statue to confront Cocolia with everyone contributing with individual skills/weapons
Least Favourite Character: Of the playable characters, I find Yanqing pretty bland and Hook grating (though I don't outright dislike either of them)
The QoL improvements are genuinely and massively appreciated - off the top of my head, the dailies are so much faster to get through and have actual mini storylines rather than just "Go here and kill 10 hilichurls", you got more Trailblaze Power right off the bat than you ever did Resin (AND this just recently updated to be even more and to give you a reserve amount so you don't have to deplete it daily), you get far more free currency for events and missions (going back to Genshin makes this discrepancy very obvious, I'm usually pulling teeth to get 20 primogems at the end of a longass questline vs. Star Rail where I'm getting 60 jades for every part of one), grinding is so much easier because you can get exactly the material you need from everywhere whenever you want unlike Genshin's "this domain is only open on Wednesdays and you might get some random other item instead" shtick, the pity is much more generous and the Standard banner lets you manually choose a character you want after a certain number of pulls, etc.
On top of that, you can absolutely play this completely free with the characters you get from the beginning. The characters you get for free just from the early storyline are the Trailblazer (Physical damage, later optional Fire support/shield), March (Ice shield), Dan Heng (Wind DPS), Natasha (Physical healer), Asta (Fire buff support), Qingque (Quantum damage), Yukong (Imaginary damage/support), Serval (Electric damage), and Herta (Ice damage). On top of that, so far off the top of my head events have freely given you Sushang (Physical damage) as well as additional instances of Yukong and Qingque.
I've been playing for several months now, and Trailblazer and March are still absolutely mainstays in my team and very rarely leave it. They've carried me through most fights. Asta is also my go-to Fire element despite me having pulled several others by now, and Dan Heng was always in my team until recently too. I still use Yukong pretty regularly. You can absolutely build a core team of purely F2P characters and get through the current storyline just fine.
I personally don't play daily anymore, I don't feel pressured to grind for currencies unless there's a specific upcoming character I want to pull for, and I don't feel a need to grind for levelling/ascension resources unless I have a particular goal in mind for a character which only takes a few days to complete, if that. This helps me avoid burnout so I'd recommend doing the same if you're prone to that.
I'd agree with other people who say the Jarilo VI/Belobog storyline is more engaging than the Xianxhou one so far - when I was playing through Belobog I found myself actively and constantly wanting to play to progress the story, while with Xianxhou I'm enjoying it but I can easily go weeks without feeling the urge to continue - but I still like the writing and the storyline so far.
The characters are varied and pretty engaging, and the game still being relatively new means it hasn't yet fallen into the Genshin trap of a ton of the new characters looking the same as pre-existing ones because they're just recycling the same generic cute girl designs. My personal favourite characters so far are Sampo and his hilarious mischief (and I really hope some of the theories about him are right because that'd be fascinating), Gepard and his sense of duty, Welt and his witty intelligence, Blade and his mental struggle, and Luocha and the mysteries he got goin' on. I actually also really enjoy the main character, Caelus/Stelle - both their design and colour scheme, and their personality. They're not a silent protagonist like Genshin's Aether/Lumine, and I love that - they have some genuinely hilarious dialogue and moments.
I honestly look forward to seeing where this story is going.
Shoutout to the music, too - the Belobog final boss fight theme is now on repeat in the Astral Express.
Favourite Male Character: Blade, Sampo, Welt, Gepard
Favourite Female Character: March 7th
First Character I Liked: Dan Heng
Favourite Character Design: Tingyun
Favourite OST: Wildfire, Take the Journey
Favourite Scene: Trailblazer running up the statue to confront Cocolia with everyone contributing with individual skills/weapons
Least Favourite Character: Of the playable characters, I find Yanqing pretty bland and Hook grating (though I don't outright dislike either of them)