Gacha games are always a hard sell because they are grindy, time gated, and really just want you for your money. Despite such gold digger status, I genuinely do think that Honkai Star Rail is a gacha game that has used the past games of the HoYoverse to give a compelling argument for such a live service game that keeps updating and growing. While there certainly is some problems with Star Rail's delivery, and potential down the road; ultimately Honkai: Star Rail provides a solid answer to a space adventure RPG.
Perhaps the biggest selling point of Honkai Star Rail is just how big it can get, and how much can easily be added without giving much disturbance to what most gacha games need for an overarching story. Not to say there isn't an overarching story, but the real point of interest is exploring new planets, cultures, and developing the world of Star Rail over any actual take down of a big bad. This is something that Star Rail even has over such mammoth games like Starfield, No Man Sky, and Fate Grand Order. There is legitimately a massive amount of text, voice overs, and side missions that would make even the Mass Effect series blush. To say that Star Rail is a massive game is honestly an understatement at this point, already rivaling the 1st two arcs of Fate Grand Order in terms of size, as of May 2024. The first two main areas, Herta Space Station & Belobog, are a great start to the game, and impressed me with how much lore and content there was initially to began with. Belobog even feeling more like it's very own game when compared to the Herta Space Station opening.
Sadly, due to how big Star Rail can be, and how it utilizes both it's time, upgrade, and promotion currencies this makes the game a massive time sink. There is just something blatantly scummy and cruel about how Star Rail's combat works, and how the progression of the Equilibrium (difficulty) gets in Star Rail that rubs me the wrong way. See combat in Star Rail is pretty lax for the most part as long as you have the correct affinities to take down enemy weaknesses. In a lot of ways, both Fate Grand Order and Star Rail have similar combat prep and style. Use the enemy weaknesses while having characters equipped with proper light cones (Craft Essences) and hopefully be at a good skill level to make the battle easy to win. Where FGO and Star Rail differ however is that Light Cones are a bigger part to the stat equation, there is a mildly higher character growth when summoned from the gacha (6 compared to FGO's 5), and leveling up costing far more at the higher levels compared to FGOs requirement to fully upgrade a servant. This makes leveling up all the way far more difficult, and nearly a week endeavor just to get a character to the final level. This isn't accounting for other parts in Star Rail's character system like the fully upgraded light cones, skills, or relics that you can use. Plus on top of all this the game's promotional currency gets equally pushed out because you keep using it upgrade characters abilities/skills/levels/light cones. It's kinda insane how much time and effort it takes to fully invest into one character in Star Rail, let alone 20 of them, which the game honestly intends for you to do with some of it's higher required side content. So if you mess up like I did, and upgrade too fast on your equilibrium (difficulty) you end up being locked out of both story and side content till you can grind the rest to enjoy the game again.
Really the only thing I can say about Honkai Star Rail is that you'll be investing a lot of time in it if you want to experience it. For some that can be a deterrent, but for others this may be a blessing. While a vast majority of your time will be spent grinding/ leveling up your characters and equipment; the game does have proper story, characterization, lore, world building, and some pretty cool animations to boot. It really is just a cool role playing space adventure that keeps making cooler and interesting characters so you can spend money on, and frankly I like that a lot more compared to something like skins. It's still a scummy practice, but at least there is some substance behind that. If you can tolerate that, and a bit of grinding, I absolutely recommend Honkai Star Rail.
Perhaps the biggest selling point of Honkai Star Rail is just how big it can get, and how much can easily be added without giving much disturbance to what most gacha games need for an overarching story. Not to say there isn't an overarching story, but the real point of interest is exploring new planets, cultures, and developing the world of Star Rail over any actual take down of a big bad. This is something that Star Rail even has over such mammoth games like Starfield, No Man Sky, and Fate Grand Order. There is legitimately a massive amount of text, voice overs, and side missions that would make even the Mass Effect series blush. To say that Star Rail is a massive game is honestly an understatement at this point, already rivaling the 1st two arcs of Fate Grand Order in terms of size, as of May 2024. The first two main areas, Herta Space Station & Belobog, are a great start to the game, and impressed me with how much lore and content there was initially to began with. Belobog even feeling more like it's very own game when compared to the Herta Space Station opening.
Sadly, due to how big Star Rail can be, and how it utilizes both it's time, upgrade, and promotion currencies this makes the game a massive time sink. There is just something blatantly scummy and cruel about how Star Rail's combat works, and how the progression of the Equilibrium (difficulty) gets in Star Rail that rubs me the wrong way. See combat in Star Rail is pretty lax for the most part as long as you have the correct affinities to take down enemy weaknesses. In a lot of ways, both Fate Grand Order and Star Rail have similar combat prep and style. Use the enemy weaknesses while having characters equipped with proper light cones (Craft Essences) and hopefully be at a good skill level to make the battle easy to win. Where FGO and Star Rail differ however is that Light Cones are a bigger part to the stat equation, there is a mildly higher character growth when summoned from the gacha (6 compared to FGO's 5), and leveling up costing far more at the higher levels compared to FGOs requirement to fully upgrade a servant. This makes leveling up all the way far more difficult, and nearly a week endeavor just to get a character to the final level. This isn't accounting for other parts in Star Rail's character system like the fully upgraded light cones, skills, or relics that you can use. Plus on top of all this the game's promotional currency gets equally pushed out because you keep using it upgrade characters abilities/skills/levels/light cones. It's kinda insane how much time and effort it takes to fully invest into one character in Star Rail, let alone 20 of them, which the game honestly intends for you to do with some of it's higher required side content. So if you mess up like I did, and upgrade too fast on your equilibrium (difficulty) you end up being locked out of both story and side content till you can grind the rest to enjoy the game again.
Really the only thing I can say about Honkai Star Rail is that you'll be investing a lot of time in it if you want to experience it. For some that can be a deterrent, but for others this may be a blessing. While a vast majority of your time will be spent grinding/ leveling up your characters and equipment; the game does have proper story, characterization, lore, world building, and some pretty cool animations to boot. It really is just a cool role playing space adventure that keeps making cooler and interesting characters so you can spend money on, and frankly I like that a lot more compared to something like skins. It's still a scummy practice, but at least there is some substance behind that. If you can tolerate that, and a bit of grinding, I absolutely recommend Honkai Star Rail.
Lemonstrade
1 month ago
i don't actually think upgrading traces and lightcones is the issue, you can probably max out a character within a week. i'd say the actual problem with the grind is the relic system due to the rng involved, it can take ages to get something above the ordinary - although probably any 5★ relic with the right main stat can get you through the story atleast. also autoplay is a godsend, free farming while you do something else and it completes your daily quests too - definitely makes HSR a lower maintenance game than something like genshin