Honkai: Star Rail Doesn't Want You to Have Favorites
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- A discussion about Honkai: Star Rail's characters and how they're sold to the players.
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This video is intended as constructive criticism. Despite having criticisms, HSR is still one of my favorite games and I like playing it :)
#hsr #honkaistarrail
There's a big difference between 'rewarding' a player for pulling the hottest new unit and 'punishing' a player for NOT pulling.
In my eyes, HSR falls way too deep into punishing its players and that simply doesn't feel good.
Definitely agree with this to an extent, I just wish the focus was more on the actual characters so even if you do skip one you can still enjoy some of the others
Exactly this. Some bosses are only created in mind for extremely specific units. The most recent example being the Banacademic staff officers. Who are the better units that can be used against it? Rappa, Acheron and maybe Himeko. Two of the units are limited and the other is a standard 5 star character.
And even as someone who used Himeko against the boss, it does not feel good at all to use her against it. (Because the fire weak enemies are spaced out compared to "the past, present and eternal show" robots)
This doesn't even cover into the worse part that HSR has not released as much new 4 stars that could be budget/downgraded versions of limited 5 stars to at least help players who don't want to pull for the limited 5 star of that patch.
@@Cynicalhampturthe most recent AS is literally made to sell Herta too, giving 60% atk boost for erudition and it has weakness to ice
@@mitchsz
They Always Designed the Bosses based on new Units since 1.x, but try to Balance it with Buffs or Gimmicks.
Problem is that some people rely too much on the Auto Mode in Endgame content, instead playing it Themselfs.
The AI make very dumb decisions If you got some extra Gimmicks Like the trotter or the current AS.
But Nobody will disagree that the highest difficulty stages got HP Inflation Problems.
@@Cynicalhamptur Well theres also Serval for Bananmusement a character we got for free its not like we didn't have anything for those challenges. Players who only pull who they like will always be "punsihed" if they don't like the meta units but they need to pull somebody.
You need elemental coverage I still use my JIngliu, QQ, Clara and Topaz but I also have Acheron, Firefly, Feixiao, Dr Ratio and Black Swan now. I skipped Boothill, Jade, Yunli, and Rappa I will skip The Herta, Aglaea and Mydei too sure it might be harder at times without their unique skillsets but I will win later on when I see the next dps I like. You need to pull for supports in the meantime for the dps you have which makes them way stronger.
Even in Genshin you just asking for hard time if you choose to skip all the meta units like Kazuha, Raiden, Nahida, Furina they are core supports for many of the teams in the game there is alternative but they are not close at all in terms of feeling good and dmg.
Unironically, the power creep is even more brutal as a whale, Imagine the character you spent 2k+ on to e6s5 becomes borderline useless in a year
Don't you think a hard game is what makes the game fun?
@@Hero4878challenging is a better Word. Easy can give fun too.
"Easy but challenging or hard and challenging"
A whale would have to skill issue so hard for that to be a problem, assuming that they whale every single character (which there are people who do that)
@Zeka_SCCC useless was an exaggeration
I more meant it would feel awful when your e6s5 barely does the same damage as the newest e0
@@Hero4878 the problem with HSR is that old characters becomes almost redundant whether you whaled, invest a lot of resources or add a new support. Seele and hypercarry team comp are already the perfect example of a problematic powercreep. Sure there are few supposedly niche units that were buffed like Jing Yuan but they almost completely abandoned unique units and the hyper carry team comp (with the HP inflation, i think hyper carry team comp is dead at this point). I dont think we should stick with old but abandoning old units is still no way to go. Turn based games should let players choose how they want to challenge themselves but with the current powercreep situation, they want players to get all the new units with their unique mechanics. If you dont, you would barely clear endgame content (MOC, AS, PF). Reverse 1999 is a good example with "Euphoria", buffing old units that makes them viable in newer content.
i wish HSR did companion quests a lot more often than they do. it doesn't solve the problem of characters being only relevant during/near their release but at least they are stories that are dedicated to that character. without even companion quests some characters are barely relevant even during their release.
i really like lingsha for example because i think her design is really cool and she's great in gameplay, but in the story all she gets is being the D plot of the 2.4-2.5 storyline, and probably won't get more screen time in the future other than maybe a small cameo in a luofu event or something, so she might as well not even exist other than in gameplay.
They dont even do that anymore
They stopped doing Companion Quest because they realized Players just skip them.
@@silverhawkscape2677 the problem with some of the companion quests is that some are just so boring especially black swan's quest. Look I like black swan but her companion quest is so damn boring and filled with yapping that doesn't even matter to the plot.
@delta01nit kinda does to the plot tho, before 2.1 or whatever we know you can't die on the dream, it's kind of some hint to the story.
@delta01n that’s most companion quests, they are optional sidequests so it would be real bad if they really affected the lore. But yeah turning everything into a yapfest is definitely one of the weakest points of this game. It even makes the main story boring as hell.
This is the tragedy of Kafka for me. Her story, design, and mysterious past make her easily my favorite character by far, and it was her story that got me hooked on the game. When we got to do her character quest and speak to her in the Luofu, I got so excited for the future of this game's story. I thought it was truly something special. However, since then Kafka has become mostly irrelevant as new characters and storylines take the spotlight. They make out every character to be the most important thing and then a few weeks later that character is left in the dust, which really tampers with the quality of the story.
To this day I still feel that Kafka, Elio, and just the stellaron hunters in general are the most important characters in the overarching plot, but I am just not sure if Hoyo sees it that way.
They were shown in the latest story though. It's just there are A LOT of characters to go over. Hell, they confirmed they have more plans for luocha story wise. It's a huge universe.
And at least with kafka to this day she is still viable for end game. Data confirms this, and I do it as a f2p with freaking Sampo. It's just she isn't ultra meta right now, which is fine.
@@GodofGoblins Yeah I was happy to see them, even if short lived. My cope is that I think the reason they don’t cover the really important stuff is because the actual game development takes much longer than the writing so we end up with a ton of filler. For example if this were a different medium like say, a manga, the story would be able to move a lot quicker.
Also, I only started playing upon Ruan Mei’s release, so I don’t even have Kafka. By the time I realized how much I liked the character it was too late lol
@@pillager2327 ah i see. yeah i mean end of the day they drip feed us for marketing purposes. Add to this they want to sell us the shinier new toys, and if an older character falls off to inevitable power creep, they then have more incentive to push newer characters.
but yeah i wouldnt worry about kafka. she is one of the main pivotal characters in the narrative. its kinda like with Naruto how we didnt hear from Orochimaru for a while because there were other important characters to talk about. Same with this; and some of them are apparently honkai impact 3rd references which are popular, so they will naturally give them spotlight for a while.
@@GodofGoblinsholy shit I forgot about Luocha plot, they never went really back to it right?
@mitchsz indeed. He was vaguely mentioned recently but yeah. At least they are aware
It's no coincidence that of the Big 3 (HSR, ZZZ and Genshin), HSR is where you have the least interaction with the characters outside of a few cameos in events (often not even voiced), a few cell phone messages and 2-3 visits to the train.
My biggest disappointment was when we finally got our room only to end up not even being able to customize it or invite characters to spend time in.
I'm not the biggest gacha player and couldn't care less of the cacha community but Hsr has a good character writing, even if 80% if ut comes from the story quest it's not relevant, actually it's even better, bc it does't waste your time in chit chat or need separates companion quests to talk about a cahracter.
@@bianks3916 That's true but then people want more interactions and content of them. Even though I'm not that big fan of genshin anymore, they include characters perfectly in events so people get more excited to see their favorite/main appear.
@@bianks3916
The character writing is good.
The REST of the writing is where the issue lies.
Kinda wild that the game people have been clowning on for years at this point(genshin) has better character interactions(frequent story quests + hangout quests + teapot) than their newer title does.
Feels like hoyo really only wants you to care about certain things in each of their games, and I guess HSR didn't get the "developed characters" tag compared to genshin
I felt like they cuz the writing short with Serval. At first it was like "I wanna join the Astral Express" and then she changed her mind immediately, cutting off a big storyline. She could have atleast been with us and change her mind on the ship or something
"Acheron where are you going? We are about to have the final battle in Penacony..."
Acheron: Sorry my banner is over bye
To be fair, having Acheron around in terms of story would usually end up in easy wins that it would be laughable
@necasa4919 good point
@@necasa4919 True but like dang we haven't seen her in so long, even in events, well maybe but barely, I don't even remember her last appearance :(
@@DelkaguIt was the last talk with her in the Dreamscape in 2.3, when we say her old form before she became an emanator.
To be fair, putting her in too much stuff would kinda de-mystify her role in the story personally.
@@STWD1ST kinda like argenti..
Pretty much everything you said here is how I've been feeling for a while now. I've been questioning quite often why I change who my favourite character is constantly and how characters I used to adore practically no longer exist in my mind. It's really sad when I don't really care about meta or endgame and the only reason I play these games is because I love the characters but it is so frustrating to go into an apocalyptic shadow boss with the same team I used to defeat it easily previously now it just doesn't work anymore because the boss has like 3 million more health and the buffs force me to use specific team setups.
I have like 2 character i really like alot, then about 10 im constantly thinking "do i even like them that much?"
I agree with everything you said and for the last thing I have an opposite problem.
I've to use the exact same team I used last time again and again to complete MoC 12, AS 4, etc. but I want to use a different team, using the same one is boring but I can't really full star with other teams and that sucks.
i feel like Genshin still sells you on a character’s story at least somewhat but i agree games like HSR it feels a lot more based on wanting you to chase kits alone or at least prioritize that
I think it's the difference in the game themselves - one is free-roaming combat and one is turn-based combat.
In Genshin there's a lot of content you can sweat through if you're under-levelled because e.g. you can dodge incoming attacks. You don't need a shielder or a healer in the Abyss if you're a stud and you can dodge. It's why there's a debate on the value of someone like Zhongli - I think he's great because I'm not the best dodger and would rather do more DPS because I can face-tank a punch from the boss, but other people who can dodge see him as a net DPS loss and see him taking up the slot of someone like Citlali or Kazuha who could amplify damage instead (and we're both right).
In Genshin, you could bring a sub-optimal team and build, but clutch up and still win. Even in Abyss 12, you still have 10 minutes, you can kill the boss with paper cuts while singing 'Can't touch this' if you want. Basically the only way to brick yourself in Genshin is to be too under-levelled or not have an answer for an elemental check, but absent those things, having a "skill issue" can describe most failures.
So, all that is to say, you can basically play your favorites with limited downside. I still run characters I like (Ayato, Alhaitham, Nilou, Hu Tao, etc.) because (1) they still clear and (2) surviving is going to be an issue for me. So, I can play who I want (I do have mostly META teams, but I use META to play who I like).
By contrast, HSR doesn't have that level of character skill expression because enemy (and your) attacks don't miss. So when e.g. a big attack is coming, you can either (1) break the enemy, (2) manipulate turn order some other way (like Bronya's skill), (3) put up a shield, or (4) make sure you're healed enough to tank the hit. Those are your only 4 options. Late game and end-game is catered to making you pull the new characters, they all have traits that do well in those scenarios and it tends to change with every patch (to suit the new character or the reruns in general).
So, HSR has way more stat-checks/DPS-checks because your whole skill expression is (1) did I build my team right and (2) do these turns make sense? If you fail at either, you could lose. You're going to take damage, and it's part of the game/ challenge and you have to plan for it and one of the best ways to plan for it, is to just play the latest META, who may not be your favorite character.
Compounding all the foregoing in HSR is power creep and HP inflation in end-game content. In Genshin, I don't think you suffer too much when playing off-META - fine it's not 36* but you can clear. In HSR you suffer big because you're actively dissuaded from playing your favorites with power-creep by newer characters, inflated boss HP and mechanics that older characters don't bring to the table (summons, super break) all of which may be the difference between winning and losing.
@@John_II HSR isn't just a "turn based game", it's a turn based game with bad, one-dimensional combat
that's the core of the problem
@@rickmel-q7m Hard to disagree with your description. :)
You can't even block/defend in HSR, or skip a turn, or use an item like most RPGs. Every turn you have to attack, use your skill or use your ultimate... there's literally nothing else you can do.
Maybe some people like the simplicity, but as someone who played e.g. FFVII, Legend of Dragoon (in the 1990s) and more recently Octopath Traveller), you see automatically what is missing/what could be.
@@John_III like the simplicity because it's more relaxing and easier to play on a phone when I don't have a computer available.
But that's from the perspective that the story is good and engaging.
But when it's all about pulling good characters then that gets old quick.
@@John_II personally, I don't think it's the biggest problem though. HSR is even barely passed as a turn base game since with enough speed, AA, etc you could basically "skip" enemies turn entirely. And let's not start with the end games purpose since all end games is basically "clear the stages as fast as possible" which make character with defensive or stall like mechanics just fall out of comparison compared to character with all out attacks on their kit.
Hoyo is legitimately the only mainstay, long term gacha company I'm familiar with that refuses to update older characters. FGO started down this road, for example, and so have both DBZ Legends and Dokkan Battle, the pathetic One Punch Man gacha, and many many others and they've all circled around to doing better... to varying degrees. FGO is a perfect example of this; the game isn't afraid to go back to even day one characters--many of which have been selectable, and/or characters that many people have--and updating them to have competitive, or even winning kits. And these characters often need or at least strongly rely on new characters for teambuilding and strategies, so it's not costing them anything.
I think if any of their three games needs, DESPERATELY needs to adopt this strategy, it's HSR. I feel like I was punished for characters I skipped, but then having them was only meta for a brief flash in the pan period of time. And it sucks... I want to use Jingliu more, for instance, or to have any reason to use DoT aside from lightning and wind weakness at the same time.
genshin does that kinda, but in form of new units that can greatly buff older 1.x units to make them still competitive in today's meta
I think this is entirely why HSR punishes you harder for having favorites because of the fact that old characters are just going to get left in the dust.
Hoyo loves powercreep. The only game that has been spared from this was genshin, where older chars get consistently buffed with new chars, new team archetypes, artifact sets, universal weapons etc. Some of course get still left in the dust a bit, but the games biggest appeal is also the exploration, if you cannot beat abyss consistently with them, you can still throw them in Imaginery Theater and every other content.
HSR biggest appeal is animations, combat and story which is largely their loveletter to the honkaiverse. If you do not tend to your characters by upgrading their teams and LCs, which can get expensive, you can still run around with them on the map, but it is a rather lacking appeal if you ask me.
HSR foes that too. Buy pulling for another character only so your current char can keep up?Lol@@hafidlho7332
@@eff-fume And that's HSR's biggest problem, it's mostly story-driven, so once you don't have more stories, or companion missions (some npc quests are really good), there's nothing else to do.
An argument can be made about the different variations of Simulated Universe, but if you're a casual player, you're just gonna complete everything eventually, you maybe just need a few good runs. Of course, this is the case only with Simulated Universe because if as a F2P you don't have teams that are enough to beat the end-game, well, what else is there to do? Map rewards? They're over and you can't do anything else, it's not exploration-based like Genshin.
Personally the most positive thing HSR has it's just the huge amount of lore, you turn a corner and it's filled of stories, info from simulated universes, etc, a lot of theory-crafting, and personally, some of the best concepts ever.
One thing that made Limbus Company great is that fact you only have 12 unique characters, and you pull alternative universe versions of them and use one of each to battle. It is so wonderful for a great story to tell about them with a lot of depth and/or sincerity
@@basty_gaming5750 yeah, something I liked about early honkai impact as well
Oh my god, Limbus Company mention. But yeah, the best part about LCB gacha is just how unnecessary it is (excluding Walpurgis of course, but even then, you can save up enough shards to dispense the older units).
@@goldenrose4864 Yeah! It made the grind more rewarding with less stuff to upgrade and how big those upgrades are.
the one thing i hate about limbus company is that not everything can be winrated (curse you sly fox)
@@A.SingularityFor hard fights, win-rate will harm you.
I feel that I’ve gone through the ‘favorites over meta’ discussion many times myself. Although the roadblock I always hit is ‘do I pull the best in slots for my favorites?’ On one hand it’s pulling a character for the sake of increasing the longevity of my favorite, but on the other hand it’s pulling for the meta team comp of my favorite (which I do understand sounds like the same thing, but I think it’s a matter of perspective).
Yeah, that's definitely something to consider, and I guess it really depends on the person. Some people will *really* like a character and want the absolute best for them, others will just be happy with budget teams of whatever they have at the time.
I started HSR just before Jingliu reran. I like ice/frost related characters and I like having to plan out turns to keep her ult up as long as possible. Pulled her and then all the enemies stopped having ice weaknesses. I didn't pull for Sparkle because I was saving for a Robin rerun and I didn't pull for Sunday because I didn't have enough jades for Fugue since my other team had FF. "just pull the support bro" Nah, I don't think I want to pull the latest meta support every single time just to enjoy my 1.x character. I bet Tribbie will powercreep any other harmony support anyway. What happens after her?
I wanna play the characters I like, I even 36 star'd the last two Abysses with Hu Tao, yelan, xingqiu, zhongli. Sucks to see I can't do that in HSR without pulling for every latest meta support.
Tribbie is made for a completely different playstyle than past Harmony units. The way I'll put it is think of her as an Erudition support. Because of this, she won't powercreep any of them.
@@JosepiThe13thjust wait until tirbbie releases and you will see how she improves almost every team over other Harmonies. Except for Robin in Feixiao team and superbreak stuff.
@@JosepiThe13th then let's watch Hoyo making sure that every end games content released after that caters around that's very specific playstyle like it was with Super break and Fei fua in the past. Then hoyo will also make sure that most dps that released after 3.0 have a huge self buff to make any support from 2.x won't help them as much as "debuffer" type like tribie
Tribie won't directly powercreep most harmony, but with many new dps rumoured to have hp scalling, some older support just unofficially being weeded out since they won't be helped as much.
The only frustrating thing about this is Hoyo could have it both ways. We've seen with March that they'll give her a new more powerful path so she could be useful to players who have better sustains than her Preservation path. When I saw Luka at the war dance for the first time, I was super excited, hoping he and the rest of the Belabog cast would get some buffs. But no, you fight your first match with team Belabog before they use hallucinations to let you use your own team + trials.
If Hoyo doubled down on more characters and gave underperforming ones a new path, then buffed their old ones, Krakens, and Whales would have 6 more Eidolans to pull for, plus old favorites would come back into the spotlight for at least a mission.
Right now we're in an economy where it's either the whales shelling out 2k a banner or the F2P who maybe spends $5 on the express pass. I genuinely believe more players would spend more money if their investments stayed relevant for longer. I stick to the Express pass but I would whale if Natasha got a 5* variation on the path of Preservation or if Gui got a 5* Destruction. We know the players like 5* Dan Heng. I still love the game but I just don't understand Hoyo sometimes, not every character is gonna be Firefly.
There's also the point that if you don't follow the meta you'll get less rewards, but at the same time you'll need less units therefore making you have more pulls for your favorites.
Honestly, the rewards aren't worth it, there just not much content to easily plug in and start fighting mobs
I do agree, by saving more tickets when not puliing for dps/support. I've tried with genshin and i didn't get mostly the 5* units I wanted; when pull for each baner i did get more 5* units (raiden, zhongli, ai hatam, navia, arlechinno, xianyun) , with HSR too! just got Fugoe (Rappa too) and firefly got me a gurantee unit; so saving did not work on me. And for fact, this year i'm completly F2P and be like that for the time beign.
Yeah, endgame only provides 130 tickets a YEAR. And the majority of those (stage 1-3 for AS & PF, and 1-10/11 of MoC) can easily be achieved by non-meta teams. Meaning the meta is effectively only earning 13-26 of those tickets in a year. So it's literally not worth it. Meta characters are never going to earn back their investment.
The issue with that argument is that HSR doesn't really have any other gamemodes than Divergent Universe/Simulated Universe expansions and most of the content are the endgame MoC/AS/PF.
Like yes, you can ignore all the gamemodes but what else would you be doing? The story? current events? and past events that were made permanent? (that won't be having any future updates?) Personally I feel that reasoning is weak because HSR doesn't provide anything other than endgame modes. Genshin has Spiral Abyss or Imaginarium Theatre, but they at least have TCG, teapot customisation, exploration and most recently they made the rhythm game event to be permanent. And people can constantly upload new charts so there is always new stuff to do in Genshin that is unrelated to endgame modes.
its way more stellars to make them meta then to get less rewards. Meta players who spend hundreds cant do math ISMH
I’ve noticed this for sure with HSR compared to Genshin. In Genshin most of the time we meet characters we get to know them. Their character story also gives you genuine info on them and their feelings.
In HSR it feels sometimes like I barely know anything about them from that and the time we spend with them doesn’t feel meaningful. Like I feel I know Neuvillete, Nahida, Tartaglia etc way more than I know really any HSR character.
Part of this is the presence of Story Quests. Genshin basically gives us an hour plus (ignoring events and main story involvement) to pal around with the limited 5 star getting to interact and learn about them so you generally always come away feeling like they’re your buddy. In HSR we don’t always get companion missions so we typically know less.
I really do wish companion missions weren't abandoned, I mean when was the last one we had? Yunli?
@ Considering how HSR even uses its characters in the main plot (Boothill) they seriously need companion missions
@@fl2ur I think Yunli was the last one, yeah.
Counter argument: HSR story allows its characters to reappear in the main story much more often compared to Genshin.
Trailblaze continuances are extensions of the main storyline and they allow characters from previous planets to return. Events being permanent also allows them to continue the story. The wardance event was basically a Belobog continuance quest.
Many character are set up to return to the main story like Jingliu, Luocha, stellaron hunters, Sampo, Acheron, IPC stonehearts, Boothill, Rappa and others.
In Genshin once you're done with one region you move on to the next one. Few characters reappear in the main story, most events are cute little stories, festivals or summer vacations.
I prefer the way HSR uses its characters
@@triplecatnip7413 well, if anything that's just show that HSR story is a big messy patchwork rather than a decent and tidy storyline. Like in the main storyline we got a fuel problem because we "overstay" in the last few jumps but let's go to war dance festival, play around in the campuses, going back and forth from Penacony to belobolg, Space station, etc just for March get good photos, etc. Many "continuation" end with an open ending didn't really help either since it's just open more question that won't be guaranteed to be closed anytime especially since hoyo loves to push their new character and most of the new characters won't have anything to do with the older character.
Imagine spending hundred if not thousands only to be told a year later that the character you spent money on his garbage now and we have a shinnier Dps now
Only spend $5 a month. Am still clearing latest apocalypse with Kafka 😁
@@wirakirros7281 For how long..? 5 a month adds up
@wirakirros7281 so true fam I'm clearing with DPS Lynx trust me bro
@@kagakai7729 you dont need to lie about Lynx though. Unless trolling
@ I think the 'trust me bro' made it pretty obvious that I'm trolling
The thing with genshin is that, after you pull a character you like, you can use them in a multitude of teams, without being punished for it
for eg. yelan/furina/raiden, you aren't tied to using them for one specific team, they have numerous options, that can work with any old characters you might have
HSR tho, after pulling a favourite character, it feels as thought the game and community keep forcing you to get their meta team, eidolons and signature lcs
because they feel too shit to play without them, they have the trend of releasing characters with a flaw/problem, and fixing it with teammates/lc/eidolons
Genshin is pretty much punishing for natlan enemies though, like using specifically kinich, chasca, mavuika or alhaitham hyperbloom isn't that good, otherwise it takes too long
I highly agree. I also get hate for putting meta characters on non meta teams, like for Firefly. I got SO MUCH HATE because I didnt want to use harmony trailblazer.
@@dreamsandhopes6802 those enemies are still capable of being taken down with very fast units like clorinde or fischl
This feels more like an HSR exclusive issue. The rate of which HSR introduce new units (min 2 per patch mostly) means that they constantly want to implement them into the story, which leads to too many cooks in the kitchen. Penacony is a great example, a focus on Acheron Aventurine Firefly Sunday was already more than sufficient, but because of the HSR release schedule, somehow every new character has to be cramped into the story regardless of how significant to the story they may be (Jade, Gallagher, Boothill, Jiaoqiu, Rappa, Fugue etc). In comparison, Genshin's Fontaine and Sumeru story zeroed in a lot of the focus of the story onto fewer characters like Furina, Neuvillette, Arlecchino in Fontaine and Nahida Scaramouche in Sumeru. The story ends up being more coherent when there are less characters integrated into the story. Hoyo are also terrible at large scale narratives because of their lackluster presentation.
Regarding powercreep, HSR releasing twice the number of 5* as Genshin while having a less intricate combat system means there will be a lot of redundancy and units falling out of relevancy way quicker. As a Hu Tao main in Genshin and Blade main in HSR, it disappoints me to no end that while Hu Tao is somehow still competitive with Arlecchino and Mavuika, Blade is already completely powercrept by Feixiao by such a significant margin that Blade is benched out of necessity given the increasing difficulty of the content. The same goes out to Seele, Jingyuan, Kafka, Jingliu, Dan Heng IL, Argenti, and eventually the 2.0 DPSes as well.
I personally can rarely 36* MoC and AP shadow, but I just learned to accept it because I prefer to play for what I like (For Yanqing) than bother with the last star (,,>﹏
Rare yanqing player spotted! Awesome to see some people still go all in on their favorites like that
@@fl2ur I got all E2S1 Ruan Mei, E2S1 Aventurine and E1S1 Sunday (as a low spender) to make my Yanqing crazy, and now he's my best dps!! It's really fun to play ^^
Though it's sad it requires so much effort to make your favorite character good :(
ay another Yanqing player, even tho I don't play this game anymore some of my best memories are using him to clear endgame content, specially the one time I used him + march 7 to kill Aventurine on MoC and other time where I used him on AS against Aventurine, again, and Arlan on the other side against Phantilia. Unfortunately it kinda lost the magic for me with HP inflation, since it became more about pulling the best supports to make him do enough damage instead of having to pull some big brain strategies with the things I already had.
AGREED
Pulling new characters instead of strategies ruined the game for me too
If Yanqing wasn't in HSR I would have dropped it long ago, but they made a character perfectly for me, I literally love him so much my room is full of Yanqing merch...
I really like what wuwa did with shorekeeper
they already has a spectro healer verina, and they made another one shorekeeper
even though shorekeeper has bigger buffs, verina is easier and more comfortable to use + has way shorted rotation
Instead of making new characters stronger, hsr should do something similar imo
Ayy I play Welt and have the same mindset. The endgame challenges are only one facet of a game with an inexhaustible amount of content, I don’t mind missing out on them at all. There’s too many quests I haven’t done and simulated universe lore left to explore.
This.
They don't even get birthday mail.
E6 Jingliu got powercreep by herta e2 GOODDDD FKKNN DAMMNIITTTT
E2? People compare with e0s1 already 😭
@@dreamsandhopes6802and that‘s an exaggeration, people trying to sound relevant even if it means to lie.
This is why I stopped spending money on this game instead as I am not sure if the character I will spend money on will last for long. Will continue playing though and just save for meta units instead of spending. This is also what encouraged me to look at HSR leaks due to their rampant powercreep.
@@Yin184 see for yourself mate, i m not lying
Investing in this game is completely disaster
Even March 7th and Dan heng feel like they can't be "favorite characters," outside of superficial reasons, of course. I think the story is much more plot focused than character focused. I've read every single character story (from the characters I have, because I am f2p) and I still don't feel "attached" to any character, and I put attached in quotes because I acknowledge I won't feel real attachment to a fictional character, but I can't seem to even care for them. Nevertheless, the hsr story is amazing.
Hsr(and genshin) really make it feel like we're spectators in a bigger universe, some people will like that as you get to see different casts interact with each other, I just wish hoyo tried to make the different casts cohesive with each other more often. Like, I'm not a huge fan of Sunday, but I do think it's good that we get someone like him in the major cast now so that we can see how a penaconian will be outside of it
Skill issue tbh, I have no problem getting attached to Dan Heng I love seeing him show up.
@@MooneyBabbler Psychosis is key
One of my favorites is/was Silver Wolf. Then they decided to make every new unit basically make her niche not matter whatsoever. Ordinarily, I try to use what I want to use. But I just cannot justify using Silver Wolf anymore if this is the path of the game. She got nuked by power creep AND feature creep.
i hate when i need perfect relics, god tier sups, play without a sustainer and some eidolons to pass the moc with my blade and seele
Hoyo dgaf about you if you haven’t pulled since 2 years ago
Well, its sad that its this way, fl2ur but lets do basic math. to obtain an E6S5 character means spending arround $1500 - 2000. And whales playing this game do that amount of spending regularly. Lets compare it to the monthly pass which is $7 and which is usually bought by casual players, after doing the math it shows us that 1 whale playing this game is equal to 325 - 430 casual players. Therefore this game's focus on whales rather than normal players is obvious, they want money, they dont need our enjoyment or fun or pleasure, they simply need money. Can't they also make money by listening to your previous videos and re-visiting their characters or giving them upgrades? Perhaps, But in an very general sense, usually new = better. I also agree with your videos and i also dislike this system but it is what it is, it will not change, money rules not people's hapiness or satisfaction.
yeah hoyo never gaf and they never will.
pov: you try to use math but fail egregiously by lying about the monthly pass price then pull out random numbers out of an elephant’s ass
I feel like they care a bit more in zzz for now
@silvercri3356 when hsr came out, it was the favourite child with more events, genshin getting less and less. Now zzz gets that treatment leaving the other 2 to have less quality. I'm not happy with them manging it like this for either people who play one or all of their games. There's too many layers of disrespecting the people that spent to build their empire
@@silvercri3356 They literally powercrept Ellen than had her rerun the next patch. They increased Pompey boss hp in Deadly Assault and it hasn't been but 4 week since he was last there. I was wondering wtf was going I'm barely clearing the same exact boss when I have been lvling up my characters since then, but it turns out its just hp inflation.
I mean in FGO, you can do so much more with a character. You can grail them, bond grail them and fou them. In HSR for instance what more can you do after you max their trace and max their artifact.
That's definitely part of it, I just wish there were things added so we could actually interact with the different characters once we get to that point.
I think the biggest thing is that When Genshin releases characters they tend to have a character story quest with them. The funny thing is that hsr use to have companion quests but now they dont.
Thats oart of the reason why I feel so close to the belobog characters than most characters afterwards. Alot of character development happens in trail blaze missions but belobog had companion quests for Pela and Lynx, Natasha, Serval, even some of the Xianzhou characters too. Jingliu's companion quests with the high cloud quintet was one of my favorites.
If this game went back to introducing companion quests I think I'd grow more attached to some of these characters.
Nowadays characters development is just in the story which I guess is fine but still a dedicated story for a character I think will always be better.
It's obvious what I'm here for in the game. Real obvious. Like, really obvious. So obvious. You couldn't even miss how obvious it is. It's really REALLY obvious. I honestly don't know how anyone could miss how obvious it is. Like it's on the level next to how the sky is blue. It's next to impossible not to know what I'm here for. Like, insanely hard to miss.
is it moze, perchance
@tovarasunoir mayhaps.
do you like playing him? is he fun?
this might be crazy but i think its moze idk tho
@@stryn3e you might be on to something idk
I’m kind of at the point where I’ve accepted that I’m never going to get past certain end game stages. Whether it’s because I don’t have the needed characters or because I’m actually not that good at strategizing or knowing the best equipment or team to bring.
Instead, I’m just going to try and get the characters who bring me joy. Whether it’s because of how they play or because of their lore or history with each other. I want the Quintet because of their history. I have the Yaoqing trio on a team that I bust out sometimes because I adore them. I want Sunday and Robin because I wanted them united on my “Express.” Etc.
If that means I can’t crush the endgame stages, then oh well. I don’t want to stress myself chasing meta units that I can barely build properly without other units or equipment.
I agree with this. And worse if you're new... I started playing with Sunday's release and I got him. In fact... I want Robin, but... Let's just say that my teams for them both are super, suuuper limited. For Sunday I don't have Jing Yuan, Robin I have no idea which teams go well with her...
@@thepuppetfox01 - I hear you on the being new part. I have been playing since last June / July (started my main account again because I got mixed up with the server stuff). I'm still trying to play catch up on characters that I just wanna have versus new characters that are appealing.
Right now, I'm passing on The Herta so that I can definitely have enough resources to acquire Boothill and Robin in the next phase. Because of them, I likely won't have enough to grab Mydei, but since I only like him because he's pretty, I can probably wait until he reruns. LMAO.
The game was very nice to me and dropped Jing Yuan in my lap after a single pull; I'd fully accepted needing to pass on him so that I could have Sunday and his signature LC. As for Robin, she's still considered one of the best support characters in the game, so you can honestly toss her onto any team composition and do well. Sending you all the luck with your pulls!
also crushing end game stages means less challenge, which means your playing the characters less and being bored easier
Remember when "Genshin could never" erupted when Ratio was announced as free only for HSR to slowly get worse over time than Genshin. How the turn tables.
Quit HSR not even a week when 3.0 dropped. It's sad to see how it became such a shallow and hollow game which used to have so much magic during Belobog Arc.
It's the hoyo way at this point, can't wait for ZZZ to fall off when their animal crossing game launches lol
@fl2ur ngl ZZZ story was really questionable during 1.4. It felt like they skipped an hour and a half worth of story. They hyped the factions being together but executed it poorly. Why the fuck are they clearing boxes, Belobog could have done so much more than that KEKW
@@simpoftunality 1. A lot of people hated proper set-up ZZZ had before, where you played through what would otherwise be flat, boring exposition: meeting characters, exploring zones, finding information, etc. So they got rid of all those parts, and people liked the new zoom zoom cutscene -> combat -> cutscene -> combat style, so ig they are now sticking to that formula.
2. Because Hoyo abuse the story to sell characters. Characters take a significant precedent. If every faction joined and worked equally, you wouldn't have a bunch of hype scenes of Miaybi annihilating enemies and being cool.
It's he same reasons HSR's Penacony got snubbed. They dedicated like 70% of the runtime to selling characters rather than expending and executing upon the mystery set-up. Pretty much everything interesting about Penacony was swept under the rug or retconned.
They could do both, but then the runtime will be longer. Idk why they wanna keep it short, whether it's fear of players' short attention spans and impatience, or they just don't have the time/resources to actually do it.
@catanaoni Hoyo writing in general is what I could blame atm. Aside from the powercreep, the writing is their biggest issue right now.
I wish Bringer fight was each faction fighting the boss and they injure him badly aand he tries to run away everytime only for the other factions to catch up (which can be counted as boss phases in a way). I like their idea but they executed it poorly. The pacing was alright up until those moments where it got rushed.
HSR at this point is just a project where all of Hoyo's bad habits are considered "peak" by a lot of the playerbase which is why they continue to get away with it. I played 3.0 story in one day with a few hours of rests in between and it still felt so bad and long. I skipped through most dialogue and still understood the gist of the conversation, which goes to show how much clutter Hoyo's writing have. They yapped and stalled and went circles for 10 hours.
Omg i was just thinking this, as a genshin and hsr player i personally have no attachments to any of the hsr characters while childe and navia are some of my favs in any genre. I say this despite having fallen out of love with genshin in recent times due to numerous factors. I feel like genshin "sells" thier characters better.
I mean the only reason this is a a point of discussion is the insane power creep combined with HP inflation of endgame.
They are literally making an issue and selling the solution. Your old dps not doing enough damage? Dont have a playstyle we're currently pushing? Pull the new units or grind another 30 days of relics to maybe get a few more stat ups.
I’ve said a lot that powercreep isn’t the main problem that’s bound to happen, but Hp inflation is truly where shit hits the fan
Honestly, the meta chasing is something I've realized is why I like FGO so much. FGO does have a meta, but as a person who feels contempt for chasing after it, the game not punishing you for not owning the newest character (using friend supports, having budget options) is a godsend. You can make it through the game using budget Servants, and the game won't make you feel like you're missing out. It also gives you the chance to carry your favorite to the endgame, regardless of meta. The high level ceiling makes Lv 120 a serious investment, but one you can take even the worst Servant in the game to if you want to. There's also some other things that keep me coming back (the lack of pressure for a daily grind, no aggressive marketing for premium packages, story depth), but it's always interesting to hear about these things, as I often ponder what grinded my gears so much about Genshin and I can find some answers in videos like this.
i think the weirdest thing about HSR is that sometimes character trailers do more and tell you more about a character than the actual game does itself. if you dont watch trailers, you're sometimes left wondering "who the fuck is this person anyway" after youve rolled them
Well said as always. :)
I won't rehash it all because I agree with it all. I think HSR's universe has a very good excuse to not see other characters again in story events: they're on another planet (literally). Why would e.g. Bronya come to Penacony? I'm sure canonically she's a little too busy being Supreme Guardian and all to go for a soak in a dream tub. So aside from characters that canonically do free roam like IPC, Argenti, Stelleron Hunters, Boothill, Rappa, and the Express Crew, it kind of makes sense that you wouldn't see a character outside their own planet.
But that's probably both just the nature of a game set in space, and it plays right into the hands of Hoyo if Hoyo wants you to always be looking forward to the next thing. I don't think it's bad per se.... in Mass Effect, I wasn't wondering why Wrex wasn't on the Citadel in ME2 when it's clear why he's on his own planet (rebuilding, etc.) and it makes sense that you only see Wrex when you got to the Krogan home world. I think HSR could be like that, and the only "fix" is to give us an excuse to go back to that planet... but for the love of god, Hoyo, please give me another reason besides Aetherium Wars, to go visit Jarilo-VI or Herta Space Station.
Just like in Genshin you're meant to beat the content and move on (never to return... and in Genshin it's a little more tragic because beauties like Enkanomiya just sit there when you're done with them). And in old games like Mass Effect with linear stories that's fine because you don't expect to come back. But with open world games that we're supposed to log in daily and when we do go to planets to grind materials, it feels a little out of place that we just go to Jarilo-VI to farm bosses without fist-bumping Gepard on the way out.
I forget where I was going with this... I guess HSR's whole story and theme is the trailblaze ever forward, and unless the character joins you on the crew, you're forgetting about them at some point.
I mean, we do get new missions or side stories in-between the mainline drops. It might not be common, but we always CAN return to other planets as new threats emerge. We haven’t fully resolved the overall threat to the Luofu; while Belabog is on its way forward and is being monitored by Topaz, something else can always appear to shake things up. Even though the devs wanted to move on from Penacony, a new issue can always crop up and if Sunday is still on the Express, there can be new tension on how he can help.
So while I agree that HSR is on this trajectory of abandoning characters by the wayside, I don’t think it has to be seen as permanent. They can circle back at any time and it will still be fruitful for the storytelling.
@@Rikrobat I agree - we do have the story excuse to go back (or never go back) if Hoyo chooses. I'd love to go back to Belobog to check in on them every patch.
It upsets me that power creep is so rampent in HSR, but i dont let it discourage me or influence me into pulling characters. I pull for characters i like and sometimes supports for those characters and sometimes that means not clearing content (i have argenti, boothill and yunli can we please get some physical weak endgame
"can we please get some physical weak endgame" dude since BH's release there was 4 moc's with physical weaknesses straight (3.1 will have it too) and 5 physical weak apoc, 6 if 3.1 are in count
It's not enough?
@loonymoonyy the current apoc is the only physical weak thing we've had in a hot minute 😭
as a fellow boothill enjoyer, i too brute force moc and apoc with him ❤
@taeebabybear tehe i love how broken he is, hes so underrated
As a person who falls under story player and mainly talks HSR with irl friends rather than online, we've personally (!!!) found it harder to connect or get hooked with a character in HSR say compared to Genshin and Honkai 3rd or even Reverse 1999 that's not even 3d modeled
This was brought up recently when our friend group, who don't particularly cared for Genshin character Hu Tao, took a 180 turn so fast. Like sure, she's just one other character and those that like that type probably like her. But after lantern rite quest, we all became hu tao protecters and wanters hahah. We noticed that this has happened with us be it thru in game character anecdotes, quests, events, but not with our experience of HSR. That on top of it being harder to feel "good" using your fav in combat really added to the "pull your favs and just accept itll suck" experience and this video was another good think piece
3:33 blade mentioned 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗡️🗡️
TOP CONTENDER FOR WORST DPS IN THE GAME‼️‼️‼️‼️ BLADE W
@djailsonfelipe84 Just don't think of him as a main DPS and he's actually not that bad.
@djailsonfelipe84 nah, blade is unrivaled in that regard
HSR also has just ... less time you spend with the characters? Sure there's maps to walk around, but you rarely do it outside of the story events.
Genshin or Wuthering Waves on the other hand, you're going to be spending so much time walking around with your favourite characters on a daily basis, fighting overworld bosses and domains and collecting materials. It's always easy enough that powercreep never really factors in.
HSR on the other hand, Endgame stuff is like ... 90% of what there is to do in the game once the story is over. Even the events tend to just be using prebuilt teams, or walking around as Trailblazer doing minigame stuff. Solutions to endgame problems is WHAT the game really offers.
It took me a while to really understand that though, as someone who's background was Genshin and JRPG's that both rewarded you for sticking with a team and continuing to progress them. Beating content with my team and simply beating content were one in the same in so many cases.
To be honest, I don't know how I feel about how it's approached in HSR. I play these games for the characters more than anything else, and for a while it was fine, with characters like Aventurine and Acheron and Firefly who I liked quite a lot being the core of major teams. But now moving into 3.x, I'm looking at the upcoming lineup and just ... don't feel any connection to any of them, and that's made it way harder to hold interest in the game than I thought it would.
Pulling Aglea and Tribbie and Mydei for example, just to clear MoC, doesn't feel like it would give me the sort of enjoyment that clearing something with Seele used to, because I just don't care about any of them, and the progression of the game kind of tells me there's no point in caring about them.
I guess maybe the trick is to just ... figure out how to be content as a story only player, there's ultimately nothing wrong with that, but I still can't help but feel bad about like ... getting e2 Blade with the thought that he'd carry through the game the way c2 Hu Tao has kept up with.
As a Hu Tao main, I have to say that her longevity has to be studied. But I can't say it doesn't make me happy. I even pulled for Staff of Homa during her recent rerun instead of pulling for a new character and I don't regret it despite having to spend 160+ pulls to get it. I didn't need the damage increase for her to clear stuff - it just felt nice to give my eternal main a bigger number.
If Hu Tao were an HSR character, she would be Blade, and this would be the equivalent of me deciding to pull his signature weapon now instead of pulling Mydei. ...Doesn't sound so good, does it? While in Genshin, Arlecchino is better than Hu Tao, but I didn't even consider pulling her - because my Hu Tao is still more than capable of killing things and I don't want to replace her.
Thats why i love Epic7 : characters actually recieve buffs and even reworks.Truly feels amazing to quit for a while and log back in and realize one of favorites units got buff last week.
Epic7 also value it's characters quite a lot on the story side : Story event for new characters to give you extra info, seasonal event bringing back a lot of characters you've met and my favorite : The evolution system.
Evolution quest are for specifics 3 stars characters and its basically a small story line were you witness them get a character devoleppement and gets a new canon appearance. Kit and stats wise, they're way better.
It's extremely nuanced bc you have to also pay for those same voice actors while also introducing more with each patch.
That's a massive money sink.
I appreciate that FGO is a 9 year old game and there's realistically only 4 supports that are must haves for farming (which is 95% of the game): Castoria, Skadi, Koyan, and Oberon. It feels like there's way more freedom to roll for the servants you want because you aren't constantly being pressured to roll for crucial units. I also like the support system as it allows you to use a servant you don't own, which can also help alleviate the pressure to roll.
tbh I’ve been a day 1 player, my favorite is DHIL and I’m still clearing all the content and use him wherever I want to. I’m just fortunate he is apart of the main cast though, and that he had such a strong kit that he lasts even to 3.0
Omg fellow dhil enjoyed 🤝 comrade
Same! Well, except I started playing just before 2.0. I actually saved up to pull for his e2 on the most recent banner, and I've been having so much fun with it!
I got into gachas because I loved the characters in Kancolle. Characters are central to my enjoyment, and having favorites being a given.
It's the characters-- not the meta, not their kits- that drive my expectations for the game.
Therefor, I've always wanted to find favorite characters and invest deeply in them, but gachas (especially Hoyo's gachas) make that surprisingly difficult. Very few characters leave a lasting impact to begin with, fewer still were ever narratively relevant, and many aren't even viable (not meta, just viable) for harder content.
There's no time to bond with these characters you're expected to spend time and money on, and why bother when there's another equally soulless, shinier thing right around the corner? Shinier things that you **will** need, because, even if you don't like them, they "complete" the character(s) you **do** like. Forcing you to spend more time and money on a barely justifiable purchase, leading you to validate these gambles with the need to keep pulling power for your favorites; tricking you into always thinking about the powercreep.
I think Hoyo should adopt the FGO strategy of introducing alters/swimsuits/etc. so you get to keep pulling for favorites, but their classes, elements, animations, and their ceiling goes up with the game over time, at least keeping them relevant if nothing else.
Agreed with all of this
Finally, someone mentioned Kancolle, arguably the first and most iconic gacha game back in the day. I still remember the time I burned all my resources just to get Kaga sisters and Shimakaze, the good old days. Then I got into FGO and switched to the global version. After two years, I returned to my account on the Japanese server, and guess what? Heracles Berserker with Bond 10 CE still helps me clear all event content. COVID and GI have allowed many casual players to discover the gacha game genre later on, and GI has completely reshaped the direction of the gacha games we see today. It's really sad that many gacha players nowadays don't get to experience the most important aspect of gacha games back in the day: The disappointment of randomly pulling a character you don't care about, then using that character and realizing "oh, this character isn't that bad," reading through their lore, and feeling a connection with them.
@@DungTran-cu3kr Serendipity is undervalued and underrated in a world of success
@@miwky406 Totally agree. I once played HSR when Sparkle's trailer dropped because her trailer resembled Persona 3 a lot (my favorite game), and I spent my money to get her E2 (not a lot, but still). Gradually, I managed to gather enough characters for 2 teams to clear MOC (all my characters are E2 with Signature). Then the Robin banner came, and you know what happened to Sparkle. I complained to my friends who also play HSR, and one of them made a statement that left me speechless: 'So if a character's banner comes out but they're not meta, who would bother to roll?' I understand that this statement is true because the devs also need money to develop the game, but from the perspective of someone who’s experienced quite a few gacha games with older gacha systems, it bothers me. Perhaps the direction the gacha genre is heading won’t keep me interested anymore.
My personal opinion is that even for more average players, "pulling for favorites" is only a viable strategy for DPS characters. A lot of the team archetypes in HSR are fairly rigid (break feels terrible without Ruan Mei, superbreak requires HMC or Fugue, FUA without Robin is notably worse, E0S0 Jiaoqiu is basically an Acheron eidolon). This also ties into second best options in HSR generally being a LOT worse than the premium ones.
I agree with wishing old characters would stay prevalent in the story. Sucks that Hoyo has likely deemed it a waste since they can't even give all new characters proper screentime (not dunking on her, but imo Lingsha is a good example of this, also Kinich from what I've heard). Idk maybe I need to sad-ant-with-bindle.jpeg back to non-gachas if I want characters to actually stick around for a story.
Yeah, unfortunately you kinda "need" the supports for things to work properly, which is why I gave the example of skadi from arknights - if you have a "catch all" character that can help everyone, you don't need as many of these other archetypes and therefore can invest more in the people you actually want to because you like them. I guess RMC is kinda like that, though they're newer so we'll see how it plays out as 3.x continues.
@@fl2ur ion play fgo anymore but in my time u needed like skadi merlin n castoria for supports and ur good to go
Yeah its still like that@@pitykitty4454
I really agree with the points you made tbh. At this point I decided to not pull for characters I think are cool on a whim or chase the meta. Instead I'll skip first to see if I continue liking them later and if they feel good to play when their rerun comes, like with Madam Herta right now. I LOVE her character, she's entertaining, she's strong and fun, and her design is beautiful. Essentially, I like everything about her, but I am saving for Boothill's LC in the second half. Boothill is unquestionably my absolute favourite in the game and I want to have his best team and gear. And I really hope we get more about him in the story later on.
sadly, i can't notice this fact because hsr was my first gacha game (and still the only one i stay in) and i pull characters when i like them (or just have a sudden urge to spend a 10-pull and get lucky). fortunately, most of them are also strong)
but i have never pulled a unit "because i need him to make my team stronger", maybe except for robin (i didn't really feel a connection to her at first but still got E2 in 100 pulls) and i'm still fine, clearing everything!
and yeah, even though i have my favourite character (jingliu) and she's E3S1, it's hard to convince myself to spend more pulls on her in the future to get E6 (even though i will), just because new characters look so good. so i feel this.
Honestly, I think you hit the nail on the head with this.
I think this is the main reason HI3rd and HSR still feel so different to me, despite HI3rd now being open world too- HI3rd has it's origins in more 'novel' aspects, being separated into chapters and lots of talking. Exploring the characters and learning their backstories.
HSR... I'm sure we'll get there. We have so many stories to unpack, seele's quantum abilities, march's memory, archeron's reason for chasing the nihility, how the hell Welt got into this universe in the first place, How Akivili died etc. So many characters yet to come.
I'm really hoping they dive into all this more in the future.
As someone who has been pulling characters that I am not interested (Sunday, sparkle) for my beloved Jing Yuan, this video really hit me like a truck. I have been complimenting HSR for such, but then I remember I don't really know Jing Yuan's daily routine, his likes and dislikes besides event cameos, and his role as a general. Man. It sucks to have a favorite chara in this game rather than in genshin. Not pulling Sunday feels sooo punishing as a JY lover, and now I just realized this is basically their strategy to make you spend money and pull more just to make your fav chara relevant while my C1 Neuvillette can solo the end game content..
I've been playing these gachas even way before genshin(ggz/brave frontier/optc) and having favorites in gacha games is just setting yourself up for pain/disappointment down the road. sure you can like them but unless they're main story significant making them more likely to get stronger playable forms and screen time, just don't expect them to stay relevant throughout the gacha's lifespan, both in plot and meta.
story-wise, a gacha is constantly gonna be introducing more and more characters down the line to ofc sell to you, so the plot is gonna revolve around those newer characters while older ones might get included in events here and there but will overall have lesser screen time, if at all. meta-wise, a gacha is gonna give you "incentives" to pull for new characters and that's usually by making them better than the old ones and/or adding more difficult content that a.) new characters are gonna tear right through, and b.) old characters are gonna struggle against. ofc there's gonna be a few outliers but generally if you're gonna hyper invest on a single character(your favorite), just know that in time, a newer character is still gonna be stronger despite being on a lesser investment and will simply stomp your old unit on equal investment.
Reject meta return to "Grail for love", the correct path.
Facts frfr
5:52 I think this is merely a hsr thing tbh.
I play genshin and hsr and in genshin, it’s normal for characters to show up in events that they aren’t even in, for example in the summer events, a lot of characters from different regions show up even if they have no connection whatsoever. In the last one, we had scaramouche, nilou and Navia and then Klee, albedo, kaeya, Jean, collei and Mona showed up.
Another example are lantern rite, we see the entirety of teyvat in liyue, for example in the current one you can see chiori, tighnari, cyno, Amber and much more even though none of them are from liyue.
And yeah you can agree they’re “special” events but even in normal ones like muskets and roses, we had ayaka show up in Fontaine even though she’s from inazuma
It’s basically just that hoyo doesn’t wanna do this for hsr, they can do it and they do it, just not for honkai.
bro, even being a casual story player gets locked because of the insane boss fights in the story quests
unless topaz is your favorite:
✅ got indirectly upgraded due to more compatible teammates
✅ showed up in story quests outside of her debut one
✅funny space pig
✅ nice ASSets
✅ best girl
WE LOVE TOPAZ AND NUMBY ❤
Topaz stonks to the moon
I feel like 0 cycles are such an issue to this community, 1 day it'll be "This character 0 cycles more than this one" then the day after anothers release its "But that character sucks now and this new character is better!" No, firefly and acheron taking 1 more cycle than the new dps or taking more action value doesnt make them 'bad'
1 more cycle today, 2 in a week, 5 in a month. HP inflation isn't a temporary issue, it's a continuous one. Good luck against 40mil bosses in 2 years, or 100mil in 4.
Maybe this is just me, but when i started the game back at the end of 2.4, my mind was focused on creating the best teams for the 2 archetypes i liked the most : FUA and break. I had a lot of fun in the early game breaking annemies and doing crazy damage with physical mc, and launching follow ups with march. Now in 3.0, my teams are feixiao with aventurine, march/moze and robin, aswell as firefly with fugue hmc and lingsha.
My goal now is to pull for boothill, rappa, ruan mei, topaz and ratio whenever they will be brought back (ratio plz come back i want to play you...).
But in the end it's just how i started the game, so for someone who roll for characters and not gameplay first, i can see why it coul differ.
Anyway, great video as always.
You liked those teams because MHY has been doing content that feels better when played with those teams. The moment you least expect it, you will find yourself your teams can't do well now because the meta has made a 180º turn, or you will ditch those teams because you will slowly move to the next thing that the game makes you feel better playing with.
FUA will resist more since it's often a lot of attacks fast, but break? wait until enemies have 40 Stamina bars and you can't do proper damage because you can't break them....
Also, if Ratio comes back, don't pull him, he doesn't work AT ALL with Robin. Ratio needs debuffs on enemies similar to Acheron otherwise he will not trigger a single follow-up attack. You have FeiXiao who's 1000 times better than Ratio, stick with her. Is not a matter of if you like Ratio more or less than Feixiao, is a matter that Ratio doesn't work with your teams and his best teams are mediocre at best that you will feel so bad playing him that you will regret playing him...
@@HunteR3453 Yeah, as someone who does have Ratio and now uses Moze with him (and it felt like ass to do Ratio Robin pre Moze), it feels like hard cope as opposed to if I had gotten feixiao early
no point in going feixiao now though with the upcoming AoE. I pulled Jade because I really like her so I'll probably skip the Herta and get tribbie in preparation for the other DPSs that may release
I understand your point of view. I know ratio is not the best with what I have already. But my goal is to one day be able to play him (and the other I mentioned) just because I find them fun. But hey, maybe my perspective will change in 5 months...
@hugocognie1762 time can only tell :D
@@HunteR3453 Don't spread misinformation. Ratio's best team is Topaz Robin Aventurine.
In genshin, I got Childe (my fav) on his 1st rerun, sometime during 1.x patches. I still don't feel like I'm done "maxing" him. And if there finally comes a day when I feel like his build is perfect, there are still 3 other units in his best teams that'll need maxing. So yeah, idk, you don't really need constant flow of new characters for building if you have a favorite one.
When it comes to hsr though, I've only been there for a few months so naturally I have a bunch of characters I want to get. But most of them for their personalities rather than utility. Like, I'm definitely going to pull for Blade when he reruns. However, I also don't have anyone in hsr who I'd be as obsessed with as I'm with Childe in genshin. For now at least.
as a JP FGO player that played the game for 9 years and recently drop the game since the start of this year, I can see you keep making comparison between HSR and FGO and I kinda agree when you said the pressure of pulling chara in HSR is worser than FGO due the fast change of meta in game. But, in FGO, we dont even have any this MOC, PF type weekly endgame content that giving player rewards so yes in FGO you can be super casual by suing 1-4 stars favorite character to play main story and event because almost 0 competitive elements in the game while in HSR, peoples are psychologically being played by the devs intention to make you feel the need of clearing all the end game contents every single patch. I just want to say both game has their positive and minus, and Im not trying which is game is better because I have my own disapoinment in FGO too, so back to each own....
2:38 I actually went back to FGO after HSR. It feels so good to know that all the characters I have in my inventory from years ago are still relevant. I come to realise how some of those upgrades have effects that are equivalent to eidolons in HSR.. But it is free in FGO just do some quests and upgrade your older units to make them relevant again.
Oh and no RNG relic farming.
Yeah I definitely agree with the part about “selling you the character vs selling you the kit”. My first gacha that I still play regularly is Nikke which has a similar visual novel storytelling style to FGO. Each new character banner comes with a whole story event dedicated to the character and once you unlock said character you can learn even more about them through bond stories and advising. While there are meta units you’re incentivized to go for, there isn’t nearly the same amount of pressure to chase the meta compared to Hoyo games as 85% of the roster goes into the standard banner after their initial debut. That being said, I recently got back into hsr after trying the game at launch and dropping it. I came in with the mindset that I’ll just pull for the characters I like and just enjoy the game, but as of now with the current 8 banners I’m starting to feel more and more fomo and am starting to worry about how sustainable/ expensive it’ll be to keep playing if the game continues in this direction.
i intentionally dont pull for high meta characters unless i absolutely LOVE them. but if they're overadvertised or pushed in the game too much, ill end up getting deterred from them, which ended up happening with me and firefly. but when it happens to high meta supports, suddenly my fav welt can't clear MOC without being a boothill support
I've seen mostly discussions on powercreep and storytelling, but you are the first, or one of the few, to have pointed out the main reason why I quit HSR last year.
Most of the characters who I really like were the launch characters, especially Qingque and March 7th.
I have plans on returning to HSR for Robin, but her lack of relevance during the Penacony arc was unfortunate.
This is what bothers me with hoyo sometimes. They do this with all of their modern games where they design endgame content around the newest characters, and it goes without saying the powercreep is progressing faster than most are comfortable with. I have little to no interest in Aglaea, but because i know shes the only remembrance DPS on this brand new gameplay path, i feel pressured to pull for her even when i dont like her. Theres also the matter of characters that support playstyles you just can't take advantage of. I like castorice and want to pull for her, but shes looking to be a Remembrance support, so she'll be next to useless for me gameplay wise (Albeit this might be incorrect as the replies have pointed out, sorry, but my point still stands). They make it really difficult to only pull for your favorites.
Is castorice a remembrance support? I swear that big ass dragon is gonna be doing millions of damage and not buffing our team.
@leightonx7430 That's what I heard at least. I could be incorrect to be fair, as its not official information, but my point still stands about characters with an incompatible play style on your account
Remembrance Support? Castorice is said to be an Archeron-Level DPS, considering the fact she's an anniversary character. Also, yeah you're so right. I want to pull Aglaea a lot, since I absolutely love her voice and gameplay but I know damn well Castorice will be way better. It's really hard to pull for your favorites.
I hate her gameplay so I know I’m definitely not pulling for her. Thanks hoyo for letting us test run her in the story
I'm with you on Castorice. Even before the trailer, I had already decided I would get her after reading leaks that she would have a dragon memosprite. I absolutely love dragons.
As a side note, I'm so happy that I decided to stick to Clara from the very beginning, because, somehow, someway, she is STILL useful in both MoC and PF rather consistently, and occasionally even for AS (like this last one).
unfortunately, when it comes to hoyo, it's actually simple: it's either favorites or meta, sometimes they meet but we can't always have both.
Morgan may be waifu but she's also meta, bruh both Oberon & Koyan are like top meta supp, it's still pulling for meta supps to enable archetypes.
5:52 they only do that in hi3.
we have universal supports, they may boost their niches more but Ruan Mei & Robin are extremely universal. If there's one golden rule with hoyo games & especially in hsr, it's that you should never skip supports cuz they're the enablers, like you can't have skadi/koyan/oberon/castoria systems if you didn't get them.
I started the game, spent money, pulled, farmed, took a break, picked the game back up, pulled again, and saved jades for Kafka. At this point I regret getting into HSR because it turns out hyperfocusing on one character is hard and extremely expensive.
Trying to max your favorite character is a nightmare for a low spender because you need to roll 6 dupes, roll their lightcone, AND roll for 3 other units, AND keep rolling for their new optimal supports. So I gave up. Going to roll for Aglaea next and save the rest for whoever can help my DoT team.
I think favoritism in characters is not something that can be found on a business model which it's entire purpose is to constantly consume new content. Yes, I said it. Gachas have no place for character development due to its predatory system, which indulges you to forget about your new toy and look at the new shiny one
People need to understand gacha companies don't care about us, they treat us badly, remember all value, gating, rules, are All Made up, it wasn't a smart decision to make any experience better, slowburn a great experience or make us feel anything we do with any proper story. it was to manipulate us physiologically, sell characters, nothing else. And honestly, WE do not have the power to make them change, no matter how much we complain or how much we normalize respecting ourselves or criticizing the predatory practices, nothing will get better. If you respect yourself and don't want to be treated the way you are by gacha games, step away. Because believe me, I'VE BEEN IN THESE GAMES BEFORE with fire emblem heroes where people were more united hating on the predatory decisions, and we did made the company change their ways a couple times, but they eventually stopped listening altogether. If you look up feh now you will find it's small and it was never incredibly huge, yet it afforded to ignore the community. If they can do that there's zero hope we see anything from hoyoverse listening
My favorites just so happened to be good or op so I was basically incentivised to pull for them, but it's tough cuz they make a lot of unique characters with good story VA and kits every patch and I can't pull them all
Well of course it's by design, they dont need to sell you a character because the meta will do it for them, otherwise good luck clearing in a few months, if they changed this system it would cannabalize their other 2 major titles, this was always the case, HSR has never really been a casual PNG waifu collector, if it was people wouldn't spend as much as they do and would rather play other hoyo games. It's unfortunate but the criticisms being thrown here although valid are exactly what differentiates HSR from other games and is a core part of their business model (a very succesful one at that)
Well, I rolled for Sunday not because I liked Sunday, but because I'm 99 percent sure he's gonna be the best support for EMIYA when he shows up (you can't tell me EMIYA isn't going to use UBW as his ult and summon swords on the timeline, it's too obvious for them not to do.)
So... yeah, I guess I'm not super attached to most characters, I'm just trying to make the characters I do like better. Which is also kinda playing into their hands.
They don't have to work hard on endearing a character to me, they just have to hook me on one, then release people who make them better.
Heck, the reason I rolled for Fugue was for more Firefly damage...
They need to get the powercreep under control is the bottom line. The HP inflation in MoC and Apoc is already out of control and makes both of those complete slogs to try to clear
Launch-day Hook main. Haven't dropped Hook ever, so all my wish decisions revolve around her. I went from using Silver Wolf to using Firefly and now I've settled pairing her with Yunli.
Okay, you got me thinking of something very important. I've always been into waifus in gacha games and always pulled accordingly to design preferences and animations. (Ofc there's some meta exceptions, especially in hsr, or hype pulls for the newest character). I've never understood why i needed more characters after getting the prettiest ones imo. But the hardest question was why i couldn't like a character so much to fully dedicate to them to build and upgrade as they are my favourites. I have a bunch of favourites but i always struggle between wanting to spend time to upgrade a very well built one and one that is Not even leveled. Why can't i focus on the best and be my favourite character main instead of trying to get everyone at the same point? I think your video finally answers it, maybe i wasn't engaged enough in their stories therefore i don't feel like locking myself into a single domain to get them the best stuff. If anyone else has different clues, please let me know, really like your content tho😊
i kind of cant believe that characters from a ghost planet lost to time and turmoil on accessible through memories are texting me on my smartphone
I completely agree with your opinion, and HSR is the worst out of all HYV games. Haven't played a lot of Honkai 3rd so idk about that, but Genshin and ZZZ has so much more character interactions and appearinces then HSR. In HSR some of the older characters like Seele almost doesn't appear, and they also get powercrept that you can strait up forget about them. While in Genshin, even if they get powercrept they still get new teams to improve their gameplay time to time, and they appears in events much more. They're also adding something new which is focused on character interactions next patch. I'm lucky my fav was Jing Yuan in hsr, he gets buffed once in a while and can still easily clear content, but seeing the other characters I pulled for falling off so quickly and benched is honestly sad. I like DHIL a lot but when I try to clear content with him he barely clears it with e1s1 supports and a few tries. While in Genshin, my Yoimiya, Wanderer, Wriothesley etc still clears content most of the time with little to no sweat, so I can actually use the character I feel like using, instead of using the same meta teams every time.
Hi3rd has a way smaller character roster and tons of units get their alts, so usually you see majority of them in events or story frequently(unless they're dead)
Like carole is pretty old character that got released at 5.3(late 2021) but popped up in the recent festival celebration event, also she is an sp, not s rank(grindable 4.5 starish but she is powercrept duh)
I have chosen my happiness intead of meta. So what I cannot clear MoC? What am I missing? 80 stellar jades? No thanks, I much rather play with my favorite toys
HoYo’s design in HSR prioritises profits over player enjoyment (unsurprisingly, this is a trend in their main revenue-generating games), and it’s evident in how restrictive and predatory the system feels. Let’s break it down.
Disclaimer: I’ve watched your other video and I don’t play HSR, btw. The highest I reached was lvl 14 (years ago) before I tapped out, but I can still share my thoughts as I enjoy doing deeper analyses of game design and the player experience.
Power Creep and Investment: First, the recent power creep with 5* characters overshadowing older ones is frustrating, especially when the 4* supports you built around your favourite 5* become obsolete. It makes the resources you invested feel wasted, which is poor design considering how crucial character synergy is in this game. I’ve experienced this, even if I don’t play HSR specifically.
META vs. Favourite Characters: Then there’s the issue with favourites. If you like a character but they’re not META, you’re stuck. The game’s balance often won’t let them shine in tougher content, no matter how much you invest. It forces you to choose between playing for fun or playing smart, which is frustrating in a game full of cool designs.
Player Behaviour: Player behaviour ultimately boils down to whether you can use your favourite or older units in endgame content. Those concerned with power creep are clearly focused on the endgame. While individual behaviours vary, some players prioritise endgame content above all else. For F2P and low-spender players, this forces them to play strategically, which often dampens enjoyment. If you weren’t lucky with the latest units, you’re stuck. For those who spend, remember that endgame content encourages spending to bypass challenges, resulting in FOMO either way.
Players respond in different ways: some analyse leaks and new character kits to decide if a pull is worth it, while HoYo ensures that skipping a banner always feels like a risk, driven by emotional attachment or FOMO.
The Profit-Driven System: But the real issue is HoYo’s approach. The game is built to keep you pulling for new characters, with endgame content often demanding the latest units. It’s less about player freedom and more about pushing spending or endless grinding.
Lack of Creativity and Balance: In the end, HoYo’s focus is on sales, not creativity, balance, or making favourites fun to use. The system feels limiting because it’s designed for business, not enjoyment.
Overall, I’d say HoYo is like a hugely successful celebrity who turns around and disrespects the very people who made them.
I don’t care who HSR sends, Jing Yuan is my babygirl
It's no coincidence I quit HSR despite playing since day one and spending over $2000 in favour of Gakuen Idolmaster, a game with only 11 very well-written characters who regularly get new banners. This game only releases a new playable character every 5~6 months and it's such a huge event that the game tops JP sales charts whenever it happens. Every single character has their own satisfying ongoing arc, personal growth, interpersonal rivalries and friendships and permanent gameplay and plot relevance. I'm definitely a story enjoyer even as someone who 3-starred every HSR endgame since launch - I didn't care about Jiaoqiu at all during leak/drip season, then when I played the Wardance chapter I totally fell in love with him, he and Moze are two of my favourite characters. But because Hoyo does this stupid throwaway ensemble cast that cheapens everyone's plot relevance, I'm sad to know Jiaoqiu is basically doomed to be plot-irrelevant forever now, relegated only to showing up during events to remind us he exists.
I feel so betrayed as a Seele fan from HI3 too, she was hyped up pre-launch, Seele and Bronya were literally the reason I started playing HSR. Now Seele is long-since obsolete in gameplay and barely even shows up in EVENTS anymore and even Bronya has been outclassed by Sunday. Sure I *like* Sunday, but I *love* Bronya because I've known her for years before HSR even came out. Both of these characters have basically been thrown in the trash as far as the story is concerned, their arcs are long-since over and the writers have NO interest in developing them any further. Just awful.
I felt you at seele one. Seele was literally my biggest motive to start this game,bronya was nice too see again too. I only geniuenly liked sparkle as much as them after time(look she's at hi3rd now) but yeah now they're all ditched into oblivion
I feel like you are the type of guy they target, and this is not an insult and it's beginning to spread to every big game, a league of legends streamer found out about 3 weeks ago that Faker one of the greatest players, does not use a skin for his champion, Faker has a lifestyle that is frugal and he always does big donations.
The streamer bought a 500$ skin celebrating Faker and Faker doesn't even USE skins nor is known for being a spender in any way shape or form, it's just emotional attachment to a great player being used to funnel more money into their pockets. It's the same thing here, they sell you great characters and then you realise that those characters are only temporary and that in the long run they don't matter, it's like a CD DEMO that never comes out as a full game but you have to pay full price for it
I noticed my playstyle: in end game content, I use whoever can clear. But when I'm exploring map, I stick to my favorites: Jiaoqiu, Dan Heng, Blade (with their own team). I don't explore map with any other characters (Ok, sometimes with Feixiao or Moze). I know their lore, also I like to search fanarts about them. I pull shiny new characters, but I stick to my favorite 3 while doing anything other then end game. :) Now I let go of end game content, and I'm pulling who I want to.
HSR sells you characters just to clear end game modes. Genshin Impact sells them based on the story, and Zenless pushes the goon.
Well, it's Star RAIL. Just like Star Trek, it's about boldly going where no man has gone before, beyond the edges of this galaxy. We arrive to a new planet, explore, fix stuff, leave FOREVER. Just like in Star Trek, you meet new friends only to move on and leave them behind. Moving on doesn't mean the story is bad.
Tbh, I don't care about powercreep anymore. As a f2p i always cleared all the endgames but in the recent moc I needed 10 cycles to cleared it (It was a wake-up call for me). That's why I don't care about those last 80 jades anymore. From now on I'll pull for the characters i like the most.
When I started HSR I made a promise to myself; The moment that I clear all the endgames at the same time, I will only pull characters that I like, regardless if they are good or not. A few days ago I was able to clear it and when I say that I now fell free, able to pull however I want and not think if they will make my account good or not is incredible.
Congrats on the clear!
Yo I did the same thing and it is very freeing. I just see fun kit and cool design and yoink them. Still gotta love the character though.
There is way to many dps units. We have like no sustains.
2 dps units this patch
1 dps unit next pact with a sudo support dps
2 dps the patch after that.
Truly incredible
An interesting side effect of this is that Genshin/HSR/etc. don’t seem particularly interested in giving existing characters new alts, when alts are a cornerstone of the JP gacha economy. A good alt can create many new fans of a character, and if the original unit is heavily outdated it can give existing fans a version of their favorite character that is actually usable in the meta.
hsr does alts but only slightly, we have an alt for march, dan heng, herta and tingyun, currently. Meanwhile genshin has zero.
They have a very clear quantity over quality mind set. The 2 new units every patch indicates this along with the fact most of the characters have 1 patch of relevance before being sidelined literally forever in the story, this even included the main rival group of the stellaron hunters.
Even for the end game modes they’re tools to sell the new characters. Keep pumping out end games that are used to sell different character archetypes that cater to a specific character within archetype while they simultaneously use powercreep to make older ones feel worse.
They simply capitalise on the player attachment rather than to perpetuate it. HSR is definitely designed as the cash cow for Hoyo. There is no question about it, the game feels like it lacks any soul or care for the already established characters.
Why spend resources on a companion quest when people likely don’t care and will spend anyways? They instead do the same effect by making newer characters straight up powercreep old characters that they feel bad to play in comparison so the effect of attachment gets replaced with reliance. The effect of a companion quest is the same as the effect of powercreep, designed to make a person pull, one however is much harder to design and takes genuine passion.
HSR is soulless when it comes to care for the characters.
ZZZ has all the passion put into the art and character expression with mass unique models and involves the characters with actual meetups and also is pushing for more end game content. Genshin has much more controlled powercreep and honestly a better game design choice (even has better core combat mechanics as a whole with how in-depth it can get) but still has events that utilise old characters with travelling back to older regions for meet ups.
HSR does the worst and it’s not really even close… the honesty good character in depth stories we had were with Aventurine, Yukong, Luka and maybe the quintet story and Sunday… those characters had a main focus of quests that felt the most memorable and 3 of those stories mentioned were companions quests which they trashed. Most of the times it’s just forced into events where it really makes not much sense to be there.
thats why i love rythmn gacha games the characters will always be relevant and new ones only get added after a couple of years
I’m currently playing both HSR and FGO JP rn and I’ve been feeling this for quite a while too. While in Fgo I only hyper invest in my fav characters (for example my LV.120 og 4star BB and Oberon) and still use them to clear my content to this day, in HSR, there’s always this fear in the back of my mind that one day the characters I like will become extremely obsolete. I know it’s inevitable for every game, but with how fast the powercreep in HSR has been, it’s worrying. I hope they rework or at least buff old characters like FGO does with their strengthening quests. (I know they are a hit or miss most of the time like the recent Medusa buff in JP but at least they do something)
meanwhile in Genshin, people are still using 1.0 and 2.0 characters in endgame, HSR could never..... LMAO
who's the best supports for Mavuika.
Citali who released alongside her
Xilonen who released a few patches before
and....Kazuha, Bennett, Sucrose who all released in 1.x
As well as the archon afk team etc.
After realizing how many characters I've "unfavourited" (Seele, Jing Yuan, Luocha, Lunae, Fu Xuan, you get the gist), I've decided to stop spending on HSR and save for characters I truly want and won't bench 6 months from now.
I also came to that conclusion before, it was after pulling for Lunae. Today I'm doing exactly what you said right now, no matter how meta the character is I don't pull if I'm not in love with the character (like I have firefly but skipped Fugue and Lingsha because they weren't that interesting to me), I'm may not be able to clear everything but I have fun going around with characters I really like and I'm always really excited when there's a character that I want
maybe this also largely explains why they purposely never included playable character's birthdates in the game.. no matter how much i think ab it i just dont understand why they left this out, we'd be getting yearly content for any of our favorite characters, old n new.. they dont want us to get too attached to characters bc they want to sell us character kits first before fanservice
This is so true!! I've been playing since 1.0 and I miss Luocha in the story sm. I honestly haven't pulled any super meta units like Acheron or Firefly, and I still use my Blade and Luocha comp, but it seriously sucks how the characters appear once or twice in the stories and never again.
I want my account to reach a level of being able to pull who I want instead of who I need. I also don't mind replacing old characters with the new shiny toy. That keeps the game fresh. As long as I continue to play regularly powercreep won't be an factor wheter or not I can clear. But I still want to be able to have fun with old units. I invested a lot of time in my Seele but because of powercreep I can't enjoy her as much as before. I will also miss some characters and would want to pull them on their reruns, but because of powercreep I don't know if I will be able to enjoy them if I pull on their rerun.
On the "We don't see some of the older characters anymore" from hoyo topic, when I started Genshin it was kiiinda my first gacha game and I thought it'd be a neat adventure where kaeya, lisa, amber and lumine travel the world together. You know, since they're the only unlockable characters at the start of the game. I was sure "Paimon + Traveller" was just for the tutorial. Then when that didn't happen the shenhe banner dropped (A month into me playing) and I thought "OH! Maybe the rest of the adventuring party isn't in the game yet, like they're surprise characters" So when I played her story quest I thought "Maybe the main roster will be one person from each region, people who are detached from the rest of the region" So I thought it'd be "Shenhe, Kazuha, Venti/Rosaria/Albedo, Lumine".
We're now nearing the end of the game and I can't recall the last time I've seen kaeya, Rosaria or kazuha or any of those characters that got me excited for the game in the first place, and it's still just lumine+paimon. With no adventuring party. The story feels like if you played baldur's gate 3 but didn't bring any party members. I kinda hate it 🤔
Especially since there's such interesting characters being left in the rearview mirror
The fact after the Battle with ORT in LB7. You have to utilize ALL your servants from the lowest to the strongest to battle the focking PLANET EATING MONSTER ALIEN xD
I'm a casual f2p trying to pursue my favorites and eventually clear endgame content 😅 unfortunately thats very hard to do with powercreep and every dps and support being more powerful then the last in some capacity. Not to mention the rng behind rolling the characters desired, there aren't too many characters I want, however i want just enough to make it difficult pursuing them all as f2p with how fast HSR's rerun cycles have been, especially with these 8 banners recently.
I mostly chase favorites, tho power creep makes that hard sometimes (poor Seele). I thought Aglaea seemed cool, but wasn't hyped for her or anything, but thought maybe I'd pull for her. Now it turns out she really wants Sunday and Huohuo on her team because of her energy needs, and nope. Now I am just hoping too many remembrance character don't need Sunday, because I will never pull Sunday, I don't like him, and kits like his make me concerned about where the game is going in the near term.