#this is a space exploration gacha game

[themothmancassettes]

Bnnuy

[blueskittlesart]

i kinda really wanna see a big ol vent/rant from you about genshin now lol. I would read an essay

I'm not sure you understand the insanity you just unlocked in me but ok

genshin impact is probably the clearest modern example i can think of of capitalism absolutely eviscerating a creative project. For context, I started playing genshin in 2021, just after the 1.4 update. it was venti's first rerun/the first windblume festival if that means something to you. and I really genuinely thought that it might have had something special. It was a gacha that didn't FEEL like a gacha, which was a huge feat to me.

it began with a very simple story pitch--you, the protagonist, are one of a set of twin siblings traveling through space. you come upon a seemingly unassuming world and your attempts to continue your journey are suddenly stopped by a mysterious, all-powerful figure. you are separated from your sibling and wake up alone on the shores of this planet you were attempting to leave together. throughout that opening cutscene and scattered through the world and your character's dialog there are implications that all is not as it seems, that your character is something unique to this world and that they possess powers and abilities that you've yet to unlock. You are told that you must travel the seven nations of this world in order to find your sibling, which is great--a simple, zelda-like objective which drives the player to explore the secondary narratives of the world. none of this is bad on the surface. in fact i'd argue it's pretty good. there's a ton that can be done with these story bones. even at launch the map and combat system were full of potential as well.

Note: for ease of reading, i'm going to label the different storylines of the game now. A-plot refers to the central objective of the entire game; the find-your-sibling plot and everything that encompasses, including the abyss order/dain, the heavenly principles, the fake sky, etc. B-plot refers to the secondary objective present in each new nation, usually meeting the archon and/or solving a problem for the archon. (A and B-plots will occasionally intersect.) C-plot refers to any story, location, or background information which remains in permanent gameplay but which isn't directly related to the A or B-plots, such as dragonspine, the chasm, enkanomiya, etc. D-plot refers to any story, location, or background information which is confined to limited-time events and does NOT remain in permanent gameplay, regardless of its connection or lack thereof to the A and B-plots, such as the golden apple archipelago, the infamous albedo/dragonspine event, the infamous kaeya/diluc event, etc. Lore as i will refer to it in this post refers to any information which is present in permanent gameplay but which is not directly told to the player within the A or B-plot story quests and objectives, including books, weapon, artifact, and item descriptions, world quest dialog and puzzles, etc.

So now we're in mid-2021, there are two nations' worth of B-plot story quests released in full, and we've run into our first problem, which is that the game isn't finished yet. I don't have any actual information about how the game was/is written, but based on what i've observed over the past few years, my best guess is that the A-plot has been fully written since the beginning, at least in some form. there were very early-game events and information pertaining to the A-plot that would take years to see any actual payoff in the main story quests (kaeya's origin story, the 1.3 scaramouche fake-sky drop, the flowers in lumine's hair, etc.) but those kinds of A-plot story easter eggs very quickly dropped off when the game absolutely EXPLODED during the pandemic.

this sudden burst in popularity was the true beginning of the end for genshin, i think, because suddenly they had a HUGE fanbase that desperately wanted more content faster than they could pump out new A-plot or even B-plot story quests. one of the most pervasive complaints about the game when I began playing in 2021 was that there was nothing to do between story quests. update 1.4 (which was the update I started playing at) was important in that it was the first time since genshin's release over a year before that players recieved any new A-plot, in the form of the archon quest We Will Be Reunited, also known as the quest with the most fucking misleading name of all time. you'll never guess what doesn't fucking happen during this quest. anyways. we were a year into gameplay, two nations out of seven released and a third on the not-so-distant horizon, and it seemed obvious that players were owed some sort of A-plot payoff. and that's very much what WWBR was advertised as, from the quest's name to the banners full of art of the twins staring wistfully at each other. The thing is, what i'm describing as A-plot payoff was actually. not really A-plot payoff at all. WWBR was the reveal that the protagonist's sibling was working with the abyss order, and that the abyss order was connected somehow to Khaenri'ah, which at this point casual players would only have known about from THAT QUEST and MAYBE kaeya's character descriptions if they were diligent enough to get him to friendship level 10 (which, btw there is no indication that you should do to get important context about the story of the game, because kaeya is a 4-star starter character and the only character in the entire game that actually has genuinely important story hidden in his character descriptions.) So what I'm calling A-plot payoff felt at the time a lot less like A-plot payoff than it did like an abyss sibling cameo in an attempt to satiate everyone who was begging for more story. We actually gained almost net 0 information. this is very quickly going to become a pattern.

As I've already alluded to, the motives behind this writing decision are transparently obvious. Genshin is a free gacha game which relies on a consistently active and engaged userbase to make its money. With fans getting restless about the lack of engaging story at the time and a new, very ambitious B-plot quest gearing up for release that would require major support from that fan base in order to remain profitable, the writers were backed into a corner. they HAD to throw the fans some sort of bone in order to keep them engaged with the A-plot, since it was originally pitched as the driving force for the story as a whole, but they were also clearly not at a stage of the writing process where it was prudent to give the player any REAL information about the A-plot. This is how we ended up with a 10-second abyss sibling cameo and an offhanded mention of Khaenri'ah, a nation whose plot-relevance was at that point still basically unknown.

The real problem is, WWBR worked. at least, it worked as intended at the time. It satiated story-focused fans in the interlude between B-plot nations, as hyv was gearing up to release inazuma, which required a lot of time in preparation. WWBR was followed almost immediately by the C-plot golden apple archipelago in 1.6, widely regarded as one of the better events of version 1. GAA was memorable especially because it was the first event that involved an entirely new, limited-time-only map, meaning the event had much more longevity than the standard events players were used to. This is, imo, most likely the update combination that led to the standard formula which hyv uses for its quests and events nowadays. the back-to-back release of WWBR and GAA satisfied both fans who wanted A-plot story AND silenced criticisms about the game lacking endgame playability, which at the time must have seemed like a goldmine to writers desperate for a solution to their content-to-fanbase ratio problem.

From here, genshin started following a standard method of release for their next three nations--inazuma, sumeru, and fontaine. the formula generally went as follows: one major version update (usually version x.0) containing a major map update which included all B-plot relevant locations in the new nation, and the first chapter of the B-plot story quest relevant to that nation. this would then be followed by 2-3 version updates which would each contain the next chapter in the nation's B-plot story quest, sequentially. After the nation's B-plot quest ended, during the downtime in which the next nation's story and map would be finalized, subsequent updates would be largely C-plot, and would contain minor expansions of the map to increase endgame playability via exploration and world quests. This is how we ended up with updates like the chasm, the several extra islands in inazuma, and the quite frankly ridiculously large sumeru map, as well as the offloaded maps like enkanomiya and the sea of bygone eras. with the possible exception of the chasm, none of these areas are A OR B-plot relevant. hyv has realized that artificially inflating the map makes their game technically more engaging during the downtime between nations. However, this comes at a price. While the scenery and set design of the game remains consistently beautiful, the actual, mechanical gameplay that populates that scenery very quickly became mind-numbingly boring if not borderline unplayable. While the 1.0 questlines were not perfect, there was at least an emphasis on the player actually DOING things. 1.0 B-plot quests would have you going to mini-dungeon temples and completing challenges which would acclimate you to the combat system while also serving narrative purpose. There were quests that required you to navigate open-world dungeons. Because your characters were lower-level, combat challenges that arose during these quests were CHALLENGES, rather than two-second buttonmashing segments. By the time we get to sumeru, though, both B-plot AND C-plot quests have become little more than moving your character from location to location and tapping through (usually unvoiced) dialog. there's no GAMEPLAY in the quests anymore, because gameplay isn't what makes money. What DOES make money is giving players 300 hidden chests to find in an open-world map segment, each of which gives them 1/80th of a gacha pull. And so the story suffers and the map gets bigger.

Along with the map expansions, downtime between nations usually also nets us one A-plot quest, usually involving the character dainslief, who was the driver of the initial WWBR quest. This is the second half of hyv's magical formula for keeping fans happy between major releases. the A-plot quests will, as a general rule, give players either very little new information or no new information at all, but will dress up the delivery in such a way that it ALMOST feels as though the protagonist has moved forward somehow. the most recent example of this writing style, the 4.7 quest bedtime story, amounts to about an hour and a half of gameplay and, while it DOES contain a segment in which the protagonist finally actually has a conversation with their sibling, that conversation literally begins with the line "I have so many questions, but for some reason I don't want to ask them right now," ensuring that the sibling will not actually be required to give away any plot-relevant information whatsoever, and the quest ends with the protagonist FORGETTING THAT THE CONVERSATION EVER HAPPENED IN THE FIRST PLACE.

As I think I mentioned before, the cardinal problem of genshin impact's writing is that fans want answers faster than the writers are prepared to give them. I don't doubt that there's a game bible or relevant equivalent somewhere within hyv which contains the explanations we are currently lacking in regards to the A-plot. the game is consistent enough in its storytelling for me to believe that this isn't all just being made up as we go along. But I'm also certain that a lot of the late-game A and B-plot that is planned (especially if the Khaenri'ah is truly planned to be the 8th nation of the game) hinges on the player knowing very little about the A-plot. this would be fine if genshin was a standard single-release video game that players could work through at their own pace, but it isn't. it's unfinished, and each nation in the game releases months to years after the last, leaving the writers to scramble to fill in the gameplay gaps and players struggling to remember plot-relevant information when it's brought up literal years after they last heard it mentioned. Not only does the time between updates leave players frustrated about the lack of A-plot, it makes the A-plot harder to understand when it is brought up, because the writers are required to throw in so much dense C and D-plot just to keep engagement high enough to make the game profitable in its downtime. we joke about the insane convolution of genshin's lore, but that is first and foremost a byproduct of its financial model. the game requires engaement to be profitable, and adding lore for players to look into drives up engagement. The fact that having so much story with so little plot relevance muddies the waters and makes the A and B-plot stories considerably harder to understand doesn't matter as long as money is being made.

I want to take a quick detour here to talk about the release of sumeru specifically, because this is when I really began to clock the fact that genshin was declining. on paper, racial sensitivity issues aside (Not that they're not important, but i'm doing this deep dive from a storytelling and game design point of view, nothing else. that's a whole can of worms i don't have time to get into here) sumeru was a really promising addition to the game. The new B-plot quest which was set to drop in 3.0 was highly anticipated for several reasons. Two fan-favorite characters (kaeya and scaramouche) were expected to play major roles, because of earlier C and B-plot quests, and much of the nation's scenery that was teased in trailers and promotional content appeared to tie into the A-plot. the most exciting draw about sumeru and version 3.0, though, was the major update to the combat system.

Arguably genshin impact's most interesting feature upon release was its combat system. The map was basically a botw clone at that point, and the story quests, while decently engaging, were rough around the edges to say the least. What genshin DID have going for it was a unique real-time combat system that rewarded strategy and quick thinking.

Genshin's combat system is elemental, and on release there were 6 elemental affiliations: anemo (wind), cryo (ice), pyro (fire), hydro (water), geo (rock), and electro (electricity.) in a sort of pokemon-like system, certain elements were weak to other ones, but more importantly, certain combinations of elements could drastically boost combat stats. Players got to construct four-slot teams of characters, each with an elemental affiliation and certain "skills" which would match their element, and you were encouraged to use the interactions of these elements to build teams. very quickly, a huge community formed dedicated to optimizing teams and tiering characters. People would even make a game out of building teams specifically to do high-level damage with "bad" characters or characters who weren't designed to be damage drivers (my 100k jean burst was an incredible moment fr.) this was, of course, also a picture-perfect driver for the gacha aspect of the game, which was how players obtained new characters.

Pre-3.0, combat was... well i won't say it was balanced, but there was no elemental reaction that had any MAJOR advantage over the others. when you actually ran the numbers, i believe vaporize was the best reaction in terms of damage output, with the best team being raiden national with kazuha for EM buffs. but a well-built freeze or melt team could do similar numbers, or even better numbers depending on your artifact rolls. (ayaka permafreeze you will always be my #1.) Despite a steady stream of new characters with each update, characters from the earliest version of the game like xingqiu and xiangling were still topping the charts in terms of usefulness and versatility in teambuilding. However, as early as 1.0, players had been teased that a major update to the combat system was planned. There was a seventh element, dendro (plants) which pre-3.0 only existed as an elemental affiliation for menial enemies. there were no playable dendro characters, and the only elemental reaction that existed relating to it was very low-level and not particularly useful in combat.

Originally, dendro was projected to be added to the combat system somewhere in version 2, but its release was delayed substantially, meaning it came out along with its affiliated nation, sumeru. And as soon as it came out, it basically broke the combat system. I assume that the scaling they ended up going with may have been out of fear that players would be hesitant to integrate a new element into their pre-established team builds, and thus they may have been worried about sales on their dendro character banners, and i assume that the fact that 3 elements are required to get the highest-level reaction was an attempt to make the meta more balanced in the face of that scaling, but, well... it didn't work. At this point, the genshin impact combat meta is basically "if you're not using hyperbloom what the fuck are you doing." there's basically no reaction in the game that comes close to it in terms of both damage and ease of use. you are not going to beat a hyperbloom team with anything other than a better-built hyperbloom team. combat is now very heavily skewed in the direction of dendro, meaning that if you DON'T want to use a dendro team, you're going to be doing significantly lower numbers. And since enemies are added with each update, post-3.0 combat becomes difficult and annoying if you don't have a hyperbloom team on-hand.

The major gripe i have with dendro isn't even the scaling, though. I mentioned offhand earlier that the 1.0 B-plot questline had a section which taught you the basics of the combat system via mini-dungeons. These mini-dungeons, of course, taught you the version of the system that existed pre-3.0, so there's no tutorial for dendro reactions. Rather than integrating the tutorial into the story and world like they did in their early quests, upon playing 3.0 for the first time players were given a popup that explained, very wordily, how dendro reactions worked. there was no opportunity to test these reactions in an environment without consequences--if you wanted to try them you'd have to remember the relevant information, build yourself a team, find an enemy to try them on, and just hope you got it right. This lack of integration is something i began to notice more and more with genshin as it progressed, especially in sumeru. where in mondstadt and liyue open-world puzzles would be explained to you by an npc or via environmental context clues, in sumeru you'd be stopped while exploring every two seconds by a popup explaining some puzzle or another which, of course, you wouldn't read, because you didn't want to do the puzzle right that minute anyway, and then by the time you DID want to do that puzzle you'd have no in-game way of figuring out how to do it. The puzzle popups may seem like a small thing, but it's one of the clearest examples in the game to me of the fact that the player experience is so clearly not being prioritized here. the game doesn't even TRY to be immersive anymore. they have no qualms about pulling you out of the story to read a paragraph about how the puzzle works. they don't care how your character, in-universe, is supposed to have acquired that information. they don't care why your character, in-universe, is doing the puzzle in the first place. because they know the reason YOU are doing the puzzle, which is to unlock a hidden chest that gives you 1/80th of a gacha pull.

That was not "a quick detour" was it lmfao. ok anyways. back to the story. Now i want to talk about D-plot, meaning limited event stories, and lore as i defined it earlier, meaning contextual details not present in quests or playable story. This is where i think genshin's story becomes completely inaccessible.

Already, we've covered the fact that in order to consume the very basic story, players have to be willing to wait years between A and B-plot quest releases, punctuated by irrelevant map expansions and interlude quests. I mentioned before that genshin's incompleteness is one of the major problems of its story. the fact that players have to wait years, remembering plot-relevant information that they have no way of knowing will even BE plot-relevant, for the payoff of these narratives is frustrating at best and actively malicious at worst. But in theory, there should be an obvious way to circumvent this. One could just wait until the game IS completely finished to play the whole thing. Sort of like buying a game in early access but waiting until it's actually finished to play it all the way through. that's theoretically possible. but, as i have been hammering home this whole time, genshin is a free game, and therefore genshin relies entirely on a consistently engaging fanbase in order to remain profitable. if genshin does not have a base of players who are willing to log in every day, or at the very least once every update, the game's financial model collapses on itself. therefore, genshin puts on limited-time events. this is a standard in gacha games, as a way to keep the fans consistently engaging. What is not standard, however, is the way that genshin uses these events as vessels for its story. about 19 out of 20 limited events in genshin impact will be useless menial bullshit with no effect on the story or really even the player aside from maybe making you fucking angry. 1 out of those 20, though, will be innocuously named, with nothing in the banner or event description to indicate that it's special in any way, but it will contain serious A or B-plot relevant information that exists nowhere else in the game. My personal favorite example is the infamous 1.3 scaramouche appearance, in which he showed up, told the protagonist that the sky was fake, and then immediately fucked off again. Scaramouche did not show up again until at least 2.0, and the fake sky wasn't so much as MENTIONED again until 3.2, almost TWO YEARS LATER. but there are others, such as the (almost equally infamous) albedo doppelganger event in which a major character's loyalties are called into question, or the event where major biographical information is revealed about kaeya, the only playable character with major known connections to the A-plot and Khaenri'ah. With all of these events, once the event period ends, the information contained within them vanishes from the game completely. there's no way to replay old events that you've missed, even sans rewards, so if you miss a plot-relevant event the ONLY way to catch up on that story is through word of mouth. again, this is a transparent way to keep genshin's userbase engaged during downtime between B-plot quests; if you don't log in and play every event, how will you know if you've missed something important? You might not be able to fully understand the future story if you miss out on the D-plot now!

The D-plot problem is something that I think could, in theory, be circumvented by dedicated record-keeping. if the wiki had anything resembling an easily accessible event database that marked story-relevant events and contained summaries or gameplay videos, at the very least you wouldn't have to fear being completely lost on the off chance that a random throwaway line in an event from fucking 1.3 becomes plot-relevant. but hyv obviously doesn't want that, because it undermines their financial model, and the sheer number of events and the amount of rerunning of irrelevant events they do makes the task of recording and categorizing them all daunting if not impossible.

Then, of course, there's lore. this is arguably what genshin is infamous for in certain circles of the internet. You know that unraveled video where bdg reads every book in skyrim? if you tried to do that with genshin the video would probably be about 10 hours long. and it's not just books; genshin hides (potentially) plot-relevant information in weapon and artifact descriptions, in random hidden world quests, in character bios... the list goes on. and 9 times out of 10, the information is essentially written in code. Plot-relevant characters will have multiple names, or the relevant information will refer to them as vaguely as possible, presumably to further the "mystery" and encourage theorizing among fans. but the sheer amount of information like this that exists within the game makes it all but impossible to determine what is plot-relevant and what isn't. For a topical example, the most recent A-plot quest bedtime story mentions the name Rhinedottir in connection with events in Khaenri'ah, suddenly making that name A-plot relevant. Rhinedottir is an alternate name for the character Gold, whose existence you would only have known of before this point if you'd unlocked and read the character Albedo's character bios. (Albedo is a limited-run character who hasn't been available since november 2022, btw.) the only other information about Rhinedottir permanently available in the game comes from the description of the weapon Festering Desire, which was only obtainable from a limited event back in 2020, anyway. So basically, if you wanted ANY context for that remark, you'd have to have been playing the game since AT LEAST 2022, AND you'd have to have taken the time to go over your weapon and character descriptions with a fine-toothed comb. keep in mind that as of right now (june 2024) there are 85 playable characters in this game, each with 10 unique unlockable character bio sections, and over 150 weapons, each with their own unique descriptions, not to mention over 50 artifact sets, each with 5 unique artifacts, which all have their own unique descriptions as well. there are also 51 different collections of books which contain written lore as well. the idea that any player could keep up with all this, or that anyone could even sift through it all to pick out the important things that they NEED to keep up with, is insane, especially when the game makes a point of withholding crucial plot information from its players within the A and B-plot quests. this amount of written lore only exists, again, to drive up engagement in the hopes of subsequently driving up profit. Even if the average player isn't reading and absorbing all this information, the fact that it's there coupled with the fact that the writers consistently refuse to reveal anything beyond surface-level A-plot information means that there's basically ENDLESS theory fodder. and THAT means that people will be posting their theories and talking with each other and getting into arguments. it means "genshin impact" trends on twitter. it means engagement, and engagement means money.

basically what it comes back to is that everything is so transparently money over player experience with this game. I think what we're witnessing with genshin is what i would call an end-stage gacha game--a gacha game that's gone on a little too long and gotten a little too popular, and so the veil has started to slip a little more than usual. Gachas work primarily because they operate by toeing the line between what is fun to play and what is a predatory mechanic. As long as the actual gameplay remains engaging and rewarding, players can ignore the unsavory business practices underneath. At this point, genshin has swerved too hard into the money-hungriness and is still hoping that they can use their old tried-and-true engagement farming methods to remain popular regardless. currently, it seems like those methods are still working, unfortunately. Like I said in the post that prompted this, i really can't wait for the hyv writer NDAs to expire 10 or so years down the line, because I can only imagine what an insane shitshow writing for this game must be. I want to see the tell-all articles. I want carnage.

That being said, I played genshin impact religiously from 2020 to 2023. I loved the game. Despite myself, I am still really, REALLY interested in the A-plot. I want to know what's going on with the protagonist and their sibling; where they came from, what happened to them, what the heavenly principles are, what role celestia plays in all of this. I want to know Kaeya's full backstory, what role Khaenri'ah plays in the overarching story, and what happened to it in the past. but I don't really have any faith that I ever will, because I know that as long as keeping their fans in the dark and stringing them along remains profitable, that's what hyv will continue to do.

Do I think genshin impact is unsalvagable? in its current state, yes. If I was given the ability to turn back time and convince a bunch of executives of the profitability of this venture, I would change almost nothing about the story of genshin and completely rework the mechanics of its release. I would make it a series of single-release self-contained games rather than a constantly-updating gacha. Each game would be one B-plot quest, or one nation, eight games in all, preferably released once every year. Removing the gacha mechanic, players would be given access to a certain pool of characters to build teams at the start of each game, and then periodically unlock new characters as the story progressed. for example, if you were playing the inazuma game, you'd start out with only your protag, and after progressing to a certain point in the story you'd get a pool of inazuma 4-stars to teambuild with freely. Then, as the story progressed and you met plot-relevant inazuman 5-stars you'd add them to your pool. I'd change basically nothing about the combat system except for a properly integrated introduction of dendro when it makes its appearance in sumeru. Once you completed the story in that nation, you could move onto the next game in the series if it was out, or if it wasn't, you could continue to explore the open world while waiting for the next release. Would this be as profitable as the gacha model? probably not, but what it WOULD do is allow for much more consistent pacing and writing, with the added bonus of not making your userbase feel like you'd shoot them in the head for their pocket change.

[channelinglament]

Sksjdjjkskskskskksk

I know I should be focusing more on reqs, but I had to take this off my mind skskksskks (btw I'm rn in the underground belobog part of story) (I kinda called it SAHSR as in self aware hsr)

☆•°Self-Aware Honkai Star Rail°•☆

Tw: no proofread, mentioned drowning(but it didn't happen), war, hate, religious themes, self awareness, kinda ooc, grammar mistakes because I am typing this at 12AM instead of sleeping, isolation

So, you know how in the beginning we play as Kafka? Yeah, I'm pretty sure she felt your presence. At first she was kinda weirded out, and was on guard. Who knows what you would do to her, while controlling her?

Oh look, you're helping her.. Hmm, maybe you aren't that bad after all. Still on guard, but thankful. With you she seems to fight more faster and is more efficient.

Same goes with Silver Wolf. They don't seem to mind your presence that much.

You even helped them to pick a trailblazer! But after picking them, you left Kafka and Silver Wolf. They didn't really mind it. They have been doing good without you, so it should be fine!

Meanwhile, the trailblazer is confused. First, they don't remember anything except their own name(or the name you gave them), then Kafka leaves and someone is watching over them. Oh how confusing and strange. But they caught early on that you're helping them. You're not an enemy.

During their "adventures" trailblazer starts thinking of you as a family. Kinda annoying since you control their body most the time (unless it's a cutscene) but you're cool nonetheless. They see you as a safespace.

Meanwhile March 7th and Dan Heng don't understand what is happening. Who is controlling them? Why after they met trailblazer? Why are you controlling them?

I think March would, just like the trailblazer, like you and find you annoying at the same time. Dan Heng would stay on guard (but also see you as safe space/nice person to hang with). Not as much on guard as when you first...met but still. It'll take him time to get off guard. The more time you spend with them, the more familiar they are with you, the more they like you.

Why annoyed, you may ask? Well, imagine you want to.. for example fight, but someone controls your movement and does it instead of you. Or goes the other way (aka exploring) instead of the path you've originally chosen.

They certainly would like when you make them stronger. No matter who is on your team, they'll like it (I mean, who wouldn't?)

But.. sometimes, even if they like you, they get tired of always being on the team. Thank you, yes, but they need to rest too. They mostly rest when you're offline, since..time kinda stops there. But when you're online? damnnn they walk and fight so much.. (I fr walk everywhere to find enemies to fight, so uhh, if you're like me, they would be tired and maybe annoyed at it)

I think some characters would even hate you. It doesn't apply to the main trio btw, they'll always like you. The reason some may hate you is that they have so much stuff to do, yet you choose them to walk around and fight all day. They're even supposed to be here! (For example, using Herta when fighting someone in Belobog)

If they could, they would scold you. But sadly game doesn't allow that.

It only appears in normal, self aware circumstances. Aka a normal self aware. Some like you, some hate you. You just kinda exist. (That one strange friend/sibling, y'know?)

But what if they would see you as a God? Something divine? Like in SAGAU?

Well, you're doomed, what can I say?

Everyone would want to be in your team. Oh, poor Gacha system.

They would hate it tbh. While in just self aware some would avoid you on purpose (aka busy characters), here? Where everyone sees you as a divine being? Oh dear..

Imagine several people trying to come through a single door, all at the same time? Yeahhh that's what happens. The standard and limited banner would literally fist fight while trying to get "home" to you. So don't be surprised if nobody comes home, at all.

But some may cooperate, and you may get more 5☆ or 4☆! Basically characters you wanted.

Those on your team would be proud! Mostly if the main trio are still there. Some would be envious of trailblazer. You're always with them, even if they're not on your team.(how could you?!)

Kafka and Silverwofl would be devastated. I'm pretty sure Silverwolf could possibly destroy the gacha system and come home. Only her (and maybe Kafka)

People in Belobog would hate the lore and everything game makes them do what they do. They're so happy they met you! You're here to save them! They don't want to fight you, so please don't be mad at them.

Honestly, if you were to get isekai'ed into hsr, I would recommend to the normal au.

The ones who hate you would just tell you off and never interact again, while your family/friends would hang out with you. Plus you could help a lot in Astral Express!

Maybe get Himeko and Mr.Yang some tea? Or help Pom Pom with whatever he needs?

If you get into the Worshipping Lunatics au..? I feel sorry for you.. You would never rest-

Whether you choose to stay at Astrak Express, or Herta's *I forgot the name* or whatever, they are all ready to wage war against each other. And if you decided to stay somewhere, that means you clearly favor them and their place more! Those who were chosen are happy/smug. While other try to improve their place/copy the place you've chosen to make you reconsider and stay with them.

The amount of gifts.. try to not drown okay?

They might even all agree to keep you in one place. Lock you in there and hope you won't be mad at them.

That's all for now

(Gotta work on reqs now or in the morning, they're still open btw)

[brittle-doughie]

New follower here hello- I like your self-aware crk stuff and I've seen the Mystic Flour cookie content. Funny thing happened when I was grinding for gems in world exploration, I wanted to go to the quest icon to claim some gems but misclicked and accidentally hit the Mystic Flour gacha banner and it would not let me out of there until I closed out the app 💀

Welcome aboard!

Do not even try to close out the game, it will only go back to her gacha banner immediately after you relaunch the app.

She’ll question why you’re trying to escape her, it’s futile to even bother.

She’s not mad at you, she can never be….

She’s mad that it’s because of that kingdom of yours that’s making you want to leave this space with her…

Save yourself of all worries and regrets your kingdom gives you. They’ll be returning to flour soon enough.

You wished for an easier time with your game, right? She’s only granting you your wish, so why are you trying to escape her?

All that will remain will just be you and her….

[pinkworldone]

YANDERE AETHER AND LUMINE IDEAS pt.2

Okay, I know I wrote one, but if I had an idea, I’ll write it.

- All right, we know that the Traveler has the teapot and everything else, but let’s specify in a specific AU. Basically, with the Traveler knowing that he is in a game and knowing the “player”.

- Imagine that Aether or Lumine know about Gacha’s system, and they watch you try to get all the possible characters, the two share the adrenaline and excitement when their 5 stars arrive. And when do you lose the 50/50? Wow, they are also very discouraged, but sometimes they are happy about it.

- Like when you praise a character more than you should, no matter the genre, the two would be absurdly jealous. Lumine would do her best to modify Gacha’s system so that you lose your 50/50 to the character she hates the most, maybe this way you learn not to have your eyes on someone else!

Aether, he would already let you win the 50/50, but Aether would be praying inside for you to lose your 50/50. He tries to hide the emotion when you lose the 50/50, but he is so relieved! But and when do you win? He is refusing to accept this, making the Boss of your favorite character more difficult and worsening the artifacts and ascension materials. It gets so much worse that you even give up on improving the character!

- Aether and Lumine saw that you had entered the game, you were nothing special, you were not the hidden God or something like that. It was just you appearing in one of the missions with your vision and helping in what the Traveler needed.

- Imagine their joy when they found out that your Banner was approaching, they both explored all Teyvat in search of gems, did all the missions and gathered all the money possible to ensure you, damn, there is even a space in the teapot just dedicated to you and that’s where they will make their wishes.

- Imagine their sadness and look they would do to any character after the loss of 50/50, they are staring at whoever it is (Dehya, Qiqi, Keqing, Tighnari, Mona, Diluc, Jean..) with hatred for having lost the 50/50.

- At least they are on the guarantee, to say that they were anxious when they saw the golden light is a joke, because they would both run to catch you when you magically fell from the sky, hugging you and smiling a lot. They would give you the best weapons and the best possible artifacts!

- Normally, we can use the characters we won in the Banner, but here it wouldn’t work that much because some get busy. But you? Who said you’re busy? No, you’re not! You will travel entire Teyvat with them <3

[sexiestpodcastcharacter]

do you know of any dating sims for fiction podcasts? i've played thief of hearts (penumbra podcast) and the archives sim (tma) but i was wondering if there were games like this for other podcasts

Dating Sims

Thief of Hearts (The Penumbra Podcast): Juno Steel/various Peter Nureyev aliases

The Archives Sim (The Magnus Archives): Player/various characters including y'all's fave, Jane Prentiss

While looking for the above I also found Dream Avatar (The Magnus Archives): the game is incomplete/on hold, player can romance Timothy Stoker currently

Three Nights in Marielda (Friends at the Table): Castille/Maelgwyn, Castille/Someone Else? (I'm sorry I don't remember who the cop is T_T).

Related Projects

There's the Friends-at-the-Table tag on itch.io and additionally The Tower under the Secret-Samol tag, but I don't know if any of these are dating simulators besides the above.

There's a walking sim Am I Alone Now (Wolf 359) based on a really excellent episode of my favorite podcast??? I'm gonna go play this right now.

Fantasy Costco (The Adventure Zone) is a gacha simulator.

Basically, explore what is tagged with your favorite podcasts on itch!

I know one of the stretch goals for a SAYER kickstarter was a dating sim tentatively called Doki Doki Space Boyfriend, but as far as I know that never materialized. There is official character concept art for it posted here and there though.

And it's not a game but hey I found two pieces of Night Vale art from way back in 2013!

Anyone else know of any other dating sims?

[kyogre-blue]

Played about 2.5 hours of Wuthering Waves tonight. I was hoping to unlock the dailies, but I only made it to Union level 4, which I think is too low, but whatever.

My impressions are fairly mixed, but given how many gachas I've now started and dropped pretty much immediately, WW is doing quite well for itself.

I have to say tho that I deeply pity it for how much it will be compared to Genshin.

For positives, I think WW has a rather solid opening section. I focused on the main story to advance the Union level faster, but it seems like you get your main tutorials out of the way fairly quickly and can go and explore from there. Given the complaints I have about being railroaded in other games, that's nice.

Additionally, I think the story is nice if unremarkable. It's paced better than Genshin early parts imo, which were ridiculously rushed, and it benefits from having multiple characters who talk to each other and have different personalities. Yangyang, Chixia and Baizhi invite the harem jokes, but they are a friend group who decide to look after this amnesiac they found. They frame it as a combination of responsibility and friendliness, which I think works. Aside from that, yes, the game certainly leans into the MC being someone super special and important, but it's treated as an actual mystery and the current driving point of the narrative. Plus, the male MC is rather cute, so I can forgive a lot.

Compared to a whole bunch of other gachas, I am actually mildly interested in seeing where this is all going.

For the neutral points, WW actually has a fairly different tone and vibe than Genshin. The colors are more muted, the music is notably less upbeat, and there is a vaguely scifi aesthetic underlying the setting. It also has a lot more... what I read as Chinese cultural influences. You do start in the China region, but there's also stuff like the goofy gourd gadgets everyone has. I have a general impression of what mythological thing is being referenced, but it really does come off as goofy. However, those details are kinda... cute? narm-charm? I guess, when you consider that it's a Chinese developer. It also just has a different flavor from the most common settings, which is always a nice change.

For the negatives, I think the game does lack a few points of polish compared to Genshin. The movement controls feel kinda floaty, the designs (especially the adult female ones) are just not as competent or appealing, the proportions on the models look a bit off at times, and there are even minor bugs, with stuff like dialogue boxes being unable to fit all the lines of text (with no log feature in the scenes themselves), the auto advance moving too quickly and cutting off voice lines and sometimes even making it impossible to read the text fast enough, some awkward visual elements, textures loading kinda poorly, etc.

All of those are very small details and I'm not going to stop because of them, but they do create a certain impression in accumulation.

Examples:

The bottom of the image was also the bottom of the screen. A line or two of the text is just invisible, and this happens quite often.

Weirdly sized and spaced apostrophes.

Bad spacing on the wishing menus.

Weirdly poor textures on this guy. This happens once in a while. There are also very obvious cases of pop in that can get quite distracting during story scenes.

For the spacing stuff, I do play in windowed mode, but like... that's an option they give you. It shouldn't be like this.

All that aside, I'm going to continue for at least a while, though I plan to take it very casually, maybe even as a non-wishing account. The exploration and story can probably be cleared even with welfares... I hope.

[nicawlette]

NAME / ALIAS: sarah AGE / AGE GROUP: 26 PRONOUNS: she/her TIMEZONE: est WHERE ARE YOU FROM?: usa CHARACTERS IN THE GROUP: just my pookie, nicolette !! A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF:

hiiiiiiii!!!!!!! i've been roleplaying for about 14 years, and i've written my darling nicolette on and off since the very beginning! she was the first character i ever wrote, and the first oc i made, so you can imagine she means the absolute world to me. i've put my very heart and soul into her.

writing is my biggest hobby next to gaming. my favorite game(s) of all time are bioshock and alice madness returns, but my current fixation is genshin (don't let me play anymore gacha games i have terrible impulse control!!!) honorable mention to bloodborne too (pc release...bLEASE). i also like to read, but i consume a lot of fanfic primarily. favorite childhood book series is the sisters grimm!

anyway, i'm very happy to be in isola! while i haven't necessarily extended to all corners of the group, i've felt very welcomed by the circle of friends and writing partners i've had the absolute pleasure of meeting. i've been in many rp groups (aurp, aod, kny, ama) i have also been in indie spaces for many years and my experiences have varied! it can be difficult to write an oc, especially a female oc, and have others give you a fair chance. so i feel super grateful to all the people who have done so in this group and allowed me to to continue my ongoing journey of fleshing out nicolette and exploring every aspect of her character. i adore the relationships she's built.

also i have a chihuahua named bagel. picture of my son below if you wanna see!

[rrowboat]

looking for system friends & mutuals B)

new blog here to basically allow myself a safe space to explore and talk about my recent diagnosis and resulting journey so to speak. we are still struggling with what this means for us and who we are, what all the terms are, etc. etc. so please bear with me

currently aware of 5 alters, of which only 3 can front. i am the host rowan and front probably 60% of the time that i'm aware of??? again we're still learning with our new trauma-specialized therapist. we call ourselves the rowboat but you can just call us rowan unless specified otherwise

also you can usually tell if it's me or my alters talking because i typically use "i/me" and they use "we/us" (either or if we're cofronting)

I DO NOT LIKE SYSCOURSE i think it is dumb. sorry. i am in therapy in the real world and i do not need syscourse in my life while i'm processing CPTSD. idc if you're anti or pro endo at this point. i don't know how my alters feel about it but it's my turn with the computer and i get to make the rules

BUT UMMMMMMM hiiii. twirls my hair. tucks it behind my ear. i like lots of things. unfortunately i have an addiction to gacha games. AND GUILTY GEAR. and being cringe

n/e way like or reply and follow if you wanna be mutuals ^_^ my discord is rowanwan ⛵

[chryza]

Listen I’m a veteran of the fashion gacha genre, I played Shining Nikki at global launch. I downloaded Life Makeover to chase a boy check it out. I am completely fucking floored at this game and what it offers. Act I Scene I I’m shitting myself over the character creation(!!!!) that is more robust than most triple A RPGs that can be changed at any time. Except for, you know, skin color because apparently that’s too fucking hard and a massive issue but I digress. I am then greeted by a compelling visual novel (standard to the genre) with NPCs with animation rigs and fully voiced cutscenes to go along with entertaining detective VN mechanics. Already a massive win, I’m hooked on the story and characters.

I go to the dress up studio and discover to my incredible delight this game has Fully. Modular. Dyeing. Design possibilities instantly become limitless. I am shown the photo taking studio. Fully rendered 3-D space you can move your model around to take advantage of lighting and camera angles. Glorious. Built in editor to tweak photos in game, no more shall I be forced to export to photoshop (I will anyway bc I’m a perfectionist). I’m throwing up.

They turn around and hand me a fashion DESIGN studio mechanic in which you can create your OWN clothes for ur little digital Barbie to wear including a system for drawing/designing your own fabric which I WILL be busting out my tablet for. This game feels unreal at this point. I’m fucking delirious and high on snorting HD rhinestones and glitter.

Game then introduces me to the housing mechanic which is. Not unique but like you gotta understand. It’s not just oh swap out this furniture’s pattern move around these cute little jpegs NO. We are talking a fully rendered 3-D space with high fidelity graphics that you can decorate yourself with interactive furnishings and sims needs we have stumbled into a completely different game at this point (and your model is still wearing whatever cute clothes you’re in to fully appreciate the obscene level of detail). There are apparently dozens of DIFFERENT house floor plans you can buy and explore. And then I discover you can visit other peoples houses when they hold community meals and there’s a chat and emote function and I realize in my bewildered haze I have somehow stumbled not into a gacha but a fucking fashion MMORPG. For your phone.

I’m lightheaded with glee. I haven’t even unlocked everything there’s more features. I’m in love. I think I am sexually attracted to this fucking game. We marry at dawn

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

Since you got the beta : does it feel like genshin ?

Asking since a lot of things are very similar to genshin (BP, Artifacts, Gacha, Constellation, ect...) and I'm genuinely scared about that (mostly the gacha honestly)

Not really?

Gameplay wise, it has some Genshin-like mechanics like what you said, but it also has Honkai-like mechanics (like Simulated Universe which is similar to ER, or the Support friend feature, or the "phone" menu that they turned into an in-universe mechanic).

There's anti-boredom features like autofighting which means you can literally just eat popcorn or go do smth else while the fight happens, which is super great for any "grinding" type of activity. This is my big yes because what really put me off Genshin after a while was the tediousness— I don't find Star Rail tedious thanks to stuff like that.

Re: Gacha, I don't overly mind the 50-50 because the standard characters are characters I actually want, and after 300 pulls on the standard banner you get a whole ass selector to grab whoever it is you wanted that you never got. So like, much kinder than Genshin on that regard.

Re: Exploration, the quest system is similar but it's very often about playable or at least recurring, named characters, which makes them much less boring or "why should I care?" compared to Genshin's. They're not JUST here for the quest.

Re: Lore, it's embracing the "really weird space opera" genre and having a blast. If you thought the space train was weird... well, the very first area is essentially the SCP Foundation (in space).

Re: Story, it's a found family story much like Hi3, not an isekai. The main character talks, has a personality and relationships, weirdo moments, unhinged dialogue options, there's actual banter and teasing, and even when there's no clear end goal to the plot you're having fun because it's 80% character driven.

Also Welt is there, still advertising his anime on random planets via his HoR powers, and calling himself an ordinary white-collar worker.

So in conclusion I guess it feels like a less complicated Genshin/Honkai mixture that actually learned from mistakes of the previous games? It's not perfect, but it's really good, quirky and unique.

[viridiave]

Hey is Another Eden a good game to play?

You'll get nothing but biased takes from me about this game friend

But I'd say it's pretty good compared to most other gachas? There's a fair bit of pros and cons so I'll go over some of the most important ones and uh - you can make your judgments from there.

PROS:

EVERYTHING IN THIS GAME IS PERMANENT. This game does not deal in limited-time content-related events. It gives you increased bonuses on certain celebrations, but every gacha does that. All new units are added to the pool permanently, so even if you miss their rate-up banners, there's still the chance of pulling them on a banner that doesn't feature them. You do not have to worry about missing out on ANYTHING, and you can take your sweet time just playing through its massive catalogue of content.

The glaring exceptions to the above are the crossovers with Square Enix IPs, but those collaborations last for like 5 years and even after that you get to keep the units, equipment, and you can still explore the locations unlocked during that time.

The story goes insane. It's a given considering it's a game that has time-travel as its primary premise, but its writing - ESPECIALLY with newer content - is top-notch. I can't promise that you can avoid cheesy moments or even problematic ones, but since you're free to experience this game at your own pace you could just avoid those events with a little bit of maneuvering.

It's completely possible to clear most of the content with F2P units. As I'm typing this out, there are 42 free units available to you, and most of them are cracked - especially ones you get from collaborations. The most recent units under this category are all from Octopath Traveler too so if you're into that? You're good to go.

CONS:

The greatest pity system that this game can offer you is that for every 10-pull, the 10th unit that you receive is guaranteed to be 4* and above. That's pretty much it. When people say that they play this game for the story, this is one of the reasons why - Another Eden's gacha system is crude in comparison to something like say - Mihoyoverse games.

So, one of the greatest downsides of everything being permanent is that the file size for this game is FUCKING huge. Like… I think the last I checked, my Steam file reached 9 GB with the latest update. IF you're willing to sacrifice that much space in order to experience the game then be my guest.

The story is great, but it can get convoluted at times, because this is a game about time-travel. (Looking at you Main Story Part 2: Conclusion and Future Mythos)

The powercreep in this game is kind of cracked. The game usually finds this ways to circumvent this by updating their older units so that they can stay on par with newer ones, but even with that the new Stellar Awakening System kind of makes things complicated. I still stand by my assertion that you don't have to rush anything in this game, and you don't even NEED Stellar Awakening to clear the available content, so make your choices accordingly.

There's a lot more I can say about the game but, if you're feeling up to it? Give it a spin and see how it plays for yourself! Look up guides and feel free to ask around if you need help with anything! To me, it's a good game with a lot of heart behind its story and characters - and I hope people talk about it more!

[yuucandoit]

Uhhhh I don't know how to go about doing this but

This is a side blog for my OC / Yuu for the gacha game Twisted Wonderland

I cannot draw, so he comes to me in various picrews... but it's fine. Maybe someday I will attempt it and he will inspire me to hone my barely there skills into something usable.

Credit to 柊山羊 https://picrew.me/en/search/creator?crid=307892 for the one used here

Here he is. He is 16, bisexual, trans, and in desperate need of peaceful/refreshing rest. His hobbies include exploring the mountains (with a friend when applicable), cooking, getting into fights, running (before the nightmares started) ignoring the visions telling him to seek out his stronger classmates and lead them to Overblot, and speedrunning his journey to the grave with the various potion mixes meant to keep him awake so he can avoid the repercussion night terrors of ignoring those visions.

His best class is Potions so no death fortunately

He is psychic, though otherwise magicless, an amnesiac, and his best friends and most frequent form of company comes from ghosts - his closest is a ghost girl from Haunted Mansion (not Eliza, though she is around at some point). He started up his own HM themed restaurant space in Ramshackle to spite/fight against Azul after the contracts issue and and he's navigating polyamorous divorce/reconciliation arcs with Riddle and Jade (who should eventually...somebday. be metamours. But rn the girls are fighting so it's just an incomplete triangle) and shared custody of Deuce and Ace (who he poached instead of having the enlightening talk with Che'nya, and Riddle was not happy about and was the root of their whole issue bc Yuu was ready to let it drop).

Originally I was planning to have him interested in Rook or Che'nya, but upon starting an outline for the story I want to write once I have more time/considering scenario outline, it became more apparent Riddle was also going to be involved in some way or another because they have similarities with family issues and other comparable points.

So initially I thought maybe there would be some tense, but ultimately unromantic bickering and I'd figure out how to deal with Rook. Then he started filing mental divorce papers after Jade assisted Azul in trying to steal Ramshackle (so rip Rook. Perhaps the next Yuu.) It all depends on how / who he's vibing with...or trying to melt with his brain, as the case may be, when I get to the scenes in either brainstorming or writing. Considered Idia as they have points in common, but there are some dynamic issues there even without deciding how to depict 1st year/3rd year complexities I would have run across with the original plan. So he is off the table

He's maybe 70% the equivalence of monster energy drinks, 11% sleep deprived delirium, and 16% "i can do that too bitch you're not special" The rest is not expected to be collected

I've been rolling him through a pasta maker

[mymarifae]

sorry about that :((((

https://www.tumblr.com/shiftythrifting/759635562114236416/big-metal-kiwi-though-i-think-still-smaller-than?source=share

here's a picture of a kiwi i found! also, could you give me a pitch for honkai star rail :0?

ohhh what an excellent fellow... i wish he could be in my house. weighing down my papers and such things

when you say Pitch do you mean like, a recommendation of sorts? okay!!!! so first off it's a gacha game, so it's bad-

😭 GDSJBHNKJFBNKF umm for all my criticisms of the game (which i'd be happy to go into another time, but not now, not while i'm still veryvery very very sad) i just find it... compelling! there are always moments in every update where i'm like "ok so i wouldn't have done it that way" but the overall direction and execution of the story is. it's just fun idk!!!! the penacony arc lost a bit of its momentum towards the end but i genuinely think that portion of the game especially was really well put together and it makes for a fun video game experience. even if you don't end up connecting with the story and characters as strongly as I did, the art, music, environments, boss fights, tension points, etc etc etc add up to a pretty good time. penacony's the shining star so far, but i think this sentiment applies to most parts of the game 🤔 most......

characters though!!!! that's the other thing that really got me stuck in the hsr hole. lots and lots of lovely characters. many of their designs may kill me, but i am soooooo drawn to the personalities and archetypes and development arcs and their interactions with each other and their world and THEMSELVES and and and and and . ough i love Character..

also, the game has a lot of surprisingly insightful commentary and philosophies interwoven in its narrative? not to mention penacony again but actually yes to mention penacony again because this game is still a baby game and we only have so many arcs to talk about and it's the best one thus far , PENACONY had a lot to say. especially about society/capitalism and the significance/INsignificance of life (especially when you consider the inevitability of death). very thoughtful, i found. many pieces of the story made me put everything down and just Think for a while. i always like when stories make me do that :)

ummm one last thing! gameplay. personally i adore the gameplay asdgkjngndjb i live for this kind of turn-based combat where you can think your way through it. sure there's the "meta" that's "better" and "easier" but you can very much just ignore it and develop your own understanding of each character's combat style and do whatever you want. <3 also like. all my character design gripes aside, the animations are a ton of fun imo... so even if the combat can get repetitive at times it's like "look at my guys go :)"

and there's a lot of maps and a lot of space to run around in, but exploration is kind of limited due to the fact that you cannot jump or climb in this game. they make up for this by hiding all sorts of easter eggs and random hidden side quests (?) everywhere and also the game design is just very pretty so i still have a lot of fun just Looking, but if you're expecting something more like genshin you're. not getting that 👍🏾

in conclusion it's not good except for when it decides to be the best thing ever and i'm having the time of my life and now i've gone and gotten myself extremely attached to 60% of the cast so even if i wasn't having the time of my life i'd be stuck here anyway

[totally-original-artist]

Let’s say, hypothetically, one were to get into a game known as Honkai Star Rail. They were intrigued due to a friend obsessing over it all over their feed. What would this hypothetical person be getting themself into if they decided to download this game? Just curious… no other reason 👀

Again, completely hypothetical of course

What a great hypothetical question my friend heuehu. Allow me to hypothetically answer you ✨

HSR is a very friendly to casual players, you can definitely clear everything (except end game stuff) even if you don’t pull a single character! I’m not a huge fan of turn based games since I love dodging but this one’s pretty fun! The animations are also really pretty so that’s a bonus. (Think TWST but with 3D models)

Unlike the TWST gacha tho it’s a lot more forgiving. 90 pity max for a 5* with a 50/50 chance it’s not the limited. But unlike TWST, if your last 5* was not the limited rate up, the next is guaranteed to be.

It’s also single player so no you don’t have to mald over pvp. Building characters perfectly isn’t necessary to clear normal content (staring at all my mid builds…)! Also if you do get stuck, you can borrow a strong character from your friend and they get some money in return! ( i think TWST has a feature like that too, I think?)

If you do (hypothetically speaking) start the game now there’d be a LOT of content (story, exploration) so just take it slow! Enjoy the ride! Look at the scenery! Take pictures!!

Also the voice acting is awesome tbh (and everyone has a sad back story so prepare to cry)

Also ALSO Boothill (space cowboy) just released so if you (hypothetically) join now you could (hypothetically) get him. He got that shark teeth like Idia if that would change your mind 👀

[msviolacea]

why you should play honkai: star rail in 2024

Question and answer style, because it's what I like to do. It's long, y'all, and probably doesn't cover everything, but I've been typing and adding for like three hours so I'm yeeting it into the Tumblrverse now.

What is Honkai: Star Rail?

Honkai: Star Rail (from here either Star Rail or HSR) is an anime-style space fantasy RPG with turn-based combat and gacha mechanics for obtaining characters. It is the most recent (full) release from Hoyoverse (formerly Mihoyo), a Chinese video game company who is also responsible for Genshin Impact, Honkai Impact 3rd, and Tears of Themis, as well as a bunch of older games.

What platforms can I play it on?

PC and mobile are free, PS5 costs $10 to download for what I assume are Sony reasons. I most enjoy it on PC or PS5, but the mobile version is very easy to run, and a good choice for using up your daily stamina and doing the character leveling grind in a casual way.

What's the story about?

A character (known to most in-game as the Trailblazer, see both gendered versions below) wakes up on a space station with no memories and a mysterious destructive energy contained inside of them. They are taken in by a group of interstellar travelers known as the Nameless, who travel the universe in a space ship shaped like a giant old-school train, and visit various civilizations to observe, help, and learn about the strange energy trapped inside of them.

More below, including information about the gameplay, characters, and the important caveat about why particular people may not want to play the game.

What's the gameplay like?

The combat is turn-based, using a four-character party. The game gives you a good number of characters for free just by playing the game, which is more than good to get you through the story elements of the game. There is exploration as well, though it is instanced and far more limited than you might be used to if you play Hoyo's 2 ton gorilla, Genshin Impact. I personally like that it's more limited, though - I've gotten really overwhelmed by Genshin lately, and I like that HSR lets me finish things without feeling like I'll never be done.

(An in-game screenshot showing you what the gameplay looks like, visually.)

How's the writing?

Snappy and modern - a good combination of sincere and humorous, with a lot of pop culture and meme references all over the place. The English localization is top notch, in my opinion, but it's obviously written in Chinese, and you can choose to play in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean as well.

What about voice acting?

The main story is fully voice acted, by some top-notch talent overall. There's a good bit of crossover between Genshin and HSR casts, for what are probably obvious reasons. The side quests are mostly text only, with a few exceptions.

The Trailblazer - your player character - is also voiced to a smaller extent. The dialogue you choose during quests isn't voiced, but you'll hear your character say some random things while you run around and explore.

What kinds of storylines are there thus far?

There are ... three and a half? areas so far in the game. If it follows Genshin's formula, they'll add another new world/area annually.

Herta Space Station - the tutorial area, mostly, but there's also some ongoing story there about scientists of dubious ethics. It's also the area we go back to when they want to make a point about the larger universe, usually.

Belobog/Jarilo VI - Space Siberia. A planet that was previously cut off from the galaxy 600 years ago, covered in ice and snow due to ... science magic plot bullshit. Steampunky in technology, Russian in a lot of naming conventions, stories that revolve around people learning how to live together and rebuild their society.

The Xianzhou Luofu - Space China. One of several world-ships of the Xianzhou, who lost their original home planet to ... lore bullshit, it's complicated. Very technologically advanced, home to a race of humans that have been cursed with immortality, along with a race of fox people and a race of dragon-people. Stories revolve around the ethics of immortality, overpopulation, and the consequences of war.

Penacony - Space ... Disney World? IDK, it's very weird so far. Centuries ago, it was a corporate prison world, but has since been taken over by a religious organization and turned into the most exclusive resort in the universe. But the resort part is entirely contained in dreams. So it's less of a planet and more of a hotel where you lay in dream water and experience a theme park in your mind. Story themes are still developing, but they're real fucked up, y'all.

So what is the Hoyoverse anyway, other than the company?

Hoyo is very clear that all their games take place in the same multiverse. There are characters who appear in nearly every game they make, in different forms, sometimes with the same names, sometimes with different names. (See: Raiden Mei and Raiden Ei from HI3 and Genshin respectively, or Bronya Zaichek and Bronya Rand from HI3 and HSR.) Knowing about the other games may give you some interesting character things to chew on, but have no doubt - you do not need to play any of the other games in order to enjoy one particular one.

HSR is uniquely tied to Honkai Impact 3rd by virtue of the fact that at least one character is the actual exact same person in both games. (There will probably be at least two later, but ... don't mind that right now. Unless you want to go down the HI3 YouTube lore rabbit hole like I have. In which case hit me up.) Welt Yang, the Astral Express's Team Dad, crossed universes after getting his start in HI3. His past is SUPER interesting, but again, not necessary for your HSR enjoyment. For my folks with more Western fandom backgrounds, think of him this way - what if, instead of the bullshit at the end of Endgame, Steve Rogers realized there was another version of [insert your favorite character Steve loves here, romantic or platonic, I'm not getting involved in that drama here] that he could help, and he found a way to jump universes to do so. That's Welt's vibe, more or less. He's amazing. I love him.

Anyway. There's a lot to the Hoyo multiverse, a lot of philosophical stuff that revolves around order and chaos and how the universe balances it, mixed with some Mass Effect Reaper-style bullshit, but if it ever becomes relevant in HSR, be sure they'll explain everything we need in full. The story of HSR stands on its own.

... but if the idea of multiple versions of the same person and different universes gives you a headache, well, this is your warning, I guess?

(Welt's splash art has a lot of HI3 references, which are partly what made me go down the lore rabbit hole, but mostly I wanted a picture of him because he's hot. You're welcome.)

What other fannish-type media would you compare it to?

There are a couple of easy ones. Genshin Impact fans will find things very familiar here, for a wide variety of reasons - more on the larger Hoyoverse below. For those with more western media experience, it's got the swashbuckling adventure of Star Wars combined with Star Trek's "explore strange new worlds" ethos. I'm sure there are a bunch of animes and Chinese/Japanese video games it can be compared to, but I haven't been in that audience particularly, so I can't name any for you myself. I can say that some of it tickles the same parts of my brain as FFXIV - they're VERY DIFFERENT games, don't get me wrong, but there's a similar tone in the "wink wink" punny pop culture English localization sometimes that makes me happy.

Okay, you know everyone here is from fandom, right? You know what we really want to know.

This question is inspired by my nostalgia for the old crack_van community on LJ - I miss the "here's a brief overview of the actual canon and here's what you can find in terms of pairings/fic/etc" format. So, if you want to know if it's worth it to get into this game for fandom reasons, here's a bit of what you can expect.

Popular pairings, according to AO3, and a brief description:

The juggernaut, if the fandom has one: Blade/Dan Heng, which has multiple permutations due to immortality and rebirth and such. This one's for you if you like a lovers-to-enemies vibe, or like creating happy endings where there are none and never will be in canon. Two very attractive men who were once lovers (pretty much canonically, as much as a mainstream Chinese video game will probably get, thanks to some word choices made in the in-game descriptions), made a huge society-shaking Very Big Mistake, and ended up each paying the price in different ways. Several hundred years later, one is regrettably immortal and certifiably insane about it, one has been reborn into a mostly different person and wants nothing to do with his past self, and they just keep running into each other on what seems to be a fated collision course.

(Dan Heng and Blade fighting, as they do. A lot.)

An alternative to above: If you like the immortal attractive dudes vibe but aren't as much into the forever enemies vibe, there's a good amount of fic pairing both of them with Jing Yuan, who is a former friend who got left cleaning up their mess after their Very Big Mistake and now has been the leader of their society for hundreds of years and both misses them a lot and also does NOT want to deal with their mess again. But he'll happily manipulate them into coming home when he needs them.

Oh look, we have women too! And people pair them! Seriously, there are two different f/f ships in the top 10 on AO3, which is refreshing! One is Bronya and Seele, who are the wholesome choice, the sweet stoic leader of her people and the blunt fighter who loves her. The first full story arc of the game is really their story, and it's a lovely less fraught enemies-to-lovers vibe.

If you want your yuri a bit more toxic, or at least less wholesome and not at all canonical, perhaps Himeko and Kafka will be your thing? Himeko is the elegant engineer/navigator for the Astral Express, your Trailblazer's team mom, smart and classy and a gorgeous redhead, what's not to love? Meanwhile Kafka is the sociopathic leader of the Stellaron Hunters, a group of dubious morality who exist to manipulate things in order to bring about a supposedly pre-written future. They only have like one scene where they actually talk to each other, but hey, that's more than enough, right?

(Kafka and Himeko, in their one scene together. Fandom has worked with far less.)

The ridiculous boys: Gepard/Sampo is still going strong, bless. If you don't want any of the drama of the boys mentioned above, just some attractive dudes doing ridiculous things, or if you like "cop and criminal" type pairings, here are your guys. Gepard is the leader of the local guard, Sampo is an underground criminal with his fingers in almost every pie. Cue shenanigans. Sampo is also a member of a very mysterious organization of galactic tricksters and clearly has larger lore relevance somewhere, but hey, you don't have to deal with any of that. Just let him and Gepard do their Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd thing and all is good.

(The stuffy military dude and the Loki-ass motherfucker. What could go wrong?)

OCs are always love: There's always plenty of Trailblazer fic out there. Male Trailblazer (Caelus)/Dan Heng seems to be the most popular, but you can find Caelus or Stelle paired with pretty much anyone out there.

There's also PLENTY of characters and pairings that are under-utilized, and deserve an influx of new energy. As usual, of course.

So, you said there's a reason I shouldn't play it?

Yeah. As mentioned before, it is a gacha game. It's a very forgiving gacha game, to be sure, and it's entirely possible to play as a free-to-play player, you do not have to spend a single cent on this game. However, gacha games are inherently problematic in many ways. So my caveat is this - if you have financial impulse control problems, gambling issues, or really sharp FOMO problems, I don't recommend you getting started playing this game. If you're good at being financially disciplined and not spending outside your entertainment budget, whatever that may be, you'll be fine. But if you have any doubts, then I suggest looking up someone on YouTube and watching a Let's Play instead.

Anyway. If anyone wants to add to this post, reasons why you love the game, fannish recs, whatever, go for it! I miss crack_van, y'all, and want it back on Tumblr terms. Maybe I can wish it into existence starting with this post. We will see.