I am making this review after finishing the first world (not the space station). Initially I was going to write this after finishing the second world but an issue happened that made me want to write a review now. I will also compare it to genshin a bit as some of my criticisms of genshin are actually made better in this game.
First, I want to start off with what this game excels at. The presentation is simply fantastic. From the moment you are at the title screen, it's very clear the devs were very passionate about this project. Everything is oozing with personality and soul. The environments, despite being small and somewhat linear, are clearly distinct and unique from each other in ways that aren't arbitrary. In ways that make sense.
The music is actually not generic chinese orchestra for once. A thing I hated about the music in genshin is that it felt so generic and soulless. There wasn't that much variance between regions. It wasn't until sumeru when genshin devs decided to try new things. Meanwhile, in hsr, not only are the exploration pieces distinct from each other, they are also extremely memorable and good to listen too. Combat music I'm a bit iffy on. Some of em are kinda catchy, but others become repetitive real easily.
There is also a lot of content for this game given the fact it's just starting out. There are plenty of sidequests, daily goals to meet (other than a battle pass and level up rewards), as well as a rogue-like section that refreshes rewards daily. Plenty of stuff to do!
Character design is also a massive improvement from genshin. A big issue I had in the design philosophy for genshin's characters is that, for the most part, the designers only cared about making them hot. While that's all that's needed for the simple minds of gacha addicts and annyoing weebs, a lot of the designs, especially early on, lacked general purpose and meaning, making it feel empty. Hsr, on the other hand, the designs make sense and have purpose. While the design philosophy of "make them hot" is still there, it is kept in check so as to not needlessly add or remove aspects of a character. It's also really refreshing to see a character's color palette not be immediately tied the element they use, which also allows for more freedom in designing a character. Even the npcs end up looking more unique and distinct from one another than in genshin, although the old balding men npcs look ugly as hell.
Character writing is probably the biggest improvement I've seen in this game. Up until sumeru, most genshin character's personalities were extremely flat. Most everyone has a small tiny variant of the bland nice person personality. Any nuances a character had, if at all, were NOT shown in the character's interactions with the mc and the world. If there was a nuance shown, there was a 50% chance it was done horribly (the most prime examples being xiao and ayaka). Meanwhile, from the first moment you can start the game you can tell every character is different. Every character has their own unique personality and unique way of viewing and interacting the world. It is especially fulfilling how well these personalities blend together with the writing and interactions. Even the different npcs in the different sidequests are unique and almost feel like an entirely different character.
The writing itself in regards to the plot is pretty decent. It's interesting to an extent and leaves enough mysteries to make one engaged and want to move forward, though some of this stuff isn't exactly treading new grounds. The writing lowkey shines more in sidequests as you get to experience now how the people in these different environments act and react. No sidequest feels recycled or repurposed. Currently, though, there is one gripe with the story I have. I'm not gonna spoil plot points or names, but I need to explain the bullshit that made me want to write this review.
In the first world, there is a character who's entire arc and journey is about searching for truth and confronting a hurtful reality. However, at the their arc, they decide to tell a bold face lie for the sake of safety. First off, this type of trope is fucking stupid. I've seen it so much in media and it makes no sense. Let's just ignore the fact that the idea that some lies are necessary is a stupid and objectively wrong message to begin with. If you wanted to portray that message, then why, for 95% of the story, would you portray discovering and relaying the whole truth as a good thing? It just doesn't make sense and makes the character development useless. At least, based on how this game seems to be formatted, we won't have to think about the situation of the first world in a long while.
At this point you might be thinking how this game has 3 stars if I have only said one mildly bad thing about it? It is because, the one aspect of this game I do not like, is the aspect that is at least 50% of the game's focus: the combat.
This game is a turn-based rpg that is inspired by Persona 5 (the devs said it themselves). That by itself is a red flag. This game's combat is the most disappointing, boring, bland bullshit I have ever experienced in a turn-based rpg.
First off, the bosses and stronger enemies just suck. Genuinely. The weaker enemies do suck as well, but they are weaker enemies and mostly meant to be fodder. There is no excuse for stronger enemies and bosses. They is no unique difficulty that comes with them at all. There is no unique strategy one needs to go by or unique danger or threat the enemy/boss possesses, despite the fact there are numerous different enemies and bosses. Fighting any of them is just a long as fuck slap-fight until the boss pulls out some unexpected bs because it is at 1% health and the game realized it was too easy. Except, instead of making the difficulty actually interesting, it just destroys your entire team with either an attack that the enemy has not done at all, or the same attack except for some reason it does more damage. Even the final boss fight in the first world, despite being spectacular in presentation and plot progression, was no better than the fights before.
Second off, buffs and debuffs in this game genuinely do not matter. It is a somewhat common thing to have buffs and debuffs not make that much of a difference in turn-based rpgs, but what makes it ridiculous here is that the mechanics are designed to make you think they matter. Every character has a different Element and a different Path. A Path is basically a label that details what the character specializes in. For example, those in the Hunt Path are specifically made to dish out damage at single target enemies. Meanwhile, someone in the Nihility specializes in debuffing the enemy. Based on this you'd think that there would be a greater emphasis on the usage of buff and debuffs than in other games (especially since this game is inspired by Persona 5, a game that comes from a series that is renowned for how important buffs and debuffs are made to be). Yet there isn't. All you ever need are 3 good dps characters and one healer. I have been using that format ever since I got a healer and it has genuinely been a cakewalk. I haven't had trouble with any fight whatsoever except one, although that one was challenging become of specific mechanic issue that was easily resolved after my 2nd attempt.
Third off, and my biggest gripe with this game, and the one that supposedly is what hoyoverse is utilizing to make this game distinct from other rpgs: Toughness. Toughness is a 2nd bar above the health bar that every enemy has. The only way to deplete this bar is to hit the enemy with one of its weak elements. The goal is to get it low enough to to trigger a Weakness Break and reap the rewards. What are the rewards? According to the wiki, the rewards are Break DMG, Dot (damage over time), and a additional debuff based on the element. According to how the game actually functions, none of these matter at all.
The Break DMG is negligible at best and a waste of time at worst. There is little gap between Break DMG from an attack and the default damage of the same attack. DoT only has uses in killing an enemy when it's their turn and they're on a sliver of health... or giving them a sliver a health instead of just killing them. Simply make your character and their attacks stronger. The additional debuffs also do not make any significant difference except for the three in the game that can delay the action of the enemy. For everything else, it doesn't matter. Not only because there are barely any useful rewards to reap, but also because an enemy recovering from break is a free fucking turn. Most of the time, you either one shot the enemy, or you're actually struggling to lower the enemy's hp and toughness bar because they have such a massive pull of health. By the time you finally put in the weakness break, it'll be the enemy's turn in which they immediately fully recover and continue on with doing their bullshit attack. Apparently, the weakness break itself does delay an action, yet I have barely seen this happen at all. At most, it moves it's turn down one and puts you back in the cycle, that its why only imaginary, quantum and ice matter. What weakness break should be doing instead, to make gameplay actually fucking engaging and not a sleepfest, is have the enemy take more damage from character while in the state and have them waste a turn recovering from break. You know what is the most fucked up part? Freeze, which is the debuff effect of ice, actually fucking does one of those things. The enemy actually wastes a turn being unfrozen. Great fucking design. Fucking stupid, to lock that shit behind one element of all things.
This is a game that is good on all fronts except the one thing they are focusing the most attention on. So while 50% of the time you are experiencing soul, the other 50% you are experience dogshit boring ass gameplay design.
First, I want to start off with what this game excels at. The presentation is simply fantastic. From the moment you are at the title screen, it's very clear the devs were very passionate about this project. Everything is oozing with personality and soul. The environments, despite being small and somewhat linear, are clearly distinct and unique from each other in ways that aren't arbitrary. In ways that make sense.
The music is actually not generic chinese orchestra for once. A thing I hated about the music in genshin is that it felt so generic and soulless. There wasn't that much variance between regions. It wasn't until sumeru when genshin devs decided to try new things. Meanwhile, in hsr, not only are the exploration pieces distinct from each other, they are also extremely memorable and good to listen too. Combat music I'm a bit iffy on. Some of em are kinda catchy, but others become repetitive real easily.
There is also a lot of content for this game given the fact it's just starting out. There are plenty of sidequests, daily goals to meet (other than a battle pass and level up rewards), as well as a rogue-like section that refreshes rewards daily. Plenty of stuff to do!
Character design is also a massive improvement from genshin. A big issue I had in the design philosophy for genshin's characters is that, for the most part, the designers only cared about making them hot. While that's all that's needed for the simple minds of gacha addicts and annyoing weebs, a lot of the designs, especially early on, lacked general purpose and meaning, making it feel empty. Hsr, on the other hand, the designs make sense and have purpose. While the design philosophy of "make them hot" is still there, it is kept in check so as to not needlessly add or remove aspects of a character. It's also really refreshing to see a character's color palette not be immediately tied the element they use, which also allows for more freedom in designing a character. Even the npcs end up looking more unique and distinct from one another than in genshin, although the old balding men npcs look ugly as hell.
Character writing is probably the biggest improvement I've seen in this game. Up until sumeru, most genshin character's personalities were extremely flat. Most everyone has a small tiny variant of the bland nice person personality. Any nuances a character had, if at all, were NOT shown in the character's interactions with the mc and the world. If there was a nuance shown, there was a 50% chance it was done horribly (the most prime examples being xiao and ayaka). Meanwhile, from the first moment you can start the game you can tell every character is different. Every character has their own unique personality and unique way of viewing and interacting the world. It is especially fulfilling how well these personalities blend together with the writing and interactions. Even the different npcs in the different sidequests are unique and almost feel like an entirely different character.
The writing itself in regards to the plot is pretty decent. It's interesting to an extent and leaves enough mysteries to make one engaged and want to move forward, though some of this stuff isn't exactly treading new grounds. The writing lowkey shines more in sidequests as you get to experience now how the people in these different environments act and react. No sidequest feels recycled or repurposed. Currently, though, there is one gripe with the story I have. I'm not gonna spoil plot points or names, but I need to explain the bullshit that made me want to write this review.
In the first world, there is a character who's entire arc and journey is about searching for truth and confronting a hurtful reality. However, at the their arc, they decide to tell a bold face lie for the sake of safety. First off, this type of trope is fucking stupid. I've seen it so much in media and it makes no sense. Let's just ignore the fact that the idea that some lies are necessary is a stupid and objectively wrong message to begin with. If you wanted to portray that message, then why, for 95% of the story, would you portray discovering and relaying the whole truth as a good thing? It just doesn't make sense and makes the character development useless. At least, based on how this game seems to be formatted, we won't have to think about the situation of the first world in a long while.
At this point you might be thinking how this game has 3 stars if I have only said one mildly bad thing about it? It is because, the one aspect of this game I do not like, is the aspect that is at least 50% of the game's focus: the combat.
This game is a turn-based rpg that is inspired by Persona 5 (the devs said it themselves). That by itself is a red flag. This game's combat is the most disappointing, boring, bland bullshit I have ever experienced in a turn-based rpg.
First off, the bosses and stronger enemies just suck. Genuinely. The weaker enemies do suck as well, but they are weaker enemies and mostly meant to be fodder. There is no excuse for stronger enemies and bosses. They is no unique difficulty that comes with them at all. There is no unique strategy one needs to go by or unique danger or threat the enemy/boss possesses, despite the fact there are numerous different enemies and bosses. Fighting any of them is just a long as fuck slap-fight until the boss pulls out some unexpected bs because it is at 1% health and the game realized it was too easy. Except, instead of making the difficulty actually interesting, it just destroys your entire team with either an attack that the enemy has not done at all, or the same attack except for some reason it does more damage. Even the final boss fight in the first world, despite being spectacular in presentation and plot progression, was no better than the fights before.
Second off, buffs and debuffs in this game genuinely do not matter. It is a somewhat common thing to have buffs and debuffs not make that much of a difference in turn-based rpgs, but what makes it ridiculous here is that the mechanics are designed to make you think they matter. Every character has a different Element and a different Path. A Path is basically a label that details what the character specializes in. For example, those in the Hunt Path are specifically made to dish out damage at single target enemies. Meanwhile, someone in the Nihility specializes in debuffing the enemy. Based on this you'd think that there would be a greater emphasis on the usage of buff and debuffs than in other games (especially since this game is inspired by Persona 5, a game that comes from a series that is renowned for how important buffs and debuffs are made to be). Yet there isn't. All you ever need are 3 good dps characters and one healer. I have been using that format ever since I got a healer and it has genuinely been a cakewalk. I haven't had trouble with any fight whatsoever except one, although that one was challenging become of specific mechanic issue that was easily resolved after my 2nd attempt.
Third off, and my biggest gripe with this game, and the one that supposedly is what hoyoverse is utilizing to make this game distinct from other rpgs: Toughness. Toughness is a 2nd bar above the health bar that every enemy has. The only way to deplete this bar is to hit the enemy with one of its weak elements. The goal is to get it low enough to to trigger a Weakness Break and reap the rewards. What are the rewards? According to the wiki, the rewards are Break DMG, Dot (damage over time), and a additional debuff based on the element. According to how the game actually functions, none of these matter at all.
The Break DMG is negligible at best and a waste of time at worst. There is little gap between Break DMG from an attack and the default damage of the same attack. DoT only has uses in killing an enemy when it's their turn and they're on a sliver of health... or giving them a sliver a health instead of just killing them. Simply make your character and their attacks stronger. The additional debuffs also do not make any significant difference except for the three in the game that can delay the action of the enemy. For everything else, it doesn't matter. Not only because there are barely any useful rewards to reap, but also because an enemy recovering from break is a free fucking turn. Most of the time, you either one shot the enemy, or you're actually struggling to lower the enemy's hp and toughness bar because they have such a massive pull of health. By the time you finally put in the weakness break, it'll be the enemy's turn in which they immediately fully recover and continue on with doing their bullshit attack. Apparently, the weakness break itself does delay an action, yet I have barely seen this happen at all. At most, it moves it's turn down one and puts you back in the cycle, that its why only imaginary, quantum and ice matter. What weakness break should be doing instead, to make gameplay actually fucking engaging and not a sleepfest, is have the enemy take more damage from character while in the state and have them waste a turn recovering from break. You know what is the most fucked up part? Freeze, which is the debuff effect of ice, actually fucking does one of those things. The enemy actually wastes a turn being unfrozen. Great fucking design. Fucking stupid, to lock that shit behind one element of all things.
This is a game that is good on all fronts except the one thing they are focusing the most attention on. So while 50% of the time you are experiencing soul, the other 50% you are experience dogshit boring ass gameplay design.
AleF2050
1 year ago