Honkai Star Rails Story Sucks; Here's Why

Just Some Useful Information to take with you as you move forward

Please Keep In Mind that these are All My Own Personal Opinions- not objective views and I understand that many Many May Disagree, and if you do then that’s fine.

Honkai: Star Rail is a role-playing gacha video game developed by miHoYo, published by miHoYo in China and by its subsidiary HoYoverse worldwide. It was released on April 26, 2023, for Windows and mobile devices; ports for PlayStation 4 and 5 are planned

#honkaistarrail #hoyoverse #Honkai

[itsaUSBline]

I do think a lot of the characters are a bit underdeveloped, but I do find the overarching story, and especially the lore about the universe and setting itself to be really fascinating and evocative. All of the database entries about various factions and political entities, and about the Aeons are really great. The very concept of the Aeons I find to be really incredibly cool. So for me it's kind of the world itself and the overarching story about Akivili and the Stellarons that I'm interested in more than the specifics of each character. Though yeah, it would be nice if there were more depth to some of them.

Also, I really like Topaz. I find the IPC pretty intriguing in concept, given how they were formed and their connection to Qlipoth.

[orange]

Tbh i just started BA after my desicion to not skip quests and i liked the story so much. When i did huohuo event i didnt skip it and it was proabably 7-8 out of 10, so i start wondering if i didnt skip hsr quests it wouldve been better, but for genshin i dont really agree because there were so many boring ahh quests, while also having some decent or really good quests, but those mainly were nahida's archon quest, and furina's act 5. So my general rating would be:

BA:10/10
HSR:7.5/10
GENSHIN:6/10
(note that i rated BA so high because i never skipped a dialouge in the main story, while i skipped many in hsr and ganshin)

[Erkis]

You really haven't thought about what things are meant to be. Let's take a look at huohuo, she was scared all the time and still is but we saw her grow during the event like a lot so she's not as scared anymore and she's not blaming tail for all of her problems. It was a very nice development we saw and it was really wholesome. The fact that you missed it shows me that you didn't pay attention to that character and perhaps others as well.

[HadesYT]

let's see:
1. BA has a good story - really? didn't you say that you didn't play it \ didn't played the newest stories? Wasn't your focus on the character stories of characters you like?
2. less involvement, so more focus on story - ehm, ok, I don't understand at all. HSR is at least a little bit difficult than Genshin, and in GI, the gameplay in a story quest is exceptionally low, so HSR is more *action packed* than GI.
3. cinematic scenes - they have no lasting impact, because the characters are underdeveloped, if I understand this point correctly. Writing a script beforehand can sometimes help. You jump around way too much. How about using one example more in-depth instead of juimping between so many different points. Why not do the exact opposite of you think and collect all information about a character you like (SW for example) and then present your case - this character is empty. I guess you think you did exactly that, but as you can see later on, I don't think this at all.
3.1 you list some characters. And then you jump. That's it. They are devalued? What does it mean?
3.2 you never end the point about the cinematic scenes. Music is important, but what is this about characters? You don"'t have enough emotional connection at that point?
3.3 your point about the Topaz plotline is not understandable again, but I try my best: We circled back, we were showed what happend to that planet, how characters are living there, how much work Bronya has. What exactly is the critic here? It was a great thing to see that old planets aren't forgotten.

4. Oh no, Guinaifen has character development, but is not on the banner. This is no negative point at all.

5. Kafka, SW und Blade partly - They don't have development, because there are these unknown entities, we will learn more about them later on. This is so much better written than in GI for example. You introduce some not definetily good or evil characters, give them some motivations (Kafka <> Elio connection) and then you can jump back into their story later. This helps to give the player a lasting connection between the different story lines. In GI, you don"t have this. It's an arc, and after that the traveller goes to the next area without having some real overarching plot. the Whole sibling storyline isn't used for this and Dainsleif is way to rare for this.

6. You seem not to know what the difference between a personality, a character trait and background is. Character trait is *gamer*, personality is lazy and characterization is stoic. And maybe you will have an assocization to each of these words, since these words are connected to different characters. Silver Wolf's background and so her motivation is still a mystery, with some little hints here and there. So her personality is obviously strongly connected to her objectives and since her objectives are not known yet, her personality has some holes.
However, as you mentioned, we saw her already several times. We know that SW has an high opinion of herself and her skills, she loves to play with others, she wants to stand in the spotlight, for her, many things in life are more game than for others and so her character has personality, we only don't know much.
Same with QQ - we don"t interact with her as friends, but as acquaintances. We learn surface information, but these can already help to construct an understanding of this character. She is not an Archon with a whole story in 5 parts, she is a low level worker, who is lazy and has completely different objectives in life than SW or FX. These are personalities with a few character traits.

And it makes sense that we don't know these characters so much - we are a nameless travelling the universe, meeting different people and interact with them as much as needed. We developed friendships to different characters like Bronya or Seele. Both characters with a backstory we learned, different personalities and objectives. These are well developed characters, since we know them longer and have a deeper connection.

During the *war* on the chinese planet, we didn't have the time to befriend all these characters. We helped finding a solution and that was all. Now, with 1.5. we had the time to get a better understanding, first with Guinaifen and HouHou, later on, I expect, we get a deeper look in some other characters. Willl have some no personality whatsoever? Obviously, but that is something happening with every story ever. For a gacha, it sometimes a problem, since we should pull for characters, but personally I pull for whoever I like, not who will maybe get more characterization.

8. next character: Gepard. Saying you don't know anything about Gepard means, you can't read. Serval is speaking quite much about her brother, how he could be a problem in the whole plot we had with her. This implies so much characterization. What is important to him? Work? Family? Not concluding the answer from the quest is weak. The same with Serval, we learned quite a bunch about her. Lynx ok, she wasn't there too much, but she got a character story. oh wait...

9. You doon't count character stories. How unfair. I know that you explicitely mentioned the character stories in BA, you argued that these are the most important things besides the group stories (?), but not counting them here? They are part of the game.

10. The story is rushed for some characters, yes. I always argue that time is as essential as story itself. A good story, pressed into 5 minute of text can be so much worse than the same story in 30 minutes. Pacing is important, giving the reader, viewer or player the time to accept story development.

11. You said * these are and could be great characters*, so are these great characters or not. You didn't even mention one great character.

12. SW is the worst example, look above. Are you only butthurt because you want more story for SW?

13. The game is not really old, we have some time, do you think? Comparing this to Raiden is (as above mentioned) unfair, since she as an Archon has her own arc.

14. the main characters (March, Dan Heng, MC) have real personalities, they can interact with the other characters on a personal level. This has so much worth to it. These three with Welt and Himeko are the real main characters, they are the important ones. Honestly, I like it more when my gacha doesn't try to sell me the newest character and do what it has to do. Give me some characters to relate to.

15. Characterization can happen through interaction. E.g. the mails we get every day are also helpful in creating a personal relationship with the characters. You can learn how stupid some are, what their hobbies are, what they do on work etc. I hope you read them and can read into them.

[charginginprogresss]

hsr takes hi3 for granted, that's why

[latrelllin]

Personally, I like hsr story more or less and I think since its still a relatively new gacha, it hasnt reached the turning point in terms of the main story therefore I would give it some time especially for what penacony has in store.

[luksthunder]

I mean, if we compare the firsts months of Genshin it was way worse on character development, they were just there, gave you missions and talked superficial things, I remember that the first exciting cinematic was for Diluc kicking hilichurls ass on mondstat bridge and the duration of that was just like 10 seconds, at the time it was awesome, but if you see it now it's bs, Honkai star rail have a way better start

[reaperblack]

Honkai has just started and yet it has a great story, the characters intertwine very well and have beautiful and characteristic moments in their stories. Also his lore of the aeons and factions is very intriguing. In addition to everything that will be saved for future worlds. So as far as the story is not good I am quite against it.

[DannyJ]

I will still have faith in the story department due to because this is part of the Honkai-verse. Honkai impact has a *good* GOOD Story and because of that i will wait for a "chap 8 moment" like in Honkai Impact


Also if you haven't seen Honkai Impact 3rd you really should, the gameplay isn't for everyone but atleast watch their animated shorts, those are amazing like "Final Lesson"

[potatopcgamer]

tbh I think genshin have a nice world building but execution is trash, where HSR is a bit straight forward story but the presentation is Quality for me, but nah i think HSR Story is Stronger than Genshin I prefer a Stronger story than Rich story

[VitchAndVorty]

Congratulations, you have an opinion on things.

[blooperpazdro]

maniacal rambling with no script, good clickbait tho

[shauryaanand]

are you doing this for views caue if u dont like it just dont play it cause u have invested far 2 much for a hater also the points that u presented kinda dont make sence.

[Nunazac]

This game is not perfect, but its easily one of the most fleshed out stories I've played in a gacha RPG. At least one that is only 8 months old. Unfortunately the content is focusing heavily on a handful of select characters, but the ones they are focusing on are very thoroughly developed. Some characters are pretty well expected to be on the back-burner until the story moves to them. SW is a great example, since you brought her up. We already know she is from Punklorde, so she will probably get tons of character development once we get there. Games and stories with large casts can only do so much to give each character screen time. Be patient, my dude.

All that being said, who cares? I like the game so i keep playing it. If you don't, stop playing. HoYo will develop the charcters they want to develop and we just enjoy the ride

[wuushthebush]

I honestly really like the hobkai star rail story but i must a bit that the xianzhou (idk how to spell it) story wasn't really all that fleshed out but it was still intriguing and i honestly enjoyed even if a bit confusing. As for the current huohuo event i really found it interesting and i really liked it.
Genshin on the other hand, has never grabbed me. I played it a while ago and there are characters like Kokomi and Jean who, for me, are basically the same. They have the same tropes and are executed the same way. There was an event about a festival (I don't rlly remember) and you had to do EVERYTHING which was absolutely excruciating and boring. It was the breaking point for me. The only character i really liked in Geneshin was Fischl.

Overall, I think Honkai star rail has A LOT of potential and interesting concepts to explore, fun characters and the quests aren't mundane. I will still continue playing for sure