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Analysis of Honkai: Star Rail's decline, discussing gameplay, plot, and community reactions amid growing criticism.

Key Takeaways

Honkai: Star Rail is degrading rather than dying, with ongoing issues but no imminent shutdown.
Endgame content has become increasingly demanding, requiring specific teams and heavy resource investment.
The plot is compelling but poorly executed, leading to mixed player reception.
The player base is more mobile-focused, affecting engagement and content consumption patterns.
Despite criticism, the game remains financially viable and playable, even for free-to-play users.

What the video covers

The video addresses the recent trend of criticizing Honkai: Star Rail (HSR) and contrasts it with past perceptions of Genshin Impact.
HSR initially received praise for its visuals and unique setting, especially during the Penacony era.
Post-Penacony, the game experienced a decline in audience interest and questionable development choices.
The host argues that HSR is not dying but degrading, which implies a slow decline rather than an imminent shutdown.
Common complaints include endgame difficulty spikes, enemy HP inflation, and problematic character sales policies.
The endgame now requires multiple prime teams, increasing the barrier for average players and encouraging vertical investment.
The plot remains interesting but suffers from poor presentation and inconsistent storytelling methods.
The video discusses the mobile-oriented player base and the impact on the game's content and community engagement.
Despite falling views and criticism, the game is still financially successful and maintains a stable player base.
The creator shares personal frustrations about the lack of new content and the difficulty in producing fresh video material.

Chapters

Is Honkai: Star Rail dying or just degrading?

According to the video, Honkai: Star Rail is not dying but degrading, meaning it is experiencing a slow decline rather than an imminent shutdown.

What are the main issues players have with Honkai: Star Rail's endgame?

Players criticize the endgame for increased enemy HP, the requirement of multiple prime teams, and a character sales policy that encourages heavy resource investment.

How is the plot of Honkai: Star Rail perceived?

The plot is considered interesting but suffers from poor presentation and inconsistent storytelling, which affects overall player reception.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

So, I’ve noticed that lately it’s become trendy to trash Honkai: Star Rail. And in this situation, I simply cannot stand on the sidelines. Overall, a rather amusing situation has developed. Usually, Genshin Impact was always the scapegoat, as it was the

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game that constantly disappointed its fans. Moreover, the peak of dissatisfaction with Genshin came around the Natlan era, although even after that, far from all the unhappy people calmed down. And all this time, it was accepted that other HoYoverse

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games show much better quality in almost all gameplay aspects. Yes, people unironically compared Genshin with ZZZ or HSR, drawing disappointing conclusions in favor of the latter. And indeed, what was Honkai: Star Rail like at release? Visually, this game really

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did look better than Genshin. The models were higher quality, and the setting was extremely unusual, which only elevated the game even more against its predecessor. And Honkai: Star Rail reached its peak in Penacony, when it delivered, I’m not afraid to

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say it, one of the most unique, if not the most unique setting among all HoYoverse projects. And beyond them as well. But only after Penacony, everything started to decline. Audience interest gradually began to wane, and the developers themselves chose far

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from the smartest strategy for developing the game. And all this is cool, of course, but how did it come to this? What happened, such that right now even Genshin often seems like a much higher-quality project than Honkai: Star Rail? The situation is, in fact,

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truly complicated. On the internet right now, you will indeed find a simply huge amount of content about how Honkai: Star Rail is dying. And they will definitely explain everything to you there. They’ll even name the date when the game will finally close down.

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But I’ve looked at the takes of many such people and realized that I don’t quite agree with their point of view.

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It’s understandable that a trend is a trend. If it’s fashionable to say something, then everyone will say the same thing. But all the same, I would like to approach this situation from a slightly different angle. Because, in my opinion, the situation is even worse

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than many imagine it to be. Because the game isn't dying, no, it’s just degrading, and degradation, as is well known, does not necessarily lead to death, especially not a quick death.

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And therefore, expecting HSR to close anytime soon is a rather pointless exercise. Nevertheless, the situation is still worth discussing. I simply must finally share with you the only correct opinion regarding everything that is happening. So yes, I don’t

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see any point in dragging this out any longer. I wish you a pleasant viewing experience. Oh, and one more thing, of course, don’t forget about Hornbox.

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Hornbox is the best service for topping up any of your favorite games. Here you can donate to a wide variety of gachas, for example, buy Welkin in Genshin or stock up on Oneiric Shards in Infinite.

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The site also offers top-ups for other popular games, like NTE, as well as HY games. Moreover, topping up is always very quick and simple. And, of course, it's not limited to just gachas.

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HornBox features a huge number of your favorite games. And you can also top up your Steam account very affordably here. Yes, and even more than that. You can buy Robux or Valorant Points here. So if you're short on pulls for a new

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character, want a new skin, or maybe even want to buy a new game, feel free to head over to HornBox using my link in the description. Top up your games quickly and conveniently. Well, let's start with the most obvious takes, the

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ones lying on the surface. Most people are currently very dissatisfied with the endgame, the increase in enemy HP in modes, and the character sales policy. Besides that, many are also unhappy with the plot. Some find it too vague, others too chaotic, but overall,

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it doesn't really matter. And it's foolish not to agree with all these problems. HSR truly possesses all of these shortcomings. However, there is one small nuance. HSR has been suffering from HP inflation for a very, very long time, so it's quite funny to

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notice all this discontent only now. I'll just remind you how, a year and a half ago, when this conversation was brought up, some players would froth at the mouth to defend the game and say everything was fine with it. After all,

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look at the clears from the Chinese players. They easily clear endgame even while using the most outdated characters. But such remarks were always quite amusing. The average HSR player isn't a hardcore Chinese gamer from Bilibili. They're just an average

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Joe who clears content either with their brain turned off or with auto-battle enabled. Both options, as you understand, don't sound particularly cool. And most importantly, not everyone wants to sit there and retry that endgame, copy someone else's

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clears, and so on. After all, everyone wants convenience—you assemble a team, equip the necessary relics and light cones, and that's it, the content is cleared. Well, even a year ago for that approach to content, you ideally needed

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the prime team of the region on your account, because characters released before Amphoreus were already struggling with content. Not to mention, Herta was already essentially a crippled character by the end of Amphoreus. By the way, just like Aglaea,

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if she was played without a prime Kyrene with her second Eidolon. Meaning the game originally set a quite fun standard for endgame, where the main condition for clearing it for an average player became having specific characters from the new region. And,

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well, what else to expect? People during Amphoreus happily swallowed it and accepted the conditions created by the developer. Who would have thought that the developers would start getting so much bolder. And yes, that’s exactly what happened. In Penacony, we

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got new endgame stages that require three teams instead of two to clear. In reality, this is actually a good initiative. Essentially, needing three teams instead of two should force players to think more, experiment with squads, and build them from all the

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different heroes on their account. But in reality, it naturally just led to even more roadblocks. Because the devs are now directly assuming that the average player must have the prime team from the previous region. And preferably more than one, at that.

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Although the content itself in the three-team endgame hasn't exactly become any easier. And so, if you don't have a Memory team or a Break team on your account, clearing content turns into a desperate, grueling search for alternatives that often ends in failure.

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Yes, yes, I think you already see where I'm going with this. Many more players have started to notice these kinds of endgame requirements. While before it was mostly casuals who didn't really voice their opinions online, now more experienced players, who have

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finally gotten their hands on a keyboard, are crying out. The funniest part is that the situation still isn't critical. The game is perfectly playable. Even I, with my clumsy hands, can easily clear all the content in the game. Although, to clear it, I just

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need an E3 Himakov and an E4 Feno, who is already starting to struggle in the endgame even with an E1 Kiridra. And you can save up for all of this even as a free-to-play player. But you will have to sacrifice a lot, including the

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variety of your gameplay. Because the game heavily encourages vertical investment, where you put all your resources strictly into specific teams.

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Now, let's address the plot with a bit of "feedback." But actually, the situation here is mixed; despite all the issues, the Honkai Star Rail plot remains quite interesting, and even in Penacony, the game occasionally manages to surprise players. But the way the

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story is presented is, frankly, a total disaster. During Amphoreus, we saw many interesting choices, like adding some actual gameplay to the story, as well as the appearance of anime cutscenes.

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And it seemed like Amphoreus was just a test run, and that in the next region, the developers would fully flesh out all their ideas. But no, that didn't happen. Penacony turned out to be a much simpler and cheaper region. And

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everything about it got cheaper. The gameplay in the story turned back into an endless, cheap 3D visual novel, and those anime segments never appeared in the game again. Furthermore, the developers came up with new gameplay to dilute the plot. But this gameplay

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turned out to be rather poorly integrated into the story itself. Platforming in 2D is not a bad thing on its own. In places, it is actually quite cool and fun. But let’s take the latest story arc as an example. In

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it, we head to a production workshop in Penacony. And as soon as we arrive at the workshop, the plot abruptly cuts off. Instead, we are sent into a simple machine-assembly simulator via platforming. The plot literally stops in its tracks, while characters in the

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background toss out some funny lines. This gameplay element carries almost no meaningful weight. It wastes time, and the gameplay itself can hardly be called interesting. It feels like the developers sometimes just add platforming elements randomly, just so there’s some gameplay in the plot

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besides dialogue and battles. The thing is, in Amphoreus, the gameplay complemented the story. It improved the quality of the narrative and significantly helped with immersion into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, the quality of the models in the game simply isn’t growing. It has reached

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such an absurdity that even the character models from Genshin seem much higher quality and more detailed. The same applies to the staging in the plot . Outside of cutscenes, the game feels incredibly cheap, as if the story was

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thrown together on a knee. No mocap in dialogue sections, no unique movements or emotions. Everything is within the basic set established in the game back at release. In 2.0, all of this was combined with a catastrophically small number of cutscenes and battles. And

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the platforming, meant to dilute all of this, turned out to be quite secondary. At the same time, the writers seem to be the same people, which is why the intermediate endings of the storylines often still feel blurred. And that is

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not even mentioning the constant inflation of stakes and the completely unclear power levels of the characters.

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Moreover, the developers decided to make an Aeon playable. Therefore, it must be admitted that the actual starting point for the audience's indignation and the game's funeral were the problems with the plot, not the gameplay. By the way, the starting

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point for the further development of my channel, of course, is your subscription to the channel and a like under this video. So, if you are not yet subscribed, please hit that subscribe button right now. It’s not hard for you, but it means a lot to me.

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Any activity from you really helps me in creating future videos. And besides, let’s finally reach the 35,000 subscriber mark. So yes, thank you in advance for your support. About the Telegram channel with my thoughts regarding the game and more. Also,

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don’t forget, the link to it is in the description and in the pinned comment. And now we return to the video . And you know what? All this time we have just been discussing the existing problems of the game and complaining

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about them. However, we have never once tried to dive into the so-called root cause of all these problems. What exactly led to the game becoming what it is today? At the beginning of the video, I didn't say that the game isn't

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dying, but degrading, just for the sake of it. The fact is, HoYoverse doesn't employ fools, and they truly have a specific strategy for the project's development. And since the game continues to develop along this path, it means the metrics are showing the

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desired results. But what kind of path is this? What is this degradation all about? It is worth recalling here how HoYoverse, in principle, established themselves as a major and successful video game company. Of course, we are talking about the release of Genshin

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Impact. In many respects, Genshin Impact is a game designed specifically for consoles and PC. This applies to its high budget, game design, and even its graphics. And on smartphones, the game just launched as an extra. The developers released it there knowing

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that it is a huge market where one can earn crazy money. Besides, Chinese players in general really love to play on mobile devices. But the game itself was not built purposefully for the mobile market. The developers relied heavily on other platforms as well, as

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shown, for example, by their collaboration with PlayStation. So, after Genshin, many expected the next project to also delight players with its premium approach in a free-to-play wrapper. And in essence, at the release of Honkai: Star Rail, the developer did

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just that. They took an old-school turn-based combat formula and adapted it for a gacha live service. Naturally, topping it all off with high-quality visuals and a large-scale story in a unique setting. But upon getting acquainted with the project back then,

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many decided that its path would be similar to Genshin's, that the developers would once again choose to develop their game as a console live service, rather than as a typical mobile game. But, considering the game's combat and its other features,

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Honkai: Star Rail found huge success on mobile devices. Moreover, many people simply didn't see, and still don't see, the point of playing HSR on PC or consoles. Well, I think you already understand what I'm getting at and what

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I mean by the word "degradation." From some semblance of a console game, Honkai: Star Rail eventually began to transform into a mobile game—the most basic kind of mobile game, with an abundance of different donation options , banners, conditions, and so on. In

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essence, adding something like a global passive ability is already a huge step toward far-from-great mobile games. And that's not even mentioning the developers 'other decisions. And now they have simply started to act more aggressively and openly. The funniest

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thing is that such actions of theirs may indicate that the game has simply stopped attracting a new audience.

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Furthermore, the game's own player base turned out to be much more mobile-oriented than that of Genshin.

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Therefore, the only convenient decision was made: simply milk the remaining players and squeeze every possible penny out of them. And since people stayed in the game after the introduction of global passives, they will stay after the introduction of

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paid buffs, pointless microtransactions , and so on down the list. Yes, some will leave, but revenue will still grow , even if only for a while. Or, at the very least, revenue simply won't fall.

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The same, by the way, applies to the quality of the plot, along with the staging and visuals. There is a high probability that all these aspects of the game are not getting improvements simply because it makes no sense.

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Raising the requirements potentially cuts off the audience on less powerful smartphones, and the developer might just be afraid of such consequences. We can all dream as much as we want about improving the quality of content. But if HoYoverse has indeed chosen the

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mobile game development path for HSR, there's nothing we can do about it. Whining on social media, videos breaking down how bad everything in the game is. All of this simply makes no sense. Even if the loudest players leave, the majority will still stay.

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And many, myself included, when discussing the so-called death of the game, once pointed to the fact that HSR's views on YouTube and other social media are falling as an argument. But is it really certain that the current core audience of Honkai: Star Rail

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watches YouTube or actively participates in social media discussions? I don't think so. People just log in, finish their dailies with one button press, skip the dull event without combat as quickly as possible, dump their pulls into the desired

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banner, and log out. And so on, in a loop. What difference does it make what people are discussing online or what problems the project has. That is what mobile gaming is. Naturally, for Honkai : Star Rail, this is total degradation.

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At launch, the game showed a lot of promise. It seemed that with proper development, the game could really become the dream live-service RPG, but instead of expanding the game, the developers decided to just turn it into a run-of-the-mill mobile game. And

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therefore, one should simply accept it. The game isn't dying, no one is killing it, and it will live as long as, say, Genshin. If things really go poorly for HSR, you will see it. But you won't see it in the revenue reports or YouTube

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views. You will only see it when the developers suddenly start trying to fix all sorts of game issues and truly improve its quality. Or, on the contrary, they will start adding truly aggressive monetization to the game.

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However, I think this won't happen anytime soon, as the game is currently earning quite well, and the outflow of the audience is clearly not significant . As for me, this situation is even worse than death. After all, if Honkai

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Rail closed down, many people like me would stop putting up with the project's issues and would just leave to play something else, something more interesting and worthy. But instead, we’re going to keep whining and complaining, yet continue to endure all

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this content, keep playing through the story, pulling for characters, and spitting in frustration while clearing another pathetic arbitration or any other endgame. Because we have to admit , Honkai Star Rail has a very interesting lore and a quite appealing

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setting. You still want to follow the story, especially since we keep feeding ourselves the hope that the game will reach a true prime in the future. But for now, players in Honkai Rail are going through a so-called "arc of

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patience." And I would like to end my video on a rather sad, but at the same time thought-provoking note. At one time, I released a large number of videos about HSR on the channel. Many, both positive and negative. I

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highlighted various cool moments and drew attention to the negative aspects of the game. But if you’ve noticed, lately I’ve almost stopped making this kind of content. There are almost no videos about Honkai Star Rail on the channel, even though I still play the

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game, and I play it quite actively. The thing is, I just have nothing to make videos about. Nothing is happening in the game. And the funniest part is, I already discussed all the negative sides of the project and all its

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problems in my videos from a year ago. And, well, all those videos remain relevant to this day. In a whole year and a half, absolutely nothing has changed. It's just that, in some places , the situation has become even worse

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and more neglected. Back then, people perceived my thoughts quite aggressively and tried to prove me wrong. But as time has passed, I turned out to be right in almost all of my reflections. Although, to be honest, I really wish I had been wrong back then.

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Will I continue to make videos about Honkai Star Rail? Of course, yes. They will just be released as new interesting topics arise. I still love Honkai Star Rail and will continue to endure all its content. Personally, in my opinion, the current "funeral" for

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the game makes absolutely no sense. After all, the project chose this path a long time ago, and it's unlikely that tantrums will change anything. Except that people will just senselessly waste their own energy and nerves. And in this day and age, wasting your nerves

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on this kind of crap is just too cruel, even just to yourself. And yes, on that note, our video today comes to an end.

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To be honest, I just wanted to discuss the current situation surrounding the game. Plus, for once, I was able to vent and share what I think about HSR.

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I hope you enjoyed the video. Don't forget to like, subscribe to the channel, and check out all of my social media. Links to my Twitch, Telegram, and Discord are in the video description and pinned comment. And I've been your host, TheFzadiakey. See

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you in the next videos and on my Twitch streams. Bye-bye.

Topics:Honkai Star Railgame degradationendgame difficultygacha gamesgame plot analysisHoYoversegame communitymobile gamingfree-to-playgame development

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