I haven't realized but we're kinda in summer now/summer break

Time wrote:

the butterfly lore

Sure, usually I make a point of making themes and leaving it to be perceived by individual interpretation, but I'll make an exception.
Purple butterflies represent positive change. With some of us being in college or working towards it, I thought I'd make a theme that supports our future success and prosperity.
Even if life is being tough, the theme conveys my belief that we'll make through any sort of obstacle with strength and grace.

-Galaxian-

I haven't been too too active as of late due to me exploring a game that Specter suggested in the Good Story Thread. (the good story thread is a good place to be introduced to possible stories or just hearing anything be mentioned)

On that gaming grind and whatnot.

I know it wasn't in your first wave of suggestions, but I ended up picking up Honkai: Star Rail

I'm gonna write my first impressions now since you have me thinking. I am going to separate all my first impressions in to topics with spoilers. That does not mean that there is spoilers, rather, it's just organizational. 

Why did I pick HSR/a gatcha game?

I was wondering about experiencing a gatcha game. How much does gatcha get in the way of gameplay? How will it effect my gameplay? Will it ever touch my wallet? Is the story actually good? These were my primary questions I wanted to answer when playing this game.

I ended up picking HSR since it was turn based (I like turn based, strategy games) and that it was apart of an extended universe. It is true that Limbus Company also has these two aspects, but I ended up choosing HSR because it seemed to have a higher production value, and that it was more popular. If I wanted to get a more general feel of how gatchas were, I figured maybe getting one of the most popular experiences would be good. Of course, this was the reasoning plus the interest in seeing how a gatcha really is.

A large reason as to why I play is for story. Due to this, I decided to set a few perimeters on characters that I could use:
1. Character must be relevant to current story/in the scene in which combat initiates
2. If there is a mission where it's only the mc + characters that I do not have, then the team can be filled with characters that: is in the same location/planet the story is taking place on, and has a positive enough relationship to fight with the mc
3. If a character is apart of the astral express crew, then I can let them fight in the party (as long as it doesn't mess with continuity of the story)

this has lead me to definitely actively nerfing my team. Some the time, I'm only using 3 characters instead of a standard 4. It made me really think how much it sucks to have a character that is important to the current story locked behind a gatcha wall. It made me think that HSR could be in the group of gatchas where a gatcha mechanic feels kinda weird. Once again, just my opinion. If it's like that for all gatchas, then maybe I think gatcha is just weird.

They could have done gatcha for like, equipment and power up stuff only! But I understand that such a system wouldn't net them as much money since people wouldn't be spending their money on hot anime women and men.

Combat is very basic. Each character you control has 3 moves in combat, 2 to initiate combat, and 1 passive. However, I can see there is potential to still create builds and get in to a deeper level if one wants to, since there are ways to manipulate character stats, and there are (simple) strategies for each character. I figure I will do this to myself at some point to handle the handicap that I have placed on myself and make it more fun for me.

I do wish for a little bit more complexity though. Maybe I will find this complexity I'm looking for as I do a deeper dive into the mechanics.

It seems to me that you can easily breeze through combat if you wanted to by just leveling your characters, or you can get a challenge by not doing that as often.

Definitely it has led me to grind more. I don't have all team members of the astral express, and since they're the main group the story follows, it has lead me to grind for more tickets to try to summon them. There's always a nagging thing in the back of my mind saying, "Hey, spending a little money never hurts," but I'm doing a strictly free to play run. Much more noble, yes?

I also got spoiled a little on who of the Astral Express is going to be important on the next world ahead of me, so it has lead me to try to slow down the current story (by doing more side quests) so that I have more time to try and pull him. So that's also an interesting change.

I also said a few things about being immersed and whatnot in the personal rules section

The big reveal, right? Well, as of the moment, the story is ok. Like, it's a bit above average. There are bits and pieces here and there that I actually really like, but there are others where I just feel like I'm dragging. The dragging part may be a side effect of me doing a lot of grinding, though. I am interested in the overarching story, for sure. I like the idea of aeons an stellerons and whatnot, but I'm only semi-interested in the current arc that's going on. I hope something draws me in, or it eventually gets connected to the overall story.

If anyone is wondering where I am as of writing this, I am on Jarilo-VI, about to confront Svarog.

I also like that there are some random parts of character lore or text that got me going like, "Damn... that's good."

So overall: I'm interested in the overall story, but I'm still waiting in anticipation for things to get good. I would also say I am very interested on the worldbuilding side and would like to see how that expands.

Imma just rapid fire through all of these:
Music: Simple, but nice. I like how each area has a similar tune to it, but it varies greatly based off of situation. Ex. Jarilo VI music all has the same chant(?) in the background, but the chanting, as well as surrounding instruments change based on situation (such as location, and what type of fight you're experiencing). I'm refering to background music, ofc. I'm not really talking about music that arrises during specific key moments, but I'd like to hear some of that.

Character design: Very detailed and nice and all, but as of the moment, I haven't really analyzed them. They may just look good but lack underlying traits that give more information about the character or something. Once again, still have to look into them if I wanna know.

Voice sync: One small detail that I actually REALLY like is that the character's voices are actually in sync with their mouth. They would make the similar shapes that we would do. However, it seems like it's only for the important characters or for close ups, because otherwise, their mouths don't move at all lol. I'm using english dub and sub btw.

References and humor: I enjoy the refrences that this game has, Breaking Bad, Souls games, Fight club, Rick Astley, and more. Also, while I haven't really laughed my way to the point I can't breath at that the humor provided in this game, I still enjoy it for other reasons, like the interactions it's provides. I think the humor sometimes is clever. I like how sometimes this humor is more hidden, and how sometimes the descriptive text recognizes and makes fun of things. t's never actually made me laugh out loud though.

Last edited by Time (June 15, 2023 22:28:04)

I typed all that up without checking for spelling errors so sorry if anyone decides to read that stuff and it makes no sense

Oh also a random thing I don't like: Why do all the women wear heels? I've never really worn them, but I know for a fact running around and fighting in them has gotta be super uncomfy. Just run in like, boots or smth dude.

Time wrote:

Oh also a random thing I don't like: Why do all the women wear heels? I've never really worn them, but I know for a fact running around and fighting in them has gotta be super uncomfy. Just run in like, boots or smth dude.

Welcome to the genre bro 💀

-Galaxian-

bayonetta wears heels because they're her other two guns, the rest of the anime women don't have excuses. except for the ones that ride horses, horseriding is the reason heels were invented

Time wrote:

Oh also a random thing I don't like: Why do all the women wear heels? I've never really worn them, but I know for a fact running around and fighting in them has gotta be super uncomfy. Just run in like, boots or smth dude.

I can't wear heels because of my scoliosis but yeah I wonder this too

SpecterTheGreat wrote:

There really isn't a reason for them to have heels other than character design imo. I think over time you just get used to seeing clothing designs that are probably not practical for battle but are aesthetic in some way. 

True. That's how anime be fr.

SpecterTheGreat wrote:

For the gacha part, just make sure you promise to not spend money if you're going F2P. And accept that you won't be able to get every character in the game unless you get really lucky, and luck is not on your side. Make sure to check if HSR has a pity system or not because if it does, you can start saving towards a unit you really want/need and skip other banners. Also, character banners will eventually have reruns if you didn't get them or if you want to try for multiple copies of the same chara, though you'll have to wait for that. I do think you're limiting yourself too much when it comes to team comps, but as long as you're having fun, that's okay! Just keep in mind that games will usually have a difficulty spike at some point and you'll need to seriously check team synergy by then. Something important in gacha games is that you have to make use of the units you have available, cause you really can't count on getting the character you'd like from the gacha.

1. (F2P?) Yeah. I'll be free to play.
2. (Pity) It does. I'm just going to look it up/do some math concerning pull rate cause you've made it coinvent for me
- 90 pulls = a 5 star character or a 5 star light cone (or whatever you call it)
- One time usage in standard: 300 pulls gets you one 5 star character of your choosing
- Banner summons use a 50-50 system for the 5 star character and 4 star characters
3. (Limiting myself) Nah. I wouldn't be playing the game at all if I had not placed these limits on myself. I don't think I could enjoy the game that much at all if I was following characters in a story and during a battle a buncha random people show up. Plus, from what I've seen, the characters that have been given to me atm are all decent enough. Plus, I do like a challenge.
4. (Getting characters) Yeah. I figured. That's why atm I'm only setting my sights on characters I feel will have a reliable presence in the story. Currently have 3/5 of them. The part that sucks is those 3 were ones given to me at the beginning lol.

SpecterTheGreat wrote:

HSR is a pretty recent game so its story is still being updated and there is a lot more that will be unlocked in the future. That means the gameplay will probably pick up more in the future too, and you'll have to keep updated. I've heard the Honkai universe is very complex and I've also heard that other Honkai games tend to get dark with their lore the more you progress

1. (Darker story) - Good.
2. I'm interested if they further develop the gameplay in the future. 3 moves in combat can sometimes be underwhelming.
 

Okay okay I'm happy you're enjoying the story but at the same time I find it so funny you're focusing so much on some heels like xD

Oh, also on that first impression post where I talked about the humor, I stand corrected. There was a joke that did make me do a light chuckle

There's also some goofy ahh plot holes(?) That I hope gets explained soon.

Man dis sum bs where is my luck bro

Hsr update

Location in story

just finished main boss of belabog/jarilo-VI. Just need to wrap up the conclusion/last few story quests

Ok, that final boss theme did not have to go THAT HARD DAMN. It felt like an endgame final story boss with that stuff playing. But it's just the beginning.

I did not expect that coming from a gatcha game

The animations/cutscenes and storytelling in the fight were also pretty cool too. Awesome stuff. Hitting powerful attacks when the beat dropped was also pretty freaking epic.

It was so good that I nearly forgot that i am fighting to eat in the summons. I think by now I have a defined opinion on the gatcha part of the game.

Neverless if the final boss battles go this hard constantly, it will be something I can look fowards to every time. It would definitely help prevent me from droping the game due to annoyances/gatcha despair

Last edited by Time (June 23, 2023 02:58:22)

I'm thinking about "chosen ones" in a story. How to handle it? How not to handle it? How many times is it used? Is it overuse? Are people tired of it?