[Honkai: Star Rail] When the sun sets we will not forget the Black Swan over paradise

Shadowfire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s40um2x_Ks

Honkai: Star Rail is the next big gacha game from Hoyoverse. See also Honkai Impact 3rd, Genshin Impact, and Tears of Themis. This one is a turn based RPG, more along the lines of Epic 7 than their previous games. Typical gacha stuff, free characters, gacha characters. But also the Hoyo production values, and fun characterization.

Yes her name is March 7th. No I didn't name her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpIgB_IPeTM

Serval, who we will get for free at launch. Her axe is also an axe and she does lightning. Therefore she is the best character.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6HdjmUIuSY

Gepard, your regular hot knight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLFpFp5r0hk

Himeko has red hair which brings her close to Serval, but not quite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye4qk1SW9TE

Yanqing is my favorite little ice boy and he's adorable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TY_i3n-7jY

Other trailers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJGG1PCVk0Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCxq-jMMsAc

It goes live on 26 Apr for Android, iOS, and PC through Epic Games and its own stand alone launcher. It's "coming soon" for PS4/5, but no idea what "soon" means.


Frands!

eMoander | 600322115
Fencingsax | 600748892
Feldorn | 600597269
Reynolds | 600028763
Kyanilis | 600006983
Aegis | 601104050
initiatefailure | 600347186
Doctor Detroid | 601751578
CorriganX | 601194223
Madican | 600385760
abotkin | 600833656
Polarite | 600108588
Shadowfire | 600332676
AshtonDragon | 602140368
Raiden333 | 603657025
Tofystedeth | 602398694

Mirkel

Pre-download now available. Looks like PC version downloads 10 GB.

eMoander

I eventually got bored of genshin but definitely liking the sci fi vibe here. I need something to tide me over to Zelda and then Diablo; hopefully I can just dip my toe in and not fall down the gacha addiction hole per usual (yes we all know I’m lying to myself, just go with it)

Shadowfire

Mirkel wrote: »

Pre-download now available. Looks like PC version downloads 10 GB.

Just under 8GB on Android.

Also if you haven't done it yet, you should still have enough time to do the pre reg event for Serval's weapon.

Xantus

hmm well the loading screen on android seems to run at a rather chunky "You should just install this on PC" FPS

Shadowfire

Seele's trailer just hit.

https://youtu.be/lXVQmHxAnAE

Feldorn

Shadowfire wrote: »

Also if you haven't done it yet, you should still have enough time to do the pre reg event for Serval's weapon.

According to the event in the HoyoLAB app the event is active until May 24th, 2023.

abotkin

Feldorn wrote: »

Shadowfire wrote: »

Also if you haven't done it yet, you should still have enough time to do the pre reg event for Serval's weapon.

According to the event in the HoyoLAB app the event is active until May 24th, 2023.

Yeah, that's a shame, doing it this morning, and it looks like it might just be the seven pulls it got me today, which I'm assuming is still some neat free stuff, but didn't come close the 20 it says you needed to get the 4* weapon. Hopefully it's just the physical reward part that ends.

Anywho, I enjoyed Genshin Impact a fair amount, but never got deep into it because playing that style of game on my phone is a bit clumsy for me, but I still play Epic 7 off and on, and I enjoy some fun sci-fi, so I'm looking forward to this.

Edit: Wow, cue failure to read on my part, April is not May, and a month is way longer than needed to get the bonus. Especially since you can only actually get two of the items in-game? Still, nice starting bonus for essentially no effort.

Xantus

you probably won't need to do all the missions to get the items anyways.
i got 2 purples in 5 warps. i guess i already won gacha? lol (i got the weapon and the theifs gloves)

Kyanilis

Pretty excited for this. Been playing through Honkai in anticipation and the story is pretty solid. I know they're only sort of related but it has felt worth it so far.

Kyanilis

Hey a release trailer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8vPZrMFiZ4

Xantus

oddly enough.. today is also, at last, my first login milestone in honkai.

initiatefailure

My partner is still playing genshin and somehow immune to the pay us money to spin the slots part of the game, it’s fascinating and wonderful to me. This one vaguely interests me with sci-fi trappings. Maybe turn based would play better on a phone

Shadowfire

I'm probably going to spin the beginner banner to get what I can from that and just go as long as I can without rolling for anyone. The only characters that really speak to me so far are Serval (get for free) and Yanqing who I'll be lucky to ever see. Just gonna grind it baby!

PMAvers

Honestly, I think I'm more interested in the turn-based mode more than Genshin since I'd assume more of your team will *matter* instead of sitting off the field and maybe being switched in for a couple of seconds to use a ability.

Madican

Healers and the like will also matter much more.

Phone probably won't be ideal since outside fights it's still 3D running around, albeit in limited zones. Watch that battery get slurped away.

The Wolfman

I'm happy I have a proper phone now, I can actually get in on this on the ground floor. But the second it releases, I'm transfering over to the PS5 and not looking back.

bobAkirafett

The Wolfman wrote: »

I'm happy I have a proper phone now, I can actually get in on this on the ground floor. But the second it releases, I'm transfering over to the PS5 and not looking back.

Just be aware if it's like Genshin, the first place you make a purchase, you HAVE to make all further purchases there. (or the website maybe?)

Xantus

if you've never tried honkai impact on a phone, it's way more optimized than genshin.
like i can do 60fps med-high settings in honkai where in genshin my fps is chugging on 30-low.

i hope star rail is better >.>

eMoander

Shadowfire wrote: »

I'm probably going to spin the beginner banner to get what I can from that and just go as long as I can without rolling for anyone. The only characters that really speak to me so far are Serval (get for free) and Yanqing who I'll be lucky to ever see. Just gonna grind it baby!

From my very initial read, it looks like banner 3 (silver wolf) sounds like it’s going to be way better than the first two limited banners. The first two are straight dps characters (Seele is single target and Jing Yuan is aoe); both good but probably replaceable. Supports and healers feel like they will be a much better investment. Not sure if I'll be able to hold out that long of course...

Also, PSA Tingyun seems to be the Bennett equivalent here so definitely an early priority. Buffs another unit's attack, and then also receives an attack bonus based on the buffed unit's attack!

Polaritie

Xantus wrote: »

if you've never tried honkai impact on a phone, it's way more optimized than genshin.
like i can do 60fps med-high settings in honkai where in genshin my fps is chugging on 30-low.

i hope star rail is better >.>

Genshin is... ambitious in being a full on open world game trying to run on a phone.

Magic Pink

I am very excited for this but I'm super obsessed with Genshin and I don't know if I want to play 2 of them.

Plus I don't like any of the up till now shown Star Rail peeps other than that wolf.

eMoander

Codes published for Japan that may or may not work after launch:

HSRGRANDOPEN1
HSRGRANDOPEN2
HSRGRANDOPEN3

Redemption link:
https://hsr.hoyoverse.com/gift

Madican

I'll probably just play whatever story there is in Star Rail then keep it as a login for rewards thing if I like it.

Though I did just start playing Another Eden and that's basically a whole JRPG already

Xantus

Madican wrote: »

Though I did just start playing Another Eden and that's basically a whole JRPG already

same, but with Last Cloudia

Mirkel

Still not 100% sure when this launches in EU. The game says 3am, the official countdown says 6 more hours (so 5am). Some US players say it's supposed to go live in 2 hours. Not sure if all the three server locations have different launch times.

TTODewback

When I checked the login screen at lunch it said it would be going alive in about 5 1/2 hours from now.
(21:00 for -5 UTC)

Shadowfire

Yep, the launcher should tell you when it goes live for you.

Xantus wrote: »

Madican wrote: »

Though I did just start playing Another Eden and that's basically a whole JRPG already

same, but with Last Cloudia

Last Claudia and Another Eden are ultimately too grindy for me. I tried, but I can't get in to them.

Which is pretty funny when you consider how much I enjoy Epic Seven.

Xantus

i mean... last cloudia can appear grindy if you try to "chase the meta".
but the numbers are so silly in that game you can do just fine with middling units. also they really hand out resources during their events (the anniversary is on now)

there's a couple of design choices that kind of ruin the game and it's far more interesting/epic if you just ignore those things.
like friend supports, the story is pretty well-told, but plowing thru it with other people's maxed units kind of takes the whole game out of the game. if ya just rush to the "endgame" of course it will just feel 'grindy'
also the paid gacha is all a big trap. the rates are so bad.. and all the money really does is trap you into an account that you might have been better off just re-rolling from the beginning once you really figure out the fun parts of the game.

i just love the art style, and the combat gets so bonkers. it's like if michael bay was allowed to direct star ocean 2.

Jubal77

Just remember the golden rules of gacha:

Play within your means. Dont spend more than you can afford. It is a PVE gacha they are usually very generous.
Dont spend big upgrade materials until you absolutely have to and you are sure you like the unit.
Have fun. Play to have fun. So many play meta slave and you can tell it kills the fun for most of them.

Shadowfire

Yeah. Be a slave to your favorites, not to the meta. I'm running Dehya in like all my Genshin groups because I love her, but by most metrics she sucks. Fuck em.

Mirkel

I like to know what the meta is so if I'm having issues I can just use enough of the best units/weapons/whatever to make progress and otherwise do my own thing. Though I've quit a few gachas after a few months of playing when I've hit a wall and realized it'd take way too much effort to keep on going. Not a problem in Genshin of course, and I doubt this game is going to be super difficult either.

In other news, a bit over two hours to go I think? *twiddles thumbs*

Jubal77

Yeah 7 PST is 21:00 UTC -5.

initiatefailure

is it just me or is this game all white people? that's really weird to me.

Polaritie

Game's up, btw.

Feldorn

Madican wrote: »

Though I did just start playing Another Eden and that's basically a whole JRPG already

Personally I think Another Eden is an amazing game and would be much better as a non-gacha game. It is very grindy though. They did the collabs very well and all content is permanent.

Anyways, I’m leaning towards pulling for the guy with the Lion purely for style.

Jars

oh good this game isn't nearly as stingy as genshin with the early pulls. I drew sushang so far, doing the one that gives you a guaranteed 5* after 50 draws.

Mirkel

Having fun so far, I'm surprised how almost challenging some of the early fights are. I remember Genshin being ridiculously easy when you start out. Haven't gotten a 5* yet but my next 10 pull on the beginner banner will give me one.

eMoander

Got Bronya on the third pull off the beginner banner. Reasonably happy with her since she buffs damage and speed, I think that will play well.

Also picked up Natasha; heals seem way more useful than shields, sorry March 7.

Really liking the music and flow of combat. Not sure how long I’m going to enjoy the characters saying their catchphrases on every attack, but so far so good.

Mirkel

eMoander wrote: »

Really liking the music and flow of combat. Not sure how long I’m going to enjoy the characters saying their catchphrases on every attack, but so far so good.

That's one of the reasons I use JP voices. Stuff like that is far less annoying (at least to me) when you don't understand what they are yelling.

I do wish I'd get a healer too but no luck so far.

Kyanilis

Took me a few hours to unlock dailies. Wish they unlocked a little earlier but I'm here now.

I'm kind of a fan so far, looking forward to see where it goes.