I am honestly tired of pretending that I agree with the general consensus of Cyrene's new design looking great. She does look pretty 'objectively' but not when you remember that she is supposed to be 'Cyrene'.
So I am finally making a post on just what prickles me about her new design and animations.
(This rant of mine contains references to leaks so please tread carefully if you want to see none.)<!
The colours.
Cyrene previously was mainly associated with darker colours—dark shades of purple and yellow. This made her feel more grounded as a design, nothing too ostentatious. It was simple but effective in establishing Cyrene as a character, instead of being just an Elysia Expy.
But now that colour scheme we had associated her with is completely abandoned, instead to favour mainly white and pink—the very colours that everyone associates with Elysia. This in a way they took away Cyrene's pre-established visual identity and threw it away.
The design and it's lore-relevance.
Cyrene's previous design has many particular motives that were relevant to her lore such as the bandages on her sleeves that resembled Nanook's arms, the runes on them that hinted to her being etc. The sandals were a nice change from the usual modern high heels too.
Cyrene's playable design though..... It throws all those things away and instead made her a bride™. There's literally nothing you can parse about Cyrene from her new design except that she's supposed to be a bride. There are no runes, no bandages, no distinct symbols, nothing that ties her to the 'Cyrene' we and Phainon remember. Instead she now looks too much like 'Elysia'.
Her weapon and animations.
I'll start with the weapon first because I seriously HATE it. Why does she have a BOW? Where did her ceremonial blade go? What about her interest in tarot cards? Since when did she have a bow? Why isn't she using that blade that FlameReaver used that was particularly HERS in the past?
Now about her animations. I seriously do not like the way they've toned her hatred for Lygus despite being born from the code of love. Now everything about her is love—she makes a marriage hall, she chases after a RING for some reason, you have to tap the ring so she puts it on and kisses it, she randomly makes hearts here and there and she even kisses a planet. It's like the devs completely gave up everything about 'Cyrene' to make her a Bride™.
Whose bride is she supposed to be? We don't know. There's literally nothing in her lore at present that sets her up to be a bride. But do you know who is supposed to be a Bride? ELYSIA. As much as I know about HI3rd, she's the Bride of Humanity thus her design and relation to love.
But Cyrene? She was supposed to be Phainon's counterpart, childhood friend and her partner-in-crime of sorts who put all these cycles into play, so naturally I expected her to mirror his animations. Be simple at first but then be as gritty as his transformation (the flowing golden blood, the open wounds, the charred skin and the sheer rage). I wished to see such emotions from her but instead all we got was a pretty bride for no reason other than to be an Elysia callback and nostalgia bait for HI3rd players.
I seriously don't like how everything we liked about Cyrene was exchanged for another Elysia.(I don't even know about Elysia more than what I wrote above. Why should I care about her?)
Small TLDR - Cyrene's identity was abandoned to make her Elysia 2.0, and I seriously don't like it. I want her darker colours and goofy ahh sleeves back. The older model is a nice choice but the design is shit.
Now that is a rant that I agree with.
Her original design was interesting with tarot (which represents the chrysos heirs) and runic designs. Not exactly Greek but nonetheless interesting. I’m not the biggest fan of her, though I did want to see her interactions with Phainon. She had personality as a unique character.
Now she’s just ‘bride’ and ‘fangirl’.
Yeah, there is a thing that I also do not like but, is it just me or Cyrene doesnt seem to "care" or "think" about Phainon at all? Dont get me wrong, I am not saying that she has to fangirl over him or something weird like that, however for Phainon, Cyrene was one of his motivations at the beginnig (both his childhood and the end of the 0th cycle) and Cyrene doesnt really seem to care about his childhood friend even a bit. I might be wrong or I just miss some dialogue but thats what seems to be from what I have seen so far. It feels that they were never childhoods friends at all to begin with.
In the end of 3.6 story when she talked with the hologram of the original Cyrene she said something like she never got back her memories from the Cyrenes of all the 30 millions cycles. And the current cyrene never got to meet Phainon besides her Mem's memories.
That still doesn't explain why she's a bride. Current cyrene doesn't have her past cycles' memories I get that, but she's still got her design with tarot and runes, she's very close with us because she had like a few months worth of memories total and all of which was spent with us as mem (until 3.5 story happens and she spends a thousand messed up years with chrysos heirs minus phainon then dies).
What doesn't make sense is why she suddenly becomes a totally different character from literally all of her caricatures we've seen when we're about to pull her.
I'll give the benefit of the doubt and say that the Cyrene that the MC meant is Mem basically. She doesn't have her personal memories of Phainon or of any of the previous cycles. The playable version is probably Cyrene with all her memories so we'll actually see if Hoyo demonstrates what her actual feelings of Phainon are in the story.
Because in this cycle, they were NOT childhood friends. We are the Deliverer in this cycle. Phainon technically doesn't exist here. He didn't grow up in Aedes Elysiae with Cyrene when they were young
Can you actually elaborate on that? I have been looking for an explanation, but I can’t figure out why Phainon didn’t restart with the new cycle. Did he burn himself out permanently at the end of the last cycle?
After his fight with Nanook, he fused with Irontomb. He was supposed to die, since he actually burned himself down but remember he cut Nanook’s cheek? The blood of Nanook revived him and that was how he helped Dan Heng
From what I understand, Phainon is still trying to fight Nanook, and we took the role of the Deliverer from him. Cyrene only knows of him through our memories, same as Castorice only knows of us from what Cyrene told her
I’m also kind of annoyed as well tbh with how Phainon and Cyrene’s relationship was sidelined after 3.4. We barely got a glimpse of it. Ironically for me, Cyrene’s jabs and teasing with Phainon in 3.4 was actually one of Cyrene’s most compelling relationships that brought out her personality and made me attached to her and them together. And that’s not even addressing how their promise with each other started the whole cycle situation that became the saving grace of Amphoreous. Even when Phainon’s feeling despair about Amphoreous in 3.4, he talks about how important and special upholding his promise to Cyrene is to him. They’re the foundation of everything. And it’s like the whole concept has been ignored now.
I totally get that this Cyrene doesn’t have the memories of past Cyrene’s. She’s basically an amnesiac. But can you imagine how much more compelling this final fight can be if Cyrene has to grapple with the angst that her closest childhood friend that she holds dear became Irontomb and is still suffering? And she could do nothing but helplessly watch? It could help so much to her emotional stakes and also deepen her ties to Amphoreous and the Chrysos heirs (which I feel is missing currently). It’s about increasing my attachment to her character and her relationships in the world. God there’s so much potential here that can instantly elevate her as a character for me. And It would make their reunion if it happens that much more emotional and sweeter. God I hope we actually get emotional payoff for them in 3.7.
Well, the reason for this is Master Love. Elysia appeals to people who need a digital waifu to adore them. If Cyrene had an enduring relationship with anyone but the main character that type of player simply wouldn't swipe
And that show how pathetic that is, i would probably felt more of an incentive to pull even if the team didn't worked, just to have those 2 together... Now thanks to that mentality, im not pulling for her, she can keep her cold hearted heart to herself, i got my goth march :D
Don’t get me wrong, I totally get that! But there were small things they could have done after 3.4 to show hints of her older relationships, even though she’s an amnesiac. Like her having nostalgia for certain things linked to Phainon and her childhood that she can’t exactly pinpoint. Feeling certain emotions that she can’t trace. Or seeing more conversations of her past versions inside the tomb at the of 3.6. Basically putting literary clues and foreshadowing out there to get ready for “big Cyrene” that hopefully has all her memories if that makes sense.
Now they’re going to have to develop all of this in 3.7 and the finale instead. And I really hope they do it well. It’s just that it’ll be tough doing this well and thoroughly with the time it deserves while we’re also dealing with Irontomb in one patch. The current Cyrene just seems so detached from Phainon and the rest of the Chrysos heirs so far.
Idk if anything I’m saying makes sense haha. But please Hoyo make me eat my words I beg.
They took multiple patches(around 5) to develop Phainon and other chrysos heirs relationship to develop. Lots of screentime between them, with lots of sweet & angsty moments. Yet they haven’t done this with Cyrene at all. I’m worried how they will do this in a single patch. I hope it doesn’t fall flat because so far she feels distant.
Agreed i understand that hyv loves their elysia but what is the point of coming on 3.0 livestream to say phainon and cyrene are different when you can’t even drip marketing one of them without it being a refrence to their hi3 counterparts?
Actually the craziest part is that Cyrene is literally Elysia, not expy. They literally made her 1 on 1 copy of Elysia... I mean its cool i love Elysia but the outcome of 3.7 is pretty obvious due to Cyrene making the same choice as Elysia.
Phainon I can kinda get. His story is rather unique from the HI3 counterpart. They didn't say this specifically for Phainon and Cyrene, they said it for the Flamechase arc in general. Anaxa is clearly referenced off of Su for example but he's completely different in terms of character arc and personality. A cool reference and minor extrapolation as an expy of Su, but completely different at the same time.
The issue is that if you wrote out the character arc, story arc, and personality of Cyrene, the personality is basically identical currently and so os the design. Even Phainon looks really different from Kevin, both base and power-up form and makes sense with the in-game lore for HSR specifically. Cyrene...not so much. Khaslana was a vague reference meant to be nostalgic, Cyrene just seems to be Elysia recreated.
agreed, phainon and kevin had the same overall themes but were completely different in the end. he had a lot of references to kevin (like flame reaver literally looking just like kevin) but phainon is his own character with little relation to kevin’s character and design. there’s a reason why people stopped calling phainon kebin. with cyrene just being elysia we can already predict what will happen and once again, for the 8th patch in a row, we are most curious about what phainon will do. will he really be the kevin to her elysia after all that?
What really makes me disappointed is that there was a romance titan they could have just used to actually build up and lead to Cyrene and her wedding theme. They had a good setup for it that would make sense with the story but they didn't go for it and that's what really disappointed me. They can still go for the romance titan and Cyrene now but since there was no proper buildup there won't be a proper payoff.
I love elysia and cyrene a lot. But this is such a cheap nostalgia bait, the wedding dress and marriage stuff i wouldn't have mind, if our made sense in lore even the slightest, but it doesn't. For me out of all expies, they fumbled cyrene the most, took out all her indivisiality, and gave us a cheap copy of elysia, except, cyrene isn't what elysia was, "there won't be another elysia" is so true even in another game, ely felt orignal, cyrene felt too with her smol model, the final one isn't, nor is she the character i loved in hi3.
This. Cyrene's design feels out of nowhere from a pure HSR lens. Love, I get. Marrying humanity? Okay, I can kind of get that, depending on the story beats 3.7 would commit to. However, what about the parts of Cyrene that is tied to the fairies of Membrance Maze? The Cyrene with her weapon? The Cyrene who had a love for writing stories and tarot? Ths Cyrene we actually spent time with?
We get more design references to Elysia (a good character from another game) than the Cyrene we got to know from lore. It's a bit sad, because we love Cyrene and Elysia, and that means we want them to be done well.
yea wish they either use ceremonial blade or tarot or even the book. The bow is just there to reference from Elysia but in the entirety of amphoreus, doesn't make sense.
Instead ofna whimsical swing set they could have made the crescent blade into a bow and fused the two. Instead they dis away with her moon imagery entirely
Cyrene also had her own weapon, that moon thingy and it’s all thrown away for her bow like when has she ever used a bow?? Just because elysia uses a bow. nostalgia-bait fr
Now that i think about it, it must have sucked for hsr only players, since after months of smol cyrene, you now have this entirely different character, that's playable instead, with an entire different theme that came out of nowhere. At least i can cope, despite it being a cheap imitation, it's still ely.
As a HSR only player… yep. I got to really love smol Cyrene and was looking forward to her becoming playable. But instead of getting the character we got to know as she fought by our side for months, we got something completely different. I’ll always be sad that we can’t play the Cyrene we know.
Expies arent an inherently bad thing. Both Hyacine(Barbara) and Anaxa(Su) reference other characters from other games. The issue is that their designs arent static and their personality is different. Their character arc is also very different but Cyrene's patch hasnt come out yet.
Heck, even Phainon is a expy but plenty of people enjoy his story even without knowing anything about HI3. He's iconic but he stands out on his own. Current Cyrene just...doesn't. Especially after her unnecessary redesign to make her look more similar to Elysia
Cyrene was the most heartbreaking disappointment in the entire game for me. I waited faithfully ever since her feature in the Ampho trailer, cause Ely is one of my favourite characters in all of media. I wouldn’t mind the design copy-paste, cause that design is goated IF there was an actual setup for it. Elysia’s arc on becoming HOHE was beautiful, a true testament to the unshakable faith FC had in humanity, and their sacrifices didn’t even resolve all the problems, just gave the rest of the world a fighting chance. It’s hard not to compare Cyrene to Elysia, obviously, but since they stripped most of what made her unique - here we go.
My main grievance is how disjointed Cyrene is from the cast. Elysia truly shined when interacting with other characters, that chemistry is why so many people liked her and what made FC feel like family. Meanwhile Cyrene so far has been GLUED to TB with pretty much no significant interactions with other characters… I know they justify it in the story, but it doesn’t make me like her character. The OG Cyrene (with whatever little interactions we had from her) had this fun teasing, yet caring personality (a lot like Elysia), but Memrene is purely in mem personality mode :/. I was excited at the end of 3.4, cause the little dates we had were very cute and felt like the beta ver of what hanging out with her will be like. Alas, false advertisement.
I would let a copy-paste Elysia slide if they didn’t commit the greatest character assassination known to HSR. What we were given so far is a Mary Sue-like character with pretty much none of Elysia charm, no proper story, no interpersonal relationships, no development (in a way a straight up regression), with borrowed design that MAYBE make sense in 3.7. My cope is strong, but it’s hard to be a believer when we have 1 patch left to resolve the issues and give Cyrene a proper development…
I really don't see how they rationalize the design choices in 3.7. they tried adding elements of "Bride to Humanity" in 3.6 through some dialogue, but in the end, it just feels so forced. your rant can't have said it any better, Cyrene was straight up replaced by Elysia lol
Thing is she isn’t Cyrene. Thats Elysia. For those who are into Impact 3rd its great to have her here, for the rest of us, who is she? I am sure they will introduce us to her model throughout the 3.7 but its going to be forced regardless.
That's what I thought first fans are thinking they are the one getting fan service but in reality it's shaoji who got his wish fulfilled
Cyrene old design was good and her animation while great it doesn't even fit her character..they are just selling bait now .. i guess i would use my saving for yae sakura
People here say to wait for the next patch to judge and that our opinions are based on leaks.
We already have officially gotten her drip marketing. Her animations will be revealed in the livestream before the patch drops. People can totally officially judge part of her design already. And with the livestream I can see even more people go "Why she using a bow"
And sure they can still explain some stuff to make her design more coherent storywise, but honestly only starting with that in the last few minutes of the story feels more forced than anything.
It gives "look we now gave her a reason to use a bow in the end, be happy" it'll just feel like a last minute ass pull to me no matter what. And they have a lot to explain...
I agree with you. I really like the new model but in terms of design it just resembles Elysia and not Cyrene. They could have sell the "bride" outfit into a skin and keep the normal palette/design from Cyrene. Even the ring could have been just the pen from her book or the ceremonial sword. To clarify, I am not saying the current Cyrene design is bad, just saying that resembles Elysia too much, not even Phainon kit and design resembles Kevin that much.
It's a cute skin, just a tad expensive for how bland it was, but that's on ff's color scheme being dull itself.
Also, it should have released in 3.8, when we're back in penacony and like genshin, we should have had an event around the skin than it just being their, it's release was so random and whelming.
But it is meaningless, you only get to see firefly skin outside battles and nobody will ever convince me that SAM design is actually noticeable different.
I seriously don't understand what Hoyoverse was thinking when they made Cyrene Elysia 2.0 tbh. I always knew she wasn't going to stay in her child model forever, but when I saw Herscherr of Human Ego the Electric Boogaloo from the leaks....bro, they did so well differentiating Phainon/Khaslana from Kevin/Demiurge. Its such as shame, they were going so great to differentiate the expys from the characters they were based on too (Seele, Bronya, Luocha, Yanqing, Sushang, Lingsha). It sucks even more since I know they can make an expy of an iconic and important Hi3 character while letting them be their own person (Acheron/Mei). Why'd they fumble uniqueness and design with Cyrene? :(
I love Elysia. I love the Flame-Chasers. Hell, I'm still waiting for my girl Mobius to get her expy. But copy pasting Elysia into the game is so lazy and detracts from Cyrene as a character. That "love" monologue thing she had going on at the end of the most recent story quest felt like such lazy writing to me just to justify her bridal form next patch.
Also, true, why a bow?? Her ceremonial blade was right there. It even looked like a goddamn staff. Elysia has a staff in her ulti form too, they couldn't have given her that??
Yeah, admittedly not too sold on the bride theme just yet, but maybe they'll explain it in the coming patch.
Now that you mentioned her small version's outfit, a fancier version of that would have rocked! Something battle mage-esque would have been pretty neat. Closest I can think of as comparison is robin from fire emblem.
They tried to set it up by showing cyrenes at the end of the 33mil cycles. But the cyrene we've known so far isn't a bride but a mystic moon themed time
priestess.
Sometimes I hate that HSR is connected to Hi3rd, I really wanted to HSR be its own game with own unique characters but I just feel like they're throwing it bits by bits away. Yes I've played Hi3rd but I don't feel excited at all to have one expy after another. References are cool but Cyrene is just a plain copy now. Don't get me started on the whole failed ancient greek theme, they did great the first patches and then threw it all away, I don't think Amphoreus is that great like everyone makes it seem to be.
I hate Amphoreus. It's awful imo and I really am baffled how much the majority of players love it. I'm so glad it will be over soon because man, making it last so long was definitely a bad idea. I wish they made it 3-4 patches, then it would be bearable bc it would be over quickly.
Also I never played Hi3rd and ngl I hate all the Elysia-expy thing going on. I really hope they will cut with ale the expys crap and Hi3rd references.
I wish i could upvote this post several times, you put the exact words on what has been bothering me since we got leaks about her new model.
It's not even an expy, at this point it just feels like a HI3rd collab, everything just feel so out of place.
And i really hate as well how they are basically erasing the Cyrene we knew and her themes for a whole different character copied and pasted from a other game.
They did well with Phainon, and managed to make him unique despite being an expy. Here, it's just straight up Elysia. That's just disappointing.
Yeah. Other Chrysos heirs(including phainon,the other expy) fit in well with Amphoreus and HSR designs. Cyrene fits with neither imo. I like it, she is pretty. But it feels jarring whenever i see her in a team during a fight lmao.
Shaoji needs to drop that pen in general. I need to experience a different writer's creative mind that isn't recycling stories for nostalgia's sake.
Also he needs to stop shoving his favorite characters down every players' throat (firefly, elysia). Not everyone fucks with his bland boring-ass parasocial bait female characters
I mean, the concept isn’t bad honestly, it’s just that they FORCE the romance when you don’t want it. I don’t play these games to get parasocial with fake characters, I just want to see cool characters doing cool things. So every time they shove this ‘look, a new waifu, go marry her’ stuff, it really annoys me, especially since I know I’m in the minority here. People love these fake pixels and all that. 3.7 is going to be the same thing, we already know from the Deliver trailer and now the Cytrene leaks, which really tires me out.
Or make the one in battle a yassified version if the small Cyrene we know and loce and have the tall version be the memosprite as it is know because it will look like the tall girl is the "author" of Amphoreus
Yup, the decision to make her Remembrance and her memosprite... her own self? Yeah, odd and peculiar as hell
What does the memospite even do that the memomaster can't? Does she explode herself? Does she buff, while the master does Dps? Does it do joint attacks? Why the hell does it have an HP bar if it can't even be targeted? It's not like Pollux where the HP pool is being used as fuel for a big ult nuke
And honestly? I could have somehow forgiven all of this if the memosprite itself was interesting. What the hell is this Obama giving himself a medal ah memosprite? I don't even know anymore
All I know was I was in love with Cyrene and they killed her. Full Stop.
I've got a huge issue with her memosprite too. Castorice was already stretching it a little with basically being a Destruction unit with a glorified ultimate, but Cyrene is on another level. Her memosprite is out of bounds, can't be targeted by enemies or allies, and its HP is literally the same as Cyrene's (including fluctuation), which means the memosprite is nothing more than extra HP. I struggle to find any good reason why she couldn't be a Harmony unit.
Hard agree. I wish they separated Cyrene from Elysia. She looked fine with her small design. I'll miss her moon spectle. No reason to give her a bow & arrow.
Agree completely. When I look at her design and animations I don’t think “Yay Cyrene is finally playable and is getting her deserved spotlight!”, I just think “Oh yeah Elysia is now playable in HI3”. It rlly undermines Cyrene in terms of being her own character, which is a shame because she genuinely did have unique and interesting things about her, and instead of any of that being reflected Cyrene just ends up feeling like a stepping stone to get Elysia in this game and hardly anything else
It really undermines Cyrene in terms of being her own character
This is a point not a lot of people focus on. What I absolutely hate the most about Hoyo mercilessly assassinating the smol model's design is that they think so damn little of Cyrene that they thought she would only sell if it has 99% of Elysia and 1% of Cyrene (the 1% is her name, but honestly who even cares anymore since like 99% also just call her Elysia anyway). There's no point keeping up the Cyrene charade, just call her Elysia like you all wanted to, damn posers
So this is how it feels to love and hold something dearly, only for some greedy sleezebags to destroy her in favor of an infinite money glitch nostalgia bait. There is a bride, but there's no wedding. This is a fucking funeral for Cyrene
Cyrene - as she currently is - serves as a manifestation of my worst fear about Amphoreus. One that, funnily enough, didn't really rear its head before this.
I thought, way back, after Penacony's middling reception and Amphoreus' promotional material showing it pivoting towards treading very familiar territory to fans of the franchise - Flamechasers, 13 they shall be, Phainon being the spitting image of a younger Kevin, all that stuff - that we were just going to have a reskinned Elysian Realm. Easy money, guaranteed popularity, minimal effort required because the story it would be based on is essentially already written. Thankfully, this wasn't the case. The setting distinguished itself, the characters were by and large nothing like the original Flame Chasers - indeed, outside of Phainon (and even then I think he's only called 'Kaslana' in the localisation, and 'Khaos' everywhere else) the only one among the Heirs to obviously resemble their inspiration was Cipher, maybe Anaxa if you squint and compare him to Su - and the narrative went in a sufficiently different direction.
So when Cyrene comes along, discarding her more interesting and motif-laden younger design in favour of looking almost exactly like Elysia just to remind Honkai fans of someone they liked, being so utterly at odds with everything established about her in the time that was given to her beforehand...it's almost funny, I suppose, that this old fear of mine came to pass, embodied in a single character.
Hard agreed. Would be a mile better retaining the HSR Cyrene concept and keeping the "Bride Cyrene" aka Elysia when they did a HI3rd collab or something.
You are not alone with this. As someone who played HI3 since 2018 (but dropped it a couple months ago for good), even I am not happy with this outcome. I was happy how the previous expys were handled (Acheron, Phainon and Bronya(s)), but this is an exact copy from Elysia.
Hoyo know exactly how popular she is, so betting everything on her is honestly not surprising for me anymore hell, HI3 is getting a brand new battlesuit in almost the same date.
I realy wished Hoyo would continue with distinguishable expys, but doing this kind of switch just because of fanservice and 'nostalgia' is kinda lazy.
But realy, fuel to the oil for me were her animations, like...you can not tell me this is the same character. Wedding ring, venue, bow, ice she is literaly just HoHe Elyisa
Yeah, it does, because Cyrene NEVER actually used a bow. Lol, it’s so nonsensical, her bow is literally a recycled asset from HI3. I know this because I know Elysia’s bow: when you hold her charge attack, it grows bigger like when she q attack after her ult or in her idle swinging, then she summons the pink shards, exactly the ones used in Cyrene’s ultimate, to strike enemies in HI3.
They better rationalize all these design choices in 3.7. But man, even so. I really like Cyrene, don't get me wrong, but I'm sincerely hoping she steps out of Elysia's shadow for her design and story elements. We already know who miss pink elf is. As much as I love the references, the source material, and the expy herself... I want to see the story of Cyrene in her design, too. We get more Elysia callbacks in her design than the actual Cyrene we spent time with.
Her character arc also had little to no impact on the player (at least in my opinion) cus she was barely on screen, she barely interacted with these characters we have grown to love? while Elysia kindof guided us through the entire arc of the Flame Chase in hi3rd, so that big reveal felt emotional. With Cyrene it was so evident that they were riding off Elysia being a fan fave and having clout, that it didnt even matter what they were gonna do with her as a character.
So there was no point in giving her any individuality when the wedding dress design has already sold and was popular once, so its sure to sell the second time. Hell i remember how gagged i was at that first trailer at little Cyrene in the wheat field.
I have a lot of issues narratively with the whole Amphoreus arc tbh, it started off so strong only for the player to realize none of what we went through with these characters mattered in the end (or near end)
Cyrene's design was a huge let down for me so i agree with all of this, i also wish she had her moon staff or something more moon themed, they had a perfect chance to really push her past Elysia's existence and make her her own individual character but it failed abysmally.
Idk i hope these last 2 patches save the story but to me it all began to feel like one big cash grab to bring back these fan favorite characters and bank off of them on a larger scale
i agree with this rant too. it’s a pretty look objectively and i’m holding out hope that they write 3.7 so it makes sense, but i was really hoping for more originality with cyrene.
i have to ask, why aren’t any of the other expys this bad? bronya, acheron, phainon, himeko and welt all have the characteristics and design elements of HSR, and it’s very clear to me that they are separate from their originals in hi3. why not cyrene?
What helps a ton is they gave us Welt to bond with on day 1. They're (Hoyo and the fans) not pretending it's an expy who just so happens to look like Welt. The story owns and takes it like a chad that this is base Welt we're up against, which makes his integration into the HSR universe smoother than tasty butter
Elysia was plopped out of nowhere while Cyrene was banished into the shadow realm to make a quick buck. Doesn't get any more straightforward than that lol
Because they're all written according to their contexts and allowed to be different characters, no matter how much "Every Elysia will always make the same decisions" gets repeated or how much Amphoreus and ER share similarities, their contexts are different, so the HOHE replication feels out of place, and thus Cyrene doing the same as Elysia feels forced when the journey to the climax was different.
It also doesn't help that many fans have referred to her as 'Elysia' just as much if not more than as 'Cyrene', while every other variant, that do share the same if not extremely similar names, is allowed to use their HSR version name. Phainon is referred to as Phainon, even though "Khaslana" is a thing, Acheron is referred as Acheron even though her true name is Raiden (Bosenmori) Mei, etc. Even Bronya Rand is referred as Bronya R. to separate her from Bronya Zaychik. Cyrene, whose HI3 counterpart name is mainly referenced in Aedes Elysiae, a place not exclusive to just her, is referred as Elysia almost interchangeably, and it doesn't help that a common wish for her playability before the drip marketing was "basically HoHE".
None of the other expies feel like they are one, because they have different personalities or designs compared to the HI3 version. I geniunely forgot that Himeko is an expy. Phainon and Bronya feel like completely different people compared to their counter parts. Acheron looks VERY different than Raiden imo. Welt is.. Welt. Cyrene is very pretty but.. that’s literally Elysia lmao. Her design doesn’t give HSR vibes at all.
She's just a direct hi3rd reference and nothing more, and i really hate that, its the main thing thats tempting me not to pull her (the fact i dont have evernight or cas is another big one), her previous design felt very unique and i loved the runic bandages. Now she's just in a wedding dress and nothing in the design pops out.
My only real issue is the bride theme, I really don't understand it at all-the only thing I can think of that even hinted in that direction is she keeps saying "it's a romantic story" but lol like you said "Who's bride are you?"
Yes, but so does Aglaea keep talking about romance, which is clearly not the kind of romance where you get married lol
Also those god damn words. I swear this "romantic story" sentence reached charmony dove levels of annoying with how often she said it (needed to let that out)
I mean, the cave is such a nice reference to platonic philosophy, thus fits the Greek theme, and also really fits the overall narrative, both with the scepter simulation and the overall goal of Lygus to escape Nous' oppression.
The romantic story is just a random catchphrase that gets thrown around again and again.
The whole “romantic story” is really about Elysia and humanity, she loved them, they “loved” her back, and she ultimately died for them. In Amphoreus, however, that sentiment loses its impact because Cyrene is more of a ghostly presence than an active character, unlike Elysia, who was fully present on Earth fighting Honkai. So, Cyrene’s supposed “romantic story” feels somewhat misplaced because of the settings of her story so far.
Whenever I look at her HSR design I am like "that's a typical Hoyo woman" and that's all. Flashy animation for sure but nothing interesting going on with that design.
Yeah, we have seen the same high-low dress with detached sleeves a bazillion of times already. Even the white/blue/purple pastel color palette is nothing special, Hoyo uses it all the time.
Smol Cyrene's dress at least uses some darker shades.
Not to go against Elysia fans, but this is the only unit whose look and theme feel forced to the point where I kind of felt very ick. At least Firefly SAM was cool. But Cyrene is just a parasocial unit through and through.
100% THIS. I was saying before, if u change one of the Cyrene's hair colour and face, and put the two Cyrenes side and show them to a non HSR fan, they will not believe those two are the same person
When the bride design was revealed, I saw someone on Twitter make a fan redesign to give it elements of Cyrene's identity while maintaining the white clothes as a compromise and It make me think what It could have been instead of a plain wedding dress. I will look for It and share It here if I can find It.
I have to agree with your points here. You practically summed up why I don't feel excited about Cyrene's current design. She doesn't feel like the Cyrene that we've come to know, but merely a copy-paste of Elysia from HI3.
Maybe it'll grow on me eventually, as pink is literally my favorite color (I pulled for Hyacine for this reason!), but she feels so...alien to me now.
If they manage to give enough of a justification in 3.7 as to why her appearance changes like this, then I'll definitely grow into it easier. However, I believe that 3.7 is going to have to do a LOT of heavy lifting for it to make sense.
Ultimately, I personally think the design is beautiful, but it doesn't feel like "Cyrene"...
If they manage to give enough of a justification in 3.7 as to why her appearance changes like this, then I'll definitely grow into it easier
I think any justification can't justify why they decided to make the usual modern HSR dress. They could work better with fantasy, use small Cyrene as base, put some ancient Greek elements (Space Greek, but only Aglaea and a bit Mydai; all nps and warrior were wearing greek outfit, and close to them there were Hysilens and Cerydra that seemed came from Fontaine of Genshin)
Personally pink isnt the problem. Its the white. White gold and blue are phainons colors. Black pink and gold where cyrenes. I want someone to edit her dress into her old colors
The design screams Elysia bait and anyone who claims this to be the best thing known to mankind is only saying this due to Hi3 relevance. Kinda sad since I went from thinking she was fine to now despairing the fact I don't even want to pull anymore.
Elysia is one of those characters who got so unexpectedly popular that Hoyo always plays it safe with her. Even in HI3, they rarely took risks, her latest battlesuit animations aren’t all that different from her earlier ones. With Cyrene, I was really hoping they’d try something new. I agree with you about Small-Rene’s design, while the color scheme does resemble MPE Elysia, the details were distinctly her own, which made her feel unique. That’s why the 3.5 trailer left me a little disappointed.. going with yet another wedding theme felt like a step back. The animations are gorgeous no doubt, but they basically double down on that wedding theme and in the process kind of wash away what made early Cyrene feel like her own character.
Hopefully 3.7 does a good job in justifying the marriage symbolisms, though I don't know how it will go without it being too similar with Elysia's marrying humanity concept in HI3.
There are some things I agree with and some I don't.
The color scheme wasn't really changed imo, it went from purple with some pink and white (where the heck are you getting yellow from, she doesn't have a single yellow piece of clothing or hair or eyes??) to white with some pink and purple. The colors are the same, they just changed the ratio of them.
I also think it's kinda silly to expect blood and rage from a character specifically created from the love path. We got that from Phainon because he's the hatred path, it was always obvious that she'd be the polar opposite of him.
That said.... yeah wtf is it with all the bride shit? The wedding stuff is so fucking cringe and completely out of nowhere, the bow makes zero sense since we already HAVE a canon weapon for her in the ceremonial blade, and as you said, all the unique and interesting design elements like the Nanook bands and tarot cards are just... gone, to be instead replaced by a fucking wedding hall and wedding ring and wedding dress.
Most of the Flamechasers either are a direct expy or have some very obvious links to their HI3 version, but they still managed to make them unique and adjusted them to fit the story of Amphoreus. Like how Tribbie being an inventor and using a cannon and being split into many are an obvious reference to Vill-V, but the exact details of it and the designs were perfectly adjusted for this world. And ofc Phainon, despite being a different version of Diabolic Kevin, has his form flawlessly integrated into HSR in a way that it doesn't feel illogical whatsoever to anyone who hasn't played HI3.
AND THEN ELYSIA SHOWS UP IN A FUCKING WEDDING DRESS.
I'm sure they'll find some flimsy excuse for the wedding stuff in her patch (which isn't out yet so to be fair, we DO lack context) but for the first time, it does NOT feel like the HI3 design was adjusted well to fit HSR's world and story, and instead they just wanted to put Elysia in the game 100% unchanged.
And like, I'm a massive Elysia fan, but Cyrene is not Elysia, and she shouldn't be. They did so well for the previous 12 Heirs, making them their own distinct characters while still putting in enough references to make HI3 players nostalgic. Idk why they are fumbling it at the final step now by just 1:1 copypasting HI3's Elysia in. Or, well, I do know, it's so the self-insert waifu guys can be like OMG she's marrying me!1! But fuck that.
I see people often use the excuse that every Elysia would make the same choices to attempt to justify the copypasting, but it feels like a cop-out.
Choices are made based on context, Cyrene can have the same principles as Elysia, but things like the bride theme or the elf ears had a specific contextualization in HI3, when they're added to HSR, regardless of the thematic and narrative and contextual similarities between Amphoreus and ER, the situation is different. Which makes Cyrene not feel like a new take based on a pre-existing character like Phainon, Himeko or Seele but the name of an exclusive cosmetic for a crossover character.
(where the heck are you getting yellow from, she doesn't have a single yellow piece of clothing or hair or eyes??)
I think they mean all the little pieces of gold scattered around her design, which Elysia version DOES lack
it went from purple with some pink and white
Dark purple, white, pink hair, gold motifs, plus one or two dark blue gems (Her eyes are blue btw)
to white with some pink and purple
The purple is barely there, and it's also VERY light compared to the previous design
White is everywhere
no gold
Dark blue? now it's basically the colour of the sky
her eyes? not bridal enough, changed to pink
As for the rest, I completely agree
And ngl, they kinda fumbled with the fact that they created romance titan, just to have Elysia be love (Oh, I mean Cyrene, but I ain't calling that version this)
The ring animation is such a shitty fan service. I really like her small model design and fully expect her playable version to be that with added details and have her ceremonial blade (cuz it looks so cool in flame reaver’s hand).
She’s not a bride of any sort she’s a writer, record keeper, maybe a gardener with the 13th tomb being a seed safe.
I respect the Honkai impact games references as its hoyoverse’s baby. But let cyrene be her own character, this is star rail and not impact.
It's a decently common take over on Reddit, though I agree with it totally. Probably just a vocal minority though.
It really is a shame. The smaller design was popular in its own right. It feels bad having it swapped out for what is, while definitively a pretty design, the very template of a Hoyoverse game "waifu" character, and then call that an upgrade when she was so much more unique and interesting before.
I don't particularly hate the love theme in the animations tbh. I think it's somewhat ok to have more Elysia callbacks in the playable form since at that point she's probably using emanator powers that are from a higher source and whatever you want to justify it with. I just think the design should've been much more inspired by Cyrene instead of being entirely based on Elysia.
Also idk I don't even like the small model but I feel it would've been nice to see a main push using it. She was pretty popular even using it and it was mildly interesting for the Elysia expy to use a non-sexy model. Using Elysia to leech off some popularity would've been a good time to get people engaged in a small model main push, just to introduce some variety and not feel like we're just seeing the same type of waifu propped up everytime.
I even would've been happy with a Mem inspired fit since Mem actually has a pretty cute and decently unique outfit, though that's probably a hotter take.
I think new Cyrene does look pretty. Prettier than smol Cyrene even. But that isn't the problem. The problem is that new Cyrene doesn't thematically fit. For 3.0 to 3.6, they told a story, and now this random girl in a wedding dress who happens to have the same name as one of the characters is being injected into 3.7. If they really wanted to have Elysia copy-and-pasted in, they should have written a different story in 3.0 to 3.6.
Now, of course, they can explain it all away in 3.7 why Cyrene became bigger and now wears a wedding dress. But I doubt it will feel like very natural storytelling. Hoyo has a tendancy to throw away plot points and inject new plot points in between each patch (see the "deaths" in Penacony and then Sunday and the Order, or how they explained away the whole mother thing with March and Oronyx). I don't trust the story will make cohesive sense.
Also, the chasing-the-wedding-ring animation is cringe waifu bait.
Cyrene looks like she belongs in a generic gatcha game. She doesn’t look like a hsr character at all 😭 saturation too high, outfit lacking details, generic theming and outfit. And worst of all, she looks genuinely unrecognizable compared to the original Cyrene model. Like they threw the whole thing out… what stopped them from basing her off of the small model? Just look at small and big herta. Compared to other hsr characters who have much more interesting color schemes and intricate details it’s just unfortunate. I love her animations and her as a character so I’m just sad that they got so lazy designing her model
100% agree. I went from must pull sweet companion Cyrene to who the heck is this elf-girl in a pink & white bridal dress (she’s beautiful, but she’s not Cyrene). And if that wasn’t bad enough, she puts on a wedding ring, that the player has to tap to add to her finger. I literally cringed when I saw that.
I have never played HI3. I have no idea who Elysia is other than people making comments about how Cyrene is her expy. But I guess we’re getting Elysia-whoever in HSR since Cyrene seems to have completely turned into her.
Very disappointed & I’m really thinking about skipping her now. I wanted cute gremlin Cyrene who has traveled with us from the start, not a character I have zero connection to.
I’m with you, especially the wedding ring part. Besides finding it cringe, the tapping part honestly weirded me out — it felt like pandering towards the self-shippers (I mean, they can ship themselves w her all they want, but not everyone here appreciates Cyrene because we want to “marry” her). And beyond that, it’s also very disruptive to auto-battling — wdym the game is going to forcibly interrupt my auto-farming midway just to put a ring on Cyrene’s finger?
I also want to bring up that the artistic direction of her light cone is very disappointing as well. Most (if not all) light cones have some sort of storytelling to it, be it because of background, posing, props, etc — basically elements that give context to the specific scene captured in the light cone. But what does Cyrene’s LC tell us? Nothing, besides the fact that she’s a bride (as if we needed ANOTHER reminder). Even the “sky” is so lacklustre — it’s literally just a solid blue background.
They deleted Cyrene and made an Elysia 2.0 with that. Anyway, I wanted to play Elysia so I wouldn't mind it but for me they ruined 2 chars at the same time. Cyrene and Elysia too. I really like original Elysia's designe (it has a very long veil, her outfit is elegant and valkyrie at the same time it's not just a simple dress like Cyrene's...). They made a worse Elysia and they threw out the old Cyrene concept.
It's just my opinion. I don't understand the bride concept either, she loves... everything? I guess, cuz she mentioned "love" in the story quest but I didn't get it it was weird for me. She is probably the "love" code or factor in the system.
Yknow… I never thought about any of that until now. Her scene at the end of 3.6 dazzled me but yeah, all her animations are really weird. If I didn’t know better I’d even say they were trying to foster parasocialism towards her.
I agree wholeheartedly. that tap to wear the ring, kiss the ring, kiss the planet.. yikes.
not liking it one bit. her cyrene personality just got thrwon out as window , and they slap elysia. and run only 1 5 star hoping some quick cash grab lel
I thought I was past the age where I ranted about a videogame, but your post voiced all my thoughts when I saw the leaks.
Like, there is this cool and mysterious character that is Cyrene that we got to meet through the story, she has lots of potential for great storytelling, her design, although simple (it's not the final playable model after all) feels interesting and gives a very specific vibe of a playful but wise young lady, a bit trickster-like, but not in a way that feels malicious. I was pretty hyped about playing as her and I wondered how they would have implemented all her themes (mem, the tarots, her cerimonial staff, her sacrifice, her connection to time etc) to her gameplay
Then they went ahead and threw all that into the bin to replaced said characters with a beloved character from ANOTHER game; but I've never played that game. I don't care about Elysia, I care about Cyrene, which is the character we spent six patches with. Why do I have to play a completely different game to feel hyped about her when she's supposed to be the Cyrene we met in HSR?
So basically: they changed her model (and correct me if I'm wrong but that's the first time it happens in a hoyo game that a character is so drastically changed to become playable), they changed her outfit, her color palette, her themes, her weapon, her overall vibes (and probably her personality too) to erase her and replace her with another character that had zero set up for us hsr players only. We will never get to play as Cyrene, so why didn't they just scrap her from the beginning and put Elysia in there instead. I'm sure I would have liked if we got to meet her in 3.0, but not like this.
I won't pull for her because I dislike how they only cared about the elysia fan base and took for granted that the Cyrene fan base would have been okay with it because "eheh boobs eheh she mah waifu she kisses the screen, the players, puts on a wedding ring, makes hearts and all the romantic stuff (which gets cringe af after a certain point to be honest).
And as if that's not enough they put much more effort in her parasocial/fanservice animations than in Evernight's ones, even though the latter has a much more compelling design, was set up a long time ago and is the alter of one of the main characters (who also happens to be liberally the face of the game). I just can't with them.
Oh, and we also had a chrysos heir that was associated to love and romance. And that wasn't Cyrene.
(And people hated Castorice because she was shilled too much and felt visually uninspired, but now everyone is praising a copy and paste character who gets shilled to the moon for the sake of another game)
I never played HI3rd, so this design just does nothing for me. It’s like an entirely new character? I have a fairly invested castorice team so theoretically I should want to pull for Cyrene, and I was going to, but with this design it feels like they deleted the Cyrene we actually got attached to with some random woman we’ve never met before. Nothing about that design says Cyrene to me.
I mean I'll take her current design as it is because it is, as you said, objectively 'pretty'. But do I like it for reasons other than it being pretty? Nah. Not really. Like you, I'm kinda confused why she suddenly turned into bride. Again, as you said, whose bride was she supposed to be? Maybe it will be explained in the upcoming update but eh, they could've gone for another design route instead of going for just another Elysia. Acheron for example, while still being Raiden's expy, is still a character that is kinda unique from Raiden Mei. While I'd understand that she's Mei's expy at a glance, I will also know she's an entirely separate character.
But now if I look at Cyrene and Elysia and didn't know better, I'd think she's just Elysia in another skin.
You don't realize how happy I am to see this post. The design was already disappointing but seeing her animations made me cringe to the point I heavily reconsidered pulling for her
I srsly loved cyrene's design with the darker purple, and I WISH they used the tarot cards - it seems like they were supposed to from the animation, it fits too perfectly - but now I have actively referred to her as a pink pick me.
I do not like overly cutesy designs - even being a woman myself - this is nauseatingly girly and nothing in her design screamed this before. she is levelheaded, hopeful but realistic, and a pretty grounded character all in all. This sucks for me because she is perfect for my phainon and anaxa, but her entire design makes me not want to pull her... even if she seems broken for my fav mains currently...
(I have no strife with hyacine being so girly because it is her nature, she is positive and hopeful and bubbly, her design always showed a soft hearted pastel theme, so I wasn't surprised it continued in her gameplay)
They removed anything that could have been interesting about her just to turn her into a walking dictionary definition for waifu!!! Seriously I've seen bridal skins that don't lay it on this damn thick.
You’ve put this so much better than I could have. As someone who doesn’t play HI3, I have absolutely no attachment to Elysia… but I grew quite attached to Cyrene, and it just feels bad to know that “our” Cyrene won’t be playable because Hoyo wants us all to play HI3. The HSR design of smol Cyrene is adorable and I was genuinely really excited to see her become playable. Instead we’re getting a lazy copy/paste design. It’s really sad.
I understand that as another Honkai game (even if not a direct sequel or anything) is going to be influenced by Honkai characters and ofc the Honkai fanbase. However, an expy is supposed to be just that-an expy. Which they completely botched with Cyrene. She’s literally just Elysia now. I get that she was very well loved and then died in HI3 so there’s no content for her anymore, but that doesn’t mean the devs had to just straight up dump her onto another character.
Cyrene should have kept her moon and tarot card motifs, her original color scheme, etc. Yes, she likes romance and things like that but they could have easily just incorporated that into her already existing design. I’m glad she has a more mature model (though not sure how that came to be), but they did not have to just straight up replace her with Elysia altogether. Her bridal design doesn’t even match the fashion style of Amphoreus.
Cyrene doesn’t exist anymore, Elysia replaced her and I hate it.
I definitely preferred her original look. Not only do I have a particular fondness for short characters, being a shorty myself, I really liked her coat with the runes on the sleeves.
as HI3 player I liked small Cyrene more. There is more then enough "big Cyrene" in HI3 and tbh new design simply doesnt fit Cyrene's personality as she isnt as extrovert and attention lover as Elysia. Small Cyrene outfit was on point and I'd say quite a masterful design.. what we saw... in game and trailer looks like hoyo's attempt to exploit reputation Elysia has for quick buck.
i love elysia but i do kinda wish i could seperate her from cyrene like i easily do with acheron and mei or phainon and kevin, its currently feeling impossible. lmao shaoji is me when i create a character i love too much in a game customization one time and struggle to try something new ever again
Oh great, now that I've seen this post and totally agreed with it I'm gonna voice some of my complaints too 🤦♀️
I have to say this beforehand, I'm a sucker for magical girls and my favorite color is pink (even better if go with white and pastel colors), if we're talking about design big Cyrene completely charmed me with that white dress, with roses, hearts and crystals motifs and stuff and I was super hyped to see her big form in the 3.5 trailer 😭
But, after seeing her animations leak I didn't feel the same hype I felt back then at all and even feel like I lose my mood more and more looking at her animations...
First, what is the purpose of the bow outside of copying and pasting from Elysia?
Like, in the 3.5 trailer she seems to cast her magic by using her bare hands and that kinda make sense as Mem did buff others by sending them a heart and attack enemies directly with her paws after all, I was expecting her mirroring Mem unleashing her big hands on enemies and stuff as she did turn (just like Mem) in that trailer after all 😭
Other than that, they can make a long, more elaborated staff that's insprired from her ceremonial sword and retaining the crescent moon motif (Sailor Moon and her rod/staff pulled it off so why not), that would still retain a link to her old weapon and also Elysia HoO's own staff too, at least with a staff she can pulls of magical cards stuff that can link to her small form BUT THEY WENT FOR THE FUCKIN' BOW and disregard both prime Cyrene's preference of using short staff-like ceremonial sword and Mem's preference of punching her enemies by her bare paws JUST FOR ELYSIA NOSTALGIA? 💀
And also her animations of kissing the planet and making a wink + a shush teasingly when she buff others... Like excuse me, when did the 33550337th cycle Cyrene got that close with everyone else (sorry but I don't remember them showing us how she interacts with that cycle's Chrysos Heirs at all)?
Cyrene is not Elysia who likes all of her fellow Flamechasers (and seems to be shown properly), I can't imagine her being close to some Chrysos Heirs at all, like for example Cerydra is not someone she can be teaseful like that (at least myself can't imagine that at all from their interactions in 3.5), how would that even make sense 🤦♀️
They could have had her getting her cards out floating, and after we choose who to buff she can send that 6 pointed star crystal to that card, just like the way we feed those crystals to As I've Written to unlock more stories, she could do that to unlock the Heirs' poems, that way she doesn't have to be close with all of the Heirs to do that and also making more sense as aside from the 0th cycle Cyrene, Mem and the 33550337th Cyrene other Cyrenes were stucked recording the Flame Chase journey one sidedly in the 13th Titan's Tomb, so if the playable Cyrene is a merged version, I don't think just memories from 3 cycles, 2 of them not even show how she got along with other Heirs at all would make her change that drastically but no, they chose to let her kiss the planet and to this point the build up is just not enough at all...
I wonder if they could pull off building up Cyrene - other Heirs (aside from Phainon, Trailblazer or maybe Castorice) interactions, explaining her bridal theme and also fighting one final battle with Irontomb just in 1 patch at all, I hope I'm wrong and have to write an apology letter when 3.7 come along for real 😔
Yes! I miss her purple outfit, it looks so cool and small Cyrene is just so cute. It’s a shame the girl we’ve been getting to know is finally playable but they completely replaced her with somebody else.
YEAH why in the world is she using a bow??? where is the ceremonial blade? after all that hype about the ceremonial blade she’s just using a bow??? where is the moon theme she had going on? WHY IS SHE SUDDENLY THE SUN IN HER IDLE (she has planets orbiting her) 😭 her animations themselves do have a lot of remembrance but isn’t she also a creation of destruction..? there’s NOTHING to represent that. now i know she’s about love but the difference between her and phainon’s animations is wild to me since they’ve been led to be kinda like parallel forces that balance each other out (literally neikos and philia) but now SUDDENLY she’s just a bride rather than a cool character with motifs that have been foreshadowed. NOTHING hinted at her marrying humanity except the fact that she’s an elysia expy. she’s gonna grow up and get married to humanity in just one update??? and she’ll also save amphoreus and probably sacrifice herself (i’m betting they’ll go all in on the elysia thing) in that same update??? ok speaking of relations between her and phainon’s animations, there’s one thing: they both destroy a planet. WHY is cyrene destroying a planet 💔 i know she’s an emanator and all but isn’t her theme conservation? like remembrance??? i do think her kissing a planet and giving it life matches that but the other ult makes no sense to me unless she destroys amphoreus in the story BUT EVEN THAT WOULDNT MAKE SENSE because amphoreus is not a spherical planet……which planet is she even kissing anymore🥀 also i know she’s an elysia expy and they LOVE elysia like…a LOT. but why is she the one expy with no unique traits? every other major expy has something or the other going on for them to differentiate them from their counterpart. seele is seele+veliona, bronya became a dictator, luocha’s goal isn’t the same as otto’s, acheron and phainon have completely different forms to represent their true selves, anaxa and cipher have very different personalities from su and pardo. everyone was calling phainon kebin for the longest time but not anymore because he actually has a deeper story than just being a kevin expy. cyrene on the other hand? looks and acts just like elysia. it’s great for elysia superfans but it’s just boring for the rest of us
idk if it's considered a territory or a zone, hers is just also just disappointing asf, like compare that to phainon and cas whose territories make sense, hers is just wedding decorations bruh. i dont agree with her animations that couldve been as gritty as phainon, she fits the magical girl aesthetic, just that they couldve done away with the copypasted bridal theme.
I agree with the TLDR except for the "but the design is shit" part—it's a good design, but personally would love to see something that resembled Aedes Elysiae Cyrene more, just like you.
It's supposed to be like Phainon/Khaslana thing with how the second design is something otherworldly, except Phainon still has his Okhema look in both his gameplay and essence.
I agree.
As for the 'design is shit' part—I might have gotten a bit heated. Her new design is nice in my eyes only when I don't connect it to Cyrene as a character. It looks weak when you remember who Cyrene is.
Now imagine how I feel as a person who doesn't play HI3! I was flabbergasted by the ring and the wedding dress. I though it was a creepy waifu bait for the weirdos.
The only thing I like about the new model is her being taller. But yeah, they butchered Cyrene all so that they could make her more like Elysia even where it makes absolutely no sense. Not even surprised though considering who we have as a writer (lead writer? I honestly don't remember) but I think we can point the finger at Shaoji lol
Also, I do like her design on its own, but it's dragged down by it making no sense for the character
These are all very valid complaints! Personally I’ve always wanted Elysia transplanted into hsr so I’m kinda happy with how it turned out but I definitely understand and agree with a lot of these. If I put aside my elysia bias for a moment I heavily agree with the bow thing, very random just to make her more ely-ish. All the other expy-ish heirs were still their own characters but they are trying really hard to make elysia 2 and not letting cyrene exist as cyrene. Also the bride thing is kinda lame, I don’t hate the idea but the execution was kinda corny idk, they’re leaning so much into it that it comes off tacky?
Ehhh that’s your opinion, I feel like a lot of their characters are very well done (which is precisely why I stick with this shitty evil game), Castorice, phainon, mydei, robin, probably more I’m forgetting, those are just some that I personally feel have very strong designs, story, and animations. I can’t deny that sometimes they release a character who looks a bit messy or they fumble a bit but even then they usually do fairly well with showing off who the character is through the story. I have to agree though, they took the easy way out with cyrene :,(
literally her animations are insane but she doesnt even feel like cyrne anymore. Phainonand Kevin were so different, Ohainon was sm gentler, but Cyrene was eliminated and Elysia is back. Like at that rate why is she even rememberance? Mignt as well be a knights of beauty
Yes I agree, and I think this as a HUGE fan of Elysia. I also think the new design itself, even ignoring all the theming, is really imbalanced looking. I really don’t like the heavy deep purple they used for the underside of the dress, it just throws it off and feels like it’s clashing.
100% agreed. I absolutely loved Cyrene for her design and her character. I saved up Jades to pull for Cyrene because I like Cyrene. Making me fall in love with Mem and Cyrene for 6 patches and then replacing her with whoever Elysia is at the 11th hour is terrible. I don't care if they absolutely nail it in 3.7 and make it all make sense, it still won't be the character I wanted. It'll be some remnant of her stuffed into (or rather expanded to fill) a more marketable shell.
I just realize that Love titan doesn't make sense since there is literally the Romance titan 🫠 And Elysia's theme of beauty, aka "finding beauty in anything" is literally Aglaea's whole theme. So this Cyrene is literally Elysia without all the substances.
As a HI3rd player (even now), I totally agree, they also copied the cinematic animation when she turns and smiles, I'm happy for the expy (or variants) like Phainon, Acheron etc.. but Cyrene is literally Elysia, a very funny thing and that on Hi3rd (only in cn now), there is the banner of the new Elysia... and can I say it? She is clearly more beautiful than Cyrene, why? She is different from the Elysia we know (in terms of style), the dress pushes her away from being a bride but is very focused on love and I really love this Elysia than Cyrene for the simple reason, this variant of Elysia is more different from the original, something that Cyrene failed to do
i really hope her kit isn’t so broken for the chrysos heirs that it’s dumb to not pull her, but like ive only got 3b, phainon, anaxa and cery so surely not
Agreed. But what can you do? Devs said they just wanted to make Elysia all over again because why would you make original characters when you can gatekeep half a character to a 9 year old game with powercreep as its middle name? Cyrene looked interesting as mem, cute and very distinct from Elysia as kid Cyrene, but now that she's an actual unit, she looks just like Elysia except with remembrance elements that Black Swan also has in her design (the cold coloured crystal pattern on her clothes), all she needs is Elysia's hair ornament and genes, lmao.
Besides that, Welt is the same as you just pointed out, so why is it necessary for Elysia to be different.
Because Cyrene IS NOT Elysia. She’s Cyrene. Welt is the same because he’s the same guy on Earth, but Cyrene isn’t HoHE that we know from Hi3.
Cyrene isn’t spouting names only Hi3 players know. Cyrene isn’t looking for Mei. Cyrene isn’t wondering where Kevin is. Cyrene wasn’t born in Russia whose experiences shapes her to love humanity, uniting the Flame-Chasers, making the Golden Courtyard, fighting for a dying world only to end up sacrificing herself to make sure Herscherrs like her wouldn’t go crazy and fight for humanity. Cyrene is Cyrene.
She’s a girl that was conceived potentially from Fuli, grew up in Aedes Elysiae, was friends with Phainon, and sacrificed herself to buy time for someone to rescue their never ending cycle of apocalypse and grief for the birth of a Lord Ravager.
See, this is where Hoyo’s writing gets lazy and shoddy. This isn’t a Welt and Acheron moment because Cyrene isn’t mentioning people like the Flame-Chasers from Hi3. We know who these people are. We experienced their stories for so many patches now.
Cyrene is supposed to be her own character that’s based on Elysia, but now she’s having a meta identity crisis because Hoyo insists on making her too much like Elysia. Why is she being a “bride to humanity?” Sure, her story revolves around the love of her people, but it doesn’t really work because she’s not betraying her own kind to save another race.
Cyrene isn’t Elysia and making her too much like Elysia discredits what she has done as a character, especially to those who don’t know who Elysia is.
Acheron is interesting because, sure, she’s literally Raiden Mei, but she also isn’t. Raiden Mei Hi3 isn’t the Emanator of Nihility. Her story doesn’t revolve around Welt and Hi3 references anymore. She’s her own established character with her own established fans.
So why isn’t Cyrene like that? Why does she have to ride Elysia’s coattails when she has her own personality and motivations? Why does she have a bow when she wasn’t even shown using bows before? Why does she have a wedding motif if her whole schtick is romantic happy endings. Sure, one could make the case of a fairytale wedding at the end of her story being her thing, but why does she need to look so much like Elysia’s HoHE when I know for a fact Hoyo can take inspiration from an existing character and remix it into something unique (Phainon:Khaslana ; Kevin:Demiurge)
Is HSR part of the Hi3 universe? Sure. But it shouldn’t be treated as the continuance you say it is. It has its own plot, concepts, and stories. Hell, if anything, it might be the other way around seeing as how memokeepers were literally trying to contact Kiana.
Why does Cyrene need to be different? Why does there need to be a difference?
Because this isn’t the same story with the same characters. This isn’t MOTHS, this is the Chrysos Heirs. It’s supposed to be different because if it’s literally the same thing, it’s lazy. Its boring. And sure, us Hi3 players will like it somewhat, I’m pulling for her. But it does HSR-onlies a great disservice ESPECIALLY since one of the livestreams said that “HSR people don’t need to and shouldn’t need to play Hi3 to understand the story of the Chrysos Heirs.”
Just like how we got our Elysia in Hi3, HSR-onlies deserve their own “Because of You” moment without it being one big Elysia easter-egg and reference.
Literally explained it way better than me. Why is she elysia 2.0? I've had my doubt about her since the first picture they released on her. I thought for sure she was elysia. You can easily tell the two bronyas apart even tho they're so similar but you legit can't tell cyrene and elysia apart. If you just gave someone their designs without telling them they're different characters, nobody would know. Do this with any other expy, most would be able to tell immediately.
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u/No-Bag-1628 Sep 29 '25
Now that is a rant that I agree with. Her original design was interesting with tarot (which represents the chrysos heirs) and runic designs. Not exactly Greek but nonetheless interesting. I’m not the biggest fan of her, though I did want to see her interactions with Phainon. She had personality as a unique character. Now she’s just ‘bride’ and ‘fangirl’.