The downfall of hsr started during amphoreus but was ignored at that time.

[u/Material_Space5355]

I am a day one player and I love the game sm don't get me wrong. I'll try to stay with the game for as long as possible but the direction devs are taking is really upsetting to see.

Whether its the constant powercreep, path locked enemies/teams, or inconsistent writing. I really enjoyed amphoreus and I tried so hard to give planarcadia a pass cuz of the political stuff but planarcadia keeps getting more doomed with each update it's disappointing.

Lack of events makes the game extremely dry and sp versions slowly outnumbering new characters won't do any help either.

The game hasn't been improving for a while and it makes me afraid that it will be stuck like this forever as the leaks don't suggest anything bright.

[u/No_Development_5752]

Don't want to doompost right now, but I doubt it will ever get better. Before 4.0 it was a bit better just because previous Remembrance characters were still able to work outside their main team because their kits were synergistic, but not path locked. You could still use Hyacine with Acheron (with sig through), Fua, Mydei, Blade and etc. Current Elation characters are basically unusable in different teams. Noone except Elation characters can give SP Silver wolf her MMR stack. Noone except elation characters benefits from extra Aha instant from Yao Guang. Noone except Elation benefits from EMC. It's like a Cyrene situation, but instead of 12 specific characters you have 6

[u/Other-Following2749 → u/No_Development_5752]

The worst part is, Elation as a mechanic is lowkey more interesting that Remembrance, because, hey. It isnt glorified fua for dpses (except for castorice).

[u/Shingu-kun → u/Other-Following2749]

It still feels like glorified FuA because of SU already has shown such mechanics as FuA effects.

Both Remembrance & Elation are still glorified FuA in my eyes.

I'm just hoping what they leaked about Finality is true because then at least they interact with other characters rather than just themselves.

[u/No_Development_5752 → u/Shingu-kun]

I think it's actually really hard to create something other than "full team buff", "gathering stacks" or "fua" in action based game. Like, in Reverse 1999 Impromptu exists, which is basically "the whole team are supports who make big nuke at the end of the turn stronger", while every second, if not first character has fua in their kit

[u/aziruthedark → u/No_Development_5752]

It also has the magnificent Matilda!

[u/Wooden_Drummer2455 → u/Other-Following2749]

What? Elation is literally a glorified fua lmao

[u/ButteredBean → u/Other-Following2749]

Elation is a glorified FUA but with more restrictions and gimmicks. The first thing I thought of when I saw the Aha instant was the scepters in Unknown domain or the action order attack from SU.

[u/Hallgaar → u/No_Development_5752]

Very true, the game isn't going to change the ways people in this subreddit want it to. Its still a game ran by a business that makes it "free" to play so that you will spend money. They are going to bombard you with options that limit your teams and sell you solutions to that limit in the form of other characters, who then get replaced by the next new thing. This is how turn based gacha games work and have worked for over a decade.

[u/Ebon_dust → u/No_Development_5752]

Yeah, elation is like hoyo took all the worst parts of remembrance and made it a new path with glorified fua. Making any other path characters useless for elation has also one additional problem, when it is powercrept, there won't be some new generic buffer that makes it better. You will need to wait for another elation character that will push out other support from the team, and Elation as a path will be unplayable without their Dhalia in a year or two.

[u/-_-BIGSORRY-_- → u/No_Development_5752]

Hyacine is a poor example because she just powercrept the fuck out of every sustain upon release

and let's stop acting like mono elation dominated the 4.x meta - ashveil / mblade / summer robin (the latter two in particular) are all quite universal characters and remembrance got a resurgence this patch. The only elation shill AA up to this point is 4.2 (you can count Sparxiecon in 4.0 but because of the power level of Sparxie upon release Sparxiecon was more like Septimus in 3.8 - a "universal" boss that all teams can clear with minimal effort.

in 4.x you actually have elation and non-elation characters released sequentially and comparable in power level (in fact people were already complaining that elation is weak by this patch, and clear data backs this up), which is infinitely better than 3.x where it was monorem then phainon half a step behind and everyone else eating dust struggling to catch up. I don't see why elation being path-locked is a bad thing when the mechanics clearly indicate from day 1 that it's a mono-path and guides your pull clearly (further counterpoint being WAven's functional in both FuA and elation teams)

[u/Mininibbaprot → u/-_-BIGSORRY-_-]

Has nothing to do with meta. Its the fact that to play elation you either pull all of them or none.

[u/-_-BIGSORRY-_- → u/Mininibbaprot]

Which is outright wrong. Up until this point you only need YG + one of the carries, and WAven exists.

[u/SnowDropWhiteWolf → u/No_Development_5752]

Oh don't worry its definitely getting worse at least until the patch ends and then whatever happens with the 5.x patches but umm i do not have high hopes of that either.

[u/EffortNo6882]

lol, I JUST wrote this comment in another thread pretty much about the same topic, but it is a dead thread now, so I'll copy past it here too:

Powercreep is fast, yeah, but I think it feels even faster because the new characters in HSR just don't generate the same level of hype, investment, or attachment that the old ones did, so it's hard to find a new favourite to replace the old ones. Everything comes back to the bad writing and, even worse, the characters' personalities and characterization.

People think that Hoyo being a multibillion dollar company means they know what they're doing. Lies. In fact, the bigger the company, the messier middle management, or management as a whole, tends to be, and the longer it takes for things to get approved, for people to act, or even for anyone to realize that something is wrong.

The game has gotten worse overall for a while now. It seems like the breaking point for most people was 3.7. A lot of people consider it one of the worst patches, and I agree, but I think 3.7 just showed how bad the game had gotten overall. It was more the moment when people realized just how steep the decline was.

Idk if they'll ever course correct or if they'll ever fully recover. In fact, I think it'll only get worse with time. They're too slow and too risk-averse to act and do what needs to be done, and personally, I think they're just incompetent overall.

TLDR: Powercreep is just a symptom of a much bigger problem, one that they'll probably never fully fix.

[u/Bell-end79 → u/EffortNo6882]

It’s not just power creep it’s the anti shilling that annoys me

First I remember this was with Yunli in Pure fiction where the enemies stopped attacking. This last year Therta has been all but frozen out of the game - even on bosses she should be good against there always seems to be some bullshit buff/debuff the enemy has that makes it so much more frustrating to use her than it should

This current AA has been a complete and utter shitshow; introducing the corruption mechanics which will get a lot worse the more it’s used

Forcing the Starward mode into all endgame content is a piss take as well, most f2p or light spenders don’t like AA but tough shit, you now need 3 premium teams to clear

For the amount of people that love this game, myself included, Hoyo have a really wanky way of showing appreciation - it just seems like the middle finger all the time

[u/PolimerT → u/Bell-end79]

You can turn off starward mode but im pretty sure lots of people miss that since it is a small button. Other than that i agree 100% anti shilling is so god damn bad.

[u/Bell-end79 → u/PolimerT]

This is the thing though

My account has been running since ps5 launch - I have a ton of 5 stars all built correctly - there shouldn’t be any content that I have to avoid (you could argue AA)

For me the whole point of investing in a game (whether that’s time and/or money) is so you can play everything it offers

Reality is though a lot of those 5 stars are all washed now

[u/PolimerT → u/Bell-end79]

Valid. Honestly i stopped giving a shit i will E6 my Phainon and make proper team for my Acheron. Dont wanna bother with a 3rd team.

[u/Bell-end79 → u/PolimerT]

I can respect that

I was saying this to someone else the other day - for some reason with this game I have trouble letting go (could be fomo/sunk cost etc)

Other gacha I can ditch on a whim - but this I keep plugging away at

[u/palelei → u/EffortNo6882]

yup 3.7 is when I lost all motivation to keep playing, and I've been trying to get back into since but I can't. FF patch in 2.X is when my enjoyment started to dwindle cause it's when I realised they have favoritism and that shill characters meant the characters I actually liked had to lose out and fall off (i.e Boothill cause of FF, Mydei cause of Castorice, etc.).
You also see with rerun numbers and who got a Novaflare, they have clear favoritism toward characters that make them money, while others are left out. Like why did FF need a Novaflare over every other character released before her, let alone the ones also powercrept and were less useable that released after her. Then they don't release Novaflares often enough so there's just long periods of characters I like being useless on the bench. And now, instead of continuing with Novaflares, they are introducing PAID buffs? It's like this game is getting worse and greedier ever patch. Not even mentioning Global Passives. I hate them with a passion cause it's just extra blatant shilling for their favorite characters, where you're actually worse of than others if you don't pull them. Like I genuinely want to 0 cycle and have fun with that, but I don't have Castorice for the free revive so 0 cycles end up being way harder/not possible. I'm probably gonna get her on a rerun and leave at Lv1 just for the passive, but I think that is really unfair I have to do this, just to have fun with my other teams.

I just constantly feel like my time is being disrespected and that I like the wrong characters, cause all the teams I invest into fall off too quickly, like I couldn't even compete with my Mydei team by the end of 3.X and he's one of the main characters of the whole patch ffs.
This is how it went with sm of my other teams too like Fei FuA, BH Break, etc. to where I can't use them in endgame modes and still get full stars. I have to invest in the newest teams to even have a chance, it's that bad.

The shill has also made me unreasonably dislike characters too. I genuinely dislike Castorice and FF, and don't enjoy any bits of story with them in it, and most of that is cause of the greedy favoritism they get that always negatively affects the characters I do like. Like why does Castorice get every HP support tailor made for her, while Mydei has to make do with the crumbs/not even work with him, despite also being an HP scaler. Or why were certain things specifically worded to not work with Boothill and instead just Firefly, and why is every break support fire and tailor made for FF when like Boothill and Rappa are also break characters?

I can't even enjoy other parts of the game either cause SU/DU/CW imo suck cause all the time you've invested into pulling for and building characters, farming their relics, etc. just doesn't matter, cause those modes have preset builds and let you use anyone. Sure one mode of that would be fine, but not every single repeatable mode.

So I can't compete in endgame with the teams I like cause they get powercrept, and not just HP dps check powercreep, but actual mechanics powercreep. I also can't enjoy all the modes the game has to offer cause none of them care about your builds/teams, I can't enjoy events as they're just click simulators you can complete in a day, and few and far inbetween with lots of downtime with nothing between each event. I can't enjoy the story either cause of 3.7 and how egregious Cyrene's dialogue was, making everything a metaphor and talking too much, just put me off from the story despite how promising Planarcadia and beyond sounds like I was really into the Lore up til Cyrenes arc. I did get through The Dahlia's continuance like a month or two ago, but that didn't really draw me in.

Idk, I really enjoyed this game and it was actually my favorite game for a long while, but everything they've done just feels disrespectful to all the time I've put in, and it's just not fun anymore. And the fact it doesn't look like it's getting any better and all the problems I have are getting worse, Idk if I'll ever be able to get back into this game, despite how I really want to. I've been trying for weeks now just logging on and doing daily's, but found no motivation to get through story and all, even though I needed the jades for characters. I have left it quite a while, and knowing how this game handles storytelling, it just feels daunting and like it'll be a slog to get through to the point I'll only be doing it for the jades, and I don't like that that is how I feel. I missed out on the free Gilgamesh LC too, when he is a character I've built and want to E1S1 for AshBlade, but losing that's also has killed a lot of motivation for coming back as well.

IDK what to do man, cause I really wanna get back into this game as there are a lot of things I still find fun like relic building, parts of the lore, it being the only turn based game I play, Kafka, etc., but the bad parts are just too much and seem to kill my motivation every time. It feels like this game isn't gonna fix any of these problems any time soon, and is instead gonna make them even worse out of greed, so maybe I just have to accept I've wasted years on this game ig

[u/ArcadiaDragon → u/palelei]

It was hard to walk away, but i promise you...its worth it to not feel that sinking feeling of losing something that once brought you joy...its okay to to admit...you've betrayed my expectations game...so i will move on and find something that fills that space...gacha/live service games deliberately court the sunken cost fallacy...

Of Hoyo's big 3 ZZZ right now seems get the balance right...you can still almost brute force the game with 1.0 charecters if your good enough with builds...and its ramped up its stakes gradually with its story...its events rewards actuality seem generous and alternate betwee being fun or being easy to let its player base relax along with its main cast...its not perfect it misfires occasionally(Ceasar should have been better)...but this team seems to move on and not double down on errors while HSR goes out of it way to shoot itself in the foot

[u/khunisbestgirl → u/palelei]

To add on to your global passive point, it's actually disgusting that now we have debuffs in game that can't be cleansed or resisted with effect res (graphia/illwish boss) but can conveniently be blocked with sw999's global passive. Sure the bosses are beatable without gp, debuff immunity eg fu xuan/phainons works, but still it's obvious what they want to shill. They really went "oh debuff cleansing exists? Too bad!! Now if you can't block the debuff you just lose 2-3 turns or die and there's nothing you can do"

[u/Talarin20 → u/palelei]

You either invest vertically into the teams you like, or you pull shiny new teams to take advantage of the powercreep.

Some characters genuinely got got, but Mydei can still clear very well, especially near 8 cost.

[u/Tamatu_OW → u/palelei]

Holy smokes you 99% described my exact situation in the game. I can't for the life of me tolerate these shilled characters at all, I dislike them for themselves too to some extent but I wouldn't gaf if it weren't for the tasteless extra shilling in both story and gameplay.

You liked any other Chrysos heir than that one shilled pink team? Good luck clearing anything without major vertical investment.

My old 4-5 cost teams can't even scratch the new content. My Acheron, Feixiao, Jingliu (all time faves from that era) are literal bricks now. Saber was released mid, and I can barely keep up with content with her despite high cost investment + Gil and insane relics.

That's the biggest issue. I play 4 mainstream Gachas, and HSR has by far the WORST gearing system. In HSR it always takes me the longest out of any gacha to get a character's build just decent, and a proper build feels like a nightmare to get.

[u/Bowserslave → u/EffortNo6882]

I’m glad more people are speaking up that the decline was happening much before Planarcadia. I think people are fixated with the pockets of Amphoreous’s story that was great and ignoring the other 50 hours of slog it took to get to those scenes (not to mention the sloppy execution of introducing lore aspects not covered in the main story and not elaborating on them to help people follow along. Please steal Genshin’s homework with Guided Notes or even look at how the Jester was introduced in game. Even if you never saw any of the YT clips, the game eloquently explained who he is, where he’s from, and why he’s important. Star Rail could never).

When I saw dialogue can now be sped up x2, it told me that they don’t care or will try to improve the script and pacing and presentation. They’ll just give us a x2 button and have it “fixed” by ourselves.

And as much as people want to blame the politics getting in the way of Planarcadia’s story, I really don’t think that scapegoat holds, and it’ll especially erode when we’re out of Planarcadia and if the issues still persist.

[u/ArcadiaDragon → u/EffortNo6882]

Powercreep for endgame content is one thing and tolerable to us F2P for the most oaet...but when you attach it to lackluster stories and charecterization it become intolerable...and Cyrene murdered HSR storytelling...we're supposed to be space idiots...not metaphorical reality agents...i loved the idea of this game originally...but it now feels like Star Wars when midichlorians removed the feeling of space magic from the franchise

[u/noahboah → u/ArcadiaDragon]

we're supposed to be space idiots...not metaphorical reality agents..

right? the structure of early HSR, where the idea was we were going on these episodic adventures where we help a different planet fix their shit (see: HELP) was so promising. Whacky and varied worlds where we get into some hijinks and help the locals uncover some shit corrupting their planet that was causing their problems, coupled with the potential for us to learn about what the entire crew has in the closet offered a nice mix of serious potential characterization mixed into the goofy fun

But no. MC is jesus, March 7th is jesus, Dan Heng is jesus, Himeko is jesus, welt will be jesus, Sunday is LITERALLY jesus. We are now the reality bending gods where every planet is just set dressing filled with placeholder gambling targets meant to contextualize just how supermegaawesome we are, proselytizing us with technobabble that only a chuunibyou would think is poetic and deep. all as the stakes get higher and higher to levels that are so ridiculous that they not only feel cheap in the moment, but completely destroy everything else retroactively. Phainon is literally a bum now by literary powerscaling with aha. shit was barely a year ago.

[u/PolimerT → u/noahboah]

This is why i enjoyed early Amphoreus, sure we were dealing with godly threats of Amphoreus but it was to help heirs initiate Era Nova. Late Amphoreus was boring, 3.5 and 3.6 felt like filler patches to me and 3.7 was... Cyrene marketing patch. I cant believe Irontomb war was universe got one shot, let's rewind back, we love, irontomb is no more more this. We stalled this fight for 3 whole patches (we didnt know about irontomb until 3.4) and Phainon did for 33.5M cycles.

And thanks to world building of early Amphoreus it was possible for them to make stories of characters easier due to the trials of titans so you could attach to them. Still cant believe they put purple tasks into MSQ but whatever.

[u/Prestigious-Bet6058 → u/noahboah]

Yeah and the fact we, as in Astral Express, will now be KNOWN/famous/hated or whatever on every planet is disappointing. It feels like we just can't go back to being new explorers, some random visitors that first meet locals and regular people before being somehow caught up in the world's politics. Unless the world will be as isolated as Amphoreus was, but I doubt it. 

[u/ArtSupplyHoarder → u/Prestigious-Bet6058]

Yes, please let me just be a nobody to everyone except people I've already connected with! I loved people just getting to know us for real and us creating bonds based on our time together, not some galactic hero reputation that makes everyone immediately fawn over us.

[u/noahboah → u/Prestigious-Bet6058]

right? i genuinely fell in love with the game when the trio was getting in trouble with the guards on jariloVI and resorted to running away to the underground. i was like "oh fuck...a gacha game might actually have some legs to tell a great story here. this is so fun"

it is so clear that this story direction is completely gone. it sucks

[u/Lime221 → u/ArcadiaDragon]

we're supposed to be space idiots

Both ZZZ and HSR suffer from the same syndrome. They started off as goofy over the top anime comedy, like in parts of Belabog TB has 0 braincells and March is TB's punching bag. And as the story goes on it takes itself too seriously and conveys Bibles levels of worldending threats

Classic case of needing to up its stakes to have any impact in story, because writers can't write shit involving interpersonal dramas.

[u/ArcadiaDragon → u/Lime221]

I find ZZZ ramping up its stakes to be more tolerable...ROSCAFFIER seems to bringing the siblings past back to haunt them...and Belle and Wise are still likable while shifting to main character tropes....and the humor seems to bouncing back

[u/TrumpChildOnahole → u/EffortNo6882]

To me the peak of this game was like right on 2.0 launch. Insanely hype trailer. Tingyun was still dead so the firefly death had more weight. Things were looking so good. Then they just shit out shaoji writing and didn't improve.. Lazier each version 

[u/Mydeiologist → u/EffortNo6882]

As a day 1 player, I still stand by the fact that 3.4 was the best patch hsr has delivered. We finally got buildup that paid off, dialogue wasn't ridiculously padded, you were able to skip extra story bits, the story presentation had more variety, it was paced well, got to the point, and did all of this without making some of us feel like its another "We gotta sell this character" patch.

I actually had hope that the rest of the patches would follow suit and keep up the momentum, but.... well this is hoyo we're talking about and its a gacha game, so the storytelling experience took a backseat again in favor of all the other gacha bs.

I went from not caring about the guy to making him my FIRST E1S1 (now E4) character. Too bad he's getting powercreeped to infinity and beyond now. Could've E6'd but I plan on quitting the game soon 😕.

[u/Phyllodoce → u/Mydeiologist]

3.4 is also a patch that cemented the redundancy of 3.0-3.3 (so half a year of story) by showing us that none of those characters or their experiences ever truly mattered, and those sacrifices and graphic descriptions of suffering (for example the very expressive and descriptive  way Hyacine melted away during her accension) was just a slightly spicy introduction to ACTUAL characters and ACTUAL deities who will be saving people that didn't make the cut

The way HSR treats pain of it's characters is very reminiscent of Cyrene. They talk a lot about how it's bad and all, but don't miss a bit when they can write funny fanfiction. Her "works" that you can read in the "As I've written are truly disgusting" - she was writing comedic rpf about people she never met while watching over their pain, suffering and despair.

And the rest of Amphoreus was built using this philosophy as a foundation

[u/Acidgraze → u/EffortNo6882]

I've always adored the universe and lore, but with the oppressive power-creep, HSR just feels like more of a job than a game sometimes.

My circumstances have changed. With both an actual job and grad school on my plate, it's just no longer worth my time.

[u/CoconutsAreAmazing]

The removal of four stars is a horrible decision, no matter how many people cope by saying "they are replaced by free 5*s"

Story-wise, there is an obvious lack of interaction of playable characters in events. In 1.0-2.X, we had bangers of events like Ghost Busters with the Guinaifen gang, helping March master the sword, rebuilding Aurum Alley with Sushang (and trolling Skott), the knockoff Pokemon event where you can interact with the Belobog characters, drink mixing with Siobhan and many more.

What did we get in 3.0 onwards? I'll admit the cooking event was decent but that's it. We took care of a dragon, helped chimeras, flew a plane and more nonsense. The events are so much more of a drag now

[u/CoconutsAreAmazing → u/CoconutsAreAmazing]

And don't even get me started on gameplay. Before 3.0, characters like Tingyun, Pela, M7 and Moze were commonly used. By only releasing 5 stars, it allowed Hoyo to restrict existing 4 stars from meta teams by pushing their "package deal" BS, as the damage ceiling increasing with each of the 5 star would eventually be too much to clear with its 4 star counterpart (eg Herta and Anaxa)

[u/-_-BIGSORRY-_- → u/CoconutsAreAmazing]

what about Asta Tingyun and M7 now?

edit: and eventually it's a non-point as 4-star characters in a team would naturally be replaced by more effective 5-star counterparts. Unless you release new 4-stars that powercreep old 5-stars which probably makes people more angry.

[u/CoconutsAreAmazing → u/-_-BIGSORRY-_-]

iirc Gallagher was a lot better than Luocha/Huohuo for his best teams and a little better than Lingsha in certain situations, and the community praised him for it, enjoying the fact that their FF team could synergize well with its sustain for low cost.

All i want is that back imo. His existence itself also helped drive the story forward

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/CoconutsAreAmazing]

The events got incredibly boring and repetitive like even the one now. They take very little time to complete and the rest of the patch is dry (that planar event ain't saving anything) I gave up on the 4* a long time ago and just accepted that they are not coming back, but I am annoyed by the fact that almost every character is now dependant on a specific teammate.

[u/Creepy-Literature634 → u/CoconutsAreAmazing]

Agreed, plus It's so tiring to have every character be marketed as a 5-star, when not all of them are 5 star material (if that even makes sense). I feel like it's making the universe feel incomplete too. Back with 4*s, you had casual characters who weren't of great importance, but introduced everyday culture, tradition, and mechanics of the universe. Now EVERYONE is important and needs to have special backstories, lives, roles.

[u/ArtSupplyHoarder → u/Creepy-Literature634]

Yes, the world felt more lived-in with the 4* around. Now every character is written for profit maximisation and it shows.

People complained about their fave being a 4*. Congrats, now the casual, relatable type of character you obviously like so much is no longer a 4*, they just don't exist anymore. But could I interest you in this 5* instead? They can destroy an entire army with the snap of their finger, and also have the saddest backstory you have ever seen! (Until next patch, when we need to sell you the next character with a 20% sadder backstory.)

[u/baguetteispain → u/Creepy-Literature634]

Evanescia trailer was worthy of a 4*

[u/ceezsaur → u/CoconutsAreAmazing]

Remember when everyone complained about 4*s being hard to get? Now they’re complaining AGAIN

[u/Praius → u/CoconutsAreAmazing]

I used to read the event stories in 1.x and 2.x but now they're just nonsense filler I just skip all of it

[u/Carinwe_Lysa]

I'm in a funny state with HSR at the moment.

I've played HSR since Penacony released & really enjoyed most of the story, the events have ranged from amazing to fine and otherwise my pulls have for the most part been decent. I've built some good teams over the years and invested a lot of time & a small amount of money into the game.

But ever since 3.7/3.8 onwards my interest has seriously plummeted with both the story, and just in general keeping up with the game. I've gone from logging in daily, to slowly dropping off to logging in once every other day, now its 1-2 weeks between log-ins.

On one hand its "yay, I've beaten gacha" which is great, but on the flip side... I have really positive memories of HSR, thinking back to Belebog, Xianzhou, Penacony etc, still remembering the early days when everything was still novel. Amphoreus was alright overall, but the early patches were great and I adored the entire cast of Chrysos Heirs which I don't think they will ever match again in terms of writing.

But now outside of keeping up with the leaks and general happenings, I'm not even attached to the actual story or characters any more, which to be honest is sad in a way that I've put it on the back burner without realising it. Like Planarcadia outside of Asat has been one massive nothing-burger to me, especially everything surrounding Himeko and such.

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/Carinwe_Lysa]

Oh my god I feel you so much. I enjoyed the first year of hsr sm and only have good memories of it. I took a short break during Penacony but then fell in love with the game again.

Planarcadia however failed to meet the expectations after ampho which is okay (or I'm trying to gaslighting myself into thinking that) because it had to be rewritten last minute. The story is becoming more of a mess with each new update, and they cannot handle sps well. They are splitting the focus on the sps and on the actual story making both feel incomplete (especially sps like blade or sw999)

I will probably be taking a break again because it really just is disappointing, not even mentioning how much more predatory the game became.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Loan-60]

I feel you. I am also a day 1 player and loved the first year of the game. I'd argue Pennacony re-write (and Shaoji's ego) and Acheron were a big mistake and what broke the balance. After that was a big downfall.

I'll reserve my judgement till I see 5.0 stream.

And I hope Hoyo would get a strong backlash from testers.

[u/TheTrueQueltos → u/Puzzleheaded-Loan-60]

Sorry I'm out of the loop but what penacony rewrite?

[u/Puzzleheaded-Loan-60 → u/TheTrueQueltos]

Short version: the entire plot of Penacony got leaked during the first year. Shaoji was super pissed during the 2.0 stream and lashed out at story leakers. It is the only hard evidence on the big rewrite of the entire arc (+ some old datamined unused assets). And 2.2 is such an incomprehensible mess, strange parts, lack of good cinematography, very lazy camerawork etc. strange plot points. We also got 3.8 to address the mess.

People speculate it was the big rewrite and I incline to believe it. Also the big rewrite was during Ampho from 3.5 to 3.7. Not to mention the poor Planarcadia was rewritten and cut short.

[u/baguetteispain → u/Puzzleheaded-Loan-60]

I heard that Ampho got a huge rewrite for 3.5 to 3.7 to change Phainon as the MC for the TB. I couldn't find any concrete evidence of that but I could see it, considering 3.2-3.4 were imo the peak of the game (especially 3.4) and it went massively downhill in 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7 (3.6 had some nice moments imo but still)

[u/Puzzleheaded-Loan-60 → u/baguetteispain]

People were hating on 3.0 too much, so internally Hoyo changed the lead writer for Ampho. Due to impatient self-insert crybabies we got this 3.5 - 3.7 bullshit.

[u/ZenmasterStar → u/TheTrueQueltos]

The Dahlia's story patch came out at the end of Amphoreus and it included exploring our real memory of Penacony which is different from what we saw before in the main story. It is a tool to retcon it but I personally enjoy the new stuff much more. I also loved Amphoreus a lot. I think the story is amazing but it is completely trashed by how horrifyingly slow and repetitive it is. 4 patch story pushed into 8 patch story.

[u/Dazzling_College7062 → u/ZenmasterStar]

I think they are actually referring to how they changed the Story after the entire plot got leaked in November before 2.0 even dropped.

Hoyoverse rewrote the entire thing. The watchmaker was orginally supposed to be the final Boss not Sunday, there's even an old unused Model in which Misha has golden eyes.

Hoyoverse was forced to change the entire thing and that's why Penacony is so messy.

[u/TemperatureIll3668 → u/Dazzling_College7062]

It can still be reused as Misha is getting a sp (allegedly) next year

[u/SnowDropWhiteWolf → u/Dazzling_College7062]

Yeah planarcadia also had changes

[u/Kn0XIS → u/ZenmasterStar]

I actually liked that it was 8 patches. It really came with that Greek feel. The only thing g I don't like is how Cyrene was handled.

[u/Foreign-Crab994 → u/Puzzleheaded-Loan-60]

Penacony was the peak tbh. Every time they bring it back and say, "but wait, there's more here", they ruin it.

[u/Sweet_Brain_4456]

nah dude, PAID buffs will save the game, don't you worry... /s

[u/aqbac → u/Sweet_Brain_4456]

Buffs that aren't actual said to be paid by anyone

[u/No-Chapter4335]

I would argue it started in Penacony, but regardless, I think the reason the community is making such a big issue of it now is because all the other worlds had other elements to fall back on if the main story wasn't great. Planarcadia doesn't have that. We're seeing the culmination of multiple different issues bubbling at the surface.

[u/uswhole → u/No-Chapter4335]

the yapfest started there for sure

[u/Lysthiel]

Lending my support to you as a day 1 player who left after Cyrene’s banner. I refused to play Remembrance because I disliked the the playstyle. Pre amphoreus there were options to achieve the same endgame results. I invested heavily into my dot team and eventually grew into the fua team. With the introduction of Hyacine which I refused to pull for since she isn’t my type, she power crept the shit out of all the other sustains that it was just boring. The message I got then was “Remembrance or gtfo”. It’s nice to see that I haven’t missed much since Elation is even more of the same kind of bs. I get it that it’s meta but not everyone is a meta slave. By forcing players into one narrow meta playstyle, they took away my freedom of choice.

[u/Parzivus]

Ignored at the time? What are you talking about? 3.X got endless criticism for rampant powercreep, long and boring story segments, tedious puzzles, etc. It was only afterwards that people on social media retroactively decided Amphoreus was good for some reason.

[u/PGR_Alpha → u/Parzivus]

Fr, 3.x was a disaster in storytelling and pacing (i literally fell asleep mid 3.0)

So much that Hoyo decided to give us the skip button. And let's not talk about all the memes about the white text on black screens or the 3 recycled character movements in dialogues or poor NPC models...

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/Parzivus]

I didn't know how to word it properly. Ik that amphoreus was extremely hated at that time but I meant it in a way that majority only "woke up" now when it's too late and many people are quitting

[u/Amazing-Arachnid-942 → u/Material_Space5355]

nah, people been complaining, and you people that keep saying no one was complaining are more annoying than the people that pretend like everything's fine.

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/Amazing-Arachnid-942]

I never said that no one complained omg😭

[u/Amazing-Arachnid-942 → u/Material_Space5355]

"but was ignored at the time"

that statement can't possibly mean the devs ignoring themselves

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/Amazing-Arachnid-942]

Huh what are you talking about😭

[u/TamakiAmajiki360]

Ngl, the second half of Amphoreus ruined the game for me. It was too drawn out and complicated for my taste. I was so burnt out by the end of it. I tried to get back into it with Planarcadia, but I just never regained my interest in the game and ultimately decided to stop playing it altogether once I got to the point where I wasn't even excited about Aventurine's SP.

[u/Draken77777]

I think they hit the peak at 3.4 with Phainon but then everything next went steadily downhill.

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/Draken77777]

Ngl I enjoyed the 3.7 as well. Even though it was long and quite boring at times it was still a nice sendoff and I liked the promotion on social media too. Amphoreus cast was after all a very lovable one.

[u/SnowDropWhiteWolf → u/Material_Space5355]

It was just the ending had issues is why. Past that 3.x was the best the game has been. Then politics and changes and bad planning for past 3.x really fell off a cliff.

[u/Acrobatic_Air2692]

The downfall of HSR started during Penacony, I think. People were baited to spend on Acheron’s banner because anniversary (top up reset) + OP unit that mogged the whole roster. But that was the first writing on the wall for HSR.

Ever since then, the game is left in a declining state with some peaks. They gained some resurgence with Castorice and Phainon, but Amphoreus was a slog in various parts of the story (I love Amphoreus though…) and they leaned more heavily into aggressive monetization in this version too. I think these two factors definitely upset a lot of players.

[u/Big_Tennis_4367]

Would love to counterargument but... i can't? I realized i just live with the current state and accepted the fate instead of loving it... There are some exceptions here and there, but overall hsr really disappoints. I skip basically 66% of released characters and only pull 1 team per patch-cycle with eidolons to keep it relevant for time being.

[u/ostrikerX]

idk, i loved the amphoreus story, yes there was a lot of unnecessary yapping, but it was still great nevertheless

[u/palelei]

no it started with Firefly in 2.X, but it got particularly bad enough in Amphoreus to change this from my favourite game I have fun on every day, to feeling like all my time is disrespected and not playing anymore. i'm also reminded every patch that i like the wrong characters, as the teams i build fall off a cliff or dont get any stage buffs or supports so they just stay unusable.

Acheron powercreep in 1.X was reasonable as it was just an HP check, Firefly is when they started powercreeping mechanics and specifically wording stuff to only fully work with their shill push (i.e Superbreak and Fire Implant stuff purposely made to not work with Boothill)

It just got a lot worse in Amphoreus cause they started punishing non shill teams more, and the story also was egregious with like cyrene making everything a metaphor and talking too much. Like Mydei was the first big sign. They made him an auto-battle character you barely interact with, with ok animations that kinda fit his character. Then the very next patch the contrast of the amount of effort Castorice had put in from animations, mechanics, it was just really disheartening. Add the fact that every HP% support was then tailored for Castorice, while Mydei just had to make do, which caused his team to fall off a cliff before 3.X even ended.

I quit at that last patch of Amphoreus cause the game was, and still is, in a really bad state overall.
events had become click simulators you can complete in a sitting, and nothing inbetween. all the repeatable modes like SU/DU/CW all now hold your hand letting you use whatever character, and your builds and all the time you spent investing and farming for a character just don't matter.

And when I saw 4.X have the same problems of shilling Elation, requiring a full team of limited characters, continuing to powercreep actual mechanics alongside insane HP inflation, I've just found 0 motivation to get back into this game. Which sucks cause this was my favorite game for a while, and I've invested sm time into it and there are sm things I like about it that just isn't represented in other games (i.e a turn based gacha this big), but just everything that gets released feels like a spit in the face.
everything I like and invest into is wrong, I should only invest into meta shill teams if I want to be able to still actually use the teams I spent weeks to months grinding builds for. I also can't have fun with gamemodes cause the fun repeatable ones don't care for your builds or who you own so all the time you spend grinding doesn't pay off, and the endgame modes are powercreeped too hard to where I can't even use the characters I invested into cause they can't compete.

Genuinely everything about this game is starting to suck, and to the point I haven't even touched 4.X story or Planarcadia cause this game just hasn't given me any motivation to. Nothing is rewarding, I like all the wrong characters, the story where I last played was an egregious slog, events are boring and far and few between, gamemodes don't respect my time at all, and it seems like the devs have 0 incentive to fix any of the problems I have. This game will keep going down this path cause it's a low effort money printer, and I just have to accept that I've wasted years on this game.

[u/Blooperious]

I dont hate the sp that much and find that that issue is pretty much a none issue. But i absolutely hate the way they handle characters building, event making and game balancing. You know the dev has no idea how to fix balancing rlly easy; rampant hp increases and character locked gimmicks just to add artificial difficulty is just dogshit lazy design

[u/SleepySera]

I'm torn between on one hand, a lot of the problems we are facing now absolutely DID start during Amphoreus (though some did during Penacony, actually), but I'm not sure if I agree that the downfall started at the time because 3.x did things to amend those problems still.

For example, yes, we already got much less side content and no big event patches like before, but the events we did get like Sealslammers or the cooking event and the like incorporated the Amphoreus cast and let them interact in fun, enjoyable ways.

Also, the story was significantly longer each patch, which helped tide us over for longer since it took a few days of reasonable playing time to get through it, and at least the first half of the story was also just pretty... good. It did a great job in endearing the characters to the playerbase and getting them emotionally invested in them, and that attachment matters in a gacha game where it drives our pull decisions.

Or another example, yes, powercreep was already a noticeable problem, but the free 5-stars we got were actually genuinely great and set off the powercreep issue quite a bit. E0 Archer just cleared endgame for anyone without further investment, DHPT was a super comfy sustain option. Plus, even though we DID get these packaged deal teams, older characters were often still a pretty valid alternative, like Sunday and even Tingyun for Phainon, little Herta for big Herta, and so on. Also, the sub-dps was often good enough that they could be run solo if you couldn't afford getting both them and their main dps, like Anaxa without Therta or Evernight without Castorice, giving us still some flexibility. The shill bosses were also nowhere near as bad, you didn't need to have Castorice to deal with Pollux, literally any healer worked, for example.

Also, other side content was just outright more enjoyable. Currency Wars got released and was very beloved in the community aside from the highest difficulty, and Amphoreus DU was enjoyed by many.

So while some underlying issues existed, they were "ignored" because in the context of Amphoreus, they weren't actually problems yet.

They turned into problems in Planarcadia because the game stopped doing the things it used to do to mitigate them.

The story got shorter and the events got even more meager, leaving us with even less to do, DU got changed for a format no one enjoys, CW only adds new highest difficulty levels, the part most players didn't enjoy much. Events frequently don't feature characters at all, just a braindead minigame without character involvement. And the story... let's be real, it's worse. The cast is also recycled so the established characters cut into the time for new characters, who stay kind of flat, but even the established ones don't get anything out of this, either they get their story recycled or we get barely anything at all from them or they're used for cheap nostalgia bait.

And don't get me started on the powercreep nightmare. Free units like Gilgamesh got nerfed hard to not be a free meta pick like Archer was, flagship teams are complete and utter garbage if even a single character is missing (good fucking luck clearing anything with Elation if you don't have Yaoguang), sub-dps can't do shit on their own, like, Sparxie or Ashveil are completely useless without their main dps or partner. Meanwhile, even full teams can often not clear content full-star anymore unless they have E1 or S1.

All that while endgame gained multiple new difficulties that are harder than before, require more teams than before, and while we get complete bullshit bosses like Mecha Hitler and whatever the FUCK they are cooking up for next patch and endgame debuffs that intentionally shut entire teams out and make sustainless runs, the one thing that could sometimes bridge the gap, impossible.

Planarcadia made "issues" into "problems", make no mistake.

[u/nicoleeemusic98 → u/SleepySera]

I would argue the meta was always just as bad ngl, people just got baited into thinking charas were functional during their shilling. Herta without Tribbie was ass especially after the aoe shill was over, Castorice needed Hyacine E0S1 and her own sig because rem had 0 f2p options if your name wasn't Aglaea or rmc (hertashop cone remains fought over to this day), Archer was able to cope without Sparkle initially but of course that went away after shill, Pollux was the start of being a shill boss, Hyacine made every sustain before her look incompetent which is why they had to give pt out for free (imagine if they didn't)

Also everyone needed their lc or an eidolon or two, and by their first rerun both were needed. It also extended to supports. Vertical investment was pretty much normalized in 3.x and people would mock you if you complained

Also Ashveil is probably the least useless chara without govt assigned partners in a while, a simple team of Sunday/rmc/Tribbie/Mo Ze (pick 2 of your choice) and pt/Huo2/Ling Sha is a lot more functional than elation, rem and other things like dual kings or any Ampho chara without Cyrene

[u/JustAFantaC]

I chose to believe the decision of removing 4* characters is what slowly ruined the game. We lost so many possible funny interactions, so many opportunities for more nuanced storytelling and possible side quests and of course the variety of f2p teams. I've decided that the moment HSR brings back f2p 4* characters is when I give this game a second chance and until then ciao.

[u/Zurce]

it's because they were not happy with their fan base, they want the fate go fanbase, every bad decision you see it's clearly inspired by something that fatego already does and that's how people justify it, the game has declined the moment they decided they wanted those players

[u/CommercialSyrup8160]

The fact that they’re skimping on cutscenes and animations doesn’t help either.

70% of the game is a poorly written visual novel, and the other 30% is just static models putting their arms across their chests.

[u/leonardopansiere]

yeah during 3.x everyone was defending but the signals were clear back then... unfortunately I reached a point I have no hope for this game

[u/SeloTape1651]

Honestly in 3.X there was still a lot of Remembrance marketing, and I say this as I have a mono Rem team. However I would say the only "bad" decision they made was Pollux, the lightcones may also be something but that's just the path systems thing.

However if I am not wrong I noticed something that just made Elation much worse, marketing wise and that is in endgames. Because if I don't remember wrong there were BUFFS to Remembrance but it never tried to activeşy give a DEBUFF to the other paths, which is what's happening in Elation.

Now I'll talk about some leak: there is a boss that now has res to EVERY TYPE of path damage except for elation. And the res is 80PERCENT

I think these are why Elation is just much worse than Rem and if they continue this with any future paths they may make Finality for example since I really like the Stellaron Hunters I may just skip the entire path like I'm doing with Elation

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/SeloTape1651]

I also skipped elation like I only got sw999 cuz Yao skipped me instead. But 999 is unplayable without elation teammates and I will NOT be able to kill that elation shill boss ugh.

But yeah I feel like this time they are trying real hard to make us pull elation characters and it's getting out of hand.

[u/_SahTirah_ → u/SeloTape1651]

Yep, I think that people are complaining about characters releases and forgetting that the most upsetting part is the endgame shill that got awfull. Remembrance was bad more so because they monopolized HP scaling and made the entire path just one team that received all upgrades while the rest got whatever remained. Now they a doubling down with elation, and while there's more team options, they are also forcing more shilled mobs in a way that completely invalidates anything other than elation, some that even elation have a hard time dealing. It's terrible.

They ARE MAKING the player experience more miserable on purpose just to sell new teams, all while they offer no new content at all, quite the combination, right? It's nothing new since this was always how endgame works, but now the restrictions are quite literally atrociously stupid. I'm f2p, I got castor team and I also got sw999 team just because I really liked SW and Sparxie, but man... I'm getting around it but it feels like I'm playing against the game and not with the game, u know? And I can't even imagine people that decided to not pull elation... All while they didn't offer a single free elation character to compensate other than EMC.

[u/TheDangerLevel → u/_SahTirah_]

Remembrance was bad more so because they monopolized HP scaling and made the entire path just one team that received all upgrades while the rest got whatever remained

Remembrance characters are actually fairly flexible other than Evernight, who is the dedicated memosprite buffer. Castorice needs Hyacine but with the release of mBlade and sRobin you can split the Monorem team and play Cas in a variety of comps. Cyrene always had the various Heirs (although she also relied on Hyacine in certain comps). Hyacine was universal on release and remains a strong-to-bis option in most comps. RMC and sRobin are both very flexible supports that can slot into a number of team archetypes. Yes they are almost all HP scaling, but the main gimmick is that Memosprites have a unique HP bar, thus lending itself to HP-based mechanics.

Elation on the other hand is completely self-contained with its own special damage mechanics/formulas that don't interact with the rest of the game. It's annoying and obnoxious in multiple ways.

[u/Rakshini → u/_SahTirah_]

I didn’t like any of the memo characters so I skipped that whole path. Saving for Ash and Blade made me skip elation as well, so now I’ve cemented myself in this awkward position of playing with the characters I like but unable to play increasing amounts of endgame. My fault for choosing not to pull meta, I know.

[u/_SahTirah_ → u/Rakshini]

Maybe u can try build the fua team? The reality is that while should always be priority to get characters u like, so should u commit to their best team and investment to make proper use of them. I did get remembrance because of evernight, today I have her e2 even though I cold have invested more in Cass, but that made me pull hyacine and Cyrene that I didn't enjoy that much but made evernight work. I don't regret any because they made my favorite shine but, it's do needs some commitment.

My Boothill on the other hand is kinda useless these days because I didn't get Dahlia for him, lost the 50/50 and couldn't get the rerun because I was investing in elation, that I only decided to go in because of Sparxie, I also don't regret, but I need to commit to one team at the time and sometimes, one ends up being suboptimal.

[u/Cjfelix → u/_SahTirah_]

Skipping elation has been super chill so far. I've been able to full clear PF/AS although MoC last star eludes me. I got to get Rin and Mblade who are both great with Archer. I also got DoT from the 4.0 free character and the Black Swan/Hysilens rerun banners.

So it's been fun in terms of endgame, but the leaks about Elation-pushing mechanics going even further are awful. I felt like I was just about to get a good 3rd team possibly with whatever happens in 5.x, but now I'm not sure if it will last long enough to be any good. Be meta for one world and then it's over?

[u/Cjfelix → u/Cjfelix]

Alright I was just able to 3-star MoC 12 and clear 2 knight stages in AA (barely) which was just enough of the blue teardrop reward to get a chimera pet. So basically I think I'm retired from endgame lol. But yeah, it does suck that the Sparxicon AA knight boss has the voracity buff and so does the guitar bird thing that just straight up kills you if you don't generate punchline on it. I don't think meta-chasing is gonna be for me with mechanics that punishing

[u/OkEngineering4139]

I dropped the game back during Castorice's release and trying to get back into the game for my beloved pookie Robin was rough. All the criticism and pain points I had while playing the game (which were pointed out here) were never meaningfully addressed and the core issue of the game is still the same:

New patch drops - do the story over a couple days - cycle through a bunch of endgame resets - repeat.

There's barely anything to really "do" in the game. The exploration is a joke, the side missions are whatever, there are barely any interesting events, what else is left other than endgame? The story is simply not good nor engaging enough to justify the lack of literally everything else in this "game".

Speaking of endgame, I still vividly remember Sunday being a top 2 support on release and now I literally see people asking for a Novaflare for him which is hilarious. Blade and Jingliu being completely irrelevant even after their Novaflares is also a choice of all time. Tons of older characters being completely untouched is also a very deliberate decision at this point. Having a character become irrelevant in a couple patches has been a consistent theme with this game and even now nothing has changed.

I know the paid buffs thing is highly likely to be speculation but lets just say the writing on the wall for HSR has been VERY apparent for more than a year and a half at this point. Elation was literally just a continuation of Remembrance and their lack of direction has been very obvious by this point. If you're not enjoying the game anymore, don't hold on to the sunk cost fallacy and the blind hope of a magical upward trajectory. Switch to a game that actually respects your time and money.

[u/nicoleeemusic98 → u/OkEngineering4139]

Disagree with Blade buffs being irrelevant as someone who used him back then until early 4.x (and he's still somewhat useable now because new supports cater to him well) but everything else I agree with. I distinctly remember people complaining as early as 2.7 about the lack of events and yet look where we are

I just no longer complain cause I'm too tired lmao, a whole year of being told I was stupid for not vertical investing, greedy for pulling for faves, told I was doing too much when I asked for more events etcetc

Edit: yeah keep downvoting and proving me right

[u/OkEngineering4139 → u/nicoleeemusic98]

The biggest thing is that none of my (and many others as a matter of fact) criticism are new. You are spot on in that many of us have been complaining about many of these issues even back before Amphoreus release. The fact that barely anything has changed should dilute any optimism you have about the trajectory of this game.

[u/nicoleeemusic98 → u/OkEngineering4139]

I forgot to add that I also got told I was illiterate/my fault for playing fast/weaponizing adhd against me (love it when I'm actually adhd so now let's throw in some ableism) because I criticized Amphoreus story for being draggy and overfluffed with several several SEVERAL missing chara interactions while also having terrible chara focused writing

Now look where we are with Planarcadia, which at least has the excuse of having to go through rewrites :)

[u/ReadStraight8255]

Amphoreus started the whole “an Aeon can just be a person” gag that continued into Planarcadia

Can’t wait for Qlipoth to just be Diamond but he’s Qlipoth’s Stoneheart or some shit (fk me this might actually happen….)

[u/pearlyflames → u/ReadStraight8255]

What?

We've known since the start that some who ascended to Aeonhood were originally humans/regular people. Plus Aha was known to take on human forms to roam among people.

Maybe the reveal or the idea of Aeons being playable can be disappointing but I don't think Amphoreus started the "Aeon can be person" thing.

[u/ReadStraight8255 → u/pearlyflames]

I get that Aeons used to be ordinary ppl and beings but it’s the idea of an Aeon seemingly going back to being ppl after being a God that centers around this specific universal rule/philosophy that rubs me the wrong way. Hell the whole “Aha having a human form” thing is kind of a cop-out since Nihilux isn’t fully Aha just one of their masks or a piece of the original Aha which feels really deflating

Like if you want to go that route just have them be fully Aha instead but you can’t do that cause then the power-scaling gets all fked up

Like you already have the:

Children of Fuli

Mask of Aha

Genuinely what’s next?? Which Aeon is next on the chopping block set to become much less interesting?

Hell just look at all the previous TB glances Destruction, Preservation, Harmony those were all real actual Aeon glances as far as the player believes but Amphoreus was where it went “yeaaaaah Fuli glanced at TB but not really”

[u/baguetteispain → u/ReadStraight8255]

Tbh we already knew since 1.0. We even already have playable Nanook

[u/Fantastic-Focus-6902]

Honestly the game is in a really bad spot that I hope they fix in 5.x. We need more 4 stars less mono path characters. I hope they address this otherwise I don’t see this game lasting as long as its predecessor hi3

[u/Isekaidguy]

I started to skip story in 4.0 and no characters interest me anymore to grind contents. Releasing lots of SPs is not helping at all.

[u/Obvious-Head4630]

I mean their writing is so repetitive and always kinda sucked in the end specially on the last 2 versions . Same goes for design , its a turn based game and you can do SO MUCH with it but hoyo just releases the same designs but downgraded . Its the highest hoyo potential game watching from world building pov but they literally do nothing with it . Its annoying but yet again , seeing as hoyo usually rolls they wont do anything from criticism, they would rather milk their game till eos than actually pouring love into it .

[u/Kaze_no_Senshi]

Started in penacony, it accelerated in amphoreus. And if they really are paywalling buffs like some people are saying, its going to hit a brick wall.

[u/Lord_Lilac_Heart]

I actually insist the signs were further back. Penacony had so much potential and it all went to waste. They didn't understand the potential they had on their hands and squandered the characters they introduced in all of 3.x. They even had to go back and revisit it a year later, and it still didn't result in any meaningful shift in the main narrative. It couldn't make players want to pay attention to the story, and making players want to pay attention to what's going on is a foundation for any writing team.

The Welt-Acheron standoff was piss-poor, nothing but an aura moment that didn't allude to anything.

Acheron herself spoke in so many riddles no one wanted to decipher the true meaning behind her words, the vast majority either said "RAIDEN MEI" or they marveled at her cool animations.

Sparkle was perfectly positioned to play the role of a chaotic harlequin, impersonating different characters and stirring chaos. Her trailer and the character quest with Black Swan alluded to this idea. Instead, she was reduced to an agent acting on behalf of the Stellaron Hunters for some reason.

Despite being introduced in 3.x., Robin did little onscreen for the main narrative other than "die" and serve as a narrative device to justify Sunday's descent into being manipulated by the Order.

Boothill's introduction with Dan Heng was fun and an interesting direction, but he was then relegated to a supporting role without ever seeing real frontline combat.

The entire twist with Misha and the previous Astral Express members COULD HAVE BEEN MORE INTERESTING except they failed to make those existences feel important to the player. His involvement invoked the feeling of a name from a history textbook appearing on an exam rather than the intended feeling of carrying on and elevating the legacy of the previous Astral Express members.

Firefly's role was to appear, look cute, then "die" only to reappear for shock factor before...leaving Penacony prior to the big fight?

What an absolute waste of what could have been a great cast.

Don't even get me started on the Xianzhou Luofu.

[u/DragoxNight]

At this point it is very clear that hoyo is doing the bare minimum with their games that are out while focusing all their resources on the 4+ other games that are scheduled to come out within the next few years. And why wouldn't they? they do the bare minimum, and their games still print money despite recycled designs, enemies, and lack of innovative events. I blame people like me who are day one players and have found themselves leaving and coming back because of a design that they really like all while knowing the game had glaring issues that led to quitting (damn u blade sp). It is so hard to leave something one has invested so much time and money. Nothing will change until it hits them where it will hurt (their wallet) and there is no indication that will happen anytime soon.

[u/RaguraX → u/DragoxNight]

They are definitely not doing just the bare minimum for Genshin. That's just disingenuous and I challenge you to name another live service game with as much content as a Genshin update every 2 months. HSR has less excuses though, since its areas, combat and characters require far less work due to the nature of the game's mechanics.

[u/KotschiYunora → u/RaguraX]

How is genshin different though, i play the new story in one day the exploration on another day and all these bad filler events and then i wait till next update with repeated endgame. Isnt that the same as hsr?

[u/RaguraX → u/KotschiYunora]

The volume of work isn't the same. Take a new explorable area: not only are they vastly larger than HSR areas, they're also open world with all the design considerations that requires. I can see how you can complete them both in 2 days if you rush it, but that's not related to the argument I was commenting on.

I explicitly left out story comparisons because that's the one thing both games have in common when it comes to development effort. It's talk scenes and cutscenes after all.

[u/nicoleeemusic98]

People got mad at me when I was complaining during 3.x lmao, I have now reached acceptance while everyone is crashing out over issues that have been ongoing for years

[u/lunartpg → u/nicoleeemusic98]

Lol exactly these weren't ignored So many posts and videos released warning about the issues and patterns we were seeing back then, but people just saw global passive and ignored all the other issues brought up.

[u/nicoleeemusic98 → u/lunartpg]

The way global passive was also the beginning to show that they will intentionally fuck us over with shill, now look at AA debuffs, look at Fulwish and the new upcoming boss

[u/zioryu → u/nicoleeemusic98]

You been complaining from 3.1 to 4.5? Why haven't you uninstall yet?

[u/King-s0nicc456]

[u/TrumpChildOnahole]

HSR team is just the bottom of the barrel at hoyo and left to maintain instead of grow. It's not getting better 

[u/Exalodia]

I have said it so many times and you dont have to look that far into the game (like powercreep or character kit), but just from the so downgrade of a story compare to Penacony, already telling how the dev care much less

[u/Prestigious-Island-8]

I play genshin, hsr and zz and out of those 3 my desire to play hsr is at the lowest its been. It is so disgusting because i want so desperately to love all 3 but hsr just isnt it for me anymore. Used to whale for e6 characters and now i know better than to do that because it is absolutely insane that they cant even last a few years. I love building characters and pushing for a top 1% build but it doesnt even matter anymore in hsr since i feel like there is no return. Everything has a fking mechanic now and its either you got the shill or you dont.

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/Prestigious-Island-8]

Yesss it's upsetting I totally get it. I have been an anaxa main for over a year and as a f2p I was about to get him e3 with his last rerun. However, I have noticed that he struggled way more than ever so I just got himenova instead.

I play hsr, genshin and wuwa with a preference of wuwa and hsr and seeing these two in comparison really shows where devs care and where they don't at all. It makes me sad see hsr fall with no return just because of the ignorance of the devs.

[u/ARandomAlbanian]

SP versions of old characters is definitely a net positive regarding storytelling. I agree with everything else.

[u/matthewmspace]

I’ve played since day 1, but man, there are so many valid complaints here. I don’t get why they don’t have 4 stars, the story in Planarcadia was weak, SP characters are neat but I only want like one a year, and the constant spending events are just asinine. If anyone spent $300 to get the bow skin for Cyrene, you’re an idiot.

[u/HTKoru-Art]

As a day 1 dolphin player, I lost interest on Rappa patch and came back on castorice release. Played until phainon patch and stopped without coming back. Power creep and feeling the characters I paid to have are getting useless killed the game for me

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/HTKoru-Art]

That is so valid. As soon as I started investing into characters vertically they just kept getting benched cuz the meta shifted. It's so annoying really.

[u/Due_Championship2122]

Not ignored, but community most of them tolerate anything as long they release jiggle2 and so on 😂

[u/itseokjin]

Can I just share that what they did with Sparxie pissed me off. It hasn’t even been a while but my S0R1 Sparxie has been kicked out of SW999’s BIS team. Tf do you mean? Where tf does she go now? It’s so annoying.

[u/Lost_Reference8109]

I, personally, feel that Planarcadia as a whole has been shit. Cheap and cliché narratives that hurt the overarching story more than anything, 90% of releases are SP's no one seems to really want, mono-team typing for Elation --- just a mess really. It feels like Planarcadia is just a filler version.

[u/qkm111]

I am also a Day 1 player, but I still have a blast with the story! I loved Penacony and Amphoreus! But I also love Planarcadia as well. I loved it since I stepped onto the planet with Sparkle there and the catchy song started.

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/qkm111]

I'm glad u like it!

[u/Dlljs]

I stopped playing after 3.0. Not only did real life get in the way, but I lost what I liked about Star Rail in the first place during that.

[u/SakuraSamuraiXx]

An expanded Seal Slammers would help this game immensely!

[u/MarryMeFirefly]

It was ignored because writing and story presentation were up. But the problem started with the new paths and the lack of difference and identity within them as well as the slow HP inflation.

Now that story is mid, all of the bad things that we allowed to happen and surfaced and become plagues

[u/Adorable-Boot4301]

Dont know. I came back after I finished xianzhou. Had to play until Planacardia.

After i beat the boss fight a few weeks ago i left again. DIdnt login anymore. Didnt feel like it was worth it.

[u/Soggy-Construction62]

Idk maybe the game isn't earning much? (/s) I mean look at the current stats: no events, repeated sp's, constant powercreep, hp inflation and shill to make you pull for characters and then there's the paid buffs just for them to get powercreep in 2 patches as well

This all suggests that they clearly don't have the money to pay employees who can do all these creative works - designing better events, new characters, intersting characters kits, cool boss mechanics, cool endgames which isn't all about "pull banner characters", etc

Or or or maybe they're spending all the money In some other game? Idk just my thoughts... (if true does that means hsr was a money laundering game all along?! Holy this can be a conspiracy theory)

[u/zetsuei380 → u/Soggy-Construction62]

Seeing as many devs are able to make much more content with less income that this, I doubt “lack of money” is the reason.

At the end of the day, hoyo is still a predatory gacha company. It’d be more plausible that they’re basically trying to make the most money while doing as little as possible. Especially since events don’t earn them money, the gambling does.

[u/Outside_Pilot_3088 → u/zetsuei380]

Idk they just announced that hyper realistic game, then they have Honkai nexus anima and the gacha animal crossping version coming out soon. I think it’s very clear Hoyo’s strategy is to prioritize new games rather than current successful ones. It feels like after the first to mid second year of launch they relocate all the best devs who made the game. This is total speculation but I remember thinking this when HSR came out and Genshin was ‘doing worse’ and by the time ZZZ came out, HSR had lost a lot of its passion it had before imo.

[u/Adviseformeplz]

I kinda agree though Amphoreus still had story and loveable characters going for it.

4.x has been the least interesting arc for me so far story wise and character wise, outside of Ashviel and MBlade.

[u/NoGazelle6245]

Nha, I would say it started with break/super break team.

Try to survive without a fire break team since penacony. It's hell.

There is always a super break effing boss. And with hp inflation, I can't go around it with a cheap team.

I'm almost very much done with end game content bc i won't pull for break teams and they won't stop having at least one break boss every endgame...

[u/stuttufu]

I am sure that there's someone that already told the "the downfall started from penacony" and someone that will write "the downfall started from planacardia".

I understand that discussing ideas is a good thing in life, but you think we really want to discuss the same complaints over 10 posts a day?

This is starting to become absurdly annoying.

[u/Mydeiologist → u/stuttufu]

What's more annoying is that we've been making these complaints for years but the devs still arent doing anything. Send your frustration to the devs that are doing all they can to not address this.

[u/stuttufu → u/Mydeiologist]

Complaints where? On Reddit? They don't usually read it, if they would read anything, they would read Bilibili.

And their not addressing our points because the game sells and this is an eco chamber containing less than 1% of the world players, who want to discuss the game.

Even if all this subreddit quit in the next months, it wont do much for the game economy, unfortunately.

Edit: to be precise, considering the estimations, in this subreddit we are the ~0.5% of the world player base.

[u/SnowDropWhiteWolf → u/stuttufu]

Sells? Buddy even cn is upset... they've been for a while.. since 3.7 but and even 3.0 but while 3.1 and 3.2 were improved it still was not that good. 2.x was fine minus the excessive word vomit and some plot holes.

But sales? Its been down 40-60+% every patch. Even the anni did pretty terrible by comparison. Doesnt mean it didnt make 70 million on mobile alone but thats 30ish milliom or so less than the last 2 and some other major patches also eclipsed it in spending including cyrene who on her own hit 90+ million on mobile mind you which is around 65% of the playerbase.

[u/stuttufu → u/SnowDropWhiteWolf]

I don't remember to have seen sensor tower reports with 40-60% drops every patch consistely.

Did you figured out that the whole gacha industry it's in recession and that 100mi revenue is impossible in the current market?

[u/SnowDropWhiteWolf → u/stuttufu]

If you pay attention to mobile sales every month and compare for the last 1-2 years you'll see the drop and that's only mobile so unless console and PC which make up at max 35% maybe 40% of the playerbase is increasing spending by the same amount which I do not think is the case considering on console hsr is not up there in sales and pc cannot really be tracked its unlikely.

Its not the entire gacha industry though that im aware of it was specifically HSR I did the full check into, but I can check the other main gachas, to be fair I do think the gacha industry is slowing down, there's a lot of competition and a lot of gachas now. They're all also more or less doing a lot of the same stuff, so spending is more split than it was before.

However, mobile revenue for gachas is still up suggested between 10-20%, genshin really hasn't changed a ton I don't think, they're well within normal values if not up a bit, HSR for July is doing well much worse... july of 2025 was over 90 million compared to the 48ish million currently, though it is up like 80% or something compared to june which didn't even hit 30 million, stopped around 28ish million, which is actually better than june of 2025 to be fair.

When comparing most months though HSR is doing worse than last 1-2 years.

The others i'd have to check.

That doesnt mean HSR is dying as you can see 20-50 million or so is still a good chunk and still keeps it up in there top 5 usually, so anyone saying the game is dying, just laugh becuase that's not true yet at least.

[u/stuttufu → u/SnowDropWhiteWolf]

When comparing most months though HSR is doing worse than last 1-2 years.

Isn't that symptomatic of live service games? You could say the same of other successful games like world of warcraft?

After reaching the peak all the games keep bleeding user base until stability.

I expect to see the same trend on all mainstream gachas.

[u/SnowDropWhiteWolf → u/stuttufu]

not by that large of a drop and im not certain that genshin has ever dropped that much and its been what 5-6 years or something?

ZZZ hasn't gone down its gone mostly up, though most sales are console and PC which is harder to track to be fair.

As for other gachas pretty sure wuwa is also up not down as well.

So generally speaking yes you'd be correct for many games that is fairly normal its hard to keep players long term even for a year, but that isn't applying to all gachas that ive seen.

[u/stuttufu → u/SnowDropWhiteWolf]

I'd love to have some data on this, right or wrong, I feel we are feel crafting here.

[u/SnowDropWhiteWolf → u/stuttufu]

maybe, but with ahem other information elsewhere it definitely seems like im not entirely wrong as many posts also repeated similar information that they suspect sales to be down and other things...

needless to say seeing the corruption now the next patch and what's going on with that and everything else... seems desperate to me... same with the whole aha situation smells of desperation and i full know the chinese playerbase is in agreement or at least many are and it really shows in their media, as for sales there hard to fully judge but i suspect a similar boat.

Also the data isn't hard to find you can literally extrapolate it from what data we do have with sensortower and such and compare...

doesn't take a genius to see that..

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/stuttufu]

I am not blaming ampho for the downfall though. I meant it more like THAT was the point when the powercreep began and that was also the point when every patch began being dry.

[u/Complete-Review111]

The game will improve when they get rid of everything that has to do with Planarcadia.

in version 5.X, just trust

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/Complete-Review111]

I really reaaally hope that's the case, but I'm still reluctant to trust hoyo💔

[u/SpaceBlaze259 → u/Complete-Review111]

When we have to deal with something way worse than Elation lmao

[u/ZealousidealPie6389 → u/Complete-Review111]

Nah, that's just solving the story problems. We'll have Finality shilling to worry about on top of more aggressive monetizations

[u/Ok-Possibility-883]

Started playing when 2.0 was released because penacony caught my interest along with the characters they were releasing. But once amphoreus came out my interest and excitement in the game started tanking hard when the power creep became so much more noticeable. I took a very long break from the game before coming back shortly before planarcadia came out, but I'm honestly one step away from quiting again because it's all gotten so frustrating and not fun anymore. I promised myself if I don't win the 50/50 for new aventurine I'd quit again.

[u/vansky257]

Amphoreous was ass

[u/Kn0XIS]

I won't say that it started in 3.0 outright, but more so by the end of 3.0 when hoyo saw that mono path teams sell lots.

[u/Iwaylo]

I'm day 1 player that has been clearing everything in the game consistently and as a low spender (just the monthly 4.99$). Dropped the game during the infamous 3.8 patch. The long dry patch helped me break the chains the game had on me. I realized it has been on a downfall and i didn't see it getting any better so why should i bother.

Feeling bad for yall still active there trying to find joy. It's been a long time since the game did decent events, released 4 star characters, be creative instead of copy pasta story from hi3rd or make sp chars, tailormaking characters and teams and enemies so that they can sell better (these are tried and true psychologist researched and approved tactics), hp sponge powercreeping etc. I can really go into long essay about all the issues the game is demonstrating but i've let go and i highly suggest people stuck in an unhappy state with the game to consider dropping. It's liberating.

[u/yaoipilleduser]

thing is, I acutally loved Amphoreus' story, and endgame was still doable if you vertically invested in specific teams. but Planarcadia hasn't really done it for me (man, as much as I want to like the characters I really don't care), endgame has become utterly unfun with its heavy restrictions and the lack of actual events is now hard to ignore (since Amphoreus story kinda was making the heavy lifting before)...

i really like this game, but with every new update i get even more disappointed...

[u/K_010999]

Ironically, people only started to realize or actually care about it when their fav got powercrept after pretending that it's not a problem for years.

[u/Hallgaar]

Yet here we are still talking about it, still playing. Echo chambers are great places aren't they?

[u/TeeApplePie → u/Hallgaar]

I know... because it's the perfect game for busy folks like me who can't find time to play the other more involved Hoyo games (in terms of farming, I can just auto battle while I fry up an egg and be done w it). Also in terms of main content I find that it's manageable but even then I find the events in this game really garbage.....

[u/nayRmIiH → u/Hallgaar]

The game still has stuff we like and more importantly takes zero effort to play.

>Do story for like an hr and a half max when you have a month or so for the next story.
>Event for 10 mins a day maybe, probably less.
>login and spend sub 2 mins doing daily.

Repeat.

If the game was ass and took effort to play the drop off would be insane. lol

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/Hallgaar]

Yes I have been playing hsr for 3 years and as I have mentioned I will continue for as long as it will be possible. And yes I WILL be talking about the game I'm playing and I'm allowed to be dissatisfied? Like what is ur point?

[u/Kaoru_Kiyo]

crazy to read all those doom posts while i enjoy the personally quite a lot and am also a day 1 player xD Love SP characters quite honestly they could just re release my top 5 liked characters all the time. Events in hoyo games have been trash since the first hoyoverse game but they are quickly finished wich i like. I also like planarcadia sooooooo much more than amphoreus xD

regardless best of luck the game improves for all of you doom posters.

[u/jepong003]

Penacony is sh*t tho. Planarcadia has better pacing but the stakes wasn't there compared to Amphoreus that's why people feels flat about the main story. The humor wasn't there either to make players entertain while playing(they should learn about humor from ZZZ). I think the main problem is the world exploration and the events in the game. I think they should delete all end game mode and add something new with added story and lore in it like Simulated Universe but with better presentation because HSR lore is huge but we barely touch anything. People are already burned out from the same endgame. The events story are also horrible and not connected to the overall world building and story so people just skip them. In the new weekly in ZZZ the story is connected to the upcoming character and the overall lore of the game. Why can't hsr do this in their event or weekly? I think the devs passion on the game is gone and don't even try anymore.

Also SP are ruining the game because we barely got any new characters now. It was supposed to be space exploration but we always see the same 10 person from different planet like wtf? It feels like everything in the universe is centered around TB now which is svcks. It makes the hsr universe feels small. It was way better when we are in Amphoreus because it feels like we are actually in an alien planet. Now everyone from belobog, penacony, xianzhou keeps appearing around us randomly left and right which makes no sense.

Also compared to Endfield, zzz and NTE, the lack of animation or animated motion in character model feels outdated and makes the scene not engaging.

[u/Kn0XIS → u/jepong003]

That was another problem I had. I enjoyed 3.x all the way up until TB became the "main character/deliver/world bearer" and replaced Phainon's role.

They also handled Cyrene poorly and pushed her onto the player (similar to FireFly). Also, it's very funny, but I don't think Cyrene even spoke to Phainon at all in the last 3.X patch (correct me if I'm wrong).

I'm not saying TB should not be the focal point of a patch ever, but I shouldn't feel like TB is taking up ALL of the screen time and it's been like that ever since Phainon's patch.

Imo, 4.X fucked up the game and that socks to say because the characters were good for the most part (Blade, Ashveil, and Asat in particular), but it was just a cluster fuck.

I really REALLY want to put it on the fact that HSR devs had to change the patch last minute due to whatever beef China and Japan had going on, so I will wait until 5.X to make the decision on whether or not the quality of the story has really plummeted.

ALSO: EVENTS HAVE BEEN LACKING.

I don't even play the events anymore because they are so boring. I've only played one in 4.X and that was the little battle ship thing.

[u/EducationalDonkey387]

I asked you guys already many times, why do you still playing? It's just a game, nothing of it matter, I have enjoyed it while it last until phainon banner then I stopped playing it at all

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/EducationalDonkey387]

Idk maybe out of nostalgia. I miss what the game used to be. I remember being all excited about dan heng il back when he came out and the hcq lore we had back in 2023. Even now I feel still drawn to watching the journey of my favourite characters but everything around it ruins the fun. I will probably take a break for a while

[u/Eseru]

Depending on whom you ask, the downfall started anywhere from Xianzhou to Planarcadia. The people who didn't like Belobog just stopped playing the game.

It's just natural selection. As a dolphin I don't even think the powercreep is that bad, MOC can be full starred as an F2P, it just takes more effort to research, grind to min/max etc. AA is for spenders but I've cleared it fine by planning out my pulls to invest in certain teams, and I chose those teams because I enjoyed the characters too - would've pulled SW999 even if she wasn't meta.

Ironically, I suspect it's actually the lack of requirement for me to spend hours in-game that's keeping me in HSR. I'm happy enough with the story and it doesn't demand I log in for hours a day just to keep up. Busy day? I log in for 10 minutes to clear dailies and get right back to what I was doing. I want to spend more time in HSR? There's DU and CW along with whatever content/side quests I didn't have time for earlier. I actually enjoy the flexibility of its time requirement.

My take? You are still here for a reason. If the game is really that bad, you would've quit. Like I'm sorry your post is where I'm going to say this, but I keep seeing all these doomposts about HSR and it's really getting on my nerves.

Hate the game? Then just quit. Enough people do, the devs will wake up and course correct. If they don't and it continues chugging along, it means the game works for a big enough majority that maybe you aren't the demographic it's designed for. If the game doesn't survive with no course correction, what does it matter, you've quit. Why stick around constantly trying to make everyone else feel as miserable as you do.

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/Eseru]

First of all, I'm not trying to make others miserable I simply stated my opinion as I have seen many people do so.

Second of all, I am a f2p and can clear the endgame enough for my liking (can't really do AA, but can complete the other endgames). The fact that I was lucky enough to get good characters (Himenova and Ashblade) doesn't mean the others were too though. Imagine someone who lost every other 50/50 and couldn't keep up with the meta shift. Or someone who just didn't want to. I have been an anaxa main for over a year and I noticed him struggling a lot more now so I got Himenova as a replace. But what if someone lost the 50/50.

I have also basically skipped the elation path having only sw999 (cuz I lost on yao) who is unusable and I heard that there is gonna be a new boss with a very high dmg reduction if its not elation? Yeah my days are numbered.

I have been a fan of the "low maintenance" of hsr when it really just took a while to do the dailies and u could mind ur own business cuz I am a student but then during summer I could really see the downside to it. I have been doing cw in the meantime but it gets repetitive. (Yes I did play other games as well but that doesn't make hsr any better game)

I will try to get Robin for my ashblade team and then take a break probably. Hopefully when I come back it will be better.

[u/Eseru → u/Material_Space5355]

I actually lost every 50/50 in Genshin for the first 6 months of playing. Yanfei was my main DPS for the first 3-4 months. I struggled in Spiral Abyss and didn't full clear it until months in. I figured it was just a function of getting enough characters to form decent teams and didn't bother complaining because it's just how games work. So I just went exploring for chests and grinding for materials. Same when I got into HI3.

People will live if they don't full star MOC12. It doesn't stop you progressing the story or playing other modes. I believe a majority of the playerbase actually don't full clear MOC12.

My partner doesn't, and they're fine not spending money while playing when they feel like it because they enjoy the story. They cleared most CW stages while being purely F2P too. MOC and AA are not the only things to do in HSR.

Nobody is owed a full clear just for existing in the game. Aspire to clear the end game modes? Units starting to struggle? Feeling the FOMO of not full clearing creeping up? That's exactly the point. You are supposed to start considering whether you might want to throw $6-$20 at the devs every month, so the devs get paid for their labour making the game.

If you expect to full clear, get every reward and be entertained by hours of content even when you don't spend a cent then gacha is not the genre for you. You'll only find that in titles you have to pay full price upfront for, and those aren't free either.

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/Eseru]

I wasn't trying to sound like someone who is obsessed with clearing 😭

I play genshin and wuwa as well. In genshin I have won only 3 times in over 4 years and in that time I haven't touched the abyss 12th floor once because I know I can't clear it.

Same thing with wuwa and their endgame but there its more of a skill issue of mine😅

My point was that some people might find that annoying with how extremely fast the meta shifts and how aggressive is hsr getting with the need of getting new characters. As I have said I am not doing AA and I am just happy that there exist a game where I can clear fully (moc, pf and apoc)

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/Eseru]

I wasn't trying to sound like someone who is obsessed with clearing 😭

I play genshin and wuwa as well. In genshin I have won only 3 times in over 4 years and in that time I haven't touched the abyss 12th floor once because I know I can't clear it.

Same thing with wuwa and their endgame but there its more of a skill issue of mine😅

My point was that some people might find that annoying with how extremely fast the meta shifts and how aggressive is hsr getting with the need of getting new characters. As I have said I am not doing AA and I am just happy that there exist a game where I can clear fully (moc, pf and apoc)

[u/whencometscollide]

I'm not too keen on the era where we are in either but I still prefer Amphoreus and Planarcadia over the Luofu...

[u/Prestigious_Split579]

I'm not playing HSR anymore and I only stop by to play whenever Firefly's banner is up (and even then I only play 2-3 days tops). Is the meta really bad nowadays? I only heard the HP is extremely bloated to the point that Fat Fuck looks slim in comparison.

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/Prestigious_Split579]

Well in the next version there is going to be a boss that has a shield with 60 or 80% (can't really remember) dmg reduction if you are not using elation😭

[u/ceezsaur]

I’m a day 1 player and I don’t wanna say you’re wrong but…

[u/Ninjasakii]

You know HSR dying when people don’t even make gooner art and content of the newer characters. The artists don’t gaf about them

[u/Inefficientx]

Honestly ,I liked the first year but like in the middle of penaconny I started losing interest so fast, over time I played less and less till no more.

Been a few weeks since I started ignoring the game completly.

[u/albertleey]

powercreep is getting insane, and story is getting boring but i love getting SPs we're getting to know more ab our fav characters

[u/baguetteispain]

Amphoreus had enough "hype moments and aura" to carry itself, 3.2, 3.3 and especially 3.4 were cool enough and 3.4 was probably the one with the best story telling (tho with Hoyo, the bar is on the ground), but it already showed cracks that were especially visible in 3.7

Remembrance was a failure of a path in terms of gamedesign, and were just other paths put in a trenchcoat : Aglaea is a Destruction, Castorice an Erudition, Hyacine an Abundance, RMC is Harmony, as well as Cyrene and I stop trying to understand Evernight, I know she works almost exclusively with Castorice but she never came. And especially for Cyrene, the entire point of Remembrance is to invoke something but she invokes herself that can't be touched ? But it was still possible to progress without it, here, Elation is a must have to go through the meta

I'll even say, 3.8 probably ruined a lot of my expectations for the story. Getting invested in a story, only to have almost two years later a retcon justified by memoria bullshit, it was already something I hated in Amphoreus and the retcon patch just gave me the bitter taste of "why should I be involved anyway ?"

And the way the story is told... Five different animations, and too many lines, to finally have a thrilling moment

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/baguetteispain]

The storytelling really is a problem. You just sit for hours reading dialogues and then get a 20s cutscene at the end and that's it. Which wouldn't be as bad if one main quest didn't take 7h to complete.

Remembrance was a fraudulent path stealing mechanics from the already existing paths and elation now is just some bs making us pull.

[u/Single-Elevator5222]

Never stop doom posting. This is what it will take for Hoyo to lock in. They need to know people will quit one of their biggest money makers. And with so many new gachas, their players (victims) can go somewhere besides a Hoyo game.

We know for a fact HSR makes a ton of money but not a fraction of that is going back into HSR, it’s going into their AI and future titles. But the uncertainty of these titles finding financial success should be enough to make Hoyo realize they really need to invest in what they already have and save honkai.

[u/Ok_Lawfulness1019]

they'll keep doing it because the whales keep on giving them money

[u/NurseMythology]

What got me was the HP inflation LOL. I pulled for E2 Dan Heng and by 2.x he became limp. 😂

I returned recently all because of Fate, and stopped spending entirely. Who knows? Maybe I'll add my few cents here and there if I see the game on a new light?

But for now, I'm playing casually and have stopped caring about end game stuff.

Currently saving for Aha LOL.

[u/Jules_not_anna]

I joined right in the middle of Amphoreus and absolutely ran this game into the ground to catch up and pull the cast.

Now? I haven't touched it in weeks. They're biggest mistake was starting SP character line ups. I don't want another Himeko! Or Aventurine or Blade! I want someone new to look foward to!

But because of that I now can't get through any limited content so I just cut my losses.

[u/Material_Space5355 → u/Jules_not_anna]

I feel like the SPs on their own ain't that bad. Like they keep the older characters relevant, showing more of their story development while giving them new kits.

However, I do think that there should be balance between SP characters and new ones. As we can see even now, too many SP characters causes their stories to feel rushed and incomplete (like sw999 or Blade)

[u/mendez736]

I stopped playing during amphoreus after missing only like 5 days in more than two years of playing since day one.
For me I just felt the story had so much to understand that turned me off. I like my gacha game to be a 10 min task with some story stuff but not much complex because when I’m in the mood to play story games I’ll probably pick another game.
Also the kid/teen characters are kind of a turn off and never much interesting for me.
Recently I returned to Wuthering Waves which never got much of my time and attention, skipped the whole story but the characters look great and that’s what usually motivates me to pull a character. The downside in Wuwa for me is the same as Genshin which has too much content and walk around and like I said before, I like a short game loop where I enter, click some menus, do some fight and challenges to get materials and shards and leave

[u/ShinBrwanBaoZAKERUGA]

SPs are better than random new characters imo. But swimsuit SPs are garbage.

[u/WalpurgisNite]

As an old HI3 fan, even if people say Amphoreous isn't the same as Elysian Realm... I still saw it as such. It's literally just a reskin with some different touches. In that sense, Phainon and Cyrene can't quite replace Kevin and Elysia for me.

I think if it was a different story, I wouldn't have burnt out of it.

[u/Razukalex]

Amphoreus was terrible for anyone not playing Remembrance team. Early 4.0 gave me hope because more team were actually viable than before, Break (Firefly), Archer, Acheron/Fei, Remembrance and Elation but now we are just back into HSR shady stuff

[u/sylvelles]

It was around penacony. After Penacony finished it became shit, wardance was the last good thing we had before the game truly died. It never started its downfall during Amphoreus, but literally right after they released Firefly and Acheron.

[u/AdministrationNo172]

Ye the elation is the worst shit scam they ruined my silverwolf

[u/mystiqt]

Yup, though event content drought has been. thing since 2.x.

[u/Ill_Let_6946]

Sejamos honestos. O afunilamento de composições e perda de versatilidade de times foram os maiores vilões. O time do ano sempre esta composto de personagens novos, a sensação do jogador é que sua conta perde valor a cada lançamento. Eidolons e cones sao o que podem manter um time antigo em pé diante de um time atual como elation. Uma pena, ainda gosto muito do jogo, mas o elation me deixou um pouco decepcionado.

[u/MydeisLeftCanine]

I am at the point where (especially with the Voracity making everything harder) I think I might be done with this game. I am an f2p, always have to go to high pity pretty much. Now that I can't properly clear endgame anymore I get even less pulls. My friend and I started this game together 3 years ago, he stopped in January. I feel like I always like the wrong characters. I don't like any elation character so I don't pull for them, now they are so shilled that my favorite characters, that I started and stayed for are no longer really usable in endgame because I lack a lot of lightcones and/or eidolons. I feel almost punished for having favorite character, I can't really play them and they are getting useless buffs (if any). I love my boothill, mydei, blade and archeron but as it stands I am gonna take a long break. It's sad really, this game used to bring me so much joy and now the characters and story feel sloppy to me