Honkai: Star Rail - 2023's best RPG?

[HiddenX]

PCGamesN thinks Honkai: Star Rail is the best RPG of 2023:

Sorry but 2023's best RPG isn't Starfield or Baldur's Gate 3

While Bethesda's Starfield and Larian's Baldur's Gate 3 are being heralded as 2023's best RPGs, I disagree - it's Hoyoverse's anime adventure, Honkai Star Rail.

[Picture: An anime woman with navy blue hair and red eyes wearing a white robe aims a huge cannon at the camera facing upwards with the Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield box arts in it]

If there's one game that I didn't expect to top my 2023 'must play' list, it's Honkai Star Rail. As someone who never really got on with Genshin Impact and isn't typically a fan of the whole 'gacha' thing, Hoyoverse's games have always felt a little out of reach for me despite their absolutely stunning open worlds and expansive casts of colorful characters. However, having been confronted with a seven-and-a-half hour flight to Boston with only a book and dodgy plane WiFi to keep me company, I picked up Honkai Star Rail and have been hooked ever since.

That's not something I can say of either Starfield or Baldur's Gate 3, though. While the former failed to grab me from the jump, the latter feels like an RPG game that I should be sinking my entire life into. I love Dragon Age, but there's one thing about Baldur's Gate 3 that makes the entire experience a bit of a grind - something that Honkai Star Rail just does better.

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More information.

 

[mbpopolano24]

Wow, click bait alert....

 

[Vaelith]

Nah, Starfield, while a decent Bethesda game, is not even competition by a very large margin. It's either BG3 or Zelda, depending on whether the media giving the award favors more consoles or PC. Nice clickbait tho.

 

[GabrielMP_19]

LOL, absurd

 

[HiddenX]

As as day 1 Honkai: Star Rail player:

Better than Starfield - maybe
Better than Baldur's Gate 3 - no way

Honkai: Star Rail is good, but the 'fast paced' combat mentioned in the article isn't so fast paced anymore if you've got high level characters and a high world level. One boss-combat session can easily take up to 15 minutes.

 

[Couchpotato]

That's their opinion and that's okay but Gacha F2P games will never be on my top list.

 

[LaHolt]

That's their opinion and that's okay but Gacha F2P games will never be on my top list.

That's prejudice talking. These are no ordinary BS low/no-budget gacha games, these are AAA gachas. I don't play Genshin, but even just staring at the character pause menu in that game the level of production value is obvious. Art is incredible, menus are intricate, animation is top-notch.. You see why it's a 300 million production and why it's a big deal just on that basis alone.

 

[Vaelith]

I just looked at the pause menu and saw a plain icon grid with the cash shop button first and no discernible animations or art value.

 

[LaHolt]

You're not looking at genshin. Open up the menu on the character, even the ui looks $300 million.

Like I said I've seen others play a bit, let's be honest here. Look at their content pipeline, 3-4-5 months a huge expansion drop it's insane how fast and high quality the updates.

 

[Couchpotato]

What's insane is the amount of people playing these type of games. Anyway don't kid yourself it may have huge production costs but it made billions off it's players.

It all boils down to online crack and players need their fix.

These type of games are a cancer on gaming and I wish they never left Asia.

 

[JDR13]

PCGamesN HiddenX thinks Honkai: Star Rail is the best RPG of 2023:

 

[HiddenX]

I'm playing Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail and have a lot of fun with them with close to zero costs. Everyone who's not playing them is missing an opportunity to play first class AAA games. There's absolute no pay to win factor in these HoYoverse games. The only thing you really need to invest is: Time.

 

[Vaelith]

You're not looking at genshin. Open up the menu on the character, even the ui looks $300 million.

Genshin Pause Menu

If this looks $300 million, then I guess every random mobile game costs $300 million.

The game itself is of good quality, I played it for a good while until I met the usual trappings that Gacha games have. In short, you get everything for free early, but at some point at higher level I had to choose between paying $20 or grinding for 100-200 hours to upgrade my main character, and I chose the only sensible option when you're given that choice, which is uninstalling the game.

 

[purpleblob]

I'm playing Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail and have a lot of fun with them with close to zero costs. Everyone who's not playing them is missing an opportunity to play first class AAA games. There's absolute no pay to win factor in these HoYoverse games. The only thing you really need to invest is: Time.

Time is money, friend.

I have 0 interest in playing these games and I know I am not missing out. No offense, Hidden, but that was quite a statement - we all have different taste. Glad you are enjoying it but I will pass.

 

[Couchpotato]

Cool you didn't pay a dime but millions of others have otherwise the game would not be getting new content, or remain free anymore. Time what bullshit it's about money.

Sounds like certain members are the perfect consumer base for this developer.

Frankly I'm glad more governments are banning Gacha and loot box games.

 

[LaHolt]

These type of games are a cancer on gaming and I wish they never left Asia.

Yeah, like I said, prejudice.

Guess F2P, Gacha, lootbox, and everything else you don't know are all the same to you. They can't possibly have differences among them. People can't possibly be attracted to a huge production, enjoy it, and want to support quality with their money. That can't possibly exist in your world.

 

[Couchpotato]

Seems your the genre's targeted consumer-base congrats. The article is still clickbait though and that wont change. Enjoy these games before they are made illegal.

 

[bjon045]

While it might be a good game it would get an automatic -2 to it's score out of 10 if it is a gacha game in my books. I would also prefer if they were straight up banned in most countries just like loot-box games. Pay up front or subscription is really the only models I support.

 

[HiddenX]

Cool you didn't pay a dime but millions of others have otherwise the game would not be getting new content, or remain free anymore. Time what bullshit it's about money.

Sounds like certain members are the perfect consumer base for this developer.

Frankly I'm glad more governments are banning Gacha and loot box games.

I'm paying $10 per month for the battle path to support HoYoverse like many others. Which is fair, because you get easily at least 60 hours of gameplay/month.
I'm not paying for in game Gacha currencies, because you'll get more than enough cool game characters just by playing the game (I own 62 from 72 currently available characters for example).

People who actually are playing these games, say
a) I love the exploration, puzzles, story and gameplay - I'll continue playing it
b) I don't like the J-RPG art style - I quit
c) I like them, but these games cost too much of my time, the grinding parts are too repetetive - I quit

I don't see many complaints about the pay-model, because it is up to you how much money you spend in HoYoverse games, and even with $0 investment you can play and finish every part of the game.
There are no DLCs/expansions/areas behind a pay-wall.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

It all boils down to online crack and players need their fix.

To me, Steam is "online crack".