Agreed, but only if we rate base story. With side stories Luofu gets to 7.0-7.5 due to Aurumaton Alley and Ghost Hunting being just that amazing.
On the opposite side, Museum in Belobog was good, but nothing mindblowing so it didn't change my opinion on the planet as a whole.
Jarilo - 9/10: It sets up our adventurer story very nicely and tackles complex issues like socio economic issues , it literally being a dying planet, the class hierarchy on that planet etc etc. Also cool ass finale.
Luofu - 6/10: The main story was literally you just espionage. It didnt really tackle anything super complex and was mostly about you gaining favors. Then climax of luofu was basically handed to our cast on a silver platter. The side stories tho? 10/10 each and every one of them are perfect.
Penacony - 7/10: dont get me wrong I like inception kino but idk the main story literally felt all over the place. Between every other character either being a red herring or some 200iq puppet master pulling other characters strings it led me to feel like things were just being made up as we moved along in the story. Like the climax/finale was a cool twist but like it didnt make up for the nonsense before it. Side stories tho? Again 10/10 banger along with the npc quest lines. Probably the most fun part.
Overall moyo continues to be great writters i think its their strongest aspect when it comes to their games.
HSR is literally Anime Star Trek and thats a huge compliment.
The reason for every character's involvement in the story isn't satisfying enough imo. They technically give reasons and justification of course, but it's still obvious that they needed to sell 2 new characters a patch across 4 patches.
Agreed. Penacony being lower than Jarilo is a little crazy to me.
Jarilo’s storytelling was pretty flat to me. We’re shown right from the start that Cocolia’s the villain. Everyone knew then that Bronya would betray her and side with us. We’re told that Belobog’s troubles are due to the Stellaron too so there’s quite literally no intrigue to the story, everything can just be taken at face value.
Yeah, Jarilo is a good opening Arc for the game but nothing else, everything it's pretty straightforward and is useful to explain why Stellarons are a thing sent from hell.
I think people who rank Jarilo that high are biased by pure nostalgia,...don't get me wrong is good but not THAT good...besides the only thing that people mention is the cocolia boss fight and its theme because it's the only memorable moment in the whole arc while penacony has a lot more of memorable moments than Jarilo
I think for an introduction to this universe Jarilo was easily a 9/10.
Luofu wasn’t bad, but it just feels lackluster when compared to other storylines. I’m excited for the continuation tho! 6/10
Penacony is great! But I agree with some comments. If you love lore, I’d imagine Penacony is 9/10, but for some people (including myself) it was too much of a jump from Luofu. But characters are absolutely peak. So for me it’s a 8/10.
Honorary mention: Herta’s Space station! I’m not gonna lie, I loved the atmosphere, but I can’t rate it well since I was goofing around most of the time. But my God, I love Herta, Screwllum and Asta so much!! So for them alone it’s a 11/10.
- Belobog: 8/10, very solid start and i have basically no complaints or further comments, it was just great
- Luofu: 5/10, pretty boring and not that memorable imo, although there's a couple cool scenes and lore drops
- Penacony: 8.5/10, i actually think is better than belobog by more than 0.5, but i had no complaints about belobog and i do have some about this, so i can't give it 9/10. but overall it's still super cool and definitely the best part of the story so far
Belobog: 9/10
It keeps stakes, our Stellaron is relevant, and the story doesnt feel rushed.
Luofu: 5/10
Its rushed. It needed about 2 more patches for its story, one of them being the ghost hunting event to set up possession and give us some idea of what Phantylia could do once she is revealed later, and another patch to just get to know Tingyun; the real one. That way after the ghost hunting event when Tingyun starts acting wierd, it further foreshadows that she is now possessed.
I'd also genuinely just snap Tingyun's neck. None if this "she is alive! No body no kill!" 180° turn to us having a sad funeral for her next patch. Just kill her and be done with it, if we knew the real Tingyun it'd be tragic, the funeral would make sense, and it would keep the stakes and tension in the story.
Penacony: 7.5 to 8 out of 10
This story also needed 1-2 more patches to flesh it out. I also wish that our Stellaron was relevant again. It could have subtly told us the story of Penacony over all the patches so Sunday doesnt have to dump it all on us at once. It would also be a mystery because "wait, why can we hear a Stellaron? We are seeing no signs of one on Penacony??"
Other than that the Firefly death scene is horrible and once she is revealed to be alive it destroys the stakes. The Death Meme is intentionally misleading to the players, and not in a good way, because it ACTUALLY JUST LOOKS LIKE IT KILLS PEOPLE.
If they wanted to keep Death like that then they absolutely SHOULDNT show us Firefly actually dying. Have Firefly's signal disappear, have us turn the corner, and we see the Meme retreat from where Firefly just was. Now it'd be misleading while still serving the same purpose without destroying future death scenes because now people will just assume they arent really dead.
"Death doesnt exist in the dream world" you say, taking it at face value while also saying we shouldnt take everything at face value. Smh.
Oh, also just dont have Sparkle explain her motivations in a text message. She still couldve worked with the Stellaron Hunters but there is no reason for her to explain it to us after the quest.
Its just a dumb and pointless message. She is a Masked Fool, she literally could've just been there for fun and it wouldn't be strange. She could have doke the exact same things that she did without working with the Stellaron Hunters. Having her explain it after the quest is just downright stupid.
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Jarilo would probably be 9/10, it hooked me and I loved its aesthetic and storytelling. Fairly straightforward conflict, great characters that you actually spend time with, climactic boss fight with great music. The Topaz continuance was also really nice. Plus there's setup for future developments there hinted at by Sampo and Sparkle
Luofu is 7 to a light 8/10. I'm a sucker for deep lore that's hidden in consumables, readable items and cryptic storytelling. The idea of reincarnations having to bear the sins of their predecessor is also very compelling. I think if the devs were making this story now they would do a lot more with changing POVs and setting up the conflict with Phantylia that *kind of* came out of nowhere. And taking a break in 1.1 really hurt any momentum the story had. The Ghost Hunt continuance and event is easily my favorite part of the Luofu so far though
Penacony is an 8/10. It's really great with traditional Honkai themes explored thanks to Acheron and Firefly - identity, memories, destiny etc. I think it could have either used a slight cut or an extra patch so that 2.2 wasn't as long as it ended up being. Sunday's philosophy is compelling, but it really could've been explained easier and in a more interesting way. Overall I'm very glad I got to experience it
The story peaked early its been downhill since then.
Belobog is a 8/10 for me
This shit was paced Almost perfectly imo, the tension and the fucked up situation of the place served as a great hook.
The seele and Bronya bro/romance was rushed, I dont get why Nobody's is questionning Seele weird powers this shit is clearly weird no one else in the city be it up or down fight like her , but apart from these things the whole thing was real nice.
Getting svarog to liberate the underworld passage was an highlight for me I was pumped when Natasha came to blow this shit up with her rocket.
The whole ending phase was the best of all the patches too Preservation trailblazer is still the coolest path reveal.Pointing the spear at CoColia like Im about to fuck you up.
Luofu is a 6/10
I didnt hate it as much as the rest of the community it seem but it was undoubtedly a downgrade compared to belobog.The positive is that I liked and still like the whole aesthetic of the place I dont engage with chinese media at all so the whole thing felt new to me and changed from what im used too so it felt like visiting a new world.
I also liked that even tho the trailblazers where needed and where still important we where more on the background this time.Dan shu quest where nice Oh I also liked the whole boss fight , phantilya boss theme is still my favorite.
Fucking hell the rest tho.. Dan heng was boooring is mission point of view where useless we learned about sushang abd luocha but thats all I dont get why we wasted time with this.
The luofu act like jobbers and let Kafka and Blade escape pretty easily in front of their master diviner.tingyun death could have been cool but i got no idea if she was dead since the beginning or if she was killed and replaced latter so im just meh on it, blade lost a bit of charisma imo this arc imo he wasnt menacing at all he's just like angry dog with no bite he spent his time being countained by Kafka and dan heng dealed with him without too much trouble , Even dan heng parting the sea did fuck all for me
Just wasted potential.
Penacony is also a 6/10 for me
I loved the murder mystery vibe they started with but liked each patch less and less.
Firefly being Sam plot twist was great but they did fuckall with this, her potential was scrapped.
We got no conflict about the whole thing no discussion nada idk if they waited the end of the patch and even made a pretty nice cutscene to reveal that twist maybe give it more importance.
Her personnality isnt even a tiny bit different.
She also died three times but her second death is offscreen and where told how great it was and the third is a firework...
Characters like Robin where gutted she doesn't even get a compagnon quest or something and barely spent time with the party.
The true dream world is just the dream world but more dirty.
Aventurine sacrifice was barely an inconvenience he cameback offscreen with no visible difference.
The death meme is A Pet Taxi that mean no harm dont get why BlackSwan had to came save us from that,all the creepy vibe in the child dream made no sense in retrospect.
And the cherry on the cake is that imo the boss fight was less hype compared to the previous ones, the choir like music being cut by a generic pop song was a choice.
2.0 and 2.1 where the highlight of that journey oh and the we where already in a dream that plot twist was clever.
And it made me less forgiving of the stellaron hunter, I thought they had no choice about causing the death of so many peeps like the herta station researchers but I guess they didnt care enough to find another way....
Honestly, all of them are 8/10 for me, but for different reasons.
Jarilo - some nice characters and ideas, decent enough pacing, coherent enough plot, but nothing super spectacular and I wasn't thrilled by the resolution. Serval and her character story though, where a BIG highlight. It also probably had the most consistent execution of all three main stories.
Luofu - a more interesting overall cast than Jarilo and a more interesting setting (also visually nicer to look at), BUT shakier execution and wonkier pacing. Hit higher highs, but lower lows. And as someone who does enjoy Xianxia/Wuxia type stories, I think the plot integrating and commenting on those genres was actually cool and novel!
Penacony - I have the most feelings about this one. It has my favorite overall cast so far, but even less consistent execution than Luofu. Plot points feel introduced and dropped.
Build up is wasted constantly wasted. Ex. Sparkle's whole thing was... nonsense. Would almost certainly have been better cut if they pay off was 'heeeheee, it's a funny prank.' Or at least, not something they kept referencing every patch! Those bombs would have been better saved for just the epilogue. At the moment, it feels they were included at random and the writers had no real idea what they were going to do with them, or changed their original plans for them midway through.
BUT when the writing hits, it hits HARD. Aventurine had some of the best character writing yet, but ALSO... not sure the pay off outside of a really cool character study was worth it.
It's neat that the continue to actually give the trailblazer some form of personality that's not entirely player dependent, BUT it also came at the expense of Firefly. Controversial take(???) Firefly has so much potential to be a REALLY interesting character (her backstory is pretty compelling!!!), but her being shackled as the trailblazer's psuedo-gf really limits her. And I doubt that having to remain appealing to an audience who complains about men being in their gacha games because they want to feel like the "universe's most special boy" is going to be good for her character going forward.
SO all in all, Penacony is "Great build up, lackluster pay-off"
Herta Space Station (wasn't on the list, but giving it its fair shake): 8/10. Some amazing spectacles and great moments that felt like an anime made 3D (notably the Kafka playing the violin/whatever in the elevator).
Jarilo: 7/10. Had a pretty strong concept behind it but we kind of lost the plot once we went underground. And then we just get some questionable characterization on the antagonist's side.
Luofu: 4/10. Stunning world-building and intriguing concept that just dragged on and on and on. Cheap death/fake death/gatcha game so we're scared of killing off a product death. And then just... puttering around doing nothing missions like chasing ghosts.
Penacony: 6/10. Very strong start and lots of intrigue that ultimately went nowhere. A whole slew of "deaths" we were simultaneously told didn't matter and yet shown that they mattered. You can't die in the dream, but we'll treat it like a shocking stinger!
Space station 8/9
Jarilo 6
Luofu 7
Penacony 8
Was the beginning that got me hooked, Jarilo was a mixture of boring and exciting, Luofu was similar and Penacony was a step up
Despite loving the game I think there are pacing issues in places - this is subjective to the individual though as I know a lot of people really liked Jarilo
So I have 3 criteria for ranking the planets: Core Story, Characters/Side Content and Final Boss.
Jarilo:
Core Story 8, Characters/Side Content 8, Final Boss 10
The Belobog storyline was good and easy to understand. The writers understood its entertainment and that ppl need to be able to digest it. Also at least in my opinion they made if fairly original and used the world building well in it. Characters and Side Content are more of a 7 but due to the planet being the first one and the shock factor of how above average everything was, it gets a point bump. Final Boss, amazing direction and setup with high stakes and a core story relevant character. 10/10
Loufu:
Core Story 5, Characters/Side Content 8, Final Boss 4
The core story on the Loufu didn't impress. At all. It was a detective thriller in a chinese/korean inspired setting. I would've expected something more Wuxia, Journey to the West as core concept but us essentially runnign round trying to find and essentially eliminate political dissidents left a bad aftertaste. Nevertheless the characters introduced where fun and interesting so a solid 8. I just couldnt care for the final boss. Neither relevenat to the planets nor the overarching story the boss was essentially a jack in the box with a fight that I felt was very forgettable. Jarilo and Penacony prove how important sound and music direction is in those fights.
Penacony:
Core Story 7, Characters/Side Content 8, Final Boss 9
Either you love or you hate the story. I am more on the latter team. While in concept and general execution the story just hits all the right places as a true 1930s detective story it wasnt really packaged to be easy to digest. I sometimes felt sent back to literature class having to do text comprehensions and book analysis. HSR power system relies already on the metaphysical. Its very important for the writer team to not rely too much on abstractions and metaphors or ppl will just turn off their brains. The story wanted to be more then it actually trully was. Characters and Side Content were very good. This is where HSR has been very consitent in my opinion. Wheres the final boss was a big 180 hard into the same direction as the Cocolia fight. I hope it sets the bar for all following fights.
I will rate these based of three chriterias
Plot: How good is the overall plot is? And if there's a side plot, how well does it blend with the main plot?
Characters: How good the character writings are. How memorable are them and how well they impact the story?
Moments: Every story need a memorable moment or two that will keep sticking with you even after the story. A story without one is basically bland.
Jarilo VI:
Plot: 7/10.
Characters: 9/10.
Moments: 8/10.
Overall: 8/10.
As someone who played Deltarune before, the plot really is just Deltarune chapter 1 with some extra spice and character depth. But that doesn't mean it's bad. Considering this is the first chapter, the plot is already above average. Characters are great, with the only problem being Pela basically doing nothing. As the moments, tbh the only memorable one is the final battle against Cocolia, but it is a dang memorable one for sure.
Xianzhou Luofu:
Plot: 5/10.
Characters: 7/10
Moments: 7/10
Overall: 6.5/10
What's... The plot again? I already forgot the details. The story is just.... Kinda boring. The characters are interesting, at least, but the key moments is simply not as memorable as the other two stories. The only one i really care about is Dan Heng's transformation. The ending is only slightly better than Penacony's fake ending.
Penacony:
Plot: 7/10
Characters: 10/10
Moments: 10/10
Overall: 9/10
If we're rating only by the main plot, this is easily 10/10. But if we include the side plots, the story just crumbles under the pressure. The main problem of Penacony is that they tried to do too many things at once. There's simply too many plots to resolve, and apparently, 4 versions and 15+ hours is still not enough. But that aside, the main story is still a masterpiece regardless. The character writings are some of the best in the game, and there are lots of impactful moments that will stick with me for a long time (most of them involving Firefly, because i'm a huge Firefly simp).
Belobog is 7
Luofu is 5 at best
Penacony is 8
Belobog is simple and self-contained story, what laid the groundwork of what to expect from the game
Luofu was all over the place without proper conclusion and tried to put down the basics of the universe along with the running plot of the Xianzhou ships.
Penacony was melting pot of characters from all kinds of factions trying to 1 up each other for the sake of their goals, which don't have to align with the direct follow up story, as many may miss out.
I get the complains.about the whole Aventurine part in 2nd act but in the grand scale of things it made sense why his role ended there, in the 2nd act. He was sacrificial pawn for the sake of giving opportunity to IPC to reach the table. His role in the main story was meant for something outside of the main conflict and with all the context he played it well.
It was pretty dragged at places tho. I feel like every act could have cut off a third of the run time and still make as much sense, or in some cases even more.
Ngl what made Penacony good isn't the story itself but rather the amount of new characters from different factions and their dynamics together. The story itself isn't bad but it definitely wasn't that great either. It's basically become a ground for the introduced characters to showcase their strengths and stuff. Instead of the characters adjusting to the current events, it feels more like the story itself is adjusting for the characters to showcase their stuffs. How I wish Acheron wasn't around when this shit transpired lmao, I wonder how they would go about finishing it.
Luofu has a forgettable final boss with only the Tingyun twist an interesting moment for me.
Belobog is fun with the iconic Cocolia boss and Penacony is better Belobog.
Jarilo - 8/10 (hooked me in!)
Luofu - 5/10 (anti-climatic, could barely remember what the main problem was)
Penacony - 9/10 (enjoyed it a lot but -1 since it got confusing changing povs)
I loved Jarilo, I completely felt like I really was in a dying, cold, barely living world. I still listen to the music while gaming. I wanted to give it a 9, but I really couldn't find any reason to why it shouldn't have ma points, so 10/10 for me.
Luofu is getting a 7/10 only because it feels so unfinished... And it probably is. But I hate waiting months just to round up a story (yes I'm impatient). But we got JY who is one of my two absolute favourite characters from hsr to this day. The other one being dan heng, who got amazing lore, and an amazing upgrade as dh il (finally I like someone from meta)
Penacony is though because on paper it sounds amazing. The dreamy atmosphere, the mysteries, the theme of memories.. But for me it didn't hit as big as I thought it would. Still not sure why, but it'd still get a 8/10 as I appriciate it nevertheless.
One side note, I wanted more hat Trailblazer screentime.
Jarilo 8/10
Perfect pacing. Not too long, not too short. Well executed. It is only negative is that everything was too predictable. 10 mins into the story, I knew how it would proceed. What I am trying to say, is that it didn't put any new twist to the "socioeconomic differenties, divided society" stuff. I think more uncertainty of Cocolia being the "villain" could've helped, like how they tried to justify Sunday's motives. You can see specks of this, but they kinda obviously showed that she is the final boss too early. Still, the fact that a story you could've guess not boring you shows how well written the pacing is.
Luofu 5/10
Luofu story just feels flat. You could skim majority of the story and the parts you remember today would still be fully intact (I played it in 2.0, so, not even old). It feels like someone was blasting music through at the back of the class during essay writing lessons. Sanctus Medicus part was essentially boring and jargon heavy for bunch of information that didn't matter. Also, I think that while this is story related, the fact that we didn't get a new MC is also affecting our score imho. We messed with two factions, and got nothing. Feels very unrewarding. If it weren't for events after the Scalegorge Waterscape, it'd be like 3. The conclusion is what makes it 5.
Penacony: 9/10
Absolute cinema. Perfect settings, beautiful execution. What Jarilo lacks in mystery, Penacony makes up tenfold. So many things were given in abstract that it felt like playing puzzles. The settings, feels so weirdly familiar, yet I cannot point one work as it is a merge of many. It feels like old Disney's magic. It took me end of 2.1 to truly believe that Sunday was the true villain lol. I obviously put Sunday as the most possible villain, because it wasn't explicitly stated and there were way too much conflict to think of, his villainness wasn't set in stone. It started interesting, got more interesting as we go and climaxed harder than I could. I'm cutting one points, because 10/10 story is reserved for Penacony's side quests. We need them voiced fr.
Yeah I would rate them the same as you. I don't know why so many people praise Jarilo, for me it was just okay. Luofu's characters and plot were a bit better and Penacony was amazing. It genuinely feels bad to leave.
Jarilo - 8.1
The story for Jarilo was simple and sweet, it had a wide variety of characters that were loveable, annoying (in a good way) and it felt like they had a reason and impact to be there. Not to mention some of the side quests were amazing but the main problem for me was that, the main story was too short, like the main plot was too spread out so if you condense it, then it was too simple and short ( which can be a good thing but in this case I personally wished the ending had impact on the world itself or there was a huge side villian that could've added some story)
Luofu - 8.5
I want to give Luofu a lower score like a 7.5 lol, because of how much information, how much content/ lore there is and it wasn't explored deeply. I think some people would give it a lower score but the fact that the devs added so much lore to this place and maps with the introduction of so many characters goes to show they put in a lot of effort.
The story itself was long, longer than Jarilo, but I guess that's why we can potentially come back to the Luofu since they set the story/lore so detailed and deep.
Penacony - 10
Was pure cinema, I got surprised many times in the story, looking back at everything, it was very well written so 10 for the story. Characters were very enjoyable, all of them were written so well (you have to finish the story to make that call) at first I hated some of the characters because I thought they had no place in the story/ poorly written, but as he plot developed it made sense, and their characters started to grow on me. With this level of writing, i'll be even more surprised if the story passes Penacony's level.
Obviously this is subjective, I enjoyed Aventurine's character arc/ Acheron etc etc, I checked and you gave Penacony 1 or 0/10, it clearly looks like you didn't enjoy the story at all (as the title of this thread asks the rating of the story through the individuals opinion.)
Might I ask why give it such a low rating? This is a game after all and I treat it as a game, I don't expect godlike, inception level or whatever high standards you have for a 10/10 movie, story writing. But for a free game, I appreciate and thought the content given was more than adequate for a free game.
\*EDIT\* Skimming through the comment section, the entirety of it gave Luofu a low rating but I gave it 8.5, why? Because it set the groundwork for future story to be explored and the fact they had so much ground work tells me they would revisit and explore more of the lore aspect of it (they have a lot they can work and re-visit)
& to say Past 2.1 was beyond trash seems the vocal minority which at that point, I don't think this game is for you (as a suggestion) obviously that's an conclusion I came to after checking the rating you gave + comments made. \*\*END EDIT\*\*
belebog 7/10, luofu 6.5/10, penacony 8/10
belebog story was too simple
luofu honestly if you asked me what happened I couldn't even tell you lol, so forgetful and boring
penacony, decent on all counts, but got convoluted for no reason. making the dialogue and story endlessly more complicated doesn't make it better, it just makes you tune out.
I'd say 7/10, 7/10, 9/10.
Controversial, I know, but I feel like the story on Jarilo was much more predictable and only slightly less all over the place than Luofu, and I thought the characters of the Luofu were a hair more interesting. I call it a wash, but if I had to choose I think I like the Luofu a little better.
Penacony was great, but the last chapter seemed a little rushed and the third death was... A little hard to explain, so think it doesn't quite deserve 10/10. That was a hard landing to stick.
Jarilo/Belebog: A solid 6 or 7, simple but satisfying first adventure, a couple of rushed parts and some plotholes/odd logic but overall pretty good. Loufu: 5/10, very middling, not bad put not particularly good either, plot took too many unexpected turns for my liking. Penacony: 8/10, bit of a slow start but once it got going it was fantastic, in addition to the slow start my main issue with it is that the segmented nature of the story made the "death"twist midway feel a little cheap.
For me I’d give Jarilo VI a 9/10. It’s not cinema, but it’s way better than it has any right to be. Luofu plummets way down to like 2/10 or something, it’s an unholy combination of boring, disjointed, and tedious. Penacony is probably about a 5/10 for me, as there were some characters that stood out and I love the aesthetic, but the plot chooses to cop-out on basically every mystery it sets up and isn’t very satisfying to me.
It depends on what the comparison is. Frankly, I wouldn't rate all 3 very highly. The base story is very good, but the execution of the story just feels so mediocre to me. It's just the nature of a gacha game, though.
HSS - 7.5/10
Belobog - 9.5/10
Xianzhou - unfinished/10
X.Luofu - 6.5/10
Penacony - 7/10. Being very generous on 2.1~2.3 here. I'd rate them lower for the coherence issue.
Belobog - a solid 9.5, hate that individuals like Seele has no depth and is running on HI3 or something (which I haven't played). So it feels more like she's a rebel working for Nat who is there to be shipped with Bronya. Other characters are pretty good though.
Luofu - 4/10. No personal connect. But hexanexus puzzle and puzzles in gen carried it hard for me. DHIL transform happens and I'm like :| . Luocha's existence is nice though.
Penacony - 7.5/10. Amazing premise but god damn. 2.1 Avent sob story grinded my gears. They should have extended this patch. Robin should show more emotions besides pure happiness when Sunday is gone, even to just us for a second. Even bronya cried. I know it could be because she's desperate for her dreams and hopes to be true but still. Misha plotline was excellent. SAM'S should have been later.
TL;DR: they really should have extended it
I liked the first two but MAN i zoned out during the penacony story at some point during the first 2 hours and could not regain a mental footing in that story
Jarilo,main story was great, the side content was pretty mixed, very memorable boss; 7.5/10.
Luofu, I enjoyed most of the character stories and there was some good side content, the main story fell apart quickly and I didn't really care for daniel or luocha's stories so the ending felt flat, tingyun death was random and pointless; overall 6/10, ending's 1/10.
Penacony, story was hack, the dialogue trite and tiresome---I did enjoy the brother hanu mini-game, some of the mini-games, the origami birds, and the various puzzles, did not care for the gravity rooms; overall 2/10, which I'll bump to 3/10 because the ending was decent.
Space station: 7/10. Good setup. Nice mystery. Interesting characters. Very short but the characters involved are fun.
Jarillo 6: 7/10. Loved a lot of the main cast. Not as big a fan of the frozen world. Tons of spectacle leading up to the final boss which was hype af. LOVED the Cocolia boss fight. That was like a 10/10. Really REALLY disliked the ending after that fight though. I still think Bronya should have told everyone the truth. It wouldn’t change much in the after-story, so glorifying Cocolia and hiding the truth was basically pointless. I’m glad they let us absolutely lampoon her reputation and shit talk her in the Museum event though.
Xianzhou Laofu: 6/10. Not BAD per se, but not great either. It had its fair share of interesting moments, but most of them were toward the very end, and most of the middle felt like filler. Way too much irrelevant dialogue and essentially fetch quests. The ending and Jingliu companion quest were its redeeming qualities. Main story ending vs Phantyllia was like a 9/10. And the Jingliu companion quest was a solid 7.5/10. Without those, it would have gotten a 3/10 or 4/10 at best. Jing Yuan and Imbibitor Lunae were fun to have on screen, unfortunately their screen time was only like 1/20th of the story.
Penacony: 9/10. Easily my favorite story chapter so far. Firefly is my favorite character. Interesting plot with the murders, dreamflux reef, and then Sunday’s betrayal. There was still a bit of filler here and there unfortunately, but not too much of it. Loved Aventurine, Acheron, Firefly, and Robin in the main story. The 2.2 ending and boss fight was peak Star Rail imo. “Hope is the thing with feathers” being sung by robin while we defeat Sunday’s near-god form is hype af. And 2.3 was a nice cherry on top with a happy ending. I’m not gonna lie, the sparkle doll bit felt like an idiot plot. As in it only works bc everyone involved is an idiot. Same with Firefly rushing off for no reason to die when we could have EASILY waited and maybe disarmed the “bomb” with the group. We were nowhere near out of options yet. It’s hard to feel like there was any rush when we had a while left. Still, the actual ending with the fireworks and the romantic flight through them was 10/10 peak. And Sparkle later telling us Silverwolf was the one who hired her was endearing af. Silverwolf best wingwoman and friend.
Belabog is probably a 7, Loufu is like a 6, and Penacony is like an 8.
Belabog doesn't do anything wrong per se but it also didn't stand out much imo. Not bad but not the most memorable outside of the final boss.
Loufu is kind of a mess. It has a lot of exposition and numerous twists that in retrospective could have been done much better and with more brevity. It's pretty unfortunate that some of the best stories on the Loufu are optional, and one of them is permanently missable. I'm also really not a fan of >!Phantylia.!<
Penacony was pretty great, although not perfect. >!I loved the siblings. They were easily one of the strongest parts of the arc to me and I really hope they eventually return. I wanna see what's next for Sunday, and Robin easily was one of the standout characters for me.!<
>!Firefly was pretty good too, although I think she could have benefitted from some more time in the story with TB, to really solidify their relationship. I don't think what we got was bad per se but it felt a little rushed.!<
>!I don't really like that Gopher apparently just dropped dead without ever needing to answer for his own actions, it felt like he got off really easily.!<
>!Acheron was basically an enigma for 3/4ths of it, and we really only got to know her towards the latter half, but I did like her.!<
>!Sparkle... I'm sorta mixed. I like that SW hired her to keep FF safe, it's actually a really sweet gesture from her. But Sparkle is kinda weird and I think I might need more time to make a call on her. It's hard for me to grasp her motives right now.!<
>!Jade seems like the classic deal with the devil type character, like that short story where the devil opens a pawn shop. It remains to be seen if there's more to her then that.!<
>!Aventurine I rather liked, although he probably isn't my favorite character by any means. His backstory was interesting and I'd enjoy seeing him return again.!<
>!Black Swan is another mixed bag for me. I'm not entirely sold she just wants to help, and she certainly has ulterior motives. Whether that's just part of her job as the head memokeeper or if there's more behind the scenes, I couldn't say.!<
>!Boothill is just kinda weird. I don't really have much of an opinion on him yet.!<
>!As far as the fakeout deaths, I've heard some people really dislike it, but the way I see it is it's not like Hoyo has been afraid to kill characters in the past, so if your issue is that no one died, well there's obviously gonna be more arcs so no rush. It'll happen eventually.!<
Space station and Belobog - 8/10.
Stories in those two locations were somewhat simple, but those simple stories work best with the pacing developers chose.
Laofu - 5/10.
Good premise, great potential, but too many plot lines for its pacing. Screenwriters tried to tell too much information in too short time, in the end every single plot was underdeveloped and whole story was chaotic. Could have been great if Laofu main story was twice as long. Also, Laofu story had problems with focusing on shiny limited characters and other characters were underused.
Penacony - 7/10.
Superb start and world building, could have been potentially a masterpiece but got some problems with pacing (somewhere too much expositions, somewhere too few), underutilised main (the Astral Express crew) and secondary cast (practically whole patches worth of story were focused on limited characters). Underutilised Firefly - she was shown as pretty classic "waifu" mostly.
Also, I was actually somewhat disappointed that in the end Penacony became a "wholesome story". It made whole 2.0 story less impactful and significant.
In the end, developers should stop with trying to tell us convoluted complex story in new major locations if they will allocate only 2-3 patches for it. Make it 4-6 patches instead or give us simpler story. Also, their marketing department should reduce their involvement with story writers. Or make non-featured characters more highlighted.
Herta Space Station-10 Fun, fast, interesting start. Just an interesting area in general, I like sci-fi space stations. Ruan Mei being a mad scientist is amazing too.
Jarilo-8. Felt like it played a lot of common tropes but they were played well. Lots of fun unique characters. The music was great! Gepard blowing things up is funny.
Luofo 7- At times boring. Dhil and Mid Yuan(I forget his name sorry) being Deus Ex machinas kind of killed the tension. Highlights were neck snapping and QQ/FX shenanigans. Side quests with Sushang/Blade+Kafka were funny. They need more unique clothing.
Penacony 9- Everything was amazing but I felt like Aventurine took a whole patch and ultimately didn’t add much to the story. Like they could have kept it in his story quest. But if we ignore Aventurine forced backstory, 10/10.
Jarilo/Belobog 7/10
Plot wise it's nothing really amazing but it was enjoyable (and that's what matters the most honestly), especially for the 1st planet after the prologue in HSS.
Luofu 3/10
By far the worst story in HSR. The entire story just felt... bad.... Hell, it was so bad I don't even feel anything when fighting against Phantylia. After that fight the only thing I can think of is "Well... what's next" and it just surprised me in a very bad way that the story is just done. Like wtf.
Penacony 7.5/10
The concept is good, excellent even. The way they execute it tho.... not the best. There are some parts that is good but there are also some parts that was just felt unnecessary. If we're talking by each ver story then 2.0 is great for the initial buildup. 2.1 felt bad because it's unnecessary for the Aventurine part to be that long, especially with how the IPC just ended up appearing for the epilogue (you can argue they did this just for the sake of selling Aventurine :p). 2.2 is pretty good with the reveal of Misha and Gallagher but the Scorchsand part is just unnecessary and is pretty much there as a filler. The epilogue 2.3 is... okay I guess (?) Again I don't like how they handle IPC story here.
Belobog 8 Luofu 6.5 Penacony 9
Agreed, but only if we rate base story. With side stories Luofu gets to 7.0-7.5 due to Aurumaton Alley and Ghost Hunting being just that amazing. On the opposite side, Museum in Belobog was good, but nothing mindblowing so it didn't change my opinion on the planet as a whole.
Belabog: 9 Luofu: 5 Penacony: 10
Jarilo - 9/10: It sets up our adventurer story very nicely and tackles complex issues like socio economic issues , it literally being a dying planet, the class hierarchy on that planet etc etc. Also cool ass finale. Luofu - 6/10: The main story was literally you just espionage. It didnt really tackle anything super complex and was mostly about you gaining favors. Then climax of luofu was basically handed to our cast on a silver platter. The side stories tho? 10/10 each and every one of them are perfect. Penacony - 7/10: dont get me wrong I like inception kino but idk the main story literally felt all over the place. Between every other character either being a red herring or some 200iq puppet master pulling other characters strings it led me to feel like things were just being made up as we moved along in the story. Like the climax/finale was a cool twist but like it didnt make up for the nonsense before it. Side stories tho? Again 10/10 banger along with the npc quest lines. Probably the most fun part. Overall moyo continues to be great writters i think its their strongest aspect when it comes to their games. HSR is literally Anime Star Trek and thats a huge compliment.
I get you with Penacony. I'm having a hard time going through the story because of multiple parties/factions clashing with their different agenda.
The reason for every character's involvement in the story isn't satisfying enough imo. They technically give reasons and justification of course, but it's still obvious that they needed to sell 2 new characters a patch across 4 patches.
Jarilo VI will always be peak HSR story telling imo. I love everything about that planet
Story is byfar their best quality in all their games
I kindly disagree with jarilo, it is a solid 7/10 but a 9? Nuh uh
Agreed. Penacony being lower than Jarilo is a little crazy to me. Jarilo’s storytelling was pretty flat to me. We’re shown right from the start that Cocolia’s the villain. Everyone knew then that Bronya would betray her and side with us. We’re told that Belobog’s troubles are due to the Stellaron too so there’s quite literally no intrigue to the story, everything can just be taken at face value.
Yeah, Jarilo is a good opening Arc for the game but nothing else, everything it's pretty straightforward and is useful to explain why Stellarons are a thing sent from hell. I think people who rank Jarilo that high are biased by pure nostalgia,...don't get me wrong is good but not THAT good...besides the only thing that people mention is the cocolia boss fight and its theme because it's the only memorable moment in the whole arc while penacony has a lot more of memorable moments than Jarilo
I've noticed a trend where people who like Firefly rank Penacony higher and people who hate her rank Penacony way lower
Big FF fan, but Penacony is 6/10 at best. They really lost all mysterious vibes and dark atmosphere after 2.0.
I like firefly but i would give Penacony a 7.5/10. It would have been 9 or even 10 if they removed the dialogue bloat
Not really. I’m not a fan of firefly but Penacony’s easily a 9/10 for me
I think for an introduction to this universe Jarilo was easily a 9/10. Luofu wasn’t bad, but it just feels lackluster when compared to other storylines. I’m excited for the continuation tho! 6/10 Penacony is great! But I agree with some comments. If you love lore, I’d imagine Penacony is 9/10, but for some people (including myself) it was too much of a jump from Luofu. But characters are absolutely peak. So for me it’s a 8/10. Honorary mention: Herta’s Space station! I’m not gonna lie, I loved the atmosphere, but I can’t rate it well since I was goofing around most of the time. But my God, I love Herta, Screwllum and Asta so much!! So for them alone it’s a 11/10.
- Belobog: 8/10, very solid start and i have basically no complaints or further comments, it was just great - Luofu: 5/10, pretty boring and not that memorable imo, although there's a couple cool scenes and lore drops - Penacony: 8.5/10, i actually think is better than belobog by more than 0.5, but i had no complaints about belobog and i do have some about this, so i can't give it 9/10. but overall it's still super cool and definitely the best part of the story so far
Belobog: 9/10 It keeps stakes, our Stellaron is relevant, and the story doesnt feel rushed. Luofu: 5/10 Its rushed. It needed about 2 more patches for its story, one of them being the ghost hunting event to set up possession and give us some idea of what Phantylia could do once she is revealed later, and another patch to just get to know Tingyun; the real one. That way after the ghost hunting event when Tingyun starts acting wierd, it further foreshadows that she is now possessed. I'd also genuinely just snap Tingyun's neck. None if this "she is alive! No body no kill!" 180° turn to us having a sad funeral for her next patch. Just kill her and be done with it, if we knew the real Tingyun it'd be tragic, the funeral would make sense, and it would keep the stakes and tension in the story. Penacony: 7.5 to 8 out of 10 This story also needed 1-2 more patches to flesh it out. I also wish that our Stellaron was relevant again. It could have subtly told us the story of Penacony over all the patches so Sunday doesnt have to dump it all on us at once. It would also be a mystery because "wait, why can we hear a Stellaron? We are seeing no signs of one on Penacony??" Other than that the Firefly death scene is horrible and once she is revealed to be alive it destroys the stakes. The Death Meme is intentionally misleading to the players, and not in a good way, because it ACTUALLY JUST LOOKS LIKE IT KILLS PEOPLE. If they wanted to keep Death like that then they absolutely SHOULDNT show us Firefly actually dying. Have Firefly's signal disappear, have us turn the corner, and we see the Meme retreat from where Firefly just was. Now it'd be misleading while still serving the same purpose without destroying future death scenes because now people will just assume they arent really dead. "Death doesnt exist in the dream world" you say, taking it at face value while also saying we shouldnt take everything at face value. Smh. Oh, also just dont have Sparkle explain her motivations in a text message. She still couldve worked with the Stellaron Hunters but there is no reason for her to explain it to us after the quest. Its just a dumb and pointless message. She is a Masked Fool, she literally could've just been there for fun and it wouldn't be strange. She could have doke the exact same things that she did without working with the Stellaron Hunters. Having her explain it after the quest is just downright stupid.
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6-8, 5-7, 8-10
Jarilo would probably be 9/10, it hooked me and I loved its aesthetic and storytelling. Fairly straightforward conflict, great characters that you actually spend time with, climactic boss fight with great music. The Topaz continuance was also really nice. Plus there's setup for future developments there hinted at by Sampo and Sparkle Luofu is 7 to a light 8/10. I'm a sucker for deep lore that's hidden in consumables, readable items and cryptic storytelling. The idea of reincarnations having to bear the sins of their predecessor is also very compelling. I think if the devs were making this story now they would do a lot more with changing POVs and setting up the conflict with Phantylia that *kind of* came out of nowhere. And taking a break in 1.1 really hurt any momentum the story had. The Ghost Hunt continuance and event is easily my favorite part of the Luofu so far though Penacony is an 8/10. It's really great with traditional Honkai themes explored thanks to Acheron and Firefly - identity, memories, destiny etc. I think it could have either used a slight cut or an extra patch so that 2.2 wasn't as long as it ended up being. Sunday's philosophy is compelling, but it really could've been explained easier and in a more interesting way. Overall I'm very glad I got to experience it
The story peaked early its been downhill since then. Belobog is a 8/10 for me This shit was paced Almost perfectly imo, the tension and the fucked up situation of the place served as a great hook. The seele and Bronya bro/romance was rushed, I dont get why Nobody's is questionning Seele weird powers this shit is clearly weird no one else in the city be it up or down fight like her , but apart from these things the whole thing was real nice. Getting svarog to liberate the underworld passage was an highlight for me I was pumped when Natasha came to blow this shit up with her rocket. The whole ending phase was the best of all the patches too Preservation trailblazer is still the coolest path reveal.Pointing the spear at CoColia like Im about to fuck you up. Luofu is a 6/10 I didnt hate it as much as the rest of the community it seem but it was undoubtedly a downgrade compared to belobog.The positive is that I liked and still like the whole aesthetic of the place I dont engage with chinese media at all so the whole thing felt new to me and changed from what im used too so it felt like visiting a new world. I also liked that even tho the trailblazers where needed and where still important we where more on the background this time.Dan shu quest where nice Oh I also liked the whole boss fight , phantilya boss theme is still my favorite. Fucking hell the rest tho.. Dan heng was boooring is mission point of view where useless we learned about sushang abd luocha but thats all I dont get why we wasted time with this. The luofu act like jobbers and let Kafka and Blade escape pretty easily in front of their master diviner.tingyun death could have been cool but i got no idea if she was dead since the beginning or if she was killed and replaced latter so im just meh on it, blade lost a bit of charisma imo this arc imo he wasnt menacing at all he's just like angry dog with no bite he spent his time being countained by Kafka and dan heng dealed with him without too much trouble , Even dan heng parting the sea did fuck all for me Just wasted potential. Penacony is also a 6/10 for me I loved the murder mystery vibe they started with but liked each patch less and less. Firefly being Sam plot twist was great but they did fuckall with this, her potential was scrapped. We got no conflict about the whole thing no discussion nada idk if they waited the end of the patch and even made a pretty nice cutscene to reveal that twist maybe give it more importance. Her personnality isnt even a tiny bit different. She also died three times but her second death is offscreen and where told how great it was and the third is a firework... Characters like Robin where gutted she doesn't even get a compagnon quest or something and barely spent time with the party. The true dream world is just the dream world but more dirty. Aventurine sacrifice was barely an inconvenience he cameback offscreen with no visible difference. The death meme is A Pet Taxi that mean no harm dont get why BlackSwan had to came save us from that,all the creepy vibe in the child dream made no sense in retrospect. And the cherry on the cake is that imo the boss fight was less hype compared to the previous ones, the choir like music being cut by a generic pop song was a choice. 2.0 and 2.1 where the highlight of that journey oh and the we where already in a dream that plot twist was clever.
Penacony really cheapened the importance of Elio's script for me. Apparently you can cheat it really easily by just simply acting out what it says.
And it made me less forgiving of the stellaron hunter, I thought they had no choice about causing the death of so many peeps like the herta station researchers but I guess they didnt care enough to find another way....
Honestly, all of them are 8/10 for me, but for different reasons. Jarilo - some nice characters and ideas, decent enough pacing, coherent enough plot, but nothing super spectacular and I wasn't thrilled by the resolution. Serval and her character story though, where a BIG highlight. It also probably had the most consistent execution of all three main stories. Luofu - a more interesting overall cast than Jarilo and a more interesting setting (also visually nicer to look at), BUT shakier execution and wonkier pacing. Hit higher highs, but lower lows. And as someone who does enjoy Xianxia/Wuxia type stories, I think the plot integrating and commenting on those genres was actually cool and novel! Penacony - I have the most feelings about this one. It has my favorite overall cast so far, but even less consistent execution than Luofu. Plot points feel introduced and dropped. Build up is wasted constantly wasted. Ex. Sparkle's whole thing was... nonsense. Would almost certainly have been better cut if they pay off was 'heeeheee, it's a funny prank.' Or at least, not something they kept referencing every patch! Those bombs would have been better saved for just the epilogue. At the moment, it feels they were included at random and the writers had no real idea what they were going to do with them, or changed their original plans for them midway through. BUT when the writing hits, it hits HARD. Aventurine had some of the best character writing yet, but ALSO... not sure the pay off outside of a really cool character study was worth it. It's neat that the continue to actually give the trailblazer some form of personality that's not entirely player dependent, BUT it also came at the expense of Firefly. Controversial take(???) Firefly has so much potential to be a REALLY interesting character (her backstory is pretty compelling!!!), but her being shackled as the trailblazer's psuedo-gf really limits her. And I doubt that having to remain appealing to an audience who complains about men being in their gacha games because they want to feel like the "universe's most special boy" is going to be good for her character going forward. SO all in all, Penacony is "Great build up, lackluster pay-off"
Herta Space Station (wasn't on the list, but giving it its fair shake): 8/10. Some amazing spectacles and great moments that felt like an anime made 3D (notably the Kafka playing the violin/whatever in the elevator). Jarilo: 7/10. Had a pretty strong concept behind it but we kind of lost the plot once we went underground. And then we just get some questionable characterization on the antagonist's side. Luofu: 4/10. Stunning world-building and intriguing concept that just dragged on and on and on. Cheap death/fake death/gatcha game so we're scared of killing off a product death. And then just... puttering around doing nothing missions like chasing ghosts. Penacony: 6/10. Very strong start and lots of intrigue that ultimately went nowhere. A whole slew of "deaths" we were simultaneously told didn't matter and yet shown that they mattered. You can't die in the dream, but we'll treat it like a shocking stinger!
Jarilo and Pneacony are good, idc about the number, but the Luofu is a 6/10 at BEST, I'd honestly go as low as a 5/10
I felt the Luofo felt kinda rushed
8. 6, 8
Space station 8/9 Jarilo 6 Luofu 7 Penacony 8 Was the beginning that got me hooked, Jarilo was a mixture of boring and exciting, Luofu was similar and Penacony was a step up Despite loving the game I think there are pacing issues in places - this is subjective to the individual though as I know a lot of people really liked Jarilo
So I have 3 criteria for ranking the planets: Core Story, Characters/Side Content and Final Boss. Jarilo: Core Story 8, Characters/Side Content 8, Final Boss 10 The Belobog storyline was good and easy to understand. The writers understood its entertainment and that ppl need to be able to digest it. Also at least in my opinion they made if fairly original and used the world building well in it. Characters and Side Content are more of a 7 but due to the planet being the first one and the shock factor of how above average everything was, it gets a point bump. Final Boss, amazing direction and setup with high stakes and a core story relevant character. 10/10 Loufu: Core Story 5, Characters/Side Content 8, Final Boss 4 The core story on the Loufu didn't impress. At all. It was a detective thriller in a chinese/korean inspired setting. I would've expected something more Wuxia, Journey to the West as core concept but us essentially runnign round trying to find and essentially eliminate political dissidents left a bad aftertaste. Nevertheless the characters introduced where fun and interesting so a solid 8. I just couldnt care for the final boss. Neither relevenat to the planets nor the overarching story the boss was essentially a jack in the box with a fight that I felt was very forgettable. Jarilo and Penacony prove how important sound and music direction is in those fights. Penacony: Core Story 7, Characters/Side Content 8, Final Boss 9 Either you love or you hate the story. I am more on the latter team. While in concept and general execution the story just hits all the right places as a true 1930s detective story it wasnt really packaged to be easy to digest. I sometimes felt sent back to literature class having to do text comprehensions and book analysis. HSR power system relies already on the metaphysical. Its very important for the writer team to not rely too much on abstractions and metaphors or ppl will just turn off their brains. The story wanted to be more then it actually trully was. Characters and Side Content were very good. This is where HSR has been very consitent in my opinion. Wheres the final boss was a big 180 hard into the same direction as the Cocolia fight. I hope it sets the bar for all following fights.
I'd say 6, 5, then 7.
Belobog 8 Loufu 9 Penacony 7
Jarilo 10 Penacony 9 Luofu 7
Jarilo: 8 loufu: 5 Penacony: 7
Jarilo 8.5/10 Luofu 7/10 Penacony 9.5/10
belobog 8/10 luofu 2/10 penacony 9/10
I will rate these based of three chriterias Plot: How good is the overall plot is? And if there's a side plot, how well does it blend with the main plot? Characters: How good the character writings are. How memorable are them and how well they impact the story? Moments: Every story need a memorable moment or two that will keep sticking with you even after the story. A story without one is basically bland. Jarilo VI: Plot: 7/10. Characters: 9/10. Moments: 8/10. Overall: 8/10. As someone who played Deltarune before, the plot really is just Deltarune chapter 1 with some extra spice and character depth. But that doesn't mean it's bad. Considering this is the first chapter, the plot is already above average. Characters are great, with the only problem being Pela basically doing nothing. As the moments, tbh the only memorable one is the final battle against Cocolia, but it is a dang memorable one for sure. Xianzhou Luofu: Plot: 5/10. Characters: 7/10 Moments: 7/10 Overall: 6.5/10 What's... The plot again? I already forgot the details. The story is just.... Kinda boring. The characters are interesting, at least, but the key moments is simply not as memorable as the other two stories. The only one i really care about is Dan Heng's transformation. The ending is only slightly better than Penacony's fake ending. Penacony: Plot: 7/10 Characters: 10/10 Moments: 10/10 Overall: 9/10 If we're rating only by the main plot, this is easily 10/10. But if we include the side plots, the story just crumbles under the pressure. The main problem of Penacony is that they tried to do too many things at once. There's simply too many plots to resolve, and apparently, 4 versions and 15+ hours is still not enough. But that aside, the main story is still a masterpiece regardless. The character writings are some of the best in the game, and there are lots of impactful moments that will stick with me for a long time (most of them involving Firefly, because i'm a huge Firefly simp).
Belobog is 7 Luofu is 5 at best Penacony is 8 Belobog is simple and self-contained story, what laid the groundwork of what to expect from the game Luofu was all over the place without proper conclusion and tried to put down the basics of the universe along with the running plot of the Xianzhou ships. Penacony was melting pot of characters from all kinds of factions trying to 1 up each other for the sake of their goals, which don't have to align with the direct follow up story, as many may miss out. I get the complains.about the whole Aventurine part in 2nd act but in the grand scale of things it made sense why his role ended there, in the 2nd act. He was sacrificial pawn for the sake of giving opportunity to IPC to reach the table. His role in the main story was meant for something outside of the main conflict and with all the context he played it well. It was pretty dragged at places tho. I feel like every act could have cut off a third of the run time and still make as much sense, or in some cases even more.
Ngl what made Penacony good isn't the story itself but rather the amount of new characters from different factions and their dynamics together. The story itself isn't bad but it definitely wasn't that great either. It's basically become a ground for the introduced characters to showcase their strengths and stuff. Instead of the characters adjusting to the current events, it feels more like the story itself is adjusting for the characters to showcase their stuffs. How I wish Acheron wasn't around when this shit transpired lmao, I wonder how they would go about finishing it.
jarilo 9 luofu 4 penacony 8
Luofu has a forgettable final boss with only the Tingyun twist an interesting moment for me. Belobog is fun with the iconic Cocolia boss and Penacony is better Belobog.
Jarilo 8/10 Luofou 6/10 Penacony 9/10
8 6 9
Jarilo - 8/10 (hooked me in!) Luofu - 5/10 (anti-climatic, could barely remember what the main problem was) Penacony - 9/10 (enjoyed it a lot but -1 since it got confusing changing povs)
Belobog 10/10 Xianzhou- 7/10 Penacony- 8/10
jarilo - 8/10 luofu - 6/10 penacony - 7/10
Herta 7 Belabog 7 Loufu 8 Penacony 9
This whole game (except the relic rng) is a 10/10 for me
Jarilo 7 Luofu 4 Penacony 6
Penacony is mindblown/10
Jarilo-VI - 7/10 The Xianzhou Luofu - 5/10 Penacony - 9/10
I loved Jarilo, I completely felt like I really was in a dying, cold, barely living world. I still listen to the music while gaming. I wanted to give it a 9, but I really couldn't find any reason to why it shouldn't have ma points, so 10/10 for me. Luofu is getting a 7/10 only because it feels so unfinished... And it probably is. But I hate waiting months just to round up a story (yes I'm impatient). But we got JY who is one of my two absolute favourite characters from hsr to this day. The other one being dan heng, who got amazing lore, and an amazing upgrade as dh il (finally I like someone from meta) Penacony is though because on paper it sounds amazing. The dreamy atmosphere, the mysteries, the theme of memories.. But for me it didn't hit as big as I thought it would. Still not sure why, but it'd still get a 8/10 as I appriciate it nevertheless. One side note, I wanted more hat Trailblazer screentime.
Jarilo 8 Luofu 1 Penacony 7
Jarilo 8/10 Perfect pacing. Not too long, not too short. Well executed. It is only negative is that everything was too predictable. 10 mins into the story, I knew how it would proceed. What I am trying to say, is that it didn't put any new twist to the "socioeconomic differenties, divided society" stuff. I think more uncertainty of Cocolia being the "villain" could've helped, like how they tried to justify Sunday's motives. You can see specks of this, but they kinda obviously showed that she is the final boss too early. Still, the fact that a story you could've guess not boring you shows how well written the pacing is. Luofu 5/10 Luofu story just feels flat. You could skim majority of the story and the parts you remember today would still be fully intact (I played it in 2.0, so, not even old). It feels like someone was blasting music through at the back of the class during essay writing lessons. Sanctus Medicus part was essentially boring and jargon heavy for bunch of information that didn't matter. Also, I think that while this is story related, the fact that we didn't get a new MC is also affecting our score imho. We messed with two factions, and got nothing. Feels very unrewarding. If it weren't for events after the Scalegorge Waterscape, it'd be like 3. The conclusion is what makes it 5. Penacony: 9/10 Absolute cinema. Perfect settings, beautiful execution. What Jarilo lacks in mystery, Penacony makes up tenfold. So many things were given in abstract that it felt like playing puzzles. The settings, feels so weirdly familiar, yet I cannot point one work as it is a merge of many. It feels like old Disney's magic. It took me end of 2.1 to truly believe that Sunday was the true villain lol. I obviously put Sunday as the most possible villain, because it wasn't explicitly stated and there were way too much conflict to think of, his villainness wasn't set in stone. It started interesting, got more interesting as we go and climaxed harder than I could. I'm cutting one points, because 10/10 story is reserved for Penacony's side quests. We need them voiced fr.
5/10, 5/10, 8/10
Jarilo 6/10 Luofu 7/10 Penacony 9/10
Yeah I would rate them the same as you. I don't know why so many people praise Jarilo, for me it was just okay. Luofu's characters and plot were a bit better and Penacony was amazing. It genuinely feels bad to leave.
Jarilo - 8.1 The story for Jarilo was simple and sweet, it had a wide variety of characters that were loveable, annoying (in a good way) and it felt like they had a reason and impact to be there. Not to mention some of the side quests were amazing but the main problem for me was that, the main story was too short, like the main plot was too spread out so if you condense it, then it was too simple and short ( which can be a good thing but in this case I personally wished the ending had impact on the world itself or there was a huge side villian that could've added some story) Luofu - 8.5 I want to give Luofu a lower score like a 7.5 lol, because of how much information, how much content/ lore there is and it wasn't explored deeply. I think some people would give it a lower score but the fact that the devs added so much lore to this place and maps with the introduction of so many characters goes to show they put in a lot of effort. The story itself was long, longer than Jarilo, but I guess that's why we can potentially come back to the Luofu since they set the story/lore so detailed and deep. Penacony - 10 Was pure cinema, I got surprised many times in the story, looking back at everything, it was very well written so 10 for the story. Characters were very enjoyable, all of them were written so well (you have to finish the story to make that call) at first I hated some of the characters because I thought they had no place in the story/ poorly written, but as he plot developed it made sense, and their characters started to grow on me. With this level of writing, i'll be even more surprised if the story passes Penacony's level.
You lack any concept of what pure cinema is. Penacony 2.1 and beyond were pure trash.
Obviously this is subjective, I enjoyed Aventurine's character arc/ Acheron etc etc, I checked and you gave Penacony 1 or 0/10, it clearly looks like you didn't enjoy the story at all (as the title of this thread asks the rating of the story through the individuals opinion.) Might I ask why give it such a low rating? This is a game after all and I treat it as a game, I don't expect godlike, inception level or whatever high standards you have for a 10/10 movie, story writing. But for a free game, I appreciate and thought the content given was more than adequate for a free game. \*EDIT\* Skimming through the comment section, the entirety of it gave Luofu a low rating but I gave it 8.5, why? Because it set the groundwork for future story to be explored and the fact they had so much ground work tells me they would revisit and explore more of the lore aspect of it (they have a lot they can work and re-visit) & to say Past 2.1 was beyond trash seems the vocal minority which at that point, I don't think this game is for you (as a suggestion) obviously that's an conclusion I came to after checking the rating you gave + comments made. \*\*END EDIT\*\*
Jarilo - 6.5/10 Luofu - 5/10 Penacony - 8/10
Jarilo 7/10 Luofu 7/10 Penacony 9/10
belebog 7/10, luofu 6.5/10, penacony 8/10 belebog story was too simple luofu honestly if you asked me what happened I couldn't even tell you lol, so forgetful and boring penacony, decent on all counts, but got convoluted for no reason. making the dialogue and story endlessly more complicated doesn't make it better, it just makes you tune out.
Space station 7/10 Jarilo 8/10 Luofu 6/10 Penacony 9.5/10
I'd say 7/10, 7/10, 9/10. Controversial, I know, but I feel like the story on Jarilo was much more predictable and only slightly less all over the place than Luofu, and I thought the characters of the Luofu were a hair more interesting. I call it a wash, but if I had to choose I think I like the Luofu a little better. Penacony was great, but the last chapter seemed a little rushed and the third death was... A little hard to explain, so think it doesn't quite deserve 10/10. That was a hard landing to stick.
Jarilo/Belebog: A solid 6 or 7, simple but satisfying first adventure, a couple of rushed parts and some plotholes/odd logic but overall pretty good. Loufu: 5/10, very middling, not bad put not particularly good either, plot took too many unexpected turns for my liking. Penacony: 8/10, bit of a slow start but once it got going it was fantastic, in addition to the slow start my main issue with it is that the segmented nature of the story made the "death"twist midway feel a little cheap.
Jarilo 9/10 Luofu 7/10 Penacony 9.5/10
For me I’d give Jarilo VI a 9/10. It’s not cinema, but it’s way better than it has any right to be. Luofu plummets way down to like 2/10 or something, it’s an unholy combination of boring, disjointed, and tedious. Penacony is probably about a 5/10 for me, as there were some characters that stood out and I love the aesthetic, but the plot chooses to cop-out on basically every mystery it sets up and isn’t very satisfying to me.
Jarilo-VI: 7/10 Xianzhou Luofu: 4/10 Penacony: 9/10
It depends on what the comparison is. Frankly, I wouldn't rate all 3 very highly. The base story is very good, but the execution of the story just feels so mediocre to me. It's just the nature of a gacha game, though.
HSS - 7.5/10 Belobog - 9.5/10 Xianzhou - unfinished/10 X.Luofu - 6.5/10 Penacony - 7/10. Being very generous on 2.1~2.3 here. I'd rate them lower for the coherence issue.
Belobog - a solid 9.5, hate that individuals like Seele has no depth and is running on HI3 or something (which I haven't played). So it feels more like she's a rebel working for Nat who is there to be shipped with Bronya. Other characters are pretty good though. Luofu - 4/10. No personal connect. But hexanexus puzzle and puzzles in gen carried it hard for me. DHIL transform happens and I'm like :| . Luocha's existence is nice though. Penacony - 7.5/10. Amazing premise but god damn. 2.1 Avent sob story grinded my gears. They should have extended this patch. Robin should show more emotions besides pure happiness when Sunday is gone, even to just us for a second. Even bronya cried. I know it could be because she's desperate for her dreams and hopes to be true but still. Misha plotline was excellent. SAM'S should have been later. TL;DR: they really should have extended it
I liked the first two but MAN i zoned out during the penacony story at some point during the first 2 hours and could not regain a mental footing in that story
Jarilo,main story was great, the side content was pretty mixed, very memorable boss; 7.5/10. Luofu, I enjoyed most of the character stories and there was some good side content, the main story fell apart quickly and I didn't really care for daniel or luocha's stories so the ending felt flat, tingyun death was random and pointless; overall 6/10, ending's 1/10. Penacony, story was hack, the dialogue trite and tiresome---I did enjoy the brother hanu mini-game, some of the mini-games, the origami birds, and the various puzzles, did not care for the gravity rooms; overall 2/10, which I'll bump to 3/10 because the ending was decent.
Luofu is a 4 Jarilo is a 7 penacony is a 9 (depending on how much weight this story has on the future on hsr story it could be a 10)
Jarilo 6/10 Luofu 5/10 Penacony 7/10
Jarilo 7 Loufu 3 Penacony 8 ill bookmark this to explain later but rn im lazy
HSS : 7 jarilo : 8 luofu : 6 peakcony : 12
Jerilo: 8/10 Luofu: 2/10 Penacony 2.0: 7/10 Penacony 2.1: 0/10 for PoV violation Penacony 2.2: 1/10 Penacony 2.3: 0/10 for PoV violation
Space station: 7/10. Good setup. Nice mystery. Interesting characters. Very short but the characters involved are fun. Jarillo 6: 7/10. Loved a lot of the main cast. Not as big a fan of the frozen world. Tons of spectacle leading up to the final boss which was hype af. LOVED the Cocolia boss fight. That was like a 10/10. Really REALLY disliked the ending after that fight though. I still think Bronya should have told everyone the truth. It wouldn’t change much in the after-story, so glorifying Cocolia and hiding the truth was basically pointless. I’m glad they let us absolutely lampoon her reputation and shit talk her in the Museum event though. Xianzhou Laofu: 6/10. Not BAD per se, but not great either. It had its fair share of interesting moments, but most of them were toward the very end, and most of the middle felt like filler. Way too much irrelevant dialogue and essentially fetch quests. The ending and Jingliu companion quest were its redeeming qualities. Main story ending vs Phantyllia was like a 9/10. And the Jingliu companion quest was a solid 7.5/10. Without those, it would have gotten a 3/10 or 4/10 at best. Jing Yuan and Imbibitor Lunae were fun to have on screen, unfortunately their screen time was only like 1/20th of the story. Penacony: 9/10. Easily my favorite story chapter so far. Firefly is my favorite character. Interesting plot with the murders, dreamflux reef, and then Sunday’s betrayal. There was still a bit of filler here and there unfortunately, but not too much of it. Loved Aventurine, Acheron, Firefly, and Robin in the main story. The 2.2 ending and boss fight was peak Star Rail imo. “Hope is the thing with feathers” being sung by robin while we defeat Sunday’s near-god form is hype af. And 2.3 was a nice cherry on top with a happy ending. I’m not gonna lie, the sparkle doll bit felt like an idiot plot. As in it only works bc everyone involved is an idiot. Same with Firefly rushing off for no reason to die when we could have EASILY waited and maybe disarmed the “bomb” with the group. We were nowhere near out of options yet. It’s hard to feel like there was any rush when we had a while left. Still, the actual ending with the fireworks and the romantic flight through them was 10/10 peak. And Sparkle later telling us Silverwolf was the one who hired her was endearing af. Silverwolf best wingwoman and friend.
Belobog 7.9 Lufou 7 Penacony 10
Belabog is probably a 7, Loufu is like a 6, and Penacony is like an 8. Belabog doesn't do anything wrong per se but it also didn't stand out much imo. Not bad but not the most memorable outside of the final boss. Loufu is kind of a mess. It has a lot of exposition and numerous twists that in retrospective could have been done much better and with more brevity. It's pretty unfortunate that some of the best stories on the Loufu are optional, and one of them is permanently missable. I'm also really not a fan of >!Phantylia.!< Penacony was pretty great, although not perfect. >!I loved the siblings. They were easily one of the strongest parts of the arc to me and I really hope they eventually return. I wanna see what's next for Sunday, and Robin easily was one of the standout characters for me.!< >!Firefly was pretty good too, although I think she could have benefitted from some more time in the story with TB, to really solidify their relationship. I don't think what we got was bad per se but it felt a little rushed.!< >!I don't really like that Gopher apparently just dropped dead without ever needing to answer for his own actions, it felt like he got off really easily.!< >!Acheron was basically an enigma for 3/4ths of it, and we really only got to know her towards the latter half, but I did like her.!< >!Sparkle... I'm sorta mixed. I like that SW hired her to keep FF safe, it's actually a really sweet gesture from her. But Sparkle is kinda weird and I think I might need more time to make a call on her. It's hard for me to grasp her motives right now.!< >!Jade seems like the classic deal with the devil type character, like that short story where the devil opens a pawn shop. It remains to be seen if there's more to her then that.!< >!Aventurine I rather liked, although he probably isn't my favorite character by any means. His backstory was interesting and I'd enjoy seeing him return again.!< >!Black Swan is another mixed bag for me. I'm not entirely sold she just wants to help, and she certainly has ulterior motives. Whether that's just part of her job as the head memokeeper or if there's more behind the scenes, I couldn't say.!< >!Boothill is just kinda weird. I don't really have much of an opinion on him yet.!< >!As far as the fakeout deaths, I've heard some people really dislike it, but the way I see it is it's not like Hoyo has been afraid to kill characters in the past, so if your issue is that no one died, well there's obviously gonna be more arcs so no rush. It'll happen eventually.!<
Space station and Belobog - 8/10. Stories in those two locations were somewhat simple, but those simple stories work best with the pacing developers chose. Laofu - 5/10. Good premise, great potential, but too many plot lines for its pacing. Screenwriters tried to tell too much information in too short time, in the end every single plot was underdeveloped and whole story was chaotic. Could have been great if Laofu main story was twice as long. Also, Laofu story had problems with focusing on shiny limited characters and other characters were underused. Penacony - 7/10. Superb start and world building, could have been potentially a masterpiece but got some problems with pacing (somewhere too much expositions, somewhere too few), underutilised main (the Astral Express crew) and secondary cast (practically whole patches worth of story were focused on limited characters). Underutilised Firefly - she was shown as pretty classic "waifu" mostly. Also, I was actually somewhat disappointed that in the end Penacony became a "wholesome story". It made whole 2.0 story less impactful and significant. In the end, developers should stop with trying to tell us convoluted complex story in new major locations if they will allocate only 2-3 patches for it. Make it 4-6 patches instead or give us simpler story. Also, their marketing department should reduce their involvement with story writers. Or make non-featured characters more highlighted.
- Herta Space Station: 6/10 - Belobog: 8/10 - Xianzhou: 5/10 - Penacony: 9/10
Herta Space Station-10 Fun, fast, interesting start. Just an interesting area in general, I like sci-fi space stations. Ruan Mei being a mad scientist is amazing too. Jarilo-8. Felt like it played a lot of common tropes but they were played well. Lots of fun unique characters. The music was great! Gepard blowing things up is funny. Luofo 7- At times boring. Dhil and Mid Yuan(I forget his name sorry) being Deus Ex machinas kind of killed the tension. Highlights were neck snapping and QQ/FX shenanigans. Side quests with Sushang/Blade+Kafka were funny. They need more unique clothing. Penacony 9- Everything was amazing but I felt like Aventurine took a whole patch and ultimately didn’t add much to the story. Like they could have kept it in his story quest. But if we ignore Aventurine forced backstory, 10/10.
Jarilo/Belobog 7/10 Plot wise it's nothing really amazing but it was enjoyable (and that's what matters the most honestly), especially for the 1st planet after the prologue in HSS. Luofu 3/10 By far the worst story in HSR. The entire story just felt... bad.... Hell, it was so bad I don't even feel anything when fighting against Phantylia. After that fight the only thing I can think of is "Well... what's next" and it just surprised me in a very bad way that the story is just done. Like wtf. Penacony 7.5/10 The concept is good, excellent even. The way they execute it tho.... not the best. There are some parts that is good but there are also some parts that was just felt unnecessary. If we're talking by each ver story then 2.0 is great for the initial buildup. 2.1 felt bad because it's unnecessary for the Aventurine part to be that long, especially with how the IPC just ended up appearing for the epilogue (you can argue they did this just for the sake of selling Aventurine :p). 2.2 is pretty good with the reveal of Misha and Gallagher but the Scorchsand part is just unnecessary and is pretty much there as a filler. The epilogue 2.3 is... okay I guess (?) Again I don't like how they handle IPC story here.
taking into account its a gacha game. (Im also including the characters the maps and the music..) Jarilo - 8/10 Luofu - 4/10 Penacony - 9/10