HSR patch 3.5 review
Aug. 14th, 2025 10:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanithryudoSo, I have finished the story and also browsed through the v1 model/kit spoilers for the next patches new March 7 and Dan Heng new forms.
The story is much like the previous patch, IMO. A bit of a summary and transition between the two halves of the Amphoreus story. It didn't drag on with puzzles like the earlier Amphoreus story patches did. At the same time, there wasn't a lot of action either, and it's like an entire patch worth of pure dialogue, with a token boss fight at the end (which I didn't win, natch -_-).
It's not like I dislike this, because too much mook fights isn't all that interesting either and just serves to drag things on. That said, the two new banner characters introduced this patch feel like they didn't get developed as well as the previous banner characters (who most all got more time to cameo through-out the earlier patches even when not during their focus patch). Even in this patch, the short bits given to the older Amphoreus characters stand out for me more than the two new ones (w00t for Anaxa and Cipher being the second/third-to-last ones standing that stalemate the big bad at the end of that 1000-year relay race). Ah well, I guess that's just their bad luck in being the banners of this rather awkwardly placed transition patch.
Yes, it also means I don't see any reason to pull for these two banners this patch still. Hysilens is pure DoT and I don't have a DoT team nor plan to build one. Cerydra is a personal buffer for Phanion and I don't have him. She's also good for Anaxa (which I do have), but I can still get by with ol' Bronya on him. Plus I don't really like her art design anyway. Yeah, so saving the pulls for this patch.
Boo for the fact that we barely get any cameos of the new versions of our Astral Express buddies. The new March shows up a little bit, being all mysterious and not herself. Dan Heng only gets like 2 lines at the very end, and in his normal 4 star form still. Man, really? You gotta hide his new SP form still for another 40+ days?
Not that it matters since the spoilers forums in EN and CN have already churned out the beta versions of these two SPs: Pure design/art wise, I like March's new form better, because it's a big contrast to her old forms. Dan Heng • Permansor Terrae (let's call him DHPT) got altered to a full male adult model, which is causing a ruckus in the community. A lot of people prefers him to be the petit teen model I guess.
Personally I am ok with Dan Heng becoming tall, but I find his new tail placement/design a teeny bit awkward. I would be fine if this new form is "temporary", but the change in height is making me wonder if they actually intend to make this new form his permanent form, even after the Amphoreus arc ends. Otherwise, it would be weird for him to "grow up" in this arc, and then "shrink down" afterwards. Lorewise, it would also be interesting to find out if this new height is supposed to be his natural adult height, or if it's due to local power up. Because in previous flashbacks, Dan Feng's height is only a teeny bit taller than Dan Heng, but by far not the full adult male model height. So if this is normal adult height for them (sharing the same biology) then it could mean that Dan Feng was still a "teen" during the Quintet era...
Moving on, animation wise, it seems like DHPT got the better end of the deal. Lots of flashy golden dragons all over the place (plus the Earth theme, he's totally reminding everyone of Genshin's Zhongli). March has some good animations but other kinda...eh, and overall definitely more muted. I have to admit, I am looking forward to DHPT for the animations alone.
Kit wise, even though we're only seeing the v1 kits and they're far from finalized... March is pretty much confirmed to be a sub-DPS for Castorice and not good at carrying a team as solo DPS, which has her entire fandom up in arms. I get the fans' outrage, considering that March is pretty much the face of this game (the face on the app even). Her previous forms are already support, including the Hunt one where Hunt class has a lot of main DPS. Then this one essentially requires you to also pull the new DPS that only came out the latest story arc (and Castorice doesn't even have the best storyline of the arc)...does feel like they're doing March dirty. However, there's still room for changes and I am not a personal March fan, so I will wait and see.
For DHPT, the rumors are saying we will get a free version of him, which I am hoping is true. His current base kit is only a slight improvement numbers-wise over the last Preservation (Aventurine), which is understandable. There is some dissatisfaction over this, because the game has been powercreeping, and just being "a bit" better than the last Preservation doesn't feel like it's enough. As well, a lot of people are looking at him from the POV of being a sustain for the Phanion team, and in that specific case, he's getting compared to Harmonies (buffers) rather than sustains, which isn't really fair. I will likewise wait and see on the kit. But I am pretty sure I am going to get the character (if not free) and his lightcone at the very least.
As for their lore... that's going to wait for the next patch, unfortunately. There are possible leaks that we'll get more flashback rehash of the Quintet, which makes me go "ugh". The Xianzhou writing has consistently been subpar compared to other arcs, and I feel they should just let that go (or relegate them to special Xianzhou subarcs), and let the character move forward in peace without keeping on revisiting the ancient past. -_-
The story is much like the previous patch, IMO. A bit of a summary and transition between the two halves of the Amphoreus story. It didn't drag on with puzzles like the earlier Amphoreus story patches did. At the same time, there wasn't a lot of action either, and it's like an entire patch worth of pure dialogue, with a token boss fight at the end (which I didn't win, natch -_-).
It's not like I dislike this, because too much mook fights isn't all that interesting either and just serves to drag things on. That said, the two new banner characters introduced this patch feel like they didn't get developed as well as the previous banner characters (who most all got more time to cameo through-out the earlier patches even when not during their focus patch). Even in this patch, the short bits given to the older Amphoreus characters stand out for me more than the two new ones (w00t for Anaxa and Cipher being the second/third-to-last ones standing that stalemate the big bad at the end of that 1000-year relay race). Ah well, I guess that's just their bad luck in being the banners of this rather awkwardly placed transition patch.
Yes, it also means I don't see any reason to pull for these two banners this patch still. Hysilens is pure DoT and I don't have a DoT team nor plan to build one. Cerydra is a personal buffer for Phanion and I don't have him. She's also good for Anaxa (which I do have), but I can still get by with ol' Bronya on him. Plus I don't really like her art design anyway. Yeah, so saving the pulls for this patch.
Boo for the fact that we barely get any cameos of the new versions of our Astral Express buddies. The new March shows up a little bit, being all mysterious and not herself. Dan Heng only gets like 2 lines at the very end, and in his normal 4 star form still. Man, really? You gotta hide his new SP form still for another 40+ days?
Not that it matters since the spoilers forums in EN and CN have already churned out the beta versions of these two SPs: Pure design/art wise, I like March's new form better, because it's a big contrast to her old forms. Dan Heng • Permansor Terrae (let's call him DHPT) got altered to a full male adult model, which is causing a ruckus in the community. A lot of people prefers him to be the petit teen model I guess.
Personally I am ok with Dan Heng becoming tall, but I find his new tail placement/design a teeny bit awkward. I would be fine if this new form is "temporary", but the change in height is making me wonder if they actually intend to make this new form his permanent form, even after the Amphoreus arc ends. Otherwise, it would be weird for him to "grow up" in this arc, and then "shrink down" afterwards. Lorewise, it would also be interesting to find out if this new height is supposed to be his natural adult height, or if it's due to local power up. Because in previous flashbacks, Dan Feng's height is only a teeny bit taller than Dan Heng, but by far not the full adult male model height. So if this is normal adult height for them (sharing the same biology) then it could mean that Dan Feng was still a "teen" during the Quintet era...
Moving on, animation wise, it seems like DHPT got the better end of the deal. Lots of flashy golden dragons all over the place (plus the Earth theme, he's totally reminding everyone of Genshin's Zhongli). March has some good animations but other kinda...eh, and overall definitely more muted. I have to admit, I am looking forward to DHPT for the animations alone.
Kit wise, even though we're only seeing the v1 kits and they're far from finalized... March is pretty much confirmed to be a sub-DPS for Castorice and not good at carrying a team as solo DPS, which has her entire fandom up in arms. I get the fans' outrage, considering that March is pretty much the face of this game (the face on the app even). Her previous forms are already support, including the Hunt one where Hunt class has a lot of main DPS. Then this one essentially requires you to also pull the new DPS that only came out the latest story arc (and Castorice doesn't even have the best storyline of the arc)...does feel like they're doing March dirty. However, there's still room for changes and I am not a personal March fan, so I will wait and see.
For DHPT, the rumors are saying we will get a free version of him, which I am hoping is true. His current base kit is only a slight improvement numbers-wise over the last Preservation (Aventurine), which is understandable. There is some dissatisfaction over this, because the game has been powercreeping, and just being "a bit" better than the last Preservation doesn't feel like it's enough. As well, a lot of people are looking at him from the POV of being a sustain for the Phanion team, and in that specific case, he's getting compared to Harmonies (buffers) rather than sustains, which isn't really fair. I will likewise wait and see on the kit. But I am pretty sure I am going to get the character (if not free) and his lightcone at the very least.
As for their lore... that's going to wait for the next patch, unfortunately. There are possible leaks that we'll get more flashback rehash of the Quintet, which makes me go "ugh". The Xianzhou writing has consistently been subpar compared to other arcs, and I feel they should just let that go (or relegate them to special Xianzhou subarcs), and let the character move forward in peace without keeping on revisiting the ancient past. -_-
(no subject)
Date: 2025-08-20 06:06 am (UTC)Have to say, my first response seeing the art (before clicking into the cut tag) was "Woah, DH grew up!" Then it's like, "Ah, OK."
I have to say, if this is true, it would be a nice F-U to all those people who keep insisting on Dan Feng being "ancient adult dragon" in fanfic, because maaaaaan, I hate that fanon.
Meanwhile, I just want the Xianzhou shit to make sense. I'd honestly rather the writers figure out how to make their own cultural messing around less cringe and more fun, instead of playing around in the euro-middle-eastern pool of exoticism.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-08-21 03:02 am (UTC)Rumors also state that Blade is getting a new SP form in the next story arc. The arc is going to be set in a Japanese-themed setting, and the new form is rumored to be "samurai" like. I am...not really enthused by this. God help me if they keep revisiting the Quintet stuff next patch and in 4.x. I mean, why can't we just leave behind the horrible mess of writing from 1.3 and move on? It would be better for both the players and for the characters. -_-
Eh, but who knows, maybe they'll surprise me with the writing direction. We'll see in about a month.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-08-21 04:01 am (UTC)"Japanese-style" really doesn't imbue me with much confidence. The Quintet story could be salvaged if they actually put together a coherent story. Like, if they justed stopped trying to pander to the "sci-fi" and leaned harder into the obvious wuxia/xianxia roots, give an actual timeline with ages and shit, it could be epic. But that requires putting in the world building effort that the HSR team doesn't seem to be willing to do.
Genshin Impact seemed to work because it leans harder on well established MMO tropes. Each region is a mini-empire with its own history. The stories were written to be self-contained fetch quests without pretensions of epic whatever. Forces of good fight evil, brain dead simple motivations.
HSR's worst story decision was making the MC' party intricately connected to the bigger world lore and putting the player on rails (pun intended) without meaningful plot to support those rails. It's a bunch of 0EQ people trying to write inter-personal relationships, so of course it's going to suck.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-12-01 10:52 pm (UTC)Like, starting from the 4th nation onwards, they got psychic VR tech in Sumeru, mass produced AI robots in Fontaine, ancient supertech in Natlan, and more and more alien tech starting from Fontaine, culminating in outright lunar travel/time travel tech in the current Nod Krai arc. Even the main protagonist has been retconned to having arrived in Teyvat originally in a space ship (and that ship has an in game model). So despite being rooted in fantasy, Genshin is headed full steam ahead into a mashup with space opera.
By contrast, HSR starts out with a space opera background setting, but 99% of the story has only involved street level activity. Even the climax fight in Amphoreus, where a full allied space fleet was called in, they don't seem to have amounted to much, and the 95% of the actual victory was accomplished on in ground combat by the protagonist + Demiurge!Cyrene (the ultimate dev fav) + power of Love. Seems to be a complete waste of the setting, is what a lot of reaction I am seeing online...
The problem with the Xianzhou, I agree, is that their wuxia-esque theme fits awfully into a sci-fi setting. But I think another problem is that the writers can't decide if the Xianzhou is a source of support for the protagonists, or a source of future problems. Or they want hold back other factions within the Xianzhou Alliance as future plot points and potential sources of conflict, and that decision is splashing over and ruining stuff with the Luofu as well...ugh.