Octopus Overlords

Anyone tried the game? It is like Anime SF version of Genshin Impact. Turn based JRPG style gameplay instead of action-RPG.

https://hsr.hoyoverse.com/en-us/

Installed but not started yet, it's not got inverse mouse which I need so may have to play on controller which does have it or I can manage without.

I may give it a look if/when it comes to PS5.

My daughter and I have played it a bit. The story is a bit confusing but otherwise all right. It's as if someone had a black cauldron for plots and said: Let's stir in some quantum mechanics theory, multiverse theory, time travel, mystical alien beings who may or may not be gods, and sprinkle it with some multi-syllable words to make it sound far futuristic and came up with the setting for Honkai: Star Rail (HSR). I wasn't too fazed by it, and figured maybe the lore will be revealed through the plot or through books that you can find and read. Or you can do as my daughter says, "I don't read. I just play."

It has the same character choice as Genshin Impact -choose your gender, but your character class and elemental focus are fixed. Speaking of classes, which HSR calls paths) there are 7:

Destruction (DPS)- jack of all trades attack character. Your character's path. high damage, decent survivability. Can do either single or multi target DPS
Hunt (DPS): Focuses primarily on single target DPS.
Erudition (DPS): Focuses primarily on multi-target DPS or AOE
Harmony (Support): Adds utility buffs to your party (ex. speed, to make them act earlier in the turn)
Nihility (Support): adds debuffs to opponents
Preseveration (Support): Adds defensive buffs (ex. shields) to your party
Abundance (Support): Healer

The game starts you on a space station fighting bad guys. Eventually, you find members of the Star Rail and go off with them on the Astral Express train. This brings to mind one essential difference from Genshin Impact: HSR is not an open world. You are "on rails" as far as what world you get to explore, since worlds are gated by your progress and the train doesn't let you move from world to world at will. At least, not yet; perhaps later? But I actually like that it is not open-world. I think it makes for tighter writing and the side-quests make more sense now. Also, I don't feel as lost as in Genshin, wondering what to do next.

As for the interface, it's got a similar teleportation system to Genshin. And the maps also show you the total number of chests that are on the map. So you know whether or not you've gotten all of the chests, hence you have an idea of whether or not you've explored all the areas on the map.

As for combat: I like it! You have a basic attack and a skill attack. Skill attack costs skill points, which are replenished as combat continues. Your characters elemental focus means they do more damage to an enemy who has a weakness to that element, and elemental weaknesses show up as icons above each enemy unit. As an example, your main character does physical damage so she does extra damage to opponents who are weak to the "physical" element. You also have an 'ultimate' attack which charges up during battle. You can execute an ultimate at any time, even during an opponent's turn, and it doesn't cost you an action. So on my main's turn I could do her ultimate and follow it up with a basic attack or skill.

Some characters have support attacks that kick in when certain events happen. For example, there is a bow character who does a reaction attack with her bow when a friendly character gets hit. Under her character portrait you can see how many charges are either remaining or how many 'ticks' remain until the support attack kicks off. As another example, there is a character who will unleash her support attack when you "break" 3 enemy unit's shields. So each time an enemy is broken her tick goes up by one, and on the third tick she unleashes her attack.

Between the skills, ultimates, and support attacks I slowly started to get the hang of stringing together combos. For example, facing 3 enemy units with physical weakness, I could unleash my main's physical ultimate, which break's 3 shields, that triggers someone's support attack, then finish them off with skill attacks from my other characters.

The other difference between Genshin and HSR is that level progression is a lot slower. Thus I find myself hoarding the item drops and making sure I like my team setup before leveling up several of my characters. I also like this as it gets me more invested in the character and I'm less inclined to go "character chasing"; since this is a gacha game after all.

Bottom line, I like it. I'll be playing it for a while.

Honkey Star Rail sounds like some kinda racist light gun game

raydude wrote: ↑Sat Apr 29, 2023 9:16 am It has the same character choice as Genshin Impact -choose your gender, but your character class and elemental focus are fixed. Speaking of classes, which HSR calls paths) there are 7:

Destruction (DPS)- jack of all trades attack character. Your character's path. high damage, decent survivability. Can do either single or multi target DPS
Hunt (DPS): Focuses primarily on single target DPS.
Erudition (DPS): Focuses primarily on multi-target DPS or AOE
Harmony (Support): Adds utility buffs to your party (ex. speed, to make them act earlier in the turn)
Nihility (Support): adds debuffs to opponents
Preserevation (Support): Adds defensive buffs (ex. shields) to your party
Abundance (Support): Healer

The main character can switch path and element, at least from destruction/physical to preservation/fire. Maybe later they can switch to other path and element just like in Genshin Impact, the main character can switch element as new regions are released.

This got a really good (9/10) review from IGN. I'm awfully tempted to try it out now instead of waiting for console, but I know I'd only play it for a couple weeks until the Diablo/FF XVI/BG3 deluge

Decided to go ahead and give this a shot. Spent about 4 hours with it between last night and this morning. I think it's probably a really good version of what it's going for in a sci-fi gacha game, but I don't think it's really for me. I'm not huge on gacha games to begin with, and when it then layers systems upon more systems upon more systems upon more systems, my eyes just kinda glazed over after a while.

It did give me huge Xenosaga vibes, which I definitely appreciated. Just wish it was an actual RPG and not a gacha thing.

I have to say it had me at the cinematic battle on the first planet. Between that and the fact that I'm doing all right with my free-to-play characters, I'm going to at least finish the main story. It also seems like there's a lot more opportunity to get the materials and things I need to level up than in something like Genshin Impact. I also like the character art and the weird, goofy references to itself, Genshin Impact, or other media.