Forum - View topicHonkai: Star Rail Lead Game Designer Chengnan An on Creating an Immersive World
|
Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
<('_')^
Posts: 183 |
|
|||||
|
For a sci-fi game their character roster seems rather bland. Like no matter what the character is, be they human, robot, alien, divinity, etc. they all look like young & conventionally pretty folk that wouldn't be out of place in a Idol group. Only exceptions I'm seeing are Gallagher and Screwllum (latter of which wont be playable anytime soon.) Are the designers at Hoyoverse really given that much room for creative expression when it comes to character designs/concepts?
|
||||||
|
||||||
dragonmastr
 Posts: 221 |
|
|||||
Oo, now I want to see Castorice as an idol. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Tenebrae
Posts: 505 |
|
|||||
Well the same could more or less be said of all gacha games. Besides having to have a useful kit that synergizes with current or upcoming characteres, their visual design also needs to appeal to largest target groups. This leads them to go for safe choices that are known to sell well. Gallagher is among the outliers and is able to be in that group because he is a four-star unit. Only five-stars need to test their popularity in time limited rate-up events and generate profit. I've seen people say that even Mydeimos, a muscular male with quite a bit of upper body skin visible, is a risky design for sales numbers. We can for example look at Wuthering Waves and see the same thing. And this includes Calcharo; it is not an accident he is called the Budget Sephiroth and Walmart Sephiroth. Well, they also have the added "bonus" that not a single launch character design looked interesting, excepth maybe Jiyan. On the other hand Star Rail has the xianzhou dress syndrome, many females and some males share a number of commonalities in their dresses, such as detached sleeves. And then the thigh straps. I think half the cast has a thigh strap or three. |
||||||
|
||||||
LinkTSwordmaster
 Posts: 815 Location: PA / USA |
|
|||||
|
I'm not a regular viewer, but Tectone recently tried Wizardry Variants Daphne and had a lot to say about the difference in quality between it and HoYo games.
[ REMOVED ] It's an absolute travesty that the general gaming populous has no idea where or what Daphne is, and yet we've got this big new high-production generation of Gacha titles that are trying to be the broad appeal to everything. I have family that are very big fans of the dress-up game Nikki series, and they told me outright that Infinity Nikki feels to them like a giant empty spectacle rather than a deeply-populated game. I'm hearing more & more rumblings that Genshin is too. It's not to say that common-denominator content like Fortnite & such cant be fun to enjoy now and again, it's just that when something comes along that technically functions better than Fortnite or Zenless Zero, the chances you hear about it are gonna be slim because news about people angry over voice actors or character-shipping are going to drown it out. Moderation note: link removed --F |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Vs7
Posts: 51 |
|
|||||
|
Tectone is the last authority on anything, especially games. Give it a month or two and he'll be back with a video on how trash Daphne is, if he remembers about the game at all.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 3266 Location: Email for assistance only |
|
|||||
This dude is a negative engagement farmer from the same streaming group as Asmongold, was accused of sexually abusing his former partner, and got banned from Twitch for insulting a Muslim female streamer and sharing an edited image of her calling her "Hijabba the Hutt." Please don't link to openly hateful people on here. |
||||||
|
||||||
Kougeru
 Posts: 5801 |
|
|||||
??? Instead of taking one person's word on it maybe you should check the feedback from the overall playerbase. The game has a 51% on Steam. That's really really bad. Anyway, I wouldn't take the word of the Star Rail devs on how to make "immersion" when it's the least immersive Mihoyo game. Zenless and Genshin are much better, though Genshin feels way too empty all the time. Ironically, their smallest game Zenless Zone Zero feels the most immersive probably because of the more focused design. |
||||||
|
||||||
i got the shivers!
 Posts: 152 Location: Brazil |
|
|||||
Young and pretty are what artists want to draw and more importantly what the player base wants so I don't see that as a bad thing at all. It's especially important for a gacha game where people have to spend money to roll on units so the idea of forcing players to embrace an ugly character design is just a recipe for disaster. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
<('_')^
Posts: 183 |
|
|||||
Other "popular" gatcha games got more variety than that though. Take Granblue Fantasy, Fate Grand Order, Fire Emblem Heroes, Reverse 1999, and etc. for reference. Yes majority of characters are young and conventionally attractive, but there are plenty of characters that aren't strictly designed for "sex appeal" like Mihoyos characters are.
Haven't played HSR in a while, but I remember Svarog being popular with many people complaining that he was chained to Clara. Or was it the controversy between Sam and Firefly? Like yeah, cute & "hot" characters sell, but what makes you think cool types don't? Pretty sure an epic robot warrior would generate more buzz than having another bishonen. If most of the audience are male players wouldn't a epic character like that sell? Similarly Capitano is really popular among Genshin fans with polls putting his popularity on par with the Pyro archon. His design seems to be novel by Mihoyo standards.
Yeah none of the female characters in HSR seem to wear pants or full dresses. Which further supports my point in questioning the extent of creative freedom artists at Hoyoverse get. I could imagine a passionate employee design their dream character only for a higher up to walk in and go "good work! we could use a new boss fight!". I even remember there being jokes in community that an editor at Hoyoverse is tasked with deleting parts of female character outfits. (Typically to explain some of the awkward slits or holes) Like I just think Hoyo needs to chill out and do something different once in a while. A meme character, masculine guy, fully dressed lady, etc. Arent going to kill the game. As you've said,4* rarity is a decent area to experiment with designs but so far hoyo doesn't seem willing. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
<('_')^
Posts: 183 |
|
|||||
But is "young & pretty" the only thing character designers want to do? And no, that's not the only thing the player base wants. There's a lot of complaints that go around regarding outfits or lack of variety. Also bear in mind that this isn't some PNG collector, it is a AAA gatcha with mainstream audience. They're guaranteed success regardless of what characters release just cause the audience is that wide. There are groups pining for Screwllum after all. It isn't as simple as beauty vs ugly. Characters can be marketed on traits outside of cute or sexy while still being aestheticly interesting. Characters can simply be designed to look cool, funny, wholesome, etc. I don't think the game would bankrupt if Mihoyo decided to release a granny, a muscular guy, or a goofy alien green once in a while. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
LinkTSwordmaster
Posts: 815 Location: PA / USA |
|
|||||
That's kind of illustrating what I'm saying though - if you go to Steam's review section & sort by "most helpful", a fair majority of the negative posts at the top are only mentioning the fact that Daphne has an anti-cheat and then leaving it at that. The game itself reviews pretty solid once people actually get going with it. It's an uphill endeavor to communicate its merits and particularly how it is different from other ongoing free titles. To try a second time here and switch gears to a public voice that is entirely less-problematic, I recall a similar situation with Rumbleverse back a few years ago - I literally only know it exists/existed because of MaxDood. It was a battle royale-fighting game from the Iron Galaxy/Killer Instinct devs, and it basically had no chance to survive whatsoever from the moment it launched. I myself looked at it initially and scoffed due to the art style and hearing "battle royale". Thing is, if you go back and check what the people were saying about enjoying it, it was actually apparently a refreshing take on the genre that Epic gutted much too soon. My point in bringing it up isn't to be inherently contrarian and say that HoYo games cannot be immersive or enjoyable. I'm just much more aware of time limitations as I age, and cannot help but internally wonder just exactly how much Honkai's draw comes from its story and deep RPG combat (the way Expedition 33 seems to be blowing up right now), or if the dopamine shot of having new characters come out on the regular is where a majority of the game's excitement is at. Is Zenless' or Genshin's gameplay challenging your skill, or are you expected to Gacha to clear new content? Are you genuinely traveling around Honkai and enjoying discovering new stuff popping up in the game, or do you check off the dailies on the list and eagerly wait until the next event cycle starts handing out currency? |
||||||
|
||||||
Davy Sprocket
 Posts: 48 |
|
|||||
I play Honkai for the story and characters. I quit after I finish the story and I don't care about grinding to do farm content that only rewards you with items to upgrade your characters so you can grind the same farm content only better and repeat the cycle with no actual point or reward beyond seeing the numbers go up. I don't touch stuff like Memory of Chaos at all. Good story, good characters. That's all that's important. Mihoyo does great in that department. |
||||||
|
||||||
Sheriru
 Posts: 143 |
|
|||||
|
Dude gets asked about Kafka and Swan - keeps yapping about Acheron.
|
||||||
|
||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group