5 Things Genshin Impact Does Better Than Honkai: Star Rail

As promised! The follow-up episode to 5 things Honkai: Star Rail does better than Genshin Impact is here! Today we'll be discussing 5 things Genshin does better than Star Rail.
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#HonkaiStarRail #GenshinImpact #Hoyoverse

[@kacsasajt4201]

Vars: Im playing both sides, so that I always come out on top.

[@LordBanana0]

Or pisses off both sides lol

[@needsmctherapy1447]

yeah, most of the things he said as "better" in genshin are so subjective. while something like having cooking and crafting available wherever you are whenever you need it is just straight up better. He quite obviously favors genshin, and there doesn't need to be a reason for that.

[@VarsII]

@@LordBanana0 Take a side: cancelled. Take both sides: still cancelled. Take no side: still cancelled. Exist: cancelled. Cancelled: cancelled Such is the way of anime games.

[@shelbyKiraM]

Spoken like a TRUE BÖTTOM!!! 😆😊

[@davidnguyen3469]

As it stands now, I would argue SR's combat is in a better spot. Since it's turned based, your enemies are guaranteed to land hits on you, which means you can and need to fully utilize your unit classes. In Genshin, Attack power steam rolls all other aspects of combat. This doesn't mean Genshin's combat is worse by design, just that it would work better if better balanced.

[@arturvieira9991]

These videos are worth re-shooting in the future. HSR is still young and the core mechanics of each game are different, but they still share enough similarities to keep the comparison going, not to mention they both come from the same company.

[@zantardis]

Seeing Xlice's recent video about how many materials you need to fully level a character in Star Rail makes the stamina replenishment/cap look a lot less generous.

[@KillingMachine56656]

company does not matter, developers do.

[@mateuszkulis3535]

@@zantardis It's too early to say that as drops are tied to equlibrium level and people are like at equlibrium 4 or 5.

[@vectory674]

​@@mateuszkulis3535 yeah. Since everyone has started recently the amount of farm is too much now but later it won't

[@Pavillion-uf2gz]

@@zantardis I mean I didnt had any problems levelling 8 of my characters to 60 at TL45 and by the time I will reach TL50 I will have enough materials and credits to level 4 to lv70 and traces drop also increases at TL50

[@dianwei32]

While getting to see characters visit other areas is fun, it only happens during a given event. We meet so many cool characters, then they disappear into the aether. You can't find Ninguang in the Jade Palace. You can't find Xiangling hanging out at Wanmin Restaurant. If there's not an event or quest going, characters just disappear from the world. Meanwhile in HSR, you can go to the clinic in Boulder Town any time and see Natasha. You can visit Serval in her shop whenever. Heck, once you complete certain quests, characters will show up on the Astral Express from time to time.

[@ASkilledTactician]

That sounds cool no 🧢

[@Sera355]

worst is the characters birthday when they invite you to celebrate with them, but you cant even do it, they are nowhere to be found ;-;

[@cryoboy]

Yeah for some reason everyone always goes on and on about the fact that HSRs world feels so aliiive because the playable characters stand around. But seriously what's the point? You visit Natasha in her clinic every day just to look at her standing there? It's not like her dialogue will ever change. Seeing these characters standing in the same spot 24/7 doesn't make the world feel more alive to me. For me it's quite the opposite. Seeing characters in Genshin visiting random places during events every now and then is much more interesting to me than if Ninguang would just sit in her palace all day every day repeating the same line over and over again if I talk to her.

[@ConstyC]

@@cryoboy the mere fact they exist somewhere in the world is already enough for me. in genshin, they're just gone until some event needs them again

[@hectorlackless]

Weird, is like this was mentioned in the previous video

[@Lacirev]

Honestly, the fact that HSR isn't open world and allows you to climb anywhere does wonders for the environment design. The artists aren't limited by the fact that they need to make fully modelled buildings that players can interact with so the surrounding environments, especially in city areas is a lot better. "Inazuma city" is literally just like 20 houses and a palace. Whereas in Belobog and the underground feels like fully realised cities.

[@SuiconDeez]

I agree with this alot actually, I really liked alot of the levels ESPECIALLY in the Xianzhou Laofu with the checkpoint doors so you dont need like 5 tp stations in one area, the teleporting door things. the storage box puzzles. (Even though I wish they used more of that to hide stuff). The funny light picture stuff and even the Plant laser things were all cool imo. Just need to be used more or just bump the difficulty of them. I wouldnt mind having like 4-5 levels in a planet like the Space Station if they can flesh out the level design cause without having to worry about gliding and climbing, the world and level design can get really good.

[@aritra2116]

The cities are generally quite a bit better as these fully realised, lived in places in Honkai Star Rail, however one thing it cannot hope to come close to Genshin at is with lot of the grand open scenery which is also quite explorable that we have been seeing them do ever since 3.0 dropped and even before that with the absolute variance in the scope of environmental design in areas like Chasm, Enkanomiya and even as far back as Dragonspine is why the game continues to hold my interest. I'm highly looking forward to what they do with Fontaine at this point.

[@ghotifish1838]

Worst part is because genshin is an open world game, these props are pretty much forced to be more or less interactive in the sense that you can climb on them at the very least, even though there is no useful reason why you would ever climb onto the roofs of 90% of the buildings present.

[@kacperwoch4368]

Genshin cities are small but some are done better than others. Mondstadt does feel city-like, Liyue is fancy but it's literally one street, Inazuma is a village below a castle and Sumeru is a strange university campus.

[@andrey_m4009]

Also the video should be called " thinks I like better about genshin" or something. Some people may prefer turn based combat. Some people may not like huge open worlds. And the last argument is basically those two combined

[@joannelumiere9994]

I simply adore genshins world exploration and detail. The colors are much more soothing because it's more nature focused whereas star rail has all been cities and ships so far. Genshin hurts my eyes less, lol

[@renoirrr]

I like cities and more futuristic stuff a lot but at the same time I just can’t get into star rail. Helps that from what I’ve seen and heard, the combat is a complete no from me because I don’t find these kinds of combat systems that interesting.

[@joannelumiere9994]

@@renoirrr i was actually surprised i'd stick with star rail until now! i tried out other turn based rpg games and quit within a minute. probably it's the VA cast, character design, and immersion!

[@renoirrr]

@@joannelumiere9994 yep even I as a bystander see the character designs and va’s (jing yuan🤤) and all that and start double guessing but I know I’ll regret it because its hard enough for me to juggle 2 live update games so I CANNOT add a third esp not a third gacha cause it will hurt also my wallet

[@joannelumiere9994]

@@renoirrr of course! i totally feel you. i wanna build literally every character in the game, being an expereinced genshin player im scared of spreading my resources too thin XD but also same with you, i get home late these days and i spend way too much time on star rail, barely scratching genshin, while costing my precious precious sleep. social media is definitely hyping star rail like crazy and theres slight pressure to progress in order to maximise resources etc.

[@KiryuSeiran]

"Genshin hurts my eyes less" this is true unless we talk about the blinding light of launching the client... Can we ever get a black screen option T-T

[@flying-ship]

I keep wanting to jump in HSR. Inability to jump/climb over even the smallest steps, fences or boxes grates me.

[@lizabee]

I miss jumping while running around :'(

[@studiesinflux1304]

Yeah, the sequence where you fix a mine cart’s wheels to push it because your characters were too lazy to climb over it was immersion breaking…

[@peppermint1349]

the world is similar to Soulworker (meaning the walking etc) but you can still jump on SW so idk why not on starrail lol

[@franconunez925]

Yeah, like it's ok if you don't want your game to have a jump button or have much exploration, but if that is used as a vrutch for designing challenges that could be easily solved by passing by a less than half a meter step/obstacle or just passing sideways then we have a problem.

[@devinalvaro]

​@@peppermint1349 Probably because people overabused the jumping and climbing around in Genshin, you can especially see it in the early to newer domain designs. But, yeah they should allow some Jumps and banned climbing to prevent that instead of banning all of it

[@Someone-zn4dh]

You mentioning exploration and how it is better makes me remember my first experience visiting Samudra Coast in the new Sumeru Region. When I first discover the place, I felt my heart drop from how similar it is to visit a hidden beach. I legit stay there, enjoying the view and music and am sure if I were there physically, I will do the same. Genshin is so good at setting that mood, not only making them look pretty but shows why those place are beautiful in the real world

[@danish2.012]

That same thing also every time i visited vourukasha oasis. The beauty of the land and mirage in a vast desert, soothing ost and wonderful creatures (pari) made me spent my time very long in there

[@randomguyblank1616]

Given how Honkai impact added aerial combat in a game where there originally wasn't a jump button, a character that has rythym game elements, vehicles and mounts, and a lot of unique enemy types, all in a game that started with the same 2 skills and a ultimate. I think they could expand the combat in HSR, you just need to be creative, unlike Genshin where you exploit the intricacies of the systems already there, in Honkai (both of them I'm sure) you expand the systems for more variety. Hoyo could get very creative with this.

[@CarrotSpunk.]

True can't wait to see they crazy shit that they can add to this game 😂

[@yepyepyepype-fu4yf]

Loucha is the future, when character can do a little more with skill than Just healing. In gacha turn based games you cant be too creative with horrible limitations

[@canismajor8601]

Oh no HSR players has reached the "We want more" phase

[@studiesinflux1304]

Interesting to be excited for feature creep 😊 I started playing Honkai Impact 3rd this year and I’m just confused because of so much stuff. Right now I only play “Post-Houkai Odyssey” and story with the trial characters because I don’t feel like figuring out the “main” progression loop and its dozen or so currencies.

[@randomguyblank1616]

@@studiesinflux1304 I never get this sentiment, I'm a veteran Honkai player, and I remember when the systems were much less streamlined than they are now when there were actually a dozen currencies and not 5, including the gacha currency. Here's the thing I was 15 when I started and I still understood all the systems back then. I don't want to insult people, but damn are people really this dumb?

[@akarial2713]

I'm really glad that both game has a different playstyle and focus. I could never do 2 gachas with exploration, no matter how much I love it in genshin. I just hope that whatever quality of life they have in HSR can be applied to Genshin once Hoyoverse realize how much happier that makes the player base. And when it comes to combat, it's not my main focus so I don't know how much it could affect me on the long run, I play for the story and characters, and on that front I love both games equally ^^

[@MonsterShun741]

Hot take: I actually think the biome diversity in Inazuma is a weakness, not a strength. All of the islands outside of the first 3 added feel like they were regions built around a landmark, instead of a region WITH a landmark. The enemies were also very different from island to island. Combined with the rushed storyline during that part, Inazuma never really came together as a coherent region the same way that Mondstadt and Liyue did for me.

[@Melotaku]

Agreed, I feel like those last three islands you mentioned are pretty much nothing if you remove their landmark. They are also too small for my liking. I would have preferred if Inazuma was one big island.

[@RagerQueen]

Well, that's kind of the point. Watatsumi worshipped a different God from the Electro Archon and both Seirai and Tsurumi have been inhabitable for quite a while. Even most of the original regions of Inazuma had no people living there. Narukami Beach was where the battles took place, the Mikage Furnace blew up and Yashiori was enveloped in an endless storm on top of the Tatarigami energy affecting people too. The whole point of Inazuma was that it has become fractured. Both the people and the land.

[@rocklight1304]

Wow thought it was just me TBH...

[@davidkunakovsky3155]

that's not a hot take, that's a an L take

[@MonsterShun741]

@FreakyPlory I actually think they did a decent job with the rainforest part of Sumeru, but I definitely agree that they stumbled for the desert portion. They tried to give every region there something special to make it stand out from a distance, but ended up making it visually and thematically cluttered imho.

[@sanjeethmahendrakar]

The only issue I can see HSR facing is long terms issues. Powercreep will he a worse problem for HSR because atleast in genshin you'll have characters like Sayu who don't do well in Abyss but are great for exploring but in HSR combat is the only thing that matters. And as you mentioned, the combat system doesn't feel like its gonna stay interesting in the long term. While the basic, skill and burst formula works in genshin because you also have the arrow keys to move the character and the fact that some characters have press and hold versions, the basic, skill and burst movesets seems way too restrictive for HSR. I'm surprised as to why they didn't go the pokemon route and give like say 3 skills and an optional burst because that has way more varieties and possibilities.

[@fatpurp4041]

I completely agree with you, hopefully in the future they would have more "gimmicy" characters to keep it interesting, kind of like a more polished version of Qingque I guess?

[@moneywaffles9912]

Please, most of you people just press e and switch to another character. Rinse and repeat.

[@raiden8063]

​@@moneywaffles9912 How does that change the fact that you can do more in genshin's combat than star rail?

[@moneywaffles9912]

@Raiden That's my point. You really don't. In Star Rail, most characters have a basic attack, a skill, a talent, and an ultimate. In Genshin? The exact same thing. There's really no difference in the business in combat.

[@diren-oh6zw]

@@raiden8063 it's more of a mind game in hsr while genshin impact is just mashing buttons to one shot bosses

[@overlordshiina]

I'll just point out that some of the feature that HSR have is things people been asking for years to be added in Genshin, like more character interaction with the main cast, MC talking more, more energy regen/cap, better artifact reroll. It's almost like they purposely didn't add them to Genshin so people have more reason to stick to HSR lol.

[@irisa198]

I think it's moreso that the genshin devs have learned from their experience and ofc when they make a new game, they have the chance to apply that knowledge from the start. But since genshin is still getting great updates, I'm sure these things will be implemented there as well. Not sure how accurate this is, but heard from a friend that Fontaine getting a unique UI for a minigame (one that reminded me a lot of common HSR minigames) is new. The two games have vastly different demographics anyway (open-world action vs closed-world turn-based) that I'm sure HSR isn't a threat to GI's playerbase and the two games will most likely mutually benefit from each other's experiments going forward.

[@overlordshiina]

@@irisa198 But what about the game they made before Genshin? Honkai Impact 3rd got lots of feature people been asking to be in Genshin yet those features are in HSR but not Genshin. You say Genshin devs made a new game but they did not it's Honkai's team that moved to a new game.

[@kdxdeadman]

genshin is their main way to get money so they will eventually add a higher resin cap but before they do, they will hype it up a shit ton so that people play more.

[@xQ2x]

Genshin is like 2 1/2 to 3 years old while hsr, at this point, isn't hit 6 month anni yet. I play both but I find myself enjoying hsr way more as its still new (honeymoon phase) and what not. My biggest issue with genshin is how i feel like i have to play catch up no matter if i have maxed level teams or not and it just becomes a chore and not something i want to do on my spare time.

[@griponreality254]

Anyone else feel trapped in HSR due to no jumping? I can see things in the second world that take frustratingly long to reach due to having to find the right sequence of ramps to get there where in Genshin I can just crawl up an unfortunately placed wall to shortcut.

[@fae_gavan7582]

Funnily enough, the Trailblazer actually remarks on being unable to jump during an event. I think it's the Araum Alley event?

[@OdoKentang]

Combat thing that Star Rail does better than Genshin : Enemy finnaly can hit me before me one hit them 🤣

[@yuuschzhie8822]

Not if you use welt to break an enemy into an anti-turn state

[@shadowfan8217]

I don't know about Star Rail, but after seeing Honkai Impact making events such as: -golf -pokemon -plants vs zombies - a mini rogue like with different characters and builds - rhythm games - FKING FALL GUYS I am willing to bet that Honkai Star Rail will probably eventually have events that are just as good, so don't underestimate the insanity of the devs

[@Chestyfriend]

It's neither open world nor action combat though, the things they can do are limited.

[@shadowfan8217]

@@Chestyfriend ah yes, surely genshin implements open world in their events all the time, surely it doesn't just create a domain or limit the area you can explore for said events that consist mainly of talking to a bunch of NPCs or fighting with some buffs or, even better, make a single NPC that you have to interact with to do the whole event without having to really move in the said open world. I mean yes, some events do implement some open world content, like exploration events or windtrace(kinda), but it honestly feels so far and between that it just doesn't feel enough.

[@Chestyfriend]

@@shadowfan8217 There's no jumping, climbing, falling, gliding, etc. There's only so much you can do with vertical movement hallways. There's also no real interaction with anything besides enemies, and when you do you, the only thing that can happen is simply battle. I'm not saying they can't do anything, I'm saying the things they can do are limited compared to honkai 3rd and genshin.

[@oyshikaadi9631]

I dunno. Star Rail is too much.... restrictive? There's no free movement, so movement based minigames (i.e, racing or parkour) is out of the question. I can only see battle, rhythm games and puzzle-based events happening. Maybe they could make their own mario maker (Divine Ingenuity from Genshin) or perhaps something like Hi-Fi Rush's parry combat.

[@akusen7634]

​@@Chestyfriend HI3 literally makes you play an actual mini game tho that doesn't have the same mechanics as the main game. They did - 2d platformers -turn based games -tower defense -literal fall guys chibi -pvz They didn't have to use the main gameplay mechanic in order to make an event. You can even look up videos of these events and they look nothing like the actual gameplay of HI3. Here's to hoping that they also do those stuff in HSR.

[@elllana]

HSR has been fun to play casually on my own but I find it so boring to watch streamers play it, unless they’re going through the story. Whereas Genshin can be made entertaining to watch even if you’re just farming. I think Genshin will retain a larger content creator audience in the long run for sure, after the HSR honeymoon period ends and everyone’s just grinding.

[@hirods9889]

compare an open world to an non open world on the world design is no fair no matter how you look at it

[@Gu3ssWhatsN3XT]

Exactly. Just like comparing a game that just came out to one that’s been out for years. Love seeing the comments about the lack of content or getting burnt out in a few days as if the game they’re comparing it to didn’t also suffer that when it first came out

[@CaptainPikeachu]

I love just wandering around aimlessly in Genshin picking up flowers, it’s literally such a soothing and relaxing activity that helps me wind down everyday and smell the roses so to speak

[@misslethal2355]

Genshin has been EXHAUSTING lately, though. I still haven't finished exploring or questing in the two (of THREE) desert areas bc i am so damn tired of sand and incomprehensible writing that is absolutely lousy with new terms for old things for no damn reason. You can't get through anything in Genshin without getting at least half a paragraph where a much shorter, concise sentence would do, and I'm someone who LOVES flavor text and digging through lore. It's impossible to understand what is being talked about without way more effort than I am willing to give and that plus the overabundance of collectibles like the oculi and the inconvenient user experience is killing my urge to play Genshin

[@cryoboy]

True. As an art director/graphic designer I'm always in awe of the amount of talent Hoyo has gathered and how these people put so much effort into every single tiny part of the game but I just can't defend the amount of desert stuff for the last couple of months and how tedious it all is. The incomprehensible writing and the sheer amount of puzzle filled never ending underground areas ... I can't take it anymore. I will never understand why they are dedicating every major update since 3.0 to just more and more desert. So much more could've been done with Sumeru, more jungle, more creative overgrown glowy mushroom areas, but all we got was more sand. Fontaine save us.

[@YayaFeiLong]

That's not just a Genshin problem, HI3 has a huge exospeak problem too. HSR seems to be a little better about it but we'll see if it lasts

[@CarrotSpunk.]

I'm glad I am not the only one as a writer the writing in this game is like written by a 13 ur old not even a thirteen year old me would write so God damn awful in this is why making something concise and simple to digest is important in writing even my English teacher have to dig this fact in to my brain.

[@CarrotSpunk.]

@@YayaFeiLong true

[@CarrotSpunk.]

@@cryoboy 💀 I think my friend would definitely hate Sumeru

[@haris1427]

As someone who started genshin because I was waiting for botw 2, and with it being out now. I think what I realise is that exploration is only fun aslong you still have a goal. In botw most exploration is rewarded in becoming more stronger, while in genshin at a certain point exploration rewards in genshin becomes trivial and not really compeling as the game becomes to easy with no clear endgame. Sad to see such a beutiful world becomes wasted and most end game players dont explore just because there is no more motivation

[@moiiiii6789]

I think a lot of player are motivated by exploring just for the sake of exploring and enjoying nice landscapes with calm music, but I understand that it can feel meaningless for those who like feeling progression while exploring

[@caterpillarking]

i mean in genshin the exploration does have a goal tho. it’s the primogems, which you can then use in the gacha system. also mora, exp books and other smaller rewards but the pulls are what makes people explore (aside from simply enjoying the task). and wanting to pull comes from wanting a specific character because you love them in the story or wanting them for a specific team because you think they can help you out combat wise. exploration in genshin is not unnecessary, you can just procrastinate easier and if you aren’t farming for anyone or are a whale anyways it does kind of lose it’s importance.

[@M_K499]

@@moiiiii6789 true, I started to appreciate the world quests and lore even more when the desert was released. It was so good for some reason but even majority of the playerbase skip the world quests and complain "useless dialogues" or "non important npc" which I find pretty hilarious because a npc had better character development than any other playable character and world quests had more betrayals than any archon quests. But I could've enjoyed it even more if I didn't have a potato device.

[@sy8099]

Yes, I like the exploration but for the last few patches, i lost interest and motivation to explore

[@alice0795]

@@caterpillarking not even the primogems are worth for me because you scavage many chests for only 2 primos each....i barely do the main quests and some side quests for unlocking stuff and thats all

[@olianims]

I think an easy way to prevent star rail's combat from going stale is to give MUCH more level up resources to the player. That way, even if the combat itself isn't that special, the team building aspect will keep the game fun. Right now, you can only properly level up like 4 or 5 characters before the grind becomes too unbearable. If players are allowed to experiment with all their characters, the game will be a lot better

[@noahblackwood6288]

I feel like they're indeed shooting in that direction, seeing as even the pull currency seems to be slightly more generous in HSR, allowing to pull more characters, as well as more free starters. While it might feel like "ugh, another thing that's worse about genshin", it seems fair because hsr basically Requires a wide roster of characters from the players vs genshin being nearly solo-able if someone is really really dedicated. And the resources to level characters up seem slightly easier to obtain as well (no boss mats until third ascension, weekly bosses can be repeated, material farming is very streamlined, you can get character mats passively from assignments etc.)

[@tatyanna594]

you can though. i’m f2p and got 16 characters and they’re all mostly built at level 60. i get bored of repetitiveness so i have to switch them out throughout the game. idk why people are just focusing on four. it’s not genshin and you have to use two teams for memory floors after 10

[@rin022]

i have 11 characters at level 60…

[@pontoancora]

The problem I'd that even with more characters, the possibilities are very thin. What kind of strategies we can have? Speed manipulation, break dmg, tank/shield, dmg over time. I can't imagine more than that. In genshin even 2 teams made for vaporize can be very different, like hutao and yoimiya teams, or ganyu/ayaka for example.

[@ywami]

​@@pontoancora that's the point, you can't imagine more than that. Just bc you think there are nothing does not mean there's not or will not be. You are already missing a lot of mechanics, such as freeze, turn advance (bronya), pseudo extra turn (seele, pseudo since it does not count as a turn), buff/debuff, buff/debuff removal, scaling based on low health (arlan) and many more. There are many upcoming too, such as (spoiler alert, or may be not spoiler since SU already have it) weakness implant, (spoiler alert again) life steal, dot triggers (non-enemy turns), etc. There are also a lot more team comps possible than you may think, but maybe I shouldn't talk too much about it since it's rather complicated to get into details Most teams you currently see streamers play are just hypercarries or some very basic tank/healer/dmg dealer. They haven't even scratched the surface yet. Also, there are sub-mechanics too, for ex there are multiple types of dots which scales its dmg differently, each having its own duration (number of turns), etc. If you are lazy to think you will never find the subtlety and variabilities of the game itself

[@rin022]

well the exploration and combat things are just different genres. it’s not like qol stuff. and i don’t like action much because i’m physically less able, something a lot of action players don’t care about or keep in mind while they scream about how turn based is boring. 😓 that’s why i can’t play genshin very often. i come back every few months and catch up as much as possible. i’m ar55. and the side content thing isn’t fair yet as you even said, because hsr is brand new.

[@tunasteak8396]

i see too many people complaining about exploration in genshin, even if its optional... the whole point of genshin being open world is because of the exploration. i guess it could just be a me thing and opinions vary, but it annoys me when people complain about the exploration as it makes me feel like they completely missed the point of genshin

[@ElectrickFun]

The problem with the exploration that i and multiple people have is that the amount of rewards arent good enough. I played a shit ton of open world RPGS and genshin is by far the worst. Since you dont actually get better by fighting mobs and dont get stronger you just go around getting miniscule rewards. And also the fact that if you do WANT to 100% zones you have to purposly ignore stuff you find and go back and do the zone following a guide so that you can actually 100%(yes you can use the compass but that is after a certain amount of play and even then the mechanic is really barebones). HSR showed us that you can get the same amount of rewards whilst putting even lower effort into it so that i think that is actually the way to go.

[@tunasteak8396]

@@ElectrickFun i feel people are too hooked on rewards but that could just be me, so i wont talk to you folk who want better rewards. However, i find exploration fun so simply waddling around is enough for me, but i can understand why its not enough for others

[@ElectrickFun]

@@tunasteak8396 i get that. I play both wow and ff14 at a high level (mythic Raider and savage ) so for me there has to be a good reason to have to do exploration. And to be honest most of genshins zones is just really boring. Like there's some puzzles that look apart but in general is just the scenery that changes since the mobs and encounters are more of a inconvenience rather than an actual challenge. But i guess i am not the main audience (even tho i had used around 1k euro on the game). I just have a big fomo mindset and I just like the feel,story and just overall quality especially starting with Inazuma is what keeps me playing.

[@tunasteak8396]

@@ElectrickFun well p9s-p12s will be out soon so you can enjoy that at least!

[@bangtanssera]

I love both but hoyoverse is very funny. Cause why do I have two same essays but one can be better than other in some aspects and somehow I don’t fix it

[@neoinfinity5204]

My favorite part about Genshin is real Open world (my main reason for playing it) and that each character is unique with its lore, build, and play, elemental reactions are debatable since they are just different forms of more damage besides freeze but allow characters, weapons, and even arts to shine like free bloom and hyper bloom teams or Nilou super bloom combo.

[@sanchofagasta64]

I'm very happy about HSR launch being so successful, it really looks awesome. Sadly, I just don't have the time to commit to another Gacha, so is a pass for me. I hope that in the long run, GI incorporates some of the better ideas of HSR

[@Weebdotexe]

one thing is that the main story is just battle battle battle, im kinda glad that the TR gating exists, forces me to stop and talk to people and get items in the quests, or i will get burnt out on battles fast

[@boozados]

I got burnt out of Genshin so I only play when there are archon quests now and currently Honkai is a breath or fresh air for me. The experience feels a lot more casual as of now

[@melonbread4269]

12:03 Honestly my main worry. Mihoyo really gotta come out swinging in 4.0. If not much has changed besides new characters/story and area, people are going to drop off quick. Agreed in you saying genshin has better concepts and potential longevity while HSR has better execution. Probably the best way to sum up both the games for me. The thing to look out for is: - Will Mihoyo actually start experimenting more with combat in genshin, or will they continue to ignore it. - What will HSR be like after the honeymoon phase

[@deerajn3337]

For a new game HSR has been doing really good. It's not even been a month. They already beat Raiden's banner record with Seele banner which is kinda crazy. Tbh I'm kinda glad i could finish daily stuff faster in HSR and explore other parts in the weekends. Genshin dailies take ages and sometimes even gets annoying.

[@frug6231]

Hey vars! I love the fact that you include things from your other videos into play and promote them! I will definitely watch them and thank you for putting so much effort into giving us information and your thoughts!

[@mijmijrm]

exploration is my personal prime feature of Genshin. When a new region opens up, first i like to find as many way points as i can before activating any of the Statues of Seven (which spoil discovering the geography). Looks like Star Rail isn't my kind of thing.

[@FilmFlam-8008]

When was the last time you even went to Dragonspine. Or did anything in Mondstat besides use the crafting bench?

[@Floobdoop]

I actually prefer that star rail doesnt have an open world to explore, because it feels so tedious in genshin to find all the chests and secrets. I find myself just dreading the thought of playing open world games these days because of how monotonous and "checklisty" it feels to actually collect everything.

[@CrashDAMFCourse]

The fuck thats what open world is. You like being told where to go or what to do kinfolk??? Have you played any other damn game ever?

[@____ala5443]

That's why i like mihoyo, it's all about diversity. People can switch from genre to another but noooo they choose to compare and shame on both games when it's clearly that they were created to entertain the audience. I think at least they should be thankful for having all these features for free not to mention that they are f2p unless people wanted to oneshot everything

[@Zythroxes]

It just sounds like open world is not your cup of tea and should explore games like pokemon star rail and other turn based rpgs

[@Anna-sd4zl]

Well then I think you should never play any open world games .

[@danck941]

I would love for HSR to get it's own version of the Teapot or at least our own room on the Astral Express that we could customize.

[@tink5488]

1:20 The other thing of note here is the sense of scale. I can be in dragonspire and see the Big tree (in the pari area), or Inazuma, Mondstadt or even the Jade Chamber. Similarly with other 'landmarks' I mentioned you can see at least 1-2 of them no matter what nation you're in, that's really impressive. Furthermore, 99% of the stuff you see in Genshin you can go to. Reminding me of Assassin's Creed (the early ones), which is a good thing.

[@aaronlosey7201]

I'm definitely starting to notice HSR combat get old. I was so hyped because I love turn based way more than real time action, but there's just so little variety in how battles go.

[@cloudybrains]

I'm still enjoying the game overall, but I started to get bored of HSR's combat within less than 20 hours. I really don't think that HSR will match Genshin's popularity in the long term.

[@norwa3518]

Everyone talking about QoL improvements over Genshin is funny to me because when it comes down to it, the main part of Star Rail (the actual gameplay) is pretty boring. I love how simple it is, but I wont lie, its not that fun. The 2x speed and auto function is great, but it also cheapens the experience because I realize "Oh wait a minute, I dont need to touch anything in this game." "This is just like every other cheap turn-based mobile game..."

[@Jevjevjevj]

​@@norwa3518 true I will prefer actual gameplay over QoL anytime Maybe there are people out there who think the opposite, and that's why hoyo won't make either of these games "perfect" - to keep playerbase for both of them

[@-Getsuga-]

It really says a lot about the limitations of HSR's combat when even people who prefer turn-based combat over real time like yourself already get tired of it when the game just released not even a month ago... =/ For me the combat is the main reason why I'm gonna skip HSR. I have nothing against turn-based combat, mind you - I quite like it actually, but after watching quite a few of HSR gameplay videos I wasn't all that impressed with it, because it feels way too simplistic & limited to me. Turn based combat will always have its restrictions/limitations due to its nature, but like Vars says in the video: Some turn based RPGs show very well how surprsingly deep & strategic turn based combat can be if done right & with enough mechanics to change things up, but when I'm looking at HSR in that regard... it feels pretty lackluster & barebones to me when I compare it to something like Persona 5 for example and considering how HSR is gonna be a "live service" game this certainly doesn't bode well IMO. At least as it is now. Don't get me wrong, I'd probably have a lot of fun with it at first too, especially during the honeymoon phase - I was really close to caving and trying it after all because of the characters, but I can already tell that I'd get bored pretty fast with it after the initial honeymoon phase ends and seeing how more and more people who were really hyped for HSR already feel that way aswell just confirms my concerns even further. Another big concern for me in HSR will be powercreep in the future... cuz it will surely be a thing in this game & you'll feel it way more here compared to something like Genshin. :x But that's just my thoughts on it. So to the people who enjoy HSR, continue to have fun with it! Personally I'm gonna skip this one.

[@Hamakua]

I'm a really big turn based fan but Vars nailed in in pointing out that there are too few actions to perform. To expand on that- if you look at any modern turn based game (or even classic FF games) while turn based - they made up for it with dozens and in some cases hundreds of abilities. Buffs, attacks, spells, actions. Different characters with different strengths, oh, and skill trees and builds even within the differning characters. And with all that - those entries were only designed to be played a couple of times before they were considered "old." I'm a very big turn based game fan. Everything from Grand strategy (CKII, EUIV, etc) to classic JRPGs (FFIX was peak FF, queue flame war ; - ) and even modern CRPGs Pathfinder series, Divnitity, Baldures gate, etc. In comparison HSR simply cannot compare. I'm not comparing HSR to Genshin, I'm comparing HSR to "other turn based games." And it's simply far too simple for it to have staying power. A small "cheat" of Genshin that will preserve its longevity, and Vars touches on it is that it's combat system has a lot of room to grow - via either different more demanding scenarios, or just skill expression refinement.

[@ZoRowArk3]

Nice, really liked both of these Videos! Thank you for raising interesting points and being really fair to both, imho. It's gonna be interesting how much change we'll see in HSR when its out for longer, and in Genshin when it maybe adapts some of the improvements and QoL Stuff they brought into HSR. Looking forward to continue playing both

[@Saedris]

I loved exploring dragonspine with my dad during the first albedo event, we both ran around doing his story, exploring and finishing the event Its been a while since ive had that kind of fun with genshin, I hope they do the same with Damavand one day

[@unoqueen_]

I’m more of a combat type of person. I love the combat aspects of these games, but even though HSR emphasizes combat more, Genshin’s combat system just allows for so much more freedom and definitely less repetitive. What you said is so true: Genshin’s combat system has SO MUCH POTENTIAL but no scenario to utilize it besides abyss. That’s why I feel like even though I’m playing HSR a lot right now, and I’m really enjoying the turn-based and using the characters, it will grow tedious FAST. However, exploration for me is also very tedious. I’ve barely explored Sumeru. But when I do start exploring, it BLOWS MY MIND how much detail and effort goes into Genshin open-world. Nothing will ever beat my first experience into Dragonspine, or doing Rui’s quest on Tsurumi island (if I remember correctly). The unique dialogue in HSR is what sets it apart IMO, as well as the much more f2p friendly experience (free 5 star light cones, and much better artifact RNG) Character personalities in HSR feel so different to Genshin’s polite and well-spoken characters. However, (maybe it’s just bc HSR is new) in the end I still am more attached to Genshin’s characters. We’ll have to see as the game progresses. TLDR: I like Genshin’s combat system better and the exploration is very cool, even tho it’s tedious. The characters in HSR feel more alive tho.

[@akusen7634]

People just need to understand two things. Intended game design and target market.

[@bonnmaghari4340]

Great! I have been waiting for this

[@siennras]

I agree, these two games are different, not to be closely compared to each other. We can enjoy both without trying to find out which one is better than the other. As someone who play both, I love going back and forth between Genshin and Star Rail. There is a probability that people will "go back to Genshin" after new area is released, but future stays unwritten until it happen anyway :)

[@vectory674]

If you don't like turn base game, Genshin will be more appealing. Otherwise it's the other way around. I think we need to see how HSR evolve in the future. Because it will probably be a bit more specific

[@LordNovaPrime1]

I'm actually surprised in the sense that I am a guy that far prefers turn based and I started playing genshin after playing HSR and now I can't go back to HSR. In my opinion Genshin is far better. Probably partially because of the amount of content but overall I'm just having far more fun

[@vectory674]

​@@LordNovaPrime1 I see The problem is since you started the game, you won't see the issues right away. It's okay though enjoy it as long as you can. Since I played Genshin for a long time it has became tiring and as of writing this comment the next patch is focused on TCG and honestly this is the least interesting feature in the game for me. The problem about the kind of game Genshin is is the following : Set yourself an objective otherwise you will get tired of it

[@LordNovaPrime1]

@Vectory I set myself objectives in every game so I'm not too worried about that. I also like the tcg so I'm looking forward to that lol. It does look like it needs more endgame content but so far HSR has the same problem so I think it's a problem in both games and if it comes down to that genshin is just more fun imo. I'll still play HSR some but genshin definitely has my attention.

[@Jevjevjevj]

​@@LordNovaPrime1 don't worry, genshin will keep you entertained for a long time (coming from someone who's been playing for 2,5 years)

[@LordNovaPrime1]

@Disco Cop I've been going through a lot of jrpgs lately and I kinda missed having a comfort game to play all the time and I agree with you. I think genshin will keep me entertained for a long time and will keep me coming back a lot

[@wolfwoof2000]

About HSR I hope limited characters will add up to the complexity in combat. I think QQ is a good example, she is super fun and unique I think ! I think what would keep me come back would have characters with rewarding mechanics to play

[@VoxAetherium]

Now that we got HSR, I am excited for what Hoyo has in plan for Zenless Zone Zero. Also waiting for Wuthering Wave because I feel like it will be a really good competition for Hoyo's games and we really need a good competitor so that Hoyo won't monopolize the market

[@MorpheusOnMars]

I def agree with the games being able to supplement each other! I’ve recently gotten burnt out on genshin, to the point where it feels like I have to force myself to play it sometimes, so it’s nice to be able to take a break and play star rail, especially since I’ve found that I prefer the writing and general vibe more compared to genshin, but that’s just more of a personal preference thing

[@k0k0m0n]

I'm surprised you didn't touch on artifacts/relics in general. Though genshin's farming is more tedious, you can do a domain 8 times, compared to star rail's 4 times, for the exact same rewards. Moreover, though I've never been lucky, genshin's artifact strongbox system lets you dump 3 artifacts for 1, while hsr makes you dump 10 for 1, though you can choose the piece. Plus, levelling up artifacts just seem so slow in hsr, but I think it evens out due to the max level differences

[@rin022]

hsr made stamina for XP/currency (10) and ascension bosses (30) cheaper, but relics (40) more expensive. ig that’s their way of “balancing it out” lol. makes endgame farming slower though yeah

[@BladeSerph]

Lets go over a few things. 1. Both use the same exact system with just different affixes, you pay stamina to `roll` for a batch of artifacts/relics. You burn up relics to level them up to get higher main stat value and random lower stat bonuses. 2. Genshin may have 5 instead of 6 but one of them is a `dead weight` artifact and whens the last time they released diadems which are just insanely niche elemental resistance wears? Star rails having 4 set and 2 planar set so you get more value from set bonuses. Though that just means more annoying reroll shenigans. Herta-verse basically lets you get 4 free rolls per week on planars, but it really can`t replace just letting people get 60 or even 120 daily free stamina to help people more on the resource climb. Which feels like you need to burn your resin each day for dailies and Genshin only had a half-baked solution with condensed resin then a more logical one. 3. Despite both have strongboxes, HSR got alot more to its own with yeah the ability to choose which one you want, but also with what will likely be some `premium item in the shop and battle pass often`, Custom Resin, to let you have way better control on it. Shame Miho-verse did not make it a more f2p feature, but the ability to choose affixes, even if some, is still way better then leaving it 100% to lady luck at a expensive price tag. 4. HSR likely only feels slower cause its still early on and lower trail blaze level means less `tier rewards`, plus even if you did miss out alot of rewards on genshin by arriving later, you have alot more stuff to pick at the carcass for rewards in comparison to make the grind in genshin feel alot less tedious till you get caught up and now its all down to resin for your sinks. Plus they do have that teapot shop for another resource of resources, even if Star rails feels like they give out so much exp materials that i feel like until you hit level 50~60, your mostly keeping pace on keeping your gear caught up. Both games are still running the same motif of multiple resources and too many things to chase after to chase after too much grind to where you end up spending weeks on grind just to attempt to progress on other content as the stalling mechanic while you wait for the next version that may not last that much and still locks behind most of the `update` by 1 or even 3 week waits after doing just a smidge of the content cause they don`t want to just let you do everything at once for that version, or atleast release said content within the first week.

[@mateuszkulis3535]

Not a greath point, while relic caverns cost 2 times more you they also give more. One clear of caver ins HSR equals to one clear of domain with condensed resin which is 40 resin. If i remember correctly you are guaranted to get 2 5* relic per clear after lvl 50.

[@Toonlink003]

hsr just started and we already have a lot of qol that genshin still doesn't have to this day. you couldn't even farm 5* artifacts on genshin until like 2-3 weeks of playing and it, also hsr recycler is way better, even with the 1 for 10 ratio (not to mention that it haas, choosing the desired piece skips many rng layers. also, leveling up relics is just way faster, you can salvage all 3* with a click of a button.

[@Snappukingu]

I'm glad that Genshin and HSR are both similar and different enough. That makes me appreciate and enjoy them more.

[@izanagiuzumaki7325]

I just mainly hate not knowing what I'm missing in Genshin. I don't even feel like exploring the newest area cause I know there's gonna be a ton I miss, even though it'll say 100% idk what I'm missing.

[@ramasubhashpottipati647]

That's solely your problem. Nothing wrong with Genshin in itself. And it is not rocket science to not know what you need lol

[@gabrielgelen767]

I use the interactive map to get everything, but I agree It would be cool to have something to show whats left after the % gets to 100, specially for the First regions

[@izanagiuzumaki7325]

@@ramasubhashpottipati647 k?

[@izanagiuzumaki7325]

@@gabrielgelen767 too annoying to have go back and forth from like my phone to console with the interactive map. I'm sure it works better for people on pc so glad you have that option

[@Tanubtanu]

@@izanagiuzumaki7325 Unless you depend the exploration with interactive i guess, I only use interactive on items without clues/tools to find the remaining onces (example the one on enka map). I don't see a reason to use em for chest, the chest reward really poorly plus only around less than 10% chest in sumeru (not Liyue and Mondstad) can't be searched by the compass.

[@inversepie6512]

Both Genshin and Honkai make so much money it's hard to imagine either ending

[@Hello-nr7vy]

One thing I think has kept genshin going strong for over 3 years is how fun the combat and overworld experiences are. Every time I play HSR I feel like it gets really annoying having to go into a domain state where you then have to play turn based. I don't really mind turned based combat, but I think most people can agree it does get very repetitive and boring after a while. Also that you cant choose what character your going to use next, or that you have skill points which can be frustrating sometimes. I believe after the games initial hype wears off, lots of people will stop playing HSR.

[@Gu3ssWhatsN3XT]

The combat to me in genshin is about the same. I make a team, I figure out the most effective way of fighting an enemy and I just do the same thing every time

[@Harmonia96]

How is that any different from picking national team and plowing everything down, support ult, debuff ult, dps ult, battery ult? The initial overtuning of characters completely killed any interest I had in building the ones I liked bc the entire internet argues they weren't efficient enough. Ig at the end of the day, it's really a matter of preference and there isn't any ACTUAL competition between Star Rail and Genshin like this youtuber is implying

[@SoggyWetCheese]

I'm personally a bigger fan of the less big world of HSR, Genshin is too open for me. Also I've been a massive fan of turn-based combat ever since P5, and I just find hack and slash combat a little too boring. Additionally, in my opinion, I think the characters and interactions in HSR are better than the ones in Genshin.

[@XMaxJunior]

What makes me like HSR more than genshin rn is the turn based combat, i always liked it and they can on the future make battles and events with some gimmicks like element immunity or some sort of debuff that rewards a more strategic style of gameplay than just let auto nuke every inch of enemies ahead. On the other hand i agree with you with the exploration aspect, it was what hooked me early on but nowadays i dont see much of a reason to when i already have all the gacha characters i wanted and already reached ar60, maybe im just tired and liked to get something new to waste my free time with.

[@Sophia_JiYun]

So far, I’ve been deeply invested in both theses games as well as Honkai Impact which was my introduction to Hoyo back in 2017. Seeing how these worlds connect and diverge always keeps me coming back to learn more.

[@gamerpl4995]

I have one thing i really dislike in both. The emphasis on dealing lots of damage fast. More often than not turn based games that i have played (maybe except pokemon) had a much bigger emphasis on careful resource management and proactive actions. Sure, you have to deal damage anyway, but it should be up to player whether you want to do that quickly of slowly. In these games there are hard limits to that, even if we skip raw stats. In Genshin some bosses (eg. Oceanid) have strong attacks that activate after some time. Also, there is that cursed time limit on Spiral Abyss. All in the name of dealing more damage. In H:SR both in memory hall and in Simulated Universe (SU) there are fights that have turn limit, so you need to deal damage FAST. Additionally every final SU boss has some infinite damage increase mechanic, like Kafka's 2% per shock trigger on our characters. On top of that, some people may not know it, but if you take enough turns any enemy can become berserk, getting additional +40% damage every turn. It is really discourageing from playing defense-focused builds, because at the end of the day you will crumble, and that is despite the fact, that you should pay more attention to defence in this game, due to lack of dodge button. I would be really happy if some enemies' base damage was increased overall, and they would get rid of infinite damage scaling mechanics, because it simply hurts that it was my decision to play more methodically and carefully, and game just pulls this crap on me for spending "too much time" on one fight (20-some minute Gepard fight, died when he was literally 1% hp).

[@Melotaku]

Yes this! I haven't played HSR but hearing that that is still the case in that game really makes me sad. Most of the difficulty in Genshin comes from these time limits, if there wasn't a time limit it would be easy. I think the reason these games are designed this way is because it encourages us to spend time building our characters to be the best they can be. Which means we have to use resin/stamina. Which is a limited resource that if we want more of we will spend premium currency for. It's just another way to get us to swipe. I think this would make a great video topic for Vars. I don't think I've seen anyone talk about this before on KZbin.

[@joeywatts7779]

That explains a lot I was having the same issue with gepard. He'd be almost dead on the final phase all my characters would be full health and he'd do two attacks and kill all four of them LOL. After that happening twice I was about ready to quit the cheatin POS game lol

[@DonQ0]

Also sometime bosses action don't show in the action order. Gepard for example he will deploy soldier and then punch and then ground slam these 3 action don't show up at all.

[@gamerpl4995]

@@DonQ0 The thing is that gepard has one move that makes all enemies attack immediately. That's why in one of my fights i had Bailu move once, and Gepard 4 times every turn.

[@YuTEM]

Now you just need top 5 reasons why you shouldn't care what other people say about the game, and we will come full circle

[@mrdata9823]

Why does everyone seem to not like sumeru's deserts? I love all of it T_T

[@TimoNaaro]

haha I have only seen this video other way around. Very interested see what you got!

[@rhesh2440]

3:39 Should note that interstellar travel outside the Astral Express IS possible within the context of HSR setting, and has been for some time. The omniscient prescence of the Interastral Peace Corp is an example. The only reason it seems impossible is because Jarilo VI is literally behind in the technological scale. Should be a non issue for someone like Tingyun to visit Herta's Space Station if the event calls for it, and so on.

[@silvinity4939]

The foxian beauty side quest ends with an npc from the space station going to xianzhou. So yeah, it’s more than possible.

[@rishaansriram8249]

I just love both games ❤

[@alexprus7953]

9:00 For real, Genshin has amazing potential for interesting combat, but all we usually get is a flat arena, few enemies and a timer. Imagine if there were times when we have to utilize the terrain in a fight. The closest we have is the stormterror fight (with the platforms and wind currents), or Scaramouche phase 1. Which is weird considering weekly bosses only ever exist inside their arenas, so it should be no problem to design those spaces a bit more. Or imagine fighting standard enemies (hillichurls, hoarders, fatui), but in a dungeon full of traps that damage both the player and enemy. I guess domains like Lisa's kinda have that? There's platforms, barrels and spikes, but it's usually either puzzle or enemy, rarely both at once.

[@jurajojo2543]

This video reminded me why I couldn't get into Genshin, yet I could easily get into HSR. (Long story short, most of the good points mentioned in this video seemed like a negative to me xD)

[@ryzhik9608]

I appreciate all effort that Hoyo put into Star Rail and Genshin, but Genshin will surely last longer. Currently, I'm playing both and I do plan to do this long-term, but I'm already content-starved in Star Rail... I came to Genshin relatively early in 1.3 and I felt amazing playing it up until Inazuma and the plot problems came out. And I only started feeling content-starved in like 2.5 maybe. In Star Rail, it's already happening. I beat everything I could, I played every quest available, and now... It's only left to log in, do dailies, maybe run through the simulated universe a couple of times, and then log out to do the same in Genshin. Genshin just has so much content it's insane. And I'm not even talking about exploration, it's combat, the characters and them synergizing with each other, the reaction system, it all adds life to the game. Characters in Star Rail do not interact like this with each other. At most, they can buff or heal the other party member, and then there's nothing else to do but raw damage. In Genshin there are so many more ways to interact. Snapshots, cooldowns, different units of the element, ICD, elements by themselves, and the positions. And it's just much more than just hearing the same one voice line for each attack Seele has, at least in Genshin they have like 3 voice line options for each move.

[@Snehabrita29]

I relate to you so much! A week of Star Rail burnt me out but it took Genshin at least two years. But then again, everyone is unique to what they enjoy.

[@daichi1069]

same tbh. at least in genshin when i have nothing to do i just have to look for an area i havent explored and go around. theres really nothing else in hsr. just relic grind and simulated universe runs at this point that really get repetitive.

[@Jevjevjevj]

True. Also, i love the fact i can just go to my favorite places and find a chest or two because even with 100% the area has something you missed

[@silhouette9699]

Genshin has the same problem bruh. I've cleared Inazuma in a 3 days after it launched and had nothing to do for an 1.5 of a month. Same with Sumeru when I can clear a whole new boring ahh desert location in 2 days. At least HSR has some repetative and replayable content like SU where you can play almost infinite and build different comps

[@ryzhik9608]

@@silhouette9699 by that logic you can infinitely play spiral abyss lol

[@kyllernotkiller]

In star rail is, yeah, literally 2 and sometimes 3 actions per character, and other turn based games they usually have more moves, but usually you always use the big dmg move and sometimes the stat boost move. Like in pokemon (unless you're doing modded nuzlocke) you usually just spam the super effective move, sometimes after stat boosting, in Omori you get the right emotion and spam the big move and sometimes heal. And a thing that I'm notesting (probably because I play too much) is that: it is just 2/3 moves, but the game isn't just about pressing 2/3 buttons, it's also team building, testing the characters testing the sinergies and strategize, the only problem about this is that it's a gacha game

[@syrollesse]

I feel like if starrail had a system where the enemies were just 1 element and like in genshin were either resistant to the same element on your team or when a different element is used on the enemy it creates a different reaction. It would have been a lot more interesting than weakness breaks imo

[@HadouGun]

I didn't jump on Star Rail because I didn't know if I'd be able to keep up with two games at teh same time, already got too much to do as it is and once you miss out on the early days you miss out on a lot of stuff permanently.

[@rivin5051]

As much as I am a total fan of the Honkai series by hoyo I’ll admit genshin does have a more casual feel to it as compared to the other two combat games they have as in Honkai Impact lord knows the horrendous state of meta in that game where powercreep is at most a few months away from a new character, and HSR does have a decent system now but I don’t think we can comment on it as much as the previous two since it just came out and we don’t know how much hoyo will do to prevent powercreep as bad as Honkai impact.

[@dustinabigan2776]

Personally I feel like the question of what will outlast the other kind of boils down to how players can progress through the game and how fast they can do so and reach the end. It's not a one-to-one comparison but I've played World of Tanks Blitz before and one of the reasons I preferred that over its bigger counterpart is down to how much faster you can progress given less bottlenecks. I think that's what would be the make or break for Genshin and HSR. If Genshin continues to mess up a player's ability to progress whether by making exploration too tedious like the dessert or by not implementing any quality of life changes like improving the artifact system then HSR with its arguably more convenient farming setup (where materials are streamlined and available all week) could catch up and outlast Genshin just from how easier it is to complete the whole thing and build the characters you want. Sure there are people who want a challenge but if you're some teenager entering adulthood you don't have much time to spend on grinding too much or going through a lot of content just like Genshin every time it updates. Things like autobattle in HSR and farming convenience make it so that you can progress even without putting as much attention compared to Genshin. I'd admit I enjoy Genshin's open world a bit more but once that enjoyment dies down once you have explored everything then you could revisit it, but end of the day as with any other Genshin player we end up defaulting to the daily grind once everything is done and dusted. So it makes the open world factor less significant.

[@Rihorama]

Just curious, in what way is the desert tedious exploration (and one you need to progress too)? I'd understand mentions of Dragonspine, Seirai or Tsurumi (neither of them being crucial for progress either) but the desert?? The surface is pretty simple and they lead you by your hand beneath it

[@HotCocoa1sNice]

this may sound like a broken record, but I honestly think anniversay for genshin will be the big benefactor on which one will survive

[@blizzard2586]

Yooo I see that you're a fan of MMBN as well, had a chance of trying the collection? I just 100%'d Cybeast Gregar recently!

[@bnpray2279]

As for exploration, dragonspine and the chasm are my fav exploration experience, it wasn't too big, it scalable it had enough not too much gimmick. And sumeru so far even though being the best region but the desert is a total boring environment, i have not even once enjoy exploring the area

[@rushalias8511]

I think they should have implemented some form of transportation for the desert. Maybe like a dune buggy or rideable mount for the desert just to make getting around easier. Personally I liked the recent desert region because the little companion has good interactions with the environment to an extent

[@Melotaku]

I think Dragonspine and The Chasm are so good because they have a sense of danger. You never really feel safe in them so it's quite exhilarating. Dragonspine especially because you most likely explore it early on when your characters aren't build very well so it's possible one strong monster can kill your whole team. We slowly progressed from one area to the next breathing a sigh of relief each time we reached a heat source. It honestly might be most fun I've had in Genshin to this day. I imagine The Chasm would feel like that too if I didn't have built characters but since I did, I never felt that I could ever have even one character die. As for Sumeru, I liked the forest but it's a little gimmicky but nothing too crazy. But the desert was way too gimmicky and underground exploration was tedious because we don't have a map. I also just think that environment got boring. Everything looks the same. It was cool it first, but the novelty wore off really quickly. Moral of the story is that Genshin is most fun when you have weak characters. So don't grind for artifacts, you'll regret it like I do haha.

[@pixadragon46]

Can you do a honkai impact comparison

[@SHGogo-df5jr]

I like running around new areas in Genshin, but even tho I've been playing for over 2 yrs now I have *maybe* 2 at 100% It gets really frustrating & tedious to get that last little bit

[@silvinity4939]

I’m going to dispute your point on star rails events being just standard gacha events like dungeon crawls or raids. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of those but they’ve already demonstrated some over world puzzles or mini-games that could work in an event. We’ll just have to wait and see though.

[@osamudazai579]

I definitely prefer Genshin's art style as well, both with characters and zone design. Im not saying that HSR looks bad, just that I prefer the more simple, cartoony vibe of genshin.

[@_ddoraemon_]

The main reason I hooked up and still play Genshin is because of the exploration. I sincerely do not understand how can you be tired of it, for my taste it even needs more, unmarked chests, unmarked quests, secret puzzles moooree

[@kavinbala8885]

in your next video could you take the data for like/dislike/viewcount for this one and it's counterpart video or in a community post put a little thing about that stat

[@mpegial7988]

The only incentive to explore is chests? Ah hell naw those trash cans are always! worth exploring for!

[@zanzatbc]

While I think HSR is amazing and I have always been a big fan of turn based games, strictly speaking from a gameplay perspective, star rail is just a fresh twist on a classic system. Genshin combat system, with the swapping between characters, the quick swap and hypercarry styles, the combination of weapons, set effects, passives, off field buffs, and reactions, was such an innovative approach to the action rpg genre that I still haven’t had enough of it. To this day, despite hoyo not giving me any worthy challenge to face, I’m still extremely addicted to genshin gameplay. I love HSR but genshin will always be iconic. It’s been a game changer since day 1, and it will remain a cult for years to come.

[@topdanielunlimited5342]

The open world exploration argument is really not a good one. Since one is an open world and the other is not. It's like comparing GTA with NFS. They both have cars, but completely different game at their core altogether.

[@rin022]

yeah exactly, it’s not like comparing quality of life stuff, or writing of story/characters.

[@setsunafs0018]

I agree. This is like comparing apples to oranges. The only things worth comparing should be Story/characters and quality of life IMO. Their design and purpose are just too different.

[@cloudybrains]

You can't compare the games fairly together if you conveniently ignore things that a game does and the other game doesn't though. When a player is trying to decide whether to play Genshin or Star Rail, should they not take into account open world exploration?

[@topdanielunlimited5342]

@@cloudybrains The title is "Things Genshin does better than HSR." Of course the open world exploration is better in Genshin.

[@cloudybrains]

​@@topdanielunlimited5342 Yes but my point is that video wouldn't be complete if he didn't mention that Genshin does exploration better than HSR. It's an inherent feature of the game that may be a deciding factor in whether a player chooses to play one over the other.

[@xLyoko.Min.J]

Vars, ima need you to do your math stuff and tell me if Jing Yuan is worth pulling for or if he’ll get powercrept like some Genshin characters did.

[@pochu9506]

On events. Since i have experience on Honkai Impact 3, Genshin Impact, and Honkai Star Rail. I'm pretty sure HSR's events won't be "just combat missions". Mihoyo/hoyoverse pretty much creates new games within HI3 for some of their events

[@Ajia_No_Envy]

Now that i think of it, it couls be possible to have xianzhou and belebog characters meet as we already know some characters can visit the astral express, it's not too farfetched that they could journey with the astral express to new worlds in the future for reasons.

[@xraeynex]

Serval's story quest literally was her trying to start a new life on the astral express 💀 the amount of disappointment I had by the end of it... But still, it doesn't exclude the possibility of others joining the ship later on.

[@swtormadness]

I feel like you forgot about the fact that as much as Genshin has a huge world to explore... it can be overwhelming to people. Sumeru is already overwhelming to a lot of people, me included. I used to explore everything, and now I just don't have energy to do so. So I appreciate the small maps of Honkai Star Rail a lot, because it doesn't put so much pressure on me to force myself to explore, and I can just enjoy the world and the story.

[@miavelvet]

Well, there is no good content in genshin except exploring. Combat is too easy and boring coz everything dies in 2 hits except abyss, dialogues are mostly graphomaniac and full of pointless text or fillers, plot itself is extremely slow to be considered any fun. What exactly are you playing for if not exploration?

[@raiden8063]

​@@miavelvet All of those are your opinions not facts.

[@miavelvet]

@@raiden8063 well maybe but im playing genshin for almost 3 years so i can consider myself an expert in this game and i hate how bad it actually is. And it happens to most people who goes deep enough to be extremely disappointed. Huge potential but extremely wasted

[@27Ganon]

@@miavelvet This is exactly why I quit Genshin (for now). I can't deal with all the bloat and wasted time, especially with where I am right now in life. HSR has much better characters that make us care about them and actually go through proper character development. The dialogue is also much better on average (Luofu is worse than Belabog but Dan Heng's story still makes it a lot more compelling than Genshin).

[@jerymarika]

Yeah I feel the same, after playing so many open world games I'm just getting tired of all the huge worlds to explore and I'm appreciating being able to explore an area faster in Star rail compared to looking for all the chests in Genshin, and all the puzzles. I still play Genshin but it's my side game now.

[@IO-hh3gw]

This is kind of a bad comparison especially the combat part cuz you assumed HSR devs are not going to come up with new ideas to make the gameplay fun when they actually just did. The Swarm Disaster is one of their best works & the newly added event with Huohuo & the Heliobus was also amazing especially cuz you have to calculate your every move so the buff won't be used by your enemies.

[@ImFineR34lly]

I've played HSR the moment it was released and I gotta say, it is a really good game! I especially love my boy Dan Heng. But I believe that this comparison wasn't fair because GI has been out for about 3 years now and HSR is just really new (fewer things to do, small exploration areas, etc..) I doubt it's going to be a genshin killer (because c'mon, world exploration is so much more beautiful) but it's definitely gonna get much better in the future. Let's not also forget that they have the same developers, Hoyoverse. Im getting a lot invested into this new game and it's really fun to play in general, though I wish we could actually jumb and the battle system could be more detailed too. I do like the pity system of HSR a lot better than Genshin's, since you get a guaranteed 5* every 50 pulls which is like 40 pulls less than Genshin, which is really good for F2Ps like me! Also the characters are so pretty wtf like marry me mommy Kafka Edit: I like the combat system in Genshin more because it feels more free to move around, fight and has artifacts and weapons to increase Character's strength. In HSR it's just standing still and pressing buttons, get's boring easily if you ask me.

[@astikach666]

As Zajef has said, Star Rail will face a huge wall called powercreep, and it won't be as tamed as in Genshin. The very limited playstyle in Star Rail will make it such that to make a character good, they need to be stronger than the ones before. In Genshin, a character just meeds to be different, not necessarily stronger.

[@akoya1005]

Bruh.

[@thelaw_00]

Jing Yuan already powercreeped Serval lmao

[@jameschong9300]

@@thelaw_00 that’s so true

[@p-se9yf]

​@@thelaw_00limited 5 star vs free 4 star... you might as well argue that Gepard powercreep all preservation and abundance at launch

[@thelaw_00]

@@p-se9yf I actually use both Fire MC and Gepard on separate teams. I would say Gepard only power creeped March 7th since they're both ice and preservation. I think powercreep will absolutely happen if both 4* and 5* has the same path and element

[@stellarchaos]

Honestly for me one of the things I like more about Star Rail is simply that I was able to start playing from day one. Many other gacha games I have played for a long time, FGO, Genshin, Fire Emblem Heroes, I started after it was already a couple years old and I felt like I was always playing catch up with the story or other players. This is the first I have been able to play and be fully up to date with the content.

[@milai2000]

both games are different and have a uniqueness to them, so I find comparisons a little unfair sometimes! However, I'm a Final Fantasy and FGO player. I can see inspiration from these games in HSR, which is kind of a problem considering I've already gotten pretty bored of the combat system in HSR. There's very little variety. I honestly don't know if the gacha & live service model works with these types of games in the long run. (i dont like the dialogue either but thats subjective lol)

[@usmansubhani7482]

Personally, I like smaller and compact worlds filled with things to do compared to a sandbox where getting here takes hours of in-game running. Spider-man PS4 the only exception.

[@Volair]

Some aspects of Genshin exploration I agree with. However, beautiful scenery is not enough for me to feel like 10 hours of exploring a new area was worth it. To me, exploration in Genshin is empty. I know that's not how everyone feels and that's great if so. But to explain my view: there's not much for me to do or interact with, and for me that's vital. Puzzles are Dora the Explorer level of difficulty 9 out of 10 times, gathering mats is a pain, loot is grossly underwhelming, XP and mora are barely earned from mobs, terrain can be a hassle at times, etc. It just feels like a bloated waste of time, rather than being rewarding interactive experience. If you played Genshin from the start to it's current stopping for just the story? Then the overworld would undoubtably be filled with wonder, and the flaws would be hard to see. Essentially the honeymoon phase. But Genshin is a live service game, and thus the overworld goes from being a wonderous thing to explore, to something that becomes a chore. Everything since the chasm for me has been around 50% or less completion just because the amount of meaningful interaction has been lost for me. Honkai's maps I like better because they are geared towards being a live service game. Additionally, I love that worlds are far more representative of what they would be in scale. Things feel more detailed and assets less reused because they didn't have to fill the game with bloated landscapes (which hurts to say, as I once enjoyed exploring in Genshin). So for me, Honkais areas have been far more condenced and rich, or at least to some degree. Genshin's world feels like a tiny scale model of what places like Liyue would actually be.

[@alexfirth21]

To be fair HSR is still new. Even Honkai Impact has better gameplay combat wise. But HSR is very enjoyable and seems more immersive than what it really is…which you have to give Hoyoverse credit for combining the qualities of 3 games into one. But ultimately I enjoy playing all 3 so I will continue to do so. But Genshin technically will be built out further than HSR for a while now. Fontaine is coming hopefully this Fall/Winter, which will give us even more to explore. HSR is primarily about exploring multiple planets so I assume once content pours in it will be even more enticing. Ultimately, I recommend playing both HSR and Genshin. Give Honkai Impact a go if you haven’t because content is about to get really exciting there as well with a major update to their game engine. Hoyoverse definitely wants you to play them all, and don’t forget Zenless Zone Zero is still coming next year.

[@CarrotSpunk.]

Z.Z.Z def gonna out beat genshin I can already tell it has great quality put into it and we can pet cats in there if I'm wrong but I have a hunch that it will

[@alexfirth21]

@@CarrotSpunk. ZZZ is definitely going to be as big as Genshin. I’m not sure if it will be bigger out the gate…but it looks like a lot of fun. I think a more mature route too.

[@Harmonia96]

I'm glad they realized that bigger character body types are also marketable. I've been getting sick of all these bishonen/bishojo models lately

[@analiesedoeringer7154]

This came out literally as I was watching the other one

[@mandarinduck]

As well-made as it is, by having that turn-based combat, Honkai Star Rail is inevitably going to be more similar to Raid: Shadow Legends, Fate/Grand Order, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, etc.

[@Harmonia96]

I personally love how low maintenance Star Rail is. Same with Tears of Themis. Sorry Genshin, I have other long-term games that don't dripfeed progression-Star Rail took over in that department.

[@Xeconis]

I find the repetition argument amusing because most people playing Genshin (myself included) fall into the same rotations for every combat with a given team. Like, you always pop support skills then your reaction setup and then your damaging option without fail. That framework doesn't really change across teams even though skills do. That's not something Star Rail does better, to be clear, but it amuses me because no matter what rpg you're playing you end up falling into that foundation anyway because that's just what works. Even in Fire Emblem you'll often lead an encounter with the same group of units because they maybe take less damage, don't get countered, or they apply some kind of debuff on the foe after combat. If you play with rally skills you'll also be doing that first. At it's core, they all fall into the same pseudo-linear gameplay loop because you don't change what you're doing unless you have to, and that's not something many popular/mainstream games do well these days. The day that Hoyoverse (or any studio) does something that punishes standard methods is the day players have to get creative with their actions and the loop is broken.

[@CarrotSpunk.]

Sad reality of gaming 😭

[@studiesinflux1304]

I find I need to go to older or indie titles to find better gameplay variety because “mass market” games like Genshin and Star Rail make combat too simple as you mentioned. Genshin and Star Rail are further crippled because they are gachas, so the need to keep all non-abyss combat winnable by the base cast yet give something for people to whale on. The last games I remember that made it fun to switch up rotations were Guild Wars 1 and Bravely Default which had strong debuffs both players and enemies used, as well as enough available skills and gear to build for multiple strategies without losing out on too much damage per second / turn compared to a build meant to do only one thing. Guild Wars 1 for example had debuffs that hit harder depending on how many buffs you had, so if you did your usual strategy of stacking buffs before combat, you would get damaged and lose the buffs if you ran into one of the enemies that could mass debuff you. (You’d then counter the counter by picking buffs that are not affected, or target those enemies first.) Bravely Default, the older turn based Final Fantasy games, and their indie clones just have lots of combat abilities and items that allow you to change things up even in the middle of combat.

[@Xeconis]

@@studiesinflux1304 I can relate to that, I find myself looking into a lot of roguelikes and roguelites because the good ones base their gameplay and improvement off of impactful strategic decisions, advanced mechanic prowess, or both. Risk of Rain 2, Slay the Spire, Wizard of Legend, and Hades being the currently relevant ones. Other than that, I fell down the rabbit hole of Project Moon years ago and they've always done a good job at making intricate systems that absolutely don't fail to challenge the player. Library of Ruina's difficulty spike is vertical. Oh and I end up playing a decent amount of metroidvania games, another type of game usually dictated by mechanical prowess.

[@jmell458]

I guess that depends on whether people are intrinsically or extrinsically motivated. I love messing with combinations for fun, and I can't do that as much for HSR

[@hafidlho7332]

not really, because if you have played any action rpg, even with the same enemy and same skill rotation but just a bit different positioning you can have different outcome such as staggered by enemy or missing some skill, in turn based game farming the same enemy with same skill rotation will just played the same everytime unless you intentionally do something different.

[@gavinsharqawi8352]

i think its quite wrong to say honkai has no combos, just like genshin you have to pair characters together and say herta and himeko work really good together, so saying they dont have it is kinda wrong. Also while more characters and perhaps more interaction between elements or just abilities in general

[@terryanisaurasrex2207]

Now personally I’ve been enjoying star rail more than I ever have in genshin however as a fan of turn based rpgs star rails system just doesn’t provide enough variety in strategy and actions. I think on top of giving more skills a great addition would be more interface with the skill point system as of now arlan is the only character who has a unique interaction with skill points while everyone else has just has gain one point or use 1 point there’s so much untapped potential that could be opened through adding like two more basic skills and more interaction with skill points I already have so many different character kit ideas using this concept. Of course the adding more skills thing that I believe would be the basis for this change is highly unlikely since hoyo would have to rework every character to have an additional skills but if there is a time to make this change it would be now since the chance decreases as hoyo pumps out more characters