Honkai Star Rail

Sampo is a small time conman (to everybody else's knowledge, at any rate). Villainy-wise he's more or less on Silver Wolf's tier. And even now it's made abundantly clear that he's a much more moral follower of Aha than Sparkle.

Like, I think that when Aventurine is released, he might be the first case of a male character who is straight up more villainous than a female foil/equivalent when put next to Topaz. Before that, the main comparisons were Sampo/Sparkle and Blade/Jingliu, and in neither case was the guy the worst.

Edit: my bad, I forgot Luocha, but his villainy seems to come entirely from A/having unknown motives and B/people extrapolating things because he's based on an HI3 baddie.

Anyway, my point is that I think Mihoyo expects its fanbase to react positively to ambiguously evil women, and less so to ambiguously evil men. Which I think is a misconception on their part because bishounen baddies tend to always be immensely popular.

Edited by Bexlerfu on Mar 26th 2024 at 10:34:17 AM

Rather than a misconception, I would say it's a dated expectation based on how gacha games audience used to be nearly a decade ago.

Nowadays the audience is diverse enough that bishounen baddies are not only going to be popular but also sell like hot cakes once their banners appear.

Shout out to Arknights letting Silverash be one of their most popular male units (if only thanks to the lack of choice at the time) only to have his very first focus event have him as the antagonist.

Also Sampo is a scammer who does nothing but help. It's honestly amazing that he's one of the few characters we almost never have an option to not be aggro towards.

I think this might just be thinking too deeply about the whole thing when the fact that there's way more women in this game would be the easier thing to point at.

Ah yeah, AK does have some playable ambiguously evil characters themselves. Aside from Silverash, there's also W, Ho'olheyak, Virtuosa, and more (though the three I mentioned are ambiguously evil female operators), and they're all pretty popular in the fanbase. And of course few others like Mudrock start out as antagonists that are faced in story, but otherwise aren't as morally dubious in comparison

It's kind of funny: Sampo is the exact opposite of Ruan Mei and Firefly to me, in that I might've liked them if the Trailblazer didn't choose to support them against all logic in a way that just screamed "Hey player, this is a hot waifu you should love and spend for!" (Seriously, the bit where the player had to beat up the cops to save Firefly at first sight because they randomly decided she was innocent for no reason, and then had no reaction later when she admitted that she was in fact guilty of their charges...it drove me nuts) Meanwhile having some dude that the PC just straight up hates for no reason is funny and endearing, and makes me the human behind the screen want to see more of his other sides.

Again, I should emphasize the other hints of how she's sus. For example, in A Child's Dream where she's the first to awaken, you can find her surrounded by dead monsters once you get to her. She also points out how a baseball bat isn't the best weapon. Then in the dream version of the Reverie, there's her whole presence and how she's helping a suspicious person. And that's before getting into the theory, which people made even with only official lore contents in 2.0, of how she may be the pilot of Sam, a Stellaron Hunter, one who's the most professional and ruthless at that (even more than Kafka, who's fearless and likes messing with people's mind, or Blade, who has been subjected to murderous insanity by mara and being tortured with constant swordfights he can't die from)

That’s why I don’t like Ruan Mei, after interacting with Sampo in the story and the museum permanent event, I expected that the Trailblazer would at least be somewhat angry at her or type about what happened to Asta.

I admit I can give Firefly a pass because she’s probably a Stellaron Hunter and the Trailblazer has a soft spot for the group in general due to their shared past. If anything, I expect that someone (maybe March) points out how odd it is for the Trailblazer to have easily trusted her when they are not like that normally.

Edited by raziel365 on Mar 26th 2024 at 7:24:19 AM

Fortune smiled on me. Won my 50:50 on Acheron and then got her LC in 30 pulls.

I was pulling for E0 Luocha, and ended up with E1 Luocha, due to getting him twice in the same 10-pull.

It's not the most useful Eidolon since I plan to use him alongside Blade, but now that means I can start saving for Jingliu (who might enjoy the ATK boost).

Edited by Bexlerfu on Mar 27th 2024 at 8:38:56 PM

Meanwhile I'm gonna go pull for Acheron soon and keep using Lynx for longer until Aventurine's banner

I spent the last five months playing this game without getting Pela and now it seems I might spend the next five months playing this game without getting Gallagher

Don't worry this patch has an event with a 4* selector in which you can pick him.

So many cutscenes, holy hell. It's like Xenosaga all over again. They're doing some interesting things with the storytelling, but I'd have liked some more dungeoneering to go with it

Acheron seems decent, but I don't really have a team to support her. Meanwhile, I can use Aventurine. And I want Boothill. So, yeah, skipping this banner

Cosmo Odyssey is... fine. Not really sure what the point of single-player Itadaki Street is supposed to be

Edited by Hylarn on Mar 27th 2024 at 3:07:30 AM

TIL about what the event's inspiration is, as I've never heard of the game before. I thought the event was inspired by Monopoly but done differently

My plan for getting E2S1 Acheron surprisingly went easy on my available tickets (+ 2000 ember reserves, since I never spent them), though there were 40 warps that netted Clara & Svarog instead of E1. Now to save jades and farm relics until Sam comes.

Speaking of Sam, thanks Adin, now I can't unhear the Stellaron Hunter making a Goofy yell.

Same thoughts here. I am taking breaks for fear of the X button of my controller dying due to constantly having to press it.

They really ought to put some minigames or minibosses in there to add something to the cutscenes. Hell, even just a fight against the various people TB fought against when she was with Firefly in 2.0 would be refreshing.

Edited by Bexlerfu on Mar 27th 2024 at 6:57:09 PM

I finished the main story.

Pacing felt like a very, very gentle stroll at first, for the first half actually...then when the third act began with Aventurine at the Park it became a serious jog...and then right at the end it was a mad sprint with one massive revelation after another before the cliffhanger.

One of those revelations felt obvious...and one of them was what in the name of the actual f—k just happened???. So it was cool.

I strongly suggest for anyone who wants to avoid spoilers to stay away from reddit, the front page is an absolute minefield and will ruin your day.

Edited by Bexlerfu on Mar 27th 2024 at 11:50:56 AM

You should stay away from Reddit regardless, the place is unbearably annoying.

That said I also finished the story quest, this was a really good patch for Aventurine, and I really enjoyed how everything is coming together. The final boss was a pain in the ass though, Pela and Hanya got ganked at the start of phase two so I had to conserve the fuck out of Argenti and Luocha. Argenti is WAY stronger than I expected, I should use him more

This boss might be one of the most selective ones when it comes to whether a unit is made for it or not. Any unit without an AOE or non-conditional follow-up attacks will struggle a lot. I brought Gepard due to the type chart, and it was a terrible idea due to him relying on his Ult to shield - Fire TB would have easily been the superior choice here despite lacking a good typing.

Lmao, the Reddit Take That! made me laugh

As for me, I'm gonna take a bit of time finishing the Luofu continuance mission and raising my team to the Equilibrium 5 standard before trying the new Penacony main mission

Yeah, I brought Silverwolf... big mistake.

Hmm, trying to recap the character types we have so far…

…Wait, are there really only 4 Erudition characters? Can’t be right… Outside of that though, all spots seem to be filled, except for ice Abundance, and wind, physical and lightning Preservation. Nihility seems to be the most packed class, in both quantity and quality.

Anyway, Acheron seems pretty broken but I’m really not sure which kind of team would complement her best… Her gameplay is weird…

Edited by Lyendith on Mar 27th 2024 at 3:21:56 PM

Gotta love the subversion of certain expectations in regards to certain tropes and character types here: Aventurine is the stereotypical Sissy Villain representative of an Evil Capitalist faction from a race we are told is known for being sinister; of course he was ultimately going to be a good guy (as far as he was free to be). Meanwhile, nobody suspected the actual murderer of anything, because there's no way that somebody of that profile would ever be suspected, for reasons both in and out of universe...

And I say this as someone who (more spoilers than the previous spoilers) was so put off from Firefly from minute one, but never for a second gave Gallagher a thought.

Honestly it’s no surprise Aventurine is the way he is cause of his homeworld and the IPC, especially as we had a previous quest in Penacony showing what they were willing to do to exploit WMD for themselves.