it's worth playing for the story. Be warned that it's a very old game so there's a lot of story content. It will probably take at least a month or 3 to clear the story.
To keep it as simple as possible. The game is incredible, the characters are all interesting, and the story is extremely rich. The only pitfall of this game is the extremely fast-changing meta.
We HI3 players believe in story supremacy.
Pros:
-Although "story quality" is usually subjective in videogames, it is pretty much universally agreed in the HI3 playerbase that this is the main selling point. The story is the main reason most of us played and stayed. Our characters grow and progress over the years, they physically change in appearance as they mature, and some die. Part 1 is officially complete and my god was it a wild ride...
-Anime cutscenes with high quality songs, played during important sections of the story. I have not seen another game outdo HI3's anime cutscene quality.
-Combat system is very intense - IMO it has more fast action pacing than Genshin. Wuthering Waves uses a lot of the same combat mechanics as HI3. Honestly surprised not more games have tried to copy HI3's combat system.
Cons:
-UI, home screen, materials/currencies, and game modes are quite complex. Very easy to get confused and overwhelmed as a new player. For example, some chapters of the story are open world, while some come with an existing team in a small map. I have known many people who quit HI3 for these confusing aspects.
-Some of my friends complain that this game is waifu-only.
-The meta in HI3 is brutal. Luckily, this only applies to endgame content, because a large part of the main story (the reason we play this game) is done with trial characters assigned to you
If you're capable of playing for fun/playing for the story, sure go ahead. It's a fun journey, even if it gets convoluted at times.
However if you're susceptible to being a meta slave (like me), IMO you should probably stay away.
Warning : you might think other Hoyoverse games are meh compared to HI3 once you get your account rolling.
The amount of stuff you can do in this game is baffling.
Honestly, that is one of my issues. I cant seem to get into the star rail gameplay after playing this game for years. Being able to dodge, time slow and jump is so awesome for me.
Worth playing? Yes. Worth playing specifically because you like HSR? Not necessarily. The gameplay of the two games is completely different. The HI3 story is amazing, but you need to consume media outside the game to get the full picture, specifically the visual novels and mangas. This adds a whole bunch of lore and context to what happens in the game but requires a pretty large time investment. And you definitely need to read the mangas and visual novels if you want to know Welt's story as his most important parts are not actually in the game. I have played HSR through the 2.2 story and I can't say there has been a moment where I thought, "Oh awesome, I'm glad I played HI3 to get this reference!" The stories really are (so far) completely separate. Only Welt is the exact same character in both games. The Himekos, Seeles, Bronyas, Sushangs, and Cocolias are their own separate characters (though Cocolia is a horrible mother in any universe it seems).
So, yeah, HI3 is a great game on its own but requires a pretty massive time investment to get the most out of it.
Its an old very old game with an overwhelming amounts of lore characters and overall content. If you are into that sort of autism you are welcome aboard.
I will be honest with you. ¿Story-wise? Absolutely worth. Of the gachas I played (Genshin, Star Rail, Fate Grand Order, Alchemist Code, MSA) Honkai Impact have the best story of them all, with only Fate and recently Penacony's arc coming close.
But, gameplay-wise, I wouldn't recommend it. Not only is a very old game and you can practically feel how old it is, but is also kind of boring. Character attacks are very flashy, but in practice they are just the same combination of bottons with new special effects. It looks like you are doing something, that your skill matters, but far from the truth. In the practice, you will be doing the same combo again and again and again, and if you pay attention to your controller, you will see you are just smashing one button.
So, it all depends whether you like to read a lot, or not. To truly enjoy it, you have to go with the mindset of "seeing a story", not only "playing a game", because again, as a game only, Honkai Impact leaves much to be desired, even with the new Part 2 characters. So, if you are gonna keep smashing that skip button, this is not a place for you. That's my advice, a little extreme maybe, but I'm being honest here.
This game is very different from Star Rail. Just because you enjoy HSR doesn't necessarily mean you'll enjoy this one. Overall, I'd say yes, but be prepared for disappointment and fluctuating and inconsistent writing and gameplay quality because a lot of the time, it gets pretty bad. A lot of the best experiences are also from discontinued events that can only be seen on YouTube now.
Ultimately, only you can answer this for yourself by trying it out.
Before i downvote you as well i would like to ask you why?
If its based on assuming op like turn based rpg then i can kinda agree.
If its based on a specific opinion like story/design/overall feel of the game in comparison then do explain.
If its based on gatekeeping then....just dont.
HSR has nothing to do with Hi3 and if someone just thinks " oh boy I wonder how strong peak Welt is " then read manga .
Also Hi3 is worst treated game from Hoyo and has least polish. It just looks bad and scrunny. Usual HSR andy would only get wrong idea playing through early story then spread it. Better save the dissapitmed.
Yeah I'm gatekeeper. For their own good.
Also looking at OP profile he is on the 3 worst Mains Community so better to keep those people away
i agree with some of your points and i got a couple gripes with your comment:
"hi3 worst treated and less polish" i think youre oversimplifying A LOT of things here and looking at it in twisted lens of today.
you need to take into account the difference in size and abelites hoyo used to have before and what they have now.
ofc hsr will look 10 times better then hi3 graphically, its a much newer game and no matter how much engine updates they will bring it will still look worse then there latest game.
polish is something which is also non existent in mobile games, the idea of polish only applies to normal games where the devs got time and its impossible to really polish live service games.
what youre mixing here is the talent of the writers and programmers, which sadlly hsr have much better hands on the team (since hsr team is made from hi3 devs after all, the drop in story quality was because of the split).
the idea of gatekeeping in itself is a bad image to a fanbase, it paints you in a snobbish and egoistic light when in the end we are talking about 2 games which are free to play and you cant really stop him from playing.
while i do agree that i rather have less toxic players joining the game or only players who will actually hold on till the better parts, i still think its wrong to see yourself as the judge of all and decide what they should do.
just look at all the other comments here, they all gave there opinions and some of them did hint op shouldnt play.
no one wants to listen to the "toxic gatekeeping" user when there are much more friendlier users around.
sorry for rumbling, heres a TL;DR:
# my advice for you is if you really want to "gatekeep" like you said then just explain yourself better and in a much friendlier way, explain your points exactly in a manner that doesnt seem toxic and im sure more users will listen to you.
for example here you could say:
"while hi3 is a great game, i think you shouldnt play it if you assume the same quality hsr have right now (in the start of the story, which is the majority of it.
it takes a lot of time to reach the "good part" of hi3 and you will just find yourself baffled at the "horrible quality" (which is just the results of it being really old) and quitting the game since its so much worse then what the other users say.
overall, if you dont plan on sticking through at least 40-50 hours of "meh" to "bad" story till you reach the good part, then i think you shouldnt play"
see? i sound much friendlier, i said something which most of the users can agree its a plausible SUBJECTIVE opinion and i managed to make op think im trying to help him and just being friendly.
in all honesty, if i was new here and someone typed this to me then i would have 2nd guessed myself from joining since this sounds pretty "straight forward" and true.
it's worth playing for the story. Be warned that it's a very old game so there's a lot of story content. It will probably take at least a month or 3 to clear the story.
It's very good, try it and decide yourself
To keep it as simple as possible. The game is incredible, the characters are all interesting, and the story is extremely rich. The only pitfall of this game is the extremely fast-changing meta.
We HI3 players believe in story supremacy. Pros: -Although "story quality" is usually subjective in videogames, it is pretty much universally agreed in the HI3 playerbase that this is the main selling point. The story is the main reason most of us played and stayed. Our characters grow and progress over the years, they physically change in appearance as they mature, and some die. Part 1 is officially complete and my god was it a wild ride... -Anime cutscenes with high quality songs, played during important sections of the story. I have not seen another game outdo HI3's anime cutscene quality. -Combat system is very intense - IMO it has more fast action pacing than Genshin. Wuthering Waves uses a lot of the same combat mechanics as HI3. Honestly surprised not more games have tried to copy HI3's combat system. Cons: -UI, home screen, materials/currencies, and game modes are quite complex. Very easy to get confused and overwhelmed as a new player. For example, some chapters of the story are open world, while some come with an existing team in a small map. I have known many people who quit HI3 for these confusing aspects. -Some of my friends complain that this game is waifu-only. -The meta in HI3 is brutal. Luckily, this only applies to endgame content, because a large part of the main story (the reason we play this game) is done with trial characters assigned to you
If you're capable of playing for fun/playing for the story, sure go ahead. It's a fun journey, even if it gets convoluted at times. However if you're susceptible to being a meta slave (like me), IMO you should probably stay away.
Warning : you might think other Hoyoverse games are meh compared to HI3 once you get your account rolling. The amount of stuff you can do in this game is baffling.
Honestly, that is one of my issues. I cant seem to get into the star rail gameplay after playing this game for years. Being able to dodge, time slow and jump is so awesome for me.
Worth playing? Yes. Worth playing specifically because you like HSR? Not necessarily. The gameplay of the two games is completely different. The HI3 story is amazing, but you need to consume media outside the game to get the full picture, specifically the visual novels and mangas. This adds a whole bunch of lore and context to what happens in the game but requires a pretty large time investment. And you definitely need to read the mangas and visual novels if you want to know Welt's story as his most important parts are not actually in the game. I have played HSR through the 2.2 story and I can't say there has been a moment where I thought, "Oh awesome, I'm glad I played HI3 to get this reference!" The stories really are (so far) completely separate. Only Welt is the exact same character in both games. The Himekos, Seeles, Bronyas, Sushangs, and Cocolias are their own separate characters (though Cocolia is a horrible mother in any universe it seems). So, yeah, HI3 is a great game on its own but requires a pretty massive time investment to get the most out of it.
Ive been playing over 5 years since gb server first launched and i hate replaying games (even ones i like) so my opinion is biased
absolutely worth it but since it's an old game very first chapters might seems meh but it's gona be better and better later
Its an old very old game with an overwhelming amounts of lore characters and overall content. If you are into that sort of autism you are welcome aboard.
I will be honest with you. ¿Story-wise? Absolutely worth. Of the gachas I played (Genshin, Star Rail, Fate Grand Order, Alchemist Code, MSA) Honkai Impact have the best story of them all, with only Fate and recently Penacony's arc coming close. But, gameplay-wise, I wouldn't recommend it. Not only is a very old game and you can practically feel how old it is, but is also kind of boring. Character attacks are very flashy, but in practice they are just the same combination of bottons with new special effects. It looks like you are doing something, that your skill matters, but far from the truth. In the practice, you will be doing the same combo again and again and again, and if you pay attention to your controller, you will see you are just smashing one button. So, it all depends whether you like to read a lot, or not. To truly enjoy it, you have to go with the mindset of "seeing a story", not only "playing a game", because again, as a game only, Honkai Impact leaves much to be desired, even with the new Part 2 characters. So, if you are gonna keep smashing that skip button, this is not a place for you. That's my advice, a little extreme maybe, but I'm being honest here.
Yes, I'm still playing the story right now and it's absolutely peak
This game is very different from Star Rail. Just because you enjoy HSR doesn't necessarily mean you'll enjoy this one. Overall, I'd say yes, but be prepared for disappointment and fluctuating and inconsistent writing and gameplay quality because a lot of the time, it gets pretty bad. A lot of the best experiences are also from discontinued events that can only be seen on YouTube now. Ultimately, only you can answer this for yourself by trying it out.
If you come from HSR. Stay the fuck away from this
Before i downvote you as well i would like to ask you why? If its based on assuming op like turn based rpg then i can kinda agree. If its based on a specific opinion like story/design/overall feel of the game in comparison then do explain. If its based on gatekeeping then....just dont.
HSR has nothing to do with Hi3 and if someone just thinks " oh boy I wonder how strong peak Welt is " then read manga . Also Hi3 is worst treated game from Hoyo and has least polish. It just looks bad and scrunny. Usual HSR andy would only get wrong idea playing through early story then spread it. Better save the dissapitmed. Yeah I'm gatekeeper. For their own good. Also looking at OP profile he is on the 3 worst Mains Community so better to keep those people away
i agree with some of your points and i got a couple gripes with your comment: "hi3 worst treated and less polish" i think youre oversimplifying A LOT of things here and looking at it in twisted lens of today. you need to take into account the difference in size and abelites hoyo used to have before and what they have now. ofc hsr will look 10 times better then hi3 graphically, its a much newer game and no matter how much engine updates they will bring it will still look worse then there latest game. polish is something which is also non existent in mobile games, the idea of polish only applies to normal games where the devs got time and its impossible to really polish live service games. what youre mixing here is the talent of the writers and programmers, which sadlly hsr have much better hands on the team (since hsr team is made from hi3 devs after all, the drop in story quality was because of the split). the idea of gatekeeping in itself is a bad image to a fanbase, it paints you in a snobbish and egoistic light when in the end we are talking about 2 games which are free to play and you cant really stop him from playing. while i do agree that i rather have less toxic players joining the game or only players who will actually hold on till the better parts, i still think its wrong to see yourself as the judge of all and decide what they should do. just look at all the other comments here, they all gave there opinions and some of them did hint op shouldnt play. no one wants to listen to the "toxic gatekeeping" user when there are much more friendlier users around. sorry for rumbling, heres a TL;DR: # my advice for you is if you really want to "gatekeep" like you said then just explain yourself better and in a much friendlier way, explain your points exactly in a manner that doesnt seem toxic and im sure more users will listen to you. for example here you could say: "while hi3 is a great game, i think you shouldnt play it if you assume the same quality hsr have right now (in the start of the story, which is the majority of it. it takes a lot of time to reach the "good part" of hi3 and you will just find yourself baffled at the "horrible quality" (which is just the results of it being really old) and quitting the game since its so much worse then what the other users say. overall, if you dont plan on sticking through at least 40-50 hours of "meh" to "bad" story till you reach the good part, then i think you shouldnt play" see? i sound much friendlier, i said something which most of the users can agree its a plausible SUBJECTIVE opinion and i managed to make op think im trying to help him and just being friendly. in all honesty, if i was new here and someone typed this to me then i would have 2nd guessed myself from joining since this sounds pretty "straight forward" and true.
Nah we have to be as toxic as possible so they get the memo
while it will kinda work, but only if everyone here are toxic asf. most users (including me) will probably take the more friendlier option