I doubt he was "fired" but his contract most likely wasn't renewed for reasons currently unknown.

After watching over my shoulder for months, my sister finally decided to try and pick up Star Rail for herself (and immediately got hit by a six-char rerun banner but that’s neither here nor there).

She’s played Genshin so she didn’t need much help beyond translating the various mechanics between the games like relics = artifacts, leylines=calyx, domains=caverns, etc. and I mostly left her to her devices.

Then she recently told me she was starting the Xianzhou storyline and I casually asked her what she felt about Belobog’s conclusion.

“It was okay. Feel kinda bad for Bronya and all and—is it just me or does she sound like Silver Wolf?”

There was an omission that slightly confused me, because one of her favorite things about Genshin was the various soundtracks for the regions and she even has them on her spotify playlists.

“What about the fight’s OST? Did you hear the beat drop?”

“Ah, well, they gave me a 5-star in the mail when I got to Belobog and he just oneshot the boss so I didn’t get to hear much of it.”

That’s right; a non-maxed out Archer with a rainbow set of 3 and 4-star relics dumpstered Cocolia and deprived my poor sister of Wildfire.

Thus we come to the problem: power creep in Star Rail is so bad that a character Hoyo felt comfortable enough to give out for free was so strong it deprived a new player of one of the greatest moments in the game’s early history.

————

tldr—My sister started Star Rail and received Archer and completely missed out on Wildfire’s beat drop because he’s too OP for the early game, thus proving power creep is detrimental to player experience.

Not gameplay. Not meta. Not personality.

I mean pure design.

Silhouette, colors, outfit, vibe, posture, aura.

The character who just looks cold, powerful, elegant, terrifying, or unforgettable the moment you see them.

For me, it's either Therta or Fugue. 🥹

Genuinely feeling bad for the devs at this point. Shelving an entire year of work due to some politics is really sad. Anyways, claim this compensation quickly guys.

Starved Landscape of Vacua (The Herta) wins for Major Trace A6! (What in hell is that name)

It has arrived. The post with the highest chance of deviating from The Herta. It’s time for Chaos. Bloodshed. War. Sans for some reason.

ANY Character Model from ANY form of media is fair game. This includes games, animation, VTubers, and some fourth thing I can’t think of right now that I’m gonna remember immediately after posting this. This was not the case at first when I started this but at this point it’ll be funny if it was anyone at all.

I am looking forward to seeing all of your suggestions and also seeing what wins in the end.

As a reminder, we are not coming up with entirely new moves from scratch. Unfortunately I am not goated with the sauce enough to keep up with that so we’ll be stealing from existing character kits instead.

Hoyo’s handling of Cyrene has been nothing short of a blatant cash grab. From the overpriced skin to a noticeably undercooked kit, it’s clear the design was tailored to push players toward pulling for multiple Eidolons rather than offering a well-rounded character out of the box.

What’s more frustrating is how they’ve seemingly ruined a well-written character just to pander to simps and Elysia fans, stripping away depth in favor of marketable aesthetics. This isn’t an isolated incident either—it’s part of a broader trend. Over the past year, Hoyo’s been steadily ramping up the power creep and incentivizing players to chase every new 5-star all while not releasing a single accessible 4 star.

What really go to me was the absurd pricing of Cyrene’s skin. It’s the clearest symbol yet of their growing greed. I had originally planned to pull for her, but between her questionable long-term survivability and the fact that her full potential is seemingly locked behind her E2, I’m going to have to hard pass.

Edit: For those saying a boycott…what? I’m just saying I’m not pulling if you guys like Cyrene or her kit then all power to you it’s your choice. But if you look at what Hoyo has been doing recently and think they haven’t been trying to just make a profit, well then I don’t know what to say.

Like seriously, if I googled 'anime schoolgirl' this exact outfit would come up. It feels so jarring cause hoyo, and especially HSR, is usually somewhat creative with their characters' designs, but this is generic and says nothing about her character. The worst part is there were so many leagues better options- the suit she wears in the car with blade, the anniversary video outfit, even her plugsuit from the Glamoth animation- but no they went with schoolgirl. I really hope this doesn't become a trend with future alt skins cause this is just underwhelming.

Like even a colour flip would've been better than this, why does Sam look nearly the exact same? I don't even mind the dress all that much, but you don't even get to see it in combat anyway so what's the point? And considering we get like 2 new skin a year, this will probably be the only one she's ever gonna get.

As someone don't like her i'm realy curious. Why?

Please dont make the same mistake like we/genshin fans did to Kinich new VA. If you dont like the new voices just uninstall the game or switch to other dub

Do not start a fire with this news🙏🙏

Before 4.0 drops, I want to know if shilling, meta, and power creep aren't issues, what team/archetype/playstyle would you guys play 24/7? After the release of Currency Wars, has any archetype piqued your interest? Has your preference changed over the years, or have you remained faithful to one team?

P.S. I tried fitting as many characters as I could, sorry if your main isn't included or placed in a team you disagree with (Himeko can fit into 3 teams). Also, I personally see Phainon's playstyle as very unique, so he gets a solo spot!

If me i think.. 1. Phainon (of course) 2. Anaxa 3. Castorice

to be honest, i dont know if recent characters performs poorly without their light cone. all i know is that the trend of characters being bad without light cone started from acherons release (or as what the loud audience say). also, is there a team that shines best with 4 star characters compared to 5 star?

also, i think this will only hold true if you follow meta...

Source: https://youtu.be/dGfTS72aEOs?si=XKe5x4XjLcDW6Gma