Mihoyo’s favourite story-heavy ARPG featuring tragic yuri, normal yuri, autism, plurality, and the end of the world. All without a generic player-self-insert protagonist!
Squish is busy recovering from a the shock of becoming only 99.9% of the fox he was (rounded down) a week ago so I have been hooked into writing something in the meantime. Surprisingly enough, I don’t play many games at all so instead of some AAA or AA or A or even a niche indie release, you’re getting a review of a gacha game I’ve been reading the past two-thirds of a year.
As some of you may know, Mihoyo had been an established games studio long before the runaway success of Genshin Impact which paved the way for the large budget high-fidelity gacha games of today. What is marginally less-well known is that the previous game in their line-up, and one that many aspects of Genshin Impact are direct parallels of and are references to, is Honkai Impact 3rd. Receiving its true global release back in March 2018, you’ve probably seen its icon on app store listings – a white-haired girl with a wink and a smirk pointing a finger gun at you. 7 years later, the game is going strong and is un-secretly where the extra money Mihoyo makes from Honkai Star Rail, Zenless Zone Zero, Genshin Impact, and its other more successful titles goes to keep it alive. Kiana is Mihoyo’s favourite child after all. In the office they have squabbles over whether Kiana or Mei is the more dominant one in their very overt relationship. So, if you’re wondering, it is not going to shut down any time soon.
But enough about the background.
I adore HI3. Its story is very much a visual novel in disguise which I love. Tragic yuri with flaming lesbians, a girl so autistic she refers to herself in the third person, two systems, the world at stake, people die on screen — it’s a transfem traumaqueer’s dream story. The official mangas even have actual kissing which, especially for a Chinese studio, is wild. I’m also all-but-certain that someone on the writing team either is or knows someone who is plural. Seele is depicted too precisely for them to not have a direct reference. Kiana, a close friend of mine who’s named so for entirely related reasons, encouraged us to start reading it since we had started playing Star Rail somewhat recently and what perfect timing it was too with its Amphoreus arc just getting started featuring totally-not-Kevin and totally-not-Kalpas. Also, because of her, we play with the Mandarin voices and I wouldn’t have it any other way after hearing how HANSER voices Bronya. God, she’s hot…
You follow the the lives of Kiana Kaslana, Raiden Mei, and Bronya Zaychik, three superhuman child soldiers… *ahem* I’m being told the correct term is “Valkyries”… who live at the combination orphanage, dormitories, school, and military training academy of St Freya who, with their peers and elders, work in relative secret to suppress the spread and destruction of the Honkai, a nebulous force that seems to act for nothing but the complete obliteration of mankind. The year is 2017 and, through the long-term efforts of Schicksal in Europe over the past several hundred years, public knowledge of the phenomenon is still subdued. But that is changing. Disasters are becoming more frequent. Infections are becoming more severe. Casualties are mounting.
There have been three Honkai eruptions to date. The first was Berlin. Noon, 1 January 1952, the Honkai manifested in a young boy in a form as yet unseen, granting him supreme rule over a singular aspect of reality — the first Herrscher. 300,000 people died that day before the threat was contained.
Then came the second. Midnight, 1 February 2000, in a Schicksal human-Honkai testing laboratory in the Siberian wilderness, the second Herrscher was born in the body of a test subject. Over the next 16 days, the world was brought to its knees. The Void was her domain, yet with the combined strength of Schicksal, Anti-Entropy, and knowledge and technology passed down from the Previous Era, she was defeated.
The third was caught before it could spiral out of control. In 2014, at the high school of Chiba Academy, a Honkai outbreak occurs and Bronya is dispatched to recover Raiden Mei. Yet, in her, awakens the third Herrscher. With electromagnetism as its domain, it is designated Thunder. Kiana saves Mei that day from both the herrscher ego that consumed her and, on that lonely rooftop surrounded by the dead and overwhelmed with her own guilt, herself. To the three girls, Schicksal extends an offer of salvation and so to St Freya they move.
With the knowledge of the Previous Era, it seems that history is doomed to repeat itself. There will be nine more Herrschers. Nine more chances to prepare. Then, ready or not, The End will descend and humanity’s fate is sealed. The clock is ticking.
The game has been out for nine years and so has enough story to keep you going for weeks straight, the stamina system won’t get in your way with the amount of refill items you acquire, and I am willing to bet that the outfits and camera angles are designed to target the lesbian gaze. I am not complaining, I am so fruity it hurts. I haven’t even finished reading Part 1, I’m only around 80% of the way through its chapters. I have two copies of the Second Eruption manga on pre-order when that releases later this year and at least one figurine also on pre-order too. I love the girls so much. I’m currently completely normal about Fu Hua. Completely. Normal. Do not look at my AO3 history.
I have yet to read another story with a main character so unbelievably pathetic that every time he opens his stupid little mouth I hate him more and more.
There was never really going to be any structure to this “review”, I just wanted to ramble on about it for a bit. But I cannot ramble too much because then we enter spoiler territory very quickly. So have some official artwork.
Please, more people read it, I need people to talk about it with. If nothing else, it will give you valuable context for Yae Miko, Raiden Ei, Asmoday, Silver Wolf, Acheron, Bronya Rand, Seele, all of Belobog, all of Amphoreus, and so on.
Should you do, my UID is 108806940 <3
And someone please give Theresa headpats and a break, she works so hard…
Oh, and with Star Rail nearing ever-closer to forcing Mr Yang to deal with his past in version 4, you’re going to want to see at least a portion of the hell he’s been through. “Just a white collar worker at an animation studio” my ass.
Official website: https://honkaiimpact3.hoyoverse.com (with custom launcher) Free to Play
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1671200 Free to Play
Epic: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/honkai-impact-3rd Free to Play
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/honkai-impact-3rd/id1336342304 Free to Play
Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.miHoYo.bh3global Free to Play
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/honkai-impact-3rd/id1336342304 Free to Play
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