HoYoverse’s recent hit release,Honkai: Star Rail, has been the subject of much praise due to its engaging gameplay, captivating story and world, and amusing characters. Despite their different types of gameplay, some Hoyoverse fans seem to compareHonkai: Star Railwith its predecessor,Genshin Impact, due to both games sharing similar aspects in exploration, material farming, and exploration, as well as identical gacha mechanics and other similar concepts. However,Honkai: Star Railimplements many new features and quality-of-life improvements that should have been carried out inGenshin Impact, as it seems HoYoverse learned from the flaws in its previous title.
Honkai: Star RailoutdoesGenshin Impactin multiple aspects, so players might wonder whyGenshin Impactdoesn’t receive the quality-of-life updates it needs. If HoYoverse were to dedicate an update to improvingGenshin Impact’s QoL, there are many different features that could be improved, yet one particular featureGenshin Impactshould adopt fromHonkai: Star Railis the categorization of characters. WithGenshin Impact’s growing cast of playable characters, character categories will help newer players familiarize themselves with the already existing cast of characters and long-time players will be able to determine if they should pull on new characters depending on their role.
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Honkai: Star Rail’s Paths Make Character Archetypes Clear for Players
In the lore ofHonkai: Star Rail, Paths are powerful, imaginary energy that is tied to certain ideals. Aeons, the gods ofHonkai: Star Rail’s galaxy, are directly associated with a specific Path and utilize its energy for their own purposes. Although there are currently18 known Paths inHonkai: Star Rail, the current playable characters belong to only seven Paths: Destruction, The Hunt, Erudition, Harmony, Nihility, Preservation, and Abundance.
From a gameplay perspective, Paths are the specific classes that each character fulfills inHonkai: Star Rail, giving players clear distinctions on what each character specialization. Characters from the Destruction Path deal and endure lots of damage. Characters belonging to The Hunt deal incredible single-target damage to enemies like they’re hunting.
In contrast to The Hunt, characters from the Erudition Path deal great damage to groups of enemies. Harmony characters buff allies, while Nihility characters debuff enemies. Characters following the Preservation Path protect allies with defensive skills andAbundance characters heal allieswith their abilities.
Paths not only differentiate characters' roles in turn-based combat, but they’re also used to sort out which Light Cones belong to each class. UnlikeGenshin Impact’s five types of weapons—swords, bows, catalysts, claymores, and polearms—Honkai: Star Railonly has Light Cones, with each one belonging to one of the seven Paths. Characters can only use Light Cones of the same Path.
Genshin Impact Could Implement a Similar System to Categorize Characters
AsGenshin Impact’s roster of units grows with each update, it’s reasonable to assume that newer or more casual players will struggle with unit and team-building, given that there are so many characters to choose from. Having a categorization system in-game is beneficial, as players will be able to know the best archetype for each character. Yet, one concern that arises is that someGenshin Impactcharacters fulfill more than one role.
For instance, Bennett is both a healer and a buffer, Baizhu is a healer and shielder, and theRaiden Shogunis a buffer and sub-dps. Although,Genshin Impactdoesn’t need to followHonkai: Star Rail’s exact character categorization. Rather than having seven character classes,Genshin Impact’s roster could be split into fewer groups.
MostGenshin Impactcharacter guides already sort out characters into three groups: Main-Damage, Sub-Damage, and Support, but HoYoverse could expand upon those classes (and names) into something more suitable forGenshin Impact.Genshin Impact’s version of Paths doesn’t need to have lore-based ties as well, since Visions already tie characters to a specific element.Genshin Impact’s ensemble could be sorted by the time the new region, Fontaine, andnewGenshin Impactcharacters release.
Genshin Impactis now available on Mobile, PC, PS4, and PS5. A Switch version is in development.
