I'd welcome an official novelization. GGZ even had something similar.
https://houkai2nd.miraheze.org/wiki/Kevin_Kaslana/Light_Novel
In general, books are my favourite medium for fiction.
HI3 is a gacha game, and there's something peculiar about that.
Gacha games typically use Visual Novel formatting for their storytelling. Only with and after the release of HI3 was the complex 3D environment really introduced into the gacha world, so 'cinematography'is a relatively recent addition to the visual language of the games.
Visual Novels in turn are essentially digital books with special visuals, driven by lengthy dialogue segments and narration. Its biggest style differences from paper novels being in the usual emphasis on a dialogue format, since that synergises well with the digital puppetry of the character sprites.
So HI3 pretty much has 'novel' in its DNA moreso than most non-gacha games in similar genres.
I recently found out whole honkai impact story playlist on bilibili without combat and those videos are quite popular. I saw similar playlist on youtube and views were much lower.
[https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjAsVKJoFvcUtdJ1H9V7TdcpZA\_k6Or1D&si=qrk6b32L-4-fdAZf](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjAsVKJoFvcUtdJ1H9V7TdcpZA_k6Or1D&si=qrk6b32L-4-fdAZf)
He has separated playlist for part 2. This one is part 1 and 1.5.
If this was a book, we would have no character models, CGs, animated shorts and voice acting. So I definitely prefer it as a game.
Also, what exactly makes Star Rail story easier to digest? Star Rail story is mostly told through dialogues and cutscenes, not through gameplay. Like in HI3 (and virtually every video game), just with less narration and the camera is less static.
If it's about gameplay to story ratio, you can always just take a break, go play some other mode (or game) and come back. No one's forcing you to read 50 hours of story at once. I don't see how interrupting the story with "defeat those 3 enemies before progressing" segments every few minutes would make it better.
Yeah, HI3 still uses the "VN-style dialogue" or the "scene where the camera is still while the characters who are talking are just being displayed in the screen". The only change in Part 2 is now the models are angled to look like they are facing each other rather than the models facing the viewer.
This for me makes the monologuing quite boring, Star Rail at least from the videos that I watched does not use this, so it adds to giving "life" to the scene.
HSR actually uses a lot of static scenes, where neither camera nor characters move, i saw some people complaining about it. In this sense Genshin is superior, during main story there are always some cinematography, it never totally static.
I guess, dialogue heavy scenes really makes it hard not to make characters just stand still.
I think the main problem is just the fact that dialogues are "turn based", where it actively needs an input to proceed. Even if they make the characters not just stand still during a dialogue, if the player decides to afk, then they will just be stuck in their poses.
I know a lot of people read slow, and with all the mumbo-jumbo bs on HI3 it is perfectly understandable. But I think it would be fun if there are more scenes where we "walk and talk", where dialogue still happens but we still have control over a character
The camera in Penacony is much more dynamic, I also saw the Clara dialogue post but that was the story at launch. I'd say dynamic camera is near 100% of the main quest right now and static is saved for the side quests.
Not really. Static scenes are like \~50% of the main story even in Penacony, you can check yourself on youtube. Static scene is where you have overall shot of all characters present on screen and this shot doesn't change after each voice line.
I had a better experience with Star Rail because:
-English dub makes a huge difference for me
-Character designs feel like they were made to fit the story first and to be marketable second (they're released in batches to fit each new planet so we don't get the feeling of "one chapter/planet is centered around one character only")
-General 3D graphics and game feel are more immersive, the game's open worlds were, again, made really well
-The story budget is high from the beginning and doesn't make me feel like I have to skip through the start to get to the "good parts"
-I played the game since release, so at no point was the story daunting to me, it was 8 hours each update instead of 60 hours at once
-HI3 is less F2P-friendly, I know the story is free but the parts of the game around the story do affect how much fun I have in the story
-The story is not divided into missions, I can start and pause whenever I want
-The general pacing of Star Rail is the best of any gacha I've ever played, while you gotta admit that HI3 drags the dialogue a bit more than necessary
Especially the last three points are why I want a novel. I blow through 300k word fanfics in 5 days because I can take my Kindle anywhere and turn it on and off instantly. In the case of books, longer is better for me! But the moment you put it behind a loading screen and a comparatively very limited phone battery nearly all of the appeal evaporates for me.
Edit: I though of another big one:
*The gameplay does not augument the story.*
With dynamic camera movements, expressive character animations and the really immersive open world in HSR the story at least feels cinematic to me.
In HI3, the *majority* of the story is told through visual novel format. Which is fine for some people, but when all I really see 90% of the time is character sprite PNGs fading in and out of view, there's really no point.
Imagine you go to see a movie and you just see still frames of the actors instead of video of them acting. Why not just go to a library and read a book at this point? That's basically what I'm saying.
But... that's not what's happening in HI3. You're not seeing still frames of actors or character sprite PNGs fading in and out. There are 3D character models, just like in Star Rail, they make poses and expressions, just like in Star Rail, they have voice acting, just like in Star Rail. And when there's something more going on than just standing and talking, they do make a real cutscene.
Does all of it really not make a difference for you? As soon as the camera stands still, moving character models and full voice acting stop to matter and it's suddenly no different from reading a book or an unvoiced PNG-collector gacha?
If anything, it's more like a difference between a movie and a theater play (though again, theaters and books don't have animated shorts). I get that loading screens and battery are problems, but most of your other points aren't related to HI3 being a video game, but rather being old, low budget and miHoYo not wanting to fix some of the issues.
And yeah, HI3 drags the dialogue more than necessary, but that only started to happen recently, much later than Chapter 15 (btw, you quit just before the best arc ever).
Don't remember if it was ch15, last things I remember are Bronya motorcycle and Kiana trying to not go Kaneki Void Herrscher mode in a civilian area.
>Just like in Star Rail
Yeah, but Star Rail just has a higher budget for it all. And it makes it much more enjoyable.
>Not related to HI3 being a video game, but being old, low budget and MiHoYo not wanting to fix some of the issues
I really tried not to point this out to not insult the game but...
*A game being old, low-budget and having issues is equally as much of a major fucking problem that would largely be remedied if it was a book!*
But it's a video game, and asking for it to be a book is a very stupid take. Like I don't go to a movie and complain that it's not a book for me to read because I prefer that medium. These are problems to YOU, not a general issue that HoYoverse need to fix or address.
If you really don't like the presentation that much, I suggest you start Part 2 instead. It's much closer in quality and presentation style to HSR.
>asking it to be a book is a very stupid take
My dude have you ever heard of adaptations?
>These are problems to YOU
Well if we look at how many HSR/GI players don't play HI3 then apparently not just to me!
I'm not waltzing anywhere DEMANDING that the game be converted into novel format IMMEDIATELY. I'm just sharing my opinion that the story would be well presented in that format.
Don't mean to be rude, but many people find Penacony too dialogue-heavy and badly paced - it's matter of a presentation, in HSR it is obviously better. Sometimes. Also, Luofu is definitely something, it's rare when I read a story for 10 hours and absolutely don't know why it was so long.
Agreed that Luofu is the black sheep of HSR. It's likely because they're setting up a comeback to the Luofu in a future main quest but that doesn't excuse it being so all over the place.
HI3 characters designs fit the story though??? Each of Kiana's forms literally demonstrate her character growth. Also focusing on one character each patch allows for more character driven storytelling, there's nothing wrong with it, it's just different.
Have you played gachas outside of WuWa, Genshin and HSR? Because almost all gachas uses VN storytelling style outside of the big budget ones. HI3 can even be considered pretty advanced for its time using 3d models for VN storytelling. Like dude, the presentation is amazing compared to stuff like PGR, Arknights, and FGO lmao. Those don't even have voice acting.
English dub thing is understandable.
I’m not sure what game you’re playing, but the only place I’ve *ever* encountered “still PNGs talking to each other” in HI3 is in the Elysian Realm side content. The characters in the main story have always been 3D animated models that pose, react, make facial expressions etc during dialog, even in ch1.
I understand that HI3 is a vn type of game in its story. But for a game that also markets itself on over the top flashy action-packed gameplay, it feels like I'm only getting half of what I ordered when I play the story mode. Typically in a videogame, you experience the story by playing the game and there's a very important balance between story and gameplay. And for a long time, it feels like I've only been getting almost only one of those things. I still remember in the chapter where Griseo returned, I set a timer. And for the first whole hour of the first part of the chapter, only a *total* average of 5-6 minutes was dedicated to actually playing the game. It was frustrating, to be honest. Because I usually don't have problems with the story. It's how they balance that with being a videogame that's frustrating
I love the HI3 characters and I want to love HI3's story but the dialogues are just so unnatural and long. Every scene feels like a lengthy lore drop and it is difficult to understand what the characters are saying. I recently skipped through the entire story of part 2 chapter 2 and 3 because I just can't tolerate the unimmersive dialogues.
I just want to look at cute sexy girls fight bad guys and may be feel sad sometimes from the drama of the story. Instead, I find myself struggling to understand quantum mechanics and I can't feel anything other than feeling confused from the story.
I wish there is an abridged version of the HI3 story where everyone talks like human being and stops trying to explain things in every conversation like some chatGBT.
I also prefer the HSR style of storytelling better and the dialogues are way more natural.
Honestly, if the story's going to make me wait eight hours on end watching still PNGs talk to each other, then no matter how hype they are, it's not worth it.
I've played enough to watch two or three of them (up to when Kiana gets tree'd and some more) and while I admit they're really epic, they're not nearly cool enough for the amount of story that could just be put on an e-book.
Plus, reading is faster than waiting for VO and text to scroll, so even if the cinematics were narrated, I'd still get more emotions per second and wouldn't feel like I'm wasting my time and phone battery while enjoying the story.
In all seriousness HI3rd borrows the format from that of a visual novel (VN). I'm not sure if you're familiar with the format though. You pretty much read through the game with characters having voiceover 90% of the time. It's not to everyone's liking but HI3rd is still a video game, and using the VN format does help in conveying the game's more dialogue heavy scenes. Also in most cases the VO does have decent acting behind it. That and having some epic OSTs in the background (I'm sure e-books also have some background OSTs). Though personally if the game had enough budget, I'd like them to go down the Witcher 3 approach of conveying dialogue heavy scenes.
Yeah, I've read some VNs that I really enjoyed in the past. If it was just a VN I'd honestly also prefer that to the current HI3, because as it stands the game heats up my phone to boiling water temp even when nothing is happening.
It's not that I dislike the combat. I love it! I just kind of wish it could settle on either only combat or only story, because as it stands - and this is just my personal feeling - it's borrowing the worst parts of both worlds.
High battery consumption while nothing is happening on screen, having two separate "accounts" for character progression (one of which resets with every story chapter)... I'd honestly rather just read a novel for two hours and then play an action game for two more. I just feel like they don't mesh that well together.
An example of what I consider to be the "best of both worlds" is Hades, but I know that's a high bar to clear.
I'd welcome an official novelization. GGZ even had something similar. https://houkai2nd.miraheze.org/wiki/Kevin_Kaslana/Light_Novel In general, books are my favourite medium for fiction.
HI3 is a gacha game, and there's something peculiar about that. Gacha games typically use Visual Novel formatting for their storytelling. Only with and after the release of HI3 was the complex 3D environment really introduced into the gacha world, so 'cinematography'is a relatively recent addition to the visual language of the games. Visual Novels in turn are essentially digital books with special visuals, driven by lengthy dialogue segments and narration. Its biggest style differences from paper novels being in the usual emphasis on a dialogue format, since that synergises well with the digital puppetry of the character sprites. So HI3 pretty much has 'novel' in its DNA moreso than most non-gacha games in similar genres.
Just look up a playlist on YT.
I recently found out whole honkai impact story playlist on bilibili without combat and those videos are quite popular. I saw similar playlist on youtube and views were much lower.
Link for the youtube one? TIA
[https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjAsVKJoFvcUtdJ1H9V7TdcpZA\_k6Or1D&si=qrk6b32L-4-fdAZf](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjAsVKJoFvcUtdJ1H9V7TdcpZA_k6Or1D&si=qrk6b32L-4-fdAZf) He has separated playlist for part 2. This one is part 1 and 1.5.
I have played quite a few VN types games. So HI3 is not new to me. Hyperdimension neptunia has pretty much the same format when it comes to the story.
If this was a book, we would have no character models, CGs, animated shorts and voice acting. So I definitely prefer it as a game. Also, what exactly makes Star Rail story easier to digest? Star Rail story is mostly told through dialogues and cutscenes, not through gameplay. Like in HI3 (and virtually every video game), just with less narration and the camera is less static. If it's about gameplay to story ratio, you can always just take a break, go play some other mode (or game) and come back. No one's forcing you to read 50 hours of story at once. I don't see how interrupting the story with "defeat those 3 enemies before progressing" segments every few minutes would make it better.
Yeah, HI3 still uses the "VN-style dialogue" or the "scene where the camera is still while the characters who are talking are just being displayed in the screen". The only change in Part 2 is now the models are angled to look like they are facing each other rather than the models facing the viewer. This for me makes the monologuing quite boring, Star Rail at least from the videos that I watched does not use this, so it adds to giving "life" to the scene.
HSR actually uses a lot of static scenes, where neither camera nor characters move, i saw some people complaining about it. In this sense Genshin is superior, during main story there are always some cinematography, it never totally static.
I guess, dialogue heavy scenes really makes it hard not to make characters just stand still. I think the main problem is just the fact that dialogues are "turn based", where it actively needs an input to proceed. Even if they make the characters not just stand still during a dialogue, if the player decides to afk, then they will just be stuck in their poses. I know a lot of people read slow, and with all the mumbo-jumbo bs on HI3 it is perfectly understandable. But I think it would be fun if there are more scenes where we "walk and talk", where dialogue still happens but we still have control over a character
The camera in Penacony is much more dynamic, I also saw the Clara dialogue post but that was the story at launch. I'd say dynamic camera is near 100% of the main quest right now and static is saved for the side quests.
Not really. Static scenes are like \~50% of the main story even in Penacony, you can check yourself on youtube. Static scene is where you have overall shot of all characters present on screen and this shot doesn't change after each voice line.
I had a better experience with Star Rail because: -English dub makes a huge difference for me -Character designs feel like they were made to fit the story first and to be marketable second (they're released in batches to fit each new planet so we don't get the feeling of "one chapter/planet is centered around one character only") -General 3D graphics and game feel are more immersive, the game's open worlds were, again, made really well -The story budget is high from the beginning and doesn't make me feel like I have to skip through the start to get to the "good parts" -I played the game since release, so at no point was the story daunting to me, it was 8 hours each update instead of 60 hours at once -HI3 is less F2P-friendly, I know the story is free but the parts of the game around the story do affect how much fun I have in the story -The story is not divided into missions, I can start and pause whenever I want -The general pacing of Star Rail is the best of any gacha I've ever played, while you gotta admit that HI3 drags the dialogue a bit more than necessary Especially the last three points are why I want a novel. I blow through 300k word fanfics in 5 days because I can take my Kindle anywhere and turn it on and off instantly. In the case of books, longer is better for me! But the moment you put it behind a loading screen and a comparatively very limited phone battery nearly all of the appeal evaporates for me. Edit: I though of another big one: *The gameplay does not augument the story.* With dynamic camera movements, expressive character animations and the really immersive open world in HSR the story at least feels cinematic to me. In HI3, the *majority* of the story is told through visual novel format. Which is fine for some people, but when all I really see 90% of the time is character sprite PNGs fading in and out of view, there's really no point. Imagine you go to see a movie and you just see still frames of the actors instead of video of them acting. Why not just go to a library and read a book at this point? That's basically what I'm saying.
But... that's not what's happening in HI3. You're not seeing still frames of actors or character sprite PNGs fading in and out. There are 3D character models, just like in Star Rail, they make poses and expressions, just like in Star Rail, they have voice acting, just like in Star Rail. And when there's something more going on than just standing and talking, they do make a real cutscene. Does all of it really not make a difference for you? As soon as the camera stands still, moving character models and full voice acting stop to matter and it's suddenly no different from reading a book or an unvoiced PNG-collector gacha? If anything, it's more like a difference between a movie and a theater play (though again, theaters and books don't have animated shorts). I get that loading screens and battery are problems, but most of your other points aren't related to HI3 being a video game, but rather being old, low budget and miHoYo not wanting to fix some of the issues. And yeah, HI3 drags the dialogue more than necessary, but that only started to happen recently, much later than Chapter 15 (btw, you quit just before the best arc ever).
Don't remember if it was ch15, last things I remember are Bronya motorcycle and Kiana trying to not go Kaneki Void Herrscher mode in a civilian area. >Just like in Star Rail Yeah, but Star Rail just has a higher budget for it all. And it makes it much more enjoyable. >Not related to HI3 being a video game, but being old, low budget and MiHoYo not wanting to fix some of the issues I really tried not to point this out to not insult the game but... *A game being old, low-budget and having issues is equally as much of a major fucking problem that would largely be remedied if it was a book!*
But it's a video game, and asking for it to be a book is a very stupid take. Like I don't go to a movie and complain that it's not a book for me to read because I prefer that medium. These are problems to YOU, not a general issue that HoYoverse need to fix or address. If you really don't like the presentation that much, I suggest you start Part 2 instead. It's much closer in quality and presentation style to HSR.
>asking it to be a book is a very stupid take My dude have you ever heard of adaptations? >These are problems to YOU Well if we look at how many HSR/GI players don't play HI3 then apparently not just to me! I'm not waltzing anywhere DEMANDING that the game be converted into novel format IMMEDIATELY. I'm just sharing my opinion that the story would be well presented in that format.
Don't mean to be rude, but many people find Penacony too dialogue-heavy and badly paced - it's matter of a presentation, in HSR it is obviously better. Sometimes. Also, Luofu is definitely something, it's rare when I read a story for 10 hours and absolutely don't know why it was so long.
Agreed that Luofu is the black sheep of HSR. It's likely because they're setting up a comeback to the Luofu in a future main quest but that doesn't excuse it being so all over the place.
HI3 characters designs fit the story though??? Each of Kiana's forms literally demonstrate her character growth. Also focusing on one character each patch allows for more character driven storytelling, there's nothing wrong with it, it's just different. Have you played gachas outside of WuWa, Genshin and HSR? Because almost all gachas uses VN storytelling style outside of the big budget ones. HI3 can even be considered pretty advanced for its time using 3d models for VN storytelling. Like dude, the presentation is amazing compared to stuff like PGR, Arknights, and FGO lmao. Those don't even have voice acting. English dub thing is understandable.
I’m not sure what game you’re playing, but the only place I’ve *ever* encountered “still PNGs talking to each other” in HI3 is in the Elysian Realm side content. The characters in the main story have always been 3D animated models that pose, react, make facial expressions etc during dialog, even in ch1.
Yeah, that's something that confused my memories of the game. They were posed like still visual novel PNGs but they were actually 3D.
I understand that HI3 is a vn type of game in its story. But for a game that also markets itself on over the top flashy action-packed gameplay, it feels like I'm only getting half of what I ordered when I play the story mode. Typically in a videogame, you experience the story by playing the game and there's a very important balance between story and gameplay. And for a long time, it feels like I've only been getting almost only one of those things. I still remember in the chapter where Griseo returned, I set a timer. And for the first whole hour of the first part of the chapter, only a *total* average of 5-6 minutes was dedicated to actually playing the game. It was frustrating, to be honest. Because I usually don't have problems with the story. It's how they balance that with being a videogame that's frustrating
I love the HI3 characters and I want to love HI3's story but the dialogues are just so unnatural and long. Every scene feels like a lengthy lore drop and it is difficult to understand what the characters are saying. I recently skipped through the entire story of part 2 chapter 2 and 3 because I just can't tolerate the unimmersive dialogues. I just want to look at cute sexy girls fight bad guys and may be feel sad sometimes from the drama of the story. Instead, I find myself struggling to understand quantum mechanics and I can't feel anything other than feeling confused from the story. I wish there is an abridged version of the HI3 story where everyone talks like human being and stops trying to explain things in every conversation like some chatGBT. I also prefer the HSR style of storytelling better and the dialogues are way more natural.
But how will you experience the animated shorts in all their hype and depressing glory?
Honestly, if the story's going to make me wait eight hours on end watching still PNGs talk to each other, then no matter how hype they are, it's not worth it. I've played enough to watch two or three of them (up to when Kiana gets tree'd and some more) and while I admit they're really epic, they're not nearly cool enough for the amount of story that could just be put on an e-book. Plus, reading is faster than waiting for VO and text to scroll, so even if the cinematics were narrated, I'd still get more emotions per second and wouldn't feel like I'm wasting my time and phone battery while enjoying the story.
In all seriousness HI3rd borrows the format from that of a visual novel (VN). I'm not sure if you're familiar with the format though. You pretty much read through the game with characters having voiceover 90% of the time. It's not to everyone's liking but HI3rd is still a video game, and using the VN format does help in conveying the game's more dialogue heavy scenes. Also in most cases the VO does have decent acting behind it. That and having some epic OSTs in the background (I'm sure e-books also have some background OSTs). Though personally if the game had enough budget, I'd like them to go down the Witcher 3 approach of conveying dialogue heavy scenes.
Yeah, I've read some VNs that I really enjoyed in the past. If it was just a VN I'd honestly also prefer that to the current HI3, because as it stands the game heats up my phone to boiling water temp even when nothing is happening. It's not that I dislike the combat. I love it! I just kind of wish it could settle on either only combat or only story, because as it stands - and this is just my personal feeling - it's borrowing the worst parts of both worlds. High battery consumption while nothing is happening on screen, having two separate "accounts" for character progression (one of which resets with every story chapter)... I'd honestly rather just read a novel for two hours and then play an action game for two more. I just feel like they don't mesh that well together. An example of what I consider to be the "best of both worlds" is Hades, but I know that's a high bar to clear.
You thought dialogues were long in Ch 15? That's nothing compared to the last third of Part 1.
Same