Honkai: Star Rail 3.0 review – It’s bat-and-sandal time

I’d like to highlight two of these aspects. Dialog in Chinese games is – for Western eyes – often a little too flowery and wordy, which is something HoYoverse is no stranger to. Penacony surely could have done with less convoluted wording here and there, so you’ll be happy to read that the dialog on Amphoreus is slimmed down a lot compared to the previous main arc. There is still a lot of lore and exposition to be enjoyed, but there clearly has been an effort to make the writing more digestible – it helps that the story itself involves less technobabble and philosophy so far. There is a lot more “show” than “tell” in 3.0 and you’ll be able to spot developments or details long before they are outright stated. All in all, the storytelling feels much smoother.

This is helped by the second point I’d like to note, which is the use of the ensemble cast. People really liked the fact that they could explore the story from different POVs in Penacony, but there was criticism about Trailblazer feeling somewhat left out. Amphoreus seeks to hit a balance between the two and manages to pull it off in 3.0. We stick with Trailblazer most of the time and make crucial contributions to what’s going on, but we get to play as two other characters as well with those sequences being used quite wisely to set the stage for vital future developments.

I’d like to stay with the characters for a bit, so this part will contain spoilers for HSR 3.0.

From the moment you meet all of the new characters – and I’d like to emphasize that this goes for friend and foe alike – you’ll get the feeling that there’s more than meets the eye. They are all complex, they all have a past, they all have their own motivations.

Take Phainon, the “Deliverer” and designated goody-two-shoes hero of Amphoreus. He has all the virtues of a hero, but you’ll notice a certain zeal in him very quickly. There is steel under that friendly and confident personality, which we learn is borne out of fear and a thirst for revenge – Phainon seems to be our Achilles, our Anakin Skywalker.

Mydei seems to be the typical arrogant meathead – not helped by his similarity to Gilgamesh in Fate – but turns out to be quite the honorable brother-in-arms that had to make some decisions in the past which still haunt him.

Castorice cares a lot about everyone, but her innate connection with Death prevents her from really getting close to anyone and has stunted her confidence. You just want to give her a hug, but that would mean crumbling to dust.

Tribbie consists of three distinct personalities and we can pick up on the fact that people always underestimate her due to her child-like stature. Yet she seems to be the oldest demigod around with Aglaea acknowledging her as her teacher.

Speaking of Aglaea: She’s playing the role of the Chrysos Heirs’ face – cold, pragmatic, even paranoid at times. There is a sequence in which Aglaea very credibly threatens to have Dan Heng and the Trailblazer executed. In reality, Aglaea is quite warmhearted. Why the acting? We’re actually getting some insight into that, thanks to her playable section: Aglaea and the Chrysos Heirs have basically been elected dictators of the city-state of Okhema during the ongoing crisis, but not everyone is happy with that – there is a real political struggle brewing, meaning that Aglaea simply can’t afford to be perceived as weak or lacking vigilance.

Then there’s The Herta, who was up there with Mydei and an NPC called Gnaeus in stealing the show for me personally. As an aside, someone at HoYoverse must love Gnaeus Pompey, since this is already the second badass NPC named after the guy following ZZZ’s Pompey (like in real life, Caesar is the best girl, though). The Herta comes in, breaks the fourth wall, goofs around with her speaking mirrors while casually trying to contact an Aeon, and then scares the absolute living crap out of an intruder, reminding us that the Genius Society is pretty much the most dangerous group in the entire comos. 

As I said, layers. It’s the same for the story itself. It starts out pretty straightforward. Trailblazer and Dan Heng land in the middle of the apocalypse (imagine showing up at Minas Tirith while Sauron is invading) and help the Chrysos Heirs push back the enemy, gradually learning about what they got themselves into: Amphoreus’ gods, the Titans, went mad and humanity’s only hope lies in taking their Coreflames to save the world. We are good, they are bad, easy to understand – in fact, HoYoverse is making a bit of a meta joke out of that simplicity, joking about its tendency to write convoluted dialog as well as the average gacha gamer’s illiteracy in one very obvious exposition scene. Well played.

Of course, this conception quickly crumbles as we explore the world and its conflict. Humans are not the only victims of whatever is happening in this world – if anything, the Titans appear double-screwed, having been driven mad by the mysterious Black Tide and being exploited, perhaps even tormented by humans. We hear Oronyx, the Titan of Time, wailing in pain as we use her powers, and we follow the story of Nikador, the Titan of Strife, whose soul was forcibly split by his human followers to create the ultimate weapon of war.

We start out fighting against Nikador believing our cause to be righteous and just, only to end with a boss battle that’s as much for as against them. Amphoreus is off to a magnificent start – and although it feels so new and fresh, there are surprising and engaging connections between the planet and the wider universe. It’s no secret that Trailblazer earns the gaze of Fuli, Aeon of The Remembrance, during 3.0 and this is connected to a highly emotional not-quite-flashback highlighting Trailblazer’s past. It’s no secret that March 7th is connected to this story and she’s getting into a pretty dangerous situation in this version – so dangerous, in fact, that our newest bromance duo of Welt and Sunday enlist The Herta’s help to unveil the secrets of Amphoreus in what is looking to be its own parallel storyline running alongside the events on the planet. Then there is the mysterious Mem and the Titans’ potential connections to the Aeons and I won’t even get started on that. Am I invested in everything? You bet.

Version 3.0 is ticking all the boxes for me in terms of story, somewhere between adventurous epic and tragedy – and it looks and sounds the part. It’s Greek, it’s Roman, it’s full of little easter eggs for history and mythology nerds, but it retains at its core a distinct Honkai twist. Heck, you can throw Dinotopia in there, because Okhema has friendly dinosaurs you can hitch a ride on. The devs even threw some neat water effects into the mix to enhance our experience in the city baths – the game has never looked better.

Amphoreus’ soundtrack is mostly as you’d expect it: There are a lot of flutes and strings to supply the antiquity vibes, with drums and horns reinforcing this ensemble for combat. Vocals play a big role in the music, too, with choirs adding to the atmosphere. But it wouldn’t be a HOYO-MiX OST without some curveballs, right? Some pieces bring similar vibes to Nevermore, the boss theme of SAM, with heavy electrical sounds coming in, creating this twisted soundscape fit to represent twisted, mad gods. The electrical elements feel like distorted versions of the wardrums and warhorns you’d expect from a sword-and-sandals blockbuster. Throw in some epic opera vocals and you’ve got some prime HOYO-MiX stuff right there.

I do need to mention the elephant in the room when it comes to presentation, which is the ongoing situation with the missing voicelines – the English dub misses quite a few characters this time, namely Himeko, Dan Heng, Trailblazer, and – spoiler alert – Firefly/SAM and Kafka. The latter two especially hit hard, because we haven’t seen them in some time and you can actually get quite the emotional interactions with them, which I’d have loved to hear voiced.

As for gameplay, Amphoreus has some fun exploration mechanics to offer – my favorite is the Hand of Zagreus, a giant floating hand that can grab objects on the map to clear paths or make bridges, as well as crush enemies. Amphoreus plays a lot with time and light. Okhema bathes in eternal light due to the protection of its Titan, but the rest of the world lies in darkness now – the power of Oronyx allows you to turn back the clock locally, however, restoring areas to how they looked in the brighter past. It’s somewhat comparable to Genshin Impact’s Enkanomiya with its two phases. These mechanics make exploring varied, as you can try out different things and combinations to open new paths, but the maps are definitely more straightforward than those on Penacony, which left some people unable to orient themselves. You can also crush enemies Indiana Jones-style with giant stone spheres in the overworld now, so that’s fun.

As we complete missions, we get to write the history of Amphoreus and its heroes with our own hand thanks to a feature called “As I’ve Written” – it’s not only a fantastic choice thematically, but allows us to explore more stories featuring the involved characters. I imagine it will be satisfying to literally fill this book with anecdotes over the course of the year (and take in rewards for doing so).

I did not have access to Aglaea in the preview build, but got to play around with The Herta and Trailblazer (Remembrance) aplenty. Madam Herta is a potent damage dealer, who somewhat mitigates the weakness of The Erudition characters against single targets by stacking a strong damage multiplier on them, helping her focus down bosses better than other members of the Path. I’d also like to shout out her voicelines during exploration – she keeps roasting any puzzle you encounter and gives you the most condescending reactions ever when opening a chest. PJ Mattson is a treasure and plays this role perfectly.

Trailblazer (Remembrance) appears to be a powerful hybrid between Support and Sub DPS. They can deal some solid damage from time to time with the help of Mem, their Memosprite, though their prime role is amplifying the offensive output by the team’s Main DPS. Whenever Mem takes action, they can use their ability on an ally, enabling them to deal True DMG with every instance of damage. This brand-new damage type ignores all buffs and debuffs on the allied character as well as the enemy target. Mem’s support is especially great on characters with a lot of Energy, as this increases the True DMG dealt. Trailblazer (Remembrance)’s full potential will reveal itself only when more Remembrance characters become available, though, as some abilities have improved effects on characters with their own Memosprites.

Though not immediately as meta-defining as Trailblazer (Harmony), this is yet another strong character that can be unlocked for free, including all of their Eidolons.

I feel my editor’s stare of death as I look at the length of this piece, so let’s quickly mention some of the quality-of-life goodies we’re getting, such as more Trailblaze Power (up to 300 from 240), some pretty smart updates to the equipment system to help people build their characters, and a long-awaited possibility of having more influence on our Relics’ sub-stats. Yes, please, and thank you.

Honkai: Star Rail 3.0 hits the mark on pretty much every level for me, confirming that this is a game that’ll continue to utterly captivate me throughout 2025.

This impressions piece is based on a beta build of Honkai: Star Rail 3.0 on PC provided by HoYoverse.