Alright, I'm done with the current main story that's in Star Rail and did the majority of side stuff (still a few quests to do and probably a bunch of secrets/hidden quests that I haven't encountered yet).
I had a fantastic time with it so far and am definitely inclined to stick around for the long-term if they keep this quality up. There's a easily a solid 50+ hours of quality JRPG stuff in there and it will only get bigger from now on.
If I had to put a number on it right now I'd probably give it a solid 8/10 that has a good chance of growing into a 9/10 by the end of the year.
The 2 main "issues" I have that stop it from being a 9/10 now is that 1) the story is literally unfinished and it ends at a very unsatisfying spot which stops it from being a "you can just play all that is there right now and walk away fully satisfed " recommendation and 2) the long-term appeal of the combat still has to be proven so it's also hard to say "even if you run out of story, the gameplay will carry it while waiting".
I'm confident that 1) will stop being an issue soon with the next couple updates but 2) I don't really know about yet. I think in the long-term it's just gonna be "fine". Fun enough, but not a main selling point but also not actively getting in the way of enjoying the story and world.
The main appeal I'd say is definitely the story and world-building. The universe Hoyoverse has created seems massive and fascinating and there's already tons of interesting lore in the game.
The main story itself is good. Right now it has a prologue, one finished story chapter and one unfinished story chapter.
The prologue is fairly perfunctional. It throws you into the world and sets you up for the journey, but there's nothing crazy going on.
The first story chapter is a good classic JRPG romp that is very well executed and coupled with the high production values and stellar music has some really hype moments.
The second story chapter is where things are getting a lot more complex and interesting. Many different factions and motives collide, there is a very interesting take on the concept of "immortality" at play and the overall world-building and lore gets increasingly richer and unique. However it's literally unfinished. Since this is a live-service game this is obviously by design and conceptually I'm totally fine with that, but still, there are ways to end with a "to be continued" that are satisfying. The current ending here is not satisfying.
Outside of the main story the game is chock-full with side quests, mini-puzzles, secrets and interesting things to encounter everywhere, that give the areas you travel through and characters you meet a lot of color. In general the writing and localization are very high quality across the board and there is a lot of it.
Production values are very good. It's a pretty game with pretty animations, great music and stellar voice acting. Though weirdly enough I don't think it's as good looking as Genshin overall despite this not being an open-world and the current areas could have been a bit more diverse. Still, overall it looks good and I'm hoping we'll get progressively cooler stuff over time.
Combat is solid. It's snappy, fast and fun but also most of the depth is in the team-building phase. They shake things up by giving enemies interesting abilities that you need to properly react to and there's a rogue-like side mode where you can get different passive buffs that create fun synergies.
For now it's good fun but I can't say how I'll feel about it in a couple weeks/months. I don't really think it's the main selling point of the game though.
So yeah, overall definitely worth checking out if you're interested in some JRPG goodness.
www.gamesindustry.biz
www.eurogamer.net
