#Furiae Praetor

[the-astral-express-archive]

Honkai: Star Rail | Furiae Enemy Sprites From "Illia Travelogue" Event (Hero's Journey)

[e17omm]

Alright lets see what Ampherus is all about and I hope that's the right name because I just remember something on A and that there's a p somewhere but I am not completely sure.

TLDR after finishing it:

Story: great. I think its well written and the mysteries are interesting.

Budget allocation; 85% cutscenes, 15% dialogue scenes. Honestly the difference in quality is STAGGERING and it is VERY noticable.

The bossfight: fucking awful because its %maxHP def-ignoring AoE damage. No I am not kidding. Let me repeat that: the boss has %maxHP def-ignoring AoE damage! Who the fuck thought that was a good idea?! Honestly good luck because unless you can out-DPS it there is actually NOTHING you can do. (except switch to easy mode. That drops the boss' level to 63. My Jingliu 3-shot it)

Its AmphOrEus. Eh I was close.

Ah if only we could have some characters sitting or leaning on a table. Presentation is a big part of the story after all, and this is a complaint Im brining with me from all of Hoyo's games lately.

What's the point of custom music on the Astral Express if every time I load it the music resets?

This cut???? Pre- and post- cut arent even close!

Was probably because Sunday was blocking the window. The lack of the window made me really confused about where we were even standing.

That forehead touching black screen is WHY YOU USE 3D MODELS SO YOU CAN ACTUALLY ANIMATE IT. Sorry, HI3 actually started using 3D models as 3D models again and now it just feels very lazy when HSR does black screens instead.

Oh my god was that "Some time later" black screen REALLY necessary?

We're right next to the train and nothing happened! Just cut that some time later screen it completely killed the momentum of the cutscene!

Okay I actually took a shower and got some time to think. So far I really like this! We kinda go to a place nobody knows anything about for fuel reasons, but as soon as we arrive mysteries start up. It made me more curious about Amphoreus.

I KNEW IT. I KNEW THE STATUES MOVED.

The budget gap between the cutscene and dialogue is STARK

There's so many missed oppertunities to really show the strength of 3D models and Hoyo has barely been doing it for years now. How does PGR with its VN style of story show their story better than Snowy not even able to toss our baseball bat back to us?

I really like the whole memory of the past thing, makes sense with Remembrance here and clears up the confusion I had earlier, being that I though it was switching from night to day. But actually its present and past. That's cool.

Also Tribbie just poofed into thin air lol.

Wow the low budget "we cant even show Stelle on the Dromas" into a high budget cutscene really caught me off-guard. I know Im repeatedly bringing it up but the difference in quality is staggering.

Wow they sped up the "turning around" animation and it didnt look horrible. Good job. I like. Improvement.

The Furiae Praetor completely ignores taunt. Uuuuuuh okay then sure I guess.

I was just gonna bring up how I like Castorice but Hoyo brought up birds again and just please dont go philosophical with it...

These water physics are fantastic holy shit is this where the budget went??

Wait the upper water physics are worse? Why? Come on! The downstairs water was great!

Ooh Stellaron is here too. I hope they bring back that we can hear the Stellaron, that was really cool when it happened in Belobog.

The intrusive thoughts win again!

I think Im also gonna stop my budget complaints here. Its allthrough around every corner except every 6th corner where theres a high quality cutscene or fantastic water physics.

Ah shit March is here and she just leaked that the universe exists. She lacks critical information!

Our own bath has the good water physics lets go!

Wait a minute, why did the thread tremble? It only trembles at a lie! What part of what I said was a lie about the Stellaron in my body?

Lol you can just leave and the credits roll

Aaaaaand it stuck my game on mute forcing an actual relaunch. What the fuck Hoyo? OH WIAT NVM I just had to manually quit to title and its back.

No, trust me, my Fire TB can tank a star. We wont be having issues with me tanking damage. I just hope that the team is just me and Phainon.

How the hell did this bridge stop anyone from entering? Sure, leaving might be a problem, but I could make that jump down and then just walk up the other end. This bridge just exists to be fancy, not to actually serve as a bridge considering if they just built the lower section slightly higher, a bridge wouldnt be needed at all.

PLeassseeeeee just give me trial charactersssssss

It would be so so so fitting for this partttt.

WE REALLY FIGHT STRIFE WITHOUT TRIAL CHARACTERS COME ON

Did they really have to clarify that Mydeimos is Mydei? They're having way too much fun with this over-the-text clarification.

Its a race against time! We have to warn them and get ready right away! Lets play the normal calm music the city normally has :) that will fit the tone! :D

Imagine a world where we could actually see the TB jump onto the scale...

I like that all our past memories were of the Stellaron Hunters. Definitely feels like we're being set up to work alongside them. And if Hoyo wants to go wild (which they havent been that much lately) they could temporarily make us leave the Astral Express in order to work with the Stellaron Hunters to achive something. That would be really cool but also very wild. It could happen, as long as the writers dont write on shit and make Stelle forget again once I click away the "new path" screen.

Also wow we just got Remembrance just like that? I mean, it was fitting, but its kinda crazy how Belobog is still the best in regards to giving us a new path. Belobog > Amphoreus > Penacony for me. The weapons have REALLY gone downhill tho. The hat was fun but now we just have a pen? Give me a blade or a gun next time, I want to see Stelle with an assault rifle in her hands.

Oh shit Remembrance is a new playable path. I have no light cones!

Well at least I have something new to spend my stamina on! Remembrance stuff!

Oh wow I just looked through TB's and Mem's skills and oh boy I need to build some other tank units because Mem sounds like an insane support for my Jingliu

Oh my god IceTB makes me want to run Jingliu Bronya Mem and Sparkle because oh my god I want to let her go on an absolute rampage

Oh it never hit me that Mem can fucking die until Luocha healed her.

Also Mem is so close to both Meme and Emm I cant what is this help-

...You get a free Victory In a Blink after the section is over. I could've saved some currency...

Okay kinda late on this, but I wish Agy would've actually been ready to kill us if it meant protecting the city. It just, feels overly safe to have her go "yeah I never actually inteded to kill them, it was just to put them under pressure :)" like, Hoyo used to give us playable characters that killed other people. It just feels overly safe, like as to alienate as few people as possible from liking her. I dont think it would change Agy's character much at all, and its not like TB and Dan ever finds out she never meant to kill us, Agy just told Tribbie that little fact. Just, remove that little scene and nothing changes about her - except that it doesnt feel like she was written as safely as they could write her.

Whohooo they gave us Story Agy! Finally! Do they not have Phanion ready yet or what? Please do this more Hoyo it used to be so immersive.

Well they just used the exact same black screen 3 times in a row...

I like the puzzle mechanics but do they really have to put a marker handholding you through how to solve it?

I know I said I wouldnt bring up the budget... but they couldnt even animate Castorice coughing. Just have a visual novel for dialogue moments at this point...

Gnaeus is one of the best characters ngl

The refight with Strife was not made with the IceTB in mind. She keeps getting oneshot during Strife's turns right away due to not having enough HP from relics. Whoopdedoo here comes FireTB again.

Kinda sad that the only way this fight is hard is because it deals % max HP damage that ignores defense while cutting out max HP by 50% constantly.

Like, what the fuck?

...... and the boss attacks before using the %maxHP def-ignoring attacking.

I think its safe to say that this is the worst designed boss in the entire game.

You're telling me that we did all that and it still attacked the big statue guy? Like yeah it couldn't keep beaming it forever, but we couldn't even stop it in time? Cmon now. You cant just make a bullshit boss and then not even let us finish it.

Yeah that was the only boss I ever turned on Easy mode for in any Hoyo game. I am not going to try to figure out a way to beat motherfucking %maxHP def-ignoring damage. If casual mode didnt lower its levels by like 20 so my Jingliu could 3-shot it, I would've just put down the game and concluded my playthrough there.

I hope to fucking god it doesnt have that move in the weekly battle, but I have a feeling it just fucking might.

Suddenly Herta feels... very random. But I cant be too mad since it seems that FINALLY something is happening while we aren't there. Now here's to hoping that they dont blow the fuse too early and Herta comes to Amphoreus, because why the fuck would she?

(deep sigh)

So how does the Astral Express travel? Because I dont know what low on fuel means for it, but I dont think trips back and forth across the cosmos would be good for the fuel situation. If those teleporting points are actually used by them, 1. How the fuck do they work? 2. That is a massive security issue if someone can just warp into anywhere.

Whatever. What is the difference of us being glanced by Aeons and Herta being glanced by Aeons? Because we're getting casually glanced at left and right, but for Herta it could incinerate anyone and anything near her.

Okay its been rubbing me the wrong way for a while now; what the hell is this prophecy? Most prophecies I usually hear in stories is like, this character is destined to be great! or something like this. But this prophecy literally dictates what they do. These chants and rituals include the mention of the prophecy in them, its like the entire world of Amphoreus is dictated by what the prophecy says. Its not like "oh this great boy who came from nothing will rise up and become a god" no, its "the prophecy chose this boy to grow up to become a god" like, what? What the hell is this prophecy?

Its really rubbing me the wrong way.

Hello Elysia Voice Actor.

Whaaaat the hell is happening to March? She's returning to her ice state!

Honestly the most interesting thing about Amphoreus is what is happening to March, but I actually hope that it isnt resolved at Amphoreus because Hoyo DESPERATELY needs some plot points to last longer than in just one section. Like I dont want March to be back on her feet and happy by the end of Amphoreus. I want this to drag out so that we can have some reason to go to the next area other than to just Trailblaze.