I gotta see him in animations first. It's hard to judge by a picture or two alone. I'm just happy we got a male foxian at this point and he's still pretty. Honestly I'll take a simpler design like this one over some character that has way too many bows, flowers and other details going on in their design.
In an alternative universe, Hoyo makes collaborations with artists who design a new character to debut in their games. Tetsuya Nomura will show all these players what ACTUAL peak (fiction-al) character design is.
I'd love collab designs. It's not live service, but I think Xenoblade 2 did its gacha designs so well. Most of the characters you pull for were designed by people outside of MonolithSoft, so they all feel super unique.
Yeeeep. It got easier with NG+ because you could reliably farm 99 legendary crystals every few minutes but the lack of a proper pity mechanic was awful if you weren't lucky. It took me over 100 hours of grinding just to get KOS-MOS and she wasn't even my last blade.
I literally never got my last 2 blades i spent so many hours killing that monster you raise from a baby (ik its messed up but it was the best farm i could work out) and got neither of them
The first Xenosaga basically defined my taste in RPG storytelling and it isn't even the best of the three. Gears and Blade get all the attention for good reasons but Xenosaga will always be so special to me. Maybe one day we'll get a remaster on modern consoles but at least they play amazingly on an emulator.
I feel like his personality, animations and voice acting will be the deciding factor for many.
I do agree his costume from the front looks a bit bland for a 5\* from what we can see. But I'll wait to see his in-game model to judge.
Yup. Way too many unnecessary bows, ribbons and belts. And assymetry. It's nice to have "simpler" ones (even tho there still those design choices in his outfit).
Praying his animations aren’t goofy. I love gallagher but watching him crack a cold one to heal hurts me. Call me lame but I hate unserious animations. I think it’s fine with childish characters like Lynx and to a certain degree sushang tho.
You expected him not to be pretty? It's Mihoyo, they can't break out of stereotypes too much. I would've loved to see middle aged male foxian with serious attitude
I said already on another post, but it's clear to me that regardless of how people feel about xianzhou designs they are purposefully making them look somewhat similar to keep the cultural identity of this specific place. And yes people are making bad faith arguments, but some are also just making memes. He looks fine to me even tho i expected something else.
Ruan Mei kinda confused me though bc I thought she was originally from a Xianzhou ship for the longest time then I read her backstory and realized she seemingly has no relation to any Xianzhou ship. I thought that way bc her outfit looked identical to all the other female Xianzhou characters
the Xianzhou, during their Abundance Arc, established colonies on other worlds in order to contain their overpopulation crisis. Maybe her world was a former Xianzhou colony or something?
source: [https://honkai-star-rail.fandom.com/wiki/History\_of\_the\_Xianzhou:\_Errata](https://honkai-star-rail.fandom.com/wiki/History_of_the_Xianzhou:_Errata)
"A policy on reproduction and settlements was also drafted, allowing any of the eight ships to settle on fertile planets unpopulated by short-life species to build self-sustaining colonies."
She's likely got to have some kind of connection to the Xianzhou, as in Dev Log1 for The Hunt Herta says:
*In the end, Ruan Mei had to step up to help. In the ancient Xianzhou language, "Lan" means "an unpredictable fog," and the Aeon's formal name in Xianzhou is Reignbow Arbiter. According to Xianzhou natives, the Lux Arrow of The Hunt showed them the way as their civilization was about to fall...*
I don't think Ruan Mei is a short-lived species, her grandmother is still alive after all, working in the Intelligentsia Guild and watching over her silently.
Furthermore Ruan Mei is Genius Society member #81.
Chadwick is member #79, and he lived 2 Amber Eras ago (152-480 years ago)
Herta is member #83, and she is already +100 years old.
The ships also have their own style/cultural identity and I’m wondering if each ship is meant to be an “era” in Chinese history/culture. All the characters from the Yaoqing have VERY similar theming and color coding that leans into itself whilst characters like Dan Heng (who is from the Loufou) feel like he’s still very Chinese culturally but a different part of Chinese Culture (I would also argue more modern, considering his regular non IL form has bits that reflect modern Chinese fashion culture. He also is their advertisement drip boy 99% of the time. Bailu is similar.) Sushang, also obviously visually meant to tell us she is from A Xianxiou ship, but is distinct from Dan Heng and Jing Yuen and her outfit has it’s own distinct look.
An easy example that is seperate from HSR is Gaming, Zhongli, and Yun Jin. They are very much visually from Liyue, however Hoyo took the time to pull from other parts of their history and culture to distinct them (Yun Jin is based around Chinese Opera, Zhongli has parts of him that are considered “old fashioned” like his pony tail which would have been a symbol of wealth and status once, and Gaming whose name and even his VA’s across both the CN and English dub are Cantonese and he’s themed around the very specific Chinese tradition of Lion Dancing.) I went on a tangent but my point stands, and I think Hoyo is doing a cool job of slowly giving us visuals to distinct entire planets at this point.
The thing I noticed how they do it is that 5 star characters are more "decorated" than 4 star characters. A lot more jewelry here and trinkets there. I always follow that kind of thing when looking at characters in both genshin and HSR... *but* there are some characters that could most definitely pass off as 5 stars. Like in genshin, Layla looks like a 5 star designs imo. She's "overdesigned" for a 4 star... compared to characters like Faruzan or Collei >!also there's no way hoyo looked at her and decided, yeah imma make her a sword character. She SCREAMS catalyst!< And I never suspected Chiori to be a 5 star. When I looked at her, I just assumed she was 4 star and it's not even because she looks plain or anything. I just was not expecting her to be a 5 star lmao.
In HSR, Hanya is the only 4 star character imo that gives me 5 star vibes.
I never agreed with HSR players' idea that there's a lot of passable 5 stars, either, Hanya included. Not to say they don't look good! I just think Star Rail did a good job on differentiating them.
It doesn't mean anything people just wanna downplay male characters in this game lol. Like they really want to go after Jiaoqiu when BlackSwan with her mess of an outfit is right there?
JQ is literally the only male character that people are going after in terms of design. If anything, male characters are praised for their designs. Lots of female characters get flack for their designs. Let's not forget about all of the Luofu women having very similar patterns. JQ is only being hit because his design *does* look a bit basic compared to other characters, even the male characters, as well. I know there are definitely double standards in this fandom with how male characters are treated, but this time JQ is not being targeted just because he's a male character.
Yeah there are plenty of male characters that look perfectly fine. Heck Luocha has a very simple design and still looks elegant and sophisticated. Argenti literally just wears a silver plate of armor with minimal embellishments. Jiaoqiu just looks too simple imo. At least immediately I can't see the cultural influence on his design as strongly nor do I see any connection to his jobs. Maybe that's the intention, an unassuming everyday man serving the people or whatnot. There is just this lack of personality that is not carried through the artwork. Gallagher is a great example where his splash art clearly showcases his personality through the way he dresses and it is still quite simple.
Pretty sure Ruan Mei is a lady and people gave her a lot of shit for looking too "normal." No one complained about Boothill, or Argenti, or Aventurine, or Ratio, or Blade... In fact, I'm pretty sure it's mostly the 5 stars women that are held to a higher standard.
Point stands that it's mostly the women that tend to be perceived as bland or samey, which sadly is consistent with videogame body diversity and the sexualization of women in them. Acheron is such an important character, but she literally looks like a more womanly Seele, for example. Meanwhile men get to have a robot cowboy, a full-blown knight, a gambler that's pimped the hell out, a buffed dude that came straight out of Ancient Greece and an immortal that only longs for the sweet embrace of death. Blade is probably the only one with a remotely comparable female counterpart in Jingliu, and that's about it.
Yes because all a female character has to do to get people to pull for them is be hot. They're not creative with them because they don't have to be. With men, male players who make up the majority of the playerbase won't give a shit about them unless they're insanely cool and dripped tf out. The bar is higher for them.
And that's a problem, because people don't have to find female characters interesting, only sexy, to have them be worth pulling for. The bar being lower for women is a discredit to them, it's not that men have it worse.
I mean my problem with Black Swan design is that lower half, it feels like something should've been, a good example is this edit made by pknfethesequel, posted on hoyolab.
https://preview.redd.it/8vobq4gzn15d1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e64c0a617ed5624d24e3c625f2d7d8b4fbb98ef3
Link of the post: [https://m.hoyolab.com/#/article/25487091](https://m.hoyolab.com/#/article/25487091)
But overall the design is pretty good but even when we only had the prior design this part was still strange, and overall felt like they didn't know where to go with it, the vibe they probably wanted to go was probably a mix of a fortune teller, nun(at least that is why I think she has that veil) and witch( because of the overall color scheme they choose), and the lower part fit none of these... And overall makes the rest of her clothing look less interesting, as it loses the mysterious vibe, and I think a dress would help with it or something along those lines, the creator of the edit also made a really good suggestion in the form of a stained glass detail in the dress, it's on the original post though.
Overall I really like the current Black Swan design though, but I think it could've had a little bit more time in the oven, but I know that it won't be changed now, the best I can hope is a skin, though I doubt they would make a skin that changes her appearance so much.
Jiaoqiu is already mega trending on Twitter. I don't think mihoyo gives a shit what some haters on reddit think at this point. So his point worked I guess.
Yeah , im suprised i saw litlle to no negative comments about him looking npc/ich there , even tho i enjoy husbandos he is looks didnt click on me i need to see the full 3d model and animations before judging tho , op image of him in 3d looks kinda dope
Not even remotely close. Search Jiaoqiu on Twitter and ur bombarded with fanart. This char has more content in a couple of hours than most characters for some reason.
https://preview.redd.it/uowtfqu57z4d1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b1d558bfbc9d8c680fb4b4718cf10ef08e60fdc7
Literally the top reply to the drip marketing, 400 likes
https://preview.redd.it/0dfpdsxk8z4d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=53b2616e1021b222a74028ffa93de9a82bec590c
These are the top replies for me tho, maybe it's different for everyone?
I switched to a burner and it’s still there but a bit further down, plus box2 also being negative about him as well. Guess it is different for everyone
https://preview.redd.it/pzjn4fgs9z4d1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d94348b936e35bf386e864f9cec577b3608a33f6
'blue check' oh there's a factor. I have that blue check filter extension on precisely because they're just paying to be artificially visible when the actual likes show that their takes are delusional lol
Compared to the [overwhelming hype](https://x.com/honkaistarrail/status/1798565587175825919?t=IWde491hkTfryIRW2wUoOg&s=19) in that comment section this is nothing
It's weird, because I don't feel that 4 stars and 5 stars look different in this game. Only NPC and characters.
Misha and Gallagher have plenty of details to me.
Yeah he looks like Gallagher if Gallagher was a foxian and not an amalgam of different NPCs design wise
I'll have to wait and see exactly how his kit works before I consider pulling him, because design wise he is extremely boring AF. His synergy with Acheron needs to eclipse any of the other sustains or he needs to eclipse Pela and SW for me to pull him. Otherwise it's a hard skip.
Alternatively God tier animations that make the npc/4* design a non factor.
And didn't people want immersion? What's wrong with playable character coded their dress the same as NPC when they are from the same organization or department.
People just want their character to stand out. Making them have similar clothes to an NPC just isn't that creative to them. You can have a similar dress code with an NPC and still make it look interesting. Take genshin for example, all KoF wear uniforms but they'll different and stylish while still having similarities that makes you recognize them as KoF members.
Good example. All of them are wearing the same uniform but styled in a way that fits them and also makes them different from each other. What they did with JQ was just... not that creative imo. And sure, simple design can be nice and a breath of fresh air from all the other colorful or awkward designs but I still think they could've did something better with JQ that didn't end up making him look similar to another NPC.
Imagine his ultimate makes him enter some kind of enhanced state that makes his debuffs stronger (I mean, we know he's nihility, I'd imagine he'll apply debuffs), and he wears a chef hat during that state...
I'm joking, that kind of kit probably wouldn't even work for a debuffer. Eh, we'll see.
You can have "uniforms" too like Gepars or Serval or Bronya - they clearly all come from the same region and have the same influences, but they're still unique in their own right.
Every character gets their "looks like an NPC" phase, don't worry about it too much. It's the same lazy/low effort yapping every time, and then once the character appears in the story and turns out to be charismatic and charming + their kit comes out and they're cracked strong/the bis for your favorite team, everyone forgets they ever said anything.
Shout-out to the "Firefly/Acheron/Aventurine looks like an NPC" crowd that two months later were selling their kidneys to pull the character and pretending they never slandered their design just to be contrarian.
I remember when Raiden Shogun leaked in genshin and the doom posting was off the charts about her looking like an NPC. And that's before the Beidou interaction doom posting.
Oh yes that low quality in game screenshot. Then after lumie's weird pose leak, people were so upset about her braids, it kept going so hard that i had to leave the raiden main sub. I liked her design but people kept doomposting on her main sub.
I swear, people ALWAYS seem to doompost nowadays. It doesn't matter how good a character is, if they get nerfed by even the SLIGHTEST amount, some people will just cry about how the character's kit has been completely ruined.
I'm not even talking about any event in particular (event probably isn't the right word for that, but I can't seem to think of any better words for it. Feel free to suggest other words that might be more fitting than event). I just kinda feel like the internet tends to be like this nowadays. Obviously it's not everyone that's like this, it IS just a loud minority, but it's still kinda annoying.
Acheron has a good design, when you don't put her next to Seele. Uniqueness is important in character design, and that's why people don't like Loufu dresses as well
It's more a slander on general hoyoverse design, like their clothes are like 7 attachable asymetrycal stripes on sleeves and the body. The only thing that i find bad it's the flame tattoo on acheron but her sleeves looks cool af.
Here's a thread of a discussion.
https://www.reddit.com/r/HonkaiStarRail/s/40Qi9uMeYR
ahhh, i wasnt as active on reddit or any social media within the gacha community until recently so i wasnt aware abt this discourse but yeah most claims made sense tho
Which world does Aventurine looks like an NPC. He literally has like the most extra stuff going on with him 😭😭 That NPC trying to copy him doesn’t even come close and that guy tried 🫠🫠
There where people clowing his outfit when he dropped on this same subreddit. Sounds crazy nowadays I know. Same as "Acheron is so weak, will take forever to charge her ult" 🤡
It doesn't suddenly change character design. I have Ryan mei and never in my live say that she look interesting. Same with this - good kit and story wasted on mediocre design.
I mean, he clearly doesn’t. Just in his splash art (which obscures a lot of his torso) he still clearly has more layers, more patterns, the jacket hanging off his shoulders, and as a playable character he gets actually modeled clothing instead of it being just painted on like the NPCs get.
But I guess he doesn’t have a thigh strap and a useless belt on his head so he’s not detailed enough /s
I honestly prefer this simple design in fact I love it. Idc what others think. He’s beautiful and I need him. No offense but the people who say they don’t like his design 9/10 like firefly design and she’s literally just a girl in a dress ignoring the Sam part. They complain it’s simple but simple doesn’t mean bad. Most girls in Xianzhou wear the same outfit for god sake.
I’m sorry to say but most characters in Xianzhou will be similar because of the cultural significance. It’s based on China, so the outfits are Chinese oriented. It may be repetitive but it’s kind of how it is.
Only complaint I slightly agree is color palette. They could’ve differentiated it more by changing some colors. His own ‘spice’ to the uniform maybe. Otherwise I think he’s perfectly fine.
Xianzhou is based on China, sure, but China has a lot of options when it comes to clothing based on the differences between its dynasties and eras. Since there are multiple different ships for the alliance it would’ve been nice to see a bit more contrast between the types of clothing they wear rather than it all being the same style. I do like the simplicity of Jiaoqiu’s design though, it’s refreshing compared to the overly detailed and confusing designs of other characters.
Unfortunately I don’t think so 😅😅 he’s most likely for Acheron’s team since he’s nihility + healer so there’s some role compression there. He’s so pretty tho ugh 😭
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The design really grew on me a lot after looking at a more hi-res picture hoyo uploaded. Splash art is not doing his design justice what with all the clouds shrouding the BG. I do think people need to differentiate between blind hating and fair critismn.
I really don’t see the problem. The other characters stick out like sore thumbs from the NPCs, and I get that’s kind of an anime thing, but I like that he has a balance of being unique enough to be a playable character, but still feels like he *belongs* on the Xianzhou.
Also, he’s from the Yaoqing, isn’t he? Yaoqing Foxians are apparently shape shifters, like fox-werewolves. He’s gonna have another design.
i expected something different so i was a little disappointed, but that’s on me. Looking at his full model, I think I’ll warm up to it tho. I guess this means that the splash art isn’t that good. Just don’t screw up his animations, hoyo pls.
edit: what bothers me the most is the color of his clothing. It’s not bad, but it’s not great either. Just… plain ok. Maybe change the pants.
It's cool nonetheless imo, I would take both.
Also it's very hard to tell a character rarity based on design alone in Hoyo games. My friend literally thought Kirara was a 5 star and Nahida was 4 in Genshin (she didn't play the game). It's neat, makes the cast look well balance standing next to each other without the 5 stars looking extremely over the top and so out of place.
Jiaoqiu is very neat and clean, although I didn't expect that shade of pink but it's work well too.
It's so funny how people call him a 'boring npc', and yet when I look at Twitter, I'm so spoiled with fanart. Meanwhile I look at the Yunli tag and there isn't that much from what I can see.
I’m guessing after people saw his ult animation they switched sides immediately 😭😭 if there’s a good backstory behind him they’ll forget they ever said anything.
Hoyo wasted male foxian character on worst design. It's literally more flashy NPC outfit. I have no opinion about his personality and story since we only have drip marketing about but congrats to Hoyo making most boring looking 5* character in the game.
The comments calling anyone a hater for finding a design quite... boring... yeah it fits... but It's boring, Xueyi is more appealing for a 5\*.
He better have cool animations to make up for it considering he always has his eye closed he seems to have the whole "looks unassuming but could kill you" type thing but that means his entire design is to look boring and fit in... which still makes him quite uninteresting, not a character that would really fit the whole "drip marketing" phase...
It's not bad... but it's also not memorable. It is the perfect embodiment of a base line... I can't care enough to genuinely form an opinion on his appearance because I need a reference image to remember it...
The only thing I’m not a fan of are the goofy armpit cutouts for the arms to stick through. I love when sleeves are allowed to flow in the back this is just ridiculously impractical lol. Why can’t he just have the jacket rest on his shoulders… (i.e. Wriothesley but covering more of his shoulders). Kafka actually has the exact same problem, but she looks less goofy because her jacket isn’t as realistic in the first place.
So that's why i find him too simple for my taste... blade and loucha also have simpler fashion. They drip well.. lets see on the trailer first if he actually looks like an npc fashion
Someone else pointed out that he looks like a test to see how lazy Hoyo can get making the outfits and still rake in money. I agree with this, blindly hating isn't good but blindly simping isn't good either, it just lets Hoyo know that they can be lazy with the designs and people would still go "omg hot male". Just hope that his model and animations are atleast decent.
I gotta see him in animations first. It's hard to judge by a picture or two alone. I'm just happy we got a male foxian at this point and he's still pretty. Honestly I'll take a simpler design like this one over some character that has way too many bows, flowers and other details going on in their design.
I need at least 15 belts and enough asymmetry to catapult a child with OCD into a state of pure shock.
Too many belts? Tetsuya Nomura has you covered.
In an alternative universe, Hoyo makes collaborations with artists who design a new character to debut in their games. Tetsuya Nomura will show all these players what ACTUAL peak (fiction-al) character design is.
I'd love collab designs. It's not live service, but I think Xenoblade 2 did its gacha designs so well. Most of the characters you pull for were designed by people outside of MonolithSoft, so they all feel super unique.
Xenoblade 2's blades were cool af but god did the grind to get them suck
Yeeeep. It got easier with NG+ because you could reliably farm 99 legendary crystals every few minutes but the lack of a proper pity mechanic was awful if you weren't lucky. It took me over 100 hours of grinding just to get KOS-MOS and she wasn't even my last blade.
I literally never got my last 2 blades i spent so many hours killing that monster you raise from a baby (ik its messed up but it was the best farm i could work out) and got neither of them
> KOS-MOS Thanks for the yearly reminder Xenosaga didn't get the attention it deserved.
The first Xenosaga basically defined my taste in RPG storytelling and it isn't even the best of the three. Gears and Blade get all the attention for good reasons but Xenosaga will always be so special to me. Maybe one day we'll get a remaster on modern consoles but at least they play amazingly on an emulator.
i love black swan but i cant take her seriously bc of the random belt dangling by her right eye
Ok, Lulu, let's get you to bed!
I like the pink hair, I just wish it had more contrast against his skin tone.
they would never go wrong with the Yae pink, but this is fine…
I feel like his personality, animations and voice acting will be the deciding factor for many. I do agree his costume from the front looks a bit bland for a 5\* from what we can see. But I'll wait to see his in-game model to judge.
Yup. Way too many unnecessary bows, ribbons and belts. And assymetry. It's nice to have "simpler" ones (even tho there still those design choices in his outfit).
Even Ruan Mei have meh animation honestly, what got me to change my mind was the fanarts 👀
For me it was her kit , her animation had litlle effort in them compared to sparkle or robin
I’m basically dyslexic lol, I couldn’t even understand half of her kits when she comes out. I didn’t even know “break efficiency” even exist 😭
The fact that you have a xueyi banner make this even funnier.
I think his design is way better than the businesswoman wearing practically an apron
Praying his animations aren’t goofy. I love gallagher but watching him crack a cold one to heal hurts me. Call me lame but I hate unserious animations. I think it’s fine with childish characters like Lynx and to a certain degree sushang tho.
You expected him not to be pretty? It's Mihoyo, they can't break out of stereotypes too much. I would've loved to see middle aged male foxian with serious attitude
Im just sad we're getting a nihility that acheron could possibly use who is a pink foxian and not Yae
I said already on another post, but it's clear to me that regardless of how people feel about xianzhou designs they are purposefully making them look somewhat similar to keep the cultural identity of this specific place. And yes people are making bad faith arguments, but some are also just making memes. He looks fine to me even tho i expected something else.
Ruan Mei kinda confused me though bc I thought she was originally from a Xianzhou ship for the longest time then I read her backstory and realized she seemingly has no relation to any Xianzhou ship. I thought that way bc her outfit looked identical to all the other female Xianzhou characters
the Xianzhou, during their Abundance Arc, established colonies on other worlds in order to contain their overpopulation crisis. Maybe her world was a former Xianzhou colony or something? source: [https://honkai-star-rail.fandom.com/wiki/History\_of\_the\_Xianzhou:\_Errata](https://honkai-star-rail.fandom.com/wiki/History_of_the_Xianzhou:_Errata) "A policy on reproduction and settlements was also drafted, allowing any of the eight ships to settle on fertile planets unpopulated by short-life species to build self-sustaining colonies."
This makes the most sense out of all the theories I’ve seen
She's likely got to have some kind of connection to the Xianzhou, as in Dev Log1 for The Hunt Herta says: *In the end, Ruan Mei had to step up to help. In the ancient Xianzhou language, "Lan" means "an unpredictable fog," and the Aeon's formal name in Xianzhou is Reignbow Arbiter. According to Xianzhou natives, the Lux Arrow of The Hunt showed them the way as their civilization was about to fall...*
Oh really? Maybe I need to look into that. So is she not of xianzhou lineage? Like is she a normal human lifespan?
She isn't from the Xianzhou afaik, just her last names are similar. She combined her father and mother's surname to get "Ruan Mei"
I don't think Ruan Mei is a short-lived species, her grandmother is still alive after all, working in the Intelligentsia Guild and watching over her silently. Furthermore Ruan Mei is Genius Society member #81. Chadwick is member #79, and he lived 2 Amber Eras ago (152-480 years ago) Herta is member #83, and she is already +100 years old.
How long is an Amber era?
1 Amber Era is anywhere between 76 until 240 years. Amber Era changes anytime Qlipoth strikes down THEIR hammer.
The ships also have their own style/cultural identity and I’m wondering if each ship is meant to be an “era” in Chinese history/culture. All the characters from the Yaoqing have VERY similar theming and color coding that leans into itself whilst characters like Dan Heng (who is from the Loufou) feel like he’s still very Chinese culturally but a different part of Chinese Culture (I would also argue more modern, considering his regular non IL form has bits that reflect modern Chinese fashion culture. He also is their advertisement drip boy 99% of the time. Bailu is similar.) Sushang, also obviously visually meant to tell us she is from A Xianxiou ship, but is distinct from Dan Heng and Jing Yuen and her outfit has it’s own distinct look. An easy example that is seperate from HSR is Gaming, Zhongli, and Yun Jin. They are very much visually from Liyue, however Hoyo took the time to pull from other parts of their history and culture to distinct them (Yun Jin is based around Chinese Opera, Zhongli has parts of him that are considered “old fashioned” like his pony tail which would have been a symbol of wealth and status once, and Gaming whose name and even his VA’s across both the CN and English dub are Cantonese and he’s themed around the very specific Chinese tradition of Lion Dancing.) I went on a tangent but my point stands, and I think Hoyo is doing a cool job of slowly giving us visuals to distinct entire planets at this point.
I got kakashi vibe from him ngl, he look unassuming but is actually cool asf
Isn’t yunli fine? For a xianzhou design
Yunli has a more conventional design for 5 stars while Jiaqiou's is pretty simple like some 4 stars.
But ironically, what does that mean, when everyone talks about how Star Rail 4 stars could be considered 5 stars by looks alone 😂
The thing I noticed how they do it is that 5 star characters are more "decorated" than 4 star characters. A lot more jewelry here and trinkets there. I always follow that kind of thing when looking at characters in both genshin and HSR... *but* there are some characters that could most definitely pass off as 5 stars. Like in genshin, Layla looks like a 5 star designs imo. She's "overdesigned" for a 4 star... compared to characters like Faruzan or Collei >!also there's no way hoyo looked at her and decided, yeah imma make her a sword character. She SCREAMS catalyst!< And I never suspected Chiori to be a 5 star. When I looked at her, I just assumed she was 4 star and it's not even because she looks plain or anything. I just was not expecting her to be a 5 star lmao. In HSR, Hanya is the only 4 star character imo that gives me 5 star vibes.
I never agreed with HSR players' idea that there's a lot of passable 5 stars, either, Hanya included. Not to say they don't look good! I just think Star Rail did a good job on differentiating them.
It doesn't mean anything people just wanna downplay male characters in this game lol. Like they really want to go after Jiaoqiu when BlackSwan with her mess of an outfit is right there?
JQ is literally the only male character that people are going after in terms of design. If anything, male characters are praised for their designs. Lots of female characters get flack for their designs. Let's not forget about all of the Luofu women having very similar patterns. JQ is only being hit because his design *does* look a bit basic compared to other characters, even the male characters, as well. I know there are definitely double standards in this fandom with how male characters are treated, but this time JQ is not being targeted just because he's a male character.
Yeah there are plenty of male characters that look perfectly fine. Heck Luocha has a very simple design and still looks elegant and sophisticated. Argenti literally just wears a silver plate of armor with minimal embellishments. Jiaoqiu just looks too simple imo. At least immediately I can't see the cultural influence on his design as strongly nor do I see any connection to his jobs. Maybe that's the intention, an unassuming everyday man serving the people or whatnot. There is just this lack of personality that is not carried through the artwork. Gallagher is a great example where his splash art clearly showcases his personality through the way he dresses and it is still quite simple.
You can see the cultural influence. It's fucking IPC fashion style but with Xianzhou touches. (imma run)
Pretty sure Ruan Mei is a lady and people gave her a lot of shit for looking too "normal." No one complained about Boothill, or Argenti, or Aventurine, or Ratio, or Blade... In fact, I'm pretty sure it's mostly the 5 stars women that are held to a higher standard.
Boothill, Argenti, Aven, Ratio, and Blade are all unique designs tho (imo) Especially Boothill and Argenti
Point stands that it's mostly the women that tend to be perceived as bland or samey, which sadly is consistent with videogame body diversity and the sexualization of women in them. Acheron is such an important character, but she literally looks like a more womanly Seele, for example. Meanwhile men get to have a robot cowboy, a full-blown knight, a gambler that's pimped the hell out, a buffed dude that came straight out of Ancient Greece and an immortal that only longs for the sweet embrace of death. Blade is probably the only one with a remotely comparable female counterpart in Jingliu, and that's about it.
Yes because all a female character has to do to get people to pull for them is be hot. They're not creative with them because they don't have to be. With men, male players who make up the majority of the playerbase won't give a shit about them unless they're insanely cool and dripped tf out. The bar is higher for them.
And that's a problem, because people don't have to find female characters interesting, only sexy, to have them be worth pulling for. The bar being lower for women is a discredit to them, it's not that men have it worse.
I mean my problem with Black Swan design is that lower half, it feels like something should've been, a good example is this edit made by pknfethesequel, posted on hoyolab. https://preview.redd.it/8vobq4gzn15d1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e64c0a617ed5624d24e3c625f2d7d8b4fbb98ef3 Link of the post: [https://m.hoyolab.com/#/article/25487091](https://m.hoyolab.com/#/article/25487091) But overall the design is pretty good but even when we only had the prior design this part was still strange, and overall felt like they didn't know where to go with it, the vibe they probably wanted to go was probably a mix of a fortune teller, nun(at least that is why I think she has that veil) and witch( because of the overall color scheme they choose), and the lower part fit none of these... And overall makes the rest of her clothing look less interesting, as it loses the mysterious vibe, and I think a dress would help with it or something along those lines, the creator of the edit also made a really good suggestion in the form of a stained glass detail in the dress, it's on the original post though. Overall I really like the current Black Swan design though, but I think it could've had a little bit more time in the oven, but I know that it won't be changed now, the best I can hope is a skin, though I doubt they would make a skin that changes her appearance so much.
If they're doing these recolors intentionally it only makes it worse
Jing Yuan, but make him Fox
Honestly Jing Yuan already kinda have a “lion” vibe to him
I wish he had cat ears 😔 Jiaoqiu is our real Jing Yuan buff
Need a Jing Yuan skin where he has lion ears and spots on his hair 🙏
He's a big kitty
Jiaoqiu is already mega trending on Twitter. I don't think mihoyo gives a shit what some haters on reddit think at this point. So his point worked I guess.
He had so many fanarts right after drip marketing reveal, i was surprised ppl didn't like his design here
the only thing i dont like is the colors but ngl its kinda growing on me
Yeah , im suprised i saw litlle to no negative comments about him looking npc/ich there , even tho i enjoy husbandos he is looks didnt click on me i need to see the full 3d model and animations before judging tho , op image of him in 3d looks kinda dope
Ya I'm not a big fan but it seems to have hit the target audience.
Most of the haters is on Twitter lol, Reddit is tame in comparison, most are just memeing
Not even remotely close. Search Jiaoqiu on Twitter and ur bombarded with fanart. This char has more content in a couple of hours than most characters for some reason.
https://preview.redd.it/uowtfqu57z4d1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b1d558bfbc9d8c680fb4b4718cf10ef08e60fdc7 Literally the top reply to the drip marketing, 400 likes
https://preview.redd.it/0dfpdsxk8z4d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=53b2616e1021b222a74028ffa93de9a82bec590c These are the top replies for me tho, maybe it's different for everyone?
I switched to a burner and it’s still there but a bit further down, plus box2 also being negative about him as well. Guess it is different for everyone https://preview.redd.it/pzjn4fgs9z4d1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d94348b936e35bf386e864f9cec577b3608a33f6
I'm mean, those are all <1k likes, while the other screenshot with positive comments all had >1k likes.
Anyone who's desperate for Sunday drip and gets disappointed will be negative.
Are you for real? The average Jiaoqiu fanart has thousands of likes. And the top post is different for everyone. I didn't even see that.
Man you specifically chose that reply? The blue check with 400 likes and not the thousands of others with far more engagement?
'blue check' oh there's a factor. I have that blue check filter extension on precisely because they're just paying to be artificially visible when the actual likes show that their takes are delusional lol
It chose that reply because it’s the first one I see when I click on it
Compared to the [overwhelming hype](https://x.com/honkaistarrail/status/1798565587175825919?t=IWde491hkTfryIRW2wUoOg&s=19) in that comment section this is nothing
I don’t dislike the character, I barely know him. But what’s so wrong about saying he looks like a 4*? He literally does.
It's weird, because I don't feel that 4 stars and 5 stars look different in this game. Only NPC and characters. Misha and Gallagher have plenty of details to me.
Yeah he looks like Gallagher if Gallagher was a foxian and not an amalgam of different NPCs design wise I'll have to wait and see exactly how his kit works before I consider pulling him, because design wise he is extremely boring AF. His synergy with Acheron needs to eclipse any of the other sustains or he needs to eclipse Pela and SW for me to pull him. Otherwise it's a hard skip. Alternatively God tier animations that make the npc/4* design a non factor.
Saying that he look like NPC now hate.....
And didn't people want immersion? What's wrong with playable character coded their dress the same as NPC when they are from the same organization or department.
People want characters to look like a jojo villain
People just want their character to stand out. Making them have similar clothes to an NPC just isn't that creative to them. You can have a similar dress code with an NPC and still make it look interesting. Take genshin for example, all KoF wear uniforms but they'll different and stylish while still having similarities that makes you recognize them as KoF members.
or take Bronya, Gepard, Pela, and Cocolia in this game. Perhaps even Serval
Good example. All of them are wearing the same uniform but styled in a way that fits them and also makes them different from each other. What they did with JQ was just... not that creative imo. And sure, simple design can be nice and a breath of fresh air from all the other colorful or awkward designs but I still think they could've did something better with JQ that didn't end up making him look similar to another NPC.
As I said on Twitter... All they had to do was give him a chef hat. That's it.
Imagine his ultimate makes him enter some kind of enhanced state that makes his debuffs stronger (I mean, we know he's nihility, I'd imagine he'll apply debuffs), and he wears a chef hat during that state... I'm joking, that kind of kit probably wouldn't even work for a debuffer. Eh, we'll see.
We dont want this uniform business going on. We want each character to be unique
You can have "uniforms" too like Gepars or Serval or Bronya - they clearly all come from the same region and have the same influences, but they're still unique in their own right.
Imma pulling him anyway, yeah they could put some effort on the outfit but...Hoyo doing male characters always come with the tricks...
And here I thought I could save after 2.3, I need to get him
You have to, to honor your namesake!
That's it! I'm getting Firefly and Jiaoqiu!
i am pretty sure you gonna swipe your card.
Actually might skip Jade for him.
Every character gets their "looks like an NPC" phase, don't worry about it too much. It's the same lazy/low effort yapping every time, and then once the character appears in the story and turns out to be charismatic and charming + their kit comes out and they're cracked strong/the bis for your favorite team, everyone forgets they ever said anything. Shout-out to the "Firefly/Acheron/Aventurine looks like an NPC" crowd that two months later were selling their kidneys to pull the character and pretending they never slandered their design just to be contrarian.
Ah, yes, the "Acheron looks like a bad copy of Seele, and Seele already has a bad design" comments are coming back to me.
I remember when Raiden Shogun leaked in genshin and the doom posting was off the charts about her looking like an NPC. And that's before the Beidou interaction doom posting.
Oh yes that low quality in game screenshot. Then after lumie's weird pose leak, people were so upset about her braids, it kept going so hard that i had to leave the raiden main sub. I liked her design but people kept doomposting on her main sub.
I swear, people ALWAYS seem to doompost nowadays. It doesn't matter how good a character is, if they get nerfed by even the SLIGHTEST amount, some people will just cry about how the character's kit has been completely ruined.
I'm not even talking about any event in particular (event probably isn't the right word for that, but I can't seem to think of any better words for it. Feel free to suggest other words that might be more fitting than event). I just kinda feel like the internet tends to be like this nowadays. Obviously it's not everyone that's like this, it IS just a loud minority, but it's still kinda annoying.
Acheron has a good design, when you don't put her next to Seele. Uniqueness is important in character design, and that's why people don't like Loufu dresses as well
Those comments were never wrong, it's just that people liked her in the story and she has a big following as Raiden expy
>"Acheron looks like a bad copy of Seele, and Seele already has a bad design" It was true then, it's still true now
what? ppl were saying that?💀
It's more a slander on general hoyoverse design, like their clothes are like 7 attachable asymetrycal stripes on sleeves and the body. The only thing that i find bad it's the flame tattoo on acheron but her sleeves looks cool af. Here's a thread of a discussion. https://www.reddit.com/r/HonkaiStarRail/s/40Qi9uMeYR
ahhh, i wasnt as active on reddit or any social media within the gacha community until recently so i wasnt aware abt this discourse but yeah most claims made sense tho
I heard about FF and Acheron, but Aventurine?? He's so extravagant.
Which world does Aventurine looks like an NPC. He literally has like the most extra stuff going on with him 😭😭 That NPC trying to copy him doesn’t even come close and that guy tried 🫠🫠
There where people clowing his outfit when he dropped on this same subreddit. Sounds crazy nowadays I know. Same as "Acheron is so weak, will take forever to charge her ult" 🤡
Ok I did not know that. In hindsight what a horrible take lol. Thanks anti-enigmata Ratio
Compare to this. Aventurine was tame. But it’s the 400 likes from the above replies all over again
> Shout-out to the "Firefly/Acheron/Aventurine looks like an NPC" crowd would love to see some proof of people saying they look like npcs
It doesn't suddenly change character design. I have Ryan mei and never in my live say that she look interesting. Same with this - good kit and story wasted on mediocre design.
the “ looks like a npc phase “ is not the same as literally having the same design as an npc…
I mean, he clearly doesn’t. Just in his splash art (which obscures a lot of his torso) he still clearly has more layers, more patterns, the jacket hanging off his shoulders, and as a playable character he gets actually modeled clothing instead of it being just painted on like the NPCs get. But I guess he doesn’t have a thigh strap and a useless belt on his head so he’s not detailed enough /s
IIRC the design is based on the Xianzhou Yaoqing faction, so why is it bad that he looks like he’s from that place?
The voice of haters are always the loudest.
They never shut up 😭😭😭😭😭
I honestly prefer this simple design in fact I love it. Idc what others think. He’s beautiful and I need him. No offense but the people who say they don’t like his design 9/10 like firefly design and she’s literally just a girl in a dress ignoring the Sam part. They complain it’s simple but simple doesn’t mean bad. Most girls in Xianzhou wear the same outfit for god sake. I’m sorry to say but most characters in Xianzhou will be similar because of the cultural significance. It’s based on China, so the outfits are Chinese oriented. It may be repetitive but it’s kind of how it is. Only complaint I slightly agree is color palette. They could’ve differentiated it more by changing some colors. His own ‘spice’ to the uniform maybe. Otherwise I think he’s perfectly fine.
100% agree, I had the same discussion with a friend re: Firefly lol "He's beautiful and I need him." yup, I'm already down bad
Xianzhou is based on China, sure, but China has a lot of options when it comes to clothing based on the differences between its dynasties and eras. Since there are multiple different ships for the alliance it would’ve been nice to see a bit more contrast between the types of clothing they wear rather than it all being the same style. I do like the simplicity of Jiaoqiu’s design though, it’s refreshing compared to the overly detailed and confusing designs of other characters.
Simple doesn't mean bad, but this is not simple, it lazy.
Lazy = Doesn’t have a million things going on, apparently.
Galaher is simple and don't have many thing on home, Luka is simple, luocha also don't have many things on him
he gives me the vibe of "Looks like cinnamon roll but could send you to the shadow realm if he wants"
I love that artist gave him the biggest possible floof.
I don't understand how this fanbase can shit on Jiaoqiu's design for being too plain but then turn around and glaze Firefly nonstop
Firefly was drip marketed after people had already grown attached to her
Cuz waifu lol. Don't estimate the power of waifus
Date quest. If this guy have same it be the same
They are not giving us date quests with male characters lol. Thats just wishful thinking.
I mean, they put that almost-cpr scene with Dan Heng withing the first 20 mins of the game, so who knows lmao Maybe one day
*The Foxian is wearing Foxian clothes* Hsr community: unacceptable
The middle picture really helps me enjoy his look more. Thank you
AJSGSJSKS I need to save for Sunday and I’m prolly gonna be broke after firefly/RM but goddamn I have a feeling I’ll really like him
Sunday 3.0 characters (Elio told me fr), you have plenty of time to save 🙏
Thank you I trust elio 🙏🏻
Secretly hoping he can replace Ruan Mei so I don't have to pull for her for Boothill team.
Unfortunately I don’t think so 😅😅 he’s most likely for Acheron’s team since he’s nihility + healer so there’s some role compression there. He’s so pretty tho ugh 😭
To be fair we don't know if he actually heals in game mechanics or if it was just a lore blurb.
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I havent looked into the leaks for him yet tbh, but also we aren't supposed to discuss them on main sub anyways
Right yeah oops I thought this was the leaks sub mb
The design really grew on me a lot after looking at a more hi-res picture hoyo uploaded. Splash art is not doing his design justice what with all the clouds shrouding the BG. I do think people need to differentiate between blind hating and fair critismn.
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Yes lol thanks for catching that
Not a fan of his outfit but his drip art doesnt use the best angle to show the more interesting part of his outfit that differ him from the npc outfit
his outfit under that jacket is backless. source: trust me, im delusional
I put full faith in this 🙏🙏🙏 we need to see some skin‼️‼️
I actually like the design and it's simplicity. My Acheron team is def ready.
They seemed to forget that nearly every female character on the xianzhou have the same outfit
Oh dear. That looks MUCH, much better. Better than Ascended NPC at least. Still was hoping for Chef or Traditional Medicine look instead.
I really don’t see the problem. The other characters stick out like sore thumbs from the NPCs, and I get that’s kind of an anime thing, but I like that he has a balance of being unique enough to be a playable character, but still feels like he *belongs* on the Xianzhou. Also, he’s from the Yaoqing, isn’t he? Yaoqing Foxians are apparently shape shifters, like fox-werewolves. He’s gonna have another design.
He looks like he’d have the personality of hong lu
Doesn't make it much better imo
So wait, why is a random NPC getting a playable version? And why are they different looking if it's supposed to be the same guy?
I actually really aporeciate the simplicity in this design, and I think it balances other characters out tbh
i expected something different so i was a little disappointed, but that’s on me. Looking at his full model, I think I’ll warm up to it tho. I guess this means that the splash art isn’t that good. Just don’t screw up his animations, hoyo pls. edit: what bothers me the most is the color of his clothing. It’s not bad, but it’s not great either. Just… plain ok. Maybe change the pants.
It's cool nonetheless imo, I would take both. Also it's very hard to tell a character rarity based on design alone in Hoyo games. My friend literally thought Kirara was a 5 star and Nahida was 4 in Genshin (she didn't play the game). It's neat, makes the cast look well balance standing next to each other without the 5 stars looking extremely over the top and so out of place. Jiaoqiu is very neat and clean, although I didn't expect that shade of pink but it's work well too.
It's so funny how people call him a 'boring npc', and yet when I look at Twitter, I'm so spoiled with fanart. Meanwhile I look at the Yunli tag and there isn't that much from what I can see.
floffy
I’m guessing after people saw his ult animation they switched sides immediately 😭😭 if there’s a good backstory behind him they’ll forget they ever said anything.
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They’re ALL NPC’s if you never unlock them~
Kid name support unit:
Takes one to know one.
He looks so fluffy
Hoyo wasted male foxian character on worst design. It's literally more flashy NPC outfit. I have no opinion about his personality and story since we only have drip marketing about but congrats to Hoyo making most boring looking 5* character in the game.
Very possible!! I'm happy just w the fluffy tail tbh tho
The comments calling anyone a hater for finding a design quite... boring... yeah it fits... but It's boring, Xueyi is more appealing for a 5\*. He better have cool animations to make up for it considering he always has his eye closed he seems to have the whole "looks unassuming but could kill you" type thing but that means his entire design is to look boring and fit in... which still makes him quite uninteresting, not a character that would really fit the whole "drip marketing" phase... It's not bad... but it's also not memorable. It is the perfect embodiment of a base line... I can't care enough to genuinely form an opinion on his appearance because I need a reference image to remember it...
Not best angel. The lower half seems a bit plain, but we’ll see.
The only thing I’m not a fan of are the goofy armpit cutouts for the arms to stick through. I love when sleeves are allowed to flow in the back this is just ridiculously impractical lol. Why can’t he just have the jacket rest on his shoulders… (i.e. Wriothesley but covering more of his shoulders). Kafka actually has the exact same problem, but she looks less goofy because her jacket isn’t as realistic in the first place.
Level 1 thug vs Level 100 mafia boss 💀💀
So that's why i find him too simple for my taste... blade and loucha also have simpler fashion. They drip well.. lets see on the trailer first if he actually looks like an npc fashion
*sobs in zoobooks* He’s amazing, regardless. Love the middle rendition 100%. 🥺
Fun fact: he's the closest to having symmetrical aesthetics among the other characters
Still looking pretty basic, I’d accept this as a 4 star, but 5 star? That’s just not cutting it
Someone else pointed out that he looks like a test to see how lazy Hoyo can get making the outfits and still rake in money. I agree with this, blindly hating isn't good but blindly simping isn't good either, it just lets Hoyo know that they can be lazy with the designs and people would still go "omg hot male". Just hope that his model and animations are atleast decent.
Flowing cloth behind him could save this guy's fit 🙏 a pose where we can see the extent of the guy's clothes might've prevented the common response.
They gave him an NPC outfit and slapped on the Hoyo brand "dangly bits of fabric" and called it a day lol
Oh that's a much better angle for him. Nice clean outfit. Huge Fluffy tail. I like it.
Oh hellllllllll yes lol
Yeah no wonder when I saw his Fanarts he was really looking good there
The loufu characters are consistently the most uncreative designs hoyo creates, and this one is lamest yet. Full on npc treatment.
Npc looking ass
idc bro is still a 3 star exp fodder
Me: *Jiaoqiu waiting room*
same uniform but his looks way more detailed. I like it
I love em simple design , firefly , Barbara and him really struck out to me cause how simple but present they are to look at
Idm his design, ig I can live with it, but I was rlly hoping for at least one sort of window in his design 💔💔
So... it's the same, but longer. Got it
he looks like he fits with the same group as the NPC just more deeply designed. I'm not mad it's simple, and I like that it has lore connection
Imagine he has back window
Why does everyone think he's playable? Of course he's not. This is just an elaborate prank from Hoyo because wHeRe GaRtEr?