Gacha players around the globe are feeling their wallets fade away into nothingness this past week as Honkai Star Rail has soared into popularity. It’s made by the same people who made Genshin Impact, Hoyoverse, and say whatever you want about gachas (I know I do) but those fuckers just know how to make addicting gameplay with combat that has layers upon layers. While I was initially planning to ignore Star Rail as it’s turn based and I’m busy enough with Genshin as it is, sadly I couldn’t resist signing up for the early bonuses and to see how it compares to their other blockbuster hit. I’m not deep enough to give a full review yet, but some people are already claiming it’s way better than Genshin Impact. Why you may ask? Because there’s no Paimon.

Paimon is the infamous mascot character of Genshin that is a pretty divisive figure in the community. Some people find her cute, however a large amount argue she’s annoying and grates your nerves. I can see both sides. That being said, claiming that Star Rail is immediately better or worse because of Paimon is obviously a meme-fueled take that holds no real substance, but I was surprised at the sheer amount of people calling for head on a stake. One thing I think most people can agree on is that she was dumbed down way too much. If you analyze her dialogue in the beginning, she will say stuff like “Following the wind Archon’s blessing may prove difficult, but no challenge is too much to stop the reuniting of siblings, right? Let’s head into that town over there.” Nowadays we’re much more accustomed to “Wow! Is that a big tree over there! Let’s check it out! There may be food, hee hee!”. Essentially she serves the same purpose yet without the original tact and intelligence of the game’s beginning.

The most valuable input you can expect from current Paimon.

Regardless, her character isn’t enough to stop me from playing though I do find it fascinating to see a character change and be dumb-downed in real time. Still Honkai Star Rail has its own damn mascot character so we’ll see how that goes. So far it’s a mature bunny that gets shit done but give it a few updates and we may see the bunny get its brain mutilated. You know it’s crazy how many anime games have mascot characters these days. That may need to be an article in of itself, because it sure seems like little anime animals have run rampant since Persona 5. Have you ever dealt with Paimon’s character? Have you tried out Honkai Star Rail? Why are mascot characters so popular right now? Play the tutorial, analyze the enemy’s weakness, and then have some midget mascot tell you what to do anyway in the comments below!