Is Honkai Star Rail the first AAA turn-based RPG in over a decade?

Honkai Star Rail is on the horizon and it could be the first AAA Turn Based RPG since Final Fantasy 13.

[blackblades]

AAA RPG gatcha game

[Godmars290]

Came here just to say that.

[Seraphim]

true that. idk where these guys have been but Dragon Quest XI and Persona V send their regards. I don't give a shit if their budget was only $10, those two games are top tier, AAA titles that, last time I checked and played, are turn based.

Anyhoo, I really wish Honkai Rail was a full fledged retail release, not F2P. I'll likely check it out but the whole F2P, gatcha, mtx type stuff just isn't interesting to me. All that bs deters me from being able to enjoy and dig into these games. 2 cents

[banger88]

I would much rather have a full, complete retail release than this gacha crap. F*** this "free to play" crap!

[Grilla]

Without the gatcha we wouldn’t get regular content updates.

[blackblades]

That's true for the gatch game if that's what you mean. Like genshin impact you dont have to do the dailies etc. You can basically play it for years because of the free content side stories, main stories, new playstyle of characters etc... Only different is genshin is action and not turn base which could get stale faster.

[thejigisup]

Not every game needs "regular" content updates. I think most gamers are hair with full fledged games that promise a full story and experience and are willing to spend on good dlc.
Borderlands had regular content updates and a full on campaign with heavy multiplayer elements. These companies are how easy it is to exploit their audience with microtransactions and go the gatcha route because it's easy money.

[blackblades]

@thejig yeah Full games with a ending is better with a ending and more fleshed out game. Gatcha I would say if you ignore the problems people have with it. Its good cause you never have to buy anything or do dailies everyday and play for the story and gameplay. It could last for years of free content but also get stale thats when you take a break. Thats why after a year of genshin I'm done for now. They could always at the end make it to a regular game with all the content without the gatcha mechs.

[antikbaka]

with gacha your game will never end and servers will just shut down one day

[antikbaka]

and this game will never end and have a satisfying conclusion. It's always a race to get your money

[Abriael]

Funny to see people making up an arbitrary definition for a completely informal term to make a point that doesn't exist. 😂

[Godmars290]

Well, AAA is suppose to be a gauge of production value if not actual production quality. And by all counts studio and publisher are taking what's been learned from prior games, applying as well as improving on that, versus something like Square Enix starting from scratch on even game engines.

[shinoff2183]

I was checking this out a week or so ago. Really interested then I seen what I was. Damn.

[FallenAngel1984]

So Pokémon, Persona 5, Fire Emblem: Engage, Dragon Quest XI and various other obvious examples don’t exist?

[goldwyncq]

None of those games are AAA.

AAA is a term used to measure a game's production value, not its quality.

[CrimsonWing69]

How are those not AAA?

[aws04]

If honkai starrail is AAA, I think most of games that he listed can be called AAA.

[jambola]

can you give the number?
or is it arbitrary subjective nonsense?

[sadraiden]

As someone known for their bad gaming takes, I award you "Worst Gaming Take of 2023".

[DarkZane]

@goldwyncq

I am pretty sure all the games he named are more AAA than Honkai Star Rail, both in quality and production value.

In fact, Honkai Star Rail doesn't have the production value of an AAA game. Neither does Genshin Impact.

[goldwyncq]

@Zane

You have no idea what you’re babbling about. Genshin’s development costs $200 million per year.

[FallenAngel1984]

@ gold

And Honkai is AAA?

Dude this whole topic is messed up.

[goldwyncq]

It's a live service game from the creators of Genshin Impact so of course it's a AAA project. How else are they going to spend the next few years rolling out content if they don't have the funds?

Again, quality has nothing to do with a game's designation as AAA. It's got everything to do with the budget allocated for its development.

[FallenAngel1984]

Many of those titles do have big budgets

I’m not going to pretend that we haven’t had any big budget turn based game since 2009

[GoodGuy09]

It's just unfortunate it's...an online gacha game. I wish Mihoyo would just make a complete singleplayer offline game for once.

[PapaBop]

They'll never make a non gacha game, have you seen how much gacha games charge? I'm not sure how it all started or when gamers found the pricing acceptable but they make season passes and dlc look like an absolute steal. A successful gacha game is going to be infinitely more profitable than a single player retail game.

[Steelerman]

Yakuza 7 just doesn’t exist apparently? And yes that is AAA

[lio_convoy]

I don't think this game has the budget of a AAA game. If it's f2p, I'll probably add it to my collection, play 10-50 hours, spend nothing on it and then put it down and move on to something else like I did Genshin Impact. Too many other games out there to get bogged down by one and I refuse to pay anything into these schemes designed to suck hundreds of dollars out of someone's wallet. It's greasy.

[antikbaka]

f2p shit is still f2p shit

[vTuro24]

The game looks great. It's a shame that it's just more gacha shit so I'll never play it.

[BrainSyphoned]

Such crap trying to make AAA all about the money. It is the value of the talent behind the game first and foremost tied in with the cash flow second. If Sony takes their best people then gives them 45$ million and Amazon rehires a bunch of laid off warehouse workers who just learned to code and gives them 75$ million to produce a game which one is AAA? Does a game that has been in development hell for more years than its worth suddenly become AAA because of extended development costs? If a author and indie developer land a huge cash fall on Kickstarter does it instantly make that indie developer a AAA studio? Bunch of rubbish to set your standards of quality as monetary value alone but completely unsurprising.

[gold_drake]

sure
but gatcha games are shit

[sadraiden]

Games journalism is such AIDS. It's easy to get clicks when you write objectively incorrect bullshit.

[Demetrius]

Not into turn based combat it gets very boring to me but it’s still good there are others that enjoy it

[chobit_A5HL3Y]

i like gatcha but i'm not paying for it lol if you just unlocked ALL in-game currency through playing quests and side-side stuff, then i'd be fine, imo. i'd never pay for extra rolls, though.

[Elda]

I was interested until I found out it's a f2p gacha game. A pass.

[Deathdeliverer]

I’m normally not into gacha, it’s what I love about marvel snap. This game however… I’m oddly hype about. I will be playing this one. I love the constant support of games like Fortnite, smite, Genshin (watching my friend play through SharePlay at times), and others. None of that would be possible without the money people give on gacha. It’s a necessary evil that took me a while to understand. Or rather, it took me some time to see free to play games that actually looked like the money was being reinvested until the titles I mentioned. I will be there day one.

[SimpleSlave]

AAA? HAHAHAHAHAHA...Good one. Are we now including the CEO's End of the Year bonus into the term now?

Wait. We are? Oh...Gacha. 👍

[TheEnigma313]

People really don't know what AAA games are