Why I'm Not Excited About Honkai: Star Rail's Dating Sim Leaks

Summary The rumored dating sim mode in Honkai: Star Rail is likely limited like Genshin Impact's Hangout missions.

It is unlikely that characters in HSR will be fully romanceable due to the game's structure and potential drawbacks.

Introducing a full romance system in HSR may lead to bland interactions and block certain players of some experiences.

There is a new leak about a possible dating sim game mode in Honkai: Star Rail and, given developer HoYoverse’s previous endeavor into the genre within another game, I am not particularly excited about how it will turn out. Dating sims are a romance-based genre of games that allows players to meet characters and, if there is an interest in doing so, strike up romantic relationships with them throughout the larger narrative. HoYoverse has an entire visual novel dedicated to it called Tears of Themis, but it seems a portion of the mode will be incorporated into the turn-based RPG.

According to information provided by the leaker known as Ubatcha, which was shared in a post tagged as “Reliable” on Reddit, an upcoming update for Honkai: Star Rail may incorporate a date-like mode. The leak says that players will be able to go on a date with Robin and that the leaker anticipated it would arrive in Version 2.4. However, with the content not being available in the current patch, it is likely it got pushed into another future patch. The leak mentions that players will travel with Robin to Herta Space Station and another familiar yet unspecified location.

Dating Aspects May Not Fit Into Honkai: Star Rail

HoYoverse Has Already Explored The Mode In Genshin Impact

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Because the turn-based RPG will likely not embrace a fully-fledged visual novel gameplay style, the rumored dating sim mode for Honkai: Star Rail will probably be limited. The precedent set by HoYoverse is the Hangout missions available in Genshin Impact, another game by the developer. In Hangouts, players are able to spend some time with the character from the respective quest and explore multiple endings to the story based on their choices throughout the mission. This is standard protocol in dating sims, but the main difference is that none of the Genshin Impact characters are actually romanceable.

Instead, players are bound by the confines of their friendly relationship with the existing characters. It is very probable that the characters from Honkai: Star Rail will follow the same structure that the ones do in Genshin Impact and, as such, will not be romanceable either. It is great to spend time with certain characters and get to know more about them, but under the premise of a visual novel, which is known for the development of relationships, often to a romantic pattern, the lack of it in Genshin Impact is daunting – and this will likely be the case in HSR.

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The rumored date between Robin and the Trailblazer will most likely be a friendly one, even if there are some nods of acknowledgment toward mutual interest between the characters. As such, players may have to content themselves with a whole new set of missions that tease romance possibilities and never actually reach them – and that is deeply upsetting to me. The odds of characters actually being romanceable in Honkai: Star Rail are very slim for the same reasons they are not romanceable in Genshin Impact.

Related Honkai: Star Rail Leaks Are Great News For Powercrept Characters Developer HoYoverse may be planning on dealing with powercreep releases with a creative, yet still limited and unstable plan in Honkai: Star Rail.

Why Characters In Honkai: Star Rail Will Never Be Fully Romanceable

There’s A Plethora Of Reasons Why You Could Never Romance HSR Characters

It is likely that characters in the turn-based RPG will never be fully romanceable. The first reason is that the game has a large and ever-expanding roster of units that could make choosing a romantic partner extremely complicated, especially if it leans into monogamous relationships. If players pick a romantic partner in Version 2.5, for instance, they could possibly be locked out from other more interesting options that are released in future updates. This would require some sort of break-up mechanic or simply embracing a non-monogamous structure in Honkai: Star Rail, which may not please all players.

Furthermore, the creation of a romance system could possibly transform characters that are otherwise interesting into mere romanceable partners that repeat the same type of lines and interactions. This has happened in several types of games, such as Skyrim. Despite their structural gameplay flaws, characters like the companion Lydia in Skyrim are interesting to have around, but become extremely bland once they are romanced and affixed to take care of the home and children – and that would be inexcusable in Honkai: Star Rail.

Additionally, characters in the game hardly ever have their ages revealed while others are explicitly children, and this could lead to criminal types of setups between characters. Avoiding it altogether allows for a safer experience.

The other main reason is that players can control either a male or female Trailblazer. Gay relationships should never be a problem, but HoYoverse is a Chinese company. The state still struggles with anti-LGBT-positive policies and, even if it is improving, LGBT relationships are still censored by the country’s legislation. As such, the developer would have to develop a system to recognize male and female Trailblazers and create gender-specific mission outcomes in Honkai: Star Rail based on that, only allowing male Trailblazers to date female characters and female Trailblazers to date male characters.

The idea behind the game, however, is to provide a seamless experience for all players, with no distinction based on gender, and, as such, fully-fledged romance is automatically impossible within its structure – half of the players would be blocked out of certain interactions, whereas the other would be blocked out of another set of mission outcomes. This makes it completely unreasonable. The compilation of reasons makes it highly unlikely that players will ever be able to truly date characters in Honkai: Star Rail and that is both somewhat satisfying and upsetting.

The idea of Hangout-structured missions in the game does not attract me too much, as it is my least favorite type of quest in Genshin Impact. Surely, there are great moments with some outstanding characters, but it can be horribly bland. This is especially true when you are replaying the mission to reach all the endings to ensure all the rewards, including Primogems. If this structure is repeated within Honkai: Star Rail, I might see myself skipping the activity altogether based on how much I like a character or not.

For now, however, the leak should be taken with caution. Seeing it was predicted for Version 2.4 and it didn’t arrive means it may still be in development and fine-tuning. This could result in a better Hangout-like experience overall, allowing players to get to know some characters better without having to go through some tedious and bland interactions. Even so, I am not particularly sold on a visual novel mode inside Honkai: Star Rail and would rather replay a game like Hatoful Boyfriend all over again.

Source: Reddit