Overall I really enjoyed this patch. Its just the start, and there is still plenty of room for it to shit the bed, but if it keeps up this momentum it could end up being the best arc in Star Rail yet!
The story also has a lot of moving parts involving Himeko, Sunday, and Silver Wolf, all of whom really need the attention. Everything involving Himeko so far has me especially excited to see where it goes.
Both Ashveil and Yao Guang are really fun characters so far, much moreso than I expected. Not too sure how to feel about Pearl yet.
Evanescia is also pretty fun, curious about what her true role is. Amazed that she isn't a Yae variant, but is actually Rin, her sister!
The story itself starts out strong. Sparxie works very well as the starting villain here, and it served Sparkle's character in ways I didn't expect. I've never been the biggest Sparkle fan, but this worked really well in making me like her a bit more.
Planarcadia is a pretty typical modern city setting with a bunch of goofy shit plastered over it and it just... works. Its genuinely fun to run around and interact with all the imaginae. The minigames are also the best in the game so far to me.
Pretty surprised by how much I enjoyed HSR 4.0. Amphoreus burned me pretty hard by the end but Planarcadia had a pretty solid start and is setting up A LOT of things for this storyline, most of which I'm really looking forward to.
Helps that the location itself is fun too.
[Winter 2026 Anime Review]
Cosmic Princess Kaguya!
A delightful original movie putting a new VTuber spin on The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. Its absolutely gorgeous and the main duo has great chemistry! Iroha is also... painfully relatable. Just wish it fully committed to the yuri.
9/10
Overall, this was just mid. The story on paper is still there, but it doesn't benefit from this adaptation at all. I don't think its a crime against humanity like some, but its definitely not worth anyone's time.
5/10
I kinda respect that this adaptation seemed to be going for something more grounded but it just doesn't work here. I do kinda like the artstyle but the art and animation get pretty rough at times. I did like the amusement park episode though, that was pretty fun.
Not entirely sure how different Arcueid is in this compared to the OG VN, but compared to the remake she's not nearly as fun. She's still a bit of an airhead, but she's mostly stoic all throughout. Shiki is also just bland and boring which results in these characters having no chemistry at all.
[Off-Season Anime Review]
Lunar Legend Tsukihime
All I knew about this adaptation going in is that people treat it like its so bad that it doesn't exist... I don't think its *that* bad, but its still not very good. That said, I haven't read the original VN and have only read the remake.
[Fall 2025 Anime Review]
Umamusume: Cinderella Gray
An incredible adaptation of one of my personal favorite manga. One of the best sports anime in recent years. No description I can give it can do it justice.
Watch it.
10/10
[Fall 2025 Anime Review]
SANDA
A Christmas-themed battle shonen by the creator of Beastars. A descendant of Santa Claus has to use his hidden power to overthrow a youth-centric society and revive Christmas. One of the most unique shows this year and its a very worthwhile watch.
9/10
[Fall 2025 Anime Review]
This Monster Wants to Eat Me
A yuri horror romance about a girl with survivor's guilt and the mermaid monster who wants to eat her. Dark story with themes of self-harm, but it really depicts those themes very well. Miko is best girl.
8/10
[Fall 2025 Anime Review]
Yano-kun's Ordinary Days
Romcom about a klutz that is constantly getting into accidents and a girl who is always there to patch him up. Not much to say except that its cute, funny, and might have the best handling of a love triangle that I've seen in a while.
8/10
[Fall 2025 Anime Review]
A Star Brighter Than the Sun
A very simple and straightforward shoujo romance. Doesn't do anything particularly unique, but I found myself fully invested in these two idiots. Its very cute and the characters are super fun!
8/10
[Fall 2025 Anime Review]
My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s
I expected yet another garbage isekai, but was pleasantly surprised by the solid character writing and *gorgeous* art. Unfortunately, not really on board with the direction the story is going by the end.
7/10
I do want more ambitious stories from HSR but I hope that they don’t do a storyline like this one for a long time until they *really* work out what they want to do. I know that the people working on this game are definitely capable of delivering something special… this just wasn’t it, chief.
Amphoreus overall isn’t a bad arc per say but its many issues drag down the good qualities it actually has. Its clear that the devs wanted to tell a story as ambitious and as compelling as Elysian Realm but they clearly were not ready to tell a story of that level.
As for the other Chrysos Heirs… they are, also, a mixed bag. Each one gets time dedicated to them in a patch, but only some of them actually flesh out the characters effectively. I like most of the Heirs on a surface level but I didn’t really get attached to them aside from a select few.
Unlike all the other variants in the game, who have unique designs that make them distinguishable from their counterparts, Cyrene's design is strikingly similar to Elysia's to the point that I have trouble telling them apart when scrolling through fanart.
Cyrene is a bland, underdeveloped, dollar store knock off of one of the best characters ever created by MiHoYo. She has no connection to any of the cast (aside from the Trailblazer, because of course) and she just ends up being a very marketable McGuffin for beating the bad guy and ending the story.
Amazingly, while Phainon works brilliantly as an homage to Kevin, Cyrene fails at being an homage to Elysia in just about every way possible, from her character to her design.
Star Rail already has issues with treating its blank self-insert protagonist as the "chosen one" in nearly all of its storylines but this is just so much worse than what came before since it is so blatantly at the expense of another character... the BEST character in the story.
This makes Amphoreus all the more frustrating when he is effectively removed from the second half of the story and the Trailblazer is forced to fill his spot as the "Deliverer".
Phainon is far and away the best character in Amphoreus if not the best original character in Star Rail. Despite being a variant of Kevin from HI3, he manages to stand tall as a character all on his own while still being a fantastic homage to Kevin.
I've already said my piece about the main story quests but overall they are a mixed bag. Most are pretty dragged out but I do think they get a bit better paced as it goes on. The big setpieces are incredible though, some of the best in the game so far.
Amphoreus itself is a pretty neat world with a good variety of environments, especially when compared to the other worlds in HSR currently. Exploring those environments, however varies between "kinda fun" and "tedious", though you could argue this is a problem with HSR as a whole.
A lot of Amphoreus works well on paper but it screws up a lot of its execution. It is super ambitious, but its WAY too long, the pacing is mostly awful, and half of the new characters are either underbaked or underutilized. On top of that, these are problems that Penacony mostly managed to avoid.
FINALLY feeling up to getting out my thoughts on Amphoreus as a whole...
