Honkai: Star Rail’s Version 3.4 update launched with its highly anticipated Fate/Stay Night collaboration, which has elicited a wide range of reactions from the gaming community. While some players appreciated the integration of iconic Fate characters into the Star Rail universe, many expressed disappointment over various aspects of the event.
As one such player, I’ll be getting into a few reasons why I found this event to be a letdown – and a missed opportunity for Honkai: Star Rail.
Before we get into the actual event, I should preface that this collaboration was first teased in 2024, meaning players had waited a whole year to see it come to fruition. These expectations were made even higher thanks to Honkai Impact 3rd’s excellent collaboration with Neon Genesis Evangelion, which had given players an exciting storyline and fun content to enjoy.
As a result, player expectations were sky-high when Honkai: Star Rail’s collaboration storyline, titled Sweet Dreams and the Holy Grail, finally dropped. The event centers around a Holy Grail War taking place in Penacony, which should have been interesting premise for a crossover. However, many players ended up finding its narrative shallow and disengaging.
A common issue most players had was with the game’s overuse of the silent film format, where characters would communicate with one another through subtitles instead of spoken dialogue. While this was funny at first, it soon became grating as the gimmick unnecessarily prolonged the experience, making it glaringly obvious that this was less of a storytelling decision and more about saving on voice acting costs.
The pacing and character development also drew criticism, especially regarding the Fate characters. Many noted that Saber and Archer appeared underdeveloped compared to their original portrayals. This was not helped by the constant reuse of existing assets, such as Phainon’s hometown being repurposed as “Britain”, which took me out of the story they were trying to tell.
Combined with an unintentionally goofy summoning ritual, an unserious Holy Grail War without an actual ‘War,’ and moments where I found myself looking at nothing but black screen and white text, it’s no surprise that many players, including myself, questioned this collaboration. I even found myself asking, ‘Did Nasu really supervise this?‘
While some of these cost-cutting measures might have been understandable for a smaller game, it’s definitely harder to excuse from a title that regularly pulls in hundreds of millions of dollars on each banner. Just to prove my point, the Phainon/Fate banner alone is expected to generate over $200 million for the company.
Now, at this point I should mention something I did like about the collaboration: how the introduction of Saber and Archer as playable characters brought new gameplay elements to Star Rail.
Saber is a five-star Wind attacker on the Destruction path, who offers a unique playstyle emphasizing Core Resonance mechanics for enhanced damage output and energy regeneration. On the other hand, Archer introduces strategic skill point management, requiring players to tactfully utilize resources during combat. I’m especially satisfied with Archer’s interesting kit, as he is fun to play, with a lot of room for experimentation.
However, while I did appreciate seeing some of my favourite Fate characters being integrated into Star Rail, I still wished that it could have come with an adaptation that did the original material justice. As a Fate fan, I’m worried that this event’s success may come at the cost of the series’ reputation, as newer fans, unfamiliar with the Fate universe, may now associate the franchise with a subpar experience.
It also raises concerns about whether future Honkai: Star Rail collaborations will follow a similar path, with the developers seemingly creating compelling character kits to entice players to pull, only to deliver lackluster content around those characters.
Ultimately, to me, this collaboration felt like an attempt to squeeze players’ wallets without offering the expected value. I can only hope that any future Honkai: Star Rail crossover events will be able to take fans’ feedback to heart and improve from here.
Did you agree with anything I said – or do you have a different opinion? Let us know in the comments!
