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Infamous writer has Honkai: Star Rail fans fear for their favorite characters

“Just trust me”

Marco Wutz

Infamous writer has Honkai: Star Rail fans fear for their favorite characters
Infamous writer has Honkai: Star Rail fans fear for their favorite characters /

Players of Honkai: Star Rail couldn’t be more excited about the upcoming update 2.0 after the riotous developer livestream. However, one particular HoYoverse staff member has made all Honkai Impact 3rd veterans among the fan base a little bit nervous with his appearance.

Hosting the first half of the program alongside HoYoverse CEO Dawei was Honkai franchise writer Shaoji, the creative mind behind one of the most infamous story arcs in Honkai Impact 3rd and something of a troll when it comes to setting players up for an emotional rollercoaster. I guess one might describe him as HoYoverse’s George R. R. Martin, if you know what I mean.

Do not trust what this man says under any circumstances / HoYoverse

Shaoji gave us some insight into the lore of Penacony and what players may be able to expect from the upcoming story arc. “The tone of Penacony’s story is actually very heartwarming and very uplifting,” Shaoji explained. Dawei, who’s been on enough livestreams with Shaoji to know better than to trust him, commented this with: “Why do I not believe you?”

Why, indeed? See, Shaoji said pretty much the same thing in a stream regarding Honkai Impact 3rd in the past, calling the game’s upcoming story arc “positive and wholesome.” What followed was a narrative full of misery and death with a large majority of the characters – or at least their versions alive at the time – being killed off in a brutal manner. That’s the infamous Elysian Realms story.

One character, Raiden Mei, had her heart ripped out during this arc, which the cheeky writer even referenced during this Honkai: Star Rail stream, though it isn’t really apparent from the English subtitles. When the subs read “deep friendships will be formed,” and Shaoji corrects himself to “I mean, open-minded conversations will follow,” the Chinese wording used is apparently an idiom about removing one’s heart – hence Dawei’s excited reaction.

So yeah, when this man tells you what a “very heartwarming and very uplifting” story he cooked, be afraid. Don’t get attached to anyone you meet on Penacony. Start detaching yourself from our beloved Astral Express crew members as well, because they might get caught in the crossfire.

It's going to be a fun ride.

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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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