Hyacine is the weirdest HSR character
Hyacine is an outstanding character both gameplay-wise and in the story, but she destroys the already fragile distinction between HSR character classes.
I want to talk a little bit about Honkai: Star Rail's class system. Character classes are one of my favorite features of RPGs. Having different characters serve different roles and building them accordingly as well as figuring the team compositions based on this aspect is fun. This fundamental mechanic adds an important strategic aspect to a game, but unfortunately not all games have a strict separation between classes.
The first live-service RPG that I've played is Genshin Impact, and it has a very loose class system. Character classes are not even mentioned anywhere. It has characters that can heal, characters that can add a shield and, of course, do most of the damage. Some characters can increase damage or buff certain attributes, but usually that's not the sole purpose of the character. In general, by choosing the right weapon and relic set, you can make any character the main damage dealer. If I'm not mistaken, there is even a weapon or a relic set that can give any character healing abilities.
It might sound like there's a lot of freedom and flexibility in such a system, but it makes team building a struggle. Especially for people like me, who don't like to dig into long skill descriptions. I build my teams in Genshin by selecting a healer and adding some characters that I like. As a result, my performance is terrible to this day, no matter how strong my individual characters are.
Games like Zenless Zone Zero and Punishing: Gray Raven are the opposite. They have a very strict class system. Every character can still be used on its own and do a decent amount of damage, but they all serve specific roles, and you know exactly how to compose a proper team.
Where does Honkai Start: Rail fit in all of this, and what does it have to do with Hyacine you might wonder? HSR started with a strict class system. The hunt characters were single target attackers, the destruction characters were basically tanks, the erudition characters were AoE attackers, the harmony characters — amplifiers, the nihility characters — debuffers, the preservation characters — shielders and the abundance characters — healers.
Character class system in Honkai: Star Rail
As more and more characters got released, this strict distinction started to fade, and now with the remembrance path, we have almost complete chaos. We have amplifiers that serve as secondary damage dealers, a debuffer that doesn't apply debuffs (Acheron), an AoE attacker that applies debuffs (Anaxa) and Hyacine — a healer that is not even a healer and can even serve as the main attacker. How am I supposed to build my team in HSR?
It was clear from the start that they would add new paths (classes) in the future. The remembrance path is one, but I expect to have a path for every Aeon by the end of the game. It's not necessarily a bad thing. PGR has added two new classes as well, but it must be done right. What is the point of overlapping functionality between them? The remembrance path specifically is confusing to me. It started as a funkier erudition path, but now we have Hyacine. It feels like a catch-all class. In addition to that, we already had Lingsha and Jing Yuan — two characters that can create summons, but are not of the remembrance path.
I'm not upset about Hyacine being so capable. She's a very fun and interesting character with a great design and voiced by my favorite VA (Hina Youmiya), but her weird skill set is a clear indicator that the class system in HSR has become purely symbolical. It's relevant to the lore and the story, but not as much for the gameplay. It's a bit upsetting.
