History VideoGame / HonkaiStarRail

** During the various acts of the Trailblaze Mission inside Penacony Grand Theater, the player uses their Clockwork ability to adjust the emotions of mannequins to complete the story. In the third act, "Ode to Order" (representing the "future"), they attempt to use it, only to be greeted by [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul a locked emotion called "Satisfied"]], represented by Clockie strung up like a puppet and accompanied by a church bell, revealing just what [[spoiler:Sunday]] plans for all of Penacony. [[spoiler:This shows up again after the Trailblazer wakes up in the "gap" between Ena's Dream and reality, where all of the NPCs you meet are called "One Lost In Dream" and have the same "Satisfied" condition.]]

** In general, the AI really loves to use Ultimates the moment they become available as opposed to saving it later or using it more tactically to put an enemy at a disadvantage[[note]]Like removing an enemy's revival buff with Luocha's Ultimate[[/note]]. This can often result an Ultimate being wasted on an enemy who is close to dying when a basic attack or skill can finish them off instead, or the Ultimate not reaching it's highest damage potential when not used at the appropriate time[[note]]Such as waiting until enemies have a lot of [=DoT=] effects applied then detonate them with Kafka's Ultimate, or allow Jingliu to enter her special state granting a huge crit rate bonus before firing off her Ultimate[[/note]]. The exception to this are Ultimates with "Restore" tags, i.e Natasha, Bailu and Lynx, as the AI will use them if any party member falls to low health.

*** The AI's logic for Argenti is unique, considering his unique mechanic to charge his Ultimate to a 2nd level: if the party is fighting multiple enemies, he will use his Ultimate immediately whenever it's charged to the 1st level, and if there's only 1 enemy remaning (such as bosses), he will keep charging his energy to full before using his full-powered Ultimate, whose extra damage can reach great heights when used on a single target. While the latter is at least optimal, the former isn't necessarily so.
*** Trailblazer (Harmony)'s AI is identical to all other Harmony characters; i.e., they will use their Ultimate at the soonest possible opportunity to get their buff up. The problem is, Trailblazer's Backup Dancer buff provides no value if an enemy isn't Weakness Broken, and the AI casting it too early can mess with your damage output if it wastes it then is later unable to refill their Energy before an enemy is able to recover from Weakness Break.
*** The AI does not take into consideration of battle or enemy mechanics that punishes characters for unleashing skills and[=/=]or ultimates, such as Aurumaton Gatekeepers, who can buff themselves and summon Illumination Dragonfishes, and can do so sooner if player units attack with skills[=/=]ultimates.

* AssistCharacter: The ClimaxBoss fight of each major world will involve someone or something joining the fight to help during the second phase onwards. This unit will have their own Energy gauge at the right side of the screen and can use their Energy to cast an extremely powerful attack that deals HP and Toughness damage.

* AssistCharacter:

** Trailblazer is this to lesser extent. While they can't heal in battle, their technique able to heal 15% of party HP outside combat, making them your source of healing during early of the game.

* SamusIsAGirl: In the story, some of the FacelessGoons (whether it's the Silvermane Guards, Cloud Knights, or IPC Grunts) are actually female, with their always-masculine-looking armors concealing their bodies. This is lampshaded with one Cloud Knights NPC in Alchemy Commission, correcting someone who called her "sir". Taken to its extreme with [[spoiler:Stellaron Hunter Sam, when it turns out "he" is in fact just the life-support armor for Firefly, a young-looking girl.]]

** [[spoiler:The support unit for Sunday's boss battle is none other than the Astral Express itself, which can be summoned starting from Phase 2. Upon being cast, the Trailblazer and Clockie call upon the train to swoop in and crash straight through Sunday directly, inflicting massive Imaginary damage.]]

* BookEnds: [[spoiler:The Trailblazer's first and last meetings with Acheron involve Acheron posing to the Trailblazer a series of questions to which she deems the answers are meaningless. In the first encounter, the Trailblazer can choose their answers, but in their last, the answers are locked into whatever choices they chose the first time, representing their willpower and force of conviction.]]

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: A scene for the "Then Wake To Weap" mission has Robin and Sunday discussing the merits and lack thereof of the Dreamscape of Peanacony plays out somewhat like this. For Robin's part, she points out that the Dreamscape traps people in an endless cycle of running away from their problems and never truly fixing what's wrong with their lives, leaving them satisfied but stagnant. For Sunday's part, he points out some guests who quite literally can't live without the Dreamscape and that there's nothing inherently wrong with wanting to take a break from the drudgery of daily life. [[spoiler: Ultimately, Sunday takes it too far and he is stopped by the Astral Express helped partially by Robin.]]

----> '''Sampo''': To you, my dear audience, I dedicate my performance... I wonder, did I bring a little more joy into your lives?
---->''''Sampo''': ...You don't have to answer that -- but if the answer is no, then you'll break my heart.

** It ultimately turns out that the ''very first cutscene'' of Penacony is a critical piece of the puzzle in the final showdown. [[spoiler:It is revealed late into the story that Misha is functionally equivalent to a Memory Zone Meme, which means that he cannot exist anywhere outside of the Dreamscape, but your very first encounter with him is in the hotel lobby in "reality". Pointing out this contradiction allows the Trailblazer to wake up from Ena's Dream and avert disaster.]]

** A FreezeFrameBonus in Robin's trailer has users by the name of "Captain" and "Traveler" in the comments section of one of Robin's videos, with them using silhouetted icons of Kiana and Aether respectively.

** If you choose to take the NonStandardGameOver near the start of the game, or near the end of Penacony's Trailblaze Mission in 2.0, the ending is capped off with a fake credits roll with all of the characters listed as "actors" and production staff like a movie.
** [[spoiler:Played once again after defeating Sunday in Penacony and returning to the Astral Express. In this case, the situation is much more grevious, as it indicates that the heroes have fallen for a KaizoTrap, and only Black Swan's intervention is able to bring the Trailblazer to their senses and continue the mission. It is then played once more after the Astral Express and Robin defeat Sunday for real, with the credits being punctuated with obituaries for Mikhail and his Nameless companions.]]

* DiscOneFinalBoss: [[spoiler:The Disciples of Sanctus Medius turn out to not be the main players in the Stellaron incident on the ''Luofu'' and were simply manipulated into bringing the Stellaron aboard. Upon defeating their leader Dan Shu, the "Tingyun" that had been accompanying the party for the majority of the questline is revealed to be Phantylia, one of the seven Lord Ravagers of the Antimatter Legion who devised a scheme to make the Xianzhou Alliance implode upon itself by inflicting total societal collapse. The attention then turns to defeating Phantylia in order to prevent further damage to the Xianzhou Luofu and contain the Stellaron outbreak.]]
** [[spoiler:In Penacony, the boss battle with Harmonious Choir: The Great Septimus is epic, grand, and...a little too easy. After taking a victory lap around Penacony and returning to the Express to warp out, complete with credits, you and Black Swan realize...you're still stuck in the dream. Along with Acheron, you proceed to wake up and beat [=Septimus/Sunday=] for real this time.]]

* EmotionControl: In Penacony's dreamscape, the Trailblazer learns how to perform a technique called Clockwork that allows them to directly tamper with the emotions of other dreamers. Certain [=NPCs=] can be influenced in this way by changing their emotions to Calm, Angry, Happy, or Sad with the Emo Dial, with each emotion providing unique dialogue and exposition for each character. In addition, some characters' Emo Dials have been damaged due to the interference of memes; the Trailblazer can use Clockwork to repair them using Emo Gears and restore their lost emotions, opening up new sidequests that elaborate on their situations and backstories. [[spoiler:However, it has no effect on those whose wills have been seized by Ena the Order, with their Emo Dial reading "Satisfied".]]

* GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul: [[spoiler:People who have been placated by the power of Order have Emo Dials that say "Satisfied", visualized by a battered Clockie with MindControlEyes and upheld by marionette strings.]]

*** The 2.0 update added achievements named after games in the ''Honkai'' series, including "[=FlyMe2theBaloon=]", "Balloon Gakuen 2", "Balloon Impact 3rd", and "Penacony: Balloon Rail". The 2.2 update adds more balloon achievements named after key terms in ''Honkai Impact 3rd'', including "Elysian Balloon", "Second Balloon Eruption", and "A Post-Balloon Odyssey".
*** Welt tells the Trailblazer that in his world they would be rated "S-Rank", referencing the ranking system used by Valkyries.

** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_rC7OTCbEY "Then Wake to Weep"]] which is supposed to tease Penacony's arc climactic battle depicts the surprising reveal of [[spoiler: [[BigDamnHeroes Jing Yuan]] arriving to Penacony per Dan Heng's request to defeat Sunday, complete with backup from the Cloud Knights.]] While the scene does happen in the story proper, [[PlayingWithATrope the catch]] is that [[spoiler: it's all part of Ena's LotusEaterMachine where it seems that [[RedHerring Sunday is beaten too easily]], meaning that in the real world, Dan Heng never gets to use jade abacus Jing Yuan gave the Express to, resulting in [[AntiClimax Jing Yuan's total absence in the Penacony arc]].]]

* SamusIsAGirl: In the story, some of the FacelessGoons (whether it's the Silvermane Guards, Cloud Knights, or IPC Grunts) are actually female, with their always-masculine-looking armors concealing their bodies. This is lampshaded with one Cloud Knights NPC in Alchemy Commission, correcting someone who called her "sir".
** Taken to its extreme with [[spoiler:Stellaron Hunter Sam, when it turns out "he" is in fact just the life-support armor for Firefly, a young girl.]]

** The Trailblaze Mission ''And Then Came the 8th Day'' ends with [[spoiler:Aventurine contacting Jade about completing his mission in Penacony and planning to move out so the IPC can make their next move -- only for Boothill to barge in and hold him at gunpoint, asking to know the location of his superior.]]

* SpottingTheThread: Right before the FinalBoss of the Penacony arc, Black Swan recaps the major events of the plot so far and asks you to point out one detail that doesn't line up with the information you have. The answer: [[spoiler:Misha is a memetic entity, so the meeting with him in the real-life Reverie Hotel shouldn't have been possible unless you were actually already inside the Dreamscape from the very beginning.]]

* TooGoodToBeTrue: [[spoiler:The fake ending of 2.2 involves IPC, Genius Society, Intelligentsia Guild and other factions happily working together to rebuild Penacony.]] The Trailblazer even says the trope by name at one point.

** During the various acts of 2.2's penultimate chapter, the player uses their Clockwork ability to adjust the emotions of mannequins to complete the story. In the third act, "Ode to Order", they attempt to use it, only to be greeted by [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul a locked emotion called "Satisfied"]], represented by Clockie strung up like a puppet and accompanied by a church bell, revealing just what [[spoiler:Sunday]] plans for all of Penacony.

* WhamShot: After Jarilo-VI's Supreme Guardian, Cocolia grants the Trailblazers permission to search for the Stellaron, she turns around as her hands show the Stellaron signs.

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: A scene for the "Then Wake To Weap" mission has Robin and Sunday discussing the merits and lack thereof of the Dreamscape of Peanacony plays out somewhat like this. For Robin's part, she points out that the Dreamscape traps people in an endless cycle of running away from their problems and never truly fixing what's wrong with their lives, leaving them satisfied but stagnant. For Sunday's part, he points out some guests who quite literally can't live without the Dreamscape and that there's nothing inherently wrong with wanting to take a break from the drudgery of daily life. [[spoilers: Ultimately, Sunday takes it too far and he is stopped by the Astral Express helped partially by Robin.]]

** During the various acts of 2.2's penultimate chapter, the player uses their Clockwork ability to adjust the emotions of mannequins to complete the story. In the third act, "Ode to Order", they attempt to use it, only to be greeted by [[GettingSmilesPaintedOnYourSoul a locked emotion called "Satisfied"]], represented by Clockie strung up like a puppet and accompanied by a church bell, revealing just what [[spoiler:Sunday]] plans for all of Penacony.