People shouldn't be punished for liking older characters

Welp, my thread yesterday got nuked by the mods. But I ain't giving up still. Thus today I'm trying a different flavor, a different approach to criticize the same issues. (Image attached is the thread from yesterday)

So, MrPokke's tweet on X today got me thinking (yes, I spent 15 mins writing this thread but whatever).

HSR has powercreep only if you're an idiot or a stupid person that doesn't know how to plan your pulls

Admittedly his phrasing is horrendous. But if we paraphrase it like this:

"HSR endgame is problematic to those that have either skill issues or just don't manage their pulls well"

Became a lot familiar right?

It's the same sentiment I'm sure not quite a few people share in this subreddit. And I agree with you guys.

Well, partially at least.

But here comes the issue(s). HSR is a 'Game'. As much as it's a Gacha, it's still a JRPG, an anime game if I must say so.

While people preference does differ a lot; it's no lie to say that a significant portion of the audience that actually play the game, play for both the characters and the gameplay.

Else, I'm sure people that only care about Gamba and Waifu will only play games like Azur Lane while people that particularly only care about the gameplay will just play triple-A games.

Thus, I believe it's disingenuous to tell the people to play an investment game, even more so when you do have to consider that HSR is a Gacha JRPG. Not competitive genre like MOBAs and shooters.

But it's also an issue to say "just pull who you like", which comes into issue due to the nature of the game. This one I've discussed yesterday; I've also added the image below.

Another issue I find with vertical investment is that; it can't keep up with the inflation. Concurrent MoC saw a 50% increase in HP compared to the last rotation. Some might say the trotters make up for it; no it doesn't.

The last MoC turbulence can deal upwards of 500k at 15 max stacks, current trotters can only deal 280k single target. Even if the trotters deal upwards of 500k for double target, it is still an equal value, not enough to counteract an entire 50% dilution to the HP pool.

Secondly, most older characters' vertical investment paths are shit. Then vertical investment path ends at E2 for most. When we need Eidolons of older characters to competitively clear the endgame in 3 cycles, imagine what kind of a shit show we might have to witness in 3.x.

When new supports come out --they will buff the new characters of the same archetype more than the old ones and thus changes nothing. When the devs decide to ignore the archetype, the older characters end up deep in the trashcan and the cycle repeats.

My tldr would be that HSR as a Gacha JRPG isn't just suitable for this kind of trajectory; well it isn't suitable for the core audience at least. I admit I'm not an expert to tell the devs how to make a game, but this is just my thoughts on why I'm having issues with the MoC.

P.S: I'm not having an issue that a Hunt character is struggling in AoE focused content. I'm finding it distasteful to see the same team perform worse against the same enemy in just a couple weeks. I'm afraid that they wouldn't be cutting it anymore in a few months.