I'm a little worried about the English writing and localization team for Honkai Star Rail after reading frankly too many of the game's item descriptions.
A lot of players were quick to flag that this RPG is unusually obsessed with trash cans, to the point that its multiple branching trash can interactions have already inspired fan art. It turns out that's just the tip of the iceberg; the more text logs you read in Honkai Star Rail, the weirder things get.
Here's a selection of item descriptions and sequestered dialogue that I've spotted in my playthrough and which other players have flagged. Buckle up, because it's gonna get weird.
- Opening a false chest: "Your hands react faster than your brain, and the moment you touch the cold surface of the chest, you pull back with difficulty. Why is this chest not yours? Why is this habitual behavior now a sin? How much of the universe is actually within your control...?"
- Inspecting a trash can: "A trash can. Once, when you were feeling down on your luck, you thought the two of you were a good match."
- Hard Chip of Nihility description: "'I don't know what I'm writing between these quotation marks. What's the point of this item description? My life is meaningless, so is this piece of flavor text.'"
- Buying food from a street vendor: "You feel thirsty and nauseous. You also complain internally about having no option in the settings to speed up the text display."
- A consumable called Sanctity of the Trash Can: "It's hard to explain why a trash can has dignity and why that dignity is so heavy."
- Inspecting a street lamp: "Spend some time on the things that might have a reward, this is only a street lamp. Why are you investigating a street lamp? It doesn't do anything."
- Inspecting another street lamp: "This street lamp will not drop items or materials, and it will not unlock a new mission."
Honkai Star Rail writers, you wrote a great protagonist everyone seems to like, but are you OK?
