Honkai Star Rail fans have had enough of one character becoming the “dev’s punchbag” after a series of unfortunate shorts.
Along with constant updates, and tons of characters, Honkai Star Rail comes with plenty of unique stories. These are usually highly received by fans, with many labeling the recent Kafka trailer “absolutely beautiful” and tons more praising the quests dotted around the game.
However, along with the stunning visuals and insane soundtrack, some fans have spotted a rather unlucky character placed within certain storylines and quests. Poor Yanqing seems to meet the losing side of a battle on countless occasions, with fans now joking he’s “the dev’s punchbag.”
Honkai Star Rail fans slam devs for Yanqing fights: “It’s bullying”
Posting onto Reddit, one Honkai Star Rail player revealed their thoughts about Yanqings experiences, stating “At this point, it’s bullying” and attaching an image explaining how “putting Yanqing into 3 stories and make him get beaten up is not a good character writing.”
Along with the image, they went on to explain their thought process: “The first two times are understandable because he is not aware of Jingliu’s existence and he was being cocky so he got disciplined by her and he was doing his job of confiscating both Blade and Dan IL and this time, he learnt some tricks from Jingliu which we can see that he did learn and improve his skills”
They continued to show where they drew the line, highlighting how “the Kafka one is unnecessary. It gives him no character development, he only appears for 3 minutes and he has no role in the story. He is only there to be a punching bag.”
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Shortly after posting, thousands of players seemed to agree, with the post getting 3,000 upvotes at the time of writing and over 350 comments.
One player highlighted the Kafka quest and how odd it felt to include poor Yanqing, commenting how “it almost felt like a parody when he showed up during Kafka’s quest. Just randomly walked by and got beat up.”
Another fan agreed with the OP, explaining how they understood the first two times “but the 3rd time, they had the perfect opportunity to make him choose to not fight and show that he understands that he is outclassed, but instead they decided to make [him] the punching bag again.” Showing their confusion and frustration with the characters’ constant fate.
Despite hundreds of comments agreeing with the statement, one user summed up the communities thoughts perfectly: “he does feel like the dev’s punchbag at this point.”
While it’s easy to explain away his first few stories, it’s clear the Kafka questline was the final straw for many fans who are now calling for justice for the rather unfortunate Yanqing. Who knows, maybe he’ll get his very own storyline soon.
