The game is widely lauded for its exceptional quality, especially considering it is a free, fan-made project. Reviewers frequently express surprise and appreciation for the high level of polish and care evident in its development, often comparing it favorably to commercial titles.
Players consistently praise the game for its fresh and innovative gameplay mechanics, offering a unique experience beyond simple reskins. The game provides a dynamic and engaging challenge with varied levels, bosses, and new units introduced progressively, keeping players highly involved.
The game successfully blends elements from Plants vs. Zombies and Honkai: Star Rail, creating a unique and innovative hybrid. It goes beyond simple reskins by integrating character traits, abilities, and lore from Honkai: Star Rail into the classic tower defense formula, enhancing the experience for fans of both IPs.
The game is well-suited for casual play, offering a moderate difficulty that is neither too easy nor overly challenging. Quality-of-life features like fast-forward and an easy mode contribute to a comfortable and accessible experience, making it ideal for passing fragmented time.
Reviewers appreciate the game's appealing and cute art style, particularly the Q-version anime character designs. The visual execution is strong, with good modeling and well-done animations that contribute to the overall charm and aesthetic quality.
Negatives:
Many players find the game's overall difficulty, especially in later stages and endless mode, to be excessively high and poorly balanced. This leads to a frustrating experience, often relying on luck rather than strategy, and can be physically tiring due to required hand speed.
The game suffers from significant performance issues, including frequent frame drops, lag, and freezing, particularly when many enemies or characters are on screen. This negatively impacts the gameplay experience, especially on lower-spec PCs.
The user interface is often unclear, making it difficult to navigate level selection, understand character functions, or access character information. This lack of clarity hinders player understanding and decision-making, contributing to a less intuitive experience.
Several specific mechanics are problematic, such as the randomness and design of 'smash pots' and the ineffectiveness of 'Ash' cards against certain enemies. There are also critical bugs like monsters getting stuck and save files disappearing, alongside issues with resource management and misleading in-game information.
The game is criticized for its limited content, including a short duration and too few levels. Additionally, the lack of English language support and achievements restricts accessibility and engagement for a broader audience.
Gameplay:
The game's core mechanics, such as lane-based defense, resource collection (Stellar Jades instead of sunlight), and character placement, are widely noted as being a direct adaptation or reskin of Plants vs. Zombies, but set in the Honkai Star Rail universe.
The game features an endless roguelike mode, which contributes to replayability. Difficulty is often achieved through stacking waves of monsters and unique enemy types with instant-kill, reflect, or area-explosion abilities.
Players found the game's difficulty to be significant, particularly in later stages, with an increasing number of tasks and a fast pace that can make it hard to keep up. Some "developer" levels were noted as having lowered difficulty.
The "Defend the Space Station" level presents a unique challenge, requiring players to manage two front lines simultaneously against a third-party enemy, often necessitating a split offensive/defensive strategy.
Unlike some other tower defense games, conveyor belts are a permanent and integrated feature in normal levels, influencing strategy, especially in faster-paced levels like 42.
Performance:
Players frequently experience significant frame rate drops, lag, and stuttering when a large number of enemies or characters are present on screen. This performance degradation is particularly noticeable in later levels and dense combat scenarios, affecting even high-end systems.
Recommendations:
Players express a strong desire for ongoing game development, including new levels (fog, water, night), characters (air units), mini-games, and specific content updates (Penacony). There's also an observation that the developer seems to plan continuous updates.
The game is frequently recommended for its ability to fill short periods of boredom and serve as a casual time-killer. It's seen as a good option for quick play sessions.
Many reviewers highly recommend the game, expressing overall positive sentiment and suggesting it's a "must-play" or "worth trying." This is supported by high numerical ratings.
Reviewers consistently suggest that the game's difficulty levels need adjustment to provide a more balanced and enjoyable experience. This is a specific area for improvement.
There is a clear request for the game to be translated into other languages, indicating a barrier for non-native speakers and a desire for broader accessibility.
Miscellaneous:
Players frequently express a strong desire for continued game updates, including new characters (e.g., Xianzhou, Stellaron Hunters), tutorials, and general improvements, indicating engagement and hope for the game's longevity.
Many reviews highlight that the game is a free, fan-made creation, often implying that its completeness is acceptable given this context. This characteristic is a significant positive for players.
Reviewers provided concrete suggestions for quality-of-life improvements and new mechanics, such as a time stop button, custom hotkeys, a more noticeable mouse cursor, and a save feature for roguelike mode. These are highly actionable.
A specific request was made for an English translation, even if it's an automatic one, suggesting a desire for broader accessibility.
The game is noted as being very suitable for playing during fragmented periods, indicating it's a good casual experience.