@yurimiracle7768

as a 3+ years old genshin player I can say that I have never felt that I have to get that character or I'm doomed. People clear abyss 12 with ganyu or yoims to this day just fine
And hsr.. if you don't have specific or new shiny character you suck. Hsr just forces you to pull a shit ton of characters and it is not like "without x char it will be hard but doable" it is like "you get x character or you get fucked". You can get Acheron and FF and brute force MOC but you still will suck in PF because it wants completely different chars which often perform way worse in other gamemodes. And illusion mode just sucks anyway

@DC-no3vi

I hate when someone says that "oh why do you care, its just a few extra jades". It's not about the rewards, it's about getting the full experience as a player, the way the game is intended to be experienced. If you're locked out of that just because you didn't pull for the new shiny character it's an issue. But players will eventually catch on and they will ask themselves "whats the point of grinding for hours or spending hundreads of dollars for a character just for them to be replaced a few months down the road". The characters are just too expensive for it to be okay that they just keep moving the goalpost in favor of whoever is the new release.

@kennibal666

Powercreep in HSR is significantly higher than Genshin. I love firefly, so I paid my way to C2 + signature lightcone and she trivializes content for me. Ironically, just before that, I got Acheron and thought I'll never switch her out for SU because she is just so convenient to use. But they changed how SU works so I don't even need to use Acheron. lol

But I still use my queen Jingliu.

@brytonwhitforddeazevedo1013

Earned a sub for keeping it real.

Came to HSR recently (about 2 months ago now) and coming from other games like Limbus Company, Arknights, Girls Frontline, Kancolle, etc 
The powercreep in HSR is actually unreal. It's fast. Like it's insane to think that Gepard was once considered a premier sustain unit and then you compare hm to Fu Xuan, or, god forbid, Aventurine, and you can see why nobody wants to use him anymore. 

It's not just shield units either. It's EVERY role in this game. Bailu was considered amazing at launch, now you look at the upcoming Lingsha who basically just does everything Bailu does, plus more damage, more frequent heals, cleanses, and what do they actually lose to Bailu? A one time rez? Yeah Imma keep it real, the rez isn't outdoing all the other stuff Lingsha can just do as a base.

EVen Feixiao. So good that she immediately toped tierlists. I have her. Everytime when I play her (like all the time) I'm forced to ask myself "okay she does assloads of damage, great. But did she REALLY need type-agnostic break on her ultimate to make her good?" and the answer is no. She just has that because of ?????? reasons.

I've seen the defense that "well HSR is a gacha so the new character always needs to be better than previous characters" and that's a bad defense and it literally isn't even true. Best example, Limbus Company straight up doesn't have powercreep. Kits get more expansive, by a huge degree, too. But Rabbit Heathcliff, a day 1 ID, is still a top 3 unit. Nclair, a month 1 unit, is still top 5. You can have a gacha and avoid powercreep if you design your game with futureproofing in mind, sadly, HSR failed to do so.

The main issue is that it stems from the games relative simplicity. Units have gotten more tools to their kits but they've never really become harder of easier to use. So the only real way to make them stand apart is to just feature creep the hell out of roles. Like  Lingsha can straight up be built as a sub DPS for AOE damage. And she's an Abundance unit.

@karuy988

How I see this, Acheron is the breakpoint of the ''Chen alter era''(inflexion point of arknights powercreep) when they start shamelessly introducing new cashgrab units

@yara-fs5yl

my main problem with powercreep is how quickly it happens like every dps gets at most a few patches before they’re powercrept already (like not even a year) and at some point you feel forced to pull for newer units even if u don’t like them. the game is forcing u to pull for all types of units because if you don’t they’ll make a new gameplay mode that needs those units and you’ll probably suffer without them.. “just don’t do it” then what’s the point? hsr isn’t open world and we barely get any events and the story is doable in a few hours then it’s just 40 days of nothing until the next update. don’t get me started on how most dps units need their lcs or e1/e2 to also be good so it’s not just get e0s0 characters it’s get e0s1 and if possible go for e1/2s1 it’s getting ridiculous even as a low spender i can’t keep up

@MisfortuneOvertune

i usually only pull for characters i like and right now even with an acheron with her sig LC and with pretty good stats im still suffering in end game cuz of the inflated hp on these enemies, it honestly pisses me off sometimes because back then, in 1.6 or 2.0 i could clear MoC or PF without any issues, skipped jade? boom, PF is insanely hard, skipped firefly? good luck ever clearing MoC again. i invested a lot into my IL too and he cant even keep up anymore as his damage compared to the newer characters is just not cutting it. i already gave up on MoC because of this a long time ago though. but it isnt fun anymore to use my fav dpses like clara or seele who i've mained since 1.0. but the new yunli did make clara's playstyle more fun which was what i enjoyed about clara, just sitting back and countering all the time. still though, imo your concerns are valid.

@Truck-kun11

Good video, especially for a first attempt.  

When it comes to powercreep, characters getting stronger and stronger is inevitable, but what irritates me is how the content is so absurdly biased in favor of the new characters that if you don't have them or a character that works in a similar way, you're fighting a uphill battle.  

It's one thing for the new character to have an advantage to sell better and another for him to practically unlock easy mode and trivialize the content and I know this because as soon as I got Firefly Apocalypse Shadow became a joke with me just not getting all the stars because I don't have Ruam Mei

@amai7157

Thank you for talking about this issue. I'm a 4 year Genshin veteran myself and just recently I was able to clear Abyss 12 without problems with my C6 Noelle - I would talk about my Imaginarium Theatre experience as well but it's not as relevant - the point is, I can clear Genshin Endgame with my favorite characters just fine. I don't even have Arleccino or Neuvilette!

I went into HSR with the same expectations, "If I build a team comp that caters around the enemies and buffs provided in this season, I'm sure I'll beat it if I don't have skill issue", that's what I thought. After Firefly released, I started to notice that this is not the case. I'm struggling a lot in endgame content just because I don't have Acheron, Robin or Firefly. I main Qingque and Kafka, and both are irrelevant in the current break meta. I feel forced to pull for Feixiao, but I won't give in. At least I'll try to.

All the people/content creators who clear MoC etc. with only 4 star characters are my saviors because they give me hope that I do NOT need the new shiny OP support or dps. I just need to invest more recources into the characters that I own.

Once those people can't beat the hardest content in the game with F2P characters, that's when I may drop the endgame content entirely because there's just no use. I won't pull for characters that I don't even want 😭

@JaegerBarioth

I'll say what i always say about powercreep in gachas, as long as content is doable without said powercreep and theres no direct competition between players(pvp or score based raids with much better rewards for higher places), then i'm fine with it, let whales have fun with their new toys, right now in HSR, that remains true, ive seen people using some of the wildest shit to clear moc/pf/AS, including dan heng(the 4 star) main dps, i can confidently say ive seen almost every character, except arlan(rip), being used by someone to clear endgame stuff.

@Kurppalumppu

Good talk, I agree with this video. I'm someone that started in earnest during the original Kafka banner and just returned back to the game a few weeks ago after around a four-month hiatus. 

This latest Pure Fiction refresh really opened my eyes. It's genuinely dreadful to play with the dinos that have beefy toughness and the inflated HP pools of enemies are ridiculous. I checked the in-game lineup tool to see what people are using to fully clear it and quite literally 95%+ used Robin for one side. If not Robin then there was a near 100% chance of either Acheron or Firefly being used on side 1 or 2 respectively. My fully maxed out Serval with premium supports just simply does not clear anymore, even with full lightning weakness. 

Hoyo really just made Robin the single most broken unit in the entire game. She folds the game  in half and makes all content exponentially easier because of how overtuned she is and how disgustingly effective the 100% teamwide action advance of her ult is. All of the 0-cyclers are playing around Robin's ult nowadays because it's so broken. Oh and she does significant damage herself because everything else she does just wasn't enough. 

And now content is being balanced around her. I was already aware of how egregious the character checks were before I returned to the game but I didn't expect character checks to actually become mandatory instead of just making it easier to full clear. I will play a while longer and see, and will also be keeping an extremely close and very critical eye on future characters and their subsequent beta versions. If this disgusting powercreep shows no signs of slowing down then I'll just drop the game entirely because endgame is all the reason I play the game for in the first place.

@extrastuffboxofaksakl1k354

it's not just endgame getting harder. it's also even story getting harder. Good luck defeating Aventurine or Sunday with sustains that released before Fu Xuan. 

And since you mentioned leaks, I also wanna add these two leaks that supports your point:
1) they are gonna release Tingyun again. And her kit is just Harmony mc powercrept. There is literally nothing else in her kit. It's same example you give in video with Gallaghar. 
2) they are gonna release new enemy for endgame that has 500 speed. And that boss have mechanic that you need to attack twice as much than him or else you are not gonna defeat him easily. You gain 1 stack per attack, he gains 2 stack per attack and he always attack 2 time at least. And don't forget 500 speed part. The only thing that beats this mechanic is Aventurine + Feixio. There is literally no other character that beats his mechanic. Good luck beating him. And btw, Feixio is the only current that can 0 cycle that boss with same investment at best teams. Firefly is 1 cycle and Archeron is 2 cycle.
3) let me add salt to your wounds. You already told that they introduced Superbreak and it overused, you must use that mechanic and all characters that use that mechanic are absolute beast compared to older characters, right? They are gonna introduce new meta in 3.x and this cycle gonna repeat itself. And boy, according to leaks, 3 of 4 character gonna be destruction.

This powercrept not even funny anymore.

@Yummers321

Blade will always be cool for me

@hoangnguyen0721

Some points

1st. For why Jingliu and Blade fell off,its more because of them by design and not really because of power creep, like Jingliu have so many self buffs but with bad scalings that if some one with better scalings is out,its very easy to out damage Jingliu and Blade because there just no support that works for his gimmick. Most if not all units are made with a very large weakness so whoever is meta is often down to which is the easiest to circumvent like Firefly just need to dodge weakness lock enemies or Acheron need debuffs teamates while Blade need HP buffs supports (there are none) or Jingliu needs a lot of % dmg(which is somewhat rare) because she's self sufficient with crit and atk, while someone like Jing Yuan who basically works with everything under the sun gets better every patch (he's not meta but he can still catch up)

2nd. Its not really the dps that breaks the game, its the support and what dps works well with which support will decides who will be meta. For example the current best support are Ruan Mei and Robin and the reason why Break and Fua teams are so good rn is because they synergizes with those support (Acheron is Acheron ignore that) meanwhile HyperCrit had Sparkle which isnt as good as the 2 above which is why someone like DHIL fell off

3rd. MoC gets inflated HP counts is only partly because of power creep, its also because people just have more built unit, a Jing Yuan's 10 stack Lightning Lord used to only deal like 30-40k dmg but now a properly built JY with that exact team from 1.0 can now hit for like 100-150k because the units got better relics etc and while powercreep is still the major factor for HP inflation, players getting better at the game also contributed to this

4th. As for why there isnt a strictly single target mode for Hunt unit, of the currently limited hunts half of them need some trash mob to reach their full potential (Seele and Boot) and Topaz has been more less relegated into a support for followup than a true carry

5th. As for why super break is in the game, just ask yourself does any unit build break effect before it, like its in the game so there are more variety in the game options, albeit they are too strong for what its worth but still variety is good

6th. MoC doesnt have HP increase that drastically if its doubled after 1 year thats like 8% increase each month which isnt the worst, it'll took like 2-3 month to have them inflated enough that you'll need  whole another cycle to win. Assuming your you took like 6 total cycle to clear 1 MoC, it will take an entire year for your DPS to truly fell off assuming no new relics sets or new support release that helps with clearing MoC

In no way im defending powercreep but currently Hoyo is expanding the game with content catered to the new stuff like MoC's memory turbulence. While blatant, its not as bad as like "if i use A it'll be the same as im slamming my head to a wall" after a few months

Side note: you mentioned FGO and why you dont feel power creep in that game is very simple,Castoria release during 5th anniversary touched the ceiling of power which means its  impossible to go further anymore

@EmeraldEtherious

I WAS LITERALLY THINKING ABOUT THIS MYSELF.
I got both firefly and acheron and they're really strong but it feels so disappointing not being able to use blade and jing liu in moc's and stuff. I pulled for both of them same reason as you, I thought they were cool asf and pulled for them. It just feels pointless to use them in moc when i can use firefly and acheron for it instead.
I did read that one really long comment and I do believe there is a need for some sort of hp support that can buff blade.
All in all what I'll say is ig we'll just have to be a little more patient if we wanna see those old dps's shine in the spotlight again. I could be coping on that idk. Until then ig we just have to go with this meta. 
(P.S im not the brightest when it comes to meta discussions and what not so do forgive me if there's anything that made you question "is this guy fr")

@jonathanrobinson198

Honestly I feel like the only thing that helps break the cycle of power creep really is high vertical investment. The game evolves in a way that leaves E0 5 stars behind eventually, but not E2 or above. I have a friend that still plays Seele but that’s only because she’s E6. Similarly how committing to making a strong DoT team will take you far. Kinda sucks it’s like that unfortunately.

@Rextech472

Honestly the thing is that basically all stages below 10 on moc are just clearable with even older units is what I’ve realized. But it’s just that 11 and 12 have such overturned enemies you really really need the new shiny dps or else you won’t make it

@drakingp2119

Funny enough, Sushang apparently performed very well in the Apoc Shadow.

@dan2800

the things that I don't use or only very rarely bronya, dr ratio, yanqing, topaz, himeko, clara, welt, fu xuan, jingliu, robin and yunli but she didn't get to shine yet due to not being build and I'm F2P still somehow but I'm super lucky on the other side

@John_II

I just started HSR like one week ago. I have really looked into the power creep issue, because I don't want to get stuck in the story. I don't care about end-game or whatever the Abyss is called in HSR. If I am only doing the story and side quests, do I really need to chase META? Genuinely curious.

The concern comes from me joining the game for characters I like: Blade, Kafka, Silver Wolf, Ruan Mei, Firefly, Dan Heng, Himeko, and March 7 because I like them. But I don't want to think that by the end of the year, none of these characters are going to be strong enough to actually clear the story. 

I don't want to have to only pull for META characters - I got on that train for Genshin and have since gotten off it because I have way more fun playing playing who I like. I guess I'm hoping HSR isn't the same.