Honkai Impact 3rd hosted a special concert last weekend. Going by the name Forest Capriccio, the concert was the third such performance to be mounted by developer HoYoverse—and was the biggest yet, featuring star guests, acclaimed musicians, and some truly …
Honkai Impact 3rd hosted a special concert last weekend. Going by the name Forest Capriccio, the concert was the third such performance to be mounted by developer HoYoverse—and was the biggest yet, featuring star guests, acclaimed musicians, and some truly innovative stage technology. It definitely got a lot of attention, with the event trailer receiving over 10 million views.
Before we get into the nitty gritty of Forest Capriccio and the concerts that came before it, here’s a little refresher on Honkai Impact 3rd for the uninitiated.
Storywise, Honkai Impact 3rd takes place on an alternative universe version of Earth in which a mysterious force called Honkai has been wreaking havoc for millenia. Its effects include zombifying humans, making monsters, and creating godlike beings who tend to trigger apocalyptic events in a cyclical fashion.
Thank god for the Valkyries, a resistance group made up of women carrying anti-Honkai genes.
Playing as a Captain, it’s your job to summon an army of these Valkyries and send them into battle. That means working your way through the story campaign, exploring the game’s open world, cooperating with other players to take down bosses, and more.
Among Honkai Impact 3rd’s many virtues is the variety of gameplay styles it offers, including bullet hell, platforming, dungeon crawling, and battle royale.
Plus, it boasts some of the slickest, most engrossing cutscenes in the business.
As a result, Honkai Impact 3rd has built a huge fanbase, mostly in Asia, but globally too. Last year HoYoverse decided to reward the game’s legions of fans with a live concert, and then another.
The Starfire Sonorant concert, which you can watch here, was an enormous live showcase of Honkai Impact 3rd’s art and music.
It took place on stage in a vast auditorium, and featured solo performances, folk music, rock music, a modern dance routine, a DJ set, and even a full orchestra, all complemented by theatrical lighting effects and a gigantic screen.
The fans loved it, and HoYoverse followed Starfire Sonorant with the even more ambitious Dreamy Euphony concert.
Dreamy Euphony upped the ante in every way, with a bigger orchestra, more impactful music, and some truly spectacular visual effects, all punctuated by slick anime cutscenes.
Characters from the game joined the musicians on the stage, and the stage itself transformed into a variety of environments, including a castle, a rainy industrial scene, a vibrant city, and even the top of a fighter jet in flight.
It was something else, and once again the response was rapturous, with fans on YouTube describing it as “perfection” and “breathtaking” in the top three comments alone.
Forest Capriccio on July 29th was the biggest Honkai Impact 3rd concert yet, boasting all the musical variety and cutting edge stagecraft of the previous concert – but went even harder, bringing greater spectacle to an even bigger audience.
For the first time, a Honkai Impact 3rd concert was not only streamed on every available platform, including Twitch, Twitter, YouTube, and so on, but also received a series of physical screenings at cinemas and venues around the world.
The list of locations included Paris (7pm), Taipei (8pm), Hong Kong (8pm), Kuala Lumpur (8pm), Tokyo (9pm), Seoul (9pm), and LA (6pm) – the latter of which is pictured above. Players from these cities participated in the offline concerts and took group photos. Which is lovely.
We would have been happy to rock up at any of them, but our pick of the bunch has to be LA, where the Forest Capriccio concert was screened at the world famous Santa Monica Pier, familiar from Forrest Gump, GTA V, and a million other movies, TV shows, and games.
Those fortunate enough to attend the LA screening got to do so with their feet in the sand and the refreshing Pacific breeze running through their hair.
In terms of content, Forest Capriccio followed the format of the previous concert, with a range of different musical styles, some staggeringly effective visual effects, and a host of special guest stars.
They included Kobayashi Mika, Hanser, Yellow Zero, Sa Dingding, Axis Neptune, and the Chongqing Grand Theatre Children’s Philharmonic Choir, among other performers.
Forest Capriccio was centered around Seele Vollerei, one of the quietest characters in the game. The story takes us into Seele’s woodland fantasies, by way of her journal, so sylvanian scenery and pleasant, soothing ballads were the name of the game. Except, of course, Seele has a dark side, so viewers were also expected to rock out.
Check out Honkai Impact 3rd for yourself now via this link.
The concert was a massive success and was trending on Twitter across Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and the US, and there were 5 million total views on the event’s official account.
To stay tuned on future concerts make sure you download Honkai Impact 3rd now via the game’s official website.
