Journey to the stars beyond

Honkai: Star Rail is a free-to-play strategy role-playing game that lets you explore an exciting new world similar to Honkai Impact 3rd and Genshin Impact. Developed by miHoyo—the same studio behind the aforementioned games—this JRPG fantasy turn-based combat game features beautiful 3D graphics that are optimized for both PC and mobile.

Similar to the Persona series, Honkai: Star Rail is a spin-off of Honkai Impact 3rd and brings back several familiar characters. Like the other games of the developer, this has a gacha system and allows you to collect both characters and their equipment.

Is Honkai Star Rail related to Honkai impact 3?

Honkai Impact 3rd is a free-to-play 3D action role-playing game that mainly utilizes hack-n-slash combat gameplay alongside other genres. As the spiritual successor to Houkai Gakuen 2, it follows the story of an elite group of young Valkyrie warriors who fight against the deadly Honkai beasts in their alternate version of Earth. The Honkai series’ popularity spawned numerous other media like anime series and other connected games.

One of these is Honkai: Star Rail, which uses some of its beloved characters but places them in an alternate universe. Thus, the characters you meet here ultimately have different lives, beliefs, and even personalities. Some aspects of them still remain the same, however—like their preferred fighting style and acquired power. In this game, though, the combat system uses a four-unit party for turn-based battles.

Aside from the combat, there are also elements of open-world and dungeon exploration present in the gameplay. Plus, the game’s story is rich and narrative-driven here. However, it can feel like it has lazily reused some assets from both Honkai Impact 3rd and Genshin Impact, due to its spin-off nature. For one, the character roster screen looks far too similar to Genshin Impact’s and has even confused some players.

Hunt down enemies

With a handy enemy-tracking tool, players can easily keep an eye on opponents anywhere on the map. This will allow you to either avoid any sudden battles or look for specific enemies in order to collect materials that will help you level up your characters and their Light Cones. Players will now also be able to communicate with friends in the chat function. Previously, this feature was only used to communicate with the in-game characters. 

With new companion missions for characters like Silver Wolf, Luocha, Yanqing, and Bailu. Honkai Star Rail also has its own version of rate-up banners where players can obtain limited-edition characters within a certain period of time. There’s also a dedicated banner for you to obtain special Light Cones, which are cards that you can equip your characters with in order to boost their base stats.

Relive special events

With the 1.1 update, Honkai Star Rail now offers the Conventional Memoir feature which allows new players to access past events and obtain any special rewards. Take note, though, that Trailblazers who have already participated in these events and obtained all claimable rewards cannot redeem the same prizes a second time. However, you can still freely play the events as many times as you’d like.

In addition to this, players can look forward to a number of events both on the Herta Space Station and in the city of Belobog. Players will be able to act as a curator for the Belobog History and Culture Museum and entice residents to view the unique additions to its collection. Meanwhile, there are a number of special tasks from workers, as well as a game set up by Silver Wolf for you to look forward to back at the space station.

Soon to be available on new platforms

Developer studio miHoYo recently announced the upcoming release of Honkai: Star Rail on a new platform: PlayStation 5. At the same time, a PlayStation 4 version is also under negotiation.

A celestial adventure

Following the events of the “Xianzhou Luofu — A Dragon Gallant, Its Ocean Distant” Trailblaze Mission, players were left wondering about the future of the Xianzhou Luofu, as well as the character Jing Yuan. In Honkai Star Rail’s 1.3 update, players can continue on their journey while also helping out different characters both in the new Trailblaze Mission and the four new Companion Missions. This latest update will also introduce two new 5-star characters that players can obtain through the limited-time Event Warps. 

These new characters aren’t exactly new to players, though, as both Fu Xuan and Dan Heng as Imbibitor Lunae have played vital roles in the game’s overall storyline. However, one character that will be making their official debut is the 4-star character, Lynx, who you can obtain on Fu Xuan’s banner. Players will also have the opportunity to obtain the 5-star characters’ new signature Light Cones during their respective phases.

Don’t worry about not having enough passes to pull for your chosen characters, as the game will be providing up to 10 Star Rail Special Passes in the Daily Log-In Event. Otherwise, you can also earn Stellar Jades in the “Simulated Universe – The Swarm Disaster”, “Space Station Task Force,” and “Aurum Alley’s Hustle and Bustle” events. Best of all, Star Rail has increased the Trailblaze Power cap to 240 and will introduce an all-new Reserved Trailblaze Power system that allows you to accumulate Trailblaze Power once the cap has been reached.

A cosmic adventure awaits

All in all, Honkai: Star Rail is a great game to try out if you’re either a fan of miHoyo’s games or beautiful strategy JRPGs in general. Not only does it boast beautiful graphics that can easily play on multiple platforms, but it also features several characters that have been given new makeovers. While this is a spin-off, it’s good enough to be an introduction to this franchise.