Make Genshin Impact turn-based and turn the anime dial up to 11, and you have MiHoYo’s next game, Honkai: Star Rail.
The free-to-play game has just entered final beta, with dates on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store pages suggesting a possible release in April. The game’s final beta kicked off on February 10th, 2 million or more (opens in new tab) People pre-registered (essentially wishlisted) for the final game on PC and mobile.
Before MiHoYo created Genshin Impact, she created Honkai, an Evangelion-inspired sci-fi action series. In this series, Earth is embroiled in a battle with the malevolent cosmic force of the same name. Honkai: Star Rail follows on from Honkai 3rd and borrows many of the successful parts of Genshin Impact’s design.
You play as one of two main characters and explore the planet with a crew of four characters. Each character has elemental attacks and plays a specific role within the team composition. Since this is a gacha game, it’s important to build a strong team to face increasingly difficult enemies as you complete story and event missions. There’s also Genshin Impact’s Artifact system (called Relics), which encourages you to craft and polish better gear.
Played some previous betas (opens in new tab) I was overwhelmed by its impressive battle animation. Recruit Himeko early in the game. Her ultimate causes the camera to tilt upwards, looking up at the sky to see an orbital collision break through the clouds. the flashiest (opens in new tab) Genshin Impact’s attack looks tame. If the gacha system weren’t so terrible, I think this game would be an exciting alternative to his MiHoYo action game.
The fact that it’s turn-based helps improve its flashy combat. In Kai: Starrails, you spend more time with each character as you build your strongest attack. Enemies have basic weaknesses, and abilities that weaken them should be planned before launching a powerful ultimate.
Honkai: Star Rail is not an open world. Instead, you can explore parts of the planet as you progress through the story. Treasure chests and lore documents can be stolen, but the focus is on the cast of space explorers and the looming threat of Honkai.
