Honkai: Star Rail

A battle in Honkai: Star Rail, showcasing its turn-based combat system

Honkai: Star Rail follows the gameplay style of classic Chinese role-playing games: players build up a lineup of characters, and control a team of four in turn-based combat.[3][4] Elements of open-world and dungeon exploration are present, with multiple mechanics, including the gacha system, carried over from HoYoverse's previous action RPG Genshin Impact.[3]

The game is set in a science-fantasy universe in which humanity and other sentient beings follows the paths of beings called Aeons. The player character, the Trailblazer, whose name and gender are chosen by the player, awakens without their memory aboard a space station and discovers that they are imbued with a Stellaron, a disruptive cosmic entity. They join a band of adventurers, the Trailblazers, traveling from world to world aboard the Astral Express, their space train.

The Trailblazer wakes up and meets two members of the crew, March 7 and Dan Heng. Both are traveling on the Astral Express, a large cosmic train that travels the universe along the eponymous "Star Rail". After eliminating the remaining threats, the Trailblazer meets Himeko, the Astral Express's navigator, and Welt, an interstellar traveler from the Honkai Impact 3rd world. In an attempt to discover their origins and eliminate the threats of the remaining Stellarons, the Trailblazer departs with the Astral Express crew.

Their first destination is Jarilo-VI, a planet that has been mostly ravaged by the Eternal Freeze, an uninhabitable winter due to the power of a Stellaron. As the crew nears the capital city of Belobog to resolve the Stellaron affair, they are declared fugitives by Supreme Guardian Cocolia due to a mysterious voice from the Stellaron, and escape underground where they learn of the peacekeeping Wildfire and their ongoing conflict with Svarog, the leader of the robots, who has repeatedly rejected peace talks. After settling their differences, the crew returns to the surface to face Cocolia, who merges herself with the Stellaron. The crew defeats her, and Bronya, Cocolia’s adoptive daughter, takes her place as the new Supreme Guardian while announcing plans to bridge the two areas.

Following the conclusion of the Jarilo-VI storyline, the crew receives a signal from Kafka, who wants the crew to settle a Stellaron incident on the Xianzhou Luofu (Chinese: 仙舟：罗浮; pinyin: Xiānzhōu: Luófú; lit. 'Fairy Boat: Luofu'[5]). As they arrive, they are not permitted to assist in Stellaron affairs but are instead tasked by Cloud Knight general Jing Yuan to weed out Kafka and her Stellaron Hunter cohort Blade, as their presence on the ship is deemed a threat. Upon the crew finding Kafka, she revealed that her job was finished the moment the Trailblazer arrived on the Xianzhou Luofu, an action foreseen by her boss, Elio. With the Disciples of Sanctus Medicus and Lord Ravager Phantylia now out of the shadows, Dan Heng reveals his Imbibitor Lunae lineage and assists Jing Yuan and the rest of the Trailblazers in fighting her, resulting in her temporary retreat. After the end of the conflict with Phantylia, Jing Yuan formally creates an alliance between the Xianzhou and Astral Express, gifting a jade abacus as a symbol of their mutual friendship. Dan Feng's imprisonment edict is annulled by Jing Yuan, giving Dan Heng his freedom onboard the Luofu.

After the Trailblazer and March return to the Express, Himeko tells the Trailblazer that their next stop is Penacony, the Planet of Festivities. Formerly known as a prison planet used by the IPC to exile criminals, it had fallen under the control of Xipe, the Aeon of Harmony sometime ago, radically transforming the planet. Himeko explains that the Family at Penacony issued formal invitations to many galactic factions for the first time in history and among the invited factions were the IPC and the Astral Express. Meanwhile, Luocha confronts Jing Yuan at the Shackling Prison alongside Jingliu, proclaiming that they will put the Abundance in their grave.

Honkai: Star Rail was revealed in October 2021 at the end of the Honkai Impact 3rd online concert, Starfire Sonorant, then later on the game's official YouTube channel.[6]

The game entered its first closed beta testing later that month.[7] A second closed beta test was held between May and June 2022.[8] A final closed beta test was held in February 2023 and prior to the release of the game.[9] In April 2023, HoYoverse announced having 10 million pre-registered users.[10]

Honkai: Star Rail received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic.[11]

Eurogamer recommended the game for its "delightfully goofy humour, charismatic voice cast, and truly magnificent combat", despite the writers' tendency to "give one sentence explanations for important details, yet spend eight paragraphs overexplaining the simplest plot twist".[12] Rock Paper Shotgun called the game "still in its early stages but (...) incredibly good fun to play", comparing it to "Star Ocean, but if everyone was hotter and you could gamble". The reviewer praised the combat system for being deep yet approachable, and noted that, like in Genshin, spending money was not necessary to progress, as all content in the game could be cleared with the characters players receive for free.[13] PC Gamer appreciated Star Rail's "impeccable visual style and strategic depth" and its "elastic tone, which fluctuates from the heroic optimism of a space opera, to the dark comedy of a Nier game, with a lot of Final Fantasy 14's soap opera storytelling mixed in". To the reviewer, the game's main draw was its "sheer creativity" and that it "distills what's most satisfying about turn-based RPGs: tactical, team-based decisions."[14]

• Official website