It’s a sign of how popular Genshin Impact has become that Honkai: Star Rail is being discussed more as a sequel to it than a fourth entry in the Honkai series. These constant comparisons understandably annoy some Honkai Impact 3rd players, other than the full tone 180 of the breath of the wild clone derison Genshin Impact drawn at launch, but since they’re so similar it’s hard to compare the two separate. Remove all the annoying grinding and open world from Genshin, then do the turn-based combat and Honkai legend squeeze in Blender, for you, you made Star Trail Smoothie. Not exactly healthy, given your precious game time, but healthier than falling off another cliff, since your stamina bar is depleted again on your third day as you farm for character materials.
is that so? Is it just a sci-fi genshin cutting out more time-consuming activities? A big part of me wants to say yes. You can have screenshots of the two side by side, and it’s hard to tell them apart from their similar character models and environments, all the way down to the user interface. However, that characterization feels like it’s detracting from Star Rail’s delightfully goofy humor, charismatic voice acting, and truly magnificent combat.
It is not only Science fiction takes the Genshin formula, but if you’ve been playing Genshin Impact for a while, you’ve definitely got a cheat sheet that helps you understand how the system works. As far as I know, there’s no real similar benefit to having played the previous Honkai games, as Star Rail is set in an alternate universe with different versions of some returning characters. I’m sure it will be fun for Impact 3rd fans to see Bronya and Seele reunite again, but as a newcomer to the series, I still enjoy exploring their new stories.
Despite Star Rail’s best efforts to hold me back, I actually enjoyed the story. On the face of it, this is typical video game nonsense involving a destructive force called Stellaron (affectionately known as the Cancer of All Worlds) placed inside your protagonist Trailblazer, who suffers from severe anime amnesia. You’ll soon join the Star Express space train on an interstellar mission to contain the Stellaron disaster wherever it strikes. The dedication to world-building is palpable, and despite all the clichés, most of the characters’ personal stories actually managed to pull me in, but the way key story moments and concepts are told is often impressive. Why explain the important details in one sentence, but spend eight paragraphs over-explaining the simplest plot twists? Adding regular fade moments with “you did this” or “you explained what happened” text instead of basic cutscenes or dialogue prompts can feel a little soulless at times. A space opera full of drama, but without any thrills.
Charming voice actors are a soothing balm in these more poignant scenes, and a big reason why goofy humor is often so successful. British voice actor Skyler Davenport, who plays March 7th (don’t ask), is particularly compelling. March 7th is a typical cute anime girl who stays with you for most of the game, so she could have easily been an annoying mascot, but with Davenport, She actually comes across as a goofy, lovable friend who doubles perfectly with grumpy Dan Heng, another Star Express companion. While the characters often follow certain over-the-top archetypes, the talented cast makes them feel fresh.
What’s not too new is the lack of dynamism in the environments, which seems to be a result of having to run on mobile. The Xianzhou Luofu ship you explore later is designed in a traditional Chinese style of “silk punk”, doing its best to inject a little style into your interstellar journey, but not much. The music certainly helps create an alluring atmosphere that the design can’t, offering a smorgasbord of delightful piano melodies, soft chants and piercing electronic beats, depending on where you explore. There’s even a pop-rock song I never tire of, though I chose it as the only track I played on the magical space train between missions.
It’s clear that the feeling of playing Interstellar Railroad takes precedence over its looks, and by far the best feeling comes from the masterful combat. Turn-based combat is a harder sell these days, but with the useful double-speed and auto-combat toggles, Star Rail manages to combine elements and traditional JRPG-like systems that somehow make it even if you lose interesting.
Each character has an element and a path, their element makes them powerful against certain enemies, and their path locks them into specific characters. For example, if you bring a character like Ashtar on your party, you can lower the break bar of weaker enemies to make it easier to fire, knocking them out and causing them to take more damage. This helps, but it’s not her main role, as Ashtar is on the Harmony Path, used to buff allies. Her specialty is increasing your team’s speed so you can have more rounds. Ashtar is useful, but Honkai: Star Trails launches with 22 characters, each with their own combination of elements and paths, with unique abilities that only they can use.
Later in the game, you’ll encounter elite enemies and bosses that will require you to think strategically about your party composition, and it’s very satisfying when you solve these combat puzzles, since there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. You can beat the boss by bringing four damage dealers and nuking them before they have a chance to wipe out your team, whereas I can beat it by bringing a DPS main, a healer and two supporters same boss. The possibilities aren’t endless, but it feels like it is when everyone has a different set of characters to choose from.
There aren’t too many difficult bosses as long as you level up your character, so some of the most interesting combat experiments are in the optional Halls of Oblivion and SimUniverse challenges. Forgotten Halls requires you to defeat enemies within a certain number of rounds, getting harder over time, forcing you to think extra carefully about your team composition and each individual attack. Simulated Universe mixes things up and adds a huge rogue-like mod that grants random “blessings” after each enemy is defeated, like an extra shield, or a higher chance to freeze enemies. You can choose from three blessings each time, and there’s a permanent ability tree that controls how much of a buff you get when you reach the boss at the end of each world.
It’s these two game modes that might have you resorting to Star Rail’s gacha loot boxes in hopes of pulling out a 5-star character to help advance some subsequent levels, but in my experience, it’s not necessary. Spend your free currency on them, sure – having more party options is never a bad thing – but there’s no need to spend money on character or weapon banners to progress. It’s really all about how you approach a person and what kind of team you build around them, not their underlying stats. A shiny new 5 star can make things easier, but they won’t help if you don’t know how their individual abilities work with your current roster.
It may seem counter-intuitive to focus so much on five stars when you don’t actually need them, but it’s a great piece of magic that Genshin Impact has been using for years. Hyping a new character on social media certainly helps, but it’s the attention to detail in designing the new playstyle that will most excite those who prefer to try combat, and it seems Crash: Star Railroad is heading towards the same A path forward. The first limited-time character, Banner, is Seele on the Path of the Hunt, which means she should be used in single-target encounters. In addition to Seele’s passive talent allowing her to take another turn after killing an enemy and boosting her attack power, it also makes her great in multi-target scenarios. No other character plays like this, and that’s the appeal of spending your currency on Seele. Well, that, you want her on your team because you like her. Never underestimate the allure of pulling a waifu or husdo in a gacha game, and I’m sure HoYoverse’s yearly revenue can prove it.
Star Rail also has a service for those who aren’t interested in fighting and just want to hang out with their favorite people. Companion Missions delve into the backstory and allow them to board the Astral Express when they’re done, but my favorite feature is the random text messages. Your phone is usually a side mission machine, but occasionally an irrelevant conversation pops up. Someone might be stressed at work, or want your opinion on their photography skills, or just want to show off their latest chibi sticker news. It adds a welcome camaraderie between the high-stakes story and resource farming, opens up a different side to certain characters, or just provides a laugh or two.
All of this, and this is just the first chapter of your trailblazer journey. With each new patch more characters, stories, side quests, planets and captivating music await for the future of Star Rail. Perhaps the execution of the story falls flat at times, and the environments may seem a little bland, but with the promise of text messages your buds get around the corner, and the delightful challenges of combat, I can’t help but be excited for Astral Express’ next destination. Just sci-fi Genshin Impact? Maybe to some, but I love my Star Rail smoothie, even if it tastes familiar.
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