Star Rail and Genshin Impact utilize essentially the same gacha system to unlock characters. Star Rail uses a dynamic turn-based combat system that is flashy and smooth, so while not real-time, battles are still a sight to behold. At launch, players can visit two planets that are wildly different from each other, and together they provide a fair amount of initial content. Honkai: Star Rail's campaign is split across planets, each of which comes with a unique ecosystem, politics, missions, and enemies. Released in April 2023, the game casts players as the Traveler, a being with a spaceship and a crew. RELATED: Honkai Star Rail: Banner Schedule Guide Star Rail is set up to be the first entry in the saga to fully blow up in the West in a way that might allow it to live alongside Genshin. It is also a follow-up to Honkai Impact 3rd, which was the fourth game in the Honkai series.
The uninitiated might be tempted to dismiss HoYoverse's new big free-to-play RPG as just sci-fi Genshin Impact, which would not be a terrible decision in and of itself however, Honkai: Star Rail is very much its own thing, while nevertheless sharing a few common traits with the developer's popular gacha game.
