Image: miHoYo
MiHoYo’s next free-to-play gacha game is called Honkai: Star Rail, and it launches next month.
Genshin Impact developer miHoYo has revealed a release date for its new free-to-play game Honkai: Star Rail - April 26. Much like Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail will be a gacha game but with a sci-fi twist, launching on Android, iOS and PC. The game will also be released on consoles, “soon,” but miHoYo hasn't shared a firm release date.
Honkai: Star Rail takes all the anime-flavoured appeal of Genshin Impact to the stars, where players step into the shoes of a new protagonist known as the Trailblazer. The Trailblazer has embarked on a spacefaring trip aboard a cosmic train called the Astral Express, in a campaign that takes place some time after miHoYo’s previous game Honkai Impact 3rd. While this game features a few alternate versions of Honkai Impact 3rd's characters, the two games are only loosely related and you won't have to play one to understand the other.
Just like Genshin, the game features several characters whom players can ‘pull’ using in-game gacha mechanics, after which you can assemble four-person teams to bring into fights. Where these games differ is that Honkai: Star Rail features turn-based combat, where your success in battling off the forces of evil depends mostly on your strategic prowess. This is also an open-world game, but it doesn’t feature one large connected map. Instead, you’ll visit multiple open environments in the form of different planets during your travels.
Where Genshin Impact is mostly focused on fantasy and environments teeming with nature, Honkai: Star Rail is a lot more futuristic with its focus on modern-ish technology, exploring the stars and using scientific weaponry. It’s not really taking itself more seriously than Genshin, however - the game’s launch version comes with a text messaging system to chat with your favourite NPCs and a quest that involves talking to a plant.
Honkai: Star Rail launches on April 26 as a free-to-play title with Version 1.0. As the months go on, expect the sci-fi RPG to get more DLC content in the vein of Genshin’s recent expansions.