Let’s explore Honkai: Star Rail, Hoyoverse’s new sci-fi turn-based RPG

Just a few days ago, we told everything we know about Zenless Zone Zero. hoyoverse, home of Honkai Impact 3rd and Genshin Impact. However, the prolific Chinese software house has another project in its pipeline, and it differs from the action nature of the other games mentioned. We’re talking about Honkai: Star Rail, a sci-fi turn-based RPG inspired by the classics of the oriental genre and coming soon to PC, iOS and Android mobile devices.

Unlike ZZZ, work on Honkai: Star Rail looks close to completion, so much so that in a few days the second full-bodied closed beta will close its doors, giving players the opportunity to test out the combat and character. development system, secondary activities and gacha mechanics of the title. Do you want to learn more? Then read on as we’ll talk about it below Highlights of Honkai: Star Rail.

Plot and characters

Honkai: Star Rail has been announced as the spiritual heir to the Honkai franchise, despite having a completely new setting and story. game one science fiction universewhere man has for some time already conquered space travel and where semi-divine beings called Aeon roam the galaxy spreading his ideals. Among them is Nanook, who represents “destruction” and, guess what, sees civilization as a cancer and intends to destroy it. To do this, he planted so-called “seeds of destruction” in the galaxy. stellaronand enlists the help of the Anti-matter Legion, a group of hostile aliens who blindly embrace his ideals.

In all this, we’ll be taking on the role of Trailblaze, a boy (or a girl, depending on first preference) who wakes up with no memories aboard a spaceship that has a Stellaron implanted in his body and is attacked by the Nanook legion. .

After a daring escape, our hero decides to join his crew.astral expressA kind of giant train traveling through space and going on an adventure by visiting various planets and taking part in conflicts over seeds of destruction.

Honkai will accompany us on the journey: Star Rail will have a very large staff. Good in second closed beta 23 playable characters, many of them will be unlocked via banners, but we assume there will be even more in the full version and new ones will be added later via various updates. Currently, there is an impression that the style chosen for the supporting cast is less flamboyant than in Zenless Zone Zero, but all of the hallmarks of Hoyoverse productions are remarkable. Among other things, we will find alternate versions of Bronya, Seele and Himeko, the characters already known in Honkai Impact 3rd, returning to Star Rail with a completely new narrative background, winking at longtime fans.

gameplay

Honkai: Star Rail is inspired by Eastern-style RPGs and emphasizes turn-based combat exploration of more or less vast areas from the classical setting (in any case, don’t expect an experience like Genshin Impact in this sense) and labyrinth dungeons. During the moves between the playing fields, the enemies are clearly visible on the world, and if you want, before starting the actual battle, you can get a better advantage by pre-attacking the unfortunate in the unfortunate quest, or even using an item on which it is weak. . . and activate various bonuses depending on the character being controlled.

Real battles are turn-based, the order of action of our group of 4 characters and the enemies are always clearly visible on the left side of the screen. When it’s our turn, we’ll be able to choose whether to perform the controlled unit’s basic attack or its Skill (yes, singularly), the first only deals enough damage, but lets you take the action points needed to activate it. second. Also, each character has an Ultimate that can be used out of order as long as they charge it by picking up the appropriate special bar and dealing damage. The combat system differs from the features of our units, and in particular weaknesses competitors. Hitting an enemy with a weak element actually activates a “break”, with the victim taking more damage and delaying their turn. Therefore, with the right preparation, it’s even possible to knock out an entire group of enemies before they even have a chance to move, a bit like in Persona and Shin Megami Tensei.

Each character in Honkai: Star Rail benefits from one of the seven elements of the game and belongs to one of the seven “Paths”, namely one of the classes that determine the role in battle, from DPS to healers, from guardian to bumper. and debuffer. This offers a lot of freedom in terms of team building, with players who can target, for example, a well-balanced team suitable for any situation, or an intentionally “unbalanced” team to best face a particular activity or a boss. At the same time, this will be an excuse for Hoyoverse to introduce dozens and dozens of new characters over time through the gacha mechanic, which we will talk about in a moment.

Overall, Honkai: Star Rail’s combat system seemed pretty intuitive and robust to us at the same time, but the fear is that it might be somewhat repetitive in the long run due to its apparent simplicity given what we’re talking about. It’s about a game designed to entertain players for hundreds or even thousands of hours. However, it should not be overlooked that these assessments are based on what was seen only in the two closed betas and that the full version will not introduce additional battle-related mechanics that we do not know about.

Progression and Gacha mechanics

If Honkai: Star Rail’s fights are drastically different from previous productions of Hoyoverse, it’s the same thing. mechanics related to the development of units, almost identical to Genshin Impact. You will need items, Adventure Records, as well as special materials for each unit to level up our characters. The same goes for enhancing offensive and passive skills, as well as Light Cones, the equivalent of weapons in other RPGs.

Then there residue, the equivalent of the Artifacts of the Hoyoverse action RPG, or accessories that increase stats and offer various bonuses when using more pieces from the same set. To obtain Relics and special materials, it will be necessary to face certain activities related to the use of Trailblaze Power, similar to the Genshin Impact areas, or the classic “stamina” of free-to-play games that recharge over time. requires some kind of brake on the player’s progress.

Additionally, we saw roughly how it was done in the second beta. gacha systems In this case, it’s almost the same game as Genshin Impact. Stellar Jade, which has the same function as Primogems, allows you to get new characters and Light Cone by trying your luck on banners. And frankly, in this case too, units are rarely cataloged with 4 or 5 stars, the latter often being more powerful and much rarer. Just play, progress through the story, complete side and daily quests, and participate in the inevitable limited-time events to get premium currency, but as always, the quickest way is to get your hands on your wallet.

When it comes to free play gacha mechanicsThe concern, rightly speaking, is perhaps putting progress at risk if these can’t be too invasive. In this sense, we are optimistic, considering that most of the systems are pretty much the same as those of Genshin Impact: those who have played the Hoyoverse action RPG know well that even the most demanding activities can be done by managing resources well and with some patience. can be overcome. hard and get a fair number of characters of the highest rarity even without spending a euro.

Honkai: Star Rail, on the other hand, seems to put more emphasis on the need to always have a large number of characters, thanks to its combat system, which relies heavily on exploiting enemies’ core weaknesses. Learn more about microtransactions. In short, it will be important to find out if and how Hoyoverse balances everything in the full version.