Honkai: Star Rail

Honkai: Star Rail follows the gameplay style of classic Japanese role-playing games where players build up a lineup of characters and control a team of up to four in turn-based combat.^[1][2] In addition to various stats that affect characters' strength, each character has a combat type that affects the kind of damage dealt to targets, a character class referred to as a Path that defines their combat role,^[3][4] and a set of unique abilities called Traces used in combat.^[5][6] Each character can equip a weapon known as a Light Cone, that has various effects that activate if the Paths of both the character and Light Cone match. Characters can also equip various Relics, similar to Artifacts in Genshin Impact.^[7]

Elements of open-world and dungeon exploration are present, with multiple mechanics including the gacha system, carried over (with slight differences) from Genshin Impact.^[1] Instead of exploring one large map, players explore smaller, self-contained areas on each world, which contain treasure chests, puzzles, and other interactable elements.^[8] Both games have mechanics of gacha games, in which players spend in-game currency that can be earned in-game or purchased with real money through microtransactions to receive new characters and weapons. Additional gameplay features include an auto-battle system, fast-forward options during combat, and cross-save support between platforms.^[8]

The game's premium currency, Stellar Jade, is primarily used to purchase Star Rail Passes to obtain characters and Light Cones through a mechanic called "warping", and can be earned through gameplay progression, events, and achievements.^[8]

Honkai: Star Rail began development in 2019 with the goal of "exploring new directions for the Honkai series". The production team has about 500 people, most of whom are fans of science fiction works and turn-based role-playing games.^[19] This project is miHoYo's first attempt at a turn-based combat mechanism game. The team has stated that this genre is very popular in the game market and can lower the difficulty threshold for players to get started. In previous surveys conducted by HoYoverse, many players expressed that they enjoy this type of game. There were concerns about whether this type of game is too retro, but the production team believes that as long as the quality of the game is enjoyable, it can attract players.^[20]

Like other works in the Honkai series, it is in no way "too hard-core science fiction". The setting of Honkai Impact 3rd is Earth, but the plot mentions other planets in this worldview. Therefore, the production team of Honkai: Star Rail decided to develop a cosmological theme around its game's lore and worldbuilding to expand on this concept of "a universe".^[20] The setting revolves around taking a train which draws inspiration from the idea of a steam train running through the stars in the novel Night on the Galactic Railroad by Kenji Miyazawa and Leiji Matsumoto's famous manga, Galaxy Express 999.^[21][20] The production sequence of each planet in the game takes around one year to first determine the worldview and theme of the planet, then create the characters and detailed setting information, and then finally write the plot.^[19]

The overall artistic vision of each planet is based on elements from real-world cultures and aesthetics:

• Belobog, which was named after eponymous Slavic deity, is the name of the blizzard-stricken town in the first planet, Jarilo-VI, which design was inspired by Russian architecture.^[22]
• The design of the space-faring fleet "Xianzhou Luofu" is based on Chinese culture and East Asian fantasy, which has been described as "silkpunk".^[23]
• Penacony's design was inspired by a blend of Jazz Age, Roaring Twenties, Classical Hollywood, and Western modernist culture, which re-imagines through luxurious dream-like fantasy, forming twelve dream worlds that provide different forms of entertainment.^[24]
• The concept of "Amphoreus" takes inspiration from Greco-Roman mythology with its design and aesthetic for its architecture incorporating artistic styles such as Hellenistic, Renaissance, and Neoclassicism.^[25]
• Planarcadia, which is described as an immersive amusement world renowned for its pop culture and entertainment, blended urban fantasy with some elements of metaverse and internet aesthetic where the borderline between vivid imagination and virtual reality co-exists.^[26]

The game runs on the Unity game engine and is produced by David Jiang.^[27][28] In terms of combat mechanisms, Jiang said that this game adopts "command-based combat." He said that Honkai Impact 3rd and Genshin Impact were heavy on the role-playing aspect, but they did not include command-based and turn-based combat. In addition, some players reported that Honkai Impact 3rd was too action-oriented and too difficult to operate. Therefore, Honkai: Star Rail pays more attention to strategy than the player's operational skills. The development team cited Persona 5 and Trails Series as the team's inspiration.^[20][29]

Producer David Jiang hopes that Honkai: Star Rail can achieve the immersive feeling of "as if you are in the world of the work", and create a "playable animated series".^[29] In order to enhance player immersion, the production team integrated artificial intelligence technology into the behavioral patterns of non-player characters. This approach aimed to make traditionally scripted NPC behavior appear more natural, thereby providing players with a stronger sense of being part of the game world.^[30]

The game 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.^[32] On October 27, the game launched its first closed test and its second closed beta test on May 25, 2022.^[33] On August 15 of the same year, the game received support from the "Special Fund for Cultural Development" issued by the Culture and Tourism Bureau of Xuhui District, Shanghai, where the developer is located.^[34] On August 23, 2022, a game story trailer was unveiled on the opening night of Gamescom 2022.^[35]

On January 17, 2023, the mobile version of the game received the game version number approved by the National Press and Publication Administration, and the game was approved for distribution in mainland China.^[36][37] On February 10, 2023, the game conducted its third closed test.^[38] On the same day, the Apple App Store page revealed that the official launch date of the game was April 26. In the international market, miHoYo launched more than 2,000 sets of ads on Google Play one month before the public beta of the game. The main advertising channel was Google AdMob^[39] and the main advertising areas were Japan, Hong Kong, the United States, Vietnam, and Thailand.^[40]

On April 25, 2023, miHoYo released the game's opening theme animation "Star Travel".^[41] The game was officially launched globally the following day on April 26.^[42] On April 28, miHoYo held its first theme exhibition "Galaxy Gathering" in Xujiahui. From April 29 to May 13, miHoYo undertook train advertisements on Xiamen Rail Transit Line 1 and jointly issued NFTs to promote the game. In mid-May, HoYoverse began to put up ads for the game in Japan, which are prominently displayed in Akihabara in Tokyo, as well as collaborating with Chichibu Railway in Saitama Prefecture to launch a special steam train service, which ran for a month.^[43] On July 13, miHoYo launched a high-speed train which ran from Shanghai to Wenzhou to promote the game.^[44]

In late 2023, the game collaborated internationally with a number of restaurant and cafe franchises, offering game merchandise and specialized meals.^[45] In Europe, the game collaborated with Domino's and Miss Millie’s in the UK from October 14th to November 14th. In other countries of Asia, except for mainland China, there were collaborations in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.^[46] In Japan, the game collaborated with Wendy's First Kitchen from October 11th to November 8th. From October 11th to November 14th^[47], the collaboration in Indonesia with Convivium, La Juiceria Superfoods in Malaysia, Mann Hann in the Philippines, Kith in Singapore, Kogoro Katsu & Chicken Club in Thailand, and Piko Coffee in Vietnam. For Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, there were collaborations with Cheogajip from October 18th to November 18th, and with KFC from November 9th to November 22nd in Hong Kong.^[48] In America, the game collaborated with Pelicana from December 1st to December 31st. For specifically mainland China, there were countless collaborations with cafes, restaurants, drink shops, and many more.^[49]

In July 2025, HoYoverse announced a collaboration with the Japanese anime television series Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, in which the characters Saber and Archer would be added to the game.^[50][51] In October 2025, Crunchyroll, Sony's anime streaming service, announced a global collaboration between it and HoYoverse for an exclusive Honkai: Star Rail collab, starting on November 6, to coincide with the game's Version 3.7 update. As part of the collaboration, the HoYoFair program's Honkai: Star Rail "Chimerric Park" event premiered exclusively on Crunchyroll,^[52][53] making it the first time that the HoYoFair program did an event outside of YouTube.

Honkai: Star Rail received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic.^[54] Another review aggregator, OpenCritic, compiled 20 review articles, with 88% being positive.^[63]

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 over explaining the simplest plot twist."^[57] 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.^[62] 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."^[60] Jess Reyes from IGN referred to it as the best free-to-play game of 2023.^[64]

However, some people have criticized the character designs saying that they lack creativity, especially those of female characters, and that the outfits worn by female characters in Genshin Impact had more variety.^[65]