Honkai: Star Rail is an upcoming free-to-play fantasy game from HoYoverse, the team behind Genshin Impact. Launching on April 26, players can explore vast worlds across the stars while immersing themselves in a story-rich campaign.
If you’ve played any of the previous Honkai games, you may recognize some of the characters within Honkai: Star Rail, but you don’t need to have played any of the earlier titles in the franchise to be able to enjoy this one.
In the various trailers and beta gameplay videos, fans have been able to learn about the world, see some of the character’s abilities, and watch a few combat scenes, which are slightly different from HoYoverse’s other titles. And this has led to many questions about the gameplay and what kind of title Honkai Star Rai will be at launch.
Honkai: Star Rail gameplay, explained
Like HoYoverse’s previous titles, Honkai: Star Rail features an open world where players can explore, discover chests, complete quests, and battle foes. It also features a gacha system for characters and items, and there will be various characters for players to form an alliance with and use during battles.
But the battles are where Honkai: Star Rail differs from games like Genshin. In Genshin, players can consecutively use abilities to fight enemies while dodging foes, which is relatively standard in RPGs like World of Warcraft and Lost Ark.
However, the combat in Honkai: Star Rail is different as it’s more turn-based and more similar to the type of combat seen in games like Raid: Shadow Legends and Pokémon. During combat, you and your opponents will take turns using your abilities until one of you has been defeated. And you’ll also find some of your abilities are either single-target or multi-target (AoE), so you must use them strategically to defeat your opponents.
Several beta gameplay videos, like this one (below) from Steparu, showcase exactly what you can expect regarding gameplay and combat in Honkai: Star Rail.
While the final gameplay may eventually differ from the beta gameplay, players can expect to explore an open world, complete quests, and participate in turn-based combat with a team of characters in Honkai: Star Rail.
HoYoverse’s next release is hitting shelves on April 26.
