Two weeks after its launch, Hoyoverse’s latest hit game “Honkai: Star Rail” still delivers!
Not to spoil anything for fans of the series, but though this title shares the same naming convention as Mihoyo’s previous title, Honkai Impact Third, they are not in the same universe per se. That said, it won’t keep us from meeting old favorites such as Bronya, Himeko, and many others (to be released) as playable characters in future banners.
For fans expecting the “space version” of Genshin Impact, I do not mean to disappoint you, but this is not another open world game. For me, it is a blessing to have a game on rails; Genshin Impact still sits on my Playstation waiting for me to go back to Teyvat and explore the new areas, but I digress. Star Rail is a turn-based RPG that follows our newest sass-master, the Trailblazer, in an adventure surrounding the mystery of the Stellaron and the Aeons. We board the Astral Express with our new friends, March 7th, Pom Pom, and Dan Heng, and set off on a quest across the universe!
Players still have some of the most epic music, a cast of amazing voice actors, and many Companion and Side Missions to progress your characters through, so the game is in no way lacking in content at this stage. The fighting mechanics are similar to others in the genre and I am hoping to stumble upon the option to turn off the Ultimate animations as I have now seen them dozens of times. This game offers the auto battle and battle double speed options as quality of life options too!
DISCLAIMER: Now is also a good time to state that this new installment is also a gacha game. Please spend responsibly, folks!
Fans that are also worried about weapon banners (Genshin Impact’s other main gacha) or Stigmata (Honkai Impact 3rd), the secondary system here are called “Light Cones.” These are equipables that grant our characters extra stats and buffs. To me, this is way more of a let down than having a weapon to upgrade, but still way better than the Stigmata from Impact 3rd.
Our current limited banner features Seele, a Quantum scythe-wielding follower of the Path of the Hunt.
Seele’s Light Cone, “Into the Night”, is also up for grabs in the other banner.
Gacha Explanation: While players do not need the Light Cone nor is it exclusive to the Character, I wanted to show them as an example of how the Gacha system works.
The Pity Rates are guaranteed to produce one 5 Star unit (or Light Cone) for every 80 draws. If your first 5 Star is not the banner character or cone, the next one will be. There are also numerous 4 Star Light Cones and characters; rounding out the draws are 3 Star Light Cones.
Duplicate characters turn into Eidolons and can be used to upgrade that specific character up to six times. This means that a player seeking to “max out”, or fully upgrade, a unit would need a total of seven identical characters. Light Cones can be “Superimposed” with up to five duplicates; To max out a Light Cone, you will need a total of six of the same Light Cone.
Overall, I mostly just wanted to talk about the game. I personally do not give “ratings” to games, so I will just leave it as a fun game to play. This game is free to play, with in-game purchases, so download it and try it out to see how you feel about it. Once you’ve done that, come back and let us know your opinions (or if you figure out how to turn off animations) in the comment section below!
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