Preview Honkai Star Rail: On the way to replicate the success of Genshin Impact?
After the box of Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail is the new game of miHoYo planned on PC and mobiles. Far from resting on its laurels, the Chinese studio takes up the elements that made the charm of its previous success to transport it to the turn-based role-playing game genre. And the least we can do is that the bet seems successful.
Summary
- A simple Genshin Impact in space?
- Successful turn-based battles?
- A typical miHoYo free-to-play formula
Like many other lucky players, we were able to participate in the closed beta of Honkai: Star Rail. Compared to our previous preview published on the occasion of the Japan Expo, so we were able to enjoy miHoYo’s new title much longer, which allowed us to better discern its potential. To give a little more details, this is the third and final beta of the game, the official date of which is not yet known, even if some sources seem to point to an April launch. If it is therefore not the final version of the project, some cutscenes being missing, there is a good chance that we will not find many major differences with the final product. That being said, here are our impressions of Honkai Star Rail after several hours of play.
A simple Genshin Impact in space?
If Genshin Impact plunges us into a fantasy world, Honkai Star Rail takes the player to a sci-fi universe, with the symbol of the Astral Express, these famous trains that allow you to travel from one planet to another. The action of the title begins in the space station Herta (yes, good) which aims to discover unexplained phenomena in the galaxy. While the building is attacked by the troops of the Antimatter Legion, two mysterious characters take advantage of the confusion to enter the premises to steal a Stellaron, a powerful entity, to put it in the body of an artificial human, the Pioneer, who will be the avatar of the player. We then learn that the two young women work on behalf of Elio, their leader who would be able to see into the future. By a combination of circumstances, our hero will join the crew of the Astral Express, a train linked to the research of the Herta station and which aims to find the Stellarons across the universe. The perfect opportunity for our protagonist to learn more about his true nature and his role in the galaxy.
Like Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail therefore initially offers a mysterious plot quickly punctuated by many charismatic characters each with a more successful design than the other, always in a 100% anime aesthetic. And as in the previous title of miHoYo, the whole challenge will be to go from region to region, here from planet to planet, to progress and discover the real issues of the story. To tell this story, the title benefits from numerous dubbings, as well as particularly well-staged and dynamic cutscenes which make it possible to follow the scenario with all the more interest. Thanks to this quality production value, we sometimes have the feeling of being in front of a “premium” role-playing game while the experience is free-to-play. In addition to this universe that we want to discover, Honkai Star Rail benefits from a French translation that multiplies the really effective traits of humor, with many funny references that recall what we saw with Final Fantasy XIV For example. Finally, through some of its sequences, miHoYo’s game also makes references to big names in J-RPG that fans will not miss.
Successful turn-based battles?
Beyond the science fiction universe, Honkai Star Rail stands out from Genshin Impact above all for its turn-based combat system. Something to cut radically with the Action-RPG side in the open world of its elder. We therefore have to deal with clashes with four characters present simultaneously on the ground against a group of enemies. But like Genshin, there is a basic attack, a special skill (which consumes concentration points generated by normal hits) and an ultimate ability which charges over time. Elemental vulnerabilities once again play a central role since they make it possible to weaken and destabilize the adversaries to better chain them behind. The small subtlety that changes everything is that the ultimate attacks can be triggered at any time once charged, which makes it possible to interrupt enemy towers to regain the ascendancy.
More than with large direct damage, Honkai Star Rails’ combat system relies heavily on elemental vulnerabilities and negative statuses which do most of the damage. If we found the clashes a little simplistic during the demo at Japan Expo, it’s especially in the long term that they reveal all their depth. Outside of combat, characters can also use abilities, in a limited way, which have various effects, such as healing, increasing its damage, but also doing a preemptive elemental attack to start the fight with an advantage. Another strategic aspect that the player must take into account before starting a confrontation. Finally, the challenge is to evolve its units throughout the adventure to be able to face the many challenges of history.
A typical miHoYo free-to-play formula
Apart from their anime art direction, where Genshin and Honkai Star Rail come together is in their business models and the activities they offer. As much in the interface, in the menus or in the ways of recovering the rewards, we are in front of a very similar experience, even identical. As usual, everything is based on a system of gacha, that is to say lottery, to obtain new characters, those with the highest level of rarity being the most difficult to obtain. In terms of generosity, Honkai Star Rail is on the same level as Genshin Impact, namely quite stingy for those who would not do the daily content every day. However, we don’t have to do with a pay-to-win, since to progress, the game only requires having a sufficient level of account which increases naturally as we complete main or secondary quests, exactly like Genshin. After our play session, we didn’t feel the need to have the most powerful characters to keep moving forward.
Finally, we would like to end by telling you about a secondary activity that we really liked. Apart from the main story, Honkai Star Rail has side content called Simulated Universe. Concretely, it is a mode inspired by rogue-lite in which the player advances in a kind of dungeon composed of several rooms and floors. Where the experience becomes really nice is that after each fight, you can choose from three bonuses that you keep until the end of the dungeon. Depending on the rooms where we land, we can therefore recover new characters, change our passive bonuses or even improve them. Enough to constitute a real build to more easily overcome end-of-dungeon bosses, but also to learn more about the lore of the game.
Our impressions
More than at Japan Expo, this last closed beta of Honkai Star Rail fully convinced us of the potential of miHoYo’s next hit. With its neat anime graphics, its emphasis on the story and its charismatic characters, it sometimes feels like a premium role-playing game, an impressive finding for a free-to-play game. As for the fights, if the gameplay may seem simple at first glance, it is over the long term that its mechanics reveal all their riches. And in terms of the free-to-play aspect, we remain on a model similar to that of Genshin Impact, namely not very generous without being pay-to-win. With all these elements, Honkai Star Rail therefore seems well on its way to establishing itself as a new essential free-to-play like its elder.
Editorial review
Exciting
