Developer Genshin Impact's turn-based RPG will be released next month

Developer Genshin Impact's turn-based RPG will be released next month

Honkai: Star Rail features a whole new collection of anime characters to collect.


Honkai: Star rail - explore the galaxy on a flying train blessed by a (possibly) dead god. You collect anime friends and fight anime enemies. It's basically Genshin Impact in space, and it's free to play next month.


In a stream earlier today, developer MiHoYo announced that Honkai: Star Rail will be released on April 26th, with preloading available on April 23rd. PC players can download the game from the official launcher or the Epic Games Store.


The first story arc or version of the game (although this is its debut) is called The Rail Unto the Stars and will be your introduction to the sci-fi world. Honkai: Star Rail is set in the same universe as 2016's Honkai Impact 3rd and even features several recurring characters. But you don't have to play the older game to understand the new one. It is set many years in the future and has its own story.


Like its predecessor, Honkai: Star Rail is a free-to-play gacha game, so there are plenty of characters to roll for, each with different abilities to aid you in his slick turn-based combat. Enemies have elemental weaknesses and you must build a team to exploit them.


Genshin Impact players will be familiar with building four-person teams and outfitting them with grindable gear, but Honkai: Star Rail isn't exactly an open-world game. You travel to planets and explore them to advance a semi-linear story about an invading force of evil monsters. Your main character - who can be either male or female - carries something called "Cancer of All Worlds" inside, which looks like something you'll try to fix as the story continues in future updates. Otherwise... whoops.


I played a lot of the game's last beta test and was impressed by its over-the-top combat animations and quite funny writing. Compared to Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail feels a bit more mature and a lot more online: there are jokes about the metaverse and a whole SMS system with emojis. There is also a side quest where you talk to a plant.


The game racked up over five million pre-registrations (opens in new tab) last month, which could mean Genshin Impact will have some competition - if you can call it that.