As someone finally coming to terms that my Genshin Impact playtime is probably in the thousands of hours now, not hundreds, I understood Honkai: Star Rail’s systems as soon as they were introduced. Although it bears the Honkai brand (technically the fourth in the series, but this one is set in an alternate universe), Star Rail feels more like a sci-fi sequel to Genshin than another dive into Honkai lore. So I expected some of Genshin’s flaws to carry over too, and although an important one does, HoYoverse’s newest live service entry has actually almost entirely fixed the grinding gripes I have with Genshin. One of the best improvements now makes it mercifully quick to farm for resources, and another lets you buy high-level weapons by saving up free currency.
For those who don’t spend their evenings skipping Paimon’s dialogue and collecting resources in Genshin’s vast open world, levelling characters and equipping them with the best gear is important for late-game content, but it’s almost entirely optional. The appeal is pulling a character from the gacha system and getting them to a level you can clear content with, either just because you want them in your team, or in order to experiment with unique party lineups. Although Star Rail has traded hack-and-slash combat for a turn-based system (more on this interesting choice later), it seems to promote the exact same gameplay loop. I made a team of four characters I liked to play with, rather than meticulously reading stats to suss who had the best damage capabilities, and I never had a problem with progressing through the main story – and it took me about the quarter of the time it took to get four characters to the equivalent level in Genshin.
That main story might be as divisive as people’s opinions on turn-based combat, not because it’s bad, but because it’s the typical melodramatic anime-inspired ridiculousness that either attracts or repels people.
