Honkai Star Rail is the next free-to-play RPG from the developers of Genshin Impact. Here’s a new, incredibly anime launch trailer.
There were grumblings about its similarities to Breath of the Wild before its launch, but Genshin Impact developer HoYoverse ultimately had the last laugh when the free-to-play action RPG launched in 2020. Within its first year, the open-world fantasy had generated over $3 billion in revenue.
We mention this because HoYoverse’s next game is Honkai Star Rail, another free-to-play action RPG with a pastel-coloured anime theme. A sequel to Honkai Impact 3rd, it reintroduces several fan-favourite characters from that 2016 game, including Seele and Bronya.
Breaking with the more action-oriented RPG-ing of either Genshin Impact or the previous Honkai, Star Rail will see teams of up to four players exploring maps for loot and engaging in bouts of turn-based combat. According to a handy guide over at Eurogamer, Honkai Star Rail will feature a similar gacha system to Genshin Impact, with the option to purchase in-game items with real-world cash.
That earlier game has a dedicated following, as proven by the excitement in the comments section in the latest trailer (thoughtfully embedded below for your reference). That Genshin Impact was such an unexpectedly huge global hit makes us wonder whether Honkai Star Rail will find a similarly sizeable audience beyond its current “Seele and Bronya are together!!!” followers.
The stats are certainly looking promising for HoYoverse so far. Around 10 million users had already signed up for the game in mid-April according to its developer, which is about as many subscribers as World of Warcraft had at its 2000s peak.
There isn’t too much longer to wait until Honkai Star Rail’s launch, either, with PC users now able to pre-install its launcher ahead of its release on 26 April. The version for PlayStation 4 and 5 hasn’t yet had its launch date announced.
