As someone who didn’t really play Honkai Impact 3rd (I gave it a brief whirl when it was ported to PC), I didn’t really pay attention to Honkai: Star Rail (in terms of its design and development). I therefore went into the games launch “blind” and sort of expected this title to follow in the vein of Genshin Impact (where I thought this would be an action combat version of the Honkai series with alternate versions of characters from the prior games universe along with new ones). The graphics look excellent (on very high) as is the voice acting (I switched to Japanese). So it ended up being a surprise and disappointment to me that the combat was turn based (this considering Genshin Impacts excellent, impactful, and visceral action combat system).
A lot of the other systems in Honkai: Star Rail already borrow heavily from Genshin (like portions of the character progression and development, the store and currency with just different naming, the gacha system, etc). But depending on your perspective, the combat being turn based (while enjoyable to a degree), left me feeling flat after playing through the early MSQ. There was a time when turn based RPG’s were my staple (Wizardry I-V for example). But the entire real time combat that came with the first Diablo, forever changed my preferences (where every turn based game I tried after, failed to hold my attention for long).
Maybe Honkai’s already deep story and lore (which Star Rail will likely have different twists compared to 3rd which from my watching of many of its story trailers and cinematics, has a lot of tragedy with the main characters being killed off), might be able to keep me engaged despite the turn based combat. But parts of me are saying probably not since even with Genshin Impact, I’ve fallen way behind in the quests department (there’s a lot of archon, world, character, and main story quests that I’ve yet to even start, let alone complete).
I remember how I similarly went into Genshin Impact “blind” (expecting the gacha aspects to turn me off early on), but ended up being impressed with the fun and hook of the early game play and exploration (that worked along side the story). Portions of that hook I find are missing in Star Rail (and while some of it does have to do with the turn based combat aspect, there are other elements that are missing); I’m not sure if it’s because a lot more systems will open up (since I stopped at around Trailblazer Level 7; this is the equivalent of Genshin Impact’s Adventure Rank) and I am still onboard the ship (which limits the exploration aspect). Nonetheless, my initial impressions so far is it’s ok, but nothing earth shattering either. I plan on sticking to it for the next week to see how the systems and environments open up past Trailblazer Level 10/20.
