Honkai: Star Rail Aims to Double Down on Genshin Impact's Success

ign.com:

One success story in a live-service game market where big names are being shut down is Genshin Impact, an open-world action game with quality ongoing additions and updates despite implementing microtransactions in the hopes of potentially unlocking new characters to use. Developer HoYoverse seems to be doubling down on Genshin’s success with Honkai: Star Rail, which shares many similarities with its predecessor while also having enough to differentiate itself from its best-known game. After spending plenty of hours in its closed beta, Honkai: Star Rail seems like it’s shaping up to be another success for HoYoverse – even if there are a few things that may initially overwhelm and intimidate players.

Honkai: Star Rail is technically a follow-up to a previous game called Honkai Impact 3rd, but you don’t need to worry about knowing what’s happened previously to understand the story here. However if you are knowledgeable you will run into some familiar faces along the way. Similar to Genshin, Honkai stars a prismatic colored cast of anime-style characters. The main character – who you get to choose between male or female gender and name yourself – is the product of a Stellaron, which is best defined as a seed of destruction that will inevitably bring disaster. And it happens to sit inside your character.

After waking up on a desolate spaceship which later serves as your homebase, you are recruited as a trailblazer, a band of adventurers who travel to different planets in need of help on a fantastical train called the Astral Express. While I was still in the early hours of the story, there was a surprising amount of depth to the characters in my party. Part of that being due to a strong voice cast across the board giving