We finally have a Honkai Star Rail release date, and it turns out the RPG’s leakers were correct with their information. Honkai Star Rail, from Genshin Impact maker HoYoverse, will launch for PC and mobile devices on April 26, 2023. HoYoverse said Honkai Star Rail for PlayStation is in development and will release at a later time, though didn’t give an estimated launch frame.
Honkai Star Rail isn’t just Genshin Impact in space, although it partly is. Like Genshin, Star Rail is a gacha RPG starring an amnesiac hero, where you spend in-game items (or, less advisably, real-world money) for a chance to recruit characters of varying rarities. Hoyoverse says that’s where the similarities end, though.
Star Rail is a turn-based RPG that draws on multiple sources for inspiration, including Persona, Trails, and Bandai’s Tales of series. The protagonist joins an astral express crew on a journey across the galaxy to uncover the truth behind the Cancer of All Worlds, which sounds rather ominous. The adventure takes them to space stations and outposts with distinct cultures and plenty of problems of their own, including the “silkpunk flagship” Xianzhou Luofu, where the search for immortality drives innovation and deadly conflict.
HoYoverse will be giving away several in-game items to celebrate the game’s launch, alongside the free character and other handy items already promised for exceeding the game’s pre-registration milestones.
While Valve teased Genshin Impact on its Steam platform in 2022, there’s no word on whether Honkai Star Rail will come to Steam – or when Genshin Impact will, for that matter
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
