Hoyoverse has a multiverse of games, so it's only natural to see similarities overlap. But in the case of Honkai: Star Rail, a lot of things feel a little reminiscent of Honkai Impact 3rd. Needless to say, a lot of Honkai Impact 3rd players choked and sobbed upon seeing familiar faces long-lost to their world.
You don't have to play the other game to make sense of Honkai: Star Rail since it's a different universe, but it'll make you feel nostalgic to know that some things, even in a distant universe somewhere in the Sea of Quanta, will never change.
10 The Elements
Many Hoyoverse games place an important emphasis on manipulating the elements during battles. But unlike Genshin Impact, Honkai Impact 3rd features two other elements that aren't present in the former.
Honkai: Star Rail also has the Imaginary element and the Quantum element, and several characters use these elements in battle just like they did in Honkai Impact 3rd. Except, some characters may have switched around elements.
Natasha for instance, focuses on Physical Damage in Honkai: Star Rail. But in Honkai Impact 3rd, she's used for buffing fire damage.
9 The Doomsday Beast Is Just Benares?
Many who've had to fight the Doomsday Beast at Herta Space Station hated its multiple phases, but every Captain out there often touts the Doomsday Beast as a Benares copy-paste. So, it's not the first time they've had to fight something like this.
Benares was a Judgement-class Honkai Beast that was eventually defeated and reanimated as the steed of the Herrscher of Thunder. The only thing different is that everybody now has to fight it through a turn-based format, so there's definitely no unga-boonga way out of fighting this beast.
8 Fragmentum Corruption Or Honkai Radiation?
Humans turning into otherworldly beasts, eternal winters engulfing an entire planet, and rulers possessed by an unexplainable divine power that could destroy the world. You've seen this before, not in Belobog, but somewhere in another universe.
Whether you want to call it Fragmentum Corruption or Honkai Radiation is up to you, but there's hardly any difference.
This must be why a lot of the beasts that were infected by the Fragmentum look eerily similar to the Honkai Beasts, or why a lot of the symptoms of Fragmentum Corrosion in humans resonate strongly with Honkai Radiation.
7 Luocha and Otto Look Too Similar
So similar in fact, that they both carry coffins. To those who've been watching the trailers or have read the comics, it's also not a secret that the Void Archives entered this world with Welt.
So for Honkai Impact 3rd players to suspect Luocha to be the Void Archives isn't a baseless theory. Even if you didn't have that to go by, his flowing blonde hair and his sharp green eyes feel like a dead giveaway.
But many have rebuked this theory as well, and it might just be the case that Luocha looks the part but has no connection with the Otto you know, who everybody has a love-hate relationship with.
6 Bronya And Seele Will Always Have Each Other's Backs
If you thought it was cute for Seele to tell Bronya that she will always be there to save her, the Honkai Impact 3rd players were probably losing their minds to see this interaction happen. This only proves that they do, in fact, care for each other in every universe.
Even if they are from differing factions, and they disagree all the time (which is a classic dynamic in their relationship prior to this game), their paths always cross, and they seem to be unable to rid themselves of the other.
5 Orphans Even In This Universe
This may come as a surprise to other people, but Bronya and Seele have always been orphans in Honkai Impact 3rd. The only difference is that both Bronya and Seele were raised in Cocolia Orphanage in the other game, making Cocolia their adoptive mother.
The only difference in Honkai: Star Rail is that Cocolia is the Supreme Guardian of Belobog, who only adopted Bronya. Natasha runs the orphanage in the Underworld in this universe, and she raised Seele and the other children in that orphanage.
4 Lookalikes Everywhere
If they look alike, aren't they the same person? Well, not really, since this is a different universe. You already know about Luocha like Otto, or Bronya and Seele themselves being characters in Honkai Impact 3rd.
Except, they're not the same person, just counterparts of the person you knew from the Honkai Impact 3rd universe.
That's why Li Sushang is just Sushang, or why Bronya Zaychik is Bronya Rand. Even if they might be similar in essence, they're still different since they're from a different world.
This means that they're placed in a circumstance and environment that varies from the former setting you've seen them in.
3 Different Fighting Styles
Since we're on the topic of lookalikes, the contrasts begin to show in the characters' fighting styles. There is a striking difference between these two games in the characters' choice of weapons.
It's true that Seele still wields her iconic scythe and has some of her reminiscent moves, but he same can't be said for Bronya, who traded her cannon for what appears to be a riffle. This also happens with Natasha, who instead of using a bow, now shoots teddy bears up in the sky with a huge launcher, causing everybody in your party to be healed.
2 Welt Is Still The Welt We Know
The only person who's still the same version of himself is Welt Yang, the Second Herrscher of Reason who's been confirmed to have crossed the Sea of Quanta. That explains why he was able to contain the destabilized stellaron within the Stelle (or Caelus) with just a tap of his cane during your first meeting with him.
Talk about overpowered, but not without reason. He might be here because he found out about Himeko's existence in this universe, but whatever the case, you're probably just relieved to know that he was able to safely traverse the chaotic space between universes.
1 The Infamous Broken Sword
Perhaps the cruelest thing to exist in this game is the shards of a familiar broken blade belonging to somebody you'll never want to let go of again. Now that you know she's in this universe, you're probably hoping they don't take her away from you again.
It's even sicker to know that when a certain character interacts with this blade, a special dialogue that recounts her death in the Honkai Impact 3rd universe appears. It reads: "She was reborn in the fire. She was smiling in the fire."