As I walk through the luscious halls of Herta Space Station, my attention is diverted to a roundtable with a faint glimmer upon it, emanating from a small computer. I quickly sprint over and interact with it, only for the game to suddenly describe how my character feels anxious and is compelled to act. Instead of saving the world of springing into action like a typical hero, I use this cute little monitor to schedule a meeting.

Honkai: Star Rail isn’t a game with your usual dose of melodramatic, over-the-top anime dialogue, and it is by far Hoyoverse’s most polished project yet, both in terms of world-building and writing. Ditching the open world of Genshin Impact was an inspired choice, as the planets you will visit are far more fleshed out and immensely detailed than the sprawling regions of Mondstadt and Liyue.

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Compared to the likes of Honkai Impact 3rd and Genshin Impact, which both focused on an active approach to combat, Star Rail opts for a turn-based system like Final Fantasy XII that gives priority to each character’s speed, as the order in which their attacks roll might turn the tides in your favor or prove detrimental, depending on the fight.

I wasn’t fully sold on the combat system at first, but the risk really paid off. Each battle feels so dynamic and organized that you never feel like it’s dragging on for too long, and the ability to accelerate combat, and even automate it in some cases, should prevent even the most skeptical player from growing bored.

Each character has a specific function in a party, and pretty much all the 21 characters that exist at launch are useful enough to help you progress through the main story, at least. Much like other Hoyoverse games, this makes team building a key factor, but thankfully there isn’t a sense of imbalance in usefulness across the roster.

Without large gaps of open world territory serving as blank spaces between the bigger cities, and more populated areas of the various regions present to explore, you gain a better grasp of the similarities and differences between each new planet. Early planets Jarilo-VI and Xianzhou Luofu have rich landscapes while presenting a wide cast of supporting characters that will aid your party in their respective story arcs.

That being said, the pacing can become a bit of a drag due to level limitations in certain key story quests that will require you to step back and grind before being able to continue. But even that drag has a solution, and accompanying the main story are many, many hidden missions and unexpected interactions across each environment that prove incredibly amusing.

From secret side quests where you have to comfort the Astral Express conductor Pom-Pom, to unexpected situations that involve scheduling a meeting in a space station or rescuing the ghosts of lost children, venturing off the beaten path always serves to enrich the background of these planets and the people living on them.

There’s also the gacha system, a mechanic shared by all of Hoyoverse’s games. While the system itself isn’t anymore or less predatory than its predecessors, you’re able to obtain Stellar Jade Crystals as often as possible, and more steadily, which helps in the procurement of characters and weapons. This, combined with the fact that you can obtain numerous characters as gifts throughout the campaign, makes the overall experience more enjoyable.

Honkai: Star Rail feels like the consummation of all the knowledge that Hoyoverse amassed so far after the two juggernauts that preceded it. With a good amount of content to tackle at launch and such a compelling story being told, all that remains to be seen is where the Astral Express will take us next.

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