
Despite the change of genre, Ed found Star Rail had a very similar energy to Genshin Impact when he played the closed beta last month. That makes it substantially different from Genshin Impact, which had real-time combat (and Zelda-like climbing and gliding) or even the similarly real-time Honkai Impact 3rd. When not trying to unlock characters, Honkai: Star Rail is about riding an interstellar train through space, visiting various science-fantasy worlds, and having turn-based battles. (Our own Honkai Star Rail tier list places these characters as A- and B-tier, respectively.) Some of those characters are accessed via time-limited "banners", the first two of which for Star Rail will give players a chance to unlock the five-star characters of Seele and Jing Yuan.

Much like Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail is a gacha game, which means they hope you will invest time and money in unlocking in a growing roster of characters with which to fight in battle.
