Honkai Star Rail feels like if Trails of Cold Steel and Persona had a child and that child was raised on nothing but Genshin Impact (The UI and gear systems are all almost identical to Genshin's) and Star Ocean. Star Rail features one of the most barebones and basic turn based systems I've experienced in awhile and I can only attribute that to the game being an over-glorified mobile game because I mean the combat is literally simplified to having only 2 attacks/techniques (alongside an ultimate attack which builds up overtime and is basically this game's version of Trails' S-Crafts) for each character lmao. It has a fraction of the depth as Trails combat system where you can move and reposition your team on a grid and constantly learn new skills and magic abilities thanks to the customizable orbment system. It doesn't even have as much depth as Persona 5s combat system with the Baton Pass and follow up attacks, but I'll give credit where credit is due, the animations look very stylish and pretty at least.
The characters and narrative are actually the most interesting thing about the game (which is kinda the opposite of Genshin because while I liked some characters well enough, the gameplay and exploration was mainly why I played it) the story starts slow in the opening hours, but quickly picks up as your player avatar the "Trailblazer" and their gang of friends March 7th and Dan Heng among others start going on interplanetary expeditions to find mysterious artifacts known as "Stellarons" which are corrupting the planets they inhabit all the while the gang keeps getting tangled up in the sociopolitical affairs of these various planets. Each individual planet feels incredibly fleshed out with impressive depth to the world-building and that's not even including the Space Station main hub area as well.
Too bad to experience the compelling narrative you have to suffer through every typical gacha and mobile game element you can think of from replenishing energy to do the smallest activities, daily login missions and awards and of course locking the best and most powerful characters behind a gambling gacha paywall which really hinders the experience, but I'll give Star Rail this, it is pretty fair to new players and F2P users, it's a grind, but you can definitely still get some good characters and equipment just for naturally playing through the game. I've gotten well over 100+ summons after about 35 or so hours and haven't spent a dime on the game, also new players are guaranteed a free 5 star character after 50 summons when using the starter banner, but the fact you have to grind the game that much to get those characters is ridiculous.
All in all even though Star Rail provides a compelling narrative, fascinating detailed world-building and characters with a decent amount of depth all while looking gorgeous to boot, the combat is just far too barebones and repetitive and the mobile game elements are too prominent that I could only ever recommend this game to people who actually enjoy needlessly grindy games or have a high tolerance for bullshit mobile game mechanics. Shame too because it would make a hell of a great game if it was just a normal J-RPG and had a bit more depth to the combat.
The characters and narrative are actually the most interesting thing about the game (which is kinda the opposite of Genshin because while I liked some characters well enough, the gameplay and exploration was mainly why I played it) the story starts slow in the opening hours, but quickly picks up as your player avatar the "Trailblazer" and their gang of friends March 7th and Dan Heng among others start going on interplanetary expeditions to find mysterious artifacts known as "Stellarons" which are corrupting the planets they inhabit all the while the gang keeps getting tangled up in the sociopolitical affairs of these various planets. Each individual planet feels incredibly fleshed out with impressive depth to the world-building and that's not even including the Space Station main hub area as well.
Too bad to experience the compelling narrative you have to suffer through every typical gacha and mobile game element you can think of from replenishing energy to do the smallest activities, daily login missions and awards and of course locking the best and most powerful characters behind a gambling gacha paywall which really hinders the experience, but I'll give Star Rail this, it is pretty fair to new players and F2P users, it's a grind, but you can definitely still get some good characters and equipment just for naturally playing through the game. I've gotten well over 100+ summons after about 35 or so hours and haven't spent a dime on the game, also new players are guaranteed a free 5 star character after 50 summons when using the starter banner, but the fact you have to grind the game that much to get those characters is ridiculous.
All in all even though Star Rail provides a compelling narrative, fascinating detailed world-building and characters with a decent amount of depth all while looking gorgeous to boot, the combat is just far too barebones and repetitive and the mobile game elements are too prominent that I could only ever recommend this game to people who actually enjoy needlessly grindy games or have a high tolerance for bullshit mobile game mechanics. Shame too because it would make a hell of a great game if it was just a normal J-RPG and had a bit more depth to the combat.